Doctor’s Rebirth - Chapter 951

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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 951
Sim Haksa broached the subject first.
“I’ve been hearing so many different stories lately… I’m not even sure what people are talking about anymore.”
Man Haksa picked up on his words.
“You know, about Cheonhailgwang. Apparently he caused quite a stir in Nanjing this time.”
Jang Haksa raised a question.
“What has our Soggakju done now?”
“Since when did he become ‘our’ Soggakju? Anyway…”
“Tsk tsk. Jang Haksa, you don’t seem to be in good spirits lately… I heard you bought a painting by Cheonhailgwang?”
“I only bought it because paintings by artists from the Western Continent are popular these days. It’s nothing special—just mass-produced woodblock prints with a bit of color added. Don’t misunderstand. So what exactly did Jin Sogakju do?”
“Tsk tsk. Your information is so outdated… You haven’t heard about Cheonhailgwang’s ‘Saving Lives Through Healing’?”
“Saving Lives Through Healing? What kind of nonsense is that?”
“Cheonhailgwang has finally truly gone mad, they say.”
Man Haksa interjected again from the side, and confusion appeared on Jang Haksa’s face.
“Truly gone mad? He’s always had a reputation for being crazy, but… what exactly happened to spark such talk?”
“Some say he should be called ‘The Sole Radiance of Heaven and Earth.'”
“Or perhaps ‘The One True Light Under Heaven.'”
“What is this…”
Bewilderment crossed Jang Haksa’s face, while the other two wore expressions of inevitability.
“Since Jang Haksa here is so curious, we should enlighten him.”
Man Haksa began to unfold the tale.
What happened in Nanjing.
How Jin Cheon-hee knocked down martial artists with internal energy, and those who still resisted were captured and dislocated using the Geum Binding Technique.
“And then he made a declaration.”
“A declaration?”
“That for a time, he would turn every martial artist who fought before him into a patient! That’s what they say.”
“What?”
“Sounds like a lie, doesn’t it? But it’s true.”
“Unbelievable… No. By what right? Martial artists fighting each other over grudges is perfectly natural, isn’t it?”
“Exactly. Does he have any justification?”
Sim Haksa’s eyes brightened, as if he hadn’t heard this part either.
Man Haksa spoke again to the other two.
“Well… when you hear it, there actually is a logical justification.”
“What on earth is it?”
“He said that since they’ll become patients anyway if they fight each other, he might as well make them patients beforehand to save himself the trouble of treating them later.”
“What!?”
“Huh!?”
Why did that actually make sense?
Wasn’t that just nonsense?
Since when did martial artists fight while considering a doctor’s feelings?
Man Haksa appeared to have already been persuaded.
Something had stirred his heartstrings.
And beyond that.
Among the Sixteen Greatest Masters of the realm, there were scarcely any rivals save for the Three Elites.
If you’re upset about it, why don’t you become one of the Sixteen Greatest Masters yourself!
It was a declaration that practically radiated such sentiment.
“Then… what will happen?”
“Well… at least within Gangso Province, martial artists won’t be able to carelessly eliminate the Medical Guild. Ilgwang did say ‘for a while,’ didn’t he? Though when that ends, who knows.”
He hadn’t said ‘forever.’
But wasn’t that ‘while’ determined entirely by Ilgwang’s whim?
“That is… true.”
“Indeed….”
The three men looked at one another.
Dislocating joints just to torment the Doctor a bit?
The man they once mocked as a lunatic.
Yet how much stronger that madman had become—it hurt to even speak of it.
What Ilgwang said was madness by martial world standards.
However, the man’s very actions possessed something that mysteriously stirred the hearts of those who observed.
And they raised their cups.
Thinking that perhaps such madness, at this level, was a form of chivalry.
“To Cheonhailgwang Jin Cheon-hee, who practices benevolent wandering!”
“May the benevolent wandering succeed!”
“Best of luck to you, Ilgwang.”
Clink! The cups collided.
* * *
“If I tell you not to, then don’t! Ah, will you not understand if I put it this way?”
Crack.
“Aaaahhhhh!”
“There. That’s the end of it.”
Jin Cheon-hee surveyed his surroundings and shrugged with satisfaction.
Traveling through major cities near Nanjing, I attacked the martial sects causing disputes there.
Dislocating joints without discrimination—Heterodox or Righteous Faction alike.
And I spread word of these deeds far and wide.
Likely, for a while now, martial sects in Gangso Province would refrain from causing disputes with one another.
Since I would come and beat them down, forcing them to become patients.
‘And once they hear the condition “for a while,” some will think to just endure until Ilgwang cools off.’
If I said ‘forever,’ someone might rush off shouting, ‘I’ll repay this grudge and die by evening!’ and start fighting.
So by saying ‘for a while.’
‘It seems Ilgwang has gone mad again during treatment. Shouldn’t we show restraint for now?’ —reason returns, if only temporarily.
Human psychology is truly terrifying.
‘Eternity’ makes people give up, but ‘for a while’ makes them wait.
‘Of course, there are those who can’t endure even that ‘while’ and end up drawing their blades anyway.’
Blood debts that must be settled by those bound by them.
Unlike the sects I’d met before, where it was merely about fruit prices and such trivial matters, these were genuine blood feuds against one’s parents’ killers.
Of course, those parents had also drawn their blades to avenge their grandfather’s killer, only to be cut down and killed by an Elder who was their great-grandfather’s enemy.
‘How terrifying the chain of blood debt truly is.’
I am no arbiter of blood debts, so I don’t prioritize whose vendetta comes first or declare whose grievance is trivial and should wait.
First, I stop this bloodshed.
I prevent the harm reaching the commoners.
‘And I halt this war to restore normalcy to each minor medical faction, the Medical Guild’s branch, and the Medical Guild’s main headquarters.’
The commoners cannot receive treatment due to the flood of martial artists overwhelming the region.
Then one official spoke.
“Thank you, Prefect Jin! Seeing those ruffians who caused such chaos being carried away on stretchers—it feels absolutely refreshing.”
Looking around, the other officials wore expressions of pure satisfaction as they transported the martial artists on stretchers.
‘So this is how people become addicted to catharsis.’
I’ve done everything I could.
I tried reasoning with words, attempted systemic reforms, attributed all of this not to people but to sorcery and even dispelled the curses, but nothing worked.
Prince Ju-wang himself issued strict orders.
‘In the end, it comes down to fists.’
As a modern person, I found the current situation—where dialogue couldn’t resolve matters—lamentable.
‘So I swung my stone axe… hmm… it feels good. Now I understand why martial artists worn down by the world’s hardships eventually dream of tyranny.’
“How is the expansion of the prison proceeding?”
“Construction continues. People from the Namgung Family have arrived as well. They’re building the prison with equally satisfied expressions on their faces.”
‘It seems the Namgung Family has many troubles due to blood debts as well.’
Though I’m a martial artist myself, I wonder why I’m worrying about government affairs—but fundamentally, the Righteous Faction sometimes performs the duties of the government.
It’s absurd when you think about it.
A family of the Namgung Family’s caliber still cares when commoners die senselessly within their territory, and sometimes even acts as a judicial body to settle vendettas.
In other words, they’re privatized police.
A police company.
It feels like something that shouldn’t be privatized has been privatized… but under the principle of non-interference, when the government doesn’t act, commoners ultimately have nowhere to rely but martial force.
That is, they depend on what we call the Righteous Faction and great families.
Don’t we occasionally hear of Mudang Faction hermits who, unable to bear injustice, defeat the Heterodox Faction?
The Namgung Family isn’t a hermit sect, but they still concern themselves with security in their territory…
‘Since they’ve beaten everyone, they all seem thoroughly satisfied.’
Yet that doesn’t mean their standards are always fair.
In fact, families like the Namgung Family have numerous retainers just like the Moyong Family or Jin Ju-eonga.
Moreover, they must consider alliances between families and relationships between branches.
So it’s not for nothing that they’re ‘privatized police.’
Though they squeeze the blood and sweat of commoners, these entangled interests prevent them from executing offenders outright, instead ending at warnings to back off.
Or sometimes, when circumstances prevent the main family from directly bloodying their hands, they must subcontract the work to another branch.
Will that branch family handle things well?
They might handle it well, but they could also take the money and pretend to overlook it.
That’s why they’re not a judicial institution. They’re privatized.
Even if the Sichuan Tang Family claims to be allies and will bash in the skulls of anyone they deem inhuman, they can’t match Baekrin Uiseon’s Jin Cheon-hee.
Jin Cheon-hee has no parents and no children.
Moreover, the Jegallim Family is already in a state like a lone Korean tiger on the brink of extinction.
That tiger shows no desire to marry and see descendants.
In such circumstances, what does it matter where Gasol is or where the branch family stands?
Even the Oryun Association, their ally, knows Jin Cheon-hee’s nature well, so they rarely take on operations in Gangso Province.
So essentially, he’s beating everyone into submission.
‘Come to think of it, he’s handling matters to a degree that even the Namgung Family couldn’t manage.’
Jin Cheon-hee asked.
“It seems the Namgung Family has sent quite a few people.”
“Yes, yes! Of course, though the Jegallim Family is the greatest formation masters in Gangho, both the Patriarch and Soggakju are busy. So the Namgung Family came instead, and we’re keeping them happy as well.”
A brain prison for martial artists was fundamentally different from an ordinary jail.
Even if you seal or suppress their inner energy and lock them up, these bastards attempt escapes in remarkably ingenious ways.
And that’s not all.
They scale the walls from outside, claiming they’re rescuing their comrades.
To block such attempts one by one and prevent prisoner escapes, you cannot construct a brain prison using ordinary methods.
Therefore, a special brain prison for martial artists required mechanical devices and formation techniques.
It’s common knowledge throughout Gangho that the Jegallim Family is the greatest in formations and mechanical devices.
The problem is that the Jegallim Family has fallen.
The family consists of only Jegalling. Plus Jin Cheon-hee, his direct disciple.
So they cannot entrust the construction of a brain prison!
Therefore.
Currently, the foremost company in Gangho for mechanical devices and formation work is….
The Namgung Family.
Didn’t a master of formations and mechanical devices from the Namgung Family come and dismantle the traps of the secret manual during the recent incident involving the Patcheon Musang Divine Art’s secret techniques and secret manuals?
So when the government office builds a special brain prison for martial artists, they call the Namgung Family.
Their work is impeccably excellent!
‘It seems Namgung Un made a firm decision and sent people.’
Upon hearing that Jin Cheon-hee had become furious, he apparently hurriedly packed and sent them.
It was rare for his younger brother to become so enraged.
“Since we previously installed a martial artist-exclusive brain prison at Prince Ju-wang’s residence, we’re boasting that we’ll improve upon it and build an even better one!”
The Namgung Family is doing the installation, yet the government official is the one boasting about it.
Well, that made sense.
Though “official duties are impartial” is what they say, from the perspective of a guard, the sense of powerlessness must have been considerable.
Jin Cheon-hee asked.
“What about the prisoners in the temporary brain prison?”
“Thanks to the prisoner utilization plan that Boheon Byeolga proposed, things are going very well! Indeed. If those criminal bastards want to eat, they have to work!”
‘Hmm. Things are running smoothly.’
Indeed they were.
The prisoner utilization plan.
A policy where prisoners are assigned labor contracts, and their grades are determined based on their work efficiency.
Grade zero.
Prisoners who refuse to work and maintain poor attitudes.
Since they show no remorse, I feed them a single bowl of thin gruel.
My Master had said, “Hope, why not just starve them? Food costs come out of taxes,” but as a Korean, I couldn’t bring myself to let them starve completely… That’s right. I simply execute them according to the law instead.
Grade one.
Prisoners who manage to work adequately.
They receive rice with meat broth. No side dishes.
My Master had also said, “Hope, you should be grateful just to provide rice—isn’t meat broth too luxurious for a prisoner?”
But my Korean sense of self insisted strongly that if prisoners labor, they deserve at least meat broth to sustain them.
And finally, grade two.
Those who pour every muscle into their work like master craftsmen of the first rank.
These individuals receive rice with meat broth and three side dishes. They’re supplied with roughly one martial arts novel per week.
This time, my Master didn’t object.
“Considering the labor fees of first-rank master craftsmen, this is actually cheaper,” he said.
Gwan-in spoke up.
“The prisoners have become competitive, sir. They fight each other trying to do more work. Though some still curse, saying it’s cruel to divide grades by food, comparing it to training beasts.”
“….”

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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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