Doctor’s Rebirth - Chapter 732

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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 732
Before the altar, Hyeolbul-seung was expounding to the gathered people.
“Hyeolbul spoke thus: The highest form of giving is the Three Wheels of Purity. Remember this always. The first wheel of purity is that the giver must harbor no pride in their giving. The second is that those who receive must also be free from corrupted intent. The third is that what is offered must itself be pure.”
Dong, dong, dong, dong—
The bell hanging from the stone staff swayed in place of a wooden fish.
The people pressed their palms together in prayer.
“Is this not noble, for it accords with the meaning of the Three Wheels of Purity? This is precisely the giving without attachment spoken of in the Diamond Sutra!”
Waaaaaah!
The fervor of religious devotion.
Yet in an ordinary Hyeolseon Sect gathering, there should have been mountains of human corpses instead of cattle.
Then one of the villagers led out a cow.
‘A cow again, as expected?’
Hyeolbul-seung drew a blade across the cow’s throat and let the blood drip.
“Through the sacrifice of this cow, we sustain other lives. This is the pomegranate juice that Hyeolbul bestows upon us.”
The cow’s blood began to vaporize.
The mist of blood drifted toward the cow carcasses.
Whoosh!
And then, as if time itself had reversed, the cow carcasses became as fresh as if they had just been butchered!
Even the swarms of flies that had gathered were startled and fled.
Witnessing this, I came to a realization.
‘That jerky! It was made this way!’
That too must surely be sorcery. It restores spoiled ingredients to freshness.
It requires sacrificial offerings, but even so, as a sorcery for food preservation, it’s… not bad?
‘Though it does work by using beef to regenerate beef.’
It could certainly solve immediate hunger.
As the thick blood mist dispersed, about ten cows returned to their original state.
‘Ten cows is certainly a considerable amount, but… there are still far more dead cattle piled up behind. What are they planning to do?’
One living cow for every ten dead ones.
Not bad, but it doesn’t resurrect the dead cattle—merely makes the meat usable again.
Of course, even that was remarkable, but one couldn’t simply slaughter healthy cattle every time just to improve beef butchering efficiency.
‘What are they planning?’
How much time had passed?
A masked person walked out before the altar. Though their face was hidden, their small frame made it clear they were a child.
Soon the mask was removed, revealing their face.
It was a small girl.
The same girl whose younger siblings I had treated before.
‘As I suspected… human sacrifice?’
The girl’s eyes, swollen from crying, glared around her.
As if trying to commit every detail of her final path to memory.
A black flame surged within my chest, but I pressed it down, again and again.
My eyes are so red from crying too much that they hurt whenever tears fall.
So I hold back my tears.
“Sister! Don’t go! Don’t go!”
“Sister, sister! Please!”
My younger siblings rush toward the altar, but the adults hold them back.
The girl spoke.
In old tales, this is when one would say they’d watch over you from paradise.
But I don’t know if such a place truly exists.
If one must resort to such methods to reach paradise, then the Jade Emperor and Buddha and everyone else would be nothing but maggots.
If they truly pitied all sentient beings, why would they allow such a plague to persist?
“Don’t cry! Live with courage! When you receive the money, don’t entrust it to anyone else. Buy land first!”
“Sister!”
“Never give the money to anyone. Trust no one.”
“Sister!”
“That uncle will come to steal the money. He’s the worst kind of human, so never hand it over. The innkeeper woman is trustworthy. If things get too hard, ask her for help. I’ve already spoken to her about it.”
Damn this world.
The girl climbed up with steady steps.
“I’m ready. Baldy.”
Hyeolbul-seung smiled benevolently.
“How joyous that this girl wishes to offer herself! This girl shall ascend to the Pure Land, and you shall receive salvation in this world.”
Cheers erupted!
The villagers roared with excitement.
The girl hung from a pillar erected on the altar.
Hyeolbul-seung drew a short blade.
It was a distinctly familiar dagger—one shaped like two figures in conjugal union.
One of the reasons I came to this place.
The dagger of Hwanhwi-bul!
Just as the blade was about to pierce the girl’s heart.
Clang!
The dagger of Hwanhwi-bul struck something and flew away.
Blood beaded on Hyeolbul-seung’s wrist.
Remarkably, another dagger was embedded in the ground.
Which meant the attacker possessed an identical blade.
“To possess a dagger of Hwanhwi-bul… who might you be, benefactor?”
Then someone raised their hand.
A blind musician.
“Ah, my apologies for disrupting such a joyous celebration.”
He walked forward steadily.
The way he advanced without even feeling ahead with his cane was imposing.
I spoke.
“Wouldn’t it be better if you stopped offering human sacrifices?”
“Patron, may I ask why you think such a thing?”
Soon enough, I reached the altar.
“Ah, why do I think that? That’s quite a refreshing question. Usually, I hear ‘Who do you think you are?’ first in situations like this.”
A jawline was visible beneath the bandages.
A faint smile. Yet somehow, it was also eerily cold.
The young man stepped onto the altar without hesitation, his muddy feet leaving marks as he spoke.
“Isn’t it a bit much to kill a child just to get some beef?”
* * *
Whirrrr~
“Yes, this is the way. You found it well.”
A jet-black cat purred under Yeo Ha-ryun’s touch. Then, seemingly overcome with joy, it bit his hand sharply.
Even small, the fangs of a spiritual creature were formidable.
A normal person’s hand would have been torn to shreds, but Yeo Ha-ryun simply scratched the cat’s jaw calmly.
Before Yeo Ha-ryun lay a ranching city.
“Now that the Hyeolseon Sect members have hidden themselves away somewhere, it would be good to meet my brother and join forces.”
In that instant, Yeo Ha-ryun and the jet-black cat vanished simultaneously, leaving only afterimages.
* * *
Hyeolbul-seung looked at me.
I met Hyeolbul-seung’s gaze in return. Even in this situation, his expression showed no hesitation whatsoever.
He felt no shame—rather, he believed what he was doing was right.
“You say it’s too much to exchange one child for beef. In a way, that may be true. Amitabha Buddha.”
“….”
“However, look at these people. If one person sacrifices themselves, this rotten meat becomes fresh and remains preserved for a long time.”
“For the meat?”
“Yes, that is correct. With the curse causing the cattle to die in droves, preserving this meat from rot—that is true salvation for them. The cattle plague will pass in a year. With twelve sacrifices, all of them will be saved.”
I answered.
“Salvation, then. That would be roughly once a month.”
“Indeed. In the village, there are children starving to death, just like the girl. If one child could save a thousand children, what would you say?”
Waaaaaaa!
The villagers cheered for Hyeolbul-seung.
In this era, people typically marry and have children at an early age. They bear many children.
For it is the virtue of an adult.
And for the sake of the children one must raise, sacrificing one orphan is acceptable.
Hyeolbul-seung continued speaking.
“Moreover, the girl herself ascended to this place of her own will, so is this not something to be grateful for?”
“Of her own will?”
I looked at the girl. Hyeolbul-seung continued.
“The previous three sacrificial offerings also ascended of their own volition with willing hearts. All of this is grace bestowed by Hyeolbul. How could we not be grateful?”
Namo Amitabha Buddha.
The sound of the Buddhist chant was desolate. I spoke.
“You coerced her.”
“Coerced…”
“You took advantage of the fact that the child had no wealth, and coerced her by saying you would care for her younger siblings. Isn’t that right?”
I knew of children who married at such a young age.
To my eyes, it wasn’t marriage at all, but human trafficking in exchange for money. Yet the seven-year-old girl called it marriage.
Her parents called it marriage too, and the man who bought the child with money also called it marriage.
Hyeolbul-seung spoke.
“Of course, I did make such a proposal, but it was not coercion. Do you understand? Even if it weren’t this child, I made the same proposal to many others.”
Fathers, mothers, younger siblings, older brothers, older sisters…
“Yet among them all, only this girl accepted my proposal. How could I not be grateful?”
“Isn’t this child the most desperate person in this village?”
“Humans are creatures of affliction and greed. Those noble enough to sacrifice themselves are rare indeed.”
“…”
Suddenly, Sama Hyeon came to mind.
My younger brother, who had to take Sama-hye’s life with his own hands.
In the past, he sacrificed himself to care for his younger siblings. That must have been the concept of almsgiving that the Hyeolbul Sect spoke of.
Yet in the end, he lost everything and had to destroy his own purity by killing his younger sibling.
Madness had soaked into his very marrow.
He wanted to burn himself along with the world, and if Yeo Ha-ryun of Jicheon Cheonma had not killed him, he would have had to keep running forward.
It was like the fairy tale of the red shoes.
A life where one must keep dancing until someone cuts off their ankles.
‘When Gokgol Hyeolma intruded back then, the young Sama Hyeon was willing to sacrifice himself to protect Sama-hye. And I tried to save him too.’
If I had died there, how would the world have changed?
Suddenly, I see my younger siblings wailing.
I read Sama-hye’s face in them. And in the clinging girl, I saw Sama Hyeon.
Tragedy merely changes its stage, yet always repeats itself.
If that is the nature of this world.
“Could you tell those two children that this is a joyous thing? That they will be happy earning money by burning their sister?”
Now I understand.
Sama-hye would never be happy.
If her older brother died and she lived, she would never forgive this world.
“Namo Amitabha Buddha.”
Hyeolbul-seung’s voice cuts through the darkness.
“Wandering musician. I understand why the donor speaks thus. But then, what of the other sentient beings? Should they starve to death?”
He points to the people.
The villagers flinched in surprise and looked at one another.
“If they cannot eat this beef, they will starve to death. Sacrifice is necessary even to save these people.”
Inner power flows into Hyeolbul-seung’s voice. By that force, the people gain strength.
“Right. That’s right! This is no place for an outsider to meddle!”
“That girl is sacrificing herself willingly! Who are you to interfere?”
“Are you saying you’ll keep us from starving?”
“They call her a saint, and now she actually believes she is one!”
In that moment, a stone flew through the air.
Thwack!
It struck my head. As one stone fell, two more came, then three, then four.
The villagers continued cursing and hurling stones.
That hypocrite had to disappear. That sanctimonious fool who spoke as though she alone possessed enlightenment—only by removing her could I, could my children, avoid starvation.
“Why don’t you perform the charity yourself!”
“That’s right, you silver-tongued hypocrite!”
I could have dodged their stones, but I simply accepted them.
My body, hardened by the Blade Immortal technique, felt no pain from commoners’ rocks. Yet my chest, my heart—it felt as though it were splitting apart.
‘Ah, I see now. These people… they don’t care who suffers, as long as it isn’t them.’
But there was no suffering worse than starving to death.
So I couldn’t say I didn’t understand them.
“Disappear! You cursed saint!”
That was when it happened.
“Stop! Stop it! I’ll do it! I’ll sacrifice myself! That’s all that matters!”
At the girl’s cry, I turned to look.
She was a child whom the villagers despised most, lived in the filthiest, most wretched place.
She had no education, never learned to read.
Days when she believed she had no future.
Yet unable to abandon life itself, she had lived with stubborn determination.
Still, she screamed.
“Damn it! Don’t hit that person! When you worthless bastards are cheering as I die, he’s the only adult who told you not to! Executioner, hurry! Stab me!”
She thrashed about, shrieking.
The girl was crying and laughing at once. Strangely, she seemed relieved.
“There’s at least one person saying this madness is wrong! At least!”
But the villagers did not stop.
“Drag him out! Get that bastard out of here!”
“Make sure he never sets foot in this village again!”
Waaahhhhh!
The madness spread like contagion.
The shame they sought to hide mixed with the terror that their own families might starve, and it infected everyone around them.
Some had even brought farming tools.
“If you won’t come down, you die too!”
“Just die already!”
I was about to act.
“Enough.”
A quiet voice. Though not particularly loud, somehow everyone felt as though someone had just walked across their grave.
The touch of death.
Everyone’s bodies crumbled under a strange, crushing pressure.
“That, that thing!”
There stood a man with the moon at his back, his eyes blazing with crimson light.
Yeo Ha-ryun plummeted toward the ground.
BOOM—CRASH—CRASH—CRASH—CRASH!
Now, Cheon Sal-seong’s murderous aura scattered across the earth!

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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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