Doctor’s Rebirth - Chapter 640

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

Chapter 640
I nodded in agreement.
“Fine. Yes. If we’re going to do this, we might as well do it right.”
“Excellent, Sa Jeo~ Once we find the evidence, let’s absolutely crush him~ It’s already confirmed he’s connected to the bandits anyway.”
Crack—
Sama Hyeon cracked his knuckles.
He was already itching at the thought of tearing Dan Seok-san’s face apart.
‘It’s definitely certain that Sama Hyeon’s money is also in the Unryongpyoguk.’
This wasn’t just ordinary resentment.
The moment we found evidence, Dan Seok-san’s life would be forfeit.
I nodded at that thought.
‘Since Dan Seok-san is a cash-rich man, the only way he survives is to immediately pile compensation like a mountain at Sama Hyeon’s feet.’
If he were a real estate magnate, there’d be no hope.
* * *
Thus the two of us arrived at the village.
A small village located about two days’ journey from Do Won-dong where Dan Seok-san lived.
But the moment we entered the village entrance, a foul stench assaulted us.
‘What?’
I quickly looked around.
I could see commoners walking listlessly with pallid faces.
And in the corners of the street, corpses lay in rows wrapped in straw mats, while people who appeared to be their families wailed in grief.
I muttered.
“Could this be a plague?”
It was unclear.
More pressing was the wary gaze in the villagers’ eyes.
‘To move the authorities, I need to at least roughly understand what’s happening here….’
When I mentioned this to Sama Hyeon, he whispered quietly.
“But they won’t easily tell outsiders. Especially not after a calamity like this.”
There was no helping it.
Sama Hyeon spoke.
“The inn is the fastest way.”
Recalling the North Sea Ice Palace, I nodded.
There too, the inn was the quickest way to gather information.
“That’s what I was thinking. But there’s no Hao Wen Sect branch here?”
“There was a small Bunta.”
“Why are you speaking in the past tense?”
“We killed them during the Bloodshed Incident with Bangju.”
Hearing that, something about the phrasing felt odd, so I asked again.
“You mean ‘we killed them,’ not ‘they died’?”
Sama Hyeon questioned back as if asking why I’d inquire about something so obvious.
“A man who won’t be swayed even with money—what can we do, Sa Jeo? Our Heterodox Faction has a tradition of threatening people by holding their families hostage and starving them, but it seemed too sordid for that, so I simply cut off his head cleanly.”
…Ah, so that’s what happened. He’s dead.
Sama Hyeon continued speaking.
“We need to recruit someone new to replace him, but it’s not easy. It seems something happened during that gap.”
* * *
When we arrived at the inn, even the innkeeper was sitting in a chair, staring blankly out the window.
‘An inn where no one says “Welcome!”—how refreshing.’
I thought this and let out a dry cough.
Only then did the innkeeper speak in a listless voice.
“…Welcome.”
Sama Hyeon responded deliberately in a cheerful tone.
“Just one room and two bowls of noodles, roughly prepared. We’ll stay for one night, so a bathtub and hot water for washing should suffice.”
As he spoke, he tossed silver coins—not threw them carelessly.
Ting!
The boat-shaped silver coin landed softly in the innkeeper’s hand.
Perhaps because of the silver, a glimmer returned to the innkeeper’s eyes.
Sama Hyeon spoke in a deliberately concerned voice.
“You seem quite dispirited. Now that I think about it, it seems someone has died. Is something troubling you?”
“You are warriors of Gangho, aren’t you?”
I spoke while showing the embroidery stitched on my chest.
“We work for Unryongpyoguk….”
Sama Hyeon quickly picked up my words.
“We trained under the Black Bota Clan~”
As he spoke, he sent me a telepathic message.
[Hyeong. People in Fujian don’t know Unryongpyoguk well. But they know the Bota Clan. We should mention that first so they’ll understand.]
Sure enough, the innkeeper began nodding.
“The Bota Clan! Ah…. You’ve trained in Buddhism!”
As he spoke, color returned to his face.
Seeing this, I said:
“Innkeeper, seeing how pleased you are to meet us suggests there’s a reason behind it.”
Did my voice sound deeper?
I realized it belatedly, but the innkeeper seemed too preoccupied to pay much attention to that.
“It’s… a demon has appeared.”
“What?”
I asked again, wondering if I’d heard correctly.
However, the innkeeper’s expression was grave—neither joking nor lying.
“A demon has appeared and harmed people for several months now. There’s no more burial ground left, and the village Geomancer fled long ago, so we’re at a loss for how to conduct the funeral.”
As a K-national, I asked:
“It’s not a tiger, is it?”
“What kind of Mountain Lord enters a house by opening the door and harms people?”
“Is that so…?”
“If a beast did this, it wouldn’t be able to turn a door handle to open it. At least, the traces left behind are not something an animal could do.”
The innkeeper pondered for a moment before adding a remark.
“Could the nuns of the Bota Clan perhaps drive away this peculiar demon? In old tales, didn’t they say that accomplished monks would chant sutras to expel demons?”
Sutras?
Faced with an unexpected situation, I could only respond this way.
“Let me think about it for now.”
“I will certainly provide compensation! Please, I beg you. We’re all going to die at this rate!”
He was on his knees, pleading desperately.
I quickly helped the innkeeper to his feet.
Tears glistened in his eyes.
“I’m sorry. I was just worried about my daughter.”
There wasn’t much commoners could do.
‘But sutras? How am I supposed to chant sutras?’
A demon… what is this…?
‘Could this be connected to Yeon Won-wang running amok?’
* * *
The innkeeper carefully filled a bath and prepared noodles.
At the news that a Bota Moon Swordsman had arrived, even the other villagers began to brighten up.
“Will the nun chant sutras for us?”
“Since she’s a martial nun, I’m not sure how well she’ll chant sutras… but still, it should be better than an ordinary warrior.”
“Yes, yes!”
Even from quite a distance, it was heard clearly.
When I whispered that I found it burdensome, Sama Hyeon calmly ate his noodles and said:
[Eat well, rest well, and if things look bad after observing the situation a bit, we slip away. Simple.]
[But we’re lay disciples, not monks.]
Lay disciples typically referred to those who paid to learn martial arts.
Since they only learned the martial arts, they couldn’t be called monks.
[How would those people know such things?]
[True. You can’t tell from just the robes we’re wearing. Anyway, do you believe demons actually exist?]
To my question, Sama Hyeon answered as if I were asking something obvious.
[If Hyeolseonggyo exists, demons could exist too. At least demons don’t sell drugs, enslave people they kidnap, seduce Suksin Tribe children, and start wars, right?]
Well, that’s simple logic. Remarkably cool-headed, almost chillingly so.
In any case, hearing him put it this way, I decided to compose myself.
‘Alright. Let’s do what we can, and if it doesn’t work, we’ll drop it.’
There was such a passage in the historical records of the Joseon Dynasty.
– I humbly request that you repel it with cannons.
With that spirit of requesting just one cannon shot when strange occurrences continued in a house, I rearmed myself.
The answer is firepower, firepower!
‘Before overwhelming firepower, strange things just get blown away.’
I’d just repelled Yeon Won-wang—whether he was a Sage or a Grand Sage, I couldn’t tell—with K-firepower, hadn’t I?
‘Firepower is supreme!’
No matter how terrifying a demon might be, it would pale before this Icy Blade.
[And… it’s possible this might not be a demon at all, but a spirit creature.]
[A spirit creature?]
[Like the Six-Horned Venomous Snake we encountered before. Some spirit creatures are friendly to humans, but others aren’t.]
After finishing a delicious bowl of noodles, I headed to bathe.
As I soaked in the hot water, I transmitted my voice to tell about the Heukgapoong I’d captured in the past.
A massive venomous centipede that had lived by devouring people.
[Just look at Hwang-gu—he’s incredibly intelligent. An intelligent spirit creature might have started enjoying hunting humans. And that could appear demon-like.]
Truth be told, I don’t really understand the difference between demons and spirit creatures.
Spirit creatures appear frequently, while demons are beings of legend—that’s about all I know.
(Unofficially) I sometimes wonder if Yoo Ho might be a similar existence, but he could just be an extension of spirit creatures.
In any case, as a mortal, there’s no way I could understand all such distinctions.
“Let’s try repelling it with cannons first. Then we’ll know.”
“…?”
Sama Hyeon tilted his head slightly and said:
“You’re saying we should just beat it up?”
“See how quick you are to understand? We’re perfectly in sync.”
I replied to Sama Hyeon.
“When a demon appears, only you would suggest beating it up first, Hyeong.”
“That’s exactly why I get called Ilgwang.”
I dried my hair and polished the Icy Blade’s edge.
“Well, since things have come to this, should I try devouring a spirit core?”
“What if it’s something that can communicate?”
“Then we’ll work together for the progress of humanity.”
A perfect match.
* * *
I organized my thoughts that way and recovered from fatigue through the night.
When morning came again, I told the innkeeper that I would exterminate the demon for them.
“Indeed! Thank you! Thank you so much! You are truly the nuns of the Bota Clan!”
The Bota Clan has a good reputation wherever we go.
Perhaps because we resemble our Master the Abbot, we may not be compassionate, but we still try to practice cooperation.
“I’m already troubled that we only had two bowls of noodles. We should have provided four.”
The rumor in Gangho is that we eat an enormous amount, and it’s true.
Though the island doesn’t lack for food, since everyone is a big eater, even hundreds of sacks of rice disappear in an instant.
That’s why there’s a saying that to hire a Bota Moon Swordsman, delicious food—lots of it—is more effective than money.
The younger the swordsman, the better their appetite.
Meanwhile, I eat about the average for a Kang Ho-in, so I must have seemed strange.
‘I can’t compete with stomach capacity.’
Still, since it was such a small village, I was fortunate never to have seen a Bota Moon Swordsman up close.
“As a token of our gratitude, the villagers have pooled together these coins.”
Clink, clink, clink—
Only copper coins spilled out, not a single silver one.
Money that had been carefully preserved, each coin bearing the fingerprints of those who’d clutched them.
“I’ll accept payment in chickens instead of money.”
“Chickens? You mean just… chickens?”
“Yes. Not a breeding hen—an old rooster will do. Whenever you can catch one for me. I make excellent broth from them.”
With that, I rose to my feet.
“If it’s acceptable, I’d like to examine the victims’ bodies.”
Investigation came first.
“Yes, yes, of course! That’s only right. Thank you so much. Thank you!”
The innkeeper bowed deeply in gratitude.
[That money he just refused was probably their lifeline.]
[Right. It was their winter provisions. The fact they offered it means the villagers put their lives on the line too.]
It showed how deep the commoners’ desperation ran.
I couldn’t simply accept such a sacrifice.
‘Better to focus on Spirit Stones. Yes, Spirit Stones. And that… no, my precious research colleague.’
If it were someone like Yeon Won-wang, I’d drag him to the lab.
If it were something like Heukgapoong, that massive centipede—you’re heading straight to become Spirit Stones.

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————