Doctor’s Rebirth - Chapter 706

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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 706
“What is your request?”
Normally, people ask for money in situations like this.
“Would you be willing to teach my nephew martial arts for about a year? In exchange, I’ll reveal my business secrets.”
Clack—
I set down my teacup after saying that much.
I could feel my fingertips trembling.
‘Interesting. Not money, then?’
I pondered this internally.
Teaching martial arts!
That wasn’t something one could do for just anyone.
Of course, one could pay to learn at the martial training city.
Baekrin Uiseon’s martial training city offered quite versatile martial techniques and an excellent curriculum, and among its graduates were those who had reached the pinnacle of mastery.
Money and effort. Add talent to that, and what would happen?
I myself spoke of reaching the transcendent pinnacle, though few believed it.
Still, even reaching the pinnacle of mastery would fulfill one’s life’s ambition, so there were plenty in Gangho willing to do anything for it.
‘But the fact that he’s making this request means that wouldn’t be enough, would it?’
Gulp—
I swallowed my tea and continued thinking.
‘Higher martial arts, then….’
Ga Jun-hwa’s fingertips were still trembling.
It was a request he would stake his life on.
Even if I grew angry here and refused him, calling for another innkeeper instead, he would have nothing to say.
‘Not his own son, but his nephew. There’s something going on. Could Ga Wan have sent him?’
I opened my mouth.
“Hmm… However, I’m still too young to take on disciples….”
I was approaching thirty now.
Considering that Gangho warriors typically took disciples between thirty-five and forty, I was still a few years too young.
Moreover.
While Baekrin Uiseon had no particular rule about single-line succession, currently under Patriarch Jegalling, I was the only one.
Somehow, it had become a single-line succession structure.
If I took on a disciple now, that child would become Baekrin Uiseon’s successor.
“I wouldn’t dare hope for a direct disciple. However, I heard there’s a one-on-one tutoring system at the martial training city. I would be grateful if you could educate him as an ‘outer disciple’ in that manner.”
An outer disciple!
‘Right. There are outer disciples.’
They received no inheritance of the sect’s wealth or influence, only martial arts training.
Typically, outer disciples paid a donation fee in exchange for training, so in a sense, it was only natural.
And there were limits to the martial arts an outer disciple could learn.
However, even with such training, it proved quite beneficial, which was why sects like the Wudang School, the Huashan School, and Shaolin Temple all had many outer disciples.
I smiled smoothly.
“This is quite the difficult request to refuse. You’re quite the strategist, aren’t you? Haha.”
At my words, Ga Jun-hwa finally released a sigh of relief.
Dealing with the young man before him was no easy task, even for a merchant who had run an inn his entire life.
“You flatter me. How could I dare employ strategy before the great Jegallim Family? It’s simply that I’m concerned about my nephew’s health. And if he’s going to learn anyway, shouldn’t he learn from the best?”
What Ga Wan ordered must be the greatest concern, followed by compassion.
‘Rather than simple compassion, is it pity? I won’t know until I meet him.’
‘Come to think of it, Ga Jun-hwa has no children.’
When I formally took over Baekhaengnu, I naturally conducted a thorough investigation beforehand.
“Very well. However, I cannot spare much time each day. Would three days a week suffice? The rest of the time, he can train at the Martial Hall.”
Ga Jun-hwa smiled gently.
“Thank you so much!”
* * *
“An outer disciple? Haha, Ga Wan is playing quite an interesting move.”
“I told him to discuss it with Muyue. And to conduct some background investigation as well.”
“He’s not trying to employ any strange schemes. Usually, this sort of thing means nothing more than strengthening ties.”
I felt somewhat relieved at those words.
When my Master spoke with such certainty, it meant he was right. There was no hidden meaning.
“That’s true enough.”
An outer disciple has nothing to gain anyway.
Even if something happened and both I and Jegalling died on the same day, the Medical Guild’s shares would first pass to the leaders of each faction, including Yoo Ho, and the secret techniques would follow the same path.
‘In the original story, after my Master’s death, no one stepped forward as a successor, and everything quietly dispersed.’
None of the four faction leaders sought to claim my Master’s name or covet his legacy.
Even if they appeared hesitant on the surface, all four faction leaders maintained a relationship with my Master that could be called one of sovereign and subject.
In any case, it didn’t seem like the Ga Family was employing some strange scheme, as my Master said.
I spoke.
“Perhaps I’ve drunk too much of the Gangho waters.”
“Suspicion is a good habit. It’s simply that I’ve observed Ga Wan for a long time.”
I nodded.
“So, who do you think is coming?”
“Hmm? I think I know who it might be. Don’t you?”
“Well, what would I know about that family? I’ve only studied a bit about the Gaju. Is it someone famous?”
At my words, my Master looked at his disciple with amusement.
“Remarkable. You’re still only thorough when it comes to medicine, but you pay no attention to common knowledge like this.”
I hid my embarrassed expression.
“Well, you’ll find out soon enough.”
“Still, I handled it on my own authority. Is that acceptable?”
“He’s not a direct disciple but an outer disciple, is he not? There’s no need for the sect leader’s permission to accept an outer disciple. For example, even the Patriarch of the Wudang School doesn’t know who all his outer disciples are.”
“Ah, I see.”
The Wudang School alone has over a thousand direct disciples when you count them all.
There are that many outer disciples as well.
Jang Mun-in would have a headache just memorizing the personal details of his direct disciples.
Of course, this didn’t apply to Jegalling, the master of Baekrin Uiseon, Jin Cheon-hee, and the two Chief Managers, Yoo Ho and Muyue.
They all possessed superhuman memory and could recall every member of the Medical Guild.
In Muyue’s case, he hadn’t originally been superhuman, but he had forcibly transcended humanity by abandoning the purity of his soul….
A brief moment of silence for Muyue.
“Good. Try teaching them. I’ve been there myself… but you’d be surprised how much you learn while teaching.”
“Thank you, Master.”
“By the way, it will take a few more days for people to arrive from that side. What will you do in the meantime?”
“I’m planning to do a preliminary survey.”
“A preliminary survey?”
“Yes. We’ll be selling the Jegallim Family’s secret dumplings at Baekhaengru, but we also have the purpose of revitalizing Baekrin County.”
Jin Cheon-hee said this and took a sip of tea.
The Master gazed intently at his disciple’s furrowed brow. Jin Cheon-hee continued speaking.
“The newly integrated regions are still underdeveloped, so I thought I’d travel around, observe the local conditions, and consider development strategies. Since the territory and population have grown compared to before, it won’t do to just sit at a desk working like I used to.”
“Hmm…. You’ve thought this through well. Indeed, those in positions of authority must periodically observe the lives of the common people.”
The Master fanned himself with apparent pleasure.
‘How did everything become so grand from just one dumpling?’
Why was that?
It had clearly started as receiving the Master’s dumpling recipe, but before I knew it, it had snowballed into something enormous.
‘Well, good is good, I suppose?’
The Master spoke.
“Ah, now that I think of it, have you considered what tea would pair well with the dumplings?”
“Oh no! I need to think about that too.”
Jin Cheon-hee clapped his hands together.
Jegalling observed his disciple with delight.
According to plan.
* * *
Flies were buzzing.
A starving person lay collapsed against a stone wall, eyes closed in a state between sleep and unconsciousness.
He seemed to still be breathing, but insects crawled across his body.
From another direction, someone with sunken eyes was watching Jin Cheon-hee.
Since it would take some more time for Ga Jun-hwa’s nephew to arrive, Jin Cheon-hee was spending the interim traveling through Baekrin County conducting surveys.
And the place Jin Cheon-hee was particularly focused on observing was this location.
The slums.
Baekrin County certainly had many job opportunities and was virtually a paradise compared to other regions in terms of security, yet the slums still existed.
The poor from the newly integrated regions and those who were now disappearing but still remained in great numbers were settled here.
Among them, some remained impoverished due to various adverse conditions.
Opium, gambling, and such things.
Poverty is something even a ruler cannot save.
There was a reason such a saying existed.
Even in Baekrin County, shadows existed.
The Open Beggars who had come to guide me alongside Jin Cheon-hee thought to themselves.
‘Ilgwang is Ilgwang, after all.’
‘Is he perhaps planning to drive out the slum dwellers and demolish everything?’
Most magistrates pretended slums didn’t exist.
They didn’t station officials in those areas and deliberately omitted them from administrative records to keep the documentation clean.
And could one blame them?
Slums were eyesores.
Because slums existed, public order suffered, disease spread, and accidents occurred.
If they recorded all that, superiors would certainly ask troublesome questions, so they simply omitted everything.
Like a child hiding filth beneath blankets.
It was what most magistrates did.
Yet very occasionally, a magistrate would attempt to eliminate the slums entirely.
They would drive people out, set fire to the dilapidated houses, and construct new buildings on that land.
So the slum beggars would live in those new houses?
They would not.
The new houses would be occupied by wealthier individuals, while the original slum beggars would be pushed further to the outskirts, where they would build hovels and continue their existence.
They became even poorer.
‘Occasionally rice or money would be distributed, but only temporarily.’
Rice was consumed and gone, money was exchanged for alcohol and vanished.
There was almost no way to use that money as a foundation to live ordinarily like commoners.
Farmland was sometimes distributed, but often those beggars would simply sell it to other commoners to secure today’s drink and call it done.
People say humans can change anything, but the slum dwellers didn’t believe it.
No matter how hard they worked, money never accumulated, so they began to give up. That resignation transmitted from parents to children.
The government had abandoned them long ago, and the Black Dao Cultivators sucked their blood dry.
But Ilgwang was peculiar.
Unlike ordinary magistrates, he neither abandoned them nor drove them out.
‘On top of that, he’s been conducting inspections here every single day.’
The beggars thought to themselves: they had absolutely no idea what this man was thinking.
‘He must understand that eliminating slums is impossible… surely.’
Yet he wasn’t running away either.
I had disguised myself as an ordinary warrior, wearing worn martial robes and applying disguise techniques to my face.
Without Hwang-gu or Noeji, no one could recognize me as Ilgwang.
‘I’ve tried gradually reducing the slum population, but there are still so many. Administrative measures alone seem to have reached their limit.’
The population had more than doubled from the original.
Beyond the existing impoverished people being managed, new poor had arrived.
The effective policy used in such circumstances was indeed that one.
A New Deal policy!
Through large-scale public works projects, I would provide people with employment and equip them with the economic means to live ‘as human beings’.
I had done so before, and it had reduced the beggar population dramatically.
However, the impoverished in these newly added districts numbered several times more than those I’d handled before!
‘These damned Gold and Silver Kings keep dumping administrative territories on me to drive me insane!’
Every time I finish one task, more work piles up endlessly—it’s maddening.
I can almost feel those two Kings laughing behind my back, their voices echoing with cruel amusement.
‘I will absolutely destroy them.’
Consumed by this fury, I devised a wicked plan—I’d shove a dental scaler right between Emperor Geum-wang’s teeth to vent my rage.
‘Let them taste some scaling! You bastards.’
I’ll scrape away their tartar without mercy or hesitation.
No matter how detestable an Emperor might be, once he’s sitting in a dental chair, he’ll become honest!
Ilgwang harbored this wicked(?) resentment toward Eun.
Today too, resentment overflows throughout 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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