Doctor’s Rebirth - Chapter 832

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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 832
A superior elixir. A semi-superior elixir, to be precise.
A single-dose pill that raises one’s inner strength by roughly a year’s worth of cultivation upon consumption.
This was indeed an extraordinarily expensive item.
Moreover, a semi-superior grade elixir capable of raising inner strength in an elderly man’s frail body was exceedingly rare.
And if I brought a superior-grade elixir, this man wouldn’t exactly set the Gangho ablaze with power—it would be putting the cart before the horse.
‘All of this is thanks to the almighty qi. Yes, it’s remarkable how easily vitality returns when qi is abundant enough—far easier than in the modern world. Normally, consuming something wouldn’t immediately allow martial training, but here it’s different.’
In the modern world, elderly people sometimes came to orthopedic clinics after overdoing exercise and damaging their cartilage.
If I still possessed my modern body, I’d have to worry about my joints and spine immediately.
Surgery is a matter of physical endurance, and while I’d managed my body reasonably well through home training, martial cultivation was an entirely different matter.
Besides, I’d never heard anyone say I was particularly good at exercise.
But in this world, a single semi-superior elixir could sustain someone’s training for quite some time.
Jeong Gajangju’s expression brightened with hope, then suddenly darkened.
“Hehehehe, to give something so precious… I’m grateful. But please take it back.”
“Pardon?”
When I first entered Jeong Gajang carrying a child, I had likened myself to an old, worn shoe.
Without Cheonwoo and Hyeon, I would have had to give up entering this place.
But there was another worn shoe here.
A shoe that had despaired for twenty years on Wudang Mountain.
It was the expression of an elderly man facing reality.
Different from the young.
It was a gleam born from having confronted despair countless times.
Yet it wasn’t despair alone.
Consideration.
And worry that these precious people might waste money and time because of him.
“This old man’s talent is meager, so even elixirs have little effect.”
“What? How could that be…”
“Pffft!”
Jeong Gajangju gently stroked his grandson’s head.
“You see, that’s the thing.”
Jeong Gajangju began explaining slowly.
How his inner strength cultivation was far slower than others’.
Moreover, his innate ability to control and manipulate qi was congenitally inferior.
“There’s never been a dullard quite like me. Someone who entered long after me has already surpassed me before I knew it.”
He had learned the martial arts of the Wudang Sect and trained for over twenty years.
Yet all that remained was merely ten years’ worth of inner strength.
The Wudang Sect had already given him a semi-superior elixir to attempt the Grand Circulation, but he couldn’t retain even a shred of inner strength, he said.
“A dullard who can’t even use what’s given. I am…”
Moreover, after ceasing training for the past year,
“My dantian emptied, and what little inner strength remained was barely the size of an acorn. Hehehehe…”
It is extraordinarily difficult to accumulate, yet how swiftly the body loses what it has gained.
“When I first climbed Wudang Mountain, I believed I would become something in Gangho. I thought my martial reputation would spread across the realm, I would vanquish the Black Dao Cultivators, and forge my own path.”
“I see.”
“After three years, that dream had withered. I was no different from anyone else, and like the martial artists of other sects, I hoped merely to cultivate my successors and contribute to the future.”
“….”
“After ten years, even that seemed beyond reach. I thought I would become like the nameless swordsmen of other sects—practicing righteousness until I turned to dust.”
“….”
“After twenty years, I sensed I would not even achieve that. A late awakening, it was.”
So he returned to his hometown, married late in life through his parents’ arrangement, and inherited the family business.
Though the marriage was arranged by his parents, both fell for each other before even spending their wedding night.
He never achieved great martial fame, nor possessed the talent to earn a single epithet, yet happiness dwelled beside him.
Or rather, he believed it would remain.
Until his wife died.
Why was it so? Hardship made a single day feel like ten years, yet sweetness made ten years vanish like a single day.
He lost his wife in what felt like a single day.
Ten years disappeared in the blink of an eye.
Fortunately, he could cradle his firstborn in these arms.
Losing his wife was sorrowful, yet he still had his child.
His next happiness.
And that child showed greater talent in the sect than he had. Then came grandchildren. Great-grandchildren.
After finishing his tale, Jeong Gajang wiped the corners of his trembling eyes with his index finger.
“Still… if Jin Sogakju speaks truly, external cultivation alone should allow some degree of control over the blood sugar condition, should it not? That would suffice. At least… I could live another ten years.”
Cultivating external strength with a creaking body would be no simple matter.
Should a bone slip out of place during external training, there was nothing to be done—so the elder thought.
Yet the old man smiled, satisfied with even that.
“Hehehehe!”
The elder embraced his great-grandchild.
His next happiness.
He knows this next decade will pass like a single day.
Yet gaining even ten years—is that not something?
I recalled each of the pulse diagnoses I had conducted on the elder over this time.
‘If he consistently cultivates external strength from now on, what would his expected lifespan be?’
Ten years.
Remarkably, the elder had reached the same conclusion as I through mere intuition.
The essence of external cultivation is ultimately the training of muscle.
‘Of course, with developed muscle comes better health and longer life, but without inner strength—true qi—the limit remains far shorter.’
It was no accident that Gwon Je lived to a hundred by breaking through countless life-and-death barriers.
Moreover, to control blood sugar through external cultivation alone—how much more would the body need to move?
Could the elder’s body realistically endure such strain?
Even if everything went perfectly.
Ten years.
The age when a child would turn ten.
“Gyawawawawa!”
Too short. If a child without parents also lost their great-grandfather.
I couldn’t guarantee that Jin Nonya would still be alive by then in this vast Jeong Gajang.
‘And even ten years is optimistic. Even if external cultivation truly becomes refined. Could this Gangho really pass ten peaceful years without any incidents?’
As long as people live, stress is an eternal companion, isn’t it?
One day there could be a poor harvest, another day some blind mountain bandit might show up and cause chaos.
‘An elderly person’s life is nothing but a succession of stresses.’
Life is like waves.
Without waves, it isn’t life.
Managing such stress while brewing alcohol?
Even if things went smoothly without major stress, I questioned whether one could accomplish the same tasks by cultivating only external power without internal cultivation.
‘Yes. In the end, it’s a money problem. That’s what this is.’
I couldn’t know how much money Jeong Gajangju had accumulated over the years, but he wasn’t from a powerful clan.
The process of a household declining is truly heartbreaking.
‘This won’t do. This… won’t do.’
In that moment, a blue light began to flicker in my pupils.
“Master, I have something to tell you…!”
At that moment, Sama Hyeon, sensing his fur standing on end, inadvertently interjected.
“Hyeong, hyeong! You’re about to do something, aren’t you? What are you trying to do?”
“No, just wait and see. Hyeon-a. I want to make the Master even healthier.”
“Hyeong, don’t do what you made us do before! People die!”
No matter how much of a Sama Hyeon he was, he was momentarily disgusted by the madness Jin Cheon-hee was radiating.
Cheonwoo also opened his eyes wide in surprise.
“Don’t worry. I won’t do anything like that. You trust your hyeong, right?”
The blue eyes gleamed brilliantly.
Whenever his hyeong’s eyes shone like this, it was only when he was about to do something crazy. Sama Hyeon thought.
‘I was going to give peach wine to Hye-a. I wonder if this is okay…?’
Suddenly, Sama Hyeon became aware that he had unconsciously tried to protect the elderly man.
And that it wasn’t simply because of the peach wine.
Why was that? He questioned himself in that brief moment.
‘I see. He resembles Seok Nosa.’
A tiresome connection. Yet on the other hand, it was a connection that had protected him.
Their facial features didn’t resemble each other, but their atmosphere did.
I couldn’t understand why the previous Hao Munzhu, who had killed people and built mountains, resembled this small village brewer.
Perhaps the atmosphere of one who had despaired for long years, yet still fought on, was ultimately similar in some way.
“Hmm… Alright. I understand.”
Sama Hyeon let out a soft laugh.
‘I see. I still liked Seok Nosa.’
He constantly curses that tiresome Elder, saying that if not for him, he could have walked the righteous path with Hye-a. But still.
True affection is a terrifying thing.
“If my brother says so, then~ I’ll do as I please.”
My brother looks at me with eyes that say, ‘Hyeon-a, you’re absolutely obsessed with giving alcohol to Hye-a.’
It’s fine.
Some emotions, once kindled, leave their soot behind and continue to linger with us.
I had just discovered one such piece of soot on the ceiling I always gazed upon—suddenly appearing before me.
Soot I should never have seen.
Sama Hyeon became aware of one mental image that composed her being.
It differed from the grand enlightenment of a Kang Ho-in, and the achievement was meager, yet it was undoubtedly an achievement.
Jin Cheon-hee also noticed Sama Hyeon’s subtle change but did not ask.
Such everyday contemplation was a special opportunity for Warriors.
Jeong Gajangju spoke.
“What are you trying to say?”
“There is one method to extend your life somewhat longer, but….”
“What method is that?”
Jin Cheon-hee’s eyebrows rose.
“It is a special rejuvenation technique developed by our Medical Guild.”
“Such a thing exists?”
“Indeed.”
“If it’s something so remarkable, wouldn’t it cost a fortune?”
Though Jeong Gajangju was wealthy enough to care for the village, typically such great techniques could not be obtained even by selling one’s house.
Since I came here for medical service purposes, I was about to tell him the price was acceptable when Sama Hyeon interjected.
“Let me pay with peach wine~”
The most expensive peach wine in the world.
Jeong Gajangju spoke in exasperation.
“Then I suppose I must send wine to Baekrin Medical Guild for the rest of my life until I die of old age. That wouldn’t be insufficient, would it?”
The Elder disliked being indebted.
It was the pride of an old master.
Then Cheonwoo spoke.
“If you truly find it burdensome, I am currently brewing yuzu wine to present to my Master. If you wouldn’t mind, could I learn a bit of your technique? Even if not the family’s secret transmission, I wish to provide my Master with wine that lacks nothing.”
A natural smile.
Sama Hyeon realized what this brother was aiming for.
On the surface, it appeared he was doing this to ease the Elder’s discomfort and remove the burden from his heart, but in truth, he genuinely wanted to learn how to make wine.
‘My, from the same school of thought as the admired Gwon Je, and that Gwon Je came carrying a child, yet now asks to learn winemaking?’
I had felt it before, but even when I scheme, I tend to do so in a way my close ones can somewhat perceive.
That is Sama Hyeon’s aesthetic.
Imperceptible scheming is only for enemies.
Such things are used only when targeting someone’s life.
But this brother leaves no trace whatsoever.
I always practiced humility quietly, without anyone knowing.
“If you share the same lineage, I wish to pass down our family’s secret techniques. If you simply promise not to reveal them to others, I will teach you anything.”
At those words, Cheonwoo bowed deeply in gratitude.
“It is enough for me to simply offer wine to my Master. I wonder if this is not already too generous for someone like me… but I understand. If it brings peace to the Elder’s heart, then I am content.”
As expected.
I knew it would unfold this way.
Now I would make sweet wine without any intoxicating effects and send it to my brother.
This would earn me considerable favor with him.
“It is the bond of Gangho. I believe Gwon Je would be delighted to see this.”
Sure enough, even my brother’s voice trembled slightly.
He was surely remembering the Deceased Person.
And the deep bonds of sharing the same lineage.
My brother truly cherished such things.
“Wudang, it is Wudang.”
I recalled Gwon Je’s back.
Some in Gangho mocked how even the giant of Wudang Mountain could not overcome age. No matter how transcendent one’s martial prowess, there was no defeating time itself.
Unless one reached the realm of Banro Hwandong, one was merely an ordinary old person, were they not?
What was so remarkable about an elderly person growing old and dying?
Yet he was the Gwon Je whom Wudang revered.
But now I understood.
Across generations, Wudang continued unbroken.
A bond that blood alone could never replicate.
“Byaaaaaah! Buuuuu!”
Even reaching this small bundle of life here.
The Deceased Gwon Je still lived on within Wudang.

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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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