Doctor’s Rebirth - Chapter 896
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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 896
Even if the City of Eternal Night seemed endless, they too had their daily cycles.
Much like how Hongdae on Earth, despite its late-night revelry, saw shops closing after 3 AM—the same principle applied here.
According to statistics compiled by Baekrin Uiseon, the quietest hours were between 3 and 4 AM!
In martial world terms, that would be around the Tiger Hour.
By then, lanterns flickered out one by one, and the streets lay nearly deserted.
‘And that’s when emergency patients come rushing in.’
You non-humans should know there’s no medical service for you.
‘Even Bunta only treats humans!’
If you don’t like it, go ask Haeseonbang for treatment.
In that state, the three of them dashed through the darkness in their dark robes.
[You’ve memorized all the blueprints of Haeseonbang, right?]
The Haeseonbang blueprints that Sama Hyeon had obtained.
Carpenters from Hao-mun’s past had organized every detail of those blueprints and submitted them above.
I never thought I’d use them so effectively.
Such is the power of the broker’s office.
The reason Hao-mun also operates broker’s offices for commoners.
No matter how prestigious a family is, the wood and stone that build their houses are carved by commoners.
The three of them reviewed everything thoroughly and immediately set out.
[Of course~]
[Naturally.]
[Good. Our first target is the Medicinal Herb Pavilion.]
Haeseonbang’s buildings were quite extensive, with six pavilions within the compound walls.
Among them, the place where medicines were manufactured was the Medicinal Herb Pavilion.
Outsiders were forbidden from entering.
In truth, such places were common in other sects and medical schools.
Since secret techniques, forbidden arts, and secret formulas resided there, it was only natural to strictly prohibit outsiders from entering.
It was obvious, really.
If one sneaked in, they could be killed without complaint.
Such was the law of the martial world!
‘What a terrifying law it is…’
While thinking such thoughts, the group had somehow arrived at Haeseonbang.
[Hyeong, should we enter from the east?]
[Wait. Let me sense the area first.]
Jin Cheon-hee pressed his lips together.
Then he emitted a sound at a frequency humans could barely hear.
Peeeee.
Through the sound and using his qi perception, Jin Cheon-hee instantly identified everyone moving inside Haeseonbang.
[This way.]
Like ghosts, the three of them silently scaled the compound wall and seeped inside.
Since they could sense the positions of all the guards, the three of them were able to reach the Medicine Pavilion without encountering anyone.
It was almost too easy!
And when they arrived at the problematic Medicine Pavilion.
The medical disciples could only be bewildered.
[Something feels off about this place.]
[I know.]
On the roof of the Medicine Pavilion.
From up there, the three of them stared in confusion.
On the ground, ten guards who appeared to be palace soldiers surrounded the Medicine Pavilion in a protective formation.
But.
Based on what they sensed from the roof using their perception.
The interior of the Medicine Pavilion was completely empty.
No furniture. No people. Nothing at all.
[There are over a hundred people just inside the Healing Selection Hall. Yet the Medicine Pavilion is completely vacant? Is this even the right building?]
[According to the blueprints, this is the correct location. And… there are ten guards standing watch. The sign clearly reads Medicine Pavilion.]
[But… it’s completely empty, Hyeong.]
[Let’s go inside.]
The three of them quietly hung from the eaves of the roof and slipped inside, avoiding the guards’ line of sight.
Just as expected, the interior space was completely empty.
No furniture, no objects whatsoever—truly just a bare storage room.
Then why would they station ten guards here?
[In situations like this, it’s usually… underground, right?]
[Oh, so Cheonwoo knows a thing or two.]
[We’ve seen underground passages before.]
[Though at the Jin Ju-eonga place, there were stairs leading directly underground~]
Sama Hyeon answered playfully and lifted his foot slightly. Then he pressed it against the ground.
Thoom.
A deep, resonant sound echoed.
Unlike when Jin Cheon-hee used sound transmission, his approach was playful yet produced a similar technique.
‘For something done so casually, it’s quiet enough that no one outside would hear it.’
Sound transmission that was barely audible from outside?
This meant I had grasped the essence of the sound transmission technique I was using—its very core.
Then the floor in the center of the hall creaked slightly as a nail protruded just a bit.
Seeing this, Jin Cheon-hee marveled.
‘Wow, he really learns fast.’
The moment Sama Hyeon spotted the protruding nail, his hand moved like lightning.
His long, large fingers pierced through the floor and scraped at the edges.
“Hup.”
Crunch, crunch, crack!
A section of the floor warped and was lifted away.
What appeared below was a secret staircase.
Clearly, it was a suspicious passage.
‘Normally, I’d have to investigate the surroundings here, find the mechanism that triggers the secret staircase, and activate it… but now that I have internal energy, I can just skip a few steps.’
This was what made Sama Hyeon terrifying.
When someone already strong learns quickly, this is what happens.
Sama Hyeon entered first with a smirk.
[Come on then~]
A transmission filled with amusement.
It sounded as though an exciting and thrilling adventure attraction awaited ahead.
‘Fat chance. The opponent is a self-proclaimed apex predator in the food chain that devours people.’
The group stepped onto the staircase filled with pitch-black darkness.
The interior was extremely dark, but all three could move without much difficulty.
Why?
Because of the golden radiance emanating from Sama Hyeon’s hand!
The brilliant golden light, brighter than any torch, drove back the darkness, making progress effortless.
‘He has leftover internal energy and uses it for this.’
I had never taught him this.
When Gae Pa Josa taught the Golden Palm, he probably instructed him to tear enemies’ throats with an iron grip, but he certainly never imagined it would be used as a flashlight while descending into someone else’s underground passage.
‘Yes. This is the proper use of martial arts. No one dies, the ground beneath is safe, and how convenient is that.’
I learned much from observing Sama Hyeon.
Down we went, and down again.
Spiraling.
Spiraling stairs.
“Wow, does this thing actually end?”
“Hyeong, we are going down, right?”
Indeed. No matter how far we descended, there was no end in sight.
I tapped the wall lightly to gauge the structure.
“We need to go deeper.”
I couldn’t even imagine how deep this underground passage was.
So we continued spiraling down the stairs for quite some time.
“Gaga. I’m getting tired of descending~”
Finally, Sama Hyeon couldn’t hold back and leaped into the empty space between the stairs.
Cheonwoo followed immediately, as if he’d been waiting for this.
“I’ll go first too.”
“Hey, how do you know what’s down there?!”
This is why young people are like this!
In the end, unable to resist their youthful spirit, it became a bungee jump.
‘Well, I suppose I have to follow?’
Both were young and fearless.
In the end, I also leaped into the empty space between the stairs after my younger companions.
How far down had we descended?
Sama Hyeon landed like a cat, placing both arms and legs on the ground simultaneously.
Thud—
Despite the height of the fall, the landing sound was as gentle as a feather settling.
Cheonwoo descended like a cloud, applying his Cloud Walking technique, while I…
“Your shoulders are quite broad, aren’t they?”
With limited space, I landed once on Cheonwoo’s shoulder before spinning my body and touching down beneath his arm.
Cheonwoo thought I resembled a flying squirrel in that moment.
Then, a sound reached our ears.
“Ah! Come now! Gwak-ssi! Don’t do that!”
“Jin-ssi, really… ahem, today you should hold back.”
“Let go! I said let go! Today I’m just going to—”
Voices.
Arguing voices, no less.
Yet somehow the conversation had a distinctly rustic quality to it?
[Hyeong, it seems we’ve arrived, but… why do I keep hearing sounds I usually hear…]
[Let’s stick to the ceiling first.]
[Understood.]
All three of us leaped to the ceiling and hung upside down, descending the staircase completely in that inverted state.
And then we saw it.
A massive underground city.
Waterways were carved throughout.
And in the distance, a long tunnel leading to the sea was visible.
Roads and waterways carved from stone connected to one another, with large buildings erected in orderly rows.
The ceiling soared at least fifty zhang high, and crowds of people moved through the streets like clouds.
I’d seen vast underground spaces before during my tours of the Hyeolseonggyo bases, so this wasn’t entirely surprising.
Rather, it was those ‘people’ themselves.
They wore ordinary clothes and walked on two legs.
Yet their appearance was completely identical to the Goe-eo-in we’d fought alongside my sworn brothers outside.
An underground city of Goe-eo-in!
To think such a place existed beneath Qingdao!
[Hide!]
Whoosh—
All three of us pressed ourselves into the shadows between walls with cockroach-like precision, vanishing in an instant.
Then we suppressed our presence and melted into the darkness.
Cheonwoo, having traveled with me for so long, had clearly let go of his reservations and hid exceptionally well.
[There are so many Goe-eo-in…]
[Hyeong, just the Goe-eo-in visible before us must number in the thousands.]
Sama Hyeon and Cheonwoo spoke in turn.
They were right.
Before the three of them lay the underground city of the Goe-eo-in, sprawling in all its glory.
“Gwak-ssi! You’re really going to do this? Ugh! I can’t stand it!”
“Listen, Jin-ssi. What did I do to deserve this?”
“Jin-ssi. Jin-ssi said to hold back. Why do you keep pushing like that?”
Two Goe-eo-in had each other by the collar,
while a third Goe-eo-in stood between them, trying to break it up.
[Didn’t the Goe-eo-in we met earlier not speak the Central Plains language at all?]
Yet somehow, they all spoke fluently.
Moreover, despite being Goe-eo-in, they wore proper clothing, and one even sported a magnificent beard.
Furthermore, upon closer inspection, their individual features were quite distinguishable.
The Goe-eo-in called Gwak-ssi had an elongated form resembling a ribbon fish, while the one called Jin-ssi bore the appearance of a flatfish.
And the one mediating between them resembled a catfish.
But that was not all.
“Fresh turtles for sale! Turtles! Today’s turtles are exceptionally fresh!”
“Silks trending in distant Beijing! Premium quality silks!”
“Strong spirits imported from Yunnan! A taste you can only experience today!”
Merchants conducting business in the streets.
And people heading into their homes.
Even patrons sampling dishes at inns!
Save for the fact that they were Goe-eo-in, the scene was no different from any ordinary marketplace.
This was shocking to the sworn brothers.
Those who performed human sacrifice and consumed human flesh.
Were these creatures truly living such lives?
[Wow, how fascinating. They speak better than I do~]
I exhaled softly.
My blue eyes swept rapidly across the marketplace.
Synthesizing the countless words spoken by the Goe-eo-in, I finally arrived at a single conclusion.
[The Goe-eo-in originally must have spoken an indigenous language, not the Imperial tongue. I can see traces of it scattered throughout. But the fact that these people speak the Imperial language means there’s another reason for it.]
[Brother. Could these people possibly….]
[It’s just as Hyeon suspected.]
[Blessings… I see.]
[Yes. All of them. They must be those who have received blessings….]
-We. Generous. Human kind. Trade. Blessings bestowed. Price. Humans receive. Fair transaction. You. Girin’s disciple. Crimson Girin. Terrible. Incomprehensible. Abominable. Unjust. Withdraw. Here. Our domain.
That is what Taha-pa had said.
Blessings bestowed.
The elder brother who had suffered from an incurable disease consumed medicine from Haeseon Hall and his appearance transformed to resemble the Goe-eo-in.
And now, here.
So many ordinary people living in this city of the Goe-eo-in—I never would have imagined.
[With numbers like this, even the original Goe-eo-in would have learned the Central Plains language.]
[Who knows. We can’t possibly know how many of the original Goe-eo-in remain.]
They can bestow blessings upon humans and transform them into Goe-eo-in.
Moreover, since these creatures fundamentally inhabit the sea, I cannot even fathom their true numbers.
I don’t know how long their lifespans are, but according to Goe-eo-in legends, they appear to live longer than humans.
Just how many of these creatures dwell in that vast ocean?
And furthermore.
Taha-pa clearly spoke as though there were Goe-eo-in from other factions as well.
He said the ones who attacked the Gongseon Family’s ship belonged to that other faction.
[If what this Taha-pa says is true, then the Sea Dragon Faction—the group targeting the Gongseon Family and the Olyun Society’s treasures—must be a different tribe entirely.]
[Whether it’s the truth or not, we’ll have to investigate… Ugh, this is getting complicated. So, Hyeong, if that turns out to be true, what will you do?]
[Let’s see all the facts first, then decide.]
For now, we lack sufficient information.
I struck the seemingly foolish creature on the back of the head, knocking him unconscious.
“Ugh!”
It happened in an instant.
I calmly stripped him of his clothes and put them on, then grabbed the straw hat he’d been wearing.
“This must be what the practitioners here wear.”
The straw hat was adorned with decorations that made it excellent for concealing one’s face.
“Hyeong?”
“Yeah. Cheonwoo, I’ll get you some clothes too. Hyeon-a, I’ll lure one more over here. The back of the head—you good with that?”
“Roger that!”
Sama Hyeon made a gesture of striking someone on the back of the head.
Watching the one called a Saint casually commit highway robbery, Cheonwoo felt slightly dizzy.
“Hyeong?”
“Cheonwoo. When in Rome, you follow Roman law. Or rather, in a city of Goe-eo-in, you follow Goe-eo-in law?”
I suspected they probably had laws against highway robbery too.
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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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