Doctor’s Rebirth - Chapter 73

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

011. A Dog’s Lovesick Gaze (1)
An avalanche erupted not far away. The deafening roar of cascading snow was so overwhelming that my ears
nearly
gave out.
The masked child assessed the avalanche’s power and scope.
‘Fortunately, it’s far enough away.’
The protagonist of the novel “Supreme Heavenly Demon,” the child whom Jin Cheon-hee called Little Heavenly Demon.
Yeo Ha-ryun.
The boy had grown noticeably taller during my absence, true to his role as the protagonist. Yeo Ha-ryun dragged his legs slowly, searching for a place to hide. He had no remaining inner strength to use lightness techniques, and he had lost far too much blood.
“Ugh….”
His delicate brow furrowed with pain.
Fortunately, a small cave appeared before him. Yeo Ha-ryun buried himself deep within it.
‘One more blade strike driven deeper, and that old man would have been dead.’
It had been a perfect night for an ambush.
All the members sent by the Ilwol Divine Sect were exceptionally skilled. Each of them harbored ambitions to rise higher.
That old man… was weak to sentiment.
While searching for the Demonic Sect’s sacred treasure, he had attempted to descend the mountain carrying a young child with a broken leg on his back.
That child was naturally a follower of the sect.
Logically, could a five-year-old child deceive someone and break their own legs with their own hands?
In the Ilwol Divine Sect, such a thing was entirely possible.
And how many people could ignore a child’s cries for help in the freezing mountains, calling out for mother, mother?
That old man was certainly not one of them.
Despite being a branch master of the Gaebang, which held vast amounts of information, he could not harden his heart against the screams of a child who was like his own grandchild.
‘Swayed by personal sentiment and carelessly exposing his back—he was unfit to be a branch master.’
So the leader of this assassination squad had judged.
The strong reign supreme.
That was the most important principle of the Ilwol Divine Sect.
Compassion is a weakness. And that old man had fallen victim to the Black Blood Sanggongdok that the child had driven into him.
No matter how skilled one might be, everything changes when poisoned by Black Blood Sanggongdok.
What was interesting was that even as the assassination squad launched their attack, that old man could not bring himself to kill the child who had stabbed his back.
He merely looked at the child once with sad, sorrowful eyes.
Soft yet strong.
Even as the Black Blood Sanggongdok turned his entire body’s qi and blood black, he killed every other squad member.
But he was not beyond my ability to kill.
‘Why could I not deliver that final blade strike?’
Yeo Ha-ryun entered the cave, pressed his wound, and fell into thought.
The blood of the Heavenly Slaughter Star was still commanding him to kill.
Within that exhilaration and madness, the tip of my blade hesitated for a moment.
This was the result.
Yeo Ha-ryun pressed his wound firmly. Blood seeped out between his palms.
It ran deep.
Yeo Ha-ryun pondered.
‘I wonder if the divine artifact I sent reached my brother safely.’
He was someone who could do nothing but kill.
No matter how precious a divine artifact might be, once it fell into his hands, he knew it became nothing but a tool of murder.
Following blood, following fate, he killed… and after killing, what came next?
The young man returned to the thought he had harbored since his earliest memories until now.
Then a low growl echoed from deep within the cave.
The feral stench of a beast pierced his nasal passages.
It seemed the cave had an inhabitant.
A bear as black as a mountain rumbled lowly from within.
He couldn’t know if he had the strength remaining to kill it. Yet Yeo Ha-ryun drew his sword.
* * *
‘Who should I save first?’
Jin Cheon-hee went to a Medical Clinic affiliated with Baekrin Uigak and prepared himself.
As befitted an affiliated clinic, he could procure most of what he needed.
Outside, the disciples of Gaebang were organizing pursuit parties.
‘No, let me rephrase the question. Can I even save Little Heavenly Demon in this situation?’
If he went to rescue the Heavenly Demon from here, he’d look exactly like a Demon Sect spy.
‘Still, that bastard’s the protagonist, so he won’t die easily…right?’
When reading novels, he’d always thought that even in crises, ‘he’s the protagonist, so surely he won’t die. There’s still so much story left.’ But now that it was reality, such logic didn’t apply.
People died easily.
Would Yeo Ha-ryun really overcome this crisis and return alive on his own, just like in a novel?
‘Ugh, I’m the one changing the original story, so I shouldn’t complain, but can’t we just follow the original plot? Damn it.’
His deliberation was brief, and there was only one person he could fully trust here.
Someone with excellent skills, outstanding tracking ability, and exceptional lightness of movement.
“Oh, all set?”
It was Wang Gak-yeon. She happened to be warming herself by the ondol floor of the clinic’s guest room.
She was also in the middle of eating roasted sweet potatoes.
“Gak-yeon. Are you really going to follow the pursuit party?”
“Of course. Who else is going to protect you here?”
She laughed with a playful giggle and handed Jin Cheon-hee a sweet potato.
The potato was steaming hot and looked delicious.
It was hard to imagine this was the same person who had shot down a fierce beast with a single arrow just hours ago.
‘Is this what the martial world is like?’
It was time to adapt, but it was still difficult.
“This is a very difficult problem. Would you mind helping? It’s okay if you refuse.”
“Why are you being so formal about it? Just tell me.”
Her lips curved mischievously.
* * *
After finishing my preparations and stepping outside, I found a woman standing among the Gaebang members. She was dressed like a true Gaebang disciple—in tattered clothes with her hair tied back with a straw rope.
She appeared to be in her mid-to-late thirties.
A large scar marked her face, and at her waist hung the tagu staff, the symbol of the Gaebang.
“Damn it, I knew that old man would pull something like this.”
Her speech was as rough as her weathered appearance.
However, the knots tied at her waist—their number and arrangement—revealed that she held no ordinary position.
The Hou-gae of the Gaebang. The one destined to become the next Bangju.
Seolgyeon.
‘Her real name was probably Seolhwa originally, wasn’t it? Written with the character for flower.’
Yet what she actually did was gamble, steal food from dogs, drink and cause a ruckus… and so on.
Since childhood, she possessed martial talent—completing the Hang Ryong Eighteen Palms by her early twenties—and had long assisted with the great and small affairs of the martial world from behind the scenes. However, at some point, something happened that caused her to suddenly go mad.
What need would a beggar have for proper conduct? All that mattered was begging well and spending well.
Yet once one chose to be a Jeongpa, there were minimum standards that had to be maintained. Especially for one destined to become the next Bangju.
She began committing increasingly outrageous acts, even by beggar standards.
It started when she drank and urinated on the walls of the Murim Alliance.
She had been doing such things for ten years.
People did not hesitate to call her Seolgyeon.
‘I know why she went mad, though.’
The Gangho truly was a cruel place. I scratched my head vigorously.
‘People genuinely believe she’s become a dog.’
When the Gaebang finally began to give up searching for the Bangju, it was she who continued the search until the very end.
She abandoned her claim to the Bangju’s position and searched alone for eight years. And finally, she discovered who the true culprit was.
Yeo Ha-ryun. The Heavenly Demon.
The Gangho was shocked, but that was all.
No one stepped forward for the Gaebang’s grudge.
Not even the other Gaebang members themselves.
Not even the next Gaebang Bangju who had taken the position because Seolgyeon had yielded it.
Everyone chose to give up.
Seolgyeon said this:
‘Kekeke, do you know why my epithet is Dog? Once I bite, I never let go.’
For two years, Seolgyeon hid herself and prepared her revenge. And the trap she had laid worked quite well.
She had cornered the Heavenly Demon. However, this novel’s title is “The Supreme Heavenly Demon.”
Since the protagonist was the Heavenly Demon, he could never die. Finally, Yeo Ha-ryun’s hand pierced through Seolgyeon’s solar plexus.
Seolgyeon coughed up crimson blood and spoke.
‘The Heavenly Demon of all under heaven using his true essence just to catch one dog—the whole world must be laughing! Hahahaha–!!’
Consumed by madness, Seolgyeon laughed.
The Heavenly Demon Yeo Ha-ryun watched his nemesis die to the very end. And true to his role as protagonist, he buried her with proper respect.
It was a strange sight to behold as a reader.
In the Gangho, it is common for people to sacrifice their lives to avenge their sect’s enemies.
Even if the opponent is the Heavenly Demon, even if victory is impossible, one must still go forward—such is the nature of grudges in the Gangho.
‘But did Seolgyeon really need to go that far?’
I knew why she had become a dog.
Everything had begun as karma stemming from Bangjoo.

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