Doctor’s Rebirth - Chapter 887
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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 887
“Channeling lightning qi into the earth to invigorate the soil… Well, if that’s what you say, hyung, then that must be it~”
Sama Hyeon accepted this explanation and brought his palms together with a clap.
Whoosh!
Golden Divine Art.
Within the lineage of the Five Elements Divine Art, it was a martial technique bearing the properties of metal qi.
Therefore, to wield lightning qi, one needed to master one additional elemental property.
Specifically, wood qi.
It was said that lightning qi originated from wood qi. However, wood qi alone was insufficient to command lightning qi.
Only when one could manipulate both wood qi and metal qi simultaneously could lightning qi be generated.
This was secret knowledge that only those like Jin Cheon-hee or Jegalling, who had perfected the Five Elements Divine Art, could understand!
Thus.
After much deliberation, Jin Cheon-hee created a new martial technique and transmitted it to Sama Hyeon.
Living Wood Sprout Body Art.
A martial technique carrying the meaning of living wood blooming forth from one’s body.
If Heavenly Dragon Art specialized more in external injuries, this one specialized in internal injuries as an inner cultivation method.
And by properly employing both Living Wood Sprout Body Art and Golden Divine Art… one could unleash lightning qi.
As Jin Cheon-hee transmitted this technique, he pondered.
‘Physics… I’ve given up on physics. Why exactly does combining wood qi and metal qi produce lightning qi?’
Oh my, the martial artist Jin Cheon-hee was wielding ‘shamanism’ to create ‘scientific’ nitrogen fertilizer.
‘Wait, isn’t yin-yang and five elements only supposed to exist in fortune-telling?! Why does it actually work in this world?!’
Crackle. Crackle crackle!
As Sama Hyeon unleashed his lightning force, Cheonwoo beside him was quietly channeling electricity as well.
Some might wonder, ‘Did the Mudang Faction have martial techniques that manipulate lightning qi?!’
Others might think, ‘Weren’t all these guys just Tai Chi idiots?’
However.
They did.
Specifically, Flowing Cloud Wind Thunder Palm.
Flowing Cloud Sword Technique, Flowing Cloud Palm Technique, and so on.
The Mudang Faction possessed numerous martial techniques metaphorically named after clouds.
This Flowing Cloud Wind Thunder Palm was among them—a palm technique possessing both gentleness and ferocity simultaneously.
As one of the Mudang Faction’s secret arts, it was a palm technique that generated the force of thunder to strike opponents.
However, compared to lightning techniques from other sects, this martial art’s power was somewhat inferior, making it inappropriate to call it a divine art.
Thus, even within the Mudang Faction, it had been half-abandoned.
For instance, compared to the Hwangbo Family’s Lightning God Palm, it was not merely one level below but two levels below.
Therefore, Cheonwoo had learned it, but his mastery wasn’t particularly high. Still, it was fortunate that he could still use it.
Thus, the three of them scattered lightning across the partially reclaimed fields.
“Alright. This one’s done! Let’s move to the next field.”
“Hyung. How much longer do we have to do this?”
“It’s not a matter of how long. We’re finished once we complete all the experimental fields.”
“By any chance, are the three of us the only ones who can use brain power? Do we have to do everything ourselves?”
Sama Hyeon asked with a face that seemed to hope the answer was no.
I chuckled softly.
“There’s Noe Jin-i, Cheonjin, and Nanman too. I’ve also recruited some people who’ve mastered brain power techniques, so don’t worry.”
He was the person I had taught alchemy to in order to make fertilizer.
Back then, other martial artists had mocked him, asking if he was really going to burn excrement just to learn alchemy.
And they had a point.
For martial artists, prestige was everything, wasn’t it? So it was only natural they’d ridicule someone who was making fertilizer with what he’d learned.
When I mentioned using those people, Cheonwoo, who had been listening quietly beside us, asked a question.
“Brother, so those people are going to learn brain power techniques on top of alchemy now?”
“To master brain power techniques, you need to first understand the fundamental theories of alchemy. There’s no point in teaching it twice. Ah, Cheonwoo. Your Mudang Faction is an exception. Your foundation isn’t the Five Elements but Yin and Yang, so it’s different.”
“I… see.”
Theory, theory, always theory.
My brother is certainly peculiar.
Most martial artists never even think about theory when it comes to brain power techniques.
In a way, it’s an academic approach rather than a martial one.
“Anyway, those people are quite lucky~”
Sama Hyeon said.
Cheonwoo nodded at his words.
“Yes. Normally, people say they’ve encountered heavenly fortune if they master just one of the two, but this is truly remarkable.”
“Ruthless ones survive wherever you go~”
Sama Hyeon whistled.
Now that I think about it, where Sama Hyeon comes from is the Golden Blood Hall, the Heterodox Faction, and Hao-mun.
In such a world, it would be difficult to survive until twenty without being ruthless.
In a way, ruthlessness might be an important virtue of the Heterodox Faction.
The Righteous Faction, by contrast, walks the righteous path.
Justification ultimately means how one appears to others, and acting without justification means straying further from the righteous path.
Ruthlessness is important, but more than that, it’s important to think about how to wield this sword and how one appears to others.
‘These two are fundamentally different.’
Yet somehow they’ve gathered in the same place—it’s remarkable.
‘Come to think of it, I haven’t received any letters from Ha-ryun lately.’
It had been quite a long time since I sent him a letter along with a small gift, but there was no reply.
Even considering his mission, the lack of response for so long was worrying.
Of course, I didn’t think he had died somewhere.
I could hardly imagine Yeo Ha-ryun being seriously injured either.
‘He’s probably fine.’
Still, I was concerned.
* * *
So I went from field to field, pouring out brain power techniques all day long.
In theory, the nitrogen fertilizer method should help, but if theory and reality worked out the same way, wouldn’t graduate students have such an easy life?
I poured my mental energy into the final field and quickly recorded the results.
I planned to document how effective it would be.
If the results were as promising as expected, I intended to expand the application.
“Didn’t the Research Hall already test this once?”
“Yes. It worked well enough. But testing in the Research Hall has limitations with samples, and doing it in an actual field is entirely different.”
Saying so, I brushed the dirt from my hands.
A hand pump was installed along the path between the fields, making it easy to draw water.
The three of us washed our hands with it.
“How convenient~”
“Yes. Very convenient.”
“And safe~”
“Yes. That’s what matters.”
Sama Hyeon turned around and gazed at the vast expanse of fields for a long moment.
Cheonwoo, noticing Sama Hyeon’s expression, spoke to me.
“He seems to be thinking of his younger sister.”
“Yes. When Hyeon gets that look, he’s usually thinking of her.”
Probably memories from long ago.
He appeared to be recalling the days in Hangzhou, thinking how much better the world had become.
Cheonwoo pulled something from his sleeve and tossed it toward Sama Hyeon with a flick.
“Here!”
Thwack!
Sama Hyeon caught it without even looking, his gaze fixed on the horizon.
It was soybean milk.
“Oh, it’s cold~”
“Here’s one for you too, hyeong.”
“Thanks, Cheonwoo.”
After working, there was nothing more delicious than cold soybean milk.
The three brothers walked slowly, sipping their soybean milk.
At that moment, Hwang-gu and Noe Jin-i, who were walking with us, simultaneously lifted their heads and looked toward one direction.
I couldn’t detect anything through my senses.
But shortly after, a speck appeared flying from the distance.
“It’s Cheonjin.”
Screeeee!
Cheonjin cried out in response. Cheonwoo asked.
“Hyeong, can you tell that apart?”
“Yes. Just by appearance it’s confusing, but I can roughly discern personality from the shape.”
Cheonjin landed on my arm.
I removed the letter tied to her leg and muttered, “Oh, it’s in code? From the Gongseon Family.”
After deciphering the code for a while, I eventually burned the letter with flame energy.
“It seems they need help?”
“Is something urgent?”
“….”
I didn’t answer.
Instead, my pace quickened, but eventually I climbed onto Hwang-gu’s back at his insistence.
“I need to get to the Medical Guild first.”
My eyes shifted to a blue light.
‘Something unusual must have happened.’
My two younger siblings thought as they watched.
* * *
When I arrived at the Medical Guild, my Master Jegalling was examining a map.
“So the Gongseon Family has requested assistance.”
“Yes.”
Soon after, I opened my lips, having made my decision.
“The enemy is the Hyeolseonggyo.”
“…And the pirate gangs allied with them.”
All the martial artists of the Gongseon Family are skilled at sailing.
From the simple Pyo Guk business division that crosses seas and rivers to maritime trade, there is nowhere the Gongseon Family hasn’t touched.
Especially the Black Ice Poison Dragon Gongseon Yeon proclaimed that money would come from the sea in the future.
On the day she becomes the Gaju.
The Gongseon Family purchased and constructed the most ships in their history.
That’s not all.
They monopolized skilled shipwrights by paying premium prices, and this has caused friction with the Namgung Family, which engages in maritime trade similarly, on multiple occasions.
‘If even the Gongseon Family, the Black Ice Poison Dragon’s Gongseon Family, cannot handle them.’
How powerful must the enemy be.
Jegalling spoke.
“The regions of Anhui, Shandong, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Fujian, Guangdong, and Guangxi all border the sea. It’s natural that they conduct trade through maritime routes.”
I immediately answered my Master’s words.
“Yes. Moreover, since they also conduct trade with foreign lands, pirates run rampant. As for pirates, they’re ultimately no different in number. Many of them are those who flow out from the Heterodox Faction.”
My Master fell into thought and stroked his chin.
“Originally, the Haesa Faction, in a sense, also played a role in suppressing these miscellaneous pirates.”
It’s absurd.
Pirates suppressing pirates.
The Haesa Faction simply attacked when other pirates entered their territory to gain more profit.
There was no intention whatsoever to form any alliance.
If that were the case, they wouldn’t have attacked civilian settlements.
“But nothing is useless in the Gangho. Not even these villains.”
Eventually, as the Haesa Faction collapsed, its remnants scattered in all directions, opening a Spring and Autumn period of the Warring States for pirates.
And.
Some of them allied with the Hyeolseonggyo.
“In the past, the Baekrin Medical Guild and the Gongseon Family cooperated to deal with the Hyeolseonggyo forces that emerged from the sea.”
“Yes. I heard we’ve dealt them a significant blow.”
“Yet, it’s peculiar. Normally, after such a defeat, they would lie low, but instead they keep pouring out.”
Not as if we were harvesting warriors from a field—just a rabble of common pirates.
After taking such a heavy hit, they should naturally scatter, submit to other pirate crews, or simply die.
That would be the natural end to it.
‘It’s not as if they’re infinitely duplicating people….’
This was certainly not a typical pattern.
Jegalling began to speak.
“First, there is something I must tell you.”
“Yes, Master.”
My disciple straightened his posture at my words.
The line from his neck through his shoulders, elbows, and down to the back of his hands was impeccably clean.
I thought my disciple’s form resembled a work of art.
Like a masterwork sculpture that wastes not a single line.
“You mentioned seeing creatures called Rakshasa in the Damjin Kingdom, did you not?”
“Yes, I did.”
“And the North Sea Ice Palace harbors Dragon Scale People. And… now, creatures called Goe-eo-in are emerging from the sea.”
“Goe-eo-in?”
There was nothing about them in Jin Cheon-hee’s reports.
It seemed Master was handling such matters behind the scenes.
In other words, it also meant that Master was exerting control because my disciple was far too occupied to concern himself with other matters.
In a sense, it was an absurd level of control, but I had grown accustomed to such a Master.
“Goe-eo-in? That’s a race mentioned in the Classic of Mountains and Seas.”
However, the Goe-eo-in described in that text came in many varieties.
Some with only human faces and fish bodies, others with human hands, and still others split vertically—left side human, right side fish.
“Which type are they?”
Had I not already fought one of the Che mentioned in the Classic of Mountains and Seas?
Then the Goe-eo-in were likely to appear as well.
My eyes gleamed.
They were saying this:
‘So is the upper body fish? The lower body fish? Or is it a mermaid in the form of a vertically-split Asura Count!’
“Is that important?”
“Yes. If their consciousness leans toward the fish side, conversation would be difficult, wouldn’t it?”
“I see.”
“Could it be a dolphin head, perhaps? I’ve read records suggesting dolphins are somehow friendly toward humans. Wouldn’t communication be possible?”
Madness.
But there was no helping it.
This madman was my disciple, after all.
“In any case, they’re unregistered, and the local government offices still treat them as mere rumors, let alone posting bounties. In fact, it’s fortunate. The authorities would only be a hindrance in this matter.”
Jegalling found himself reaching a state of slight enlightenment as to why he was discussing such things with his disciple.
“Ah, yes, yes.”
My disciple nodded seriously.
“And… its head is that of a fish. Not a dolphin form. Rather than conversing, it had sharp teeth and would bite people to shreds.”
“Oh. So….”
I felt disappointed.
‘Love and peace have gone down the drain.’
Jegalling looked at me with the eyes of a Buddha.
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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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