Doctor’s Rebirth - Chapter 77

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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 77
“Scalpel. Forceps. Moxibustion supplies. Saline solution.”
I incised the flesh. Forcibly drained the dead blood. Then swiftly sutured the wound. To save the frostbitten feet and hands, I extracted the necrotic blood from those dead tissues.
Simultaneously, I reached toward Bangju’s dantian.
‘My true qi alone cannot regenerate dead nerve cells. The quantity is insufficient. Though my qi and blood are tangled in chaos, I can forcibly draw upon the inner power itself using the Five Elements Divine Skill. So I must use this.’
“Long needle.”
The long needle was placed in Jin Cheon-hee’s hand. I inserted it, and simultaneously channeled Five Elements true qi. The Five Elements true qi met Gaebangjoo’s formidable energy.
Normally, such a collision of heterogeneous true qi would easily invite a severe deviation into madness.
But Jin Cheon-hee sweated profusely, clenched his teeth to concentrate his mind and control the qi.
Like a reed swaying in the wind, I channeled the Five Elements true qi in undulating waves, attempting to manipulate the opponent’s energy with it.
‘Move!’
Thud. Thud. Thud.
‘Move, I said!’
Whoosh!
Bangju’s inner power began to flow like a tidal wave. Simultaneously, the needles embedded throughout his entire body began to tremble.
The true qi that should have flowed chaotically due to the deviation was instead controlled by the needles and spread throughout his body.
‘Yes! If this works, then now….’
The bleeding stopped instantly. The wound was sealed. But this much I had already anticipated.
The real test began now, so Jin Cheon-hee stared at the frostbitten area with wide eyes.
From where I had cut with the blade, putrid blood gushed forth. And soon after, I saw clear blood flowing out.
The countless needles embedded in the feet and hands, darkened by frostbite, swayed as they received the qi. Jin Cheon-hee watched with wide, unblinking eyes.
And I saw it.
Twitch. Twitch.
The fingers twitched. The muscles, the nerves—they were alive!
“This… This cannot be! A hand frozen and necrotic is moving!”
“Truly, you are the direct disciple of the Patriarch!”
Jin Cheon-hee did not hear the astonished cries of the surrounding doctors. He had to pour forth his concentration once more to withdraw the long needle from Bangju’s dantian.
The dantian was the place where inner power gathered.
Inserting a needle there was difficult, but withdrawing it was no ordinary task.
Jin Cheon-hee concentrated his mental power until the final moment. And the doctors watched with wide eyes, as if etching the sight into their memories.
* * *
Elder had a dream.
It was from the time before he became Patriarch of Gaebang, when he picked up a child.
On a winter mountain, a young child lay trapped beneath a tree, crying.
Night in the mountains comes swiftly, runs deep, and bites cold. Once this day passed, the child would surely die—either torn apart by wolves or frozen to death.
Elder, younger then than now, descended toward the child.
‘Where are your parents?’
The child shook his head. Soon after, he answered in a strained voice, ‘I’m alone now.’
It was a common story. Yet the clothes the child wore were of surprisingly fine quality, which was strange.
‘Do you have no relatives to rely upon?’
The young child shook his head.
Before the words had even finished, a rumbling sound echoed from the child’s belly.
‘All I have is beggar’s rice, but would you eat it anyway?’
The child nodded. The Elder, though younger then, hoisted the child onto his back.
‘First, let’s find a doctor. We can eat after that. And if we turn you over to the authorities, whoever your relatives are will come looking for you.’
‘Who are you, grandfather?’
Though younger than now, the Elder was still the Elder back then.
‘A beggar.’
‘But you said that was a bad profession….’
‘Hehehehe, you speak well for someone who survived thanks to a beggar.’
The child pressed his small, cold cheek against the Elder’s back.
He had never even taken a lover, let alone raised a child. What use was a beggar’s spawn creating a family?
The Elder had lived his entire life as a solitary wanderer of the Gangho, with the sky as his ceiling and the earth as his blanket.
The Elder never even asked the child’s name.
He simply left the child with a doctor, fed him, and then turned him over to the authorities.
Two weeks passed.
No one came looking for the child.
When a hundred days had passed, the Elder finally asked the child his name.
‘It’s Seolhwa. I don’t know my family name.’
It was strange. He knew his given name but his parents had never taught him his family name.
Yet for a young child, it was something easily forgotten.
‘What will you do with yourself?’
‘I want to be a beggar like you, grandfather.’
‘You brat! What’s so good about being a beggar….’
‘No! I’m going to be a beggar like you! I like being a beggar! A beggar!’
‘Absolutely not! Not until dirt fills my eyes will I allow it!’
‘Grand! Pa! Noooo!’
From that moment on, Seolhwa’s stubbornness was extraordinary.
* * *
The Elder slowly opened his eyes.
‘If there was one thing I did right in my entire life, it was saving you back then.’
The Elder took in the child and abandoned his solitary wandering of the Gangho. Then he passed everything he had to that child.
Though not connected by blood, that child was like a granddaughter to him.
The Elder tried to move his limbs.
“….”
He felt no sensation in his arms and legs whatsoever.
‘Like wooden logs. I heard two could be saved, but perhaps all four limbs should have been severed after all.’
It would be a lie to say he felt no despair.
‘But there is still much I haven’t passed on to that child. I cannot die until I’ve given her everything.’
I had merely become the Patriarch of the Gaebang in form, nothing but an empty shell. Now was the time to pass on the secret history of the Gangho, the hidden sanctuaries of the Gaebang, and countless tales that only the Patriarch could access.
‘Limbs aren’t necessary anyway. Well….’
I forced a smile while concealing my punctured chest.
‘I still have inner energy left, so I could pass it on.’
Heaven has blessed me with such a precious fortune.
That’s what the Elder thought.
Then Jin Cheon-hee entered.
“You’ve awakened!”
His voice was bright.
“Thank you for saving me, boy. Gaebang will never forget this debt.”
“Never mind the debt—let me first examine the wound area.”
As he spoke, he pulled back the leather blanket, and immediately Seol Gae’s voice rang out.
“Elder!”
“What is it, you mad dog.”
She rushed over to embrace me, but since I was a patient, she could only flail her limbs in the air.
The sight was so ridiculous that I burst into laughter.
“Even in this state, you’re still so clingy.”
“How much have I worried, and you say such things!”
“Tsk, tsk, tsk….”
I chuckled. Seeing Seol Gae with her puffy eyes, my heart ached.
“As long as I’m alive, that’s what matters, isn’t it.”
“Your words, really….”
She wiped her face with the back of her hand, tears glistening in her eyes again.
I thought: I still have things to give. I won’t die until then.
Jin Cheon-hee spoke.
“I apologize. I should have done better….”
A sigh blanketed the cave. But I shook my head dismissively.
“Even if Baek Rin-ui-seon had come, I don’t think he could have done better than this.”
“But….”
“It’s fine.”
Seol Gae spoke.
“That’s right. The little White Dragon did his best. That’s already incredible.”
“No, sir.”
His voice grew heavy.
“In the end, I had to amputate two fingers. A considerable portion of your inner energy was also lost.”
“But if I recover properly, I can still practice martial arts, right?”
“Yes, martial arts….”
At that moment, a flash of light burst in my mind.
“What, what, what, martial arts? Two, two fingers? You mean two?”
Jin Cheon-hee spoke with a troubled expression.
“Yes. Your right index and middle fingers—I couldn’t save both. They’re crucial fingers for a martial artist….”
“No, no! That’s not! That’s not what I meant!”
The Elder was experiencing the greatest shock he had felt in his entire life.
“You’re saying only two fingers are gone and my limbs are still alive?!”
When the Elder cried out, Jin Cheon-hee’s eyes widened in surprise.
“Yes, yes! If you just recover properly with proper care, the rest will heal.”
“I’m alive?! I can grip the staff again?!”
“Of course, since you’ve lost two fingers, it won’t be quite like before….”
“…What are you saying! My limbs were nearly gone, and you’re telling me no one will complain about just two missing fingers?!”
Laughter burst forth.
It was not the hollow laughter that had come moments before.
“You saved it. You saved that. You actually brought it back…!”
The Elder’s eyes glistened with moisture.
“Mad Dog. It seems there’s still more I can do for you.”
“Huh? You mean you’ll hit the back of my head more?”
“Hahaha. Yes. That’s what I mean. Yonseok!”
Now he could teach directly, not just through words.
At those words, Seol Gae spoke.
“Elder, now that you’re well again, shouldn’t you return this?”
It was the knot hanging at his waist.
The symbol of the Gaebangjoo. The Elder shook his head.
“Stop tormenting an old man. Let me rest a bit.”
“Honestly… I’m the only one suffering here.”
Her grumbling voice was clearer than usual. That voice from when she had escaped the heart demon.
Stubborn, harsh, yet missing nothing that truly mattered—that was her voice.
“Mad Dog.”
“Huh?”
“Even if I returned to that time, I would pick you up again.”
“….”
Seol Gae sat beside the Elder.
“I’d become a beggar again too.”
“Don’t say that.”
“Khekhekhe.”
Seol Gae laughed mischievously, and the Elder laughed along with her.
Jin Cheon-hee quietly slipped out, leaving the two of them alone.
In all his years as a physician, he had finally witnessed a scene he had always longed to see.

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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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