Doctor’s Rebirth - Chapter 307

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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 307
029. The Blood Storm Brought by the Secret Manual
Jin Cheon-hee and Cheonwoo set their direction toward the Medical Guild and mounted their horses.
The sun began to set dimly, and a city came into view in the distance.
The air itself was different in places where people were absent.
A strong grassy scent pricked my nose, and Hwang-gu wagged his tail contentedly without pause.
‘From Beijing to Jiangsu Province, I just need to head straight south….’
After passing through Hebei and Shandong, the next destination is Jiangsu Province.
Since I came this way, I should go the same way when leaving.
The small city visible in the distance was called Handan, a midway point located at the boundary between Hebei and Shandong provinces.
This time, I was able to reach the inn directly without encountering bandits or challengers.
‘I was fortunate.’
I ordered a meal and secured two rooms.
I also requested that bathwater be prepared.
After setting down my luggage and recovering from the journey, a server approached.
“Are you perhaps the great hero Baek-ui Sinryong, Jin Cheon-hee?”
In cases like this, there’s either a sick patient or a challenger—one of the two.
“That would be me, but?”
Which one is it?
If it’s a patient, I go directly. If it’s a challenger, I send Cheonwoo!
While I was tensing up, the server delivered an unexpected message.
“It’s a message from Sama County Lord, your younger brother in the martial arts world.”
“Hmm?”
The well-sealed letter bore the seal of the Golden Blood Pavilion.
The slight trembling at the server’s fingertips confirmed it was definitely a letter from Sama Hyeon.
Cheonwoo asked.
“It’s from the Youngest Brother.”
‘So you all figured out the hierarchy among yourselves.’
Reading the letter, it contained unexpected news.
“A secret chamber has been discovered where the secret manual of Gwangmu Jeonja is supposedly hidden? Currently, several martial sects are participating in the conflict, and the Martial Alliance has officially announced a full investigation….”
“Oh?”
Cheonwoo’s eyes widened.
I continued reading.
“The Sadoryeon has also announced their involvement, the Demonic Cult is moving as well, and both Baek Rin Medical Guild and Hwaju Medical Institute have been requested to provide medical support. Our Master, the head of the Medical Guild, has decided to move personally…?”
Below that was written: ‘Elder Brother, I’m sure you’ll handle this well on your own. But it seems we should move cautiously.’
“This is serious.”
“….”
At Cheonwoo’s words, I fell into thought.
‘Already…?’
A battle for the secret manual of divine arts and martial techniques!
In martial arts novels, this is a major event that inevitably appears, and it’s one of the significant incidents in Jicheon Cheonma as well.
First, according to the Jicheon Cheonma narrative, there are eight martial arts techniques that are praised as the supreme pinnacle among divine arts, collectively called the ‘Eight Supreme Techniques.’
One of these Eight Supreme Techniques is the Cheonma Divine Art, and the Yugap Guijin Divine Art I witnessed at the imperial palace in Bigo.
The Five Elements Divine Art is disparaged as not being worthy of belonging to the Eight Supreme Techniques.
The Hyeonwon Jeondan Singeong would qualify for the Eight Supreme Techniques based on its function alone, but since it doesn’t utilize internal energy itself, it fails to make the list.
‘Come to think of it, I already know the Cheonma Divine Art, one of the Eight Supreme Techniques? Hmm… it feels like I obtained it by sacrificing crab meat soup… I never truly grasped its weight.’
If I had spent my time like other demonic sect leaders, consuming blood demon pills and bickering with fellow leaders about life and death, I would have felt the majesty of the Cheonma Divine Art deeply.
But reality was that the Cheonma arrived, knocked me unconscious, took all my crab meat soup, drank six or seven bottles of alcohol, and left leisurely.
Throughout this entire ordeal, I had no opportunity to experience the tremendous terror of the Cheonma Divine Art or the fearsome dignity of the Eight Supreme Techniques.
Anyway.
This event that appeared in Jicheon Cheonma.
One of the Eight Supreme Techniques.
The Paechen Musang Divine Art!
The martial art of an absolute master from two hundred years ago, known as the Kwangmu Sovereign.
A secret cave containing its manual was discovered, and a bloody battle erupted over possession of that cave.
‘Of course, this is also a conspiracy by Hyeolseonggyo. Those Hyeolseonggyo bastards discovered this secret cave long ago, but they buried it to detonate it at the right moment, then leaked the information to make martial artists slaughter each other.’
This is all a trap, everyone!
…If I were to shout that, I’d only hear curses like ‘Baek-ui Sinryong! You want to monopolize the manual so much you’d tell such lies! How despicable!’
That’s how unreasonable martial artists become when a secret manual is right before them.
Masters, senior disciples, elders, and sect leaders would all happily grab a weapon each and set out together.
‘Sigh… how frustrating.’
In Jicheon Cheonma, Yeo Ha-ryun participates under orders from the demonic sect.
And true to his role as protagonist, he breaks through the blood formation and ultimately obtains the Paechen Musang Divine Art after numerous trials.
What makes this truly vicious is this.
The existence of the secret manual is real.
Having obtained the manual, Yeo Ha-ryun successfully masters the Paechen Musang Divine Art while etching the lost comrades and enemies he killed into his heart once more.
In short, everyone dies except Yeo Ha-ryun.
That’s how Jicheon Cheonma is.
The reason Hyeolseonggyo doesn’t claim this manual is actually simple.
‘Because Hyeolseonggyo possesses the Four Divine Arts, which are said to rival the Eight Supreme Techniques.’
The reason they’re called divine arts despite being demonic arts is because they were directly transmitted by the Hyeolseon themselves, and at their pinnacle, the path to immortality opens.
That’s insane.
One must achieve enlightenment and attain the Way to become immortal, but what exactly is this Way?
In this world, at least, immortality doesn’t come to the virtuous in order. It doesn’t.
Even if one abstains from meat, forbids killing, and lives for decades, without attaining the Way, a human merely becomes a handful of ash, crumbling as a mortal.
Conversely, even if one is a martial artist who has slaughtered tens, hundreds, or thousands of people throughout their life.
Upon reaching the Way, one achieves immortality.
It’s clear that the Way of the Hyeolseon is not the Way of humanity.
Yet even at the end of that Way, there is immortality.
‘Right. Even the Cheonma achieves immortality in this situation…’
I had seen her with my own eyes.
A simple martial robe and a single sword at her waist—that was all. Her languid, indifferent gaze, tinged with apathy, made her appear like a hermit transcendent from the world.
Yet she was one who had already forged rivers of blood.
If the number of those she had killed was merely a thousand, that was a small figure.
During her ascent from minor leader to leader while treading the Cheonma Blood Path, she must have cut down well over ten thousand. And after becoming Cheonma, she would have cut down another ten thousand with ease.
She had killed as naturally as breathing.
That was what it meant to be Cheonma—an existence that transcended the Ten Thousand Great Mountains.
Yes, even she would eventually ascend to enlightenment.
Virtue never grants immortality.
Yet why do we still believe in virtue?
In a world where perhaps only blades and gold remain, is virtue nothing but a futile mirage?
I found myself gazing at my own palms habitually.
‘And yet, humans cannot abandon virtue.’
I had seen a beggar tear off stale rice for a starving dog. Though the rice had spoiled, it was a day’s ration for the young beggar.
I knew of a warrior who, on the verge of breakthrough during combat, abandoned that enlightenment and threw himself forward to save innocent civilians in danger.
That warrior died before reaching the Medical Guild.
He had relinquished the Way and grasped virtue instead.
‘I still do not know the answer to this. Not yet.’
Of course, I had also witnessed those who murdered villagers they had lived alongside for decades and converted their lives into coin.
When I saw the amounts recorded in the secret ledgers, they were not even substantial sums.
Most of that blood money was squandered in pleasure houses.
In the end, nothing remained for the village chief except the blood of his people.
‘Similar incidents will soon unfold.’
The Hyeolseonggyo were fanatics whose goal was immortality and becoming celestial immortals, so they would diligently cultivate the martial arts Hyeolseon granted them. But ordinary martial artists faced a different situation.
No matter how prestigious the ancient sects or eight great families, none could resist coveting one of the Eight Ultimate Techniques—the Paechwon Musang Divine Art.
Even if they could not master it themselves, merely obtaining that text and studying it would yield tremendous progress.
To acquire it, the martial artists of the realm would do what they did best.
“What will you do now, brother?”
“We must move toward Shaanxi Province immediately. What about you?”
Cheonwoo nodded.
“Well, the Wudang Sect is already moving, so I should head in that direction.”
“Our journey together will be longer than expected.”
At my words, Cheonwoo nodded playfully.
“Well, I’m fine with that.”
As he spoke, he cracked his fingers one by one.
Crack—
‘The challenger has no worries then.’
Cheonwoo just needed a better epithet.
Something less ominous, more befitting the righteous path….
* * *
In the darkness.
Around a pool of bubbling blood, I sensed a presence.
The aura was too heavy to be human, yet carried the intelligence of a sentient being.
-Wait, didn’t you tell us to hide for years?
-This incident was orchestrated unilaterally by ‘that one’. He rushed out before we could stop him.
-What? Then what are we supposed to do?
-There’s no need. If we leave them alone, they’ll destroy each other anyway. We simply need to observe.
-Hmm. The Cheonma of the Demonic Cult doesn’t seem interested in the Patcheon Musang Divine Art?
-That is the Cheonma’s nature.
-Then?
-Three of the Six Demonic Houses have made their move. They desire the Patcheon Musang Divine Art. They hope their children will become the next Cheonma, and they believe the technique is necessary for that.
-Such greed~.
-The Leader has specially permitted this matter.
-Will it be alright? The Gwangryong that Hyeolseon desires is heading that way as well.
-If one bearing such a fate dies at that level, then that is merely their destiny.
-Hmm… I cannot fathom the Leader’s true intentions.
At that moment, a figure burst from the blood pool.
“Gasp, gasp… Please, please…!”
At first glance, he appeared to be a martial artist of considerable skill.
Yet this skilled warrior had been submerged in the blood pool with his limbs severed, barely gasping for air.
“I’ve told you… gasp… everything… please… show mercy….”
But those seated around the pool seemed not to hear the warrior’s words at all, speaking only among themselves.
-Is the liver ready now? We could just extract the organs right away.
-A hermit who preserved his chastity to this age—Hyeolseon will surely be pleased. Shall we begin carving?
“Ahhhhhhh! Ahhhhhhhhhhh!”
Screams echoed through the cave.
Yet no one came to save the warrior.
Dimly visible in the darkness were countless severed heads.
* * *
At the same time, I decided to board a vessel crossing the Yellow River, heading straight for Shaanxi.
As the matter was urgent, I inquired about faster ships and learned that a military transport vessel was in need of a physician.
‘There’s no need to deploy the Inspection Bureau.’
Our destinations happened to align.
This military transport would get me where I needed to go as quickly as possible.
“What? The Baek-ui Sinryong? The Baek-ui Sinryong is coming as a physician?!”
The captain cried out in surprise.
The reputation of the Baek-ui Sinryong was well known even in the military.
“We needn’t worry about patients, Captain!”
The captain shook his head.
“Of course not, but what matters is… soldiers, prepare all the food supplies! Load them to the brim!!”
Every military official aboard the warship became obsessed with procuring ingredients rather than medicine.
Thus, I met the ship’s head chef before I could greet the commanding officer, and I began to realize that my career was taking a decidedly peculiar turn.
He began to realize that his career was taking a strange turn.

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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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