Doctor’s Rebirth - Chapter 291

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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 291
How long had I been walking?
Suddenly, firelight flickered beyond the mountain ridge.
It was not the glow of a lantern. This undulating mass of orange, yellow, and crimson light….
It was the same radiance that Cheonwoo and I had once witnessed on Mudang Mountain.
*Thump*
The moment my retinas flooded with azure light upon seeing the distant flames, I immediately summoned Noeji.
*Screech*
Had he sensed his master’s emotions?
Noeji took flight with urgent haste.
“Cheonwoo. From here on, we leave the horse behind.”
*Whoosh*
I immediately drew the Bing Jeong Sword from the saddle and slung the angular bow lightly across my back.
Yet my expression alone——
Had frozen as though all emotion had been stripped away.
There was only one thing to say to my brother in such a state.
“Brother. I’ll follow you.”
“…Yes.”
*Boom!*
My afterimage slipped into the darkness and vanished.
An ordinary Samjae Step.
Yet its profundity rivaled even the most exquisite divine techniques.
Cheonwoo pursued me, treading the Taiji Step as he sprinted forward.
‘This is absurd—far too swift!’
The Jegal Family had always been among the select few renowned for their footwork above all else.
With the technique perfected to its zenith, my movement became so subtle and rapid that even Cheonwoo running alongside me could barely sense my presence.
My jade-colored robe billowed only briefly before I grew distant with each blink of his eyes.
Cheonwoo gritted his teeth and pursued me with desperate urgency.
A larger frame offered advantages not merely in wielding the blade, but in running as well.
With each stride, he covered distances far greater than an ordinary person, effortlessly surpassing them.
The same principle applied when employing footwork techniques.
The Taiji Step was a gentle technique that glided as though treading clouds.
It harmonized yin and yang to occupy favorable positions and advance.
‘That such a Taiji Step cannot keep pace with this common street footwork, the Samjae Step…!’
My brother had once spoken of this.
What created divine techniques was ‘efficiency.’
When possessing identical comprehension, approaching the ultimate martial way through divine techniques was the true path.
Then what would occur if one achieved such comprehension with mere street martial arts?
If one considered only ‘efficiency,’ simpler techniques were easier to master and comprehend.
Of course, even if one achieved mastery, it would not equal the ‘mastery’ of exquisite techniques like those of the Mudang Sect or the Namgung Clan, he had said.
However.
-Wouldn’t it be better to apply techniques flexibly? There’s no need to unleash a killing move every single time, is there?
Cheonwoo didn’t immediately understand what his older brother meant by “killing move.”
It seemed roughly similar to the term “divine technique.”
-Originally, combat consists of countless basic attacks and useful skills. Even in games, you typically only use about four skills regularly at most.
This wasn’t something he was saying for Cheonwoo to hear. It was more like muttering to himself.
-So in game skill terms, you absolutely need at least one grab technique with short cooldown and low internal energy consumption for balanced combat to be possible.
By this point, Cheonwoo had given up trying to understand what his brother was saying.
In any case, a warrior who only learned the Mudang Sect’s divine techniques, and a warrior who, despite slightly lower achievement in divine techniques, learned at least one miscellaneous technique with low internal energy consumption and easy mastery.
If those two were to spar, the latter would be stronger—that was his brother’s argument.
But why would a warrior who mastered divine techniques learn common street-level grab techniques?
Wouldn’t that be a truly wasteful thing that doesn’t befit one’s status?
Thwack!
Yet here stood such a madman.
One who possessed the Jegal Family’s divine techniques yet learned all manner of miscellaneous techniques simply because they “seemed useful.”
‘It seems like something else—some kind of grab technique—is mixed into the Samjae Protection Method?’
With Cheonwoo’s knowledge, he couldn’t identify what that mixed-in grab technique was.
Only someone already thinking at the same level as Jin Cheon-hee could recognize it.
‘But… I… haven’t been idle either…!’
Boom!
Cheonwoo’s body technique extended gracefully.
His brother’s back drew near again.
And finally… the two arrived at their destination in an instant.
“Aaaahhh! My lord! My loooord!”
“Please save us! Please!”
Before their eyes, hell unfolded.
The village burned. Black Dao Sect members slaughtered people indiscriminately and plundered them.
They kidnapped a young child, and cut down the mother who resisted while clutching her child.
“Kahahaha! These are the ones who refused to pay protection fees. Show them no mercy!”
“Let them see the price for daring to report us to the magistrate!”
In that moment, Cheonwoo felt a chill.
Killing intent emanated from his brother’s body, consuming the air.
Thwack!
He didn’t even feel him draw and fire the bow.
What Jin Cheon-hee shot was merely air—no arrow at all.
‘Heart Archery? No, this is…’
He merely transformed Finger Flicking Force into a bow and released it.
Yet its power was similar to Heart Archery.
In an instant, one of the bandit’s arms was severed, whistling through the air.
“Kryaahhh!”
“What—who is this bastard?!”
“….”
I didn’t answer. I simply continued firing ordinary arrows, abandoning any pretense of being a novice warrior.
Tap-tap-tap-bang!
I didn’t kill them. I merely shattered their limbs.
Perhaps it was a calculation—there wasn’t enough time to rush forward and break them one by one.
This was not a warrior’s combat.
It differed from the typical image of a warrior’s swordsmanship that people imagined.
“Brother.”
“Cheonwoo—gather the wounded.”
I said nothing more after that.
“A warrior! An archer—take cover!”
At the voice of what appeared to be their leader, the Black Dao Bandits hid themselves behind walls and pillars.
A simple and effective response against an archer.
The bow was an efficient weapon, yet simultaneously a limited one.
No matter how skilled an archer might be, they cannot fire if they cannot see the angle of attack.
Moreover, in this darkness, my form was invisible.
Had the opponent been the White-Clad Divine Dragon, they would have fled long ago—though naturally they couldn’t have imagined such a thing. They had merely judged me an ordinary wandering hero.
But that mattered little to me.
I kicked a stone up with my foot.
Then I nocked it to the bowstring instead of an arrow and fired.
Bang!
The stone didn’t penetrate.
Rather, it struck a place they never expected to be targeted.
Tap-tap-tap-bang!
The stone bounced off the ground, ricocheted off a wall, struck a rafter once more, and passed clean through a Black Dao member’s shoulder.
“Krraaaagh!”
Ricochet.
‘There’s such a technique in archery?’
Cheonwoo’s eyes nearly bulged from his head in astonishment.
I spoke with an expressionless face.
“Cheonwoo? You’ll listen to your brother, won’t you?”
With each stone I fired, I tore their limbs apart so brutally that death would have been merciful.
Cheonwoo dodged my attacks and rescued the common people.
“Thank you. Thank you so much, great hero!”
Behind the desperate gratitude of the civilians, the stone I fired tore through a Black Dao member’s thigh.
Tap-tap-tap-bang!
Moving the horrified civilians to safety, Cheonwoo smiled bitterly.
‘It would be easier on my heart if I killed them and brother saved them instead.’
Yet in that brief moment, my brother had clearly made calculations, weighing both options.
And I had concluded what the fastest method was—one with the fewest casualties.
It was a rather cruel thing to do to myself.
“Retreat… Retreat! Everyone retreat!”
Crack!
The shoulder blade of the man who shouted those words flew through the air.
It was a wound that should have been fatal, yet he did not die.
But it was enough to instill terror in the Black Dao bandits.
The frightened Black Dao bandits began fleeing in succession.
I did not bother pursuing them.
The injured patients took priority.
“Hwang-gu. Tell me the order by the strongest scent of blood.”
Woof!
There was no greater foolishness than missing the critical window to treat a patient while chasing down enemies, only to watch them die.
Saving lives had to come first.
Yet for some reason, Cheonwoo found his brother’s face utterly expressionless, which made him feel strangely afraid.
* * *
I hastily stopped the bleeding and began suturing.
For fractures, I performed manual reduction and applied splints, continuing with whatever could be done.
In the meantime, Noeji flew off to deliver a letter to the nearest Baekrin Uigak branch in Buntta.
At the same time, he also delivered a letter to the nearest magistrate’s office requesting soldiers.
It was something I learned while treating the wounded.
The couriers from Pyoguk happened to be staying in the village.
The cargo remained safe until the end thanks to the couriers’ blood price.
They were able to protect the cargo with their lives, but half of the couriers died.
And the remaining half were in critical condition.
If warriors like the couriers had been reduced to this state, ordinary commoners could not have fared any better.
Over three thousand villagers were annihilated by the Black Dao bandits.
The dead were already beyond counting, and caring for the injured was not something I could handle alone.
“Brother.”
“Don’t tell me I should stop because I look like I’m about to collapse. I won’t collapse, and if I stop here, people will die.”
Cheonwoo helped me by moving patients and assisting with pressure point techniques, but it was endless.
Fortunately, one surviving doctor remained and was helping me save patients, but he was quite injured himself, so the burden on his body was great.
In the end, that too fell to me.
“Gasp, cough….”
Yet despite all efforts, another patient died with a gurgling sound.
No matter how hard I struggled to save them, people still died.
A doctor was not a god.
No matter how skilled in martial arts or knowledgeable in the ways called divine, I was alone.
It was impossible to treat everyone at once with the strength of one person.
“Ugh… Doctor… please….”
“Please hold on just until your family arrives. Just a little longer….”
Even as I poured my internal energy into my words, speaking with desperate urgency, my father’s retina simply grew cold and lifeless.
“Thank…you….”
Without completing a single word, the man passed away so easily.
“….”
I withdrew my internal energy.
Instead, I simply closed my father’s vacant eyes.
“Current time… ah… there’s no need for a time of death here. This is the martial world, after all.”
I muttered softly, then staggered to my feet. And then I simply threw myself at the next patient.
Prioritizing those who could be saved.
If they couldn’t be saved, I had no choice but to let them go.
Yet even if that was the basic principle of wartime, distinguishing between life and death was brutally difficult.
Cheonwoo grabbed my shoulder.
“Brother, breathe.”
“Ah….”
It seemed I had been holding my breath without realizing it.
I took a deep breath, then forced myself to smile.
“I’m fine.”
I couldn’t collapse. At least not here, not now.

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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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