Doctor’s Rebirth - Chapter 250
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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 250
“So rather than some grand divine technique or supreme martial art, I’m thinking of creating a training ground with basic cultivation methods capable of supporting lower to mid-tier martial arts achievements, along with formation arrays that can aid in inner energy cultivation.”
“You’re referring to the geomantic formations used by the great sects?”
“Well… the Jegallga specializes in formation arrays and mechanical formations. Among those arrays, we could certainly construct something that, while not quite at the level of the great sects, would still be helpful during energy circulation.”
“Hiring geomancers is expensive, Hope.”
“I’ll do it myself. That way, we can cut costs significantly.”
“Hmm.”
My Master slowly waved his fan.
Seeing my Master lost in thought, I continued speaking.
“In other words, we’re creating what you might call a safe martial arts training district. We’d sift through the martial manuals circulating in the streets, find the stable ones, refine them, teach them to people, and earn money through usage fees.”
“…That sounds insane.”
Was I truly mad?
But no matter how much I thought about it, this could work. It will work!
“It would be different from the typical master-disciple relationships in Gangho. More like trainers and members. Or rather, instructors and students. We’d develop an entire city around this and run related businesses alongside it. Then people would naturally gather.”
“…”
The modern person continued speaking with righteous fervor.
“As the local commercial district grows, we could even profit from real estate dealings. And those who learned martial arts from us would be favorable toward us, and incidentally, the distribution of Baekrin Uigak soap would go smoothly too!”
This was the virtuous cycle I had envisioned.
My Master spoke.
“If someone suddenly collapses during training, the doctors could treat them immediately.”
“Exactly! Mobile medical service! Hospital in ten minutes!”
“Ser… vi…? In any case, I understand what you’re getting at.”
I had unconsciously shouted a modern foreign word, but by now my Master was accustomed to such things.
Jegalling fell into deep thought for a long while.
“Hope, if anyone other than you had said such things, they would surely be pointed at and called a madman throughout Gangho.”
“Is it really that bad?”
“Because you’re talking about overturning the very foundations of the existing master-disciple relationship and the process of learning martial arts. And amid all that, you’re showing tremendous obsession with spreading soap and saving even one more martial artist.”
“…Ha… haha.”
It must be difficult for him.
My Master’s eyelids trembled slightly as his eyes remained closed.
Did this mad plan my disciple proposed actually have any feasibility?
No matter how much of a genius Jegalling was, as long as his roots lay in Gangho, it was inevitable that attempting such a conception felt like breaking a taboo.
Yet it was only his sole person of understanding, unburdened by worldly conventions, who could arrive at such ideas.
Jegalling repeated the process of thinking and thinking again without dismissing it lightly.
After a full quarter hour had passed, my Master finally opened his mouth.
“How strange. It should be impossible, yet my calculations suggest it is possible.”
“Huh… then…!?”
“Of course, it’s too early to be certain. We’ll need to investigate among the drifters who walk neither the black path nor the white path, and we should search for suitable vacant land.”
“You’re going to do it?!”
My eyes sparkled with brilliance.
What am I to do with this mad disciple of mine?
“I say again, it’s premature to jump to conclusions. Let me investigate whether there are other variables at play….”
Jin Cheon-hee cut off his Master’s words and spoke excitedly.
“…if it works, it’ll be a jackpot, Master. It’s going to be a jackpot!”
Why was this disciple so adamant in his declarations?
Jegalling felt a throbbing ache in his head.
* * *
Dujin of the Langye Sword was born as the son of an ordinary farming family.
Still, his frame was naturally larger than most, with height and muscle that came from birth, and when a wandering swordsman passing through his village taught him a technique, it became the catalyst for him to resolve to become a Gangho martial artist.
He immediately sought out a local martial arts master to learn from.
It was a martial arts school founded by a man named Beongwak, who came from a military background.
He trained there for one year.
And he left home a year and a half later.
That was when he began wandering Gangho twenty years ago.
Now at forty-two years old.
His martial prowess could be called upper-tier second-rate, but second-rate nonetheless.
He couldn’t properly extend a single sword qi, and his inner energy cultivation wasn’t particularly deep either.
To be honest.
His inner energy level was unremarkable.
Because he’d never had the opportunity to cultivate inner energy deeply.
Typically, inner energy cultivation involves controlling inhalation and exhalation, combining muscle tension with relaxation.
He didn’t even dare hope for spiritual medicine.
Had he obtained a special cultivation method and recalled its verses, he might have become a first-rate warrior by now.
But with only the cultivation methods learned from a local martial arts school, it was impossible to even gauge whether inner energy was accumulating or not.
Because of this, sitting still to gather inner energy was considerably difficult for most Gangho martial artists.
So he’d become a seasoned wanderer who’d been eating sword rice for over twenty years.
Yet the inner energy he possessed amounted to less than ten years’ worth in reality.
In that sense, Samjeolchuho was like a legendary existence to someone like Dujin.
For a vagrant like himself to rise to such heights was realistically impossible.
Though Samjeolchuho himself lamented being ordinary, there were far more martial artists in the world progressing far slower than him, merely growing older, and it was a sad truth that there were far more warriors who wouldn’t even dare envy the young prodigies of the Dragon-Phoenix Assembly, hoping merely to gain something by standing beside them.
Yet among such people, he’d recently heard an interesting rumor.
“A training hall opened where cultivation effects differ by several times?”
When he first heard it, he wondered if it was a scheme by the notorious Hyeolseonggyo.
He would sell his soul for martial achievement, but he absolutely didn’t want to bathe in pig filth.
Moreover, the rumor said the leader there had to copulate with pigs, so followers had to offer pigs every week.
He’d rather die from demonic cultivation and qi deviation than go that far.
If he did, his parents resting in their grave would rise up in shock.
“It was created by Baekrin Uigak?”
“They call it the Martial Arts City in general.”
“It’s commonly called a martial arts city.”
My drinking buddy, a fellow scout, told me about it.
Yeonmu City.
Supposedly built by clearing barren land near the headquarters of Baekrin Uigak.
This Yeonmu City’s purpose is to aid martial artists in their training.
“They charge a fee to use the facilities, but they teach the fundamentals of inner energy cultivation, its system, and training in external techniques and martial forms.”
“We already know the basics. What’s the point… just pour the drinks.”
Wouldn’t second-rate martial artists have already mastered the fundamentals?
I scoffed, thinking it was merely a martial school for third-rate warriors. But my friend answered with a surprisingly serious expression.
“I mocked it too. But a wanderer I know trained there for about a month and came back noticeably stronger.”
“He just relearned the basics and became stronger?”
That made no sense. He spoke cautiously.
“Could they be teaching some secret technique or lost martial art…?”
“Nothing like that. It’s just an improvement on common street martial arts.”
Could one really become stronger from just that?
I couldn’t believe it.
I couldn’t believe it, but….
The wanderer swordsman Dujin eventually made the long journey here.
I could only deceive myself with the excuse that Pyohang happened to be there.
I was drawn even more by rumors that Baek-ui Sinryong had planned it directly.
I figured it couldn’t be a suspicious place like the Demonic Cult or Hyeolseonggyo.
If I could become even slightly stronger. Even just a little bit stronger…!
And so I arrived at Yeonmu City.
The city boundary was enclosed by walls.
The entrance was spacious, but there were things I’d never seen before.
A ticket booth.
An entrance and exit.
Dujin wouldn’t have known, but this Yeonmu City was conceived entirely by Jin Cheon-hee.
You had to buy a ticket at the entrance to enter, and once inside, you had to pay separate fees for each facility you used!
It was modeled after amusement parks like X-World and E-X Land.
It also drew some inspiration from modern large-scale bathhouse complexes.
Of course, they were actively selling everything from day passes to discount tickets to annual memberships!
“Um… um… just three days of the basic pass, please.”
The martial artist sitting at the desk wrote “basic pass, three days” on a wooden tablet and stamped it firmly.
“Three nights and four days. You may use the jeong-grade dormitory among the four levels—gap, eul, byeong, jeong—of Yeonmu City, and three meals are provided free of charge, so please eat well.”
I nodded at the taciturn martial artist’s words.
The price wasn’t cheap, but compared to formal admission fees at martial schools, it was reasonable.
I tucked the wooden tablet into my pocket and went inside.
Suddenly, I felt a pure energy.
‘My friend was right. Even if it’s not at the level of a prestigious orthodox sect, the qi here is quite pure and abundant.’
The second characteristic of Yeonmu City.
A formation technique.
To aid in inner energy cultivation, it artificially manipulated the surrounding qi, drawing it inward to create a flow of pure energy throughout the entire city.
While it couldn’t compare to the formation techniques of places like Shaolin Temple, the Wudang Sect, or the Namgung clan, the mere fact that such a technique had been deployed across an entire city made it clear this was an undertaking of staggering magnitude.
He agreed with the sentiment that only the Jegallga clan in Gangho could accomplish such a mad feat.
Even someone like me, training in inferior inner energy methods, could barely tell if cultivation was even happening—the effects were so negligible.
‘Perhaps in a place like this, I might actually feel my inner energy gathering when I cultivate!’
Forty years old.
In my younger days, I’d sometimes believed I might be a genius, a true dragon.
But this was an age worn down by the passage of time and the storms of reality.
Those forty years had become a burden.
‘Damn it all! Those noble clan bastards have been cultivating inner energy in formations like this since childhood! What a load of garbage!’
I grumbled inwardly with a string of curses.
A notice was posted on the wall.
‘Let’s see… External energy training hall. Solo cultivation preparation hall. Emergency treatment training hall. There’s quite a lot here… but I don’t have enough money. I’ll just focus intensively on inner energy cultivation at the basic level and leave.’
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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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