Doctor’s Rebirth - Chapter 581

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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 581
‘Would the North Sea Ice Palace Master truly abandon his daughter?’
There was no way to know.
But I understood that when a man had descended into madness, one could not appeal to reason.
For this reason, I moved with utmost caution.
Upon returning to the palace, I discussed the conversation with the Holy Maiden with everyone present.
To maintain secrecy, we naturally communicated through sound transmission.
As we deliberated, we also pondered how to investigate the Qingguang Crystal Mine.
[It won’t be easy to slip out wearing night clothes while everyone sleeps.]
[Yes. There are simply too many eyes watching within the palace.]
To change into night clothes inside the North Sea Ice Palace and venture outside, then return—it was nearly impossible.
Wuying Touguai might manage it. But even she could not conceal the fact of our absence from this chamber.
[Then we should simply remain outside the palace.]
[What if we use the excuse of conducting business selling heating charcoal?]
[That’s an excellent idea.]
Heating charcoal. And the sale of pesticides and various medicinal preparations.
We did this not for profit, but for plague prevention—work the North Sea Ice Palace tacitly approved.
Therefore, I believed that if we used this as our pretext to leave, they would permit it.
[Very well. Let us do it at once.]
Prince Han-bing rose from his seat and summoned someone.
* * *
The next morning, early. Our party departed the North Sea Ice Palace and secured lodging at an inn. The excuse we had offered the previous night had been accepted.
After securing the inn.
We began our work.
We sold heating charcoal and pesticides, and treated the afflicted.
Using a fire-generating technique to boil water, Prince Han-bing performed feats of strength and fire shows beside me.
Gongseon Yeong did not yield this time either, flicking coins to shatter wooden blocks suspended above people’s heads with remarkable skill.
He was clearly proficient—this was no novice performance.
As night fell.
“Ugh, these night clothes are freezing.”
Gongseon Yeong swallowed back tears.
“At least the Holy Maiden sent us thick ones, so we have that mercy.”
In this bitter cold, even masked garments must provide warmth.
Circulating inner qi could only sustain us for an hour or two.
With blood and flesh about to fly, we could not afford to waste energy resisting the cold while fighting.
For this reason, I had asked the Holy Maiden to procure thick infiltration garments for us.
She agreed and had someone discretely deliver them.
Prince Han-bing asked.
“I move knowing her well, but why do you trust her so easily? Is that wise?”
At his words, I nodded.
“Well… I’ve considered various scenarios, but there were no contradictions in her account. More than that…”
“More than that?”
I couldn’t mention my past life experience, so I phrased it differently.
“Intuition.”
“How bland. So you believe in intuition too.”
At those words, I laughed.
“I’m not particularly good at reading people, but… somehow, people like that give me a similar feeling.”
Gongseon Yeong spoke at that.
“Hoh. Your eye for people has improved, hasn’t it?”
“Roughly, yes.”
Living a second life grants you a perspective slightly different from others, after all.
“Well, it needs to be resolved properly. I can only hope the North Sea Ice Palace Master hasn’t gone so mad as to harm his own daughter. To avoid testing that, we’ll need to resolve this quietly and as quickly as possible.”
Prince Han-bing sighed.
“Your tone lacks conviction.”
“…”
I didn’t answer to that.
In the original Jicheon Cheonma, bloodshed among kin was frequent.
Especially between the Demonic Sect and Hyeolseonggyo.
When one of these two got involved, people would completely lose themselves.
One of the most terrifying things was that even as such atrocities were committed, those responsible believed themselves to be utterly rational.
This territory fell under Hyeolseonggyo’s jurisdiction, and the Demonic Sect came to capture them, but ultimately both had become entangled, hadn’t they?
The heterodox faction that came to form an alliance was also a puppet of the Demonic Sect.
‘If only Baekrin Uiseon had belonged to one faction, it might have been easier.’
However, if that were the case, I couldn’t treat patients from the other side.
As a doctor, I had no choice but to maintain neutrality and hope that no one would die.
“Let’s move.”
The three of us donned concealment robes and immediately set out.
“By the way, Hwang-gu and Noeji—transform your bodies using the Shrinking Technique and wait at a distance.”
Woof?
Squeak?
If those two stayed together, the concealment robe would be useless.
They’d be recognizable from a hundred meters away.
* * *
“By the way, what is the Holy Maiden’s name?”
“Hmm, she has no name. We simply call her ‘Holy Maiden.'”
“Why? That seems strange.”
“Those designated as Holy Maiden by the sect must abandon their names until they are released from that duty.”
“From what I gather, the Holy Maiden’s position is for life, isn’t it?”
“Indeed. So she lives without a name until the moment of death.”
Wouldn’t such a life be unbearably painful?
A name might seem trivial, yet it reveals which family one was born into, what surname one carries.
If it’s a sect like the Jegallim Family, it tells which generation descendant one is.
Since naming conventions differ by region, a name serves as a marker indicating one’s place of origin.
A life where one’s own name is never spoken.
No matter how much one has devoted everything to the sect.
Isn’t that ultimately a denial of one’s very roots and existence?
Especially in this Confucian world where martial artists place such weight on names, it felt particularly strange.
Or perhaps not.
I pondered this thought.
Even as a foreigner, I have a perfectly good name, yet if my family called me “Director, Director” or “Manager, Manager” twenty-four hours a day even outside the company, I’d go mad.
“Does the Holy Maiden have no friends?”
“Only those I trained with at the North Sea Ice Palace. But since I don’t know her name either, I simply call her the Holy Maiden. We’ve never had any deep conversations.”
Perhaps it was a regional cultural difference.
I tilted my head in confusion.
In any case, if she’s called only “Holy Maiden” until her dying day, I had no choice but to do the same.
The Qingguang Shuojing mine lay to the right of Tianbing Mountain.
Near the mine, military units were stationed, and security was reasonably tight.
[There’s no formation array here.]
[Only the sacred ground at the peak of Tianbing Mountain has one. Below that is fine. If they laid formation arrays in the mine itself, how would the miners work?]
That made sense.
Instead, the sentries stood in three rotating shifts.
[…They’re using counterfeit jade tokens.]
[To be precise… it’s the Golden Blood Hall’s knockoff version. They had locals translate it to fit this region.]
No wonder Sama Hyeon’s tribute payments had been increasing lately.
Apparently, he’d been selling counterfeit goods globally without my knowledge.
‘That bastard! He could’ve at least told his hyeong first!’
A man who could survive even if dropped in a desert.
This fellow, peddling counterfeits in a world where copyright is meaningless and faithfully sending back thirty percent of his earnings, was truly a unique specimen.
In any case, while the sentries burned with the dilemma of whether to report this infidelity to the King, and while they fabricated stories of bribing the royal physician to claim pregnancy, using this to roll the dice on whether to commit forgery and sedition within the palace, the three of us slipped safely into the mine’s interior.
[The Queen player will die soon anyway. She has no black propaganda cards left.]
Hwagyeong and two others, plus one supreme master.
Someone capable of observing even the flow of others’ counterfeit jade tokens.
The mine’s interior was dim, but torches placed here and there made it possible to see ahead without difficulty.
Since it was night, naturally no miners were visible.
As we descended deeper and deeper inward.
Suddenly, the path split into two directions.
Since footprints of people continued only in one direction, that seemed to be the tunnel used by the miners….
[Shall we check the other path?]
I couldn’t know what the North Sea Ice Palace Master was hiding, but if something was hidden, it would surely be that way.
I couldn’t tell what the North Sea Ice Palace Master was hiding, but if she was hiding something, I figured that would be the right thing to do.
How far had we walked down the path less traveled from that fork in the road?
The mine shaft grew progressively narrower until we reached a dead end.
Gongseon Yeong spoke.
“It seems they stopped mining here because no ore was coming out?”
“Hmm….”
No matter how I looked at it, that appeared to be the case.
‘Ah, if only I’d come with Hwang-gu, I could have found it easily.’
I would need to send a letter to Mudang Gwon-je soon.
Since he was the one who taught the dog Chukgeun Technique, perhaps he might know of some method to transform into an entirely different species.
If I wanted to change into an alpaca like last time, I would need many materials and the touch of an expert.
Suddenly, I ignited Jjapsammaejinhwa using Hwasaengggi at the edge of the mine shaft.
Whoosh—
The flames flickered in one direction.
“Air is flowing through?”
Something felt off.
I felt around the surroundings for quite some time, but I couldn’t figure it out at all.
“They hid it very thoroughly.”
“There’s no helping it then.”
In that moment, I activated the Pienbok Eumhyang, the supreme echo technique of Chilmageum, and struck the wall.
Pienbok meant bat.
This Chilmageum somehow allowed me to use the ultrasonic waves that bats employ.
Truly, a divine technique of the highest caliber!
Uuuuung—
Combined with the Hyeonwon Jeondan Singeong to process the calculations, it created an extraordinary synergistic effect.
The Hyeonwon Jeondan Singeong was supporting the massive information processing that ordinary people couldn’t even imagine.
“There it is.”
I kicked a stone lying carelessly in the corner and stepped on the dirt beneath it.
Then.
Gigigik—
The mine shaft that I thought was sealed opened, revealing a space just large enough for one person to pass through.
Prince Han-bing asked in surprise.
[Are all Middle Kingdom people like that?]
At those words, Gongseon Yeong shook his head.
[That couldn’t be. He’s just unusually exceptional. Why else would his epithet be Ilgwang?]
[I heard that the Jegallim Family members are skilled not just in martial arts but in everything that requires intellect. Impressive indeed. I’m simply in awe.]
[Sister said that if he became an enemy, that silver-haired little one would be the most terrifying opponent.]
I, who had entered ahead, asked.
“Aren’t you coming?”
“Ah yes, let’s follow.”
* * *
As I emerged from the secret passage, a cliff face came into view.
Looking down below that precipice, a massive cavern revealed itself underground.
What appeared there was a palace and a small city, with a path leading downward in steep, winding spirals like a river flowing below.
Moreover, luminescent pearls were embedded meticulously throughout, making the subterranean world visible as if it were daylight.
“Such a place exists…”
The Prince gasped in wonder. I felt the same.
“This doesn’t appear to have been constructed in merely a day or two. It’s far more peculiar that the people here were unaware of its existence.”
Yet throughout this ornate small city and palace, not a single person was visible.
“How strange. If people had lived here, there should certainly be domestic refuse scattered about, yet I see none whatsoever.”
It felt like observing a child’s building block house.
Magnificent only on the surface, yet truly uninhabitable.
“Let’s infiltrate the palace first.”
With those words, I headed not along the path, but toward the cliff face itself.
Though invisible now, someone might be hiding, so I planned to climb down the cliff and approach the palace from an unexpected angle.
Yet as I began my descent, something peculiar suddenly caught my eye—some kind of strange mechanism within the structure.

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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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