Doctor’s Rebirth - Chapter 533

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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 533
“Hope? Are you alright?”
“Yes, yes! I’m fine. But the gift I was bringing for Master… uh, uh, uh…!”
Jegalling clicked his tongue.
It would have been one thing if he’d put this brat to sleep when he was younger.
But now, someone had suddenly intruded while he was half-asleep.
‘Old habits die hard.’
The clan had been annihilated, and Jegalling had always been alone.
Before building his own power base, even the act of sleeping had been difficult.
He used to fall asleep with his senses honed razor-sharp, drifting into slumber like a light doze.
While Jin Cheon-hee was away, scheming various plots had brought those old instincts rushing back.
That version of Jegalling had struck down his disciple with the same reflexes, the same habits—not an assassin’s blade, but a killer’s instinct.
Colorful candies scattered across the floor.
He must have made plenty of beautiful, appetizing ones thinking of his master.
“Ah, I’ll have to throw these away.”
Jin Cheon-hee crouched down and quickly gathered up the candies.
“Hope.”
“Master, if we don’t clean this up quickly, ants will swarm. They’re scattered everywhere—what should we do?”
“Hope.”
“Ha-ryun makes candies for me, so I made more. It’s fine—I can make them again. We have plenty of ingredients.”
“Hope…”
At the master’s low voice, the disciple finally looked up.
“Show me your hand.”
The sleeve was stained red with blood.
Jin Cheon-hee’s eyes widened in shock.
“Master… I thought I’d blocked it all. How did this happen? I was certain I’d deflected the inner force and changed its trajectory?”
“I hid another thin layer of inner force behind the first and sent it. When done this way, even the greatest masters fall for it. But let’s treat it first.”
Fortunately, the wound wasn’t deep.
While the master treated the injury, the disciple examined his own wound with blue eyes.
‘He’s studying the subtleties of my blade technique. He’s analyzing it himself.’
How had he launched two layers of inner force with just a single sweep of the fan?
From Jin Cheon-hee’s perspective, he was quite sensitive to detecting energy.
In fact, even Sip Cheon-gun couldn’t escape his perception.
Yet his master had accomplished this feat simply by waking from sleep.
“Master, that was truly remarkable. I’ve never seen such a realm before!”
“Does the wound hurt?”
“Psh, as a warrior, this is actually a blessing. Thanks to it, I can glimpse an even higher realm.”
This brat had always been this way since childhood.
He even snorted with excitement, continuing to imagine and re-imagine how his master had executed such an attack in that brief moment, with just that single technique.
“Will I ever be able to handle such sharp, silent inner force like you, Master?”
“With your talent, Oseng, it’s certainly possible. Hope.”
“Hehehehe.”
I laugh like a fool.
“It’s unfortunate about the candy. Making it must have taken considerable effort.”
“It’s fine, really. I was already researching star-shaped candy anyway. I’ll make some this time and present them to you, Master.”
There’s no sign of disappointment in him.
This damned foolish disciple.
‘Your master nearly severed his own wrist, and yet you…’
Jegalling pinched Jin Cheon-hee’s cheek again for some reason.
“Ow ow ow!”
This time he didn’t pinch hard, but I pretend it hurts.
He’s probably doing it on purpose so Master won’t feel guilty about cutting his disciple.
* * *
‘Right, Master must have recognized my face the moment he released his qi, and loosened his grip at the last second. Otherwise, he would have cut through to the bone.’
I survived thanks to that split-second reaction.
From my perspective, layering qi right after qi to trace hidden trajectories is something I can’t even imagine doing.
‘How does he manage that with just a fan? Even if I wielded the Frost Jade Blade, I don’t think I could replicate it.’
Even after running dozens of simulations with the Hyeonwon Jeondan Singeong, I still can’t understand it.
It’s so far beyond my comprehension that I can’t even imagine it.
This is a completely different level of technique than simply holding a blade in each hand and creating two streams of qi.
After thinking that far, I continue chattering away about everything that happened in Baek Rin while Master listens.
Once we finish tidying up, the two of us pick up the scattered candy from the floor.
Master’s study is a place with many secrets, so usually Yoo Ho cleans it directly.
But since he seems busy, I start picking up without bothering to call him, and eventually Master sighs and helps me gather the candy.
“I’ve already heard of your reputation. Quite impressive.”
“Hehe, I just did the same things I did at the Medical Guild.”
“That can’t be right. You wouldn’t have had to manage estates at the Medical Guild. I thought you’d stay longer, but I didn’t expect you to rise so quickly. Hope.”
Ah, so Master was indeed planning to keep me bound here longer.
Clink, clink.
I continue speaking as I place the candy into a box.
“The candy is sticky and bothersome. And this room is always heated with ondol.”
“Should I make it from something other than candy?”
“Just make one. I don’t need this many.”
“Hehehehe, yes.”
Clink—
“By the way, the Dragon-Phoenix Assembly will be opening again soon.”
“Ah, so they’re preparing again?”
“Yes.”
Clink-clink—
After finding the last candy and putting it away, Master wiped his large hands with a towel.
“The young martial prodigies who survived the past battles against the Suksin Tribe grew stronger without falling, their cultivation rising day by day. The elders of Gangho found themselves quite troubled by this.”
“Why is that?”
“When there are many young warriors brimming with vitality, righteous and demonic conflicts inevitably arise.”
“Ah, I see….”
I found myself nodding at those words.
“And they worry that our Baekrin Medical Guild’s actions are like setting fire to a powder keg.”
“Hmm? What do you mean by that?”
At the last Yongbong Conference, didn’t I beat them down one by one without discrimination and send them home safely?
Since words wouldn’t work, I let them experience their opponent’s pain by breaking their arms, giving them time to reflect.
After getting beaten by Jin Cheon-hee’s fists, they seemed to understand their opponent’s feelings better, quietly putting away their weapons and heading back to their hometowns. There were quite a few like that.
My Master stared at me for a moment, then burst out laughing.
“We are known as a sect standing between the righteous and demonic paths… but in truth, that’s merely what we’ve publicly announced. Because of you, we’ve become what’s rarely seen even among righteous sects—a Baekseon school.”
Baekseon.
Pure and virtuous.
The words alone seem simple, but their meaning in Gangho is quite significant.
It refers to a sect that helps people by following the order of all things and upholds righteousness and benevolence.
Even if the sect suffers losses because of it, the path they walk remains the white way.
Even the Wudang Sect cannot claim to be Baekseon themselves, and the only places that can be said to clearly demonstrate Baekseon conduct are the current Huashan Sect, the Bota Clan, and Shaolin.
Even Shaolin, judging by recent actions, shows internal instability, making it difficult to assert it as Baekseon.
Yet my Master stated it clearly.
The Baekrin Medical Guild currently walks the path of Baekseon.
“But my younger brothers—one is from Hao-mun and the other is from the Heukgeom Sect, a single-lineage demonic school…?”
“…Just call them the Demonic Sect then.”
“Still, it seems difficult to call that Baekseon.”
“Haha, that’s not how you should view it. First, the bandits on the Yangtze side have been nearly wiped out, and the Yellow River-Yangtze River Waterway Alliance has suffered tremendous losses. Wasn’t that also your doing?”
“Well, that’s true.”
The Gongseon Family finished it, but ultimately I pulled out the biggest stones myself.
“Furthermore, the bandits have decreased considerably these days. In Jiangsu Province, the bandits have been completely eradicated, and the Hangzhou area has been entirely cleaned up… The Eighteen Bandit Strongholds have lost at least half their fighting strength.”
When I eliminated the mountains to build roads, the bandits had to relocate.
Among them, those with notorious reputations were beaten and sent to the magistrate’s office for trial and forced labor.
‘I did storm out in anger a few times after treating merchants injured by bandits in Hangzhou, didn’t I? Probably.’
Baekrin County received its own fief and manages it under my responsibility, but Hangzhou….
Merchants injured by bandits naturally come to the Medical Guild first, not the magistrate’s office.
So as a member of the Medical Guild, I treated them, treated them, and treated them again.
Fearing I’d work myself to death with more patients, I went and eliminated the source.
-Damn it, that bastard Ilgwang…. You’ve become one of the ten greatest masters under heaven and you come in person!
What do Gangho people think martial arts are?
Do they think it’s something sacred?
Do they think that once you reach the level of one of the ten greatest masters under heaven, you should either seclude yourself in some hermitage, severing ties with the secular world to devote yourself to martial arts, or sit in some high position in the Martial Arts Alliance?
‘Hmm, now that I think about it, that’s not entirely wrong.’
The Demon Sovereign is already exceptional, but the Immortal Sovereign and the Martial Sovereign are equally difficult to encounter.
Not to mention the Shadowless Touguai or Hyeolsaeng Nogoe.
Changwang Akjin is the Martial Arts Alliance Leader, and Sulgye is the Sadoryeonju.
Yet here I am, a top-ten master of the realm personally coming to this insignificant mountain stronghold to destroy it.
But Ilgwang does it.
I really do.
Being a top-ten master of the realm means nothing if I can’t treat patients by slicing through their ailments like cutting through stone to reach healthy flesh.
In the end, I go because pushing down one stronghold is far easier than treating one patient.
‘Wait… now that I think about it, the places I’ve annihilated… one, two, three, four…’
Counting on my fingers, I’ve actually destroyed quite a few.
“And then there were the heretical sects in other districts I eliminated, the orphanage I operate, the commoners I care for. Recently, I brought Hangzhou under our sphere of influence and destroyed the Haesa Faction as well.”
“Yes, that’s correct.”
“The Haesa Faction was consumed by Hyeolseonggyo, and Hyeolseonggyo became a public enemy of the martial world. However, your mobilization of garrison soldiers to minimize civilian casualties has not earned you a favorable reputation among martial artists.”
What else could I do?
If I’d relied solely on the Martial Arts Alliance’s forces, not only would we have failed to eliminate them completely, but the casualties among commoners would have been catastrophic.
Besides, the Gu parasites they implanted in people’s heads couldn’t even be controlled by my yin techniques.
“But I did capture Geumcheon-gun alive, didn’t I?”
“Still, you mobilized the garrison soldiers.”
‘This contradiction—I simply cannot comprehend it as a modern person.’
I mean, pirates appear and slaughter people indiscriminately, and on top of that, they’ve allied with a heretical cult to perform Cthulhu-like rituals in the human realm.
Yet I’m not supposed to contact the garrison soldiers?
Those very soldiers funded by everyone’s taxes?
‘How can a Korean understand this?’
Is this why the martial world could never truly flourish in Joseon?
I once watched a YouTube video discussing why Korea has no fantasy of the “righteous swordsman.”
That is, why there are no tales of heroic wanderers, only “passing scholars” solving problems.
I agree with that analysis.
If someone declared themselves a heretical sect and went around slaughtering people, the constabulary would swarm out like ants and beat that madman senseless.
If a demon cult appeared claiming dominion over all under heaven, defying the Confucian way and usurping the throne, the commanders would ride forth on horseback demanding the execution of that treacherous rebel.
And the commoners would say: this land was tilled by my grandfather’s grandfather’s grandfather—what claim does the Demon Sovereign have to it?
They would wage guerrilla warfare without hesitation, just as during the Imjin War, swinging iron flails and warning me to guard my head well.
In such a Joseon dynasty—five hundred years of bone-deep Confucian society—isn’t returning home in glory wearing an official’s insignia far more appealing than being a righteous wanderer?
And that comes with the added service of jesters advertising it throughout the neighborhood for three days straight?
Once that happens, even distant relatives by marriage would know this person is destined for greatness.
‘Even if I claimed illiteracy as an excuse, with such strength, I should at least pursue an official position, even as a minor magistrate.’
I should serve in office and achieve prominence.

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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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