Doctor’s Rebirth - Chapter 264

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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 264
“I thought you’d ask more questions. What a shame.”
‘If he asks, I’d get teased and that would be the end of it—but if I accidentally spill secrets and he finds out, he might drag me to the imperial palace, and then both I and my Shifu would be in real trouble.’
And Eun Wang-ya was just as unpredictable as Ju Wang-ya.
“What use would a humble wandering doctor like myself have for such knowledge? I’m already overjoyed to simply treat Your Majesty.”
“Tsk… your words flow like a clear stream. Well, never mind. You don’t need to go inside—you can do it right here in this pavilion, can’t you?”
“What…”
“The Hwaju Medical Institute may keep it secret, but I’ve heard that when it comes to pulse diagnosis, no one can match you. Surely that much is possible?”
That was certainly true.
Even among doctors, the amount of inner energy they possessed and the refinement of its application varied greatly.
Performing pulse diagnosis with knowledge of anatomy versus vaguely diagnosing through mere sensation were worlds apart.
Moreover, even with anatomy, knowing modern anatomy and viewing anatomy through this era’s medical texts were as different as heaven and earth.
“I’ll attempt it.”
“Good.”
As if he’d expected this answer, Eun Wang-ya extended his wrist.
I grasped Eun Wang-ya’s wrist and slowly pushed my inner energy forward to attempt the pulse diagnosis.
The inner energy beginning from my hand traveled along the Wang-ya’s wrist, circulating through the eight extraordinary meridians.
Then I tilted my head slightly before placing my hand on the Wang-ya’s abdomen, saying, “Your Majesty, please forgive my presumption.”
“Without even asking permission, your hand moves of its own accord.”
“Ah, no… that’s not it…”
“Haha, I jest. A doctor’s concern for his patient comes first, naturally.”
“…”
People throw stones in jest, but the frog that gets hit dies all the same.
His Majesty seemed completely unaware that even a small joke from him made a doctor’s heart skip a beat.
After completing the pulse diagnosis, I slowly opened my eyes.
“Excellent. The cancer—or rather, the gastric upset—shows no signs of recurrence. Your health has improved considerably. Moreover, your inner energy’s nature has changed, as if you’ve learned new martial techniques.”
“That’s good news. No recurrence, then. However… even so, it would be wise to undergo the Purification Cleansing.”
The act of expelling all turbidity from within the body when a young child first enters the path of martial arts.
The Purification Cleansing is something done only once in a lifetime.
It creates a body conducive to cultivating inner energy, but continuing the Purification Cleansing on a body that has already undergone it once has no effect whatsoever on advancing one’s cultivation.
It’s nothing but needless suffering.
Yet Eun Wang-ya, who had suffered from colon cancer, was undergoing it periodically.
And with quite expensive and potent medicinal ingredients at that.
“I’ve inquired in various ways to alleviate the pain, but if done that way, the efficacy would be…”
“Don’t worry. Physical pain is nothing compared to the pain of the heart. The imperial physicians have already prepared the materials, so it can be done whenever.”
He smiled bitterly.
“Understood. Then I’ll monitor your condition through pulse diagnosis and prepare accordingly. You’ll need to rest well for a day or two after the procedure.”
Then Eun Wang-ya grabbed my arm.
“Do you know why I called you here?”
‘Could it be… that he’s calling me to assign some troublesome task~?’ I couldn’t possibly say such a thing to the Emperor, no matter how true it might be.
Jin Cheon-hee rolled his eyes and gave the best answer he could muster.
“I understand you didn’t call me here simply to enjoy a vacation.”
“There is a patient I wish you to examine.”
“Is the patient here?”
“Yes. To be precise, someone from the Dadu Kingdom has come to receive treatment from you.”
“Ah….”
“There you go again, rolling your eyes. If I’m introducing someone, they’re usually no ordinary person.”
If one harbored ambitions for power, perhaps that would be the case.
But wasn’t that something only people like the Eunuch General would do?
“Tsk. Never mind. In any case, a rather significant problem has arisen in the Dadu Kingdom. And you are entangled in that matter as well.”
A flash of blue light streaked across Jin Cheon-hee’s retinas.
So swift that one might mistake it for a reflection of sunlight.
“….”
Yet he did not answer hastily.
Eun Wang-ya clicked his tongue at this caution, so different from young warriors, and continued speaking.
“You certainly go to great lengths to avoid involvement with the imperial family.”
Jin Cheon-hee broke into a cold sweat internally.
‘If I don’t try this hard, you’ll just scoop me up like Grandfather Sack would…?’
There was much he wanted to say, but what good would it do to speak to the Emperor?
All he wanted was to treat the patient quickly and return.
And the Dadu Kingdom at that.
Though it shared borders with the Empire, its religion, culture, language, and writing were all entirely different.
Smaller than the Hwaju Empire, it could be called the hegemon of the southern regions.
I had read translations of medical texts from the Dadu Kingdom before, but whether due to the translator’s shortcomings or because their medical practices followed a completely different path, I could scarcely understand them.
“The Dadu Kingdom is a place where civilization and savagery coexist. Especially since they rely on sorcery rather than acupuncture or herbal medicine for treating illnesses.”
The mystery was solved.
‘No wonder I couldn’t understand it even after reading.’
As a modern person, Jin Cheon-hee posed a fundamental question.
“Does that actually work?”
To a modern person, shamanic healing conjures images of African shamans slaughtering chickens while chanting, with tribespeople dancing and responding in chorus.
The person sitting in the center speaks in tongues, consuming chicken blood, or chewing unverified herbal remedies.
‘In Korea, such treatment would violate medical law.’
I had once witnessed a cancer patient who would have had a good prognosis with immediate surgery instead visit some fraudulent treatment clinic, only to deteriorate.
Whether it was Christian-affiliated, Buddhist-affiliated, or some third faction, they sold the patient mysterious water for three million won, and the patient bought it.
When the contents were analyzed, nothing seemed amiss.
It was just barley tea.
That was fortunate, at least.
I cannot express how much my heart ached over three million won barley tea.
The problem arises when fraudsters carelessly add questionable effects.
Sometimes patients consume such things from charlatans and suffer liver or kidney damage, which then makes cancer treatment itself far more difficult going forward.
To a modern doctor like me, “shamanic treatment” carried an extremely dubious image.
“I hear it has some effectiveness, in its own way.”
“Hmm….”
In a world where qi constitutes all things, shamanic treatment couldn’t possibly be ineffective.
But.
‘I have too many bad memories about this…?’
Yes, that was nothing but prejudice. It could genuinely be effective.
‘And if it works, I could learn it too.’
I struggled to force open the mental barriers within myself.
I’d been so delighted learning martial arts, yet I couldn’t understand why I hesitated so much at shamanic treatment.
‘That’s right! I need to save people’s lives, so I should learn anything! There’s no radiation here, no modern equipment in this world—why should I be picky?’
But I wanted to be picky.
“The person who wishes to receive your medical treatment is the Third Prince of Dadu Kingdom.”
“The third? You mean…?”
“Yes. He’s the one who will marry the Eunuch General’s second granddaughter in place of the deceased Second Prince.”
‘The second… already dead?’
Wasn’t he supposed to wait until the wedding ceremony before dying suddenly?
It seemed Han Yi-jeong didn’t even want to give her younger sister the gossip of being a three-second widow.
Eun Wang-ya spoke.
“Once the marriage arrangement was confirmed and the date was set, unfortunately on a night when he was dead drunk. When the doors were opened in the morning, he was discovered as a corpse.”
“What about the guards?”
“The guards were firmly protecting the prince’s residence, and the prince’s chamber was essentially a sealed room.”
A completely sealed room! A corpse discovered in the morning!
‘I see. I don’t even need to stake grandfather’s honor—I can tell this is suspicious.’
No, could it be that my sister couldn’t even tolerate that violent brute making eye contact with her younger sister?
‘Come to think of it, I happened to learn the details afterward, but they say there are more than five illegitimate children in the capital alone….’
A prince who became a beast when drinking, and beat people around him at the slightest provocation.
Though it was called a mistake made in youthful recklessness, according to rumors, there were quite a few commoners who died by his hand.
Violence doesn’t require raising a fist to be violent. Not in this era.
“There were no signs of murder like assassination?”
“All the windows were locked, and there were no signs of anyone breaking in from outside, nor any signs of them being opened. The servants didn’t enter after the prince said he wanted to be alone. Since there were no signs of poisoning either, some of the common people seemed to think the heavens themselves had grown angry.”
“The heavens grew angry?”
“He smashed the altar several times while dead drunk.”
No… it doesn’t seem like divine punishment from the heavens.
No matter how I look at it, this seems like my sister’s divine punishment for not being able to give her younger sister to such a violent brute.
In my mind, a complete detective mystery was already playing out, but my expression remained composed.
“What a tragic turn of events.”
“Human life is determined by heaven, so what can one do?”
That’s not something the late Emperor—who went up to the throne after strangling all his siblings alongside King Ju Wang—should be saying.
Eun Wang-ya continued speaking.
“You may be curious, but from here on, this is a matter of politics. Beyond the Dadu Kingdom lies a nation called the Selim Theocracy. Heh heh, arrogantly calling themselves an ’empire,’ those fools.”
The Selim Theocracy.
‘Ah, I remember now. It appears in Supreme Heavenly Demon. An empire governed by a Sultan. The model was roughly based on the ancient Islamic Empire aesthetic.’
In Supreme Heavenly Demon, there was an episode where Yeo Ha-ryun fought assassins who came from the Selim Theocracy.
The content was about crushing some conspiracy unfolding in the Dadu Kingdom, or something like that.
The Dadu Kingdom’s royal family didn’t actually have much presence.
Supreme Heavenly Demon itself only featured those whose necks Yeo Ha-ryun had severed or those destined to have their necks severed—otherwise, they barely appeared.
The reason this episode stuck in my memory was that, unusually this time, the Hyeolseonggyo doesn’t appear as the enemy.
The Selim Theocracy comes as the enemy.
The Selim Theocracy is a self-proclaimed empire that believes in a religion called ‘Selim.’
These bastards dominate the Dadu Kingdom and attempt to attack the empire.
That’s right. A problem arises.
The Ilwol Singyeo is also a religious organization.
The Selim Theocracy is also a religious state.
These idiots, for whatever reason, go to places where Ilwol Singyeo believers gather and tell them to abandon this heretical demonic faith and believe in Selim to reach heaven—if we let that slide, we’re not a demonic sect.
Isn’t the Cheonma herself the leader of a demonic sect?
The moment these bastards planned to proselytize at the Ten Thousand Great Mountains without permission, Yeo Ha-ryun was bound by fate to crush their skulls.

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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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