Doctor’s Rebirth - Chapter 749

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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 749
‘So we really are running short on firewood.’
The foundation of treating waterborne illnesses was boiling water.
Without boiling water, there was nothing I could prepare.
Fortunately, an oasis existed here, and connected to groundwater, so a well was available.
However, that didn’t mean trees grew well in this place.
That’s why there wasn’t much wood.
It wasn’t for nothing that people in desert regions dried animal dung—horse manure and camel droppings—and used them as fuel.
‘So human sacrifice was the answer they came up with.’
Killing one person was faster and more immediately effective at solving the problem.
And the ‘Divine Tree’ the prince mentioned was created by gathering such people together.
‘There’s plenty of sand and stone, though.’
There was also plenty of weeds.
Since the Plague had swept through here, the wild bovine creatures had already suffered mass death.
So the weeds they ate began to flourish.
As a result, mosquitoes were beginning to swarm.
Fortunately, the ecosystem was still alive, so things were ‘still’ manageable. As mosquitoes swarmed, dragonflies and small birds that ate them were also increasing.
It was thanks to containing the Plague relatively quickly.
‘For now, I’ll do what I can.’
That’s what I resolved, but I couldn’t help being furious.
So I, Jin Cheon-hee, acted petty—truly petty.
I went out in the dead of night.
And I gave that prince bastard a thorough smack to the back of his head before returning.
Wasn’t I now among the top ten masters of Gangho?
Moreover, having learned all sorts of bizarre martial techniques and shamanism, I’d reached a level where I could slip through the guards and shamans’ barriers of a foreign royal palace at night.
I hit him quite hard, but that shameless bastard came back with a huge lump on his head.
That audacity infuriated me, so the next day I went again and this time smacked him right in the eye sockets.
This time he showed up with a massive bruise on his face.
‘You bastard, watch out for the Demonic Cult after I leave.’
When I sent a letter, Yeo Ha-ryun said he wouldn’t kill him yet. Not yet.
If he died while his older brother was here, his brother would take the fall.
In any case, I squeezed out every resource I could extract.
During the day, I gathered the healing sorcerers of the Damjin Kingdom and taught them treatment methods for dysentery.
The healing sorcerers were all shamans, but they also had considerable knowledge of herbalism.
“Healing sorcery itself consumes spiritual energy. If we can solve it without using healing spells, using herbs is the superior approach.”
That was right.
Even the most skilled healing sorcerer couldn’t treat more than ten people a day.
So conserving spiritual energy by using herbs was important.
‘Though it’s not like advanced medicine has developed here. It’s more like dividing treatment between minor illnesses and serious ones.’
That was the basic concept.
There are approximately two hundred Healing Sorcerers residing in the royal capital.
Of those, about a hundred belong to the royal court.
I was no mere official with delegated authority—I had full command. I selected fifty royal court Healing Sorcerers and fifty freelance practitioners living in the capital, then trained them separately.
I taught them the causes of disease and methods to prevent them.
How to distill medical alcohol.
And boiled water.
‘Damn boiled water.’
I’d never struggled with such things in the Southern Lands.
The North Sea Ice Palace was the same, and even the island of the Bota Clan never suffered from lack of firewood.
“Surely human sacrifice remains the most effective method, does it not?”
The prince’s eyes had turned dark as night as he grinned widely.
It felt like he was predicting my failure.
“I’ve studied somewhat how Baekrin Uiseon practices medicine in the Central Plains, and it all seems to rely on abundant resources.”
“….”
“Can boiled water even be possible in such barren lands lacking those resources?”
I opened my mouth.
“Why do you think there are no resources here?”
“Hmm. Surely you don’t mean to call this sand and stagnant oasis water resources? This region has only dry seasons or rainy seasons year-round. Even during the rainy season, rain doesn’t fall abundantly, and starting fires requires constant deliberation. In such an environment, you expect people to always boil their water?”
He chuckled softly and continued.
“The Dadu Kingdom could manage it. Tea is popular there. But not Damjin.”
You’re no different. Give up. He was saying such things in a remarkably plausible way.
“This plague isn’t all. Afterward too. There will be many other problems. We will simply continue as we have. Even after you leave….”
Can you stop that?
History, life, and that method.
Changing what has been done is not easy. Especially when what has been done proves efficient.
A world where human sacrifice truly works.
Humans cling to the raft of ignorance with all their might to avoid being swept away by death.
In the midst of that, isn’t the sacrifice of the cow for the many ultimately unavoidable?
I myself couldn’t know for certain… but I still had the courage to say that wrong was wrong.
Just as I had been struck by stones in some village back then.
“Ha…. Well, me.”
I sighed and furrowed my brow sharply.
“Prince Radan. I’m not sure if you remember what I said last time.”
“You’ve said so many things that I’m not sure which you’re referring to.”
“If you truly wish to sacrifice the cow for the many, then everyone should do it together, shouldn’t they?”
Radan’s expression hardened slightly.
“Isn’t it cowardly to slip out alone from the lottery?”
Those drawn in the lottery are always the weak, aren’t they?
“Then you truly believe you can end all these calamities?”
I answered with a steady gaze.
“Yes.”
At my curt reply, Prince Radan’s face twisted into a peculiar smile. Then he withdrew something from his robes.
It was a stone, pure white and the size of a fist.
“Then, Prefect Jin. Shall we make a wager?”
I narrowed my eyes as I spoke.
“A wager?”
“Yes. A wager.”
I recalled him casually mentioning a wager before. But I’d dismissed it as nothing serious—I hadn’t realized he was sincere.
“You don’t seem the type to jest in circumstances like these… What sort of wager did you have in mind?”
“This is called the Stone of Covenant. It is a fragment of what we call the Tablets of Covenant.”
The Stone of Covenant. The Tablets of Covenant.
“It is a relic passed down through generations in our royal house. One might call it a sacred object.”
I had met Eungryong before.
It was hardly surprising that such divine artifacts existed.
“And?”
“Should one make a covenant before this stone, it must never be broken. Those who violate it shall face terrible calamity.”
A solemn aura emanated from the tablet fragment.
“So you wish to make a wager?”
“Yes. A wager on whether you are right or I am right.”
Prince Radan regarded me intently.
“Very well. If I resolve the plague and the water contamination, I win, correct?”
“That is correct. Should the opposite occur, you lose.”
“Then if I succeed, you must completely prohibit human sacrifice in this kingdom. You shall do so using your authority as prince.”
The Divine Physician did not hesitate for a moment.
The prince was inwardly astonished.
‘A madman is a madman indeed. I thought he’d lose his nerve and flee.’
Not the slightest doubt that he would fail.
Where did this man draw such confidence from?
“Very well. But Prefect Jin, should you lose the wager…”
“Should I lose?”
“…you must join our Mireuk Faith. You desired a nation, so I desire you. Surely that is only fair?”
“…”
“If you truly win the wager, then by contract I must devote all my strength to prohibiting human sacrifice. Perhaps death would be easier. Should that happen, someone else sitting in my place will perform our nation’s traditional ceremonies instead.”
Only then did I drop my smile.
“Very well. You stake your nation, and I stake myself.”
A chill ran down his spine.
The prince felt goosebumps rise across his skin.
He had intended to mock me as a hypocrite if I fled.
Yet from the Divine Physician, he sensed something akin to madness.
The man who did not smile appeared like a sharpened blade.
The prince spoke with deliberate force.
“Then let me see what skills you possess, Jin Taesu.”
Jin Cheon-hee turned his head at Prince Radan’s words and gazed at the sun.
“You said earlier that we should be cautious about starting fires, didn’t you? Because we lack fuel.”
Prince Radan watched Jin Cheon-hee, who had suddenly returned to the earlier conversation.
What did he mean by bringing that up?
“But we have an enormous amount of sunlight here. Don’t we?”
Yes. There was the sun here.
The sun was fuel hanging in that sky—did we need any other fuel?
“The sun? Surely you’re not suggesting that’s a resource?”
Jin Cheon-hee answered with an expression still devoid of humor.
“Where I come from, there’s a saying: ‘If you have no teeth, use your gums.'”
With that, he kept his expressionless face and stretched both arms straight out into a Y-shape, staring at the sun.
The “Knight of the Sun” pose from a game Jin Cheon-hee had played in the past.
Oh. Praise it!
Oh! The sun!
That was it. If there’s no firewood, there’s the sun.
* * *
During the day, I taught the healers, and at night, I began different work with shamans of another lineage and Chakratant martial artists.
What I intended to create was just one thing.
A large magnifying glass.
The glasswork techniques of the Damjin Kingdom were among the things I had long coveted.
‘So this is how I’ll use it.’
Wasn’t it fitting to use something good for a good purpose?
The glass created by combining shamanism with spirits through their power was uniformly beautiful and exquisite.
However, what I intended to create was far larger.
“Leave the heat-yang device to me.”
I poured the molten glass into the mold.
Normally, creating large glass would never be easy. Not unless one used Yoo Ho.
But the shamans used the spirits’ power to remove impurities within the glass and fix it smoothly within the mold.
Kwaaaa!
The Chakratant supported the shamans so they wouldn’t collapse, while I regulated the temperature with the heat-yang and ice-cold devices.
‘Wow, this is actually working.’
With inner energy supplementing as well, a massive glass lens, hard and smooth as crystal, was completed.
“Let’s complete ten more of these.”
“Huff, huff… Give us a moment to rest.”
Even with the Chakratant’s assistance, the shamans collapsed and gasped for breath.
A large magnifying glass.
A very large magnifying glass.
Creating and setting it in the mold wasn’t the end.
In a way, it’s exactly like making lenses.
Precise polishing and coating work are essential.
Because of this, everyone participating in the work was exhausted and struggling.
It was even harder because I hadn’t explained to them why I needed to make this in the first place.
Since no one could predict what the prince might be scheming, I couldn’t explain anything until the work was complete.
But people naturally feel frustrated when they don’t understand the reason for what they’re doing.
Even as children playing with blocks, we need to know what we’re building—doesn’t everyone want some kind of goal?
Whether it’s a dinosaur or a house, there needs to be some sense of accomplishment.
“Without knowing the goal, honestly…”
“So we just need to make it round and large? Smooth?”
“That’s about right.”
“It’s too big to be a bowl, though.”
“Why are you making us do this anyway, honestly…”
Because of this, I realized I needed to comfort the workers somehow.
‘Here, I suppose I’ll have to appease them with food.’

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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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