Doctor’s Rebirth - Chapter 868

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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 868
“…”
How long had I been lying there unconscious?
When I opened my eyes, I saw the emblem of a clan.
‘Ah, this is a Jin Ju-eon clan bed.’
I looked at the spotless, immaculate ceiling before pushing myself up.
My strength had returned somewhat compared to before, and my mind felt clearer—it seemed I wouldn’t suffer from exhaustion anymore.
Now I had the mental clarity to reflect on my condition.
The back of my neck felt hollow.
‘Hmm. So some of my hair is indeed gone.’
If the doctors of the Medical Guild had seen this, they would have wept tears of blood.
But Jin Cheon-hee accepted it calmly.
It was better than losing an arm.
And once I circulated the Heavenly Dragon Technique, my hair would quickly grow back to normal.
When I glanced at the mirror, I noticed it bore a subtle resemblance to my appearance on Earth.
Of course, my skin was far better now and my features far more distinct, but there was something about the atmosphere.
It struck me as ironic that I could only notice what I couldn’t have felt before—how shallow human perception truly is.
‘Why is that? Is it because our souls are the same? Or perhaps…?’
In any case.
‘Phew. Thank goodness it was just hair. If the price had been my hair roots, I’d be bald by now.’
Yoo Ho had said it would grow back if I cultivated it, so it seemed the price was a type that regenerated.
That was fortunate.
‘Maintaining long hair in this Gangho world might actually be evidence of strength in its own way.’
To maintain perfect bodily control through such an intense battle would require more than ordinary skill.
‘This time, my strength simply wasn’t enough.’
Looking down at my body, there wasn’t a single unmarked spot.
Seeing the bandages wrapped around me so haphazardly, it seemed Hyeon must have done it.
Even if the doctors handled the critical treatment, he must have insisted on doing the dressing himself.
Thanks to that fellow and Hye-a, I’d learned dressing techniques better than most doctors.
Just then, the door burst open.
“Hyeong. You’re awake?”
“Cheonwoo! Ah…. So Hyeon wrapped you up too.”
Indeed. Cheonwoo was half-mummified.
It was Sama Hyeon’s handiwork.
He was even dragging crutches around, so something must have been broken.
Cheonwoo dragged his large frame over with heavy steps.
“Hyeong, is that supposed to be your hair tied up?”
“Only half. Tying it all together is actually easy, right? You just pull it tight. But a half-tie is surprisingly difficult.”
It wasn’t a half-tie at all—it looked more like an apple hairstyle.
It was a hairstyle Hyeon had taught me, learned from somewhere in the past.
Now that I think about it, I probably learned this from my brother.
‘An apple-shaped hairstyle at his age…’
Wait, come to think of it, the old masters of Gangho with their eight-foot tall muscular frames often sport apple-shaped hairstyles.
Of course, it doesn’t have that cute feeling—it’s more like a topknot with just the upper half of the hair tied up.
Most madmen style their hair that way.
I think I was briefly fooled by my brother’s good looks.
Doesn’t a topknot apple-shaped hairstyle look like the hair of a middle-aged madman obsessed with demonic cultivation?
So to speak.
A crazy apple-shaped hairstyle.
Cheonwoo tried to tie it up for me, but then looked down at his hands wrapped in bandages like mittens.
My hands were in the same condition.
Cheonwoo instinctively realized that whatever he tried would end in failure.
“Ah… let’s just leave it down for now.”
“Yeah. Okay.”
I undid my hair.
“I need to practice the Heavenly Dragon Technique or circulate my qi soon. It recovers faster than I thought. Listen here—being born with long hair isn’t what’s important. What matters is the human will to grow it back no matter how many times it’s broken.”
My brother was muttering crazy things again.
“Brother, is hair length really important right now?”
Cheonwoo spoke as if dumbfounded, then decided he should inform the others that my brother had awakened and left the room.
In the meantime, I sat in lotus position and slowly circulated my inner energy.
It wasn’t a major circulation.
No one would disturb me anyway, and checking the condition inside my body was sufficient.
* * *
When I opened my eyes, I had become a hero of sorts.
“Most people seem to have lost their memories, but those who were near the ruins all retained theirs.”
“Oh, how fascinating.”
“How is it you can take someone’s pulse with bandaged hands like that?”
“It’s not a proper pulse diagnosis—I was just checking if they were still alive, so it’s fine. And.”
Saying so, I tore the bandage with my teeth and extended my index finger to take the pulse again.
“Oh… they’re really alive and well.”
“That’s about right.”
Eon-gwon stared at me for a long time.
When he was suffering from despair and madness from contact with the ruins, he was someone good to research alongside, but now he had become my savior.
Yet he treated me as if it were nothing, handling me like a patient.
Even though he was the patient himself.
Soon after, Eon-gwon spoke.
“The Minor Sect Leader—that is, Eon Jeong-mu—has decided to seal his dantian and live as an ordinary commoner.”
“As expected, that’s what happened.”
“Yes. As a result, the dead returned and most of the ruins’ knowledge was forgotten, but the deeds one commits don’t disappear. His heart was broken, so it would have been difficult for him to practice martial arts anyway.”
“…”
Curiously, the mind is stronger than first-rate martial techniques yet more fragile than third-rate martial arts.
Even a master of Hwagyeong finds themselves unable to withstand a third-rate warrior once their spirit breaks—such is the world of martial arts.
Eon-gwon spoke.
“And I too wish to seal my dantian.”
“That cannot be, sir.”
I answered immediately.
‘If the sect leader seals his dantian without a successor, the Hyeolseonggyo will have an easy meal of us, won’t they?’
The Namgung Family has their children and Elder Tae-sang firmly supporting them, so one sect leader sealing his dantian wouldn’t shake the family, but the Jin Ju-eon Family is different.
‘Well, either way, the Hyeolseonggyo comes out ahead.’
If everyone had become corpses as she once planned, that would signal our destruction—a gain for them. And if we resolve this well, the sect leader and minor sect leader of the Jin Ju-eon Family will seal their dantians and retreat into seclusion, making it the perfect opportunity to devour the Jin Ju-eon Family.
I presented a third option.
“Are you fleeing from your sins? You must atone for them while alive.”
This choice was only possible because, fortunately, no one had died.
Reversing time was a mad power.
Even the corpses that I and my companions destroyed were all undone by turning back time.
Of course, that only applied to those who became corpses after the bell began ringing.
Those already corpses simply remained broken.
That was merely property loss.
Perhaps that was the ancestor’s will—for descendants to handle such matters themselves?
Or perhaps it was simply left as a wasted price.
‘Ancient relics are truly something beyond human comprehension.’
I was fortunate.
There’s nothing more to say.
Contacting the core of the final relic was ultimately luck, and that my mind didn’t shatter despite that was also luck.
The luck of meeting a good master.
‘Of course, one could say it was thanks to the martial arts I trained with bone-grinding effort, the Hyeonwon Jeondan Singeong, and the Dual Thought Technique that got me there.’
I had to confront my own madness.
‘I don’t remember the details.’
Only the emotion remained—that something small and yellow was terrifying.
‘Was it a flock of chicks after all? Cannibalistic chicks, something like that?’
It’s surprising that I have something like a B-grade horror movie inside me, but madness is madness regardless.
Meanwhile, Eon-gwon seemed to be holding back tears at my words, something welling up inside him.
“You’re… a good person. Of course, that’s why you became a doctor. Yes, you must live. You must atone while living. If you die, you’ll ultimately achieve no atonement at all.”
‘Ah, could it be…? Were you planning to take your own life after this was over?’
Even when the relic’s influence clouded his mind, he was a man of great pride in his family and the path they’d walked.
People of this era sacrifice their lives like grass for honor.
From a modern person’s perspective, the idea of repaying a family’s honor through suicide seems nonsensical.
Death doesn’t make everyone say, ‘Ah, that person died with a grievance.’
Humans are creatures who spit upon the graves of others.
Aren’t humans the kind of creatures who would even spit on another’s grave?
They’ll probably just point fingers and say, “Well, his backing was weak, so he must be dead.”
People are crueler than one might think. For them, death is neither a means of atonement nor a magical way to transform dishonor into glory.
It’s simply escape.
The kind of escape one resorts to when at a loss.
The Doctor no longer wished to see the patients being carried in like this.
‘And if the Gaju passes away like this, I’ll be the one cleaning up that mess.’
I needed something weighty to cast into the silence.
Jin Cheon-hee chose his words carefully before finally speaking.
“Shouldn’t someone ensure that those who die on the road are safely returned home?”
“….”
“From one end of Gangho to the other, only the Jin Ju-eon Family can return them to their families’ embrace.”
“It seems the good deeds I’ve accumulated over the years were not in vain.”
“Just as evil deeds do not disappear, neither will good deeds.”
“I raised my son poorly.”
“Yes. Which is why you sealed your dantian.”
“I am both victim and perpetrator. Though I was consumed by madness, that fact remains unchanged.”
He was truly a fastidious man.
Back when he coveted martial secrets, he’d charge in recklessly like a street brawler, yet in this regard, he refused to forgive himself. It was remarkable how multifaceted people could be.
“You must repay it by living.”
Don’t die.
Please.
“….”
Eon-gwon pondered before speaking.
“Once I raise a successor and pass the family business to that child, then I shall seal my own dantian.”
Fortunately, he seemed to have abandoned any thoughts of death.
As for the dantian issue after stability was restored, even I had no intention of commenting on it.
“Yes, please do so.”
“I’ve received much from you, so I wish to repay at least a tenth of it from the main house.”
Eon-gwon’s eyes gleamed.
He was not the type to live in debt.
* * *
At the same time, at Baekrin Uiseon.
Baekrin Uiseon Jegallim sat in his office.
Displeased, he rested his chin on his hand and tapped the desk with the end of his fan—tap, tap.
The very sight of him, the mere aura leaking from him, was so unsettling to the heart that the Doctors were taking wide detours around Baekrin Uiseon’s office.
Even the sect leaders, who were experts in social navigation, had made excuses and fled somewhere within the Medical Guild.
The aura Jegallim was emanating far exceeded the ordinary—it was terrifying.
Had Jin Cheon-hee seen it, he would have remarked that his Master tapping the desk with his fan resembled a massive beast in a foul mood, swishing its tail back and forth.
Yoo Ho thought to himself.
‘That fellow is peculiar in that he doesn’t fear Jegallim.’
Of course, sometimes when I notice fear welling up like it’s being forced through, I wonder if I’m merely suppressing it at an unconscious level.
Soon, Jegalling opened his mouth.
“First one thing, then another—now ancient ruins are appearing. It’s fortunate I prepared in advance.”
“Did you send the clay figurine along to bear the calamity in his stead because you foresaw this?”
“I’m no immortal, and how would I know that such an ancient ruin existed within the Jin Ju-eon Family, or that it would suddenly manifest like this?”
“Then…?”
“I didn’t divine heaven—I divined a person. That child seemed destined to be forced into death again. And faced with the lives of commoners, that child would hesitate, and hesitate again.”
“…You’re certainly right about that sort of person.”
“So while I don’t know what future lies ahead, I do know that child’s future, which is why I made preparations—a kind of being ready for all contingencies.”
“I see.”
“Since my power is woven into it, you can ease the burden whenever a price becomes necessary. You’re capable of that much, aren’t you? That child is your only ‘divine vessel.'”
“It’s a loophole, certainly. We’re forcibly deceiving causality while covering our eyes and pretending ignorance.”
“Whether earth or heaven, the way people move is all the same.”
I wanted to say that only you would interpret it that way, but I held my tongue.
‘Regardless, it succeeded.’
The man before me succeeded in deceiving heaven.
Causality is what even immortals of divine status fear.
Heaven’s absolute law.
He found its loopholes and twisted them without hesitation, yet unsatisfied, he taps the desk with the back of his fan—truly exasperating.
“So. How is he now?”
A man who committed fraud against causality itself and succeeded.
Yet it’s remarkable that even such a man cannot control his disciples.
‘Ilgwang is a madman.’
As my response delayed, one of Jegalling’s eyebrows furrowed.
“Yoo Ho?”
Truly a vile temperament.
Displeased, a chill suddenly leaked out.

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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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