Doctor’s Rebirth - Chapter 623

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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 623
Spring passed, and before I knew it, summer had slipped away—finally, autumn arrived.
I, Jin Cheon-hee, gazed upon the endless golden waves of grain and raised both hands in triumph.
“I did it–!”
Though I hadn’t infused it with inner force, the shout rang out so clearly that everyone could hear it.
It was unavoidable. I had achieved a victory for humanity, after all.
In any case, here is what I had accomplished from spring through autumn.
Water supply infrastructure project: completed.
Sanitation improvements. Ultimately, every household received upgraded facilities, and simultaneously, with water becoming easier to draw and washing more convenient, maternal and infant mortality rates plummeted dramatically.
In this era, children suffer high mortality rates.
Countless folk beliefs are passed down to protect children’s lives.
But realistically, having children grow up healthy is far better achieved through proper washing and sanitation management than by obtaining talismans and placing them in undergarments.
Since this was accomplished, it became the signal flare for population growth.
Population increase meant strain on food supply.
Therefore, I had already begun preparations in spring.
I started producing compost at the Baekrin Medical Guild’s directly managed farmland.
Originally, this era already possessed the technology to make compost from human waste.
Even in our country, wasn’t it commonly used in traditional outhouses long ago?
But high-temperature fermented compost and simply rotted compost were entirely different things.
‘In the past, without high-temperature fermentation, parasite eggs would simply cling to cabbage leaves and come out.’
Simply spreading it meant consuming harmful bacteria alongside the nutrients.
At 50 degrees, harmful nematodes are eliminated.
At 60 degrees alone, most plant pathogens die, and pushing it to 100 degrees kills even heat-resistant viruses… but.
In truth, there’s no need to go that far.
Cholera dies relatively easily.
Typhus requires about 30 minutes at 55 degrees.
Food poisoning bacteria need over an hour at 55 degrees.
Tapeworm eggs die in 5 minutes at 71 degrees. At 55 degrees, 2 hours suffices.
Thus, high-temperature maturation prevents epidemics and parasites.
Over three to six months of high-temperature maturation, bacterial cultures and moisture content were most critical.
‘In modern times, you’d simply buy bacterial cultures and scatter them.’
Fortunately, the Baekrin Medical Guild’s research division housed beautiful actinomycete cultures that lived and breathed.
I could utilize them very effectively.
Moisture content around 60 percent.
Too much water causes rot, while too little prevents fermentation or causes it to happen too rapidly, literally burning the compost.
Burning fertilizer isn’t a metaphor—it means turning it to ash.
So it’s a battle with rainwater.
You must use water carefully and turn it appropriately while hoping these damned human waste, cattle dung, fallen leaves, corn, rice bran and other compost materials mature properly—a grueling struggle.
‘As microorganisms proliferate, oxygen is rapidly consumed and carbon dioxide accumulates tremendously. And fermentation raises the temperature as well.’
A natural phenomenon.
‘If I leave this as is, anaerobic microorganisms will start proliferating, so I need to turn it over and give it oxygen.’
The return-to-farming YouTube channels recommended flipping it once every ten days or so, but in reality, I had to flip it based on the weather.
I had to be careful not to let rainwater seep into the compost.
‘Interestingly, once the compost is finished, it produces far less odor.’
Still, since this was my first year producing modern fertilizer, I hadn’t reaped many benefits yet.
The real benefits would come starting next year.
But the water control reforms.
Combined with the water control reforms I had implemented thoroughly since arriving in Baekrin County and the aqueduct construction project, an extraordinary bumper crop had occurred.
“Ooooh! Just looking at it, this is a jackpot!”
I ran through the rice paddies like a madman.
“A bumper crop! A bumper crop!”
Watching me shout at the top of my lungs like that, the residents of Baekrin County burst into laughter.
“So Ui-seon seems to be in high spirits.”
“The compost we made this time barely smells at all, and didn’t we have remarkably few pest problems?”
“Locusts still appear as always, but they definitely seem reduced. And the rice leaves that were getting mottled no longer just wither away.”
“This year I was worried because there was less rain than last year, but the rice harvest is even more abundant. Hahahaha!”
For the commoners who had spent their entire lives tilling the soil, it was like a dream.
I looked so beautiful to them, running around like a madman in my excitement.
“To get through a year without going hungry and have reduced taxes—the whole family can spend winter comfortably now.”
“We should brew alcohol with the leftover rice. Make rice cakes and pancakes too.”
“Why not indeed.”
I was still running.
“This is a jackpot! A jackpot! We should even export the surplus rice!”
My body was already burning with thoughts of profit.
Then someone came galloping on a massive horse.
“Patriarch! Patriarch, oh thank goodness, I finally found you. A message! A message has arrived from Baekrin Medical Guild!”
* * *
The conference room within the Medical Guild.
My Master Jegalling, Muyue, Yoo Ho, myself, and finally the Martial Arts Guild Master—five of us sat together.
“The cargo was robbed by bandits in Fukien Province?”
My Master spoke first.
Muyue answered.
“Yes. The cargo from Unryongpyoguk was also robbed, and there are numerous casualties.”
I spoke.
“This is the first attack since the Five Rings Association was organized, Master.”
I had vaguely thought something like this might happen someday, but to be robbed by mere bandits.
‘This must have been planned.’
Muyue opened his mouth.
“A proposal has also come up to subjugate Fukien Province and make it our territory instead.”
I asked.
“Fujian Province has been heterodox faction territory until now, hasn’t it?”
“Yes. The Haesabang held the position of kingpin, with smaller heterodox sects ruling beneath them. The garrison turned a blind eye and provided backing, but the Haesabang collapsed.”
Jin Cheon-hee picked up the thread of conversation.
“And now the Nok Rim Eighteen Clans are filling that void?”
Even in a vast world, there are no empty spaces.
After the Haesabang, steeped in Hyeolseonggyo, was swept away by my intervention.
Other heterodox factions began filling that vacuum.
“Yes. The Nok Rim Eighteen Clans alliance has moved in and now dominates Fujian Province.”
“And the garrison is essentially turning a blind eye to the Nok Rim Eighteen Clans now instead of the Haesabang.”
“It’s the principle of non-interference with the underworld.”
From a modern person’s perspective, it’s not non-interference—it’s collusion with the underworld.
‘The garrison exists precisely to protect commoners from harassment, yet they ignore heterodox factions preying on the innocent? That’s absurd.’
In modern terms, it’s like organized crime attacking delivery trucks, ransacking legitimate neighborhood shops, beating grandmothers who won’t hand over money.
And when you call 112, they say they can’t help because that’s organized crime’s domain.
‘So really, it’s not some pretty term like non-interference with the underworld—it’s just organized crime slipping bribes to the police.’
When I read martial arts novels, this seemed romantic. But after living here over a decade, I’m starting to get genuinely irritated.
This is the difference between fiction and documentary. These Gangho bastards.
I grumbled inwardly.
Jegalling saw my disgruntled expression and chuckled, then spoke.
“Then it would be best to handle Fuzhou first. What do you say, Hope? Will you take it on?”
Before he could finish, my eyes lit up.
“Yes. Please entrust this to me, Master. I will surely eliminate the bandits oppressing commoners and restore righteousness to Gangho.”
The words flowed out without hesitation.
Watching this, Jegalling thought to himself.
‘I need to let him loose like this occasionally. Otherwise, he’ll get restless and bolt on his own.’
Fuzhou. The capital of Fujian Province.
Proximity is an advantage.
Jegalling opened his mouth.
“Then our Medical Guild will dispatch 200 from the Baekrin Group and 600 from the Cheongrin Group.”
The Cheongrin Group.
Hired ronin trained and graduated from the martial training city.
Among them are warriors stronger than those of the Baekrin Group.
A full 800 people!
By numbers alone, equivalent to a major sect.
“Command authority goes to Soggakju. Go sweep away the heterodox faction scum of Fujian Province and return. Normally, it would be simpler to kill them all. But you won’t want to do that.”
“Ah… yes.”
They’re not Hyeolseonggyo, after all.
Though their oral structure might be permanently altered so they can only eat porridge for life, I’ll let them keep their lives.
Even if they beg to be killed, their lives remain intact.
In that sense, I was a more terrifying existence to the heterodox factions than the garrison soldiers.
“Handle it as you see fit and return.”
“Yes, Master.”
I bowed respectfully to my Master.
* * *
“Perfect weather for sailing, wouldn’t you say?”
Clang!
Hwang-gu bounded aboard with excitement.
Chirp, chirp chirp!
Noeji had brought along Cheonjin and Nanman, the two young ones.
Rumble—!
Screeeech!
That was right. Unlike their mother Noeji, Cheonjin and Nanman still lacked finesse in controlling lightning.
They needed to learn how to wield lightning by hunting alongside their mother, so she’d brought them along for the experience.
Still, thanks to Yoo Ho’s excellent care, both Cheonjin and Nanman had become quite knowledgeable about the human world.
One might say they possessed good social skills.
They didn’t exclusively follow me, but they understood well how humans perceived creatures like themselves.
And they were becoming increasingly cunning in their snack-stealing endeavors.
And perhaps it was just my imagination.
But I sensed that same peculiar aura from Cheonjin and Nanman that I felt from Yoo Ho.
In that sense, Noeji was quite fond of entrusting her offspring to Yoo Ho.
‘In a way, he might be the finest teacher there is.’
By this point, I naturally knew unofficially that Yoo Ho wasn’t human. (Of course, officially Yoo Ho is human. If that changed, it would make things far more difficult going forward.)
The sensation I’d felt when meeting Eungryong.
I’d experienced that same feeling from Yoo Ho before.
When a middle-aged man had carelessly left the cultivation chamber window open and I learned of it two days later from Yoo Ho, I felt something similar.
It had even rained that night, of all times.
I didn’t think Yoo Ho was the same type of being as Eungryong, but I suspected he was of a higher order than spiritual creatures like Hwang-gu or Noeji.
After all, this fellow could transform identically to a human, yet his casual punches hit with tremendous force.
And Cheonjin and Nanman were raised directly by that Yoo Ho.
Once they matured, they might even surpass their mother Noeji.
“All passengers have boarded!”
“Then we shall set sail!”
As the ship glided forward, a refreshing breeze swept across the deck.
Two hundred from the Baekrin Group and six hundred from the Cheongrin Group.
With so many people, we divided them among three ships and departed.
Clang!
I stroked Hwang-gu’s head.
“Where are we going? We’re heading straight to Zhejiang Province. Fujian Province lies below it. We’ve arranged to gather at Zhejiang Province, our midway point.”
Clang clang?
Whether he understood the words or not.
I’m not entirely sure.
What I do understand is that many people will likely be swayed by Hwang-gu’s cuteness and give him jerky.
‘Altogether, we’re looking at nearly two thousand warriors.’
The Baekrin Medical Guild sent the most warriors.
My Master’s intention was to crush anything that stood in the way.
‘This is practically a small army.’
The best outcome would be if they were intimidated by this force and peacefully surrendered their weapons without further conflict.
And so I arrived in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province.

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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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