Doctor’s Rebirth - Chapter 312

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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 312
Noeji climbed higher in altitude following my hand signal.
‘Hwang-gu, stay close beside me and attack.’
Dogs are among the most troublesome beasts for humans to face.
Their massive frames place their vital points low, making them difficult targets with their heads positioned below a human’s reach.
‘Well, since my goal isn’t to kill them, just making things inconvenient works fine.’
With my current strength, I could have easily dismembered all seven of them.
Yet having chosen the path of a Doctor, I wouldn’t shy away from such madness as letting them all live.
There was one more desire—I didn’t want my final years haunted by troubled dreams.
I wanted to protect myself.
Noeji continued unleashing lightning.
Crack, boom boom boom!
Though the accuracy remained imperfect, each bolt struck with tremendous force, making it excellent for restraining the Chilmu Group.
At that moment, a supreme master blocked the lightning not with a shield, but with sword energy.
Screech!
‘Wow, he actually sliced through it?’
Baekryuk Geom, the leader of the Seven Chilmu, shouted.
“Baekui Gwangryong Jin Cheon-hee! Our seven inner forces are shared through our formation, so their combined total surpasses you and your spirit beasts! In the end, it will be you who collapses from exhaustion!”
Rather than fear, I remained composed at his words.
‘That… sounds like dialogue reeking of some old martial arts cliché.’
Instead, I simply tilted my Bing Jeong Sword to the side with a leisurely expression.
‘But what if I manifest a Hwagyeong-level force? What if my energy spirals?’
The inner force from my dantian answered my Hwagyeong enlightenment, beginning to coalesce into force.
Whoosh—
My divine blade seemed to celebrate its master’s force as frigid energy erupted, visibly freezing the surrounding air.
Each strand of that force crystallized like snowflakes.
Summer.
Yet they unmistakably felt the essence of winter taking form.
“I would appreciate it if you withdrew now.”
One might expect them to be terrified by the piercing cold emanating from the force.
Yet the Chilmu Group remained unmoved.
“We of the Seven Chilmu can withstand even Hwagyeong-level force.”
‘That might be true… if it were merely simple Hwagyeong force. But they chose the wrong opponent.’
Here I go!
Five Elements Dominion Palm—!
Crackle crackle crackle—
The pressure created by the Five Elements began pushing them sideways.
Unlike the Cheonma Dominion Palm, the Five Elements Dominion Palm shakes the very sword energy of the enemy itself.
“How… how is this possible…?!”
“But it won’t break through! Baekui Gwangryong!”
‘Ah, piercing through isn’t the goal.’
I just need to shake it a little.
Just as solid concrete buildings sway in earthquakes, even the most tightly woven sword formations lose their center with the slightest tremor.
In that moment,
snowflakes bloomed from my blade.
Bitter cold crystallized, and snow obscured the vision. Each flake was sword energy, the realm of martial force.
‘Winter…?’
The shield shattered in that instant.
The one holding the shield coughed up blood and collapsed forward.
Frost gathered along the deep gash.
He wouldn’t die. It wasn’t a fatal wound.
However, once that glacial energy burrowed in, resisting it through breathing techniques alone was nearly impossible.
I spoke.
“When this ends, you’ll recover. But if you resist, you’ll die from qi deviation.”
“Ugh… what are you doing….”
Among the Five Elements Divine Art, there was one thing I had researched to the absolute limit.
Ice.
How to eliminate that glacial energy gnawing away at my Master’s body.
How to cure that strange martial illness of this world that doesn’t exist on Earth.
From child to young man to adult, I had to agonize relentlessly, without a single day’s respite.
It was truly strange.
The more I researched to combat the illness, the more I came to understand it.
I hated winter.
Not because I was abandoned at an orphanage on the winter solstice, nor because my birthday was set to that day.
Not because people injured in accidents were always brought in the day after snow fell, nor because such accidents were always fatal.
I simply hated the biting cold that cut through flesh.
Yet, why was it?
My martial knowledge of ice from the Five Elements Divine Art exploded in growth upon meeting the Baekryuk Geom.
Two supreme masters seized the opening and unleashed their blades at me.
However, Hyeonwon Jeondan Singeong never missed such attacks.
I unleashed scorching explosive energy through the snowflakes already filling the air.
Water overcomes fire.
Yin and Yang separation.
Steam explosion.
Kwaaaaaaboom!
What once required great resolve to unleash, I could now release as naturally as breathing.
The steam exploded, and the martial artists were simultaneously swept away by the blast.
As the two flew away at once, the formation completely collapsed.
I unleashed golden energy through the gap, and Noeji, guided by my will, struck down lightning.
Krrraaaang!
He collapsed with a single strike.
“Hwang-gu….”
Crunch, crunch—
“Grrrraaaaahhh!”
It had been a while since he’d bitten down on that particular target.
After not doing it for so long, it seemed he’d been wanting to sink his teeth in again.
Foaming at the mouth, the man slowly toppled forward.
Thud—
I watched the man writhe like an insect for a moment before asking.
“Do you wish to continue?”
At my words, both men simultaneously dropped their weapons.
“We failed to recognize your esteemed status.”
“…We apologize for our rudeness.”
“Think nothing of it.”
I chuckled softly and twirled the Bing Jeong Sword once before sheathing it with a smooth motion.
The blade that had been wreathed in extreme cold returned to being an ordinary iron sword as if nothing had happened.
‘Hwagyeong. Have they already surpassed even the initial stages…?’
Even after transcending Hwagyeong, wielding a sword as naturally as one’s own limbs was no simple feat.
It was an impossible technique at the initial stages.
Yet this young man had crossed Hwagyeong and simply leapt past the initial stages entirely.
‘How is that even possible…?’
The greater the enlightenment, the higher the wall one has overcome, the longer the time needed to consolidate it.
Especially after surpassing a barrier as significant as Hwagyeong.
Yet the young man before them had transcended Hwagyeong in his mere twenties.
And how much time had it taken him to digest that achievement?
How many talents of such caliber existed in all of Gangho?
Baekryuk Geom, captain of the Chilmu Group, ground his teeth.
He clenched his jaw so hard that blood began to seep from between his teeth.
‘What is the difference between him and me….’
Losing to a martial artist young enough to be one’s son.
That was surprisingly common.
But that young martial artist possessed martial arts far beyond his own, and had fought with the enemy’s life in mind.
There was no greater humiliation than this.
“Baekui Gwangryong. What is the difference between you and me?”
“Hmm….”
I thought he might laugh mockingly.
Instead, I considered the question carefully.
After a moment, I answered.
“Well, perhaps…efficient allocation of effort? The diversification of martial techniques applicable to both offense and defense?”
Faced with such an unexpected answer, he was left speechless.
Soon after, I let out a quiet chuckle.
“I’ve heard that even though the Chilmu Group is considered heterodox, they don’t go around killing innocent civilians. If they were truly evil, I would shatter their dantian, but there’s no need for that, is there?”
“What are you… planning to do with us?”
To that question, I answered as though he were asking something obvious.
“Nothing at all. I’ll collect a ransom from the Sadoryeon and let you go.”
“A ransom?”
“Well now! If you attack someone like this, you have to pay damages! Don’t think you’re walking away for free!”
Watching this unfold, Cheonwoo thought to himself.
‘My brother… he’s nothing like a true martial artist.’
Would there ever come a day when he could understand his brother?
* * *
I handed them over to the Sadoryeon and extracted a hefty ransom.
From the Sadoryeon’s perspective, my demand to simply return the children without execution, torture, or imprisonment in exchange for payment was bewildering—yet they had no choice but to comply.
However, the sum I demanded was so enormous that the Sadoryeon’s commanding general’s hands trembled.
But there was no way around it.
Even in the Gangho where one lives by the sword, there is still face to maintain.
If rumors spread that they couldn’t ransom their subordinates due to lack of funds, the Sadoryeon’s reputation would suffer greatly.
If they were merely scattered bandits or mountain stronghold members, they could shift blame elsewhere and cut their losses, but the problem was that these were direct subordinates of the Sadoryeon—the Chilmu Group.
‘He didn’t kill them, didn’t torture them, and simply extorted money?’
In the end, they had no choice but to hand over that trembling sum to the Baek-ui Sinryong—or rather, the Baekui Gwangryong.
This rumor began to spread throughout both orthodox and heterodox sects alike.
“Have you heard? There’s a rumor that the Baek-ui Sinryong utterly destroyed an entire squad of the Chilmu Group!”
“The Chilmu Group? That means the Baek-ui Sinryong has reached Hwagyeong?”
“A man not even thirty years old has reached Hwagyeong?”
“Not even thirty—he’s barely past twenty.”
Hwagyeong.
There was not a single person in the Gangho whose heart did not race at that word.
“Sister, did you hear! The Baek-ui Sinryong has reached Hwagyeong!”
Samjeolchuho heard this rumor from a fellow martial artist while sipping wine at an inn.
“I’ve already heard. My, my. A man who can’t even kill someone has reached Hwagyeong. Kekeke—”
She was the one pursuing the traces of the Hyeolseonggyo.
Though she appeared to grumble outwardly about my achievement, the smile lingering at the corners of her mouth did not fade easily.
“It seems the sister holds her younger brother quite dear.”
“Dear? That troublemaker has always been nothing but a headache.”
Samjeolchuho spoke thus while flicking silver coins toward the server.
“Hey, tell me a story about the Baek-ui Sinryong.”
The server’s eyes widened at the weight of the silver coins.
“What story shall I tell you! Ah, shall I tell you about the recent deeds of the Baek-ui Sinryong? The Baek-ui Sinryong who has ascended to Hwagyeong!”
“If word has reached even this remote village, then surely no one in the Central Plains remains ignorant.”
She continued to grumble with her lips while her mouth remained full of smiles.
“It’s all the more likely precisely because he’s heading toward where eyes and ears gather most, Sister.”
“True enough. Where he’s headed is Shanxi Province—where three major forces converge, and where the various sects are gathering individually as well.”
She hummed as she spoke, waving the wine bottle toward the server.
“Bring me another cup of Zhuye Qing!”
“Right away!”
The server hurried off and quickly returned with a fresh cup of Zhuye Qing.
Glug, glug, glug—
“Sister, are you perhaps worried about the Baek-ui Sinryong, our younger brother?”
“Worried? He’ll manage just fine. At his age, already at Hwagyeong? Who worries about whom, I ask?”
She spoke thus and emptied her sixth cup of Zhuye Qing.
“Rather… it’s a shame that informing the Martial Alliance about the scent of Hyeolseonggyo proved utterly useless.”
“There’s nothing to be done. It’s not just anything—it’s the Patcheon Musang Divine Art.”
“Indeed. Greed always gnaws at human reason. At least my younger brother… hmm… no, surely nothing will happen, but still, I’d hope he doesn’t get hurt.”
Samjeolchuho spoke thus, offering a prayer for Jin Cheon-hee’s safety.
Then came a single cup.
She clinked it against empty air and drained it at once.
The Zhuye Qing tasted particularly bitter and sweet that day.
Such a day, such rumors.

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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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