Doctor’s Rebirth - Chapter 770
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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 770
In that brief moment, just as I was about to continue my next attack.
Something no one could have predicted occurred.
Shriiiick!
Hwi-ryeong Sah forcibly aligned Baekcheon-gun’s shattered left hand and reattached it, then accelerated forward with it intact.
Thud!
Below the ribs. At least the internal organs were spared.
Had my body not been comparable to Geumgang’s Indestructibility, that single strike would have cleaved me in two.
Through razor-sharp agony, I beheld Baekcheon-gun before me.
He was smiling.
Despite his shattered hand and crushed shoulder blade, he smiled.
“Hahahaha! You didn’t expect this, did you? Now if I simply sever your organs, I win!”
Crunch.
“Ah, I see. You’re tensing your muscles to stop the bleeding? But how long can you endure?”
“As long as necessary. Whenever necessary.”
“Hahahaha! Why go so far? They became what they are of their own accord. They chose whether to die as humans or survive as monsters. There’s no reason for you to go this far, is there?”
“No. There is.”
“Hmm… What reason?”
“I have a stake in the mines. Every time I send people there and they return dead, it will be unsettling. And.”
Ugh—
Tendons writhed beneath my wrist as if they might snap.
Even with reduced force, this situation was a bad omen. It was evidence that my vital energy was accelerating to its limit.
“…And! I am. A doctor. If there are patients, I must do something.”
A doctor saves people.
If there are patients. I save them.
I have lived this way.
“But they’re dead? They’re merely demons carrying memories.”
“True. But… I haven’t pronounced them dead yet.”
What it means to be ‘me’.
Those who love their families by day, guard their hours, till their fields, and mine minerals.
I still don’t know if they are truly human or murderers bearing the memories of their victims.
Because I don’t know, I haven’t pronounced them dead.
Yeo Ha-ryun and Jasi each found their own answers.
But this dull head of mine, for some reason, couldn’t find the right answer until the very end, so I’ve been wandering like this.
Perhaps I might find that answer here, I thought.
“And shall I teach you one more thing?”
Snap.
I firmly grasped the hand of Baekcheon-gun that had pierced my side.
“You’ve lost.”
“Haha! How so?”
“You’re alone. Ha-ryun! Jasi! Hwang-gu!”
Crack.
I tensed every muscle in my body to its limit and crushed Baekcheon-gun’s wrist.
I drew forth all my vital energy, then pulled out my latent power as well.
Roooar!
“You… have lost your mind?”
Baekcheon-gun leaned his face closer toward me.
He was smiling even more than before.
“Yes. I’ve lost it. That’s why everyone calls me Ilgwang.”
“Hahahaha! But I cannot die here either!”
Crash! Sand scattered everywhere.
The Huiryeong Sand moved to coil around me, but at that moment, a beast the size of a house plummeted from the sky.
Its form was like the sun-devouring dog from ancient myths.
Bang!
Hwang-gu descended, striking down at Baekcheon-gun’s neck.
Though his neck was slightly compressed, Baekcheon-gun did not fall from that single blow.
Whoooosh!
The Huiryeong Sand coiled around his entire body.
And with his still-empty arm—though his shoulder blade was crushed—he seized Hwang-gu’s neck.
“Haha! A dog that has become a superior demon! With luck, you might even become a dog god, but here I’ll sever your life….”
Splurch!
Beneath the dragon’s skull, tree roots burst forth from the gray sand like the ancient giants of legend, piercing through Baekcheon-gun’s body.
Though the Huiryeong Sand blocked complete penetration, the roots bound Baekcheon-gun’s body together with the sand.
In that moment.
Yeo Ha-ryun appeared behind Baekcheon-gun as well.
His appearance was completely different from before.
The same as always, yet different.
The shell was certainly Yeo Ha-ryun, but the essence was not.
A strange union.
Within that killing intent, only his left eye burned with crimson light.
Eyes like a black dragon never miss their prey.
“Die.”
Yeo Ha-ryun’s hand pierced through the gray sand and impaled Baekcheon-gun’s body.
“Cough!”
Baekcheon-gun spat blood.
Baekcheon-gun was certainly strong, but the combined assault executed while I held myself as bait was a force he could not withstand.
“Ahh… This is truly delightful. Delightful. Something this joyful… It has been such a long time.”
“That joy ends here.”
“Is that so?”
Baekcheon-gun smiled wickedly.
And the dragon’s skull began to shine with tremendous brilliance.
“You dare attempt such foolishness!”
Jasi erupted from beneath the grey sand.
His form, having nearly lost all trace of humanity, was utterly wretched and horrifying.
Yet it mattered not to him.
He had already resigned himself to death when Usha fell, when he gathered the curses of the spirits.
Observing his body, which no longer even registered pain, he reflected.
That there was no returning to the past.
Still, it was enough. If only he could kill him.
If only he could expunge this hatred!
Rage was fire—a fire that could not sustain life without consuming something.
Having chosen to become that fire, he mocked himself that this ending was inevitable.
Thus he lunged at Baekcheon-gun, seeking to seize and crush his throat.
Yet that attempt failed.
Kwaaaaaaaa!
The grey sand remaining in Baekcheon-gun’s body spun like a mixer, generating unprecedented destructive force.
That power radiated outward in all directions!
Crack! Kwaaaa!
Tree roots and plant stems were severed in an instant.
Jasi was hurled backward, and Yeo Ha-ryun too was driven back by the force.
However.
Jin Cheon-hee remained unmoved.
“Huh? You… how did you endure that?”
“Yijin Xisui Jing. Vajra Immovable.”
Jin Cheon-hee’s eyes gleamed with brilliant azure light.
* * *
The people of Gangho called the sect of monks thus.
The Thousand-Year Shaolin.
A towering giant of Gangho.
And the supreme martial scripture of such Shaolin Temple was said to be the Yijin Xisui Jing.
It was both a Buddhist sutra and a martial scripture.
And through that ancient history, the Yijin Xisui Jing gradually spread throughout Gangho.
Sometimes it was lost in wars between nations, sometimes stolen by thieves like Shin Tu the Shadowless, and sometimes a wayward disciple who had fallen into heart demons and touched the demonic realm fled with a portion of the Yijin Xisui Jing.
And Jegalling had obtained two of the four volumes of the Yijin Xisui Jing through trade…
That legacy had been passed down to the final heir of the Jegallim Family here.
-Jegal Siju, might I ask one thing?
-What troubles your mind?
-I understand that twenty years ago, you obtained the second volume of the four Anutaratantra volumes of the Yijin Xisui Jing. It was to cure your elder brother’s affliction, was it not? Yet why do you now seek the third volume?
A certain transaction Jegalling had once made for his disciple.
When the disciple called out for the next patient to come forward against the Haesabang.
My Master made arrangements upon arrangements for such a mad disciple.
Anuttarasamyaksambodhi.
What had the Buddha ultimately awakened to?
While the destination of sudden enlightenment remained unknowable, Jegalling knew precisely where obsession had led.
Obsession was attachment itself.
His attachment to saving a single disciple.
When Weonjin Daesa questioned why he would go so far, Jegalling answered.
-Naturally, it is for that disciple’s sake. I merely granted his request to support what he wished to accomplish.
-Jin Siju is certainly a most excellent person, but… Jegal Siju. I pray you accumulate good karma.
-Perhaps… I am already too late.
-Amitabha Buddha…
Weonjin thought at that time that what Jegalling was doing resembled a stone mason carving a pagoda.
That he alone might survive whatever calamity was to come.
A contribution devoted solely to one person.
A Master protects his disciple.
Even if he is not present, he must make arrangements.
The disciple offered deep gratitude to his Master.
A single stone placement my Master had laid in the past.
A single stone placed in a remote corner, removed from both the Heavenly Origin and the Flower Point—that placement survived and protected the disciple.
Just as the disciple had once saved the Master’s life, so too did the Master save the disciple’s life.
No—he continues to save it.
And whether Jegalling was present in that place or not mattered little.
“Hah.”
I exhale deeply.
For a direct disciple of the Jegallim Family who comprehends all formations and analyzes and employs them, this is as natural as breathing.
And now.
Using the martial arts derived from the formations of that Yeokgeun Sesuggyeong, I stand here.
My two legs are rooted to the earth as if immovable, and my body has become like that of a Geumgang Warrior—flesh that even inner force cannot penetrate.
My clothes are torn to tatters, hanging in shreds until I am nearly naked, and Baekcheon-gun’s left hand still pierces through my side.
And yet.
Still.
I stand firm.
Baekcheon-gun feels wonder and awe at this sight.
A tingling sensation that makes his hair stand on end courses up his spine.
“You are truly extraordinary. I have never seen a human like you♪”
It hurts.
Separate from having saved my life, pain was not absent.
Even as my brain floods itself with pain-relieving hormones to survive, the burning ache persists.
I attempt to push back the pain with Hyeonwon Jeondan Singeong, then abandon the effort.
Becoming numb to pain means becoming numb at the fingertips as well.
Because the opponent isn’t in a state where I can afford to waste internal energy on them.
“Well then, take a good look while you can.”
“Ah yes! I’d love to capture you and make you into a specimen. I could never tire of examining you, could I?”
This creature didn’t seem particularly interested in sacrificing Jin Cheon-hee as an offering.
A being lacking the basic loyalty that Sip Cheon-gun would possess.
Which meant he was likely the strongest of all the Sip Cheon-gun I had ever encountered.
“Fine then. But you see…”
I released my grip from Baekcheon-gun’s wrist.
“…you have to pay the price. An admission fee, so to speak.”
My hands were now free.
My left hand struck Baekcheon-gun’s solar plexus, and then my right hand advanced to deliver another blow.
Once. Twice. Three times. Four times. Five times. Six times. Seven times. Eight times. Nine times.
And finally.
Ten times–!!
Ten different techniques struck in rapid succession.
The Wudang Sect’s Ten-Strike Gold!
It all happened in the span of a single blink.
Thud!
Boom!!
Something ruptured, and an explosion echoed out.
“Kugh!”
Baekcheon-gun’s left hand tore away from my side.
His body arched like a bow as he was hurled backward and crashed down.
Everything seemed to move in slow motion.
So I could see that even amid his agony, Baekcheon-gun was smiling.
‘He looks pleased even as he dies.’
But it didn’t matter.
Today I would end his life without fail.
My hand moved mercilessly toward his throat.
Crack!
I felt the sensation of life being severed.
I felt something within me dying as well.
It was something I had fought so hard to protect.
But I had chosen to abandon it.
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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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