Doctor’s Rebirth - Chapter 940
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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 940
Patients had been flooding in for a full ten days.
Since the founding of Baekrin Medical Guild, I wondered if there had ever been days this busy and exhausting.
When one patient arrives, their family members inevitably follow—usually at least one or two.
If they lived too far away, it would be impossible for them to come, but normally families would give Pyo Guk substantial sums of money just to ensure at least one member could visit.
‘When the house is nearby, I’ve seen as many as ten people try to come.’
Even from distant places, the wealthy merchant families sent at least three or more representatives.
As a result, the village situated directly below Baekrin Medical Guild became bustling with activity.
With so many patients requiring treatment, and considering those waiting in the village, it was truly a sea of humanity.
Naturally, incidents and accidents were frequent.
Nearly all the patients were martial artists, after all.
Most of them were people who had repeatedly engaged in bloody battles and collected gold medals in every category of injury imaginable.
Naturally, countless numbers of them had their lives hanging by a thread, and even more stood at the crossroads of whether they would lose their arms or legs permanently even if their lives were saved.
The hearts of their colleagues, families, and loved ones were inevitably sharp and tense.
That wasn’t all.
It was frequent for people to draw weapons upon seeing enemies they had fought to the death with just days before now present at Baekrin Medical Guild.
As a result, the entire Baekrin Group and Cheongrin-dae were deployed, along with Podoo and the constables from the Government Office.
Even the guards had to exert themselves to the fullest to maintain order.
It was truly an exhaustingly difficult situation.
‘Yet despite such chaos, the money flows in beautifully. Hehehehe.’
Even with this massive war of death occurring—or rather, precisely because of it—people did not spare their money.
Merchant groups gathered to feast on the money scattered by the patients’ families and bereaved relatives.
Those families, in turn, did not hesitate to pour donations into the Medical Guild.
‘This is Gangho. Yes, this is truly Gangho.’
Money gathers where blood is spilled.
The more blood spilled, the more money accumulates.
I felt disillusionment threatening to overwhelm me toward Gangho itself, but cynicism helped nothing.
I desperately saved patients day after day.
And I activated my adult’s positive thinking circuit, choosing to view things in the best light possible.
‘Regardless, the money they spend flows directly back into this region.’
Money has no morality.
Whether it’s money earned from blood or from filth, money is ultimately money—hadn’t I learned this painfully well?
Having once hit rock bottom, I knew how terrifying this world truly was.
I also knew that money gathered this way could save even more lives.
‘That’s how the world works.’
I did my work as a doctor.
Healing people, healing them, and healing them again.
Separating patient families engaged in disputes and healing them once more.
Normally, we should divide the sections according to each doctor, but when patients flood in like this, there’s no solution.
The many cannot overcome the few.
With the current workforce, there are limits to what we can accomplish.
So whenever fighting breaks out, we stop it, heal the wounded, and rush back out again….
‘….’
Only after that whirlwind passed through once.
Could Baekrin Medical Guild finally regain some stability.
“Phew…. This reminds me of the Suksin Tribe war….”
In Jin Cheon-hee’s room.
My complexion was normal, but my eyes had lost their focus.
I lay sprawled across the bed like a cat.
A supreme master wielding the Five Elements Divine Art, with Hyeongyeong just one step away.
Having undergone rebirth of bone and marrow, my body remained vigorous despite ten days of such intense overwork.
Only my spirit had grown weary, which is why I lay stretched out like this.
I didn’t have a cigarette in my mouth, but instead had a candy that I crunched on.
Without some kind of stimulation, I felt like I might go a little mad.
This is the feeling that comes when you reach the absolute limit of exhaustion.
The funny thing is, when your mind is this far gone, you can’t even sleep.
Hell.
‘Yes. This is medical hell.’
Still, Baekrin Medical Guild pays well enough that the staff don’t run away.
Of course, the benefits are excellent too.
In a world without medical insurance, let alone death insurance, where can you find a medical guild that takes care of your entire family?
Moreover, the moment you join, they handle your family’s housing, provide education, and give you a pension upon retirement.
‘That’s why they can’t escape. Kehehehe!’
The slave owner, working like a slave, laughed like a madman at the ceiling, giggling.
With my eyes unfocused, I couldn’t concentrate. But I didn’t even want to force my eyes to focus.
I just giggled like that, then wiped the drool flowing down my sleeve.
Crunch—
I took out another candy and popped it in my mouth.
These were expensive candies infused with kumquat.
The tangy flavor stimulated my taste buds.
Over ten days, the number of patients I operated on was staggering, and naturally, quite a few of them had died.
‘At this point, it feels like this is just routine.’
But that doesn’t make it normal.
No matter how many blood-soaked battles one has experienced, no matter how many lives one has saved in them.
Even if one is now a supreme superhuman with Hyeongyeong within reach, it’s still difficult.
‘Especially martial artists—they have a different kind of sensitivity than ordinary patients.’
Of course, ordinary patients aren’t necessarily easier either.
“Hope. Come in.”
Just then, a voice suddenly came from outside the door.
‘Wow, the voice is so clear it reaches all the way here, yet I can’t sense any presence at all.’
As I drew closer to Hyeongyeong, I began to perceive things with unprecedented clarity—details I could never have sensed before.
After facing my Master’s realm once, I came to understand that even such trivial matters were fundamentally different.
“Yes, Master.”
I exhaled a brief exclamation inwardly and rose from the bed.
In that moment, the door opened and Jegalling entered.
When I offered him a seat, my Master sat down immediately.
My disciple brought tea, set it before my Master, and then took his own seat.
My Master inhaled the aroma of the tea and then spoke.
“Hope. This is truly an unexpected affair.”
Had anyone else heard it, they would have found it a disjointed and peculiar statement.
Yet I understood at once and replied.
“Indeed. I wondered if the Spring and Autumn period had suddenly erupted. I heard that fifty-five sects were fighting each other?”
“One against many, or one against one. Then later, they formed alliances and fought against other sects as well. By now, there are likely far more. Just the minor and mid-sized sects of Gangso Province number over a hundred.”
‘So there were that many.’
I marveled quietly to myself.
Yet Gangso Province was hardly a small territory.
In fact, by area alone, it rivaled the size of South Korea on Earth.
Across such a vast land, fifty-five sects had engaged in mutual slaughter, staking their very lives.
War.
At this scale, calling it a blood feud seemed almost inadequate.
Wasn’t this simply a mad world?
How could it make sense for people to voluntarily take up weapons to kill one another, to willingly rush forward and display their entrails?
Even martial artists feel pain when pierced, and they fear death, do they not?
What manner of hidden virtue could overcome such things?
‘How can I be called Ilgwang while saving such people? Truly?’
From a modern person’s perspective, these voluntary participants in bloodshed seemed far more insane.
To be pointed at and called Ilgwang by such martial artists was absurd.
I, Doctor Jin Cheon-hee, felt somewhat wronged.
My Master Jegalling spoke.
“It is said that thousands died before even reaching the Medical Guild, or were killed instantly on the blood paths. Considering the scale of each sect, even thousands may be an underestimate.”
“No. Why would such a thing suddenly… Ah. Could it be…?”
From my Master’s words, I immediately deduced the reason.
Someone’s scheme.
But why? For what purpose?
“You’ve guessed correctly. This is no natural occurrence. Someone must have orchestrated it from the shadows. When do fighting break out so suddenly without distinction between Righteous and Heterodox factions? It is hardly common.”
No matter how abundant hidden virtue might be, it would never spread like wildfire in such a manner.
“I don’t know who orchestrated this… but we cannot simply ignore it.”
“Quite right. However… before we find who did this, there is something you must do. Go to Moshan Sect.”
“Moshan Sect?”
Moshan Sect.
A martial faction that barely operates in Gangho.
In martial arts novels, such sects are traditionally described as being famous for sorcery, celestial arts, and witchcraft.
“That’s right. You were too busy treating patients all day to notice, but the Sorcery Sect Leader mentioned that witchcraft was involved.”
‘So Jasi had already figured it out.’
“Are you saying someone used witchcraft to manipulate the martial factions throughout Gangso Province?”
“Yes. Witchcraft was apparently used across all of Gangso Province. However, it’s not particularly powerful witchcraft—just wide in range.”
Across all of Gangso Province? Even if it’s weak, that’s an incredibly vast range.
I wondered if such a thing was even possible, but then memories of what I’d experienced so far came to mind, making it difficult to simply deny it.
Those things were originally ‘impossible,’ weren’t they?
“What about the Baekrin Medical Guild?”
“The culprit apparently avoided the Baekrin Medical Guild like a ghost. If they hadn’t, we might have caught them much sooner… Hmm. No, that wouldn’t have worked. Since we’re part of the Medical Guild, our hands would be tied.”
The Baekrin Medical Guild’s fundamental duty is healing.
A medical faction dedicated to saving lives cannot deprioritize the flood of incoming patients.
In a way, it’s like an unwritten law of Gangho.
The reason medical factions are respected as a gray zone in Gangho, regardless of whether they’re Righteous or Heterodox.
It’s because medical factions have consistently fulfilled their responsibilities.
‘Of course, there are always some reckless ones who ignore respect and all that.’
In those cases, we handle it the Gangho way.
Which meant beating them into submission.
“But what exactly is this witchcraft, Master?”
“As I said, it’s nothing special. It’s merely witchcraft that loosens one’s self-control slightly. For someone who normally lives with discipline, it would have almost no effect, and for a drunkard, it would be like having one extra drink.”
“…That really doesn’t sound significant.”
At this point, what Jasi uncovered was more impressive.
“If the effect had been any greater, surely someone would have noticed.”
“And the damage is far too severe for just the difference of one drink’s worth of self-control.”
Could people really kill each other over something so trivial?
And not just killing—they gathered in groups and stabbed each other repeatedly.
This wasn’t even a blood feud.
This was war.
Just one drink.
Was it possible for humanity to fall so far because of that?
To my question, Jegalling answered with a cold smile.
It was a sneer.
It was the smile of a young Jegalling offering to Gangho in the past.
‘The Gangho my disciple experienced and the Gangho I experienced may look the same, but they are fundamentally different worlds.’
However, the Master didn’t want to tell the disciple about the horrors of those days, so he changed the subject.
“Doesn’t everyone have their own desires? But the world doesn’t allow us to live purely by our desires.”
“That’s true.”
“Controlling desire is what self-control is. Even if self-control seems trivial, it’s actually profound. All this time, even when wanting to kill someone, reality, habit, and morality have held you back.”
“So the witchcraft loosened that restraint?”
“That’s right. Even a slight loosening of that restraint is enough to cause a bloodbath. What seems trivial to you, many martial artists have been maintaining with considerable tension.”
Even hearing up to this point.
I still didn’t fully understand.
‘Is there some special, very special scheme at work here?’
People kill people just because their restraint scatters a little?
They live by constantly suppressing the urge to kill?
This makes martial artists seem like murderers.
But even if some scheme was involved, fanning the flames somehow.
Considering these enormous bloodbaths, wouldn’t ordinary scale be insufficient?
“….”
Jegalling chuckled softly.
My foolish yet arrogant disciple still didn’t understand the depths of Gangho.
He didn’t know how far humans could descend into depravity for merely a handful of silver coins and martial techniques.
No, he did know.
Because he’d witnessed it.
That’s why I tried to understand it with my mind and comprehend it with my heart.
‘Paradoxically, such actions can only be understood by not trying to understand them.’
Thinking of them as beings like myself and attempting to empathize emotionally only made understanding harder.
It was closer to the difference between being fundamentally a doctor or fundamentally a martial artist.
When would this fool realize there was no need to understand every martial artist in the world?
“Yes. It’s nothing but simple sorcery. Hope. Martial artists are… surprisingly weak in their restraint and contemptible in certain aspects. You understand, don’t you?”
“!”
Jin Cheon-hee suddenly grasped something from those words.
It was when he defeated Jin Seongjja, the Impartial Sword.
Jin Seongjja was exactly as his Master Jegalling described—weak in restraint and contemptible.
That’s why he fell into demonic delusion during the match with just a few words!
‘If I hadn’t brought him in saying he was an emergency patient, he would have ended up in a coffin. Martial artists certainly all have quick tempers. Could it be a hormonal or neuroscientific issue related to Ki?’
Jin Cheon-hee still tried to understand.
Only from an angle his Master wouldn’t consider.
If other martial artists had heard him, they would have cried out ‘Have you ever seen such a madman!’ or ‘Behold! Here stands the Cosmic Radiance!’ but Jin Cheon-hee spoke of it calmly.
Even Jegalling couldn’t see through his true nature.
“You’re certainly right, Master.”
I accepted my Master’s explanation.
And I understood that my Master Jegalling disliked such hot-tempered, restrained-lacking warriors.
In fact.
From a doctor’s perspective, we call them problem patients.
You meet them whenever there’s even a slight bloodbath.
Saying treatment was delayed, or treatment took too long, or asking if the reason for treating so late was because I was disrespecting them.
Martial artists who put blades to doctors’ throats for all manner of reasons.
I couldn’t understand why they threatened the very people treating them. But there were far more than just one or two of such fools.
I was fortunate to have joined Baekrin Medical Guild after it had already grown strong, but my Master experienced the chaos from the very beginning, so it was only natural.
Though, to be fair, my Master isn’t the type to simply endure such things either.
‘At this point, I think Namgung Un deserves a serious reevaluation for giving up alcohol….’
Jegalling spoke again to Jin Cheon-hee, who was having thoughts that Namgung Un might have either rejoiced or grieved over.
“So go to the Moshan Sect and inquire about a way to dispel this curse.”
“Is Jasi saying it’s difficult?”
“The Sorcery Sect Master is occupied maintaining the protective spell over all of Baekrin Group, so he cannot move.”
“Understood. I’ll go and return.”
Jin Cheon-hee. It was time to head to the Moshan Sect.
Though they were a martial faction of Gangho, they were traditionally known to be proficient in sorcery, immortal techniques, and Taoist arts, so I would need to prepare thoroughly.
My Master spoke.
“Come to think of it, when you go to the Moshan Sect, the people there will be quite flustered as well.”
“?”
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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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