Doctor’s Rebirth - Chapter 793

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

Chapter 793
Ju Wang-ya’s personal guards from her residence came pouring in.
Along with them came the scholars Yu Rang-hu had brought, and they began tearing through the entire estate like searching for lice.
Meanwhile.
I continued my rounds through the entire garden of the estate, repeatedly tapping the ground.
Sama Hyeon asked.
“Oho, are you using sound resonance~?”
“That’s right. How did you know?”
“I’ve heard about it a few times, and seen it before.”
Even so, most people would typically display preparatory movements as if using martial arts.
This subtle shuffling of my feet was so minor it could pass for having a pebble in my shoe.
It was remarkable that he’d immediately recognized it as sound resonance from that alone.
“Come to think of it, Hyeon-a.”
“Hmm?”
“You use different speech patterns, don’t you? Mostly when disguising yourself. Well, you deliberately used an intimidating tone this time too. Do you pull out whichever one you need whenever the situation calls for it?”
“That would be it~ Gaga~”
Sama Hyeon answered playfully.
Strangely enough, most of Sama Hyeon’s speech patterns carried no sense of awkwardness.
The more frequently a phrase is used, the more it becomes worn smooth by use—language gains a patina that makes it round and natural. But Sama Hyeon wielded even phrases she’d never used before as if they were her own.
As if she’d been using them for years.
I asked.
“Which one is your real speech pattern?”
“Hmm….”
Sama Hyeon fell into thought before speaking.
“There isn’t one like that. Hyeong~ they’re all my real speech patterns. Those things are all just me. Even when I change my appearance, the essence beneath is still me. I’m just the version of me that’s acting.”
“I see.”
At Sama Hyeon’s words, I fell into thought for a moment.
“Why did you ask?”
“Just remembered to ask. Ah, now that I think about it, that place looks suspicious.”
With those words, I strode forward purposefully.
Sama Hyeon stared at the back of my head before following along.
I headed toward a secluded corner of the rear garden.
Gravel was laid out there, creating quite an elegant garden.
“This is it.”
As I raised my hand, a brilliant blue inner force began to color my pale skin.
‘Channeling inner force through bare hands?’
Imbuing a blade with inner force is the dream of every martial artist. But channeling inner force through fists is another matter entirely.
One must master fist techniques or hand methods.
Of course, both require the enlightenment of an unparalleled genius and the cultivation of sufficient power to achieve such a feat.
Yet I was simply moving my hand as if wielding a sword, guided only by intent.
And that pale hand plunged into the earth.
Thump!
Not a shovel, not sword energy—pure inner force.
In an instant, the ground was excavated to a depth of five zhang, roughly fifteen meters.
I dug downward rapidly with both hands.
“Hyeong, there’s martial technique for digging like this?”
“There is. Hwang-gu created it.”
Now that I looked closely, it did resemble a dog’s digging posture.
But still—wasn’t I a magistrate? And a martial artist who’d mastered the divine techniques at that?
There was a reason why the maximum shame of martial artists existed.
Spending decades perfecting a single technique, only to roll around in the dirt like a donkey—that was true shame.
Dignity was nowhere to be found in such an act.
Yet in this moment, I became a dog and dug through the earth.
Hwang-gu was probably eating delicious food right now and scratching his belly while sleeping. Noeji was likely using Hwang-gu as a blanket.
I’d considered waking them before departure, but they were sleeping so soundly that I left them be.
“Oh, here it comes. Here it comes. Wow. These guys are impressive.”
Sama Hyeon asked.
“If you master sound technique, you can detect things like this?”
Among the performers of Hao-mun, those who’d mastered sound technique weren’t numerous, but they existed from time to time.
Usually they either shook an opponent’s spirit to control them, or directly caused them to cough blood from their seven orifices.
I’d never seen anyone strike the earth with sound technique to find mechanisms like Hyeong did.
Most people couldn’t even imagine that sound technique could accomplish such a thing.
I spoke.
“Learn it. Sound technique has many uses. Or would you like me to teach you a bit? Now that I think about it, it might suit you well? You’ve performed in opera and you’re quite skilled with instruments.”
“I’d love to~ You’ll definitely teach me later, right?”
It was the same as when I climbed Hwagyeong.
If I succeeded in learning, that was a great gain. If I failed, well, I could use that as an excuse to play with Hyeong.
Thus I finally reached the stone floor below.
More precisely, a stone wall.
“Hyeong, the entrance definitely doesn’t seem to be here?”
“Right. There’s probably a separate passage they created. It’s likely hidden behind something like a secret Buddha statue or a bookcase in the library.”
This was somewhat similar to a digging game as well.
“I’ll break through—that becomes the path.”
“From here onward, there’s no need for you to soil your hands. Allow me to display my skills~”
With those words, Sama Hyeon grasped the stone wall.
Crunch—
The stone wall instantly crumbled to dust and scattered.
Behind the stone wall, traces of steel reinforcement were visible.
It wasn’t eternal cold iron, but it was clearly no ordinary iron wall.
Sama Hyeon extended his hand again, and the steel tore away as if he were ripping through aluminum foil.
“Whew, what incredible grip strength.”
When I whistled, Sama Hyeon responded.
“While Gaga was away, I too gained some enlightenment~”
My Shifu continued to assign Sama Hyeon killing jobs.
Most of them were Kang Ho-in.
And they were Kang Ho-in with actual power behind them.
Through eliminating them, Sama Hyeon gained his own understanding in the process.
Following Sama Hyeon inside, a fairly spacious chamber opened up before me.
The ceiling was lavishly decorated with night-luminous pearls, and everything stacked within were boxes.
I began opening the boxes one by one.
Normally you’d need keys, but I have a master key here.
“Hyeon-a.”
“Sure~”
Crunch—
Strength makes everything convenient.
There’s no need to abandon superior martial arts and bother asking children where they hid the keys, whether those keys are the right ones, or to consider leniency if they confess willingly as a sign of repentance.
Sama Hyeon tore through the steel box like paper.
“The first one is indeed merchant promissory notes.”
“To engage in bribery, you need to know many places to secure funding. Hyeong~”
“Yeah, that seems right.”
And the second box.
Crunch—
“This time I just tore open the seams cleanly. We’ll need to carry it upstairs anyway. Hyeong.”
“Right. Well done. You know, I think you have a real talent for this sort of thing.”
I gave Sama Hyeon sincere praise, then examined the contents.
“Hmm, just as expected—money and jewelry.”
“Physical goods are important for bribery transactions.”
After all, to give a gift of a bonsai pot to the newly appointed Magistrate, and then bury a golden toad beneath the bonsai pot, you need things like this.
“Now then, shall we open the third one?”
Crunch—
Inside was something wrapped in white cloth.
Some of it was powder, while other portions were hardened into lumps that resembled pressed soybean paste.
Sama Hyeon was the first to recognize what it was.
“Is that opium?”
The third box, the fourth box, and even the fifth box.
They were all filled with opium.
* * *
Opium, also called poppy extract.
Due to its effects, it’s primarily used as a painkiller in medicine, but its addictive nature creates many problems.
For one, ‘officially’ within the Empire, unlicensed opium is illegal.
The reason I said “officially” was because unofficially, poor commoners preparing for death often burn opium as their final act.
Opium is cheaper than finding a proper doctor and receiving adequate treatment.
And since there’s no certainty the treatment would even work, they use opium instead.
The higher the medical costs, the more painkillers and narcotic analgesics inevitably become used.
Parents burn opium for their dying children, and children burn it for their dying parents.
It was a terrible thing.
‘And Sama Hyeon once burned it for Hye-a too.’
No matter how you tried to frame it, it was the smoke of despair.
On this continent, opium has never truly disappeared.
No matter how well the Previous Emperor governed, opium has always existed.
At best, it might be possible to reduce it significantly.
But if the next Emperor is foolish and evil, everything built up during the Previous Emperor’s reign crumbles without a trace, and opium comes roaring back like a dog in heat.
“At least the saving grace is that opium prices are reasonably moderate. The cost of calling a doctor is impossible even if you sell your house, but opium itself is something you can manage to buy if you make the effort.”
“Should we really call that a blessing…”
It wasn’t wrong.
If the price had been cheaper, opium would have spread among the common people as devastatingly as it did during the Opium Wars between Britain and China in the 18th and 19th centuries.
It’s something you learn about in world history class.
In the past, Britain used silver in trade with China, but they ran short of the silver needed to buy tea from China.
A trade deficit, in other words!
When Britain’s major exports couldn’t cover that amount, the British began exporting opium in massive quantities to resolve their trade deficit.
That’s why cheap opium flooded in and spread so widely.
But that doesn’t mean China had no opium before then.
The Divine Farmer’s Materia Medica even contains accounts of cannabis, or so I’ve heard.
The Divine Farmer’s Materia Medica is known to have been written by Emperor Shen Nong, but since writing hadn’t been invented in that era, he couldn’t have left it directly—it was likely compiled from various oral traditions.
Whether it was around 6000 BCE or 2000 BCE, either way, it remains unchanged that it’s one of the oldest medicinal herbs to accompany humanity.
In such circumstances, the opium Britain brought and sold was dramatically cheaper and more abundant than the prices before.
Because of this, opium became wildly popular among commoners and the lower classes who primarily did manual labor, spreading rapidly like a craze.
The Chinese government cracked down on opium as the nation threatened to collapse, but Britain opposed this and started a war.
The Opium War.
The most infuriating part is that Britain won this war.
As a result, Hong Kong became British territory.
However, looking at the state of the Hua Empire here, it’s quite different from then, and if any foreign power arose that mass-produced and sold opium professionally, the Suksin Tribe’s final weapon would handle them.
Ju Wang-ya’s Taeyangdanggo doesn’t forgive things like iron ships.
Besides, would Britain really have dug up their own land to make opium?
These guys exploited other regions with cheap labor, mass-cultivated it, and brought it to sell.
India, for instance. India. And India again.
In contrast, opium in the Hua Empire is priced such that commoners can’t easily purchase it in large quantities.
No matter how addicted to drugs someone becomes, money doesn’t grow from the ground when you don’t have it.
Amusingly enough.
‘The law of supply and demand is being applied here too.’
So, let’s take a look at how well our Fire Empire’s drug lord regulated supply and demand, shall we?
Come on, come on. Let’s expose this business vision~

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————