Doctor’s Rebirth - Chapter 632

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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 632
That was when it happened.
Arrows came flying again. This time, they didn’t seem to come from the main force I’d seen earlier—there were fewer of them, and they were spaced much more loosely.
Even their range and speed fell far short of before.
Iron Martial Sect Leader enhanced his vision to examine the arrows.
First, they were ordinary wooden arrows, not iron ones.
I could tell the archer was far more inexperienced than the main force from before.
But something was tied to one of the arrows.
“What in the world is that?”
The moment an arrow struck the ground, a loud bang erupted, and white mist began seeping out.
“Everyone, hold your breath! There’s poison!”
With those words, an inexperienced bandit suddenly collapsed.
He didn’t foam at the mouth.
Iron Martial Sect Leader checked his pulse out of curiosity, then bellowed.
“Sleep darts!”
“I’m… so… sleepy…”
With those words, bandits with weak inner energy began dropping to the ground one by one.
“Ilgwang released the poison!”
“That vicious Ilgwang is spreading poison gas!”
At that moment, Ilgwang’s voice rang out from a distance, carried by sound transmission.
“Fighting isn’t about winning! It’s about making you furious! Kehehehehehe!”
At that detestable laughter, bandits and demonic cultists alike felt their faces flush crimson with rage.
Even Iron Martial Sect Leader nearly had his qi and blood twisted in that instant.
Whenever we tried to catch him, there was a formation. Whenever we tried again, another formation. How many times had we been pelted with arrow rain?
What was most infuriating was that despite coming this far, that bastard Ilgwang hadn’t even shown his face—only his mocking laughter filled the air.
“For a sect leader to be this petty! Ilgwang! You will not die a dignified death!”
Cheol Baek and his subordinates advanced, dragging their swords behind them.
Ilgwang clearly had no intention of following the ways of Gangho.
No, he was a strange creature who moved by rules entirely different from those of Gangho.
As they advanced, a familiar face appeared.
The Soaring Dragon Sword of the Namgung Family.
Namgung Un.
Lately, he’d also been given the aliases Soaring Dragon Divine Sword or Thunder Dragon Divine Sword.
Namgung Un stood with a cold expression and slowly drew his sword.
“Well, well, one of the Six Demonic Patriarchs—Golden Blood Hyeolma Cheol Baek, is it not? I cannot allow you to proceed further.”
“Hehehehe, the Thunder Dragon of the Namgung Family, no less. Impressive that you recognize this one as Cheol Baek. But step aside! I must kill Ilgwang… Ugh?!”
In that instant, Cheol Baek was struck in the ribs and sent flying to the side.
A perfect strike delivered by someone who had evaded the perception of an absolute master who had reached Hwagyeong!
A truly flawless ambush!
However.
Cheol Baek is a member of the Iron Hyeolma clan, one of the Demonic Sects.
Though his body had not reached the Diamond Indestructible state, his flesh was resilient enough that even sword energy could not easily wound him.
He twisted his body in mid-air and landed on the ground.
Yet when he looked at his side in terrible pain, he found flesh torn away in chunks.
‘He pierced through my external cultivation! What kind of terrifying palm technique is this!’
He turned his head to see who had attacked him.
Through the smoke, a masked man emerged, walking with delicate, exaggerated steps like a female character in classical opera.
Theatrical, exaggerated movements.
They resembled the gestures from a play he’d once seen—the Farewell of the Concubine.
Sama
Hyeon.
.
He had appeared.
“An ambush? You cowardly bastards!”
At those words, Namgung Un’s face flushed red, but Sama Hyeon remained shameless.
“You brought ten thousand men and now you complain? If you want a fair fight, come unarmed. Since when did heterodox sect members care about fairness, hmm~?”
Saying this, he bounced about as if dancing.
“You see, if anyone so much as lays a finger on my brother, I don’t care what methods I use—I’ll kill them~”
As he removed his mask, his crimson lips curled upward in an exaggerated theatrical expression.
Namgung Un spoke.
“Sama Mun-ju. This is between me and him…”
“What? A fair duel? Do you really think Iron Martial Sect Leader will fight one-on-one~?”
Sama Hyeon spread his fingers softly like a crane’s wings as he continued.
“Or will he bark orders to his lackeys on either side—’Go on, deal with this bastard’~?”
Strike first to win.
The demonic sect bastards would obviously fight in a group anyway.
Better to throw the first punch in a brawl.
‘What exactly is Sama Hyeon doing? Don’t Golden Blood Hall people usually prefer counting money in the background?’
This young man, drenched in blood, didn’t look like a Golden Blood Hall member no matter how you looked at it.
His willingness to strike first, knowing their subordinates would help anyway.
A heterodox sect.
Not even Golden Blood Hall—more like the street thug behavior of Hao-mun.
But it didn’t matter.
The youth before him converted face and pride into currency.
What mattered was profit.
“Understood. Let’s fight together.”
At that moment, at Iron Martial Sect Leader’s signal, his demonic sect subordinates drew their swords as well.
“Die!”
At Iron Martial Sect Leader’s cry, Sama Hyeon spoke.
“Old man~ In classical opera, characters who shout like that always die in the next scene~”
As he spoke, he cracked his knuckles one by one with sharp snaps.
* * *
‘Is this proceeding according to plan?’
I stood atop the tallest tree, surveying the battlefield below.
Balanced on a branch as thin as a baby’s finger, my posture was worthy of admiration.
Other martial artists seemed baffled by how I was even standing, but I remained composed.
From this vantage point, I could see the entire battlefield at a glance and read the wind with ease.
“Why won’t that coward Ilgwang show himself!!”
The Iron Martial Sect Leader roared with fury, infusing his voice with inner power.
‘Hmm? I know that old man. Ah, so the Demonic Cult is involved? Well, they were stronger than I expected.’
Normally, they should have been annihilated at the first or second defensive line.
But seeing them push deeper made me sense something was off.
I’d vaguely suspected another force was at play, but I hadn’t expected it to be the Demonic Cult.
“You cowardly bastard!!!”
With arrows raining down on the defensive lines and enemies fleeing at every opportunity, even a Buddha would be enraged.
And the Demonic Cult was hardly known for restraint.
I rolled my neck lightly, thinking.
‘True, he’s a coward. But I hate seeing my people die.’
So I devised a strategy.
To achieve overwhelming victory, strategy was essential.
No matter what curses he hurled, this was my nature, and I had no intention of changing it.
“Prepare the next volley!”
At Man Seon’s command, the Baekrin Group and Cheongrin-dae nocked their arrows in perfect unison.
The other martial artists watching were amazed.
“The Baekrin Group are said to be master archers thanks to direct instruction from Gungwi in archery, right? Did Cheongrin-dae also receive training?”
“Not directly, I hear. From the moment they were hired, the Baekrin Group taught them archery.”
“Impressive. So both the Baekrin Group and Cheongrin-dae become excellent archers if needed.”
“That’s not all. They also learn basic emergency medical techniques so they can immediately rescue and transport injured comrades.”
“With that, leaving the Baekrin Medical Guild would never leave them starving.”
“They’re acquiring a lifetime’s worth of wealth. Yet I hear even with higher pay, they won’t leave.”
“Well, of course. Simply belonging to the Baekrin Medical Guild significantly reduces the chance of dying a violent death.”
The other martial artists nodded at this.
“In this world, what could be more valuable than one’s life?”
Looking at martial artists from sects or families, their worth was ultimately determined by their martial talent.
Those skilled enough to enter the Olyun Society were all considered capable in their own regions.
Yet even such warriors fell far short of true geniuses.
Most had fixed positions determined by their innate gifts, and even with effort, few could overcome this without encountering opportunity.
‘Rising beyond that point is extremely rare.’
And many met their end maintaining that position, cut down by some blind master swordsman of the Gangho.
For such people, the Baekrin Medical Guild had become quite an attractive place.
Manseong Daejoo’s face flushed red as he let out a deliberate cough.
‘That’s right, you bastards. Do you have any idea how remarkable our Soggakju is!’
His lips itched to boast, and he had to press them firmly shut to hold back.
Manseong Daejoo, who had come here to find a husband and achieved rapid advancement, was a living witness to the success story of Baekrin Uiseon.
“Fire!”
Whistle whistle whistle!
Arrows once again filled the sky.
The sight of eight hundred martial artists releasing their bowstrings simultaneously was truly spectacular.
“They’ve already forced three thousand casualties at the entrance. Now they’re drawing them deeper inside where they can even unleash poison smoke.”
“And if arrow attacks overlap, even supreme masters would be turned into porcupines, wouldn’t they?”
“The ones who look like heterodox sect members rather than bandits are now down to less than a hundred.”
The other martial artists of the Five Wheels Society clicked their tongues as they observed the battle situation.
“We must never become enemies with Ilgwang.”
The bandits had suffered thousands more casualties from the poison smoke, and those still capable of movement were now fewer than three thousand.
Seeing this, a bitter smile escaped me.
‘Those who can withstand poison smoke and arrows are the true elite. But even that means nothing.’
I too inhaled the poison smoke.
But this was not smoke meant to put one to sleep—it was smoke meant to forcibly awaken the mind.
The medicinal herbs my Master had prescribed turned to ash within the pipe.
Exhale—
The commoners slaughtered by those bastards came to mind one by one.
How many patients had I lost before I could even treat them?
‘Honestly, I’m no saint.’
If I felt compassion, it was for the commoners who had suffered at their hands, not for the bandits themselves.
Contrary to what people believed, the reason I didn’t kill with my own hands was simply so that when I grew old and weary someday, my dreams wouldn’t be troubled.
The Doctor moved forward, casting aside distracting thoughts.
Poison smoke poured down and arrows fell like rain.
Even amid this onslaught, the bandits charged forward without retreat.
I couldn’t understand their reasoning at all.
But if I thought of it as the nature of Gangho, it wasn’t entirely incomprehensible.
How much are humans shaped by their environment?
A child cries from just a paper cut while folding paper, yet in some lands, children learn to shoot people with rifles.
‘People call me the Righteous Doctor, but I’m neither a deity nor an immortal. I’m just a person.’
I felt the reverent gazes of the Five Wheels Society martial artists.
To them, this fellow Jeol-gal was not human—an opponent they could never afford to make an enemy of.
Because they couldn’t understand his thinking, nor could they comprehend the results.
Humans could only revere.
I spoke.
“The enemy numbers are steadily decreasing.”
Manseong answered.
“Yes, it’s all thanks to Soggakju’s strategy.”
The Layered Stratagem—simultaneously employing the Remove the Ladder tactic and the Empty Fortress gambit!
I merely waved modern propaganda on top of it all.
‘The effect is perfect. If they raise the white flag at an opportune moment, I’d like to capture them alive then.’
However, given the nature of Kang Ho-in, they might fight to the death.
Sect Members abandon their pride if there’s no profit in it, yet they cling to face so desperately they’ll stake their lives on it without hesitation.

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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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