Doctor’s Rebirth - Chapter 44

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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 44
Jegalling spoke.
“In the Martial Arts Guild Master’s view, what is the standard for directional positioning?”
“I do not understand the meaning of your question.”
At that moment, I twisted my body lightly and evaded the attack.
Despite using the Samjaebo Technique, I flowed through the assault as naturally as water, without the slightest obstruction.
Seeing this, Dokgo Junghu wondered if I had learned and was using a different footwork technique. If that were the case, it would be problematic.
This was not medicine but martial arts. In the Gangho, martial arts held profound significance.
If I had already learned the martial techniques of another sect beforehand, I would not be qualified to study the Jegal Family’s secret teachings.
Yet no matter how carefully he examined each movement, it was unmistakably the Samjaebo Technique.
Jegalling laughed with evident delight.
“Surely the Martial Arts Guild Master did not make the mistake of using bamboo as the standard for directional positioning.”
Only then did Dokgo Junghu understand.
‘Ah, I see. Directional positioning is relative by nature. There is no reason to be bound by
terrain
constraints…!’
But was such a thing possible after merely a few months of training?
Even witnessing it with his own eyes, he could scarcely believe it. The young man stood upon thin bamboo, maintaining his own directional awareness while displaying the subtle principles of left, right, and forward movements.
Finally, I descended safely to the ground.
“Had I not seen it with my own eyes, I would never have believed it. This child does not possess particularly exceptional martial aptitude, does he?”
“He possesses only the martial aptitude necessary to learn.”
“But how on earth…?!”
My Master seemed to relish Dokgo Junghu’s reaction, even closing his eyes in appreciation.
In that moment, he was not Baek Rin-ui-seon, the prodigy of the realm, but Jegalling himself—the unpredictable eccentric of the world.
“Inner strength certainly comprises a significant portion of martial arts. This is precisely why renowned sects become so fixated on martial aptitude.”
“Are you saying we are mistaken?”
“Not at all. Higher martial aptitude makes it easier to accumulate inner strength and master a sect’s secret techniques—this is indeed an advantage. However, in the martial way, martial aptitude is merely one component. This child simply trained his external techniques more diligently than anyone else.”
“By external techniques, you mean physical conditioning?”
As befitted a Jegal Family martial artist, his comprehension was swift.
“Yes, precisely. Especially intensive training of the lower body.”
“To that extent, any martial artist could…sufficiently….”
“The importance lies in it being beyond ‘that extent.'”
To what level had the lower body been conditioned?
It was difficult to comprehend.
Jegalling offered no further explanation and merely smiled. Dokgo Junghu spoke.
“However, occupying directional positions cannot be achieved through lower body training alone, can it? No matter how capable the body becomes, if the mind does not keep pace, it will be impossible. Without considerable deep insight into formation techniques….”
“Swift thinking is merely the most basic of fundamentals.”
Dokgo Junghu was left speechless, utterly bewildered.
Leaving Dokgo Junghu behind, Jegalling approached me.
“It seems you have become quite familiar with the Samjaebo Technique.”
It was not merely a matter of degree. There was no poison of such caliber.
I, Jin Cheon-hee, had undertaken cultivation so grueling that others would gnash their teeth in envy, yet I performed it as though it were nothing.
The young man cared far less about the fact that he had dodged every stone hurtling toward him without taking a single hit, and far more about how he would deal with that bastard Yoo Ho once this demonstration concluded.
Yet his expression remained innocent above all else.
“Hehe, I’m so delighted you see it that way, Master!”
“Good, good. Now you must advance to the stage of Miribeo. It will be incomparably more grueling than what you face now. Do you think you can manage it?”
“What is Miribeo?”
I already knew from reading the texts, but the act of feigning ignorance was crucial.
“It is the next stage of the Samjaebo Technique.”
The Samjaebo Technique begins by occupying three directional positions: left, right, and forward.
In some respects, it resembled the Five Elements Spiritual Cultivation. The Jegal Family’s Five Elements Spiritual Cultivation begins with the five attributes of the five elements, and as one’s power increases, one learns to employ increasingly diverse techniques using those elements.
Wind energy created using fire, wood, and water.
Ice energy created using water, metal, and earth.
Thunder energy is created by mixing fire, metal, and water into the wind energy made beforehand.
Upon reaching mastery of the Five Elements Spiritual Cultivation, one can command the energy of all things in existence, and by wielding creation and destruction as naturally as breathing, one achieves a state of unity with heaven and earth, it is said.
This is the realm of Wuhuadengxian spoken of in the Martial Arts World.
The Sage Zhuge Liang, unlike the conclusion of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms known on Earth, succeeded here in extending his lifespan by performing rituals to heaven.
After achieving his desires to a certain extent, he then retired to cultivate successors in seclusion, and eventually reached the state of natural non-action before ascending to heaven, or so the tale goes.
In that sense, when one reaches the Heavenly Five Elements Spiritual Cultivation, the higher stage of the Five Elements Spiritual Cultivation, one can even summon the southeast wind—truly, the world of martial arts is the world of martial arts.
Similarly, the Samjaebo Technique initially employs only three directional positions.
Yet by combining these three directions as one combines the five elements, one progressively masters nine directions, then twenty-seven, then sixty-one, then eighty-one, and finally ten thousand directions, it is said.
The three of Samjaebo and the five of the Five Elements.
Both are prime numbers that cannot be divided, numbers of considerable significance not only in Eastern philosophy but also in mathematics.
‘If we consider them as Fermat primes, they are the first and second primes.’
The paths of Samjaebo, which initially allowed evasion in only three directions, become far more multifaceted upon reaching Miribeo.
And when that multifaceted mastery is complete, the next evolution awaits.
“What comes after Miribeo?”
“When Miribeo reaches the twelfth level of mastery, one arrives at the Heavenly Foresight. It is a secret martial technique and a supreme skill, one might say. There are scarcely five masters in all the world who have touched the Heavenly Foresight.”
Not five masters.
From my perspective, the Heavenly Foresight was the supreme footwork technique under heaven.
The Heavenly Foresight is less a footwork technique than it is foresight itself.
It possesses the ability to perceive a single path forward amidst countless uncertain variables.
Even I could not understand why this was possible. Yet upon reaching the pinnacle, it somehow became possible.
However, the Heavenly Foresight possessed a fatal weakness.
The Miribeo that serves as the intermediate bridge is brutally, impossibly difficult.
It transcends martial arts entirely and enters the realm of mathematics—the calculation of natural numbers and probability variables.
Just as advancing from the Samjaebo Technique to Miribeo was demanding, advancing from Miribeo to the Heavenly Foresight was possible only for an infinitesimal few even within the Jegal Family.
Through deep insight, I came to understand why the Samjaebo Technique was manageable while Miribeo was hell.
It was an insight I could never have obtained without digging relentlessly, nor was it an insight achievable from the perspective of a martial artist.
It was an insight uniquely mine—that of someone from Earth, wielding Earth’s knowledge, achieved through the utmost dedication.
‘Understanding the concept of positional notation does make comprehension easier. Not martial arts formations, but mathematical positional notation—specifically balanced ternary. I need to map it to –1, 0, +1. That is, left, center, and right.’
This was called balanced ternary notation.
From my perspective, even the Samjaebo Technique was already a bewilderingly difficult footwork to truly master.
If the Patriarch who achieved Wuhuadengxian had been born in the modern era instead of the Martial Arts World, I suspect he would have been building quantum computers.
The problem was that, true to his genius nature, he never considered that his successors’ minds might not be able to keep pace.
Still, he created the Hyeonwon Primal Body Technique alongside it to expand the mind somewhat, but the fact remained that without understanding numbers, the difficulty doubled.
Now
Although you created the basic foundation techniques together, the fact remains that without understanding numbers, the difficulty doubles.
‘In that sense, our Master, who achieved enlightenment with only five senses without modern mathematical theory, doesn’t seem like a human being at all.’
I spoke.
“Master, couldn’t I just practice the Samjaebo Technique more before moving on?”
“Hmm, why do you think so?”
Normally, a disciple of the Muga would be eager to advance to the next level.
Yet here I was, someone not considered particularly strong in the Gangho, saying I wanted to focus more on the Samjaebo Technique, which was called the foundation of foundations.
It was strange.
I furrowed one brow.
“It seems I must solidify the Samjaebo Technique more thoroughly before learning the Miribeo.”
“Do you find the Samjaebo Technique difficult?”
At those words, I nodded.
“Yes. The more I learn, the harder it becomes.”
At my words, Dokgo Junghu, who had been observing, wore a bewildered expression.
‘Usually, if someone calls merely the Samjaebo Technique difficult, they’re called dull-witted, and there’s no such thing as being that dull-witted…’
Why was it? The young man before his eyes was mastering the Samjaebo Technique more deeply than anyone else.
The movements the young man displayed were paths that could only emerge from deeper enlightenment than ordinary trainees possessed.
For such a child to say that the Samjaebo Technique, which merely involved moving in three directions, was difficult?
At that moment, Jegalling answered.
“How interesting. Actually, I’ve always found the Samjaebo Technique difficult as well.”
This was because if you didn’t achieve proper enlightenment during the Samjaebo Technique, you would be completely destroyed when learning the Miribeo.
‘Hehe, the direction differs, but the conclusion is the same as mine.’
There’s comfort in having common ground with my Master.
An ordinary martial artist would have beaten his chest in frustration at the thought of merely practicing the Samjaebo Technique more.
Moreover, Jegalling’s very life depended on my achievements.
Even in such circumstances, he always prioritized the best path for me.
“Haste ruins the path. When you’re ready, we’ll begin then.”
I bowed deeply in respect.
* * *
I continued to delve intensively into the Samjaebo Technique.
After the first enlightenment, it didn’t take long to achieve the second.
However, the third enlightenment required far longer than the first and second combined.
Across the snow-covered white field, the young man’s footprints extended in three directions.
Though his movements were free and unrestrained, whenever the young man’s footsteps came to a halt, it was always at the completion of a triangular number.
Sitting blankly and counting my own footsteps, I realized something profound.
‘Did… did Fermat enter the Martial Arts World as Zhuge Liang?’
The thought of reading such a novel crossed my mind, only to be immediately contradicted by the absolute certainty that I never wanted to see it.
If I were to title it according to current trends, something like “The Protagonist Conceals Mathematics” seemed fitting.
In martial arts novels, it was always this way.
Some small principle would conceal a profound enlightenment.
There were protagonists who gained martial insight from reading the Thousand Character Classic, and others who achieved enlightenment through the Daodejing or the Analects of Confucius.
Even Gungwi attained the Illuminated Realm through understanding the Buddhist concept of Emptiness.
Where one gained enlightenment mattered little.
Whether it was an old farmer’s scythe stroke or the march of ants, it made no difference.
It could be small, it could be trivial.
It could even seem absurd.
What mattered was how much of the world could be contained within that one thing, and that thing alone.
That was enlightenment, and that was profound understanding.
Numbers were the most direct method of explaining the world.
A small enlightenment began to expand my world.

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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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