Doctor’s Rebirth - Chapter 739

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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 739
Namtsu, a massive stone city built beside an oasis.
As the royal capital of the kingdom, it remarkably possessed a separate sewage system.
Moreover, the population was quite substantial, with at least hundreds of thousands of people living in this city.
In truth, the sewage system may have been an unavoidable necessity.
The Hwa Empire’s capital, while also a metropolis housing hundreds of thousands, sprawled several times wider than Namtsu here.
Though Namtsu was a great city, its buildings clustered densely together. This made a sewage system absolutely essential.
Furthermore, from what I had observed while wandering about, the city even possessed water purification facilities.
This was to maintain the water quality of the oasis lake.
“Still… there are quite a few poor people.”
Since the entire Damjin Kingdom was a nation where trade flourished, the royal capital contained many impoverished residents.
Particularly because the plague had caused food supplies to plummet sharply, I noticed quite a few people who were visibly emaciated.
I felt sympathy for their plight. And at one point, I spotted a monk preaching to the gathered people.
‘Could it be… the Hyeolbulsa here…?’
Thinking this, I approached. And the moment I heard the content of his sermon, I recalled what Yeo Ha-ryun had told me.
“Maitreya shall soon descend and save us all…”
‘The Maitreya Sect!’
It wasn’t the Hyeolbulsa. But what of this Maitreya Sect? Could they truly be called anything other than heretics?
I exhaled deeply, lightening the weight in my heart.
It was clear that the plague was creating various forms of chaos throughout the entire Damjin Kingdom.
Should I simply pretend ignorance and leave?
My reason whispered that it was a reasonable option.
These were strangers from a foreign land, after all. Did I truly need to help them to this extent?
But then, suddenly.
I noticed the black mark beneath my fingernail. It was soot from incense.
One person had died.
One doctor had died.
He was merely a fool from a foreign land who had disobeyed my order to flee when things became difficult.
The vaccine he had protected ultimately saved the village, but his own life was now gone.
He had no family.
He was from Baek Hwan-hu, someone who had always been slightly isolated within the Medical Guild.
This world is always full of death. Commoners, garrison soldiers, bandits—countless die, and doctors are no different, someone once said.
I know this. Yet somehow, the hand that burned the incense, that mark still remains.
‘First. I need to meet with Ha-ryun.’
I quickened my pace.
I soon entered a somewhat damp alley.
Poor people sat about listlessly here and there, their presence striking.
Normally, entering such a place would bring out local thugs or heterodox sects, but no one appeared.
And Hwang-gu led me toward a rather decent restaurant even in this impoverished district.
And the place Hwang-gu headed to was a fairly decent restaurant even for a slum area.
Upon entering, I could see there were quite a few customers inside.
‘Is Ha-ryun here?’
Even though I’d brought a dog with me, the people showed little interest.
Only two or three people paid any attention to me, Hwang-gu, and Noeji as we passed through the door.
Most of the people wore shabby, worn clothing, and some didn’t even have shoes on their feet.
The majority were commoners living in poverty.
Most of them were eating the same kind of gruel.
It appeared to be inexpensive food, meant simply to fill the belly.
As I was thinking this, Hwang-gu grabbed and tugged at the hem of my pants.
Grrrr—
Ha-ryun’s scent seemed to lead toward the cooking area inside.
Dogs naturally have keen noses, but Hwang-gu, having grown as a spiritual creature, had become something like a living embodiment of pursuit itself.
‘If Ha-ryun deliberately concealed his scent from Hwang-gu, it might be different, but there seems to be no need for that right now.’
So I moved toward the kitchen at Hwang-gu’s urging.
And then.
Everything suddenly transformed.
Wuuung—
A strange sound. And the surroundings shifted as well.
What had been an interior where commoners ate gruel was now covered in mold on the walls, with human bones and rotting flesh scattered across the floor.
At the tables sat not living people, but corpses greedily devouring something.
A repulsive and horrifying sight.
“Grrrrrowl—!”
Hwang-gu puffed up his body and barked fiercely.
The corpses around us suddenly turned to look this way, as if they were alive.
Their skin was stripped away, their faces rotted and torn in places.
Though the corpses were damaged, there were no insects visible on them.
That made it even more terrifying and grotesque.
Not like a jiangshi, but something else entirely.
‘These look like demonic ghosts from legends, but why would they be here? I was told that even in the Gangho, no one has directly seen demonic ghosts before….’
Since encountering shamanism, I’d gained considerable knowledge, but demonic ghosts were among the most common legends.
Just as zombies don’t actually exist, yet even children know what they are.
Demonic ghost legends vary by region in their names, habits, and behaviors, but they share common elements.
A corpse rises and attacks the living.
In some ways they resemble the zombies that were popular on Earth, but their principles and consequences were entirely different.
These creatures move because malevolent spirits cling to the dead bodies, or because the resentment and vengeful spirits of the deceased move them of their own accord, seeking to kill the living!
However, demonic ghosts appearing naturally like this was something only possible in old fairy tales.
I had once seen something called Che—whether it was a spiritual creature or a demon, I couldn’t tell.
And I remembered what Baekcheon-gun had said.
The boundaries are weakening.
The supernatural can now move through the mortal realm far more easily.
Jin Cheon-hee clenched his teeth.
No, strange things were happening in this Damjin Kingdom as well.
Those Hyeolseonggyo members might have created this through sorcery.
The moment that thought crossed his mind.
The corpses lunged forward.
“Kaaaaaa!”
“Saaaaaa!”
Not the sound of living humans, but the malevolent shrieks of the dead echoed out.
An ordinary person would have lost their composure and collapsed merely from hearing such sounds.
The demonic ghosts surged toward Jin Cheon-hee in unison. Even amid the stench of decay, his expression remained composed.
‘First move: the Spirit-Calling Bell.’
For Jin Cheon-hee, if martial arts were calculation, then shamanism was intuition.
That was why only the chosen could wield shamanism, and among those chosen few, even fewer could calmly perform rituals in such circumstances.
Most shamans relied on performing their rites upon designated altars as their fundamental practice.
Yet through mere will alone, the young man’s blood responded.
An ancient covenant.
It invoked forgotten beings of old, called to them, and finally manifested at his fingertips.
Jin Cheon-hee immediately plucked the stone pipa.
Ding ding ding ding!
True to its name, the Spirit-Calling Bell should normally produce the sound of bells or chimes to send spirits to the underworld.
Yet Jin Cheon-hee accomplished this with merely a pipa.
Just as he once produced the lowing of cattle with the pipa, now each pluck of the strings generated a spiritual sound imbued with shamanic power that rippled outward in all directions.
As the sound waves shook the surroundings, the demonic ghosts’ bodies scattered in circular patterns as if struck by buckshot.
In a single strike, half of their considerable numbers collapsed with their upper bodies disintegrated.
‘Hmm? This is somewhat different from what I read in the Soul Transfer Technique manual.’
The text stated that suspended souls would naturally return to where they belonged and vanish, but there was no description of upper bodies being crushed as they disappeared.
‘No matter how I look at it, isn’t this completely different from the peace of the dead—like comparing it to something nine thousand miles away?’
This was hardly peace; it was simply annihilation.
Moreover, the book clearly stated that the Spirit-Calling Bell would send back only about one spirit per use.
To ascend them all at once like this was unexpected.
Jin Cheon-hee gazed down at his own hands.
‘Does the Soul Transfer Technique perhaps have a tendency to reduce its original power when used…? Or… did I perhaps use too much true energy…?’
While performing the Spirit-Calling Bell technique, he had also channeled the power of his internal energy. Was that the source of this overwhelming force? Or was it the influence of divine blood?
He wanted to conduct additional research on this matter later.
The remaining half of the demonic ghosts launched their attack toward Jin Cheon-hee.
Shyaaaaaa!
These were the ones that had resisted the Spirit-Calling Bell.
Quite formidable!
Hwang-gu and Noeji immediately sprang into action.
Since Noeji was underground, he gripped Hwang-gu’s head with his claws and unleashed lightning.
Crack-crack-crack!
The lightning mysteriously formed a halo of angels as it surged forward.
Blue sparks scorched everything around, creating a scene straight out of mythology.
Boom!
Hwang-gu crushed the demonic ghosts whose bodies were paralyzed or burned by the lightning, ramming through them like a chariot.
“Wow.”
Without anyone teaching them, the coordinated attacks of the two spirit beasts were incomparable to a Kang Ho-in’s sword examination.
Seamless, flowing attacks!
Then, as if waiting for this moment, an enormous horde of demonic ghosts came pouring through the entrance?
‘Wow, they’re rushing in like a basement flooding during a downpour?’
I sent out another bright command.
Bang!
This time, about two of them fell.
It seemed considerably stronger ones had entered this time.
‘Then what about this?’
I plucked the stone lute with inner energy infused into it.
Boom-!
With a single strike, the demonic ghost’s ear burst and rotten blood flowed from its eardrum. Yet it still charged forward without hesitation.
The ground where I stood crumbled and scattered in all directions with a thunderous roar.
Power that could tear through stone like tofu!
Dodging an attack that would turn me into a handful of blood just from grazing it, I muttered calmly.
“Ah, so it’s fine even if the brain is scrambled. Hmm, yes. This is a reaction similar to a jiangshi.”
Even in the midst of this, the professor remembered all the demonic ghost’s behaviors to create a response manual later.
“Then what about this?”
I stood the stone lute vertically and smashed its head.
Crack!
With a sound like a watermelon breaking, the head flew off. Then its movements stopped.
“So when the head is completely crushed, its movements cease. The brain isn’t necessary, but the head is… This is interesting.”
Good. These things weren’t even alive, and they had no reason, so there was no need to hold back my power.
I continued to crush the demonic ghosts’ heads, shoulders, joints, backs, and arms with the stone lute, collecting data on their reactions.
‘The joint range of motion is definitely better than a jiangshi.’
Boom~!
I burst the demonic ghost’s eyes with inner energy.
Screech!
“Hmm, there’s a temporary paralysis effect, but since there’s no significant difference in behavior, the primary sensory organ doesn’t seem to be sight. Not hearing either, so if not vision, then it must be smell?”
As the giant demonic ghost swung its arm, my body jerked backward.
By the narrowest margin, it grazed past my nose.
For an ordinary person, this would be a terrifying experience, but my expression remained calm.
“So it can distinguish human scent even in this stench. Hmm.”
Screech!
I struck the demonic ghost’s cheek with the soft inner surface of my palm.
The creature’s jawbone rippled, and its nose burst open, blood streaming down.
“How’s that? Do you know where I am now?”
Shrieeek!
It thrust its claws toward where I stood. This time, I seized its wrist and applied the Twofold Grafting technique.
A slight twist.
Crack!
In that instant, starting from the finger bones, through the wrist, elbow, shoulder, collarbone, and scapula, its body twisted and shattered all at once, as if being wrung out like wet laundry.
Boom!
As I released my grip, the demonic ghost’s body flew backward.
“Fascinating. Its accuracy is poor, but it still managed to locate me?”
I continued dodging and shattering each attack, retreating step by step.
“The fact that these creatures are gathered here like this… yes, reasoning in reverse, it means they have something significant to hide.”
I didn’t have time to search for it one by one.
I infused my inner energy and struck the ground with force.
Boom!

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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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