Doctor’s Rebirth - Chapter 966

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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 966
Indeed, it was the Jegallim Family.
I knew not only what she was doing for her lord, but even the future that awaited her.
Ilkana’s mind remained calm.
Already drowning in overwork because of that absurd boss.
If I died from this, well, there was nothing to be done about it.
“Surely the strategist is planning to orchestrate a perfect trap by isolating himself, placing Yeo Ha-ryun at the center of that trap. Then he’ll move to protect as many of his subordinates as possible through careful examination.”
“As expected….”
Ilkana nodded in agreement.
Only then did Yeo Ha-ryun and Namgung Un seem to realize it, clapping their hands together.
Such things hardly mattered.
The strategists were already gauging each other’s workload.
It was pitiful.
‘Ilkana is doing all the work that five strategists should be doing alone!’
This was death by overwork.
No matter how much we won in war, there was no escaping death by overwork.
Jin Cheon-hee spoke.
“To prevent future overwork, I will help. The tasks Ilkana will undertake ahead are not meant for one person alone.”
“Yes!”
Ilkana looked as though tears might fall.
Perhaps only a strategist truly understands a strategist’s suffering.
“About the trap, for instance. If word spreads through the government office that I placed the Sueok there, what would happen?”
“There is no need to worry about that. The garrison soldiers in this region are not only free from collusion with the Demonic Sect, but the Namgung Family’s influence hardly reaches here either. Moreover, the Sueok’s affiliations are scattered like pebbles in the Yangtze River, making them difficult for outsiders to distinguish.”
Quite clever.
Especially the fact that Jin Cheon-hee could improvise immediately based on the information that he had destroyed the Sueok.
“A most excellent stratagem.”
“I merely imitated the methods you taught me in the past, brother. Just as all hermit crabs are hermit crabs, people judge them by the shells they wear, do they not?”
A military strategy concerning camouflage and deception.
When Ilkana trained at the Baekrin Medical Guild before, she learned much.
This was one of those lessons.
Jin Cheon-hee shook his head.
“Learning and using it well are different matters. That is precisely what makes Ilkana extraordinary. Most ordinary strategists, even if they learned priceless knowledge from military treatises, cannot devise even a single worthwhile stratagem.”
“Because I ended up serving an eccentric as my lord, I had to do whatever it took to survive, brother.”
With those words, she gazed at Yeo Ha-ryun with a distant expression.
“…?”
Yeo Ha-ryun stared blankly as if asking what she meant, and Jin Cheon-hee answered.
“Yes. The fate of a strategist is a twisted fate. If you end up serving an eccentric as your lord, you either die on the battlefield or from overwork.”
Only by taking proper care of yourself, compromising with the world somewhat, and meeting such a lord could a strategist find comfort.
Not like Cao Cao, who abandoned his strategists like worn-out shoes.
“Exactly, brother. Yet our Yeo Ha-ryun entrusted me with full authority and never particularly doubted me. That is comfortable.”
With the Cheonma’s fist at my disposal, why would I worry about tax evasion and betrayal?
If I find out, I can simply walk over and count: “One, two, die.”
“I understand. It’s convenient for Yeo Ha-ryun, that’s true. In a world where it’s difficult to find people whose inner and outer selves match, it’s rare. And he practices cooperation alone within the Demonic Sect.”
Yeo Ha-ryun spoke.
“I am from the mysterious sect, the Black Sword School.”
Namgung Un said.
“Ah, that’s right. The younger brother is from the mysterious Black Sword School.”
“…One.”
“No, I didn’t even call you younger brother, and isn’t calling someone ‘younger brother of the sect’ just a matter of courtesy in Gangho? Can’t even that be allowed?”
“….”
After pondering it, he seemed to find it reasonable and stopped his death count.
Namgung Un wiped his chest.
“Ah, my heart is pounding. What on earth was Jin’s younger brother thinking when he became sworn brothers with such a person?”
“Yeo Ha-ryun is unexpectedly cute in this way.”
“…Yes. You said that Baek Rin-ui-seon also has cute moments when you really look at him.”
Namgung Un thought that Jin’s younger brother seemed to have a taste for things that were “terrifyingly adorable.”
The problem was that to others’ eyes, they only looked “terrifying.”
Ilkana spoke.
“In any case, the preparations are complete and we’ve arrived. I’ve also spread the information, so I came to tell you that two of the other Soegoojus are heading this way.”
Whoom!
Heukseolmyo rubbed her cheek against Ilkana’s ankle, apparently satisfied with her meal.
This creature was no longer a spiritual being but a money-eating demon.
Ilkana sighed and scratched Heukseolmyo’s forehead.
Jin Cheon-hee spoke.
“It’s refreshing to rarely ride on someone else’s schemes.”
“When would a person from the Jegallim Family ever experience something like this? Enjoy this opportunity.”
That was true.
As the saying goes, a monk cannot shave his own head, and the Jegallim Family always had to shave their own.
Even with so many strategists, if they didn’t meet my standards, I had to do it myself.
‘Well, I have no complaints. My Master might find some aspects unsatisfactory, but how common is it to find a strategist who improvises to this extent for their lord? Ilkana has grown tremendously.’
Jin Cheon-hee picked up the Bing Jeong Sword and stood.
Namgung Un did the same.
Yeo Ha-ryun lightly brushed off his sleeves.
For some reason, the scent of blood and faint sandalwood lingered.
It was the scent of death.
What was about to unfold.
* * *
A strategist is one who prepares.
Because Ilkana had prepared the groundwork so well, it became easier to paint over it with a brush.
Jin Cheon-hee immediately began the earthwork.
I returned to the island of Supa Chae, which I had once destroyed, and immediately began installing formation arrays and laying various traps.
Namgung Un assisted from the side and spoke thus.
“I never imagined I would clash with so many Black Sword Sect disciples.”
Fortunately, there were no Demonic Sect members nearby.
Just the two of us—myself and Namgung Un.
Only then did Namgung Un open his mouth.
“It is truly strange. Your family suffered such calamity, yet you do not harbor hatred for the Demonic Sect?”
I finally extracted the thorn from my heart and revealed it to him.
“Is that why you tried to push me away so coldly?”
“….”
I gazed at Namgung Un without answering.
His eyes posed a question.
My father lost all his martial arts through demonic cultivation—was there not sufficient reason to hate the Demonic Sect?
Namgung Un simply laughed.
“Your father’s hand in demonic cultivation stemmed ultimately from his own greed. He claimed ignorance of what it was, but as he became the Family Head and his perspective broadened…. I wonder if he truly did not know.”
“….”
“Even with minimal study, one becomes excessively powerful—he should have sensed something amiss. With proper martial arts, do results not match effort? Often, even with effort, results fall short. A man of the Namgung Family Head’s caliber could not have failed to perceive this. What blinded those eyes was greed, nothing more.”
For an assessment of one’s own father, it was brutally cold.
“….”
“And though the Namgung Family appears unified externally, speaking with one voice, beneath the surface countless factions wage different struggles. They are certainly of the Namgung Family, yet not all can claim to represent it.”
“I am aware of that.”
Given the Namgung Family’s magnitude, the hidden power struggles were immense—even minimal intelligence gathering revealed this.
And that Namgung Un had not yet fully subdued them all.
He could grasp them faster through bloodshed, but Namgung Un refrained from such measures.
Conversely, this became the moment I truly grasped how steadfast and formidable Namgung Un was.
He could not be ignorant that resolving matters by the blade was easier.
Namgung Un continued.
“The Demonic Sect faces the same. And the Heavenly Demon Succession, called the Demonic Sect’s war of succession—realistically speaking, no Martial Arts Alliance Leader in history has ever stopped this Heavenly Demon Succession. Thus, one of the Sub-Leaders will eventually become the Heavenly Demon. Is that not so?”
Cold logic.
Yet I did not bother to deny it.
For it had come to pass even in the Supreme Heavenly Demon.
“Calculating rationally, based on my own tracking and observation of Yeo Ha-ryun’s conduct thus far, he is the most moderate among the Sub-Leaders. Hoping such a person becomes the Leader—this is merely my subjective judgment.”
I began to understand why Namgung Un became the Martial Arts Alliance Leader in the original Supreme Heavenly Demon.
Why Changwang Akjin had passed the position to him.
I asked.
“If rational calculation yields that result, what does emotional calculation yield?”
“I perceived righteousness in his footsteps. Furthermore, I trust the discernment of my younger brother, who has him as a brother. Is that foolish?”
“It is not.”
Namgung Un.
He was a most pragmatic romantic.
Even while accepting the reality that my Father might have suspected the demonic arts and learned them anyway, and the reality that I cannot prevent the Gangho from burning in the blood war between the Soegoojus.
Then I find the method that causes the least damage, and help the most suitable person.
‘Strangely enough, it’s also the most righteous method available right now.’
According to his judgment, no one in the Jicheon Cheonma could block the Cheonma Blood Path.
In the end, Yeo Ha-ryun, the protagonist, will become the Cheonma, but how much blood was shed in that process.
He has no way of knowing the original future, yet he still makes the best choice.
And yet, he deliberately conceals his identity and draws a line by calling it an arbitrary judgment.
‘Right now, only Yeo Ha-ryun and Ilkana know who Namgung Un is in the Demonic Sect.’
The clothes he’s wearing are also those of a secret agent, and his face is covered with a mask.
The Naeryong Sword he’s carrying also has its handle and scabbard switched, so outwardly he appears to be a warrior of the Demonic Sect.
‘If he gets caught, he’d become a public enemy of the Gangho, and he’s doing it all for just romance. This person.’
A dangerous gamble that could even harm the Namgung Family.
When that time comes, his younger brother Jin will handle the aftermath, is that it.
‘This is just like him—rushing forward without even looking back.’
In conclusion, his current choice is the one that sheds the least blood.
But a Gangho person is a Gangho person to the bone.
Jin Cheon-hee asked.
“Is your younger sister doing well?”
Namgung Yeon.
Namgung Un’s younger sister, and the one who will burn with vengeance and transform into the Blood Sword after Namgung Un dies.
“She’s happy every single day. Now that I’ve become the Gaju, no one in the family disrespects her. She’s collecting all sorts of things she likes, and these days she’s even gone all the way to the Sichuan Tang Family to play with Dang-a. Even though she knows her older brother is suffering, she just enjoys herself. Really.”
He grumbles as if feeling wronged.
Well, when the Gaju is rolling around like this, it is amusing to see his younger sister having the time of her life.
‘I see. Yes, the Blood Sword was… not something Namgung Yeon wanted to do.’
What Namgung Yeon wanted most was this kind of everyday life.
Without having to live burning with vengeance and ambition.
Just days of enjoying small, simple happiness in daily life.
That’s probably all she truly wanted.
‘Namgung Un must continue to live.’
Seeing how recklessly he acts today, I can understand why this man became the Martial Arts Alliance Leader and yet died to Yeo Ha-ryun, the Jicheon Cheonma.
But seeing how he now seeks to protect that very Yeo Ha-ryun with his own hands was truly strange.
‘The things that changed fate have become a butterfly effect, and the landscape has changed this much.’
Though they bicker, Namgung Un doesn’t dislike Yeo Ha-ryun, and Yeo Ha-ryun… ended it at the level of cutting off his wrist, so perhaps it’s a form of affection(?) in its own way.
Jin Cheon-hee spoke.
“That’s just how life is when you live it. And Yeo Ha-ryun’s subordinates are good people. They don’t extort anyone, don’t bother commoners, they just train their martial arts intensely and quietly. Those kinds of people.”
“Right. Seeing those demonic arts that suck the fresh blood of others, I can tell these subordinates are different. They’re like madmen punching at empty air from dawn, you know.”
“That’s how it is. They have quite a cute side to them.”
“But they’re fanatics who believe in the god called Il-Wol?”
“That’s right. Though honestly, it’s a bit ambiguous whether they’re truly fanatics. Even looking at the Six Demon Clans, something… it all revolves around their own families.”
“Still, they don’t show absolute loyalty to the Cheonma?”
“That said, I still find it difficult to fully understand them myself.”
Namgung Un nodded at my words.
“Well… it might be impossible for criminals like us to even comprehend fanatics.”
A truly pragmatic romantic.
I spoke up.
“Ah. Please drive this iron rod deep into the ground there.”
“Hmm. Like this?”
“Yes. That much. And split that boulder in half.”
As Namgung Un drew his sword, it was severed along with a flash of lightning.
“Like this?”
“Yes. Like that… could you change the color of the lightning to something else? Make it look roughly like demonic energy?”
Namgung Un’s lightning instantly transformed into a black glow.
“Will this work?”
‘Wow… he actually does it just like that?’
With the tyrannical sword path and the lightning’s sinister appearance, this was a perfect demonic head.
I asked.
“You can change it just by saying so?”
“I’ve only changed the form—what’s difficult about that? What matters is the essence.”
This hyeong really does seem to have gained some profound enlightenment.
‘I thought he was just recklessly diving in on instinct… but it turns out he was actually relying on his own strength all along.’
Just how much stronger has he become?
Looking at how his will extends straight and true, I suspect this hyeong has reached the edge of Hwagyeong.
Even accounting for how he consumes spirit pills like rice and how Elder Tae-sang trained him in hellish conditions, to reach this level…
‘It’s talent. Pure talent.’
That talented Namgung Un asked.
“Jin’s younger brother, is there anything else you need me to do? I’ll handle whatever you ask.”
“….”

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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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