Doctor’s Rebirth - Chapter 343

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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 343
I shared a meal with Yeo Ha-ryun, exchanging various thoughts.
“You haven’t reached Hwagyeong yet?”
This was unexpected.
From what I could sense through my lightness technique, Yeo Ha-ryun’s momentum was unmistakably that of someone at Hwagyeong, and by now he should have reached that stage.
‘Ah, no… he’s Cheon Sal-seong. Even before reaching Hwagyeong, he should be able to draw upon some of Hwagyeong’s martial principles.’
Before Sama County, Yeo Ha-ryun had spoken with such confidence that he would become Cheon Sal-seong sooner or later, yet I hadn’t realized he was hitting a wall.
‘Let me recall the original story. How did Yeo Ha-ryun reach Hwagyeong?’
There was a description that after slaying a thousand, Cheon Sal-seong obtained the mysteries of Cheon Sal through killing a thousand.
‘Ah… now that I think about it, in the secret realm of Pae Cheon Musang Singeong, he killed over a thousand warriors and grasped Pae Cheon Musang Singeong in that bloodshed… and awakened to its mysteries…’
This is troublesome.
The fastest way for Cheon Sal-seong to reach martial mastery is to kill people and take their lives.
Yeo Ha-ryun’s comrades would die, and he himself would advance toward selflessness in madness, drenched in the fresh blood of those he slew.
But I am a Doctor.
I could never assist in such a method of growth.
Hadn’t I already calmed the blood calamity of Pae Cheon Musang Singeong without letting it spread greatly?
‘In places I don’t see, he’ll surely be slaughtering people left and right. That’s unavoidable since Yeo Ha-ryun is of the Demonic Sect, a Soegooju, and has taken on the karma of Cheon Sal-seong.’
Yet as a Doctor, I could not assist in that.
I spoke.
“Would you try the method all your younger brothers used to reach Hwagyeong?”
“What?”
Perhaps following the path his younger brothers had taken wounded his pride.
Yeo Ha-ryun fell into thought.
I continued to coax him.
After all, watching him go out again and awaken drenched in blood wasn’t something I found pleasant as his older brother.
“I’ll make anything you want to eat. Truly. I promise.”
“Do you see me as a beast? Do you really think I’d be swayed by mere food…?”
“No, it’s not that I think you’d be won over by something like that.”
I felt awkward and scratched the back of my head.
Yeo Ha-ryun is difficult.
Sama Hyeon and Cheonwoo were somewhat easier, but this one is the ‘protagonist’.
The world moves around him.
His strange insights and unusually sharp intuition are at a level no one else can match.
Simply adjusting my mood slightly through Hyeonwon Jeondan Singeong wasn’t enough to handle him.
I fell into thought, then suddenly opened my lips.
“What is it that you want?”
“Hwagyeong is enough. Hyeong.”
“Hmm. Then if you follow along, it might help… maybe?”
Since he’s Cheon Sal-seong, I’m not entirely confident. I let out a small sigh.
“…”
Yeo Ha-ryun watched his brother and opened his mouth.
“Alright. Let’s try it.”
“It… might seem quite mad. I’m warning you in advance—it’s very unorthodox compared to the martial arts training you’ve done so far.”
“I understand.”
“Good. You won’t back out?”
And the first day of training ended.
Just basic fundamentals of geometric reasoning ability and spatial perception ability.
Learning the rules, and a taste of what kind of training would unfold ahead.
“Insane… Hwagyeong on the first day alone… Hwagyeong?”
On the very first day, Yeo Ha-ryun had broken through the barrier and begun entering Hwagyeong.
And wasn’t he entering Secondary Samadhi right before my eyes?
‘Is this… is this the protagonist?’
No… was Cheon Sal-seong this fast even in this?
Of course, Cheon Sal-seong possessed genius-level talent when it came to martial arts.
I knew that, but…
I could only be bewildered by the spectacle unfolding before my eyes.
* * *
Yeo Ha-ryun absorbed his brother’s teachings in his own way.
His brother had spoken of spatial perception ability.
At first, I didn’t grasp what that meant, but my brother had always spoken strangely like that.
However, the moment I understood its meaning, the Cheon Sal-seong within me answered.
-If I suppress space, I can gain an advantage in killing my enemy.
Visual and auditory perception ability.
-In martial arts, the eyes come first, then the feet, and finally the hands. Grasping the enemy’s movements is paramount. That’s how you kill.
And memory ability.
-Every martial technique leaves traces. If I remember those traces, I can also remember their weaknesses in reverse.
Instantaneous judgment ability.
-Martial contests are games of moves. If I can strike the neck in a single move, there’s no need to hesitate.
I realized that everything connected to killing.
Once I understood that I could kill, there was no reason to hesitate, and countless battles from within Yeo Ha-ryun surfaced in my mind.
A narrow room in Yeo Ha-ryun’s mind.
I recalled all those I had killed so far and reviewed them.
All of them were people I had killed before.
If I hadn’t killed them, I wouldn’t be alive here now.
I remembered their martial techniques.
I recalled their habits.
I recalled where and what techniques they had used.
Yeo Ha-ryun understood the advantageous positioning.
I realized that what I thought I had done efficiently—striking the neck—was mere arrogance.
A thousand deaths were embedded in a single direction.
Yeo Ha-ryun recalled one by one those he had killed over this time, reviewing and re-reviewing them in his mind.
Within his consciousness, vast stretches of time had passed, yet outside, it was but an instant.
In that moment, Yeo Ha-ryun drew one step closer to Cheon Sal-seong.
‘So that’s what it was. That’s what it was.’
Humans are fragile beings—even the greatest masters of Hwagyeong would perish if half a span of their neck were severed.
I had grasped the precise distance needed to sever that half span.
My body rose into the air.
Within the transcendent state of Bugong Sammai.
Yeo Ha-ryun had made another leap forward.
‘Hyeong was right. This method… it truly was the shortcut.’
When I first heard it, it sounded like madness, but now I cannot deny it.
Everyone calls him mad, but Hyeong is a genius.
They say the difference between genius and madman is but a hairline.
Yet I found Hyeong more reliable than anyone else.
* * *
‘So this is the level one must reach to be a martial arts novel protagonist?’
I was dumbfounded.
As Yeo Ha-ryun descended slowly to the ground after Bugong Sammai ended, the only words he spoke were:
“Hyeong’s training method is certainly effective. I’d like to train more?”
“I didn’t expect you to say that voluntarily.”
“Hm?”
“No, never mind…”
I had thought that even someone like Yeo Ha-ryun would complain about what this training was supposed to accomplish.
‘Did I underestimate a martial arts novel protagonist?’
Come to think of it, that’s true.
In typical martial arts novels, regardless of whether the protagonist chooses the righteous faction, evil faction, or Demonic Sect, the setting that he is an unparalleled genius never changes.
Of course, there are cases where the author insists ‘Actually, this guy isn’t a genius but grew through other factors!’ with explanations about spiritual pills or special constitutions and such.
In any case, the fact that this fellow becomes the greatest under heaven remains unchanged.
Because that’s the cliché of martial arts fiction.
The same applies to the protagonist’s inner world, such as their character.
Whether the protagonist is righteous or evil or demonic, he still maintains a position of goodwill that readers can empathize with.
If the protagonist is righteous, the evil faction becomes somewhat like puppies, and the demonic path becomes dogs that cannot share the same sky.
If the protagonist is demonic, the righteous faction becomes hypocritical and the evil faction becomes trash.
If the protagonist is evil, the righteous faction is hypocritical, and the Demonic Sect depends on whether a heroine candidate emerges from it or not.
Since Jicheon Cheonma is a novel where the protagonist walks the demonic path, the righteous faction is hypocritical and the evil faction is trash.
The protagonist is a black hero walking the path of tyranny.
It’s not an exaggeration to say the worldview is simply structured that way.
However, we readers cannot tolerate the protagonist being completely played for a fool.
So while he maintains some principles, he’s always given the instinct to turn the tables on those who try to make a fool of him.
That means he’s also given the intuition to seize every opportunity that comes his way.
Yeo Ha-ryun seized the opportunity I offered because of an intuition that it would be beneficial.
Training further meant he had glimpsed something profound—a secret technique that ordinary mortals could never comprehend.
“Oh! Excellent! I’ll help as much as you need!”
Did I feel recognized by the protagonist of a martial arts novel?
The martial arts enthusiast’s eyes gleamed with light.
My heart felt no different.
‘Haha, in all my years, I’ve made a martial arts novel protagonist reach Hwagyeong!’
A scene anyone who’d read martial arts novels had imagined at least once.
Helping the protagonist reach even greater heights.
I had thought of myself in such a role before.
Of course, at an age of reason, I’d never speak it aloud to anyone, nor would I ever show it, but what did it matter? That’s what imagination was for.
I never thought that the daydreams I indulged in when reality became too harsh would actually come true—my heart raced.
It was a different kind of exhilaration than the simple satisfaction of helping someone.
“Brother, you look incredibly happy.”
“Of course! My younger brother has reached Hwagyeong! Yesss!”
I didn’t hide it—my face flushed red as I bounced around like a child.
This was a secret I could never tell Yeo Ha-ryun.
You are the protagonist of this world.
This world revolves around you.
I’ve watched you all this time, and now I’ve even helped you reach Hwagyeong!
I couldn’t speak of it even if my mouth split open.
Of course, even if I did, no one would believe such a story.
It was a lonely sense of accomplishment known only to me. But that was fine. Even in solitude, it felt good.
It was enough that no one else needed to know.
The martial arts enthusiast had become happy.
* * *
As Yeo Ha-ryun reached Hwagyeong, he organized his newfound insights while simultaneously intensifying my training.
His Cheon Sal-seong’s instinct whispered to him.
That it had to be now.
All martial techniques have their proper timing.
There was virtually no guarantee that a missed enlightenment would come again.
That’s why, right after reaching Hwagyeong, he learned everything he could and internalized it all!
I responded to Yeo Ha-ryun’s instinct by pouring everything I had into the training.
‘I’ve already fallen behind Hyeon and Cheonwoo in terms of speed anyway.’
However, considering the absurdly broken nature of Cheon Sal-seong, this was acceptable.
But there was one problem….
“Brother, I want to slaughter something.”
Yeo Ha-ryun spoke with reddened eyes.
Now that he’d reached Hwagyeong, controlling the instincts of Cheon Sal-seong had become difficult.
When the urge to butcher humans rose to its extreme, he sought to slaughter even beasts to release it.
“Yes.”
I had broken the warrior’s arm when he was admitted to the Medical Hall today.
He had been the one to provoke me with the wager, but it was something I could have overlooked and moved past.
Yet it was I who shattered his arm and tore open his jaw.
Both of us fought bare-handed, and since it took the form of a warrior’s martial contest, I managed to finish it somehow—but this was something that should never happen twice.
Still, I wanted to see blood.
Without catching the scent of blood, I felt as though I would go mad.

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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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