Doctor’s Rebirth - Chapter 511

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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 511
Samjeolchuho led me into a small hidden residence.
Formation arrays were installed throughout the perimeter, designed so that anyone who didn’t follow the correct sequence would become lost and end up back outside.
The fact that such elaborate measures had been taken for this modest hideaway spoke volumes.
Midway through, I had to cover my eyes and ride on Samjeolchuho’s back to enter.
They were deliberately mixing false passages with real ones at intervals to prevent me from determining the location through directional sense alone.
“This must be a hidden residence created by the Martial Arts Alliance.”
At my words, Samjeolchuho’s back shook with laughter.
“It’s supposed to be secret, yet somehow you guess everything from beginning to end.”
“I won’t reveal anything.”
“Then there’s no point in blindfolding you. It’s annoying when someone’s too clever.”
Upon arriving at the secret residence, I found a familiar face lying on the bed.
Haesa Bangju, Hae Yeon-do.
-Kkhkhkhkhkh. Your manners are so proper, just like those hypocrites from the righteous sects. No need for long explanations. Tugoe is receiving treatment here, isn’t he? Hand him over.
That was right.
The man who had once demanded I hand over Tugoe and his granddaughter when I was protecting them at Baekrin Uiseon, and had been struck by my Transcendent Martial Arts Benevolence, becoming a “patient” in the process.
Thus, Dorang, one of the Ten Greatest Masters of the Martial World, was defeated by Ilgwang and never again mentioned as one of the Ten Greatest Masters.
I hadn’t expected him to repent for his sins, but I’d assumed he’d at least live out his days engaged in some dark dealings. Yet here we were, meeting again like this.
“One arm has been severed, and the abdominal wound is severe. It’s fortunate he’s still alive—someone must have provided emergency treatment.”
“Perceptive as always. Medical practitioners from the Martial Arts Alliance administered emergency care. However, even with their skills, they could only manage to transport the patient and buy time to summon you.”
“The other hand appears to be damaged by ice energy… Yes, it seems a master of ice techniques has been at work.”
That much could be discerned from external observation. But the crucial part was the pulse diagnosis, wasn’t it?
I placed my hand on Hae Yeon-do’s neck and conducted a rapid pulse examination, and I was shocked to find the condition far more critical than expected.
The faint pulse I felt through my fingertips seemed as though it could stop at any moment.
“You understand quickly. He’s being kept alive through Guisik Daebeop and formation arrays to sustain his life force, but even that has become difficult now. Can you save him?”
“Whether he lives or dies rests with heaven, but I will do my utmost with the skills available to me.”
“You won’t give a definite answer.”
“No.”
Which meant the patient’s condition was that critical.
“The Medical Practitioners of the Martial Arts Alliance will assist you.”
When she clapped her hands, a wall opened and two masked doctors emerged.
Their movements were extremely cautious, as if they’d bolt in terror at the slightest disturbance, like a single dropped brush.
“They could become entangled in Gangho affairs, so their faces, names, and everything else must remain secret. Please don’t try to find out. I’m asking you.”
Not a warrior from Dosan Sword Forest, just a single doctor.
I understood their feelings all too well.
“I understand.”
“Thank you.”
I could only watch over both the doctor and the patient.
* * *
‘Do I need to amputate the other arm damaged by ice energy as well?’
My opponent is no ordinary master.
Where the ice strike landed, a relentless chill continued to seep inward, freezing the vital energy and eroding the skin.
From the perspective of modern physics, I wonder how this is even possible, but at this point I’ve made peace with it.
In a martial world where humans run across water, there’s no end to questioning such things.
To live long, you simply have to accept that such things are the way they are.
‘The problem is that this situation means losing both arms….’
For a warrior, the hands are as precious as life itself. Losing both hands like this—it’s enough to make one sigh.
Or have I already lost them?
The ice strike has already sent the arms beyond the point of recovery.
However, just because the arms are dead doesn’t mean I should let the patient die along with them.
Even with frostbite, if the situation had been similar to when I treated the previous Gaebangjoo, there might have been hope, but now there was no other answer.
‘So this is how one ends up performing amputation.’
According to those on the dark path, most outcomes are terrible.
The human body withers with time, but the debts incurred in the martial world never fade from people’s memories.
‘For now…. I’ll do my best to keep them breathing. That’s the priority.’
As long as they’re alive, anything is possible.
Even if they later despair at their circumstances and choose to end their own life, at least they must be alive first to have any options.
Having resolved myself so firmly, the other doctors looked at me with worried eyes.
“Amputating the patient’s arm is ultimately my judgment and my responsibility. I will bear any future debts that arise from this.”
I made this declaration preemptively in case the Haesa Bangju harbored resentment about the treatment and ordered his subordinates to attack the doctors.
“Thank you.”
“…We won’t forget. Soggakju.”
I nodded.
They weren’t warriors—just ordinary doctors.
In a world like this, ordinary doctors often get caught up in various debts and end up cut down by warriors.
Even Baekrin Uiseon isn’t protected by the Baekrin clan for nothing.
The two doctors expressed their deep gratitude to me.
* * *
Amputation was merely one part of the treatment. With trauma to the abdomen and injuries covering nearly every part of the body, I had to perform major surgery lasting over two hours with my own hands.
Fortunately, the Medical Practitioners of the Martial Arts Alliance assisted well, allowing me to demonstrate my full capabilities.
I sensed traces of training from Baekrin Uiseon in them, and a few doctors who had gone to the Martial Arts Alliance came to mind, but I deliberately pretended not to notice.
Their lives were precious to them as well.
After those two hours passed.
I emerged exhausted.
“I’ve done everything possible for now. Depending on the condition, there may be additional surgery later…. For now, the priority is whether the patient wakes up.”
“You’ve worked hard, brother.”
“Not at all. From here on, it depends on the patient’s will….”
I explained how the surgery was performed.
In particular, I disclosed first that the patient had lost the remaining arm as well.
As a fellow warrior, it was a regrettable matter, but Samjeolchuho took it surprisingly calmly.
“Well, Haesa Bangju is a villain, so there’s no helping it. Those he wronged will find satisfaction in this.”
There was not a shred of compassion in his voice.
When I think about it, that’s the right way to see it.
The gold Haesa Bangju accumulated through exploitation was surely someone’s blood and sweat.
“However, I must clarify that this decision was made by me alone. The doctors who came with me bear no responsibility.”
“What fault could the doctors have? They had no choice if they wanted to save him, so that’s the right thing.”
“I see.”
“That bastard is just an information broker anyway. All we needed to keep were his tongue and his head.”
“Hahaha….”
“Brother. Please don’t waste your compassion on garbage like that. It pains me to see you expend your spiritual energy on such a wretch.”
I didn’t answer.
Instead, I simply asked this.
“But how did Haesa Bangju end up in such a state? There can’t be many people capable of reducing him to this condition.”
“He was once among the ten greatest masters under heaven. Of course, that was before you arrived.”
Samjeolchuho fell into thought about where to begin, then finally opened his lips with gravity.
“First…. let me tell you how I’ve been tracking Hyeolseonggyo.”
“Yes. I’ve been curious about this all along. How you managed to track them across this vast Central Plains.”
“Though the Central Plains are vast, if a large number of people live there, they inevitably leave traces. Hyeolseonggyo is also a massive organization, so their main headquarters would be considerable in scale. But why is it so difficult to find their footprints in the Central Plains?”
“….”
“Let me rephrase the question. The Demonic Sect is far from the Central Plains, making them hard to find. Hyeolseonggyo shares similarities with the Demonic Sect. However, even so, it’s impossible for them to occupy the Ten Thousand Great Mountains. The Demonic Sect despises Hyeolseonggyo terribly. Well, from our perspective, it’s six of one, half a dozen of the other.”
Heresy versus heresy.
Just imagining it made my chest swell with grandeur.
“Yes, that’s right.”
“So I changed my perspective. They must be at sea, I thought. There are over three thousand recorded islands in the empire’s records. If you count uninhabited islands, it becomes even more staggering. And among them are countless islands not even on maps. So I began tracking them toward the sea.”
“Toward the sea?”
“Yes. Even if we don’t find Hyeolseonggyo’s main headquarters, finding even one of their branches would be profitable, wouldn’t it?”
It was a decision bordering on madness.
No matter how much he wanted to find his younger sister, to have searched through that vast sea and countless islands was extraordinary.
Each day must have been a brutal struggle.
Yet Samjeolchuho continued speaking as if it were nothing.
“In the process, I witnessed internal strife within Haesa Bangju…. and Haesa Bangju’s forces were collapsing precisely due to that internal conflict.”
“How fortunate.”
“Yes. If there were someone capable of bringing Haesa Bangju down to that degree, the Martial Arts Alliance, Hao-mun, or Gaebang would have known by now. Yet my intelligence network detected no such signs whatsoever. Because of this, I devised a plan to smuggle Haesa Bangju away and have him escape.”
“Truly a bold plan.”
“You lose nothing by trying. If it succeeds and I catch Hyeolseonggyo’s tail, that’s good fortune. If it fails, I can still turn him over to the authorities and claim the bounty, so I profit either way.”
Hearing that, it made sense.
Still, the fact that he could think so clearly in that situation proved that Samjeolchuho was an exceptional tracker.
“From the dying Haesa Bangju, I received quite good news. Hyeolseonggyo had taken control of Haesa Bangju, he said.”
“Oh?”
“Didn’t I tell you before? I am strong against misfortune. Like most hunting dogs, so am I. Once I bite, I never let go, and the worse my luck, the more mysteriously things tend to work out in this regard.”
She seemed to recall that moment, letting out a small sigh.
Her shallow breathing churned and bubbled together with the heart demon, then subsided, only to repeat the cycle.
Through all these long years, though memories weathered away, emotions never dulled—they remained, carving deeper into her chest.
How could her face grow so hazy while longing burned as deep regret in the pit of her stomach?
Another word for longing is solitude.
Solitude becomes poison, leaving a bitter taste in the nasal passages.
That is why some solitude is bitter enough to vomit.
“Sigh… Haesa Bangju is a gathering of pirates. Even so, they maintain their position as one of the dark sects because they observe certain principles. Of course, by principles here, I mean they mind the eyes of the authorities and the righteous path—not that they refrain from evil deeds.”
“I understand.”
“Yes. But if Hyeolseonggyo takes control of Haesa Bangju, indiscriminate plundering and… rituals could occur. Especially, you know what kind of ‘rituals’ those are.”
“I know well.”
“That is precisely… what happened on the coast, merely days away from the Hangzhou where you were.”
“….”
I closed my eyes.
The puzzle pieces began to fit together.
So that bird I saw back then was something connected to Hyeolseonggyo.
Even if they spotted me while conducting their operations nearby, they wouldn’t have moved immediately.
With the Demonic Sect present, rash action was impossible. Because Heukun and his subordinates were there.
Heretics don’t get along with each other.
And even now, Hyeolseonggyo could never defeat her, the Cheonma.
She wasn’t called one of the Three Elites, the Demon Elite, for nothing.
So they either waited until the demonic cultists left, or simply didn’t act at that moment—such was the situation.

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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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