Doctor’s Rebirth - Chapter 867

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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 867
When I opened my eyes, everything around me was red.
‘No, is the red my vision?’
It was extraordinary that I hadn’t died from excessive blood loss. Yet the blood didn’t soak the ground—it simply vanished.
I knew what this was.
The price.
In the center of the ruins, a light hovered like the moon.
A spirit.
The spirit of the Unnamed Woman.
More precisely, her corporeal soul.
In Gangho, the corporeal soul is said to be the remnants left behind—like memories—after the ethereal soul departs.
The true essence of a spirit is ultimately the ethereal soul.
When the ethereal soul vanishes, the corporeal soul drifts through the nine heavens before scattering.
Yet her enormous corporeal soul remained in place, decomposing into fine particles.
I once read a book that compared life to a dandelion.
Perhaps that was why.
Just as dandelion seeds scatter on the wind, her corporeal soul was dispersing somewhere.
An ordinary person would vanish with just a handful of breeze.
But such a vast existence took so long to scatter that I watched it for a considerable time.
What she had done was toying with the life and death of others.
Though she claimed it was to protect her descendants, one cannot deny how cruel it was from their perspective.
Yet, even such a being.
Why was something so immense and cruel beautiful as it faded away?
‘Why…?’
My price was my blood and part of my hair; Yoo Ho bore the rest.
But even so, the price seemed insufficient to use the ruins’ power.
That price was the corporeal soul.
Herself.
She spoke.
Or rather, was “spoke” the right word?
Thoughts poured forth simultaneously, like a chorus and like noise all at once.
-It was always one or the other anyway.
-Either remain until the end and wipe away after the children, or return to nothingness and rest deeply.
-I merely gave them a gift to cross the apocalypse, yet everyone despised it.
-But you, who will disappear someday soon, were so beautiful. Your soul was so beautiful that I wished I could disappear like you someday too.
I couldn’t understand everything she was saying.
But I could sense what emotions she had felt while living eternity with only her corporeal soul remaining.
She was innocent like a child.
-Jeong Mu, Eon Jeong-mu wept. He begged me to return them, apologized, said he was wrong. He kept pleading.
-He begged more than ten times in a single breath.
-I was merely trying to give a gift. Yes. If things continue like this, Jeong Mu won’t survive beyond the末世.
-You listened to my words well, and yet you still regretted it.
She does not understand.
That merely touching such a colossal existence renders humans incapable of resistance.
It is like extending a finger to shake hands with an ant.
She believes she has shaken hands, but in reality, the ant is simply swept aside by that overwhelming force.
It seemed Eon Jeong-mu had watched her anguished screams for quite some time, unable to resist her words.
The 魄 is ultimately not the soul.
It merely mimics the state of being alive.
It is like having money but being unable to purchase anything.
This colossal existence is no different.
She cannot even distinguish whether what she is giving is a ‘gift’ or ‘despair’ leading toward death.
Vast though she may be. In the end, she is merely 魄.
Soon, she gazes upon Jin Cheon-hee.
-You said you would find a way somehow. Yes. Alright. And….
She looks at the broken earthen vessel fragments. It seems she is thinking of Yoo Ho.
She knows Yoo Ho’s true identity.
Yoo Ho had also known her.
-Encouragement? You’ll stay by my side, won’t you?
‘Yes. Probably.’
She laughs.
-Then I’ll go rest now. I’ll wait for you first beyond the末世, so someday you too….
Light scatters and disperses.
At that moment.
Piiiiing-
A sensation like a single thread snapping rushed through me.
All the price had been paid.
The ancient ruins began moving of their own accord.
Crunch, crunch, crunch-
Jin Cheon-hee coughed up blood once more as if dying, then collapsed.
“Hyeong?”
“Hyeooong!”
The anguished cries of my younger brothers echoed out.
Consciousness slipped away once more.
* * *
“Hyeong! Hyeong!”
Sama Hyeon caught the collapsed Jin Cheon-hee.
And with slightly slower movements, Cheonwoo approached beside him.
“Youngest Brother. How is Hyeong?”
“His pulse is stable, but…. We’ll need to examine him more carefully once we get upstairs.”
As Sama Hyeon answered, he suddenly noticed that part of Jin Cheon-hee’s hair had vanished.
It was cut short as if by a blade.
Hair could be severed during combat, but not like this.
It had disappeared as though an invisible hand had cut it away and taken it.
Moreover, the blood my brother had shed scattered and vanished the moment it touched the ground.
Being sharp-witted, he immediately grasped what had occurred.
It was a leap in reasoning without basis or evidence, merely weaving together threads of conjecture and painting the picture in the most intriguing direction.
“Tsk. It seems my brother performed some sort of sorcery and paid the price for it… He must have done it to save us.”
“What are you talking about?”
Cheonwoo’s voice grew somber.
“It was long ago… One day my brother… suddenly lost one of his fingers. According to a witness at the time, he immediately took the lead, saying he now knew the future.”
“….”
“After that, I obtained information that he bled profusely. Strangely, all that blood disappeared.”
It happened right after my brother appeared from thin air.
That was the extent of the information I obtained from the Golden Blood Hall.
Piecing together the fragmented and scattered information, Sama Hyeon began to connect them using only intuition.
“So I’m not entirely certain, but couldn’t my brother be designed to perform ‘miracles’ under certain conditions while losing something in exchange? Loan sharks operate roughly the same way, don’t they? This one just uses miracles instead of money.”
“If that’s the case.”
“Yes. Then, Third Brother, what happens if a miracle that cannot be bought with money must be performed?”
Cheonwoo could not continue speaking.
He only looked down at his exhausted brother.
“Sorcery invariably demands a price. So it would naturally follow. Rather, it’s strange. For a miracle of this magnitude, merely some hair and blood? Even if the hun and po, and something else I don’t know, bore part of the burden, it seems like an excellent bargain.”
An unexpected voice was heard.
The voice continued speaking.
“…Perhaps there is some sorcerous value contained within that body that we are unaware of.”
Cheonwoo immediately assumed a martial stance and boldly stepped forward one pace toward the direction of the voice.
Meanwhile, Sama Hyeon shielded Jin Cheon-hee with his body from behind and averted his gaze.
“Gaju Eon-gwon!”
“Did he reconstruct it like Eon Jeong-mu, piecing fragments together~?”
Eon-gwon.
He stood there with a corpse-like pallid face.
His clothes were in tatters, yet his body appeared intact.
But was he a jiangshi? A human?
Which was he, exactly?
“He wasn’t reconstructed in that manner. The main family’s hun is already destroyed.”
Gaju Eon-gwon surveyed his surroundings with an expressionless gaze.
“He… saved all of us from the main family, including myself.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“Simply put. He reversed the power of the hun. That power which transforms the living into the dead and births them as jiangshi—he inverted it. This time, he turned the dead into the living. Hah… No matter how much it’s the reverse, I never imagined it would be possible….”
At Gaju Eon-gwon’s words, Sama Hyeon’s eyes grew cold and distant.
“So that’s why Hyeong coughed up blood and some of his hair disappeared as well…”
“That part is even more astonishing. Normally, the price would require the entire body and even the soul, yet it cost only blood and hair.”
“Ugh… This old man is really getting on my nerves.”
Sama Hyeon had already stopped showing even the minimum courtesy to Eon-gwon.
His fists clenched tight—he clearly wanted to throw a punch.
“Youngest Brother. Calm yourself.”
“Third Hyeong, aren’t you angry either~?”
“Eldest Hyeong still hasn’t regained consciousness. Calm down.”
As the two of them spoke like this.
Boom boom boom boom boom—
The ground split open, and something burst forth from below.
It was an enormous bell.
A bell larger than a person.
The moment they saw the bell with cracks running through it everywhere, both brothers felt both ominousness and sanctity simultaneously.
“Heh. As expected, it’s nearly destroyed. Well then…”
Gaju Eon-gwon approached.
And before anyone could stop him, he simply reached out and shattered the clan’s bell into pieces.
Crash!
The bell shattered completely.
The bell, crafted long ago for descendants and imbued with fervent wishes, could no longer fulfill its purpose.
“Finally, finally I am liberated from the dominion of this ruin.”
Communication with the ruin ended.
The truths I had naturally come to know began to fade from memory once more.
But why?
At the same time, the madness began to recede as well.
When Eon-gwon looked back at Jin Cheon-hee, his eyes were perfectly clear.
* * *
“Mmm…”
My body swayed.
As I slowly opened my eyes, my vision was oddly high, and Cheonwoo’s back of his head was incredibly close.
“Hyeong, you’re awake?!”
At Sama Hyeon’s words, I spoke.
“Uh… Yeah. Why am I being carried?”
“You lost consciousness, so we had to move you. But you weren’t out for long.”
“Right. Before I passed out, before my spirit scattered. I think I saw something…”
I saw small, yellow things.
They would normally have been cute, but for some reason they were terrifying.
Enough to feel like a nightmare.
‘I can’t remember what they were. Small and yellow… chicks? Do chicks appear in nightmares?’
I remembered up to the point where Yoo Ho had pulled something out.
That far.
‘Ah, I was told not to be swept away by madness.’
Then did I confront my own madness?
I questioned myself.
I thought deeply about it, but my head only throbbed as if it might shatter.
I remember nothing.
As if such a thing had never existed from the beginning.
“How long was I unconscious?”
“About a quarter hour? We’ve already reached the exit, Hyeong.”
I nodded at Cheonwoo’s words.
“Understood. Put me down.”
“You’re still like this, Hyeong. It seems you’ve been through quite a lot.”
“That’s right. The backlash from the contract likely hasn’t fully subsided yet, so rest well.”
Gaju Eon-gwon’s voice.
I turned around in surprise.
There stood a familiar face.
“You… you’re alive?”
“Didn’t you save me?”
“My mind knew it, but I had no certainty until the very end.”
“To do something so extraordinary and still lack certainty. That’s just like you. But it turned out well, didn’t it?”
Gaju Eon-gwon’s voice trembled.
“Your voice… it’s become calmer.”
“The madness has vanished, so it has. Now we are freed from the ruin’s dominion.”
“Your memories…?”
“It feels like I’ve had a nightmare. Some memories remain while others fade, coming and going. In any case, I am only grateful to you. And why did my ancestors do such a thing…?”
His voice trembled.
Had he not spent his entire life protecting the clan and deeply venerating his ancestors?
It was only natural that the foundation of his faith should waver.
-May all survive even in the end times… May the children be able to go beyond the end times…
The voice of ‘her’ echoed in my mind.
A woman whose name I do not know.
What are the end times, truly?
What kind of world is it where becoming such a being is salvation and blessing?
I closed my eyes.
“Well, that’s how parental love works, isn’t it? Most parents don’t truly know what their children desire most.”
Eating, drinking, breathing, and holding close what we love.
We live on.
Yet her and her children’s definition of life differs so greatly from ours.
Isn’t it natural that their gift would feel different as well?
At last, we had climbed all the stairs.
The bright light stung my eyes, and I squinted slightly.
It was already morning outside.
In the clear field of vision, sound reached me first.
The murmur of people, the sound of weeping, and cries of excitement.
Soon that sound ceased.
As my vision cleared and I looked around, I saw that everyone from Eon-gwon’s household had gathered there.
When they saw me, they cried out.
“We greet our benefactor of Eon-gwon!”
One person prostrated themselves in salute.
Then, as if by agreement, everyone began to follow suit and pay their respects.
“We greet the great hero Jin Cheon-hee, benefactor of Eon-gwon!”
“We greet the great hero… Jin Cheon-hee, benefactor of Eon-gwon!”
“We greet the great hero Jin Cheon-hee, benefactor of Eon-gwon!”
Even as everyone prostrated, there was no disorder—everything was smooth and orderly.
Though their voices trembled with emotion, despite so many people bowing, there was not a single flaw in their perfect synchronization.
Watching them, I thought to myself.
‘Ah, so the Jin Ju-eon household was always this composed.’
It wasn’t composure born from being corpses.
Like waves, they treated their benefactor with profound and solemn respect.
Soon, Gaju Eon-gwon knelt on one knee before me, offering a final salute.
“Great hero Jin Cheon-hee. Since you have saved our lives, we shall repay this debt with utmost devotion.”
I felt embarrassed.
I spoke.
“Ah, I… please, stop. It’s fine. I’m really fine.”
With my ears turning red and my hand waving in protest, even Sama Hyeon and Cheonwoo burst into laughter.
Despite all that had happened, despite everything.
A hyeong was still a hyeong.
And in that moment, I suddenly coughed up blood again and fell from Cheonwoo’s arms.
“Hyeong, hyeong!”
“It seems the strain on your body was too great. Doctor! Is there no doctor?!”
In my fading consciousness, I thought.
‘Why is this ruin restoration service so useless?’
If I’ve already done the work, couldn’t it just repair itself automatically?
‘Ah, so I’m managing to survive because of my regeneration technique.’
The fact that I don’t die despite losing so much blood must all be thanks to my regeneration technique.
The power of the great kiii.
There’s a reason the Heavenly Dragon Technique is recorded in the Imperial Palace Secret Records.
‘A person must learn everything. Indeed, that’s me. Keuuu…! So cool.’
Muttering nonsense to myself was but a fleeting moment.
Then I lost consciousness again.
My vision floods with crimson.
“No! Hyeong! Hyeong! Stay with me!”
“Doctor, where is the doctor?! The benefactor! The benefactor has collapsed!”
“This is insane, Hyeong, are you alright? Please, stay conscious. Hyeong. Please.”
Jin Ju-eonga was equally beside himself.
The benefactor who had just saved them from being corpses.
The moment he thanked that person, he coughed blood alone and collapsed right there.
“No! Are you alright?! Eun Gong has lost consciousness!”
“Ahhhhhhh!”
Leaving behind the shock and screams of everyone.
The expression on the collapsed Jin Cheon-hee’s face seemed oddly satisfied.
‘And yet I didn’t die. I, who mastered the Heavenly Dragon Art, am the victor.’
It was a mad thought.

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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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