Doctor’s Rebirth - Chapter 702

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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 702
The Namgung Family informed the Martial Arts Alliance of this fact.
There was nothing to hide since the Gangho already knew everything.
‘Nevertheless, such formalities hold great importance in the Gangho.’
From a young person’s perspective, it might appear as inefficient pretense, but I understood that it was precisely because of such formalities that the Righteous Faction endured, I thought.
Integrity and shame.
That is what makes the Righteous Faction truly righteous.
When the Grand Elder’s seal came down to seal the Gaju’s dantian, people arrived from the Martial Arts Alliance.
“The Martial Arts Alliance investigation team has arrived at the Namgung Family!”
They all wore dark martial robes, but they removed their black belts and entered the Namgung Family with respect.
That gesture meant they would observe proper etiquette.
In a sense, this too could be called mere formality.
Gaju Namgung Cheol dressed in the white garments worn by the deceased, his hair unbound, and knelt before the great hall of the Namgung Family.
Until the investigation began, he did not drink even a single drop of water.
Such was the law of the Namgung Family.
‘The Grand Elder Namgung Ban sits in the highest seat managing all matters, yet he does not sit in the Gaju’s position.’
The investigators from the Martial Arts Alliance asked various questions and took away various pieces of evidence.
They confirmed that Namgung Cheol’s testimony matched the testimonies left by the witnesses, and the clerk recorded it all.
Thus another formality came to an end.
Finally, with everyone gathered, Namgung Cheol sat in formal meditation upon white cloth and awaited the verdict.
Namgung Ban recited the charges against Namgung Cheol.
With each charge recited, everyone’s complexion changed.
Though they had known of the charges, they had not expected them all to be laid bare.
Fortunately, no one had died.
That much was a mercy.
“According to the main family’s law that the Grand Elder shall strictly question the Gaju’s wrongs, I determine the punishment for the criminal Namgung Cheol. The criminal Namgung Cheol shall have his dantian sealed and be permanently confined!”
Boom!
A massive drum sounded.
Namgung Ban opened his mouth.
“If anyone objects to this verdict, step forward!”
….
Of course, no one came forward.
From the beginning, the people of the Namgung Family had been given hints about what verdict Namgung Cheol would receive and how power would shift.
“Criminal Namgung Cheol, do you have any objections?”
Namgung Cheol struck his head against the ground with a thud, prostrating himself.
Blood flowed from his forehead.
A sight so pitiful it hardly seemed befitting a Gaju of a major sect.
Yet even that appearance was a karmic burden the Gaju must bear.
“I have none. As the Gaju of the main family, I shall spend my life reflecting upon the sin of learning demonic arts.”
“Then carry out the sentence!”
With those words, the softhearted turned their gaze skyward.
It was the day one of the Namgung Family’s pillars fell.
And simultaneously, the day the sect members’ disgrace was washed away.
* * *
Once a warrior seals their dantian, their health begins to deteriorate rapidly from that moment.
The body that once moved naturally becomes impossibly heavy, and every inch aches as though wading through the deepest ocean.
Gaju Namgung Cheol lay bedridden for an extended period.
Meanwhile, I took his pulse at his bedside and expelled the mercury from his body.
I had already begun chelation therapy before sealing his dantian, but then his body still possessed inner strength.
Now he was no different from an ordinary mercury poisoning victim, making his suffering all the more evident.
“Ahhhhhhh!”
Even with his dantian sealed and inner strength lost, his body remembered martial arts. His vital energy remained that of a Gangho master.
Though it would soon become ordinary, the residual brain qi tormented him now.
And the heart demon.
Heart demon, heart demon, heart demon, heart demon, heart demon.
Even with the dantian gone, that wretched thing rises as blood in his mouth.
Even breathing, even drinking water became hell.
“You’re doing well. If the pain becomes unbearable, cry out. If you feel your tongue might break, tell me then.”
I treated and managed him with calm composure, yet with cold precision.
Though he had sealed his own dantian to end matters, this remained a delicate period.
If he died now, a blood tempest would sweep through Gangho.
The Namgung Family would certainly claim they had pinned all crimes on their Gaju and committed genocide.
Namgung Cheol’s fingernails scraped my arm, but my flesh had reached the state of being impervious to blades—not a single scar formed.
What mattered was treatment.
My blue eyes fixed upon the patient.
Only the light in my eyes shone through the hollow gaze of sleepless nights.
Namgung Un watched this unfold.
Confined and with his dantian sealed though he was, he remained his father.
There was no escaping it.
The hellish hours continued.
* * *
A month had passed.
At last, Namgung Cheol’s body entered a stable phase.
Thanks to this, I could finally gaze upon the moon again.
‘The moon seen from the Namgung Family’s magnificent halls is identical to the moon seen from Hangzhou’s slums.’
A craving for alcohol stirred within me.
Yet it could not be.
With Namgung Un also observing abstinence, I as a doctor could hardly indulge myself.
Instead, I sipped sweet, fragrant tea to soothe my mood.
Namgung Un approached my side.
“To treat a patient wounded by a Heart Demon—one whose dantian has been sealed—from mercury poisoning. In all of Gangho, I suspect only you and Baek Rin-ui-seon possess such capability.”
“For now, yes. But eventually, many others will be able to do the same, even without my Shifu and me.”
Rather than accept the praise, I deflected it like a flaw in my character.
Just how far ahead was this younger brother looking?
“Is that the Gangho you dream of?”
“Peace would be ideal, but that’s impossible, I’m afraid.”
Understanding human nature as I did, I abandoned such dreams cleanly.
Had there ever been a moment in human history without war?
Inevitably, gunfire erupts somewhere—great or small—and blind violence ends lives elsewhere.
Gangho was no different.
Humans remained human here as well.
Humans committed a hundred evils and one good deed. And ultimately, we affirmed life for the sake of that single act of virtue.
Zero and one are fundamentally different, after all.
“You don’t deny bloodshed, yet you show no intention of surrendering either.”
“…Perhaps that’s true.”
He answered with a somewhat weary expression.
Those blue eyes remained fixed on the moon.
“Thank you, Jin. Had you not been here, Father would surely have taken his own life.”
At the mention of suicide, Jin Cheon-hee’s eyes widened slightly.
“Of course, Father is the Gaju, but he had his weaknesses and insecurities, and made many mistakes. Though he regained his senses later, weakness remains weakness.”
It could have been criticism of his father, but Namgung Un did not shy away from it.
“That Father could bear the full weight of his sins was ultimately thanks to you.”
“I simply prioritize my patients’ lives above all else.”
“Yes. You did that for a month. Thanks to you, we can conclude this without greater bloodshed.”
“I thought the Namgung Family would hide and flee instead.”
At those words, Namgung Un laughed for quite some time.
“There’s a saying about covering the sky with your palm. But there’s an easier truth than that.”
“What is it?”
“Cost. How does one silence people? Certainly, one could pay them. But too many experienced this incident and suffered from it. The cost of concealing the truth would be too high. Should we kill them instead?”
Jin Cheon-hee responded to those words.
“Killing to silence would be an inefficient method in Gangho.”
“Exactly. Someone would surely investigate the reasons. I would do the same. Why did my father, my mother, lose their lives at the Namgung Family?”
“Besides, the Sect Members witnessed it themselves.”
“Indeed. To kill the Namgung Family’s own people to protect the Namgung Family—that’s a thought only possible when corrupted by demonic arts. The Gaju is merely a tool. Building the next generation is enough.”
“Is that why Namgung Hyeong drinks bitter tea?”
*Sip—*
I had long since noticed that the tea Namgung Un drank differed from mine.
Namgung Un nodded.
“That’s about right.”
“….”
Namgung Un lifted his eyes to gaze at the moon.
The moon that my younger brother Jin had yearned to see. Perhaps the moon I beheld appeared different from the one he witnessed.
That thought crossed my mind.
“According to our investigation, it appears the Demonic Sect planted a spy within the Namgung Family, precipitating this calamity.”
“…I see.”
“You show no surprise. Yet you were startled when I mentioned Father’s suicide.”
“Because I already knew.”
“Did you?”
“Yes. Troubles arose in succession at rather convenient moments. I had suspected the Hyeolseonggyo, but learning it was the Demonic Sect is indeed surprising.”
At those words, Namgung Un nodded without removing his gaze from the moon.
“The Demonic Sect must be preparing for serious mobilization.”
“Indeed, it is time for the Cheonma to begin moving as well. By the original timeline, she should have already prepared for her ascension.”
I couldn’t be certain. The heavenly mandate had shifted—would the Cheonma still ascend?
I could not be sure.
Yet this alone was significant intelligence for Namgung Un.
“So the Demonic Sect moves. If the Cheonma ascends, will the Gangho find peace?”
“No…?”
When Jin Cheon-hee answered as though questioning what nonsense he was speaking, Namgung Un found himself bewildered and asked again.
“Surely the world should become more peaceful if that great evil vanishes?”
“I suppose so. Perhaps even that great evil was necessary after all.”
In the Jicheon Cheonma, after the Cheonma ascends, the Gangho becomes even more chaotic.
It was truly a strange affair.
The Cheonma, no matter how charitably one spoke of her, was a great evil.
She was living death itself, an existence that drenched this world in blood.
Countless devotees offered corpses at her feet, and she accepted them with pleasure, causing the world to bloom with blood.
Naturally, when the Cheonma ascended, the world should have become peaceful.
Moreover, the protagonist Yeo Ha-ryun would become the next Cheonma.
In the Jicheon Cheonma, Yeo Ha-ryun was truly an entity possessed of benevolent heart.
The Demonic Sect ceased its meaningless slaughter and transformed into a faction that protected the weak.
Yet it was strange.
From that turning point onward, countless demons that had never been seen before awakened and began leading the world toward its end times.
No matter how I contemplated it, it was a strange affair.
The Demon King vanished, yet why did the world not find peace?
‘Back then I cursed, thinking the author was just padding the story—I’d figured it out from when the demons and Yoseon appeared.’
…But now that I’d actually arrived in the Jicheon Cheonma world, it seemed that was genuinely how things were.
‘So even such great evil is an existence that sustains this world.’
In a sense, it resembled the doctrine of the Ilwol Singyeo—that good and evil are two sides of the same coin, and this world ultimately moves through the union of both.
“Is this perhaps a prophecy derived from the Jegallim Family’s astrology?”
“…Would it not suffice if you simply accepted it as such?”
Of course, with all the loose talk I’d engaged in thus far, it wasn’t difficult to package things convincingly, but I had no desire to do so before my elder brother Namgung.
“Hmm…”
“It’s simply the truth. Since Namgung Hyeong was honest with me, I’m being honest with you as well.”
“I’m grateful. You’ve truly done me a great service in many ways.”
“As long as you don’t repay kindness with enmity, that’s all that matters.”
“That won’t do. This debt of gratitude—I shall repay it without fail.”
Namgung Un snorted through his nose, his breath coming in sharp bursts.
“As you wish.”
I let my gaze drift into a subtle smile as I fell silent.
Beneath the moonlight, my azure eyes held a quality that seemed neither wholly demon nor wholly divine—a presence that stole the breath from those who beheld it.
“….”
I turned my gaze back to the moon and took another sip of tea.
“How do you view the Gangho?”
“I see it as a place where people live.”
“You love the Gangho but despise its people, don’t you?”
At those words, I felt a slight sting of truth.
“Yes. That’s true.”
I had expected him to say something else, but Namgung Un continued.
“After all that has happened, you still love the Gangho?”
“….”

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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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