Doctor’s Rebirth - Chapter 48
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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 48
Penicillin.
In other words, the antibiotic derived from blue mold was created far more smoothly than I had anticipated.
Though not without trial and error, I managed to complete it before the season ended.
And the result now lay before my eyes.
is right in front of one’s eyes.
‘It actually worked.’
Gazing at the liquid within the glass vial, I
clicked my tongue.
‘I had braced myself for at least twice this duration, no matter how expedient the process….’
Over the past month, I had thrown myself into work the moment I opened my eyes.
Cultivation, research, development.
Three tracks running in parallel. I commanded the Medical Assistants my Master had assigned to me, and issued directives to Yoo Ho.
Extract samples, record them, and attempt again.
‘With money, time, and method all at my disposal, there’s no reason I shouldn’t succeed.’
Yoo Ho had cursed at me, saying he couldn’t endure such a pace even with ginger.
When I was driven to exhaustion, so was Yoo Ho.
A labor collective bound together by my Master.
Though we harbored nothing but hatred rather than camaraderie, our coordination on work was remarkably seamless.
‘Yoo Ho can do more. He doesn’t realize it, but he’s capable of far greater output!’
Contemplating how to extract even more labor from him, I clenched my fists tightly.
The sole reason I could endure within this hellish wheel was singular.
The Five Elements Spiritual Cultivation.
And if I were to search for another reason, it would be youth.
‘My mind doesn’t tire. My memory has sharpened, and my sleep efficiency has improved. I never imagined that living so intensely outside of formal cultivation would yield such growth in my inner cultivation technique.’
The face of a young child transformed into the smile of a middle-aged man.
‘Youth truly is a blessing. Being young means faster recovery, a sharp mind, and vision without spectacles. The nerve pain that plagued me each morning has vanished.’
I realized during surgery that the sensitivity in my fingertips had grown even more acute than before.
Though my limbs were short, the heightened sensitivity and rapid recovery were treasures that no amount of gold could purchase.
Shaking the glass vial, I laughed.
‘They say that as one’s inner cultivation deepens, the pace of aging slows. With fortune’s favor, should I even reach the Returning Youth Reversal Circulation, I could grow younger.’
My Master was the prime example of this.
Regarding my Master’s age, I couldn’t say with certainty, but I understood that it differed little from that of the Yunlong Courier Bureau’s director.
By age alone, she appeared to be in her middle to late years.
The Five Elements Divine Skill, through cultivation alone, harmonizes the body’s vitality and balance.
It emphasizes nourishment over martial prowess. While it has the drawback of being difficult to learn, no Doctor possesses inner cultivation comparable to this.
Consequently, my Master’s face remains taut and youthful—in her twenties. Her body, too, has forgotten age.
Only illness poses a problem; my Master will live forgetting her age until death itself.
My Master’s beauty served as additional motivation for me.
‘A taut face for myself! Joints that move with fluidity! Eyes that see clearly in sunlight without a trace of cellular degradation!’
That was right. My desperation was on a different level from the goals that children of the Jegal Family possessed at my age.
Typically, children my age dreamed of becoming martial arts masters and pacifying the world under heaven—a blue dream, yet one as distant as the color itself.
By contrast, I had experienced aging, so I pursued tangible benefits right before my eyes.
chase
was.
This self-imposed hellish existence.
That life pushed me forward to the next stage of growth.
My command of inner energy had become nearly flawless, and my achievement in the Five Elements Spiritual Cultivation had reached the eighth stage.
Since ancient times, immediate practical gains have always been a stronger motivator than distant dreams.
Even I was astonished by this progress.
‘According to Master, as my body cycles through extreme fatigue and rapid recovery, it’s transforming closer to a natural state… In other words, this insane grind is tempering my body?’
Yoo Ho clicked his tongue, calling me a ruthless fellow.
He said it was fortunate that the Jegal Family’s martial arts emphasized nourishment; had it been another style, I would have developed chronic ailments. Either way, it was a good thing.
‘Being able to receive the Five Elements Divine Skill and the Heavenly Origin Elixir Divine Skill is truly a stroke of divine fortune. Master said transmission was possible from the sixth stage of Five Elements Spiritual Cultivation onward, but I’ve already reached the eighth stage.’
The Five Elements Divine Skill was the superior cultivation method above the Five Elements Spiritual Cultivation.
It was one of the renowned divine skills in all the world, yet it was so extraordinarily difficult to master that few had ever learned it.
Among the martial artists of the Jegal Family, only a select few chosen ones trained in this divine skill, which was said to allow one to manipulate the Five Elements’ true energy and control the natural forces of heaven and earth.
Indeed, wasn’t my Master Jegalling himself a martial artist who had perfected the Five Elements Divine Skill and reached the realm of Transformation?
Beyond that, the Heavenly Origin Elixir Divine Skill was even more extraordinary.
A secret divine skill of the Jegal Family—it wasn’t actually an inner energy cultivation method that created inner power separately.
A martial art that consumed and depleted inner energy!
One might ask why anyone would learn such a technique, but members of the Jegal Family absolutely had to master it.
A divine skill that consumed inner energy to activate the brain and elevate its capabilities!
By enhancing all functions of the brain—memory, mental calculation, cognition—it transformed the dull-witted into the average, the average into the talented, and the talented into the brilliant.
If a genius were to master it?
They would possess a mind capable of controlling all under heaven.
That was the power of the Jegal Family’s secret divine skill.
And now I could finally begin receiving transmission of this Heavenly Origin Elixir Divine Skill as well. But that was a matter for later.
For now, I had to test the completed penicillin.
“So you’re satisfied?”
Yoo Ho spoke to me from the side with a disgruntled expression.
“Of course. It’s incredible. You’re truly amazing, Yoo Ho. Our sl… I mean, our all-purpose nurse!”
“Weren’t you about to call me a slave just now?”
“What? Of course not!”
“Haha, young master. Your nerve has grown quite bold these days.”
A murderous aura pressed forward, centered on Yoo Ho.
In the past, fear would have frozen a corner of my mind white, but I was different now.
I swayed slightly and continued my work with composure.
‘I’ve grown, haven’t I.’
Not just in inner energy, but my nerve and courage were visibly increasing as well.
‘Of course, it’s still just a thin thread.’
A thread I could sever whenever I wished.
Had Jegalling not been present, I would have twisted it a hundred times over.
‘Still, it doesn’t sit right with me.’
Yoo Ho released his killing intent at that thought.
“So what exactly is this medicine that required such an elaborate process? By any measure, it looks like Western Regions alchemy equipment.”
“Alchemy exists in the Western Regions?”
I asked with genuine curiosity.
The Supreme Heavenly Demon was certainly a martial arts novel, and its world was set in the Hua Empire, an Eastern-styled dynasty.
The Hua Empire’s territory was vast beyond measure, even larger than the actual China of that era.
And there was a region mentioned only in passing throughout the novel—the Western Regions.
It was said to be where the Semu people lived, but with almost no other description, I couldn’t determine what kind of place it truly was.
“It does. Few in the Hua Empire know of it, though. It’s similar to elixir refinement yet completely different. Over there, it’s part of secret knowledge they call magic and sorcery.”
Yoo Ho regarded me with a skeptical gaze.
“Not knowing alchemy exists in the Western Regions… yet somehow making something similar. I’m genuinely curious about your reasoning. Wouldn’t the Master find this strange as well?”
“Well. What puzzles me more is how you managed to produce this in a single day. And the Master won’t find it strange. Why would he? He’s the Master, after all.”
“Hmm.”
Our gazes collided in the empty air.
“Fine. I won’t doubt your abilities anymore, Young Master. If the Master recovers, what else matters? So then, what must we do next? And I’d appreciate an explanation of what this medicine actually is.”
“Didn’t you just call me a fool? Yoo Ho?”
“You must have misheard. It’s similar to how you mistook me for a slave.”
“….”
I decided not to dwell on it.
“Right. The Master’s health is what matters most. And this medicine… ”
I smiled brightly at the vial.
“By this era’s standards… yes, I’d call it a limited panacea.”
I couldn’t think of a better way to describe penicillin.
I continued.
“And what must we do? It’s simple. We need to test it.”
“On humans?”
“Yes. Though we should start with animals first.”
“We could test it directly on people. Why bother with that step? There would be no shortage of willing patients.”
Truly, a world where human lives were worth no more than flies.
As I hesitated, Yoo Ho continued.
“Patients are always abundant, and most either lack medicine or lack money—or both. Few would refuse free treatment, would they?”
I had forgotten.
This was a world where local physicians brought treatments they’d never heard of and administered them to patients, collecting payment regardless of recovery.
There was no medical insurance, no system to protect patients. Only the doctors of the Medical Guild were somewhat more trustworthy.
“Still, we should conduct at least minimal verification first.”
If it was made properly, it would either work or not—but it wouldn’t cause harm.
Yoo Ho looked at me with eyes full of incomprehension and spoke.
“Young master, you jest.”
“I can’t very well say no, can I? Still, you’ll help me out, won’t you?”
Even if I couldn’t defy the times themselves, I wanted to maintain the standards of a modern person.
“What if I refuse?”
“I’ll tell my master.”
“Then why not simply give me an order instead?”
“Well, at least you’re not putting on airs—that’s worth something, isn’t it?”
I chuckled softly and assigned Yoo Ho his tasks.
The first thing we needed to do was statistics.
‘What separates ancient medicine from modern medicine is precisely the presence or absence of statistical data.’
Doctors of old would say this:
‘This treatment will likely cure you.’
Modern doctors say this:
‘This treatment has a 90% cure rate. There’s an 8% chance of no change and a 2% risk of adverse effects.’
It might seem like no great difference. But when you examine it closely, it makes all the difference in the world.
Modern medicine is the medicine of statistics.
We verify treatments across countless patients and check exactly how effective they are in clinical practice.
If drug A has a 60% cure rate and drug B has a 68% cure rate, naturally we choose B.
Through that verification process, medicine evolves. It becomes safer.
Real data—not mere intuition or personal experience—is what saves lives.
“Once you’re done with that, gather people infected with syphilis for me.”
Watching my grinning face, Yoo Ho spoke as if looking at a madman.
“You’ve lost your mind. No one can treat syphilis infection… Surely you don’t mean—?”
“Yes. If my calculations are correct, it should be possible. So gather them for me.”
“….”
Yoo Ho’s narrow eyes widened slightly.
“…Very well, young master. I look forward to witnessing your abilities.”
With those words, Yoo Ho left the Cultivation Room. Watching him go, I muttered to myself.
“Yoo Ho is capable enough, but dealing with him is rather exhausting.”
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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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