Doctor’s Rebirth - Chapter 262
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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 262
Without the tension of life and death, without the thrill of combat, the young man seized a person’s neck and twisted it in a direction that wouldn’t kill them.
Crack—
He grabbed the next one and dislocated their joints.
Snap—
“Gahhhhh, a monster, it’s a monster!”
Meanwhile, Jin Cheon-hee sent them flying and thought to himself.
‘What’s this? Why are they so weak?’
In martial arts novels, wasn’t the hidden realm always where the truly strong were concealed?
‘Perhaps they’re just ordinary bandits?’
That was a miscalculation.
The Bloodwind Bandits were among the most notorious bandit groups in this region. They were famous for having martial skills superior to most Central Plains mountain strongholds and for their ruthless methods.
I flicked my fingers at a bandit attempting to flee.
Boom-boom!
With a sound like something exploding, my companions collapsed like frogs.
Thud—
Yamta, who understood the Central Plains tongue, immediately grasped what the young man was saying.
“Ah, bone-setting won’t help with this. You shouldn’t do any strenuous work going forward.”
Crack, snap!
As the young man twisted the jaw in a grotesque direction, he spoke again.
“Spend the rest of your life in reflection, and eat only rice porridge from now on.”
To the Master begging for his life, the young man answered gently.
“I’ll turn you over to the authorities, so you can stand trial there. A doctor… won’t be necessary. I can’t fix this.”
Boom!
He spoke calmly as he shattered the Master’s dantian.
No one was dead, and no one was bleeding.
Yet there was no mercy in it.
After finishing everything, the young man spoke.
“Hwang-gu. Is the meat still okay?”
Bark!
“It’s okay? It smells okay? Right. I trust your nose, Hwang-gu. Phew, what a relief.”
He seemed somewhat… unhinged.
Jin Cheon-hee crouched down in front of Yamta.
“Do you understand the Central Plains tongue? Or should I use body language instead?”
Yamta couldn’t understand what body language meant, but he grasped most of the other words.
Jin Cheon-hee cracked his fingers.
“When words fail, stimulating pain points tends to instill manners. Everyone becomes more polite that way. Since we’ll need to communicate through body language going forward, we’ll need a bit more mutual courtesy, don’t you think?”
Saying so, I seized the hollow inside of Yamta’s elbow.
Just as I was about to instill health and courtesy into Yamta—
Yamta suddenly cried out in the Central Plains tongue.
“I’m listening! Master! I’m listening!”
“Ah, so you do understand. I thought outsiders wouldn’t grasp our words at all. And since you’re people who kill and enslave others, I figured conversation would be especially difficult.”
The fact that Yamta had already developed manners even before I needed to apply pressure delighted me.
“P-please speak, Master. I-I’ll answer you!”
“Nothing major. Where’s your bandit hideout? Ah, not bandits—bandits, so should I call it a bandit den? Anyway, the place where you kidnap people, lock them up as slaves, and hoard money.”
If he revealed that, Yamta’s life would be over.
“….”
As Yamta hesitated, I decided to twist his arm in the opposite direction for the sake of more genuine dialogue between us.
“Agh, ahhh! I’ll tell you! I’ll tell you!”
“Mm….”
Pain hadn’t even begun, yet his tongue was surprisingly loose.
That was fortunate.
* * *
I returned quickly and finished the roasted three-gut meat.
As the perfectly cooked three-gut meat emerged from the campfire and steam, not just the couriers but even the captured bandits seemed intoxicated by the aroma of meat.
“I made plenty, so eat slowly.”
Perhaps it was the scent of firewood soaked into it.
The meat, carrying both the fragrance of grilling and the tenderness of steaming, drove people mad.
With sweet corn and savory potatoes on the side, time flew by unnoticed.
“Truly… the White Dragon….”
I couldn’t tell what word came in the middle, but I definitely heard something starting with that consonant.
“Hey! Can’t you keep that mouth shut? What trouble are you asking for later!”
“These days, no one uses it in a negative sense anymore. Some people even think it’s cooler to have ‘mad’ in their epithet.”
“Still, there’s propriety. It’s Divine Dragon. Got it? Divine Dragon!”
I chewed my meat while listening to the couriers whisper among themselves.
‘Hmm. There are indeed some people who find aggressive epithets cool.’
Thinking of how much Dang-a loved the epithet Blood Transformation King, maniacs who appreciate such things exist everywhere.
Especially since I subdued even a single bandit without killing him, injecting a certain amount of manners into them—it seems to have been quite shocking.
And though it’s a sad matter.
‘Breaking them and fixing them myself is unfortunate.’
I have no choice but to bring them to the Gwana.
From what I gathered, they’re bandit gangs taking advantage of administrative vacuums, and if that’s the case, leaving them in the desert like this won’t help the common people.
Even if I eliminate all of them, a new fifth plunder gang will just emerge in their place anyway.
They’ll do the exact same thing to the common people.
In the end, the best course is to hand over the information I’ve gathered along with these men to reduce the administrative gap.
Then Dam Pyodo approached.
“Master, you’re truly remarkable. Desert bandits are formidable even for martial arts masters….”
With their mobility using horses combined with terrain attacks using the desert, they’re even more vicious.
“You’re too kind.”
But that’s all meaningless before overwhelming strength anyway.
“Not at all. Thanks to you, the courier run will conclude without anyone getting hurt. And I don’t think I’ll ever forget this meal.”
The tender chewiness of the lean meat and the dipping sauce I’d prepared for them.
With steaming potatoes, corn, onions, and sweet potatoes added to the mix, the desert night had become truly abundant.
Pant, pant, pant!
“Want more?”
Woof!
Hwang-gu wagged his tail with delight.
Dam Pyodo still hadn’t adjusted to Hwang-gu.
He looked like a muscular wolf, yet his behavior was that of a dog—and a common village mutt at that.
Watching him fight against the bandits only confused him further.
Those spontaneous body tackles clearly contained martial force. No ordinary wolf could fight with such strength and ferocity.
Squeak!
“Right then. Noeji, go to sleep.”
Noeji crawled into my medicine box and fell asleep right there.
I looked after everything around us, finished off the last piece of meat, and then collapsed contentedly onto my back.
The moon was obscured, and the desert night sky seemed ready to pour down stars.
Over there, the Pyoguk staff were binding the bandits like dried fish.
They were also tying up all the horses the bandits had ridden.
True to their merchant nature, every horse was large and magnificent.
“As you know, when enemies charge on horseback, even those with profound inner force find themselves at a disadvantage. Truly, you are the White Jade Divine Dragon. Now I understand that the Yongbong Assembly’s championship was no mere coincidence.”
Dam Pyodo, who had been busily flattering me, added another comment smoothly.
“By the way, the bandits and horses are all spoils of war from this battle. Would it be acceptable for us to handle their disposal? We’ll pay you fairly for everything.”
‘So that was their real objective.’
Horses were precious assets in any era.
It was natural for them to be traded at high prices.
Since I’d defeated nearly all the bandits alone, the bounty on their heads, their weapons, and their horses were essentially mine.
Normally, since the Pyoguk often operated alongside merchant companies, someone like Dam Pyodo with greed clouding his judgment might have attempted to cheat me or skim money from the middle.
But the Dam Pyodo before me was not that type.
Especially not when trying to swindle someone who’d just scattered a bandit gang like throwing pebbles.
And certainly not when that person was the successor of Baekrin Uigak.
“I’d appreciate that. I can’t exactly herd all these horses myself anyway.”
Woof, growl! Woof!
Hwang-gu eagerly appealed from beside me.
He enthusiastically demonstrated his confidence that his abilities could herd the horses like a shepherd.
But I deliberately ignored Hwang-gu’s suggestion.
‘Haggling in a kingdom where they don’t even speak the language would be more of a hassle.’
Better to dispose of them here, convert them to silver, and use it to buy delicious food. That’s the profitable way.
And from what I could see, this Dam Pyodo seemed trustworthy—he was treating me with even more respect than before.
Whimper—
“Sorry, sorry. I’ll make you something delicious again later instead.”
Crunch!
As I scratched Hwang-gu’s jaw like that.
A cloud of sand dust rose in the distance.
‘To ride hard enough that dust is visible in the middle of the night.’
Focusing my inner energy on my eyes to see clearly, I could make out a group of mounted riders galloping toward us.
‘Their clothing… it looks like Imperial Army uniforms.’
In the border region. A small contingent, yet these cavalry are coming here all at once?
I suspected they weren’t part of the bandits I’d just captured, but one could never be too careful.
“Dam Pyodo. A new group is approaching, so please stay alert. They’re wearing Imperial Army uniforms, but… bandits could have stolen the clothes, couldn’t they?”
“Ah, understood. Hey!”
Dam Pyodo hurriedly shouted to the couriers.
As we formed a defensive formation and waited briefly, the army approached and came to a halt.
The imposing presence created by the massive military horses was incomparable to the bandit gang.
“Hmm, a merchant caravan?”
A man bearing the White Insignia insignia looked down at us arrogantly without even dismounting.
Dam Pyodo spoke urgently.
“Yes! We are a courier party belonging to the Yunlong Courier Bureau!”
“I find that hard to believe. Show me your credentials.”
‘Can’t he see at a glance that we’re not bandits?’
The exhausted couriers and the luggage for the delivery.
Even the smell of the campfire and the meal we’d just finished.
Despite nothing about us looking like bandits, the White Insignia continued to press Dam Pyodo.
Dam Pyodo pulled out his credential tablet and handed it over with something attached beneath it.
Silver coins.
‘So he was asking for a bribe.’
I’d heard that the failure to capture the bandits was simply due to administrative gaps, but it seemed there were such circumstances behind it after all.
The White Insignia quickly pocketed the silver coins while pretending to examine the tablet and cleared his throat.
“Ahem, indeed it is.”
“We are honest couriers who just barely repelled the bandits. We’ve already bound them all with rope to report to the Gwana.”
“What?”
The White Insignia’s eyes widened at those words.
Behind the tent, sure enough, all the bandits were bound.
“Well done. Then I’ll take these fellows with me.”
Saying so, he ordered his subordinates to take them all away. Dam Pyodo spoke urgently.
“Wait, but then what about the bounty!”
“Hehehehe, won’t I make sure to handle that? Don’t worry. Take all those horses tied up over there too!”
“Yes, White Insignia!”
Dam Pyodo grabbed the White Insignia with a metallic sound, struggling.
“But… however…”
“However? Do you have some complaint?”
The White Insignia’s eyes widened as he glared at Dam Pyodo, causing the latter to flinch and clamp his mouth shut like a clam.
Watching this unfold, I felt utterly exasperated.
‘So he intends to intercept the goods.’
Moreover, he meant to seize the horses and weapons as well.
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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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