Doctor’s Rebirth - Chapter 683

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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 683
“I am the Abbot of the Bota Clan. I shall employ our sect’s signature sword technique, the Tathagata Sword.”
Hanging at her waist was a wooden sword—so worn and blunt that anyone might mistake it for a walking staff.
One could not even slice tofu with such a blade. Yet her opponent was the Geomhwang.
She had set aside the title of Geomhwang.
Here, she was merely a simple nun who had come to meet a departed friend.
Nothing more was necessary.
“I am Cheonwoo of the Mudang Sect. The martial arts I shall employ are our sect’s supreme techniques: the Taiji Divine Fist and Taiji Fist, along with the Taeching Mountain Water.”
The martial arts Cheonwoo would use remained unchanged.
Even facing the Geomhwang, there was nothing to alter. He would simply employ the techniques he had learned.
This duel, destined to leave its mark upon the annals of Gangho, proceeded with such sparse words and austere simplicity from both the arbiter and the martial artists that it only deepened the curiosity of onlookers.
There was but one other remarkable distinction.
Words spoken by the Abbot.
The Tathagata Sword Technique.
Or rather, it belonged to the foundational martial arts of the Bota Clan, called either the Tathagata Sword or Tathagata Sword Method.
She declared she would fight using this fundamental technique.
If the Mudang Sect possessed the Taiji Fist, then the Bota Clan possessed the Tathagata Sword.
The two then assumed their ready stances.
Cheonwoo stood with his legs spread to shoulder width, one hand drawn toward his body and the other extended forward.
The Abbot held the sword in one hand, letting it hang quietly at rest, while her other hand formed a palm position.
A tranquil standoff.
“I shall yield the first three moves.”
The senior Abbot conceded the opening strike.
Cheonwoo had neither reason nor leisure to refuse.
“Then I humbly seek instruction from you, Abbot.”
Cheonwoo stepped forward one pace.
Since he harbored no intention of fighting to the death with the Abbot, his fists carried not brute force but refined inner energy.
The Mudang Taiji Fist’s Flash-Through Arm technique.
The vital energy of his entire body flowed forth through his left arm.
That single strike resembled lightning—swift enough that sight alone seemed too slow to follow.
Yet somehow, the sword had already risen vertically before the blow’s direct path.
The Abbot’s wooden sword, its edge not even sharp.
The Bota Tathagata Sword’s Single Line of Tathagata.
The blade lightly severed the fist energy.
But immediately after, Cheonwoo drew closer and unleashed a second technique.
Both hands, infused with inner force, drove toward the Abbot’s head.
The Taiji Fist’s Double Peak Penetrating Ears technique—first form!
Though equally swift and fierce, the flat of the approaching sword simply flicked both hands aside.
Clang!
This time their inner forces collided, producing a sharp sound. Yet Cheonwoo did not retreat; instead, he pressed even closer.
My two arms rebounded and spun, then I thrust out both palms in succession.
Taiji Fist—Taiji Palm!
The Abbot countered by opening the palm of his free hand and grasping the flat side of the sword, pushing it forward.
Tathagata Sword—Immovable Wisdom King.
Boom!
The sword and hand collided, creating a thunderous explosion.
Both of us slid backward, our feet scraping against the ground.
A relatively unhurried exchange.
Yet those who understood martial arts recognized the profound meaning behind this clash.
Seemingly simple, yet requiring mastery to comprehend—this exchange of offense and defense!
“Impressive, Cheon-u Dojang. Your efforts are truly admirable.”
The Abbot spoke without a single breath out of place.
Cheonwoo responded with genuine admiration.
“You remain formidable.”
“Should I not have at least one thing to take pride in? Well then… I have yielded three times already. Now I shall truly begin.”
The Abbot’s momentum transformed.
Tathagata Sword—Thousand-Armed Tathagata.
The sword moved slowly, yet countless afterimages multiplied to ten.
Those ten sword shadows descended upon me in an instant.
‘It comes…!’
Ten sword shadows—as the name Thousand-Armed Tathagata suggested, when fully deployed, dozens or even hundreds of afterimages would appear.
Yet the Abbot used only ten with restraint.
Still, there was not a single opening to exploit.
‘Is this the answer the Geomhwang bestowed?’
Every direction was precisely covered, making evasion impossible.
Then the secret teachings of the Mudang Sect ignited in Cheonwoo’s hands.
Taiji Fist—Taiji Perfect Harmony.
A secret art that deflects countless strikes.
Yet why…
The Abbot continued smiling with compassion.
“Amitabha Buddha.”
In that moment, the ten afterimages transformed.
Like a mandala drawn behind the principal Buddha of Buddhism, each unfolded carrying its own martial philosophy.
Tathagata Sword—Thousand-Armed Thousand-Eyed!
‘Thousand-Armed Tathagata is changing into Thousand-Armed Thousand-Eyed?!’
Even I, watching from the side, widened my eyes in shock.
Waaaaaah!
The warriors’ cries erupted.
The Abbot’s Tathagata Sword—Thousand-Armed Thousand-Eyed collided with Cheonwoo’s Taiji Perfect Harmony.
Kwaaaaaang!
The martial artists watching the explosion were sent sliding backward by the shockwave.
Even my sleeves billowed upward from the force.
Yet I did not retreat a single step.
‘I must commit every moment of this match to memory, from beginning to end!’
In that instant, cracks began to form in the Taiji Circle of the Taiji Fist.
Crack, crack, crack!
As the Taiji threatened to explode, Cheonwoo fell into despair.
‘Can I truly not win this…?’
The name that Geomhwang possessed was so vast and towering that as Cheonwoo, I could never reach that mountain.
Losing itself was not sorrowful.
It was like the principle of water falling from above to below.
But to have my Master’s memorial tablet stolen because of my own insufficiency—that was what broke my heart.
In that moment.
-You fool! Your problem is that you always jump to conclusions!
Why was it.
My Master’s stern voice seemed to echo from behind my back.
Suddenly I grew curious about what the Abbot had been trying to teach me.
If her true purpose was simply to crush Cheonwoo, she could have drawn a real blade instead of a wooden sword.
She need not have given three handicaps.
She could have poured out sword force instead of sword energy.
But Geomhwang did not take that path.
Then what was her intention?
My body began to move before my thoughts could catch up.
Only as my body moved did my thoughts follow along.
-The Taiji does not merely represent yin and yang, but transformation. If all things can be light and hot, or heavy and cold, then yin and yang ultimately signify the transformation of all things.
My Master’s final teaching.
The Abbot showed me this.
How the Thousand-Armed Avalokiteshvara transforms through its thousand eyes and thousand hands.
Then.
‘Could the Taiji Circle not also transform?’
Was that not what the Taiji Fist was for?
‘Were the forms we have repeated, thinking them natural, actually shackles all along?’
Her martial spirit is as boundless as the Thousand-Armed Avalokiteshvara.
In a way, does that not resemble the Taiji?
If the Taiji represents the myriad transformations of all things, then is not the mind (心) the thing that transforms most of all?
‘Ah, the mind (心) that transforms endlessly—that is the Taiji itself.’
From Cheonwoo’s fingertips, martial spirit manifests.
It was an ideal realm I had never once dreamed of reaching.
The Abbot watches this transformation with compassionate eyes.
Cheonwoo extends his fist, forgetting himself.
Taiji Divine Fist, Shimmoo Severance.
태극합벽—!
I feel the air.
The Taiji that was about to split transforms into a new Shimmoo. That transformed Taiji exploded as yin and yang.
콰과과과과광—!
Within the catastrophic explosion that shakes the entire arena, Cheonwoo sees death.
Facing death from the very Shimmoo I unleashed isn’t amusing, yet I don’t feel displeased.
-I see. My hundred years of life were meant to meet you.
A single praise that only one person can achieve by dedicating their entire life.
Gwon Je left his disciple with the highest praise.
Then I cannot stop, can I?
Someone must prove the hundred years that Gwon Je lived.
It cannot be another. It must be me.
Must I not understand what he left behind?
‘Stubborn Taiji.’
I still cannot know my Master’s true intention. However, I know that if I cannot protect his memorial tablet like this, I will regret it for life.
Even if this one punch were my last for all eternity, it would be enough.
I resolved to offer my arms.
I understood that there comes a time when one must stake everything, and this is that moment. So strike forth.
Cheonwoo accepts death and pours forth all his strength.
Within the roar, my vision fills with light.
Gulp—
The shattered arena.
Both of Cheonwoo’s arms were broken.
Blood pooled in his ears as if his eardrums had burst.
The Shimmoo just unleashed was a realm utterly impossible for Cheonwoo.
He forcibly drew it out through his Master’s teachings and used it.
The price was severe.
Yet in that vision stands the Abbot.
She still stood with her wooden sword in hand.
‘It didn’t reach….’
At that moment, Jin Cheon-hee moves toward the center.
My brother was not unscathed either, breathing heavily as he stood between the two.
Then he opened his mouth.
“Both out of bounds! It’s a draw!”
At that moment, Cheonwoo’s eyes widen.
Where he and the Abbot had stood now remained only a pile of earth, but it should have been the spectator seats.
‘A… draw?’
Waaaaaaa!
The Mudang practitioners erupt in cheers.
Gwon Je had fought Geomhwang to a draw!
The Abbot returned the wooden sword to its sheath.
“That was a magnificent display of the Taiji.”
“…I have now received two teachings.”
“Amitabha…. I merely returned to the Mudang what was once awakened through the Mudang in the past.”
My eyes widened at those words.
‘That’s it. That’s exactly it. That’s it!’
Martial arts can never be perfected alone.
Even wall-facing meditation has its limits.
A person who has never fought once in their entire life cannot become the greatest master under heaven simply by staring at a wall.
Of course, one can refine internal energy and technique, but to truly approach the essence of martial arts, one must test oneself against others.
And testing oneself requires an opponent.
Neither martial arts nor chivalry can be pursued alone.
If that is grace, resentment, and humanity…
“You are returning the enlightenment gained through Gwon Je to his disciple.”
“….”
The Abbot gazed toward the heavens.
“Well, I shall take my leave now.”
Words that Gwon Je had once spoken.
Words that signified the bond between two people.
What had transpired, the generations to come would never know.
Yet I saw tears briefly form at the corners of the Abbot’s eyes before vanishing just as quickly.
And then.
“A draw!! A draw, you say–!!!!!”
The voice of Jang Mun-in, who had ultimately protected the ancestral tablet.
“….”
Thump—
The sight of Cheonwoo collapsed with both arms broken and utterly exhausted.
Today was the forty-ninth day.
The day when the deceased fully departs.
Had Gwon Je witnessed this final scene as he passed on?
There was no way to know.
But this spectacle was undoubtedly the finest funeral rite one could offer him.
Yet as I administered emergency treatment to the collapsed Cheonwoo, I reflected.
The most terrifying forty-ninth day in the world had finally ended.
* * *
Cheonwoo dreamed.
In a reed field, Gwon Je was drinking yuzu tea.
Whoooosh—
As the wind blew, the reeds swayed and bent. Yet they never broke.
Later, it would use that very wind to scatter its seeds and fly even farther.
It resembled what the Mudang called the principle of softness overcoming hardness.
“Have you gained enlightenment?”
Young Cheonwoo tried to approach Gwon Je, but found himself unable to draw any closer.
The indifferent reed field stretched endlessly with each step, leaving him perpetually in the same spot.
Cheonwoo had no choice but to speak from where he stood.
“I have witnessed the Tai Chi.”
“Hehehehe. It is not so difficult to see that… I was indeed wise to ask my old friend for this favor.”
Cheonwoo had much he wished to say.
My Master also seemed to have much to say.
So the two disciples gazed into each other’s eyes.
“Jin Cheon-hee, that one served you well. You are a crybaby.”

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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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