Doctor’s Rebirth - Chapter 189

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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 189
I could feel the aching bones, muscles, and organs gradually recovering.
The swelling in my wrists had begun to subside as well.
This was the result of lying motionless all day, using the Five Elements Internal Energy to heal myself.
‘Do all martial artists live like this?’
I was a doctor, and in the worst case, I knew how to treat my own body. However, martial artists—especially elders like Mudang Gwon-je—rarely listened to doctors’ advice.
Instead, they would recklessly throw themselves at stronger opponents.
For those of Gangho, martial prowess must be something bordering on madness itself.
That’s why they threw their lives away without hesitation, seeking even fragments of profound martial understanding at the threshold between life and death.
I drifted between sleep and wakefulness.
Whenever I jolted awake with screams in between, Hwang-gu would whimper and burrow into my arms.
‘The Spirit Seal has been damaged.’
When my wrists were shattered, the Spirit Seal was damaged along with them. In that battle, it would have been stranger if anything remained intact.
To communicate with spiritual creatures, I needed to concentrate my internal energy more intensely than before.
Still, since my hearts were already connected with both Hwang-gu and Noeji, there was no problem communicating without relying on the Spirit Seal.
Naturally, I had been using it less and less frequently.
‘Well, whenever I need it, I can always communicate by expending internal energy.’
I lay back down with such thoughts.
Whine.
Hwang-gu rested his chin on my abdomen.
“It’s fine. I’m okay.”
My entire body was damp from the nightmare I’d just had. Still, I was waking up fewer times than on the first night.
As my body recovered, so too did my spirit.
No one goes through life without injury.
Life is a process of endless damage and regeneration.
When we can no longer regenerate, we accept death.
‘A bit more rest and my mind will recover too.’
Of course, scars would remain. But my soul, having reached the age of discernment, mocked itself—that too was life.
“I feel grimy like this. I should wash up.”
Bark!
“You want to wash too?”
Bark, bark!
“Alright. Come along.”
Noeji was the type who needed his own time, but Hwang-gu had no such need.
For him, being attached to his master was
life’s
happiness.
It must be due to the instinct of dogs that had evolved alongside human history.
Without even thinking that far, I always lost to those innocent, kind eyes.
I gathered a change of clothes and opened the door.
Knock.
“Hm?”
It was locked.
I searched for a lock but found none. It was locked from the outside.
Knock, knock.
I tried opening it a few more times, but it was clear. This sound. Something quite solid was blocking it.
Then I heard something turning from outside.
Click—
Cheonwoo unlocked the lock from outside and strode in with long steps.
“Oh, hyung. Are you going out?”
“Cheonwoo. Why is this locked?”
At my words, Cheonwoo laughed with a menacing grin.
“Hahaha. I told you not to work, hyung. You can’t leave until you’re completely healed.”
I didn’t expect him to say that so confidently. But it was hard to spit at such a smiling face.
“I think I’m pretty much healed now?”
“We’ll decide that in the morning when the Doctor comes and gives his opinion. Anyway, you’re not leaving, hyung.”
Cheonwoo spoke decisively.
“What about bathing?”
“There’s a bathhouse in the annex, so you can use that. It’s where honored guests bathe, so it has everything you’d need.”
There was such a place? I hadn’t grasped the layout from just lying down.
“Look, I know that even with this lock, you could leave if you wanted to. I know. But I’ve seen you collapse once, and I don’t want to see it a second time. You understand what I mean, don’t you, hyung?”
Cheonwoo’s tone was more mature than usual.
I scratched the back of my head and looked around the annex.
I hadn’t realized it while lying down, but the annex was quite large.
I had made great contributions to the Mudang sect.
They couldn’t treat me carelessly, so they had given me the finest annex.
“If you need water, we’ll add warm water anytime. The Mudang Elders come here for treatment when they’re ill.”
Cheonwoo had called upon the training hermits to prepare everything so I could bathe.
Inside, a bath was prepared with steam rising from it.
It was large enough for several people to enter.
‘Now I understand why the Elders come here when they’re ill.’
Having such a large bath to myself was quite a luxury.
Moving the water was labor, and heating it was labor too.
Medicinal herbs good for recovery floated in the bath.
I tried calculating how much these herbs cost, then gave up.
Perhaps because I had just recovered from a major battle, my mind wasn’t working well.
The moment I entered the bath, my muscles began to unwind, fiber by fiber.
Splash! Crunch!
Hwang-gu jumped right in.
Splash!
The warm water seemed to please the dog, who paddled alongside me as I entered the bath.
Inside, I had reduced my body size using the Shrinking Technique, so I was about the size of an ordinary dog.
I scooped up Hwang-gu, who was dripping wet, and held him close.
“Would you like to come in too, Cheonwoo?”
“Is that alright?”
“You carried water here too.”
“Of course I should help. It’s for you, after all.”
I wanted to help carry water as well, but Cheonwoo stubbornly refused.
It wasn’t just Cheonwoo.
The training hermits were equally shocked, saying it was improper to make a patient do labor.
So I ended up waiting around feeling useless until everything was prepared and I could finally enter.
‘It will be a long time before bathing chambers become commonplace.’
This wasn’t even a hot spring region where the Baekrin Uigak was located.
In this era, warm water was an incredibly precious resource.
Cheonwoo entered the bath at my invitation.
Because he was so large, the water overflowed.
“You remove the blindfold in the bath, then.”
“Yes. If the moisture gets on it wrong, it develops a strange smell, so there’s no choice.”
“I’ll make you a new one.”
Cheonwoo’s left eye held a faded color compared to his right eye.
When I looked at him with sympathetic eyes, Cheonwoo shook his head.
“I’ve told you repeatedly—it’s fine.”
“I wish we could treat it.”
“It’s fine, I’m telling you.”
At Cheonwoo’s serious expression, I couldn’t help but let out a small laugh.
“Still, I’m grateful you grew up healthy. And I’m grateful you survived this ordeal without serious injury.”
….
Cheonwoo stared at me for a moment, seeming to want to say something, but he hesitated and swallowed his words.
“That’s bland.”
Cheonwoo responded to my comment.
“I hope you recover quickly, brother.”
“I’m already recovered.”
“Next time, I’ll become stronger so you don’t get hurt.”
“Very well.”
Splash!
Hwang-gu panted and licked Cheonwoo’s face.
“Hwang-gu really likes you a lot, you know.”
I said this deliberately with a loud laugh, and as I laughed, I felt my heart lighten.
That night, I finally slept until morning without nightmares.
It was the first time since the blood battle.
* * *
The next morning, the Doctor finally declared that our Patriarch had fully recovered.
His next words were ones I always found myself saying.
“Refrain from alcohol and tobacco. Avoid dangerous places as much as possible. No matter how heavy the debts of the martial world may be, your health comes first, Patriarch.”
Hearing the words I’d spoken to others so many times directed at myself felt melancholic.
‘What do I do now?’
Even at the fastest pace, it would take at least a week to travel from Baekrin Uigak to here.
With the water demons spreading everywhere, it would take even longer. Now was my only chance to escape.
That’s when Cheonwoo grabbed my chin from behind.
“I believe you’ll wait until Baek Rin-ui-seon arrives, brother.”
“Ugh… Cheonwoo. You’re quite perceptive, aren’t you?”
He’d sensed my intention to flee and stopped me.
This was no ordinary skill.
Sure enough, I heard the voice of a training hermit announcing that my Master had arrived.
‘Already…?!’
My face turned pale.
* * *
The moment Jegalling saw his disciple, he grabbed my wrist and took my pulse before even greeting me.
His stern expression softened briefly as my Master sighed.
“You’ve fully recovered, then.”
“Of course I have, Master. There were no serious injuries to begin with.”
“Your wrist will ache when it rains for a while yet.”
‘Damn…!’
Truly my Master. He discerned even that from a brief pulse check.
“You arrived quite early. I thought it would take at least two more days.”
“Yoo Ho is faster at long-distance travel than this old master. So I received his assistance.”
Behind Jegalling, Yoo Ho spat out his words.
“I’ve been suffering because of that wretched boy.”
He didn’t forget to add a remark laden with exhaustion and resentment.
But I paid no mind to Yoo Ho’s hatred.
‘Can Yoo Ho use some kind of distance-crossing technique? Hmm… useful information. I should remember this.’
The hateful boy calmly added another function to Yoo Ho’s abilities in my mind.
My Master left briefly to meet with the Bundata Master of the Medical Guild.
Only I and Yoo Ho remained in the room. Just the two of us.
In that moment, I asked quickly.
“By the way, how’s the research?”
“Taking a brief break doesn’t cause problems with the work.”
“….”
When I responded with only a dry wash of my face, veins bulged on Yoo Ho’s forehead.
“Is that creature’s cultivation more precious to you than your own life?”
“Of course my life matters more. It matters, but! Cultivation is cultivation!”
I couldn’t understand what he was babbling about.
All I felt was an endless, obsessive madness.
Jin Cheon-hee continued speaking.
“I trust you too. I trust our Doctors! I do trust them!”
“…Then please trust us a little. If we fail, only the young master gets ground up. I get ground up too. I’m sick of the thought of another all-nighter with you alone.”
“I agree, Yoo Ho. But I felt sincerity in that voice.”
Jin Cheon-hee’s expression brightened considerably.
He couldn’t trust the Doctors, but he could trust Yoo Ho’s hatred.
If they failed, it meant an all-nighter.
An all-nighter with the most despicable man of all.
Neither Yoo Ho nor Jin Cheon-hee would welcome that.
“I think I’ve grown a bit fond of Yoo Ho.”
“…”
At those words, Yoo Ho’s expression twisted in extreme disgust.
Professor Jin suffered a wound to his heart at his assistant’s reaction.
“That’s too much. We’re doing this research! Discovering new knowledge for humanity!”
“As if I care what happens to humans…”
Just then, the door creaked open. Master and Mudang Gwon-je entered together.
“So you’re nagging me about it. Nagging! Right! A martial artist can bend the rules a little. Seo Baek-ryong survived and grew stronger anyway, so it worked out, didn’t it?”
Elder Gwon Je grumbled toward Jegalling.
Jegalling was about to say something to Elder Gwon Je when Jin Cheon-hee came into view.
Unable to show his true nature before his disciple, he ultimately let out a sigh.
“Sigh…”
Elder Gwon Je continued speaking.
“Listen. A disciple is ultimately like a seed. Raise it like an orchid and it becomes an orchid; raise it like a weed and it becomes a weed. What you’re trying to do is make it into an orchid. It may be beautiful, but it will wither quickly.”
“…”
“How long do you think you can keep saying yes and yes at the Baekrin Uigak? Your disciple must live on even after you’re gone. One who has only lived as someone else’s orchid will live that way for life. And that is death.”
“Is that from experience?”
At Jegalling’s pointed remark, Elder Gwon Je’s expression hardened.

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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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