Doctor’s Rebirth - Chapter 186
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 186
I suppressed my presence and quietly approached the location where Jang Mun-in and Eum-yang Ssangma were locked in their blood battle.
Shortly after, Jeong Gwang arrived near Jang Mun-in.
Jang Mun-in glanced at Jeong Gwang once, then smiled across his face.
It was a natural reaction—an ally had arrived.
Jeong Gwang was already positioned directly behind Jang Mun-in, while the distance between me and Jeong Gwang was at least ten paces.
And in that moment, Jeong Gwang raised his sword and shouted.
“Kahahaha! At last this day has come! Die, Jeong Hyeong!”
A sudden maniacal laugh. And murderous intent.
While Jang Mun-in recoiled in shock, Jeong Gwang’s blade moved to pierce straight through his back.
In that critical moment.
I was already moving.
Screeeee!
Clang, clang, clang, clang!
I deployed the Cheongi Miribu to its maximum extent and hurled myself forward like lightning, intercepting Jeong Gwang’s blade as I descended.
Jeong Gwang cried out in fury at the sight.
“How dare you, you rootless wretch!”
In that instant, Jang Mun-in also realized that Jeong Gwang had attempted to stab him from behind—that he had intended to betray him.
“My disciple…? What in the world is this…?”
Eum-yang Ssangma did not miss the moment when Jangmunin Jeong-hyeong Jin-in fell into confusion.
“Hahaha! Malko, where is your focus!”
Boom!
“Kugh!”
Jang Mun-in’s body was sent flying violently through the air.
I was concerned watching him fly away while coughing blood, but I could not move to save him.
“I will kill you, and then I will kill that bastard Jeong Hyeong!”
Crunch!
Jeong Gwang’s previously limp arm, now swollen with muscle, surged toward me with devastating force.
* * *
‘This is quite a mess.’
With my thoughts accelerated, I calmly faced Jeong Gwang as he rushed at me.
Jang Mun-in was flying through the air, wounded.
But he was not dead.
Moreover, since I had dealt with the Bloodthirsty Sword Demon myself, the elder who had been fighting it would also come rushing over.
Glancing at Jang Mun-in, I could see shock and pain etched across his face, yet his fighting spirit still burned.
Looking around again, the corpse demons were being neutralized one by one.
The effectiveness of the Sword Formation and the formation techniques of Wudang Mountain.
These two factors created a synergistic effect, and already half of the Hyeolseonggyo disciples had been eliminated.
Meanwhile, the Wudang faction members survived in numbers more than double those of the Hyeolseonggyo.
In the original timeline, the Wudang faction had nearly been annihilated, but this time I had saved many lives.
‘Good. Jang Mun-in is safe for now. If I can buy time while dealing with Jeong Gwang, we win.’
As I organized my thoughts, I saw a grotesquely swollen hand approaching.
‘The Wudang Ten-Stage Palm! A true elder indeed!’
The Ten-Stage Palm—one of the secret palm techniques of the Wudang School.
While not comparable to the Taeching Mountain Water technique, it was recognized as an absolute art.
They said a single gesture could shatter boulders.
‘Incredible. To see Wudang martial arts wielded with the power of the Hyeolseonggyo.’
What kind of horrifying hybrid was this?
Having learned a considerable amount of Wudang martial philosophy, I immediately recognized the opponent’s technique.
Because of this, I could devise an appropriate counter.
‘A palm method of rigid-soft unity. But its weakness is its slowness.’
I drew my sword into my chest and began channeling my inner energy in a peculiar manner.
‘Taeul Danseonggeom. Single-Flash Fragmentation.’
Boom!
A small explosion erupted within my body.
It was as if gunpowder packed into a bullet had detonated. The propulsive force created accelerated the blade to a terrifying speed.
A speed so tremendous that even a supreme master would struggle to respond!
“Ugh!?”
Jeong Gwang angrily redirected the Ten-Stage Palm’s trajectory with his sword. When blade and palm collided, a sound like a bomb detonating erupted.
Kaboom!
“Krraaagh!”
Jeong Gwang’s hand was shredded to pieces and sent flying backward.
In contrast, my arms rang with numbness and my palms split open, but I avoided serious injury.
The benefit of the Frost Crystal Sword—a divine weapon.
‘My injured left hand screams in agony, but it’s manageable. I can still use it a bit more.’
I immediately reset my stance.
This was a hard-won advantage. These were lives I’d barely managed to save.
If I faltered now, it was over.
“My hands! My hands! You wretch! My hands and arms… How dare you! How dare you!”
Red energy flowed from Jeong Gwang’s eyes. His entire body’s muscles began to swell.
‘The side effects of the Hyeolma Elixir are beginning in earnest!’
Whoosh.
I steadied my breathing. And I shouted.
“Jeong Gwang is a traitor! He has abandoned Wudang and joined the ranks of the heretical sect!”
Jeong Gwang’s height had already increased by another foot, and his body was so swollen with muscle that he could no longer be considered human.
His appearance—like a demon or monster—would have been obvious to anyone, even without my cry.
But now we were locked in combat formation with the Hyeolseonggyo forces and the sword formation.
Naturally, confusion was bound to spread among the Wudang Taoists.
Still, I proclaimed Jeong Gwang’s betrayal.
That was when it happened.
Jang Mun-in’s voice thundered across the battlefield.
“Jeong Seon, Jeong Gwon—block the Hermit Jeong Gwang! Jeong Hak, aid me!”
He who had been sent flying while coughing blood now clashed once more with the Eum-yang Ssangma, his voice cutting through the chaos.
Gravely wounded though he was, he could still move, and so he poured every ounce of strength into the fight.
At Jang Mun-in’s command, the elders of the Mugang Sect sprang into action.
Jeong Hak Jinin, who had been freed from his confrontation with the Slaughter Sword Ghost thanks to my intervention, descended like a cloud toward Jang Mun-in’s side and thrust his blade toward the Eum-yang Ssangma.
Simultaneously, Jeong Seon Jin-in and Jeong Gwon Jin-in drew near to me, unleashing torrents of sword qi. And at that same moment, Jeong Gwang—now utterly devoid of reason—charged directly toward me.
‘Jeong Seon and Jeong Gwon need at least three breaths to reach my side. That gives Jeong Gwang time for at least three attacks. If I can weather that, handling him becomes simple. I’m already badly wounded, and my inner energy is down to perhaps thirty percent… Here, the only strategy is to hold firm.’
I spun my blade and shifted my stance.
Clang!
I blocked Jeong Gwang’s assault with the Frost Crystal Sword.
The Earth-treading Qi I had anchored in my legs kept my center of gravity grounded, while the Metal-generating Qi held me steady.
Using Wind-cloud Qi to continuously deflect his strikes to the side, I methodically parried each blow.
“You insolent whelp! How dare you, how dare you!”
Remarkably, the sword technique I was employing was the Clear Azure Sword.
Both Jeong Gwang’s fists and my blade carried the martial arts of the same Taoist sect.
The Ten-stage Palm was an absolute art incomparable to the Clear Azure Sword.
Using merely the Clear Azure Sword—a technique even lay disciples learned—I was holding back the Ten-stage Palm.
Transcending the hierarchy of martial prowess itself, Jeong Gwang felt a deep contempt and jealousy surge through him.
‘It’s because of the Dual Thought Technique. It’s the Dual Thought Technique! If only I possessed it, I would never be blocked by such a trivial Clear Azure Sword!’
Yet had he not consumed the Blood Demon Pill himself?
His body, now more than a span taller, was perfect—his reflexes, his thought acceleration, all sharp and clear beyond anything he had ever experienced in his lifetime.
And the murderous impulses unique to the Blood Demon Pill continued to whisper, guiding him toward the most lethal strikes.
Then my blade shifted once more.
Receiving his blow not with the edge but with the flat of the blade—it resembled a palm strike.
‘The Ten-stage Palm…?!’
He had never heard that this child had been taught the Ten-stage Palm.
Moreover, he had never heard of anyone deploying the Ten-stage Palm—a palm technique—through a sword.
Only then did he recognize his own habits in my attacks.
I had created an annotated version of the Ten-stage Palm using the Jegal Family’s methods.
Applying it according to the Five Elements system, I countered identically!
Boom!
“You thief! Technique thief!”
“…”
I did not respond.
I lacked the strength to answer.
I could only squeeze every ounce of energy from my body to hold back Jeong Gwang.
A single palm strike to a vital point meant death.
Even a glancing blow would leave no escape from fatal injury.
I could only hope that the Frost Crystal Sword would hold, that my inner strength would hold, that my reason would hold.
My survival instinct awakened the Hyeonwon Jeondan Singeong.
Accelerated thought stimulated my creativity.
Instead of presenting the correct sword path, I suddenly presented a different one, as if it were breaking apart.
I chose the sword path of survival rather than the righteous one.
Clang, clang, clang!
When this battle ends, who will survive—me or Jeong Gwang?
Regardless, one thing was certain.
One of us would die tonight.
Finally, the two elders arrived.
“Seo Baek-ryong! We will aid you!”
“Haaaah!”
The two elders launched a surprise assault on Jeong Gwang.
Sword energy infused with the mysteries of Taiji slashed across Jeong Gwang’s back amid the chaos.
Yet remarkably, the sword energy failed to pierce his skin.
“Kahahaha! You decrepit fools. Did you truly believe your sword energy would work on me?”
Jeong Gwang extended his hand and seized Jeong Seon Jin-in’s head.
“You who prefer carnal pleasures to cultivation are no match for this seat.”
“Jeong Gwang… what on earth has… Ugh!”
Jeong Gwang drove Jeong Seon Jin-in straight into the ground.
Boom, crash, bang!
Watching a man embed into the earth like a doll, I gnashed my teeth.
‘Harder than the Gold Demon, perhaps even beyond.’
Though he had grown lax in cultivation within the decaying Wudang Sect, his body was not defenseless. Yet seeing him brush aside such strength so effortlessly made my blood boil.
I immediately sent a transmission.
[Buy me time.]
At my words, Jeong Gwon Jin-in and Jeong Seon Jin-in nodded without hesitation.
[Understood.]
Jeong Gwang was not the only one who saw the Small Blue Sword transform into the Ten-Stage Gold.
Knowing the elders’ blades could not penetrate his defenses, they grasped at straws.
And there was one more thing.
Regret for the past.
They had sworn in their youth to dedicate everything to martial arts, yet somewhere along the way they had rotted away—this regret was woven into their resolve.
[Cheonwoo!]
[Brother. Don’t worry. Even if I die, I will protect you.]
Cheonwoo, having just finished a major skirmish, swept past me and unleashed a sword strike toward Jeong Gwang.
I retrieved a red fruit-like pill from my pouch and swallowed it.
‘Using this in an emergency like this.’
This was not from my sect.
It was a pill I had learned to craft from Hyeolsaeng Nogoe, possessing the ability to temporarily send all the inner energy in my body into overdrive.
The Black Vitality Blood Pill.
However, unlike the kind used by heterodox sects and the Demonic Sect that drove the user into an uncontrollable rampage until death, this was different.
After consumption, it produced effects for only half a quarter before dissipating.
It was a truly ambiguous elixir—neither orthodox sect, heterodox sect, nor Demonic Sect in nature.
I found myself thinking that this medicine resembled my own precarious situation.
—Use it well, boy. After you take it, you’ll be in agony for about a week. Kekekeke!
On top of that, I forcibly suppressed my blood points to temporarily open both meridians.
—By tomorrow, I’ll be suffering enough to wish for death.
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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