Doctor’s Rebirth - Chapter 735

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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 735
The Immune Serum Method.
First, one prepares healthy cattle that have not fallen ill.
Cattle meticulously managed within the formation, to which one injects the rinderpest pathogen. If this creature survives, antibodies form within its body.
One extracts serum from the blood in which these antibodies have developed.
Then one injects this serum into both the diseased cattle and those yet unafflicted.
The uninfected cattle acquire immunity through this serum, while the diseased cattle cannot be saved as if by some cinematic vaccine—it simply depends on fortune.
With luck, they survive. Without it, they perish.
However, Jin Cheon-hee intervenes here.
‘Shamanism. And the medicine of the Central Plains!’
By combining these methods, one can save a considerable number of cattle.
Thus one extracts serum from these surviving cattle once more.
Repeating this process continuously constitutes what one might call a primitive vaccine manufacturing technique.
‘This is the sort of method one would employ when civilization collapses and zombies roam freely in some apocalyptic age.’
Why do those novels exist anyway?
I never imagined I would be the one implementing it.
‘Still, at least I’m doing this on cattle rather than people, so my conscience rests easier.’
Smallpox possesses vaccination through cowpox, a heaven-sent inoculation method, but when facing other adversaries, one’s options become far more limited.
It demands considerable time, substantial capital, and significant technical expertise.
Administrative capacity is equally necessary.
Even so, as a primitive vaccine, it carries inherent risks.
Fortunately, this place is optimized for raising cattle professionally, and through the kingdom’s support and the private use of the Little Cheonma Yeo Ha-ryun’s demonic sect, we enjoy considerable convenience.
Thus time began to flow onward.
The people sensed something peculiar.
“Strange… why is it that today, there are no dead cattle…?”
“Can such a thing even be possible?”
* * *
Today as well, that doctor who pretended to be a blind musician galloped through the pasture.
Alongside that doctor, all the other doctors had gathered together, cursing as they ran with him.
Now even the shamans had joined.
When busy, they were frantically occupied; when at leisure, they were leisurely.
During those times, he would sit in the pasture and play the stone lute.
Ding- ding- diiing-
The cattle enjoyed listening to music.
Thus they would gather around the blue-eyed young man.
Always at his side stood the red-eyed young man maintaining his guard.
“Surprisingly, we have considerable time this round.”
“Immunity isn’t something that happens just because I’m busy. When things get hectic, they become extraordinarily so.”
The first day without dead cattle.
Jin Cheon-hee was certain that such days would only increase from here.
“Your older brother still has his eyes closed.”
“I open them when I work. Right now, it’s just more comfortable this way.”
The Hyeonwon Jeondan Singeong becomes harder to adapt to time the longer one uses it.
Thinking rapidly means the surroundings slow down.
Since I cannot completely abandon the Hyeonwon Jeondan Singeong in this situation, I close my eyes to regulate external stimuli.
Of course, I don’t mention such things to my younger brother.
I simply play the stone lute with a sly grin.
“Now that I think about it. The way you recognized me back then—was it because of this stone lute? You were changing your face, after all.”
Human body transformation.
Among the countless gathered people, Yeo Ha-ryun recognized his older brother immediately.
Face, clothes, even Hwang-gu had altered his body using the Chukgeun technique. On top of that, despite the terrible smell and flies, and being told to keep his distance, Yeo Ha-ryun still recognized him at once.
“In such a place, the only person who would stubbornly speak the truth and get pelted with stones would be my older brother.”
“Ahahaha….”
What kind of image does this older brother hold in Yeo Ha-ryun’s mind?
Jin Cheon-hee laughed, feeling his dignity as an older brother had been somewhat crumpled.
Mooooo—
The cows requested the next song from Jin Cheon-hee.
All of them had completed their vaccinations.
Having grown close to the cows this way, I learned these creatures were far more intelligent than expected.
They loved music, knew their own spots in the barn, and even formed best friendships with one another.
So they grazed together with their best friends, drank water together, and rolled around together.
“If you look closely, some cows are being bullied.”
I nodded at Yeo Ha-ryun’s words.
High intelligence, when flipped around, simply means they’re quite good at doing bad things.
“People are the same way, after all.”
Ding-a-ling—
I diligently played old popular songs.
The cows, delighted, all turned their heads toward where I was playing.
Some even sat down with a thump and listened.
Noeji flew through the sky, diligently delivering letters, and Hwang-gu learned from the shepherd dog how to herd cattle.
It was a good day.
* * *
The days when the cows didn’t die began to increase steadily.
The shamans continued to care for the cattle, and the vaccinations proceeded smoothly.
The biggest problem was the shortage of injection needles, but whether fortunately or unfortunately, by distance alone, this place was closer to the Dangmun Sega than the Central Plains.
‘Goodness, money just keeps flowing out.’
In the mid-1800s, humanity invented the hypodermic syringe and reused it until the mid-1900s.
In other words… a hundred years of reuse.
By modern standards, it was insane, though apparently they did sterilize them to some degree. Still, it was definitely insane.
Though syringes weren’t used extensively in their early invention, as science advanced, they naturally became the alpha and omega.
In modern times, except for drug addicts, syringes are no longer reused, but in third-world countries where support is scarce, they make do even with that.
In the Gangho world, as long as sorcery or formation techniques are available, sterilization itself is actually easier than in modern times.
Though the preparation process requires an enormous amount of money, time, and geomantic knowledge.
Still, the Baekrin Uiseon strictly forbids reusing syringes on humans.
After all, whether it’s a Sega or a sect, they’re places that make money with blades. Since gold is always in abundance, raising the unit cost isn’t really a major issue.
But livestock is different.
For livestock, sterilization through sorcery or formation techniques is applied, and we use syringes specifically manufactured as multi-use veterinary instruments from the start.
‘I wish we had as many syringes as there are livestock… but that’s realistically impossible.’
In the end, we’re making do without teeth, using the gums instead.
‘In a world where mass production is impossible, disease prevention has its limits.’
Honestly, smallpox vaccination was absurdly easy.
Because breaking people’s prejudices was far more difficult than that.
But for other diseases, vaccinating livestock instead of humans is already far more challenging.
So bringing 1800s and 1900s technology, but with slightly reduced risk compared to that—that’s the realistic limit.
Still, it was the right call.
By vaccinating more livestock, cattle plague gradually subsided, and now, coordinating with the kingdom, we’ve been steadily expanding vaccinations to surrounding villages.
While we can’t vaccinate every single animal, at least among bovine livestock raised in nearby areas, cattle plague has begun to diminish.
The seasons change.
Though not as dramatically as in the Gangho, seasons were changing here too.
“Oh! Holy sage!”
The people who had been throwing stones now began revering Jin Cheon-hee as a sage again. Yeo Ha-ryun found it irritating and counted numbers silently to himself.
One.
Of course, he couldn’t get to two. His hyeong disliked it.
Jin Cheon-hee let the people’s praises go in one ear and out the other while explaining basic foundational knowledge to the shamans and doctors.
Though Baekrin Uiseon members were arriving in succession, ultimately he had to do it alone.
“The sage imparts knowledge!”
“Now we too can suppress cattle plague!”
He didn’t transmit knowledge that could be misused, but it seemed the Baekrin Uiseon would need to continue dispatching doctors for some time.
Jin Cheon-hee watched rain falling beyond the cloud boundary.
A squall.
Dry and wet seasons are the characteristics of this place.
Oh Dok-mun and the Baekrin Uiseon doctors mobilized.
News began arriving from surrounding areas that cattle plague was beginning to end following the doctors’ movements.
The ice sages played a major role in preserving and transporting the vaccines.
Meanwhile, bandits arose trying to seize those ice sages.
If the ice sages were seized, all the vaccines would have to be destroyed.
If all the livestock died, three villages could starve to death, but that wasn’t important to the bandits.
Yeo Ha-ryun’s cult members confronted the bandits.
For them, the Soegooju’s command was heaven itself, and they could even sacrifice their lives for it.
Most bandits could be defeated by the cult members, but some bandits were difficult.
At that time, I ordered them to provide the Small Pox Vaccine.
But for some reason, the Doctors wanted to flee while clutching the Small Pox Vaccine. Resources were always scarce.
If this dispatch failed, there was no knowing whether another opportunity would come to this village.
The Shamans who came to meet us had risked their lives to save their own village, but the Doctors were different.
Merely a foreign land. A strange place.
They knew there was no need to sacrifice themselves.
Yet one Doctor still died.
Fleeing again and again to the very end to protect the Small Pox Vaccine and the vaccine.
That day, I burned tobacco for a long time.
More terrifying than the plague with its 90% mortality rate was human malice.
Human malice runs deep and dark.
With the Small Pox Vaccine, one could live as a wealthy person for life.
Some took villagers as hostages, and others poisoned the drinking water. Some had even killed all the livestock beforehand.
Yet it was also human will that overcame such malice.
Many Shamans died.
When the Demonic Cult members died or were injured, the Shamans stood guard over the land with their lives on the line. There was nowhere to retreat.
There was not even a moment’s respite.
After the Kingdom’s soldiers arrived, things became somewhat easier.
As the livestock survived, people naturally began to starve to death less.
Once farming became possible, humans could begin to live as humans again.
Civilization did not collapse.
We could fight against barbarism.
I gaze at the boundary of the rain once more. Beyond the clouds lies the sun.
Inside the clouds, rain pours down.
A squall causes the river to overflow.
Finally, I realized that all my work here was complete.
‘But there is still much left.’
The plague in the nearby regions was being handled, but the plague throughout the entire Damjin Kingdom had not been resolved.
Moreover.
Originally, I had planned to visit two more cities while also investigating Hyeolseonggyo, but so much time had passed after beginning the immune serum method for the plague in this place.
Now it was time to head to the capital.
In a way, this was a blessing in disguise.
With the eradication of the plague in this city as evidence, it would be easier to persuade the King.
‘Now I must head to the capital.’
The investigation into Hyeolseonggyo would have to be postponed until later.
* * *
The villagers held a festival.
I left all the Doctors who had come on this assignment here. As long as the Garrison Soldiers and Demonic Cult members are present, this place is safest.
‘Once additional Garrison Soldiers arrive from the Hwa Empire, the return journey will become even more convenient.’
The Doctors said.
“We will follow you, Soegooju.”
“There are still many bandits about. Let us reconsider once things become safer.”
“And then you’ll try to venture alone into dangerous territory anyway, won’t you!”
One could call it selfishness.
These were children I had raised with my own hands. They were not meant to die in such a manner.
‘I wonder who they take after—all of them stubbornly virtuous and reckless….’
People I barely knew, yet these obstinate calves wouldn’t even listen when I told them to simply do what they could and flee.
I myself was fine.
Was I not among the ten greatest masters under heaven? I was confident in both protecting my body and withdrawing when necessary.
But these ones—that was different.
‘I have already lost one Doctor. I cannot lose another.’
Human malice had always proven stronger than human imagination. It always had.

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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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