Doctor’s Rebirth - Chapter 346
—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————
Chapter 346
“Finding Tugoe isn’t easy. Right, Hwang-gu?”
Woof!
“But you’re too conspicuous, so you should just track and hang back when fighting starts. You too, Noeji.”
Squeak—
“Got it.”
I left the Baekrin Medical Institute with my two cheat codes for tracking.
“We need to find her before the Demonic Cult does. This is going to be difficult.”
“You say that, but you seem awfully relaxed about it, hyeong.”
“Oh, do I?”
I grinned widely.
“You seem to have something in mind?”
“Bingo. I’ve already figured out a way to find Tugoe Gong Ya-geon.”
Tugoe Gong Ya-geon, one of the Gangho’s Four Terrors, is certainly a superhuman.
However, the granddaughter she’s taking with her while fleeing is an ordinary person.
Moreover, she’s a patient who has spent considerable time poisoned by chronic toxin. Because of this, deducing Gong Ya-geon’s direction of escape wasn’t particularly difficult.
The problem is where Tugoe is at this moment. But I’d already solved that part too.
“Do you know why Tugoe stole the Poison Antidote?”
“The sect didn’t inform me of that.”
Since Yeo Ha-ryun was about to begin his mission, I needed to brief him on the situation beforehand so he could work smoothly.
Even now, he was struggling with murderous impulses.
It was better to tell him quickly.
“It’s because of her granddaughter. Tugoe Gong Ya-geon’s granddaughter was poisoned by chronic toxin, and she stole the Poison Antidote to treat it. The fact that this happened at all is a scheme by the Hyeolseonggyo. That’s what we believe for now.”
“The Baekrin Medical Institute’s intelligence is impressive. Or did Sama Hyeon teach you?”
“Think whatever you like.”
“Hmm…”
Yeo Ha-ryun fell into thought, then nodded.
“How you know this doesn’t really matter. What matters is what we should do about it. We shouldn’t let our guard down just because the Hyeolseonggyo has gone quiet.”
“The Hyeolseonggyo’s dormancy is very different from a martial family’s closure. If you think of them the same way, you’ll likely get stabbed in the back.”
Secret evil organizations in martial arts novels aren’t called that for nothing.
While they’ve drastically reduced their activities and move in secret, they never neglect what must be done.
“I see.”
I continued speaking as I descended the stairs.
“So to find Tugoe, we need to first confirm information about her granddaughter. Information about the granddaughter is top-secret—only three people in Hao-mun know about it—but I managed to obtain it somehow.”
Actually, I knew it from the novel.
I continued speaking naturally.
“According to that information, she lives in Hunan Province. And Tugoe, having stolen the Poison Antidote, would have headed to Hunan Province.”
“It would take years to search all of Hunan Province, hyeong.”
“I know the specific location. Don’t worry. The problem is that she’s probably left there by now.”
At those words, Yeo Ha-ryun rubbed his chin thoughtfully, then spoke.
“When you stole the Pidu Poison, did you abandon your base to protect your granddaughter?”
“That’s about right.”
“Then you also know where you’ll move to next?”
“Hmm. Roughly. And once we’re in range, I can rely on these two for help.”
Clang!
Squeak—
The two spiritual beasts each made a sound as if volunteering themselves.
From the novel I’d read, I already had a sense of which direction Tugoe would move.
Actually, even without reading the novel, I could have guessed to some extent.
Someone more skilled in detoxification than the Dang family.
Hwaju Yakson.
In the original work at this time, my Master Baek Rin-ui-seon had been dead for a long time.
Moreover, even now that he’s alive, bone-setting and acupuncture are his main specialties, and detoxification of poisons like this is Hwaju Yakson’s field of expertise.
The Heukjeon Medical Guild would have been excluded since they’re close to the Demonic Sect.
That’s when Yeo Ha-ryun spoke.
“Hyeong.”
“Hmm?”
“I don’t think you need to lie to me?”
“What do you mean…”
“The way you obtained your information. It wasn’t from Hao-mun, nor from Gaebang.”
Did this guy figure it out through intuition again?
Feeling caught, I saw that Yeo Ha-ryun was simply looking at me with dark eyes.
His mouth pressed into a thin line made it difficult to guess what he was thinking.
“Surely when Tugoe’s granddaughter was first poisoned by the chronic toxin, he would have sought out local doctors. He probably prioritized those with considerable reputations. Even if he disguised himself as someone else, the fact that his granddaughter was poisoned by a chronic toxin would be easy to identify.”
What if he had shown his granddaughter to even one doctor from the Baekrin Medical Guild?
I immediately grasped what Yeo Ha-ryun was trying to say.
“….”
“…It wouldn’t have been difficult for you to figure it out. Am I wrong?”
He was right.
‘Indeed, the protagonist. Look at how fast his mind works.’
Having read the original work, I didn’t need to go through such tedious efforts.
However, if I had to find it myself, I would have certainly gone about it that way.
I neither confirmed nor denied it.
“Well. I won’t answer.”
“Among martial artists, some might find it unpleasant that doctors exchange information about patients’ illnesses with each other. So I won’t ask further.”
“Right.”
I was grateful he understood on his own.
‘Phew, that was close.’
* * *
Hunan Province should be considered part of the central-southern region of the Hwa Empire.
I had clearly resolved the addiction problem, yet the granddaughter remained unhealed?
Yakson from the Hwaju Medical Institute would be her last lifeline now.
In truth, addiction was more within the domain of medicine than acupuncture, moxibustion, or bone-setting, so it was the right answer, but….
‘Whether Yakson can actually solve it is another matter. And more importantly, whether he’ll even treat her at all.’
He had always said he only treated the righteous sects.
If one brought vast wealth, he might secretly provide treatment, but….
‘Tugoe has already spent everything trying to treat his granddaughter.’
There was no way the Hwaju Medical Institute would treat a woman with neither wealth nor influence.
‘I could use Tugoe’s power to coerce them through force, but there’s no time left for the patient.’
One way or another, the granddaughter would die during the journey.
‘The novel only states that she died because treatment came too late and the wick of her life had burned out completely…without providing detailed reasons. I can guess at the cause, but….’
I muttered these thoughts to myself.
“So. Where do we need to go?”
“Anhui Province. By now, Tugoe should be passing through Hubei Province. If we follow in reverse, we’ll meet him in Anhui Province, which comes after Hubei.”
If traveling along the Yangtze River, one must pass through Hunan, then Hubei, and then Anhui.
So to intercept Tugoe Gong Ya-geon, who had departed from Hunan, the meeting point would be Anhui.
“What if we miss each other?”
“Then… I won’t be able to save Tugoe’s granddaughter.”
At my words, Yeo Ha-ryun stared at me intently.
“You… your goal isn’t the Blood Poison Bead. You want to save Tugoe’s granddaughter. That’s all it ever was.”
“Ahahaha.”
I laughed awkwardly. He was right.
I hadn’t given a single thought to completing the Cheonma’s Quest and gaining benefits from the Demonic Cult.
If Yeo Ha-ryun’s position within the Demonic Cult became more secure in the process, that would be fine too.
But saving Tugoe’s granddaughter. And saving Tugoe himself.
That remained my highest priority without question.
The Baekrin Medical Institute was now operating properly.
Jegalling, a genius among geniuses, had now reached a level of surgical skill approaching my own.
And as many of the medical staff became proficient in bone-setting, there were no more deaths at the Baekrin Medical Institute due to lack of hands.
If a patient’s condition couldn’t be treated with current techniques from the start, that was simply unavoidable.
Yet thanks to the tremendous growth in skill of the medical staff and my master Jegalling, I could now travel freely without worry.
“Good. I’ll help you out, hyeong.”
“It was an order meant for you from the beginning anyway.”
At my words, Yeo Ha-ryun chuckled.
He seemed remarkably at ease.
“Anyway. So we’re taking a boat?”
“Already prepared.”
The two of us descended the mountain.
* * *
The Baekrin Medical Institute. A force that had begun to thoroughly consume the Jiangsu Province region.
Hearing it described is one thing, but the actual sensation doesn’t quite sink in.
However, once you begin using the resources you’ve come to command, everything changes.
Whoooosh!
A ship I’d purchased after Baekrin Uiseon began handling logistics transport now cuts across the Yangtze River.
Where once I had to search for available passage, now I could simply move my own vessel!
‘Finding a ship to book used to be such a hassle.’
But as the Soggakju of Baekrin Uiseon, such things were naturally within my reach.
Though water bandits were numerous on the Yangtze, not a single one dared lay a finger on a Baekrin Uiseon vessel.
-They say the Veiled Madman emerges if you touch Baekrin Uiseon’s ships. That monster can’t be stopped by anyone except the Patriarch himself.
-Even the Patriarch can only drive the Veiled Madman away, not capture him.
-He forces him into abstinence, claiming he has kidney stones.
Some people from the Baek-ui Sinryong had even begun calling me the Veiled Madman.
‘What’s with all these different titles?’
Seo Baek-ryong, Baek-ui Sinryong, Baekui Gwangryong, Veiled Madman.
I’d already accumulated four different epithets.
The Seo Baek-ryong title had naturally faded as I grew stronger and my reputation rose.
Now another bizarre epithet, the Veiled Madman, had attached itself to me.
‘It’s like some game fantasy title system.’
I used to read game fantasy novels and constellation stories that borrowed from game systems.
Whenever you earned an Achievement in those, you’d gain titles and epithets just like this.
I never thought I’d experience it in the martial world.
‘I suppose it’s because I’ve been beating down water bandits and mountain bandits whenever I encounter them.’
And since I didn’t kill them, the notoriety spread even faster.
Though I’d dislocated their limbs, I hadn’t cut out their tongues.
So naturally, all manner of sinister rumors spread among the bandits.
And the martial world couldn’t possibly be ignorant of what happened during the battle for the Pae Cheon Musang Divine Art’s secret manual.
It was infamy incarnate.
‘Well, I was prepared for this.’
So the Veiled Madman epithet came into being.
Of course, some still called me by the older names, Baek-ui Sinryong or Baekui Gwangryong.
The more exaggerated ones had begun calling the top ten masters of the realm the top eleven.
Three Elites, Second, Third, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth.
My name had been placed in the Sixth position. It was an achievement worthy of it.
A mad doctor who single-handedly blocked a massive blood catastrophe!
And now that Veiled Madman stood on the ship’s deck, conversing with my sworn brother Yeo Ha-ryun.
“We’ve just crossed into Anhui Province.”
“Is that so? I understand Anhui is within the Namgung Family’s territory.”
“Indeed. Moreover, the Namgung Family is among the most formidable of the Nine Sects and Eight Great Families.”
—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————