Doctor’s Rebirth - Chapter 751
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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 751
Over the past month.
I halted the plague’s progression and immediately set to work on something else.
With full authority delegated by the prince and funds in hand, I had nothing holding me back.
It was time to properly develop the sewage system and construct a large-scale water purification facility!
Normally, such a massive project would take over a year. But with sufficient manpower, I could compress that timeline to just one month.
I’d actually seen videos on YouTube of a hotel being built in ten days.
Remarkably, ten thousand workers swarmed like ants and constructed a thirty-story hotel.
I mobilized even the garrison soldiers of Damjin Kingdom.
Deploying tens of thousands of workers, I completed the construction in a single month.
Naturally, I built a water purification facility feasible with this world’s technological capabilities.
A purification plant applying the ‘slow sand filtration’ technique that originated in 19th-century Europe.
When contaminated water was poured over layers of sand, gravel, quartz, limestone, and charcoal, it would be purified as it passed through this natural filter.
‘If I think about it simply, it shares the same principle as the LifeStraw I made before.’
I also applied formation techniques at locations with earth veins to further enhance the purification process.
‘I’ve already destroyed the ancient ruins anyway, and since demonic ghosts can’t be summoned, it’s quite convenient.’
In Gangho, renowned sects would have monopolized this place long ago, extracting the spiritual veins through Bunta formations.
But since this isn’t Gangho, I should utilize everything available.
So I went to repair the water channels running through the underground ruins, and I could see traces of the ancients doing the same.
‘What kind of people were they?’
They understood formation techniques. Moreover, though not my method, a filtration device of their own design existed here.
Thanks to that, without much difficulty, clear water was now flowing out.
“By the way… Governor Jin. Where exactly does such knowledge come from?”
I still didn’t answer. Instead, I countered with a question.
“I’m curious if you’re prepared to lose our wager.”
The prince laughed in exasperation.
“Is that your way? But somehow it feels like cheating. If we had known such knowledge, things might have been different for us.”
I answered brazenly.
“Aren’t you relying too heavily on human sacrifice?”
“What do you mean by that….”
There was still amusement in my voice.
“The technology beneath the capital’s underground ruins is quite advanced. There was definitely a water purification facility there. I investigated and sufficiently acquired that technology.”
“Do you truly believe that?”
“Yes. Isn’t it strange from the start? People with the technology to create such ruins—why did they become unable to do anything without the divine tree in later generations?”
The shamans’ glass manufacturing technique was unparalleled compared to anywhere in the Central Plains.
It was said to be a method passed down through generations from my master, and from my master’s master before that.
Despite possessing such technology, people gradually became poorer, progressively impoverished.
“Human sacrifice might not be a panacea, but merely a method of accepting losses and settling for less.”
Instead of excavating the ruins to recover lost ancient technologies, they used them as sites for human sacrifice where demonic ghosts moved.
As it was in the past, so it remained in the present.
There was a reason he called it traditional culture.
‘It would be convenient for now.’
The water facilities we’ve built aren’t a panacea.
They require constant maintenance, and the approach differs between dry and rainy seasons.
A money-devouring, labor-consuming beast.
But human sacrifice?
It transcends modern science and delivers absurd efficiency.
They wanted immediate convenience. In a way, perhaps that’s only natural.
Even if it’s the blood and flesh of the neighbor’s orphan.
But what’s that to me?
The rulers found it convenient too.
Dump everything on one person, burn them, and the people will praise you of their own accord.
Witch hunts weren’t something humanity used for quite a long time on Earth?
While one side invented the steam engine within the Enlightenment, the other conducted witch hunts to seize the property of clever women.
In the process, they suppressed the people’s political discontent, vented collective hysteria, eliminated national heroes like Joan of Arc when removing political rivals, and concealed corruption.
When a male competitor needed to die, they branded him a disciple or servant of Satan and burned him.
This place is even a world where tangible miracles are added to all that.
‘The sacrifice of the few for the many.’
Seize just one person and burn them, and this insane place actually raises the lame and opens the eyes of the blind.
No witch hunt interrogations are even necessary.
Simply buy them with money.
Once a ruler tastes this, they’ll keep pressing the big red button like a drug addict.
‘What happens if they do this for a hundred years? Two hundred, three hundred?’
I myself don’t know how ancient civilizations collapsed.
Yet it’s strange that most of those technologies were lost—or perhaps, not strange at all when you think about it.
‘Roman technologies largely disappeared as the world moved into the Middle Ages.’
That was due to religion. This… religion and the candy box of human sacrifice and magic.
Technology seems like it should develop in an upward trajectory, but in reality, it doesn’t always.
I continued speaking.
“The sacrifice of the few for the many may seem like a universal key that can solve anything, but it isn’t.”
“I see. I’m more interested in the knowledge you possess.”
He didn’t seem like he’d reflect much.
That’s only possible when you’re young with innocence remaining. Once you’re an adult, your mind hardens and you don’t listen to others.
Humans only believe in what they’ve experienced, after all.
I spoke.
“I don’t think we’ll walk the same path from here on.”
What remained was a wager.
Whether he’s intoxicated by a sense of chosenness or just an AI spouting ‘sacrifice of the few for the many’—it doesn’t matter.
“You promised, didn’t you? To stop human sacrifice.”
“I thought I’d gain you. What a shame.”
Jin Cheon-hee thrust out his belly and struck a proud stance.
“I’m quite the coveted talent, you see. Kahahaha!”
The Emperor himself had granted him a provincial governor’s position just to put him to work, so what could this person possibly do about it?
‘If you want to have me, at the very least go stand as a human shield against the Suksin Tribe on the battlefield.’
Still, Eun Wang-ya had gone directly to the battlefield and rolled forward alongside the soldiers.
A weakling who can’t endure even three seconds has no right to act tough!
* * *
At the same time, in the Central Plains.
Jegalling stood atop a high mountain, gazing down at the land below.
The wind blew fiercely, scattering his silver hair like feathers.
Had Jin Cheon-hee seen him, he would have internally marveled at how much he resembled a white hawk.
Where Jegalling’s gaze fell, the forces of the Martial Arts Alliance and Sadoren clashed with their weapons.
“Die, enemy of the main house!”
“Yes! Meeting like this could be called fate, couldn’t it? Don’t hold back with our sect’s blade!”
The numbers were too small to call it a full-scale battle.
Just a fist from the Martial Arts Alliance, a fist from Sadoren.
From this height, people looked like ants. It wasn’t an inaccurate comparison.
Jegalling’s twisted nature made it difficult for him to distinguish between people and ants.
He was aware that something was missing within him.
Normally, with such a disposition, one would enter the dark path and gain fame through cruel sword techniques.
However, he was a doctor.
A doctor just like his disciple.
The difference between them was that his disciple’s primary profession was medicine, while the master practiced medicine as a secondary occupation, one might say.
His primary profession could be called management and such duties.
“So the Martial Arts Alliance and Sadoren have finally begun fighting. The Five Rings Society decided not to involve themselves in this conflict.”
Soon after, a golden-haired man descended behind him.
A man with a physique as massive as Jegalling’s own.
He retied his golden hair, which had grown longer than usual.
“Is it alright to let the war happen as it will? I thought the disciple would dislike that?”
“Of course, Hee is not the type to simply watch such things. But that doesn’t mean he’s become actively involved either, does it?”
“Is that so?”
“Indeed. Certainly. Originally, I wanted to stop all conflicts in the martial world. Wasn’t that the case even with the Bidong incident back then? But ever since the Green Forest Eighteen Bandits stole the marked goods and started a war, I began to accept what must be accepted.”
“You’ve awakened to reality.”
“Yes. I’ve come to truly understand the nature of those in the martial world. And furthermore… now I’ve realized how precious my own life is.”
He had always been that way since childhood.
A strange one who gave love to all things in the world but did not love himself.
Normally, those in the martial world possess strong egos.
A strong ego means recognizing oneself as the center of this world.
But he lacked such a thing.
In his world, he was not the center.
‘A man like that rolling through Gangho has made him realize his own worth a little.’
But he’s still just the moon. Not like the sun.
He’s simply reflecting the affection others give him to illuminate himself.
‘On the surface, he’s brighter and more carefree than anyone, but if you peel back the layers, there’s no one more twisted.’
If the Sang Ui-won people heard this, they’d say I was spouting nonsense—the most unpleasant joke in the world.
Well, that’s the kind of disciple he is.
He wears perfection as armor while his insides remain soft and pliable.
Yoo Ho’s eyebrows twitched.
“But are you certain about this, sir? Wasn’t it you who encouraged him to become that way?”
“Hehehehe. What’s there to encourage? They were always meant to fight anyway. I simply pushed their backs so they’d do it at a time and place convenient for us. Using barbarians to control barbarians and borrowing a knife to kill—these are always useful tactics, aren’t they?”
“You have quite the terrible personality, sir.”
Jegalling laughed at Yoo Ho’s words.
“Is that so? Besides, the imperial twins—those snake creatures—also want to reduce the martial forces. It worked out well.”
Twin snakes.
After the insect brothers, now it’s snakes.
Oh Dok-mun’s Six-Horned Venomous Snake might feel wronged if he heard this.
That he himself wasn’t as sinister or vicious as the twin emperors.
“You still despise humans, sir.”
“Of course I despise them. If Gangho were to perish entirely, and I could sit atop that mountain of corpses with Hee, sipping tea and eating dumplings—that would be truly pleasant.”
The man before me is more than capable of it.
I knew it wasn’t simply because of his martial prowess.
The most terrifying thing was the wisdom this man possessed.
And that wisdom was invariably malicious, capable of destroying anything if he set his mind to it.
The two men silently watched the battle unfold beneath them.
Despite the dizzying height where figures appeared as mere dots, observing them posed no difficulty.
Soon, the Martial Arts Alliance shouted.
“Chase down Sadoren! Don’t leave a single one!”
“Everyone flee! What use is dying like dogs to the Martial Arts Alliance’s hounds here?”
“Everyone run!”
“Cowards, come back and fight fairly!”
The Martial Arts Alliance achieved victory, and Sadoren retreated in defeat.
Then, Sulgye appeared.
He wrote talismans to summon spirit servants. Jegalling committed each fluttering talisman to memory one by one.
Even those incomprehensible characters were all consumed by his mind.
He was certainly already calculating the method to take Sulgye’s life.
That’s the kind of man his contractor was.
“Ho, I didn’t expect Sulgye to come here personally. This is outside my calculations.”
“It’s not as if he read the heavenly secrets or cast divinations. The fact that he’s already hit the mark this far is itself extraordinary.”
“Sulgye’s nature is difficult for me to predict. Well, now that the world has grown turbid, the Hyeolseon Sect members will emerge. With Sulgye joining in, an unexpected bait has been created.”
“It’s become quite weighty.”
A smile played at the corners of Jegalling’s lips.
Did my disciple know this side of me?
It hardly mattered.
If humans could be the most virtuous, then they could also be the most wicked—such was their nature.
“The Hyeolseon Sect members in Jiangsu Province, already under Baekrin Uiseon’s control, have all been exterminated.”
“True. But that alone won’t suffice. So we must create a fishing ground they’ll find appealing.”
Yoo Ho found himself pitying Sulgye.
He was fighting to protect the warriors of Sadoren.
“Hey, you! Damn bird brains! Must I, in this decrepit body, even change your soiled diapers!”
As he spewed curses and methodically dispatched the Martial Arts Alliance members one by one, Jegalling spoke with amusement coloring his voice.
“Truly an entertaining fellow.”
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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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