Doctor’s Rebirth - Chapter 635

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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 635
“Did all the bandit leaders under your command perish?”
“The one the Abbot handled, we managed to capture alive. The rest we simply killed.”
At those words, I nodded silently.
‘They were all bandits, after all—everyone would have trembled at the thought of them.’
Sama Hyeon went without saying, but neither Gongseon Yeong nor Namgung Un showed much mercy in their hands.
We might spare those from the same righteous faction or those who followed a different greater cause, but why would we show mercy to bandits who preyed on commoners and drained their blood?
“The Abbot was quite skillful to keep one alive.”
“Yes. There was this fellow called Cheongmyeon Suseo wearing a scholar’s robe with a bluish complexion—apparently the leader of Xionggu Stronghold. Though in person, he looked rather frail.”
“Is that so?”
“That Gwireong Sannin who was supposed to come later… apparently that group never showed up, so they lost.”
“I should interrogate him once.”
I went to meet Cheongmyeon Suseo.
The moment he saw my face, he immediately prostrated himself flat.
“G-great one, I greet you!”
His skill at prostrating while bound was exquisite.
“I won’t waste words. If you answer my questions, this will end peacefully. If you don’t answer…”
“…If I don’t?”
I withdrew a large needle from my pouch—a massive acupuncture needle the size of an adult’s palm.
“I’ll apply it painfully.”
Gulp—
‘Is he thinking I’ll drive it under his fingernails?’
He was planning to reveal everything anyway.
‘Ilgwang said I do everything except kill, so I must seem terrifying indeed.’
Meanwhile, I was thinking differently.
‘If I puncture the Quchi point and the Hegu point with this, he’ll experience excruciating pain, and his constipation will be cured.’
If that didn’t work, I was prepared to call Sama Hyeon, but the fellow, terrified beyond measure, immediately spilled all the necessary information.
“The Demonic Sect sent approximately three hundred participants, an elite force composed of peak masters and transcendent masters.”
“Three hundred, you say?”
‘That would have caused tremendous casualties in a direct confrontation.’
Devising the strategy had been the right answer.
The formation tactics, combined with the arrow attacks, had allowed us to seize victory easily.
I immediately asked him various other questions before sending Cheongmyeon Suseo away.
Now with his dantian sealed and his limbs’ meridians damaged, he would be handed over to the magistrate’s office.
He might die in prison or face execution.
But either way, it would happen before the families of his victims, and I could only hope that became a glimmer of hope in their lives.
As I emerged, Manseong Daejoo approached me.
“The corpses of those who appear to be Demonic Sect members number approximately two hundred.”
‘Two hundred out of three hundred dead.’
I was slightly surprised.
‘Why would so many Heterodox Faction members be involved in bandit suppression?’
Perhaps this matter was something the Heterodox Faction could not afford to lose.
Or could it be that they deployed so many people specifically to attack me, Jin Cheon-hee?
There was no way to know.
Bandits tend to have loose tongues, but the Heterodox Faction members would swiftly take their own lives rather than be captured.
Manseondaejoo continued speaking.
“Nearly four thousand bandits have fallen, and among the survivors, approximately four thousand are uninjured. The remaining two thousand have sustained injuries of varying severity and are currently receiving treatment.”
I nodded in acknowledgment.
Seeing this, Manseong Daejoo released a small sigh of relief.
‘Fortunate. In the old days, I would have been concerned even about the fallen enemies, but since returning from the North Sea Ice Palace, I’ve become more resolute.’
And that strategy.
They say even a beast exerts its full effort when hunting a rabbit.
‘If ordinary Kang Ho-in had conducted this suppression, more than half of my martial artists would have perished.’
Had these been mere bandits, I would not have harbored such concerns.
But with the Heterodox Faction involved… I even wondered if the casualties might have exceeded half.
That was when Namgung Un approached.
“A great victory indeed. At first, I wasn’t sure about this plan, but trusting my younger brother was the right call.”
Namgung Un had completely forgotten his earlier attempts to dissuade me.
Now that he knew the Heterodox Faction was involved, my strategy had proven correct after all.
The Abbot added a word as well.
“That our people have not suffered grave injuries is the compassion of the Buddha.”
She bowed quietly with her hands pressed together.
‘I heard it was the Abbot who annihilated most of the Heterodox Faction members.’
Gongseon Yeong and Namgung Un possessed formidable martial prowess, but they were ultimately rising stars of Gangho.
They could not match the Abbot’s martial mastery.
‘And regarding Sama Hyeon, it was said one cannot know whom he killed and whom he spared.’
He had torn through the battlefield while constantly changing his appearance.
From the start, Sama Hyeon seemed disinclined to publicize his accomplishments or whom he had slain.
Rather, if concealing his strength was advantageous upon calculation, that was what he would do.
‘Yes, a great victory.’
Many enemies had fallen.
But to grieve over it each time would be to make the name of Gangho too light.
‘My people survived—I should be grateful for that. Anything more would be greed.’
If the result had been the snowy field and the necks of those dear to me, I would never wish to see it again.
Rather, if I were to pity anyone, the commoners who died at their hands were far more deserving of sympathy.
I reminded myself once more.
I spoke.
“Shall I prepare dinner as I see fit?”
Sama Hyeon asked.
“Spicy chicken ribs? With potatoes sliced thin and plenty of them?”
How in the world does he know about that?
I answered with indifference.
“Yeah, that. I asked the innkeeper to prepare the meat and packed it tightly into bamboo tubes.”
Everyone rejoiced at my words.
“Ooh! Truly, the world’s greatest chef, Ilgwang!”
“The one supreme in cooking, Ilgwang, will prepare chicken dishes for us!”
Waaaaaah!
They seemed more delighted about this than the victory itself.
‘…The world’s greatest chef… what on earth….’
Even though I achieved a great victory through strategy, my reputation as a chef seemed to be accumulating faster?
Today too, my career compass was spinning in a strange direction.
* * *
Though the bandits numbered in the thousands, the Kang Ho-in of Dosan Sword Forest possessed a very convenient technique.
Pressure point striking!
Once the vital meridians were sealed, they couldn’t move an inch.
Pressure pointing thousands of bandits like an ant colony wasn’t easy, but after spending several days on it, I managed to seal and subdue them all.
Next came dantian closure.
This part also consumed considerable time.
Closing the dantian required more time and inner energy than pressure point striking.
Still, if I didn’t do this meticulously, problems would arise later, so there was no choice.
“Amitabha Buddha, having possessed martial prowess yet failed to practice righteousness, the time has come for them to return to being ordinary commoners.”
The Abbot, being a Buddhist, chanted sutras for each person as he sealed their dantians.
Some bandits wailed, while others begged, promising to reform and live righteously if only their dantians were spared.
Rarely, some had already let go of everything and accepted their fate.
Yet the Abbot showed mercy to none.
After handling that, my Censorate Gold Seal once again demonstrated the power of authority.
With the appearance of the Censorate Gold Seal, officials from the magistrate’s office rushed out obsequiously and dragged the bandits away.
Naturally, this included Cheongmyeon Suseo, the leader of Onggolchae, who was a high-bounty wanted criminal.
Merely capturing a single bandit would earn a reward from the magistrate’s office, but having eliminated thousands at once meant the reward had to be substantial.
Moreover, with me holding the Censorate Gold Seal, the Governor himself came and bowed respectfully, promising to deliver the reward properly before departing.
“…How… I never thought the magistrate’s officials would bow so much.”
Namgung Un spoke in astonishment. I answered calmly.
“Authority is a good thing. It allows things to be resolved quickly.”
“I shouldn’t make an enemy of you in the future.”
“Hyeong, they didn’t embezzle a single coin of the reward and gave it all properly. Wow~ I’ve never seen anything like this before.”
That was true.
Normally, it would be customary for officials to embezzle rewards along the way, but if they did that now, that exalted person’s wrath could result in three generations being executed and the rest of the family being sold as government slaves.
Though the slave system had been abolished, the government slave system for punishment still existed.
And the authority to approve these government slaves belonged to none other than the Emperor himself!
Therefore, officials attempting to enrich themselves by turning commoners into government slaves for personal gain was fundamentally blocked.
In any case, after the Orin Society’s martial artists had dealt with all the bandits, they returned to Bokju.
The heterodox faction members who had still been stationed in Bokju had long since fled with their tails between their legs to parts unknown.
As a result, various buildings throughout the city stood empty.
According to the laws of Gangho, the Orin Society claimed them.
Of course, it was Sama Hyeon of Hao-mun and Namgung Un of the Namgung Family who took the lead in handling such matters.
‘Gongseon Yeong had been too busy following merchant caravans and squandering the family fortune to have any experience with this sort of thing, and the Abbot was handling this type of work for the first time.’
The very fact that bandits still remained in Zhejiang Province spoke volumes.
It was inevitable that the Bota Clan’s administrative capabilities fell somewhat short compared to other sects.
Sama Hyeon remarked on this.
“There’s no helping it. You can’t exactly tell a monk to get his hands dirty in worldly affairs, can you~?”
“So this is what happens when a sect is too pure?”
Sama Hyeon nodded at my words.
“Of course, Gaga. Having no interest in money means neglecting management as well. Someone needs to take the lead, get their hands dirty with money, and expand the faction’s influence. But the Bota Clan, starting with the Head Monk himself, are all too devoted to sincere Buddhist practice, so it’s inevitable they fall behind.”
‘That’s true. Even monks can’t live on air alone. Someone has to handle the business side of things.’
Whether the Bota Clan could find such talent was now their responsibility.
In any case, after settling these matters and arriving in Bokju, the Governor appeared once more and presented the second bounty.
The bounty for Cheongmyeon Suseo, the leader of Yonggolchae.
Since he was the leader of one of the top five strongholds among the Eighteen Strongholds of the Green Forest, the sum was astronomical.
Even if we had merely taken his head, there would have been a bounty, but since we captured him alive, additional rewards were added on top.
The amount was so staggering that even Sama Hyeon expressed satisfaction—what more need be said?
With that money, the government officially purchased the buildings that the heterodox faction had used (buildings abandoned by the heterodox faction were automatically confiscated by the authorities, then resold through proper procedure), and they became the property of the Orin Society.
Sama Hyeon took over various pleasure houses and inns.
And money houses—a form of private finance business (an ancient Chinese commercial financial institution that handled currency exchange, savings, and loans).
Namgung Un acquired breweries, textile mills, cloth shops, and so on, while the Abbot, though he didn’t understand what was what, received land for construction, woodworking, architecture, and farmland through the others’ deference.
Gongseon Yeong put his hand into transportation, labor, and real estate.
What did I do in the meantime?
I built bathhouses and pressured the Governor to award me the contract for water and sewage works.
‘Work, chicks!’
And I obtained the rights to manage the water and sewage systems and collect water usage fees.
A single major national infrastructure project trumped all other commercial interests.
On top of that, Baekrin convenience stores, Baekrin Medical Guild branches by Bunta, and so on lined up like candy on a string….
Even Sama Hyeon could only shake his head in amazement at such maneuvering.

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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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