Doctor’s Rebirth - Chapter 862

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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 862
‘I never could have imagined this.’
At the very least, it didn’t seem they were abducting commoners for human sacrifice and conducting experiments on living bodies.
‘Insane. So when he said ten thousand units earlier, he meant the jiangshi that have been passed down through generations?’
I had no idea jiangshi could be preserved for such extended periods.
‘In martial arts novels, you see jiangshi pouring out of ruins from a thousand years ago, and I always wondered how well they preserved them to keep them from rotting while waiting. It’s possible here too. To maintain them for such a long time like this.’
And now I understood why the Jin Ju-eonga family hadn’t faced the crisis of clan annihilation all this time.
They were formidable.
Though the number of absolute masters was limited, in terms of sheer numbers, they could claim supremacy in Gangho.
That’s how they’ve protected their clan through the ages.
Ten thousand jiangshi!
With this many, they could seize a castle and hold a siege without difficulty.
To think they’ve been hiding something like this.
‘Now I understand why the Emperor fears the martial sects.’
What gangster in the world would hide squad missiles in their basement?
These people do.
And they’ve been doing it for generations.
“You seem fond of destroying jiangshi but show little interest in creating them. That said, jiangshi grow stronger the longer they’re preserved. Even an ordinary jiangshi left to age for two hundred years becomes as formidable as an iron jiangshi. The reason is that they slowly absorb the spectral energy and death qi from their surroundings, gradually transforming….”
Jiangshi, like kimchi? They grow stronger with age?
“I’m afraid I cannot hear any more of this conversation.”
I cut off Eon-gwon Gaju’s words with eyes blazing blue.
“Very well. You said everything was an accident, and I’ll take your word for it. Then please stop this now. Are the commoners of Jinzhou not being sacrificed?”
Even now, the bell rings and drains the life force from the people.
There are no deaths yet, but it won’t be long before people start dying.
And if they all become jiangshi….
Everyone in the city of Jinzhou would become jiangshi, and the city would become a necropolis filled with tens of thousands of jiangshi.
“Haha. If we could have done that, we would have long ago. But since we can’t, we’re doing this instead.”
He revealed a sense of helplessness.
“This ruin lost its original power hundreds of years ago. It hasn’t completely vanished, but it wasn’t capable of causing such an absolute catastrophe as what’s happening now. At best, it only had the power to move the jiangshi we’ve accumulated over generations all at once.”
“….”
“Don’t wonder how I know. The knowledge passed down to me through my connection to this ruin taught me. But recently, this ruin has regained its former power. As for why, even I don’t know.”
He muttered quietly.
“It’s as if heaven set a trap for us from the beginning. As if every role was predetermined from the moment the Jin Ju-eonga family was first created.”
He pulled a bell from his robes.
“Beneath this stone chamber lies a bell. That bell will transform this entire city into a realm of the dead. And once sufficient life force is gathered, it will create a single being into a dream-soul ghost-spirit living-soul jiangshi. That is how we resurrect the main house.”
A dream-soul ghost-spirit living-soul jiangshi!
Though I’d never heard the term before, I could sense what it meant.
The beginning of the Hyeolseon.
Or perhaps the Hyeolseon itself.
-Even so, to become a Hyeolseon, one must accumulate merit. Whether through blood karma or virtuous karma.
In true salvation, there can never be deception!
The words of some madman came to mind.
At the same time, I recalled what Eongaju had said during the banquet not long ago.
Merit.
Whether virtuous or bloody karma, it matters not.
If the purpose of this ruin is to artificially create a corpse immortal line by sacrificing the entire city as an offering.
And if this bell’s tolling transforms every living soul into a jiangshi, binding them here.
Then this ruin must be destroyed.
“And though we have become jiangshi and cannot leave this city… our souls are sustained by this ruin, so we yet live. We do not die, but continue to exist as jiangshi. In a sense, is that not immortality? Is it truly so terrible?”
“You’re insane.”
“Hahahaha! What choice do I have! The situation is such that one cannot maintain sanity! But let me explain one more thing—the bell began to steal the citizens’ vitality in earnest only after the banquet ended.”
“How considerate of you~ Why are you being so talkative? Hmm?”
Sama Hyeon spoke bluntly.
Then Eon-gwon Gaju laughed wildly and cried out.
“I invited a guest, I entertained the guest, and I answered the guest’s questions. Now that all the rites are complete, the final ceremony of the Blood Layer Five Gate Pavilion shall commence!”
“Ah!”
I understood the meaning of those words.
A sorcerous ritual!
Inviting a guest, entertaining them with care, answering their questions with certainty.
These very acts themselves serve as the key to completing the sorcery as part of the ceremony!
“Jin Cheon-hee, seed of Banson! When the power that shakes your destiny becomes an offering in this place, the Blood Layer Five Gate Pavilion shall exert its maximum strength. With such power, all our clan’s people who walk in death shall no longer be bound to this city but roam heaven and earth! We do this to live, so curse us as you will!”
A pale blue vital force blazed like flames across Eon-gwon Gaju’s entire body.
He added one more thing.
“We believe that humans choose evil, but sometimes… yes, sometimes evil chooses humans instead.”
Walking the white path, performing free funerals for impoverished commoners, transforming the deceased into jiangshi and sending them home so their families could hold proper burials.
Of course, he had pursued profit disputes with other families and sects with great eagerness.
Even living so diligently, sometimes evil selects a person.
For these clan members who had fallen so, there was a duty the gaju must fulfill.
That was the responsibility he had learned his entire life, and the path toward darkness.
“However, I also know my actions are not righteous, and I have no intention of making excuses. I am of the dark path, a warrior of the dark way, and a cruel man.”
Eongaju had nowhere left to retreat.
He had no intention of retreating.
Behind him stood those he had sworn to take responsibility for his entire life.
At the same time, the world inverted.
* * *
‘That barrier on the first layer!!’
An invisible space tore open.
Somehow the surrounding machinery and gears vanished, replaced by an ordinary stone chamber.
Within it stood only Jin Cheon-hee and Eon-gwon Gaju!
“Eon-gwon Gaju. Must it truly be this way?”
Jin Cheon-hee made one final attempt at persuasion.
If he could stop him here, countless sacrifices could be prevented.
Of course, the likelihood of persuading him was slim.
I knew that, yet because of this small hope, I spoke anyway.
“To save the people of the family, this is the only method available.”
Color gradually returned to his face, which had been corpse-pale.
His expression now looked like that of a living person—profoundly melancholic and exhausted.
“I cannot do this with a sound mind, so I must gather madness instead. Is that not so, Ilgwang?”
Toward the one known in Gangho as Cheonhailgwang, he forced a smile.
“Even if this ritual ends and Eon-gwon’s subordinates manage to leave Jinzhu as corpses, they remain corpses. Gangho will not tolerate them! You should stop now and think of the other blood relatives still alive!”
From this incident, approximately sixty percent of Eon-gwon’s bloodline had perished.
But forty percent of the bloodline still remained.
Direct descendants who had been outside due to business.
Collateral relatives living their lives in the outside world.
Being a great family, there were still bloodline members who had survived.
For their sake.
I was saying this matter must stop here.
“Heheheh. You no longer speak of commoners?”
“Has the Gaju not already abandoned that?”
“Huhuhuh… My heart aches. Those living in Jinzhu were perhaps… excluding the main family’s bloodline, roughly forty thousand souls. Children, their mothers, their fathers. All will die and become corpses. But this ritual cannot be stopped anyway. I do not wish to stop it. If the ritual halts now, we will be bound to the ruins and never escape from the city of Jinzhu for eternity.”
The moment evil chose him, he had gladly chosen to become evil.
The Gaju of the White Path now wore the Black Path upon himself, abandoning all his pride.
He looked at Jin Cheon-hee with blazing eyes.
“You said to think of the surviving bloodline? For their sake, the ritual must be completed. To protect them, the ritual must be fulfilled.”
And he began walking forward.
“It is my cursed son’s doing. But spilled water cannot be gathered. If I must become evil to protect the main family, I shall gladly become evil. If I must walk the paths of heresy and demonic arts to survive, I shall walk that path without hesitation!”
With a bell in one hand and the other arm extended naturally, Eon-gwon Gaju charged forward using a bizarre movement technique.
Jin Cheon-hee clenched his teeth as well.
Now I understood.
There was no other way.
I had to strike him down and send him where he rightfully belonged!
* * *
‘How bizarre!’
What I felt upon engaging Eon-gwon Gaju in combat.
It was bizarreness itself.
Whoosh whoosh! Boom!
First, his movement technique was like that.
Eon-gwon Gaju’s two legs moved like Donggang-si, then suddenly moved like a human.
He moved in an uncanny manner, like a video game monster with a glitch.
I was recording all of it with Hyeonwon Jeondan Singeong, but I still could not discern the complete pattern.
Yet it was not merely illusion-based deception relying on the mysteries of phantasm.
Eon-gwon was pushing me forward with the solid body of a corpse warrior and powerful inner strength grounded in Geumgang Indestructibility.
But that was not all.
Ding-a-ling!
A hand-bell with a handle that he wielded in his grasp.
Though I had unleashed several attacks upon it without effect, the bell’s chime served as a form of sound-based martial art, pressuring me relentlessly.
‘It exists somewhere at the boundary between sorcery and sound-based techniques, I would say.’
Moreover, he was attacking using methods tantamount to Donggwi Eojin—mutual destruction—forcing me to respond in ways entirely different from my usual approach.
Whoosh!
Evasion.
Whiiiiiii!
Then I began countering the bell’s sound by whistling through sound-based martial art.
The Hyeonwon Jeondan Singeong was not merely a technique that enhanced memory.
It accelerated thought speed and allowed me to manipulate my subjective perception of time.
Indeed.
My subjective time far surpassed that of other warriors in the Gangho.
Within this slowed world, I could effortlessly evade Eon-gwon Gaju’s attacks.
There was no reason to meet an opponent charging forward with energy wrapped around his entire body head-on.
Boom!
As I continued evading repeatedly.
At the opportune moment, I unleashed the Five Elements Palm Force of the Five Elements Divine Art.
That power collided with Eon-gwon Gaju’s shoulder, wrapped in protective energy.
An explosion erupted, and both Eon-gwon Gaju and I were pushed backward.
“Heh…. The Jegallim Family truly raised a monster. How can you evade over a hundred seconds of continuous attacks….”
Astonishment appeared on Eon-gwon’s face.
Having gained vitality to become like a human, his emotions were certainly far richer than before.
“Precisely one hundred twenty-five seconds.”
“Hehe…. I regret that the main family was uninvolved in the Jegallim Family’s destruction and decline in the past. If only we had obtained the Hyeonwon Art….”
“You speak carelessly.”
My eyes narrowed.
Hearing the anger in my voice, one could tell how deeply I revered my Master.
Yet Eon-gwon Gaju simply opened his mouth with a weary expression.
“What does it matter now? The main family will become the greatest criminals under heaven anyway. So, have you finished your calculations?”
At Eon-gwon’s sudden words, I nodded.
“Yes. I have.”
“Heheh. I envy Jegalling. My own son is such a mess. Though he’s half-adopted, that man succeeded in raising his child well. I envy him. I truly do.”
And with those words, he swung the bell as if wielding a short staff.
Whoooosh–!
Tremendous power!
Even a mere graze would reduce an ordinary warrior to minced flesh.
However, at that very moment.
I walked slowly toward Eon-gwon.
Without any footwork or technique.

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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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