Doctor’s Rebirth - Chapter 755

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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 755
Sizzle—
Lamb Genghis Khan.
Lamb skewers, lamb tripe grilled.
For the broth dish, I thickened lamb stock with eggs into a stew-like consistency to finish it.
“Lamb has a lot of fat. That’s why it’s difficult to mask the gamey smell.”
“Is that so? But I don’t detect any such odor in the dishes you make.”
“It’s simply because I use young lamb. It’s precious, and the merchants were eager to provide it. They even included some that had been marinated with medicinal herbs and expensive spices. They warned me to eat it quickly since it could spoil if carried around too long.”
“I see.”
Sizzle—
The lamb cooks over the bulging pot. Rich fragrance and appetizing aroma.
Yeo Ha-ryun asked.
“It smells wonderful. Is the seasoning something special?”
“I just soaked it in liquor. That’s all, plus a little salt sprinkled on top.”
I handed the finished dish to Yeo Ha-ryun.
Yeo Ha-ryun first took a spoonful of the stew and opened his mouth.
“It tastes delicious nonetheless.”
“Right? Pile it on rice. Once the lamb fat soaks into the rice, you pour various spices and barley tea over it and eat again.”
“Where did you learn this? The eating method is quite different from how the people in this region do it.”
I learned it on Earth.
It was food a friend bought for me, and I was surprised at how expensive it was.
‘And my senior.’
I shook my head vigorously.
Hadn’t I decided not to think about that person?
However, the brain is foolish, easily pulling out trivial memories.
“It’s a taste I haven’t felt in a long time….”
Yeo Ha-ryun’s voice gradually grew quieter. He must be savoring the flavor.
“Since you can’t taste anything while separated from me, should I teach Ilkana the acupuncture method?”
Yeo Ha-ryun answered to that.
“No, that’s fine.”
“Why?”
“If he could taste things even in normal times, he might loosen his resolve.”
“There’s no need to live so harshly.”
The younger brother didn’t answer his elder’s words and ate the lamb by dipping it thoroughly in sauce, munching away.
The elastic lamb meat bursts with its juices as it’s cut.
Yeo Ha-ryun savored the small fireworks blooming in his mouth. For quite some time.
“Soon our sect will move on a grand scale. So you must keep your mind sharp and clear.”
“…Into the Gangho?”
“Yes.”
“Could it be that we might become enemies?”
At those words, Yeo Ha-ryun neither affirmed nor denied.
“You have your own objectives, Hyeong. I have mine as well.”
“Is that why you came to the Demon Sect?”
“Yes.”
….
I tore into the mutton as well.
The stars were beautiful, and the meat was delicious.
Though it was called a desert, it wasn’t the kind where sand swallowed you up to your ankles with each step as people imagined.
It was simply a barren wasteland where rain never fell.
Soon, I spoke.
“Yes. We both walk the paths we believe are most righteous.”
Even if the day comes when we see each other’s blood spilled by these very hands.
If what awaits at the end is honor.
‘There’s no point worrying about it now. Better to worry about tomorrow when tomorrow comes.’
The old doctor exercised his wisdom of life. Procrastination.
Young Yeo Ha-ryun went to the Demon Sect.
Though he was but a child, he could stake even his own soul to achieve his goals.
That boy became a Minor Sect Leader of the Demon Sect within the Hyeolseon.
The paths of the two diverged, and they had to walk parallel lines forever.
If that was fate.
“Hyeong. I must become the Cheonma.”
“Yes.”
I didn’t hesitate and immediately retrieved some alcohol.
Cheonilchwi brought from Gangho.
“There’s not much left now, but that’s precisely why we should savor it.”
Glug, glug, glug—
One cup for Yeo Ha-ryun, one for myself.
“Survive, Ha-ryun.”
“You too, Hyeong.”
Clink—
The two of us clinked our cups together.
Long words were unnecessary.
Before the Demon Sect truly rose, we simply savored this quiet moment.
* * *
The two of us continued our conversation at length, sharing drinks.
“By the way, it seems you finished your business with the royal family well, Hyeong. Was there anything unusual?”
Suddenly, the dead prince came to mind.
How he had spent his final moments.
The scent the divine tree had emitted then, the strange dampness, the screams, and perhaps even a peculiar intuition that the prince might not have been the first to be buried there.
“…Nothing of note.”
“Is that so?”
The desert night was deep, and this was not a story suited for drinking.
“By the way, the King mentioned it. There’s a Hyeolseon Sect near the natron mines.”
“Hmm. That matches what I’ve learned. The Hyeolseon Sect members were expanding their influence under the name of the Mireuk Sect. They were producing food through active human sacrifice, I hear.”
“Why do these heretical bastards just share names with each other? Is that even allowed?”
“I’m not one to talk, being from the Ilwol Singyeo myself, but that’s how things work in those circles. If it seems roughly similar, they just use it.”
True enough. The Hyeolseon Sect had pretended to be a Demonic Sect to conduct their schemes before.
Since the Mireuk Sect also performed human sacrifices, from an outsider’s perspective, they could seem similar enough.
“Could the Hyeolbulsa be part of the same group then?”
“That’s unclear. The Hyeolbulsa was originally the Soroeum Sect under a different name. They might have joined hands, or they might not have.”
“We’ll find out once we get there.”
“Yes.”
Instead of answering, Yeo Ha-ryun’s lips pressed into a firm line.
“Now that I think about it, where are your subordinates and Ilkana? I thought they were lying in ambush, but when I expanded my perception, I couldn’t sense them at all.”
“I sent them ahead. With two hundred people, there was no choice.”
“I see. Then let’s move together starting tomorrow.”
“Of course.”
Yeo Ha-ryun’s eyes softened gently.
After finishing their meal, the two of them tidied up the tent and rose to their feet.
The night was long, and there was still far to go.
* * *
We traveled through the desert for two days.
Even now, we were moving at night, walking continuously.
We still had a full day’s journey ahead before reaching the mining city.
“According to the map, there’s a small oasis somewhere around here, and another city beyond it….”
Jin Cheon-hee was creating fire through Sammaejinhwa in the darkness, surveying the surroundings.
When I saw his gaze lift toward the sky, it seemed he was gauging direction by the stars. It was strange that he navigated without a compass, but I didn’t mind.
My hyeong had always been that kind of person.
Soon, Yeo Ha-ryun tapped Jin Cheon-hee’s shoulder.
“Hyeong. Look at that.”
Jin Cheon-hee channeled his inner energy into his eyes and gazed into the distance.
Soon, at the edge of the horizon, he confirmed something faintly tinged with crimson light.
Fire. And it was a massive blaze.
“Let’s go, Ha-ryun.”
With those words, my hyeong’s afterimage slid away into the distance.
Hwang-gu urgently chased after his master, but it was difficult to match that speed.
“Yes.”
Yeo Ha-ryun immediately rushed after Jin Cheon-hee.
* * *
Flames filled the earth.
Human corpses lay scattered about like fallen leaves, and the parched earth drank deeply of blood before exhaling its putrid stench.
“Why do the Mireuk Sect Members collect so many corpses?”
“They use all of them in their rituals, apparently.”
“Seems they don’t just use the living ones. The Hyeolbulsa operates differently. Kekeke.”
“As long as we get paid, that’s all that matters.”
Speaking thus, they stuffed the corpses into large baskets.
Blood of indeterminate origin seeped thickly from within the baskets, yet no one paid it any mind.
“Sell the living ones as slaves, sell the dead ones to the Mireuk Sect. We’ve really struck it rich.”
“It’s all business, isn’t it?”
The laughter of the Bloodwind Sect Members echoed through the sea of flames.
For them, this was business. Lucrative business at that.
Humans became currency.
Ordinarily, the dead fetched little coin, but now even corpses had begun to turn a profit.
The living required shackles and rope, and provisions for the journey. Humans died far more easily than expected, demanding constant maintenance.
Young children especially. They’d fever from the smallest wound and perish with ease.
Even those who survived the fever lived out their days with feeble minds.
Or they’d lose the use of a limb, go blind, or go deaf.
In any case, they consumed resources and proved endlessly troublesome.
But the dead required only a large basket and a cow or horse to transport them.
In a way, it seemed far more efficient.
But a corpse was simply a corpse, after all.
As this cycle repeated, they began simply killing surrendered commoners and hauling them away.
Gold was best received quickly.
And best received with ease.
“Still, keep the decent-looking ones alive. They’re worth more alive than dead.”
Business must continue.
The earth stained crimson in rhythm with their laughter.
And then, at last, the blood-drunk weeds burst through the soil.
Framlin.
The pale desert flower.
The traveler’s fortune.
This flower, the oasis’s guiding beacon, sprouted in an instant and coiled around a Bloodwind Sect Member’s ankle.
“Huh?”
In that moment, his body was dragged down and collapsed.
The Framlin coiled around his neck and burrowed into his flesh.
“Gaaahhhhh!”
In an instant, it drained his blood and bloomed.
The pale white flower stained crimson in moments.
A brilliant scarlet Framlin.
“W-what is this!”
“Enemy! Enemy!”
The thieves who had been placing corpses into baskets all drew their weapons.
Flames engulfed the surroundings, obscuring all sight of people. Then, suddenly, a white-skinned man burst through the inferno and lunged forward.
Crack!
Wearing a wolf pelt upon his head, he tore out his enemy’s throat in a single motion, ending their life.
The Framlin flower began devouring the corpse.
“A shaman! Summon Hyeolbul-seung!”
In that instant, Framlin roots erupted from all directions.
The desert flower seized the Bloodwind Sect thieves and drank their blood.
As the white-skinned man placed his hand upon the ground, wolves burst forth from the shadows and tore into the thieves.
“Hyeolbul-seung! Hyeolbul-seung has arrived!”
Hyeolbul-seung began chanting incantations while wielding a massive stone staff.
The sorcerer, as pallid as the Framlin flower itself, commanded the wolves to attack.
The wolves lunged in unison to tear at Hyeolbul-seung’s throat. In that moment—
“Gal—!!”
Hyeolbul-seung’s roar.
His cultivation ran deep indeed; with that single cry, the shadow wolves shattered instantly.
Yet that one strike had broken Hyeolbul-seung’s body. He had expended far too much power.
“You… who are you? I have never encountered a shaman like you…!”
“I am called Jasi. Jasi.”
“You burned your life to wield golden sorcery. Since you have already used such arts, you should have no life remaining—yet you seem content with this.”
“When you burned the village and killed Usha, I was already a dead man.”
Jasi touched the bone necklace habitually.
—To Usha, from Jasi.
The characters inscribed upon the bone necklace.
Though no blood bound them, the young man was his son. His only family.
Even now, closing my eyes summoned the image of the boy’s severed head.
“All of you. Become offerings to appease their spirits.”
At Jasi’s gesture, roots far more numerous than before erupted forth. The Framlin flower bloomed in full, drenched in blood.
“No! Do you think I will die so meekly?!”
In that moment, an additional arm sprouted from Hyeolbul-seung’s body.
His form grew massive, his muscles swelling with power.
His transformed state could no longer be called human.
The same held true for Jasi.
The wolf pelt upon Jasi’s shoulders swelled and transformed as if alive, its jaws gaping wide.
Roooaaarrr!
Consuming Jasi’s life force, the wolf clashed with Hyeolbul-seung’s transformed monk form.
“You… are not of the Hyeolbulsa from Soreum Sect. Are you from the Mireuk Sect?”
I know Hyeolbulsa well.
No—I know their predecessor, the Soreum Sect, intimately.
Those who pursue Theravada Buddhism rather than Mahayana Buddhism.
Theravada Buddhism, compared to Mahayana Buddhism, shows little interest in transmitting the dharma to others.
They focus solely on their own liberation, freedom from affliction, and becoming Buddha themselves.
Even disciples—they accept only those who come seeking them out, never engaging in active proselytization.
Because of this, I know what kind of beings they are.
Such aberrations are not what Soroeumsa or Hyeolbulsa pursue.
Therefore.
Even in the village where Usha died, I had doubted the name Hyeolbulsa. But now, seeing this, it appears to be fabricated as well.
The Mireuk Sect!
Those bastards must be impersonating the name of Hyeolbulsa and running rampant.
Grrrrrgh!
No human voice emerged from Hyeolbul-seung’s throat anymore. Realizing he would not answer anyway, Jasi spoke.
“It doesn’t matter. Either way, I’ll kill you and use you as a sacrifice.”
My son, unbound by blood, came to mind.
Was he afraid? Was he suffering?
Did he search for me?
‘If I’d known it would come to this, I would have fed him all the meat he wanted.’
Suddenly, a tickling sensation brushed against my thigh. The child always clung to my leg, whining for what he wanted.
That warmth was like a chick’s. The child is gone now, yet that warmth clings stubbornly still.
‘I’ve already resolved myself to death anyway.’
To take at least one more of them with me.

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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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