Doctor’s Rebirth - Chapter 396

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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 396
My expression remained unchanged.
In this twisted world, watching a twisted mind draw upon their qi to contemplate my death seemed absurdly amusing for some reason.
Perhaps this was all a dream, and I would soon awaken on the hospital cot.
Then a call would come through, and I’d rush off somewhere again.
After drinking some potent caffeinated beverage.
Forcing myself awake.
Going through another ordinary day.
‘What a strange dream I had. Saying things like this. Then my senior would probably tell me to buy lottery tickets. And if I won even last place, he’d claim his share and somehow manage to get free chicken.’
Only then did I recall one fact.
‘Right. My senior is no longer in the medical department.’
My body too must have become dust by now.
Crackle—ssssshhhhh—
Bumun-ju wrapped his entire body in toxic qi. He appeared like some grotesque creature writhing within black mist.
He lunged toward me.
The malevolent aura he released momentarily stole my breath.
That was fine. It was a natural response for a living being.
The overwhelming pressure and fear were also acceptable.
Because I understood that my emotions were not truly crucial in changing reality.
Transcendent Heart Without Form, Righteousness—!
Fractured time fractured once more.
The world perceived through accelerated Hyeonwon Jeondan Singeong became even slower and quieter.
Blue eyes dissected and comprehended the opponent like branches of lightning.
Bumun-ju closed the distance in two steps and extended his right hand.
Unable to overcome the toxic qi, the blade of Hojo had completely withered, yet functionally it mattered not.
A mere brush would cause anything to rot.
In any case, it served as a weapon befitting the objective of killing the enemy.
He would wield that hand like a whip, as though it possessed no joints.
This was the first future I observed.
The second: the protective toxic qi enveloping his entire body. If he could release protective toxic qi to that degree, then naturally a follow-up attack using strong qi would come.
Using Oh Dok-mun’s poison technique as a foundation and building demonic qi as pillars, he would create powerful strong qi.
There would be no option to evade or block.
This was the second future I observed.
Ordinarily I might foresee the seventh or eighth future as well, but as a half-crippled master of Hyeongyeong, that was beyond my reach.
‘Ending without any wounds at all would be impossible, wouldn’t it? Even sacrificing flesh to gain bone against such an opponent is greed.’
I would minimize aftereffects once the battle concluded.
If minimal aftereffects proved impossible, I would ensure no permanent disability remained.
I drew the Icy Frost Blade.
Among the Five Elements Divine Art, the Metal-Ice technique—drawing forth the extreme yin’s frozen qi and containing it within.
Blade force? No, let it be blade qi instead.
This wasn’t a matter of striking a single point—I needed to attack the entire surface.
‘Besides, I have plenty of inner energy.’
I evaded the incoming toxic miasma.
*Tsuga-crack—*
Merely dodging caused my outer garments to corrode from the venom.
However, the undergarments and gloves crafted from heavenly silkworm thread shone brilliantly in this moment, protecting their wearer.
My vital points and hands were defended—that was enough.
‘This is why everyone makes such a fuss about equipment bonuses, why blood feuds erupt, why even those who don’t start them lurk in the shadows, and why even cherished Sifus occasionally plant blades in their backs.’
Humming these ominous thoughts, I spread the Frigid Ice Technique outward like waves.
White mist resembled the crisp air of winter dawn.
Then—bloom.
The mist transformed into crystalline snowflakes, spreading like a snowy plain that tangled with the toxic miasma enveloping Bumun-ju.
Purification wasn’t necessary.
I only needed to suppress the poison.
Snow flowers stained purple as they began settling across the earth in an instant.
That was sufficient.
My cold, quiet, and slow perception of the world immediately confirmed that his abdomen lay exposed.
Yet Bumun-ju, overwhelmed by surging bloodlust, abandoned defense and lunged forward to attack again.
‘Strange, isn’t it? Why do those intoxicated by demonic energy insist on killing?’
They could exhaust their inner force screaming into empty air, frantically claw at the earth, or pummel cliff faces while venting their madness.
‘Why must it be slaughter?’
With this thought, I thrust my blade through the opening.
*Tsu-crack!*
I pierced his left lung with perfect precision.
This hand, which had thrust the needle hundreds of times to save lives, now gripped the Frigid Ice Sword instead of a scalpel.
Pushing aside his screaming form to one side, I infused Five Elements True Energy as though performing surgery on a patient.
It was karmic fire that burned all things.
Fire-generating energy.
“Krraaaaaaagh!”
No matter how limited his remaining time, no matter how mad his rampaging body had become, he could not fail to feel the agony of burning viscera.
I retreated three steps backward.
My hands had turned purple.
The poison, nearly at the level of Hyeongyeong-grade, had seeped deeply within.
In the moment I deliberated whether to sever or bind, I already realized my limbs had lost all sensation.
Deep poisoning.
‘How troublesome… It penetrated even my resistance. Haha, this is remarkably vicious.’
Standing itself was barely possible.
I simply continued watching Bumun-ju’s viscera burn.
Even within his madness, the extreme agony made him scream and shriek, yet he could no longer release any toxic miasma.
The Frigid Ice Sword I had thrust through his lung had pierced past it and precisely blocked the meridian pathway passing through his middle dantian.
‘Ah… I might not be able to use the Icy Sword again.’
I’m worried whether I can even pick it up again after it’s been soaked so thoroughly in poison.
I don’t know how far the pure energy of the sword sheath can purify it.
Soon after, I confirmed that Bumun-ju’s massive body collapsed as all his inner strength was exhausted.
Thud—
He wasn’t dead yet.
His limbs were still thrashing about in that state.
The Blazing Life Qi that was burning his organs had also stopped.
‘Still, half a double hour… no, not even half of that. He’ll die soon.’
Bumun-ju had consumed far too much inner strength.
Now he rolled on the ground like a cicada at the end of summer, but the poison energy had already dissipated.
Once the match was completely decided, Sama Hyeon walked forward.
“Are you satisfied now, Hyeong?”
“Yes.”
“Then let me at least finish this with my own hands, will you? If he just dies like this, I have a feeling my dreams won’t be pleasant.”
“Hey, poison…”
Without waiting for his Hyeong’s response, Sama Hyeon tore open Bumun-ju’s skull.
Crack—
The golden metallic energy had turned purple in color, but most of the poison had already been exhausted, and what remained was blocked by the Icy Sword anyway.
Sama Hyeon ended Bumun-ju’s life with his own hands.
“I’m taking this ugly face~ Don’t say anything, alright?”
Then Sama Hyeon collected the facial skin and turned around, but his Hyeong was nowhere to be seen.
No—looking down below, his Hyeong lay unconscious in the snow mixed with poison liquid, growing cold.
Amid Sama Hyeon’s panicked voice, the Baekrin Uigak Warriors, and the Doctors’ voices overlapping, I thought.
‘Still, I won.’
That was enough.
* * *
I felt something moving me.
In my fading consciousness, I heard shouts and anger, and…
‘Deep thinking is difficult.’
My mind rose and fell repeatedly as if intoxicated by anesthesia.
In the dark muddy depths of consciousness where dream and reality blurred, I sank and rose again.
‘Let me sink.’
The more I tried to bring my consciousness upward, the more pain I felt.
I hated pain.
I hated deep thinking too.
Introspection was tedious.
Jin Cheon-hee simply submerged himself into unconsciousness, body and all.
So many things happened since coming to Gangho. What was it that happened?
Many things passed like in a dream. It wasn’t clear, but I felt I understood the sensation.
Then I felt the gaze of something.
—Are you satisfied?
Regardless of my desire to simply sleep and forget, my Five Elements sense recalled the owner of that voice.
‘It’s Eungryong. Is this also the influence of the jewel?’
—A clever one who can figure that out, yet why do you treat your body so carelessly?
I couldn’t answer that question.
The more I thought about it, the more pain stabbed deep into my body.
‘Why do you ask that?’
—I am a great being. One who can overlook this entire world from this place, yet I do not read the hearts of men. That is why I asked. Are you satisfied?
‘Yes. I am satisfied.’
—Your limbs are thoroughly soaked in venom and there is not a single unblemished part of your body, yet you claim satisfaction. You are certainly a peculiar human. In the end, when you look far enough, everything is futile. Life is merely a journey toward death. It simply lasts a little longer.
Humans don’t even live a hundred years. To a being like Eungryong who lives eternally, such a perspective was understandable.
Even if I, Jin Cheon-hee, saved my limbs like this, how many more years could I live in a world where the average human lifespan was thirty?
Yet the Doctor moved forward without a single moment of delusion.
‘No. It is not futile.’
—Why do you think so?
Suddenly, I recalled my past life.
Among the hospitalized patients, there was a nun.
She was a woman, and while female monks have the title bhikkhuni, the people in the ward simply called her “nun” or “grandmother.”
The six people in the ward had various religions—Christianity, Buddhism, Catholicism—and rather than quarreling, they would joke and encourage each other, saying the surgeries would go well.
Yet just before surgery, perhaps from anxiety, the youngest clung to the eldest nun and wept.
The grandmother told the child to stop crying and go quickly.
Since everyone gathered there believed in only what was reasonably good, the atmosphere was not bad.
And now it was time for the grandmother’s surgery.
The grandmother busied herself preparing various things, then looked directly at me.
Then she asked, “Shall I read your fortune?”
Before I could answer, she suddenly asked, “How many more winters do you want to see?”
I said, “The more the better.”
The grandmother said, “You’ve suffered much without parents or children. Born in winter, you’ll depart in winter. Yet your karma is great, so perhaps new connections will come.”
At that moment, I vaguely accepted her words.
Perhaps because I had thought since childhood that I would live alone and might die alone?
Perhaps because I thought, ‘I will end my life alone without children.’
It was the same in this life. Though I had many connections, this body remained an orphan, and imagining finding a companion and bearing descendants amid such calamity was difficult.
In the end, only the place changes; people live the same way.
But still, the grandmother’s question came to mind again and again.

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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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