Doctor’s Rebirth - Chapter 26

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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 26
003. The Tree (2)
Seven days.
I had successfully absorbed the qi of the Five Elements.
‘Am I even human, or just a machine for circulating inner force? Regardless, it’s nearly doubled.’
The White Pine Sect’s spirit medicine had granted me the Eight Extraordinary Meridians and five years of cultivation. Yet now, having consumed all five Five Elements Pills from Baekrin Uigak and trained in the Five Elements Heart Method, my inner force had instantly accumulated to ten years’ worth.
Even combining all five spirit medicines couldn’t match the White Pine Sect pill alone. Yet my inner force had risen so dramatically because of the principle of mutual generation and mutual restraint within the Five Elements True Qi.
I didn’t yet understand this, but I could sense that something profoundly mysterious was occurring.
Baekrin Uigak was one of the three greatest Medical Halls under heaven.
If Medical Clinics were minor sects, then Medical Halls were major ones.
In other words, Baekrin Uigak was a physician collective ranked among the top three in all the land.
Because of this, they possessed considerable expertise in the manufacture and sale of spirit medicines.
Of course, many considered Hwaju Medical Sect, which had Yakseon, superior in the spirit medicine field, but that didn’t mean Baekrin Uigak’s standards were low.
It was precisely because Baekrin Uigak maintained such standards that they produced various spirit medicines.
Spirit medicines came in grades, ranging from superior to inferior.
Superior-grade spirit medicines were produced only once or twice yearly even by Baekrin Uigak, so even as the direct disciple of the Baekrin Uigak Master, I couldn’t easily consume them.
However, inferior-grade spirit medicines were well within the Baekrin Uigak Master’s discretion to provide.
In other words, seven days ago.
In modern terms, a week prior, I had consumed those five spirit medicines. And there remained considerably more spirit medicines for me to consume in the future.
In essence, I was properly establishing a foundation of spirit medicine cultivation.
‘In martial arts novels, direct disciples of major sects and legitimate heirs of great families supposedly consumed spirit medicines like rice from childhood. I never imagined I’d become like this. Should I call this fortunate?’
Of course, it wasn’t something that could be done mechanically.
I had to circulate it based on my understanding of the Five Elements. The mere increase in inner force quantity wasn’t what mattered most.
“It’s remarkable. How can a person keep doing it, and doing it, and doing it again? You barely slept at all.”
Dawn cultivation of inner force.
This was something anyone who had learned inner force cultivation did. And just as I finished my cultivation, Yoo Ho came and spoke to me.
‘Why did he come again? And listen here, you try living a cultivator’s life yourself.’
Back then, both body and spirit had been utterly exhausted, worn down repeatedly.
If there were a modern equivalent of slavery, it would be Korea’s trainee physician system. I had been an existence equivalent to the lowest caste of powerless untouchables.
Back then, I received curses for everything I did.
From patients, from patients’ guardians, from professors. Even from stray dogs passing by.
When I mentioned it to a fellow trainee, he said I was too exhausted and hearing things, that psychiatry was on the Second Floor of the New Building, so I should go there. But I clearly heard it then.
Everything in this world cursed at me.
Little medical slave Jin Cheon-hee was always filled with anger and sorrow.
Eventually, I felt nothing at all.
I came to understand what it meant for emotions to be buried under exhaustion.
By contrast, merely through cultivation, my spirit and body grew progressively clearer and more at ease. Moreover, whenever I did anything, the Medical Hall members would come and shower me with praise and encouragement without restraint.
Such was the life of the second-most powerful figure in Baekrin Uigak.
I reflected.
‘Ah, so I’m the kind of child who grows nourished by praise.’
“Hmm… it appears you’ve just entered the first stage of the Five Elements Heart Method.”
“Is that fast? Now that I think about it, I heard that stage achievements have nothing to do with the quantity of inner energy. How do you measure such things?”
“From what I know, it’s quite fast. And martial arts achievements are evaluated based on one’s ability to manipulate true energy. To an expert like myself, it’s easy to see at a glance. But still… setting aside that your five elements are exceptional, how is it that you never rest?”
Yoo Ho had come at Jegalling’s orders to check on Jin Cheon-hee. And he had just discovered that I’d achieved the first stage of the Five Elements Heart Method.
The speed of that achievement was beyond imagination, but my behavior was equally shocking to Yoo Ho.
“I am resting.”
“You mean your cultivation is resting?”
“…”
Instead of answering, I gazed at Yoo Ho with a Buddha-like expression.
Yoo Ho thought to himself.
‘Those are the eyes of someone who has experienced hell itself. How could a child possibly have such eyes?’
They were so deep and profound that they were almost eerie.
‘Not the clear eyes of a child. The eyes of a long-worn slave, exhausted and depleted… what could this young man’s past possibly be?’
At that moment, the door to the Woon Gong-sil opened.
“Hee!”
“Master!”
I returned to a child’s expression and rushed to my master, embracing him tightly.
“There, there, my genius puppy! I missed you so much that I had Gasol buy some delicious treats from the market.”
“Goodness, the market isn’t that close. You climbed up and down the mountain carrying food?”
“Don’t worry, Hee. Adults are sturdy, so it’s fine.”
“Wow~ I see! Thank goodness~ Adults are fine! Master, can I eat more of this?”
“Of course! What are you saying! Go get more sweets. Don’t forget to use lightness skill to get there and back before it gets cold.”
“Yes, yes! Sect Leader! I-I’ll be back like the wind!”
That was the voice of an exhausted office worker rather than a martial artist.
At that voice, I flinched and shook my head.
“Master, I’m fine. I’m already full.”
“No, no. Hee, are you worried about me? Look here. You’re an adult, so you’re fine, right?”
“Yes! Sect Leader! Of course I’m fine! Haha, ahahaha! Wahahahaha!”
“See? I told you I’m fine, didn’t I? Cheon-hee. You have nothing to worry about.”
A demon. He was a demon.
My master, who had become a recluse, had turned into a demon just to watch his disciple eat.
Yoo Ho decided to forget what he had witnessed today.
* * *
On the day I achieved the first stage of the Five Elements Heart Method, Jegalling’s new residence was also completed.
Normally, it would be impossible to complete construction so quickly, but they had shortened the construction period by employing a large number of workers.
The residence that was built this way had its interior finished with wood and its walls plastered with mud. This too was an idea I had suggested.
I called it insulation material, and the house completed this way had a feel quite different from the architectural style of the Central Plains.
On one side, there was a glass window large enough to be called a wall, and inside it, both an ondol heating system and a furnace were installed.
It was a house that conveyed a strong determination to tolerate not even a hint of cold air.
The shape of the bed was also somewhat different.
In this world, it was customary to sleep on wooden beds with blankets, but the Ondol House had become something quite different—a space with an entirely unique sleeping arrangement—thanks to my insistence that we sleep directly on the heated floor.
And today, the house was finally completed.
Yoo Ho entered the house together with Jegalling.
“Heh heh… isn’t this more than warm? Isn’t it hot?”
“I stuffed plenty of firewood into the furnace to see how high the heat would rise. I wanted to verify whether what that young master said was true.”
Yoo Ho called me “young master” whenever I wasn’t around.
Jegalling brushed it off without concern and asked.
“In any case, he’s not even a child anymore, so I don’t understand why you’re so strict only with Jin Cheon-hee. So, how is it?”
“Honestly… it exceeds my expectations.”
At Yoo Ho’s words, Jegalling chuckled softly.
“Yes. It exceeds expectations. I’m curious where he obtained such knowledge… but. Didn’t we agree not to ask? Someday, he’ll tell us. I’ve already seen the sincerity in that boy’s heart….”
Sincerity.
I had said it.
That I would ensure he wouldn’t die easily.
“With just a brazier, I thought we could really live… but this seems even more excellent.”
He entered the house, removed his shoes, and stepped onto the floor of the room.
The heat rising from the floor was almost scorching.
For an ordinary person, it would be a room hot enough to break a sweat, but Jegalling preferred it this way.
He subtly reduced the inner energy he’d been using to protect his body, and felt the scorching heat penetrate deep within, neutralizing the cold energy.
His entire body grew warm, as if he’d entered a hot spring.
Pleased by this sensation, Jegalling smiled and made his way to the bed.
He sat down heavily upon it, then lay back to test it. The warmth of his back was different from the heat of a brazier.
“How is it, Master?”
“Very… very good. So this is the Ondol… heh heh… it feels like I’m receiving moxibustion across my entire body….”
“I see.”
“Why don’t you finally admit it? Couldn’t you stop calling him ‘young master’?”
“Well. I still wish to call him ‘young master.'”
“Tsk tsk. That stubbornness of yours. Anyway… this is truly wonderful. This is truly wonderful.”
A smile graced Jegalling’s expression.
Watching Jegalling like this, Yoo Ho’s expression also softened somewhat.
* * *
While the Ondol was being installed and Jegalling was absorbed in it, my training continued.
However, it was somewhat different from my previous training.
Having obtained ten years of cultivation, I now needed to train in properly controlling it.
The Secrets of True Energy Manipulation.
In other words, I had begun to learn the secrets, methods, and techniques of wielding true energy. For this, naturally, instruction from my master Jegalling was necessary.
This required careful guidance.
Before Jegalling, I slowly manifested the fire energy of the Five Elements Heart Method at my fingertips.
The fire energy that began in my dantian finally gathered at the tips of my fingers.
Flames ignited on the thin rice paper.
Whoosh—
“Success.”
Those unfamiliar with such matters would have mistaken it for the Sammaejinhwa, that legendary technique said to be used when transcending the wall of a master.
I spoke.
“I can only ignite such thin rice paper.”
“Everyone’s first step is the same. If one achieves greatness, even this becomes possible.”
Jegalling swung the fan he held once. The flames traced a line following the arc of the fan.
Crack—
A massive tree was severed.
What was remarkable was that only the cut section was charred; the fire did not spread.
Looking at the cross-section, I spoke in bewilderment.
“How is this even possible?”
My master answered instead with this:
“The fundamental nature of fire is destruction. Wood, iron, sword energy, sword barriers—all eventually crumble. This is the natural order. Therefore….”
My master pushed the severed tree with the end of his fan.
The massive log then rose onto my master’s fan and moved with it. I asked.
“Is it wind energy?”
“The essence of wind is movement. It flows without ceasing and does not remain still.”
My master placed the wood back where it had been cut.
Of course, he merely rested it upon the severed point—he did not reattach it.
He spoke.
“The wood has been eroded by fire energy. Left as is, this tree will perish. Shall we try binding it with water energy?”
“….”
I bit my lip and approached the tree. To save a dying tree.
Water signifies life. Yet no matter how deeply I concentrated, I could scarcely achieve success.

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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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