Doctor’s Rebirth - Chapter 972

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

Chapter 972
“…Ah…. Jin’s Younger Brother.”
Namgung Un alternates his gaze between the prostrate Jin Cheon-hee and the banner hanging before them.
The characters written in a single sweeping stroke with a massive brush belonged to someone whose handwriting he knew well.
Soon after, he tapped Jin Cheon-hee’s shoulder.
“Stay strong, Jin’s Younger Brother.”
Jin Cheon-hee spoke while still prostrate.
“…Yes. And Namgung Hyeong, please tell me if you ever face hardship.”
At this, Namgung Un laughed once more.
There was a Demonic Cult spy in the main family, and she was his stepmother.
Given how long she had been embedded within the Namgung Family… there was no way to know how far the Demonic Cult’s influence had spread.
His half-brother Namgung Su, younger than him, left him at a loss for what to do.
Despite the situation threatening to drive him mad as Gaju, the fact that he could still laugh was thanks to this fellow.
Paradoxically, Namgung Un kept his gaze fixed on Jin Cheon-hee, who was pulling at his own hair in distress.
When he thought of what lay ahead, he needed something to smile about, however small.
And though Jin’s Younger Brother didn’t seem to intend it, he was ultimately quite an amusing person, wasn’t he?
‘Yes. It’s fortunate we learned of this now.’
Had he needed to receive a blade in the back during the main family’s crisis, the Namgung Family would have already become a handful of blood in Gangho.
“Then I’ll take my leave.”
“Farewell, Namgung Hyeong.”
Namgung Un whistles as he departs into the distance.
Namgung Un’s back, seen up close, was endearing, but his back, seen from afar, was chilling.
Perhaps he was steeling his resolve.
Yet from here on, this was another family’s internal strife.
All I could do was hope that Namgung Un would successfully root out the spies within his family.
Namgung Hyeong was a romantic, but simultaneously a realist as well.
I watched him grow distant in silence.
Then, as if remembering something, I called out loudly.
“남궁 형—!”
“Hmm?”
Namgung Un turned around.
I answered through transmission instead of speaking aloud.
[My younger brother Ha-ryun owes you a debt. Since Ha-ryun’s kindness is my kindness, if there is ever something you need my help with, please name one thing. I will assist you as best I can.]
[How stingy. Why not just say you’ll grant anything I ask?]
I laughed brightly and replied.
[Because if you ask me to call you Namgung Hyeong even when drinking in the future, I won’t grant that.]
At that laughter, even Namgung Un in the distance couldn’t help but smile back.
[So the Sword Seeker who is both the Divine Physician of All Under Heaven and gazes toward Hyeongyeong owes me a debt. Somehow that makes me feel rather proud. Very well. When that time comes, I’ll ask for a hand.]
[Understood.]
A debt of kindness received must always be repaid with kindness in return.
That is precisely what we call karmic connection in Gangho.
Namgung Un waved from a distance and continued walking.
His steps carried more warmth than before.
In Gangho where even family cannot be trusted, having even one person stand by your side—that must be what it feels like.
‘It’s time for me to return as well.’
I sighed once more.
‘How am I supposed to face my Master after this?’
* * *
Upon returning, Yoo Ho spoke.
“Welcome back, ‘Savior Cheonma.'”
Thump.
I collapsed back down.
Then, gathering some strength, I rose. Yoo Ho nodded and spoke again.
“The Master awaits ‘Savior Cheonma.'”
Thump.
I collapsed again.
“Savior Cheon…?”
Thump!
“Savior?”
Thump!
“Sav…?”
Thump-thud!
What kind of broken puppet was I, collapsing to all fours every time the title was uttered?
Yoo Ho found it amusing, but decided to hold back.
At this rate I’d end up doing prostrations, and besides, Jegalling was approaching from behind.
“Hope, you’ve returned. So, how does it feel having accomplished ‘Savior…?'”
I froze.
“…?!”
I stopped myself from prostrating.
“I’ve heard the whole story. Seeing you after so long, I sense a ‘Sav…’ spirited energy about you.”
I… froze?
I stopped myself from prostrating again.
“Indeed, my disciple has accomplished ‘Savior’ and thus transformed the ‘Hea…’ energy.”
I… I froze?
My Master continued teasing me for quite some time.
And I was forced to endure an awkward core exercise alongside it.
Until my Master grew tired.
Continuing.
* * *
Just how much do my Master and Yoo Ho know?
At first glance, it didn’t seem like Master knew the contents of every conversation as if he were eavesdropping.
‘There seems to be some condition attached to this….’
It was certain that Toyong was an important medium.
Thinking about it, if any of the witnesses had connections to Baekrin Uiseon, letters could be sent there too.
As I saved people, Yoo Ho’s power seemed to grow stronger bit by bit, so I suspected that might have some influence as well.
In any case….
‘Sigh, Master… Yoo Ho…. Ugh… of all things, I ended up revealing what I least wanted to reveal… how painful.’
Master enjoyed seeing his disciples flustered.
After teasing me a few times like that, apparently satisfied, he took a sip of tea.
“Yes. The Demonic Cult spreading demonic scriptures is the greatest problem at hand. Have you given any thought to it?”
“I had a thought occur to me when I met Namgung Hyeong.”
I began explaining my plan with sparkling eyes.
“You still come up with insane ideas. But… reason is telling me it could work….”
A plan that defied the conventions of Gangho.
Yet, this time too, Jegalling’s mind was saying ‘it’s possible’.
“Good. Give it a try.”
Permission was granted.
I immediately headed to the printing house.
* * *
Woodblock printing technology supposedly dates back as far as before the Common Era.
After all, a seal itself is a form of printing.
Therefore, this world certainly possesses woodblock printing technology.
However, it hasn’t spread very widely.
The first reason being….
‘The illiteracy rate reaches as high as ninety percent.’
The people of this era prioritized tilling fields and sowing seeds, doing labor, over learning letters.
Parents who could support a child’s education by sewing day and night were so rare they barely existed.
Usually, livelihood takes priority over study.
That was the reality.
Though slavery had been abolished, and people were selected regardless of status.
Still, ultimately it was a society where class was determined by one’s birth circumstances.
I knew that a poor person passing the state examination and becoming an official was as likely as a horse entering a needle’s eye.
Even so, parents who teach their children letters are remarkable, which is why it becomes a tale of virtue.
Ordinarily, people don’t learn letters.
And not learning them causes no hindrance to living.
Even in my grandmother’s generation, there were cases where people lived their whole lives not knowing Hangul, only entering elderly school later to finally learn to read.
This era was no different.
And one more thing.
The ten percent who knew letters valued calligraphy written by master calligraphers more than printed materials.
Of course, printed materials naturally existed in this era too, and large-scale printing was done as needed.
While such printing houses do exist, it feels quite different from how books are naturally produced through printing houses when publishing, as one would on modern Earth.
‘Besides, there’s the unique culture of Gangho as well.’
Just as with ironworking technology, under the name of Biinbuljeon, the technical gap in woodblock printing varies by region.
Since even the same woodblock printing technique accumulates different know-how, the quality of printed materials produced this way is inconsistent.
‘That’s why when distributing martial art manuals in large quantities, someone had to painstakingly hand-copy each one.’
And naturally, the ‘more impressive’ looking version would appear better.
That perception I mentioned earlier—that hand-written copies are considered more impressive.
By modern standards, it seems like nothing special, but in this era, books are genuinely luxury items and collectibles.
No madman prints secret techniques with woodblocks.
‘Even street-level fortune-telling manuals circulate because someone hand-copied them.’
Yet here it is.
Someone trying to print secret techniques using woodblock printing.
‘Yes. Baek Rin’s printing house can truly be called the finest in the empire.’
Especially medical texts… or rather, borrowing the local expression, medical books naturally require illustrations, so drawing all of them by hand is impossible.
That’s why they use woodblocks.
Since detailed human anatomy must be depicted, the technique of creating and printing woodblocks could certainly be called the highest caliber.
The skill level of those printing artisans was also quite considerable.
‘Precisely because medical texts are possible, we’re printing and sending medical records with them, cookbooks intermittently, technical manuals and what people call miscellaneous books—all printed and distributed.’
Even children’s fairy tales and knight-errant novels are being printed and sold.
‘That’s possible first because we’ve drastically lowered the unit cost of paper. And it’s possible to sell books printed this way because transportation throughout Gangso Province and Baek Rin has developed.’
One might ask how much Gangso Province amounts to, but given its size is roughly that of South Korea, the consumer market is substantial.
The population of people living in Gangso Province alone numbers in the millions.
Moreover, in an era without YouTube or mobile games, people have precious few entertainment options.
I once tried putting crossword puzzles in the back of medical records as an experiment, and they sold like crazy.
Because of this, Baek Rin’s illiteracy rate dropped dramatically.
It once fell below 40%, then surged again as Baek Rin County expanded into a prefecture.
Now it fluctuates around the 50% mark.
This alone could be called an extraordinary achievement.
Compared to other regions, a full 40% more people can at least read, even if they can’t write.
Such a printing house.
“What have you brought this time, Soggakju?”
The Baekrin Printing House Director.
Baek Heo-ran asks.
Baek Heo-ran is a master craftsman and typesetter who loves every book in the world, and preserving them in woodblock form is his greatest joy in life.
The printing house director continued.
“The fairy tale book you gave us last time has been quite popular, so we’re planning a reprint.”
“Oh, is that so?”
“Yes. Most importantly, it’s short so the book price is cheap. I hear many say it’s good for children to master the Thousand Character Classic with it.”
Jin Cheon-hee scratched his head with a bashful laugh.
“What is it this time? Medical texts as usual? Or perhaps teaching materials? Cookbooks would be nice too.”
Jin Cheon-hee spoke.
“…A martial arts manual.”
“Pardon?”
The Baekrin Printing House Director asked in disbelief.
“A martial arts manual, sir.”
“…?”
Wondering if he’d misheard, he cleaned out his ears.
* * *
Woodblock printing.
In truth, woodblock printing had many inconveniences.
Woodblock.
Breaking down the characters, it meant a board made of wood…. But what exactly is a board?
Isn’t something broad and flat called a board?
That’s right.
A woodblock was a form where characters or images were carved into a single plank.
Manufacturing was quite difficult, and printing presented numerous problems.
That’s why movable type printing technology emerged.
Each character was carved separately, and when printing, they were assembled like puzzle pieces and printed!
Advancing further from there led to metal type….
Remarkably, the world’s first metal type originated from Korea.
It was invented in 13th-century Goryeo!
I hadn’t gone so far as to create metal type myself.
But I had wracked my brain and previously taught them a stage beyond the wooden type printing technology of this era.
Instead of people pressing by hand, turning a handle would activate a mechanical system that pressed the paper like crushing grapes.
The ink used wasn’t water-based but oil-based.
I applied Gutenberg’s method.
This way, there was no need to suffer through touching the printing plate individually and pressing uniformly.
Moreover, since wooden boards lacked the durability of metal plates, I was prepared for that, but these Gangho craftsmen somehow blocked an inspector’s blade with the wooden board.
Seeing it didn’t even get scratched, I asked how they did it.
Apparently, the wood originally used for printing Buddhist scriptures is felled from sacred mountains, dried, carved, and undergoes repeated special glazing treatments.
During this process, if a craftsman refrains from killing for a month, doesn’t eat meat, and works with a reverent heart, the wooden board becomes harder than steel.
Such wooden boards don’t crack even after long use.
‘At first, I thought this was complete nonsense.’
But I had underestimated this world where belief becomes reality.
When I had them carve characters other than Buddhist scriptures, the durability was truly remarkable despite not being steel.
Of course, it was somewhat weaker than carving Buddhist scriptures.
It seemed less faith was invested in it.
‘Just treating wood grown on sacred mountains with glaze made it incredibly hard.’
But that lacked faith entirely, so it was somewhat weaker.
For that reason.
The printing history of Earth and the collaboration of kiiiiiii from the Central Plains world came together.
The Baekrin Printing House’s printing technology was the finest in the empire. Its production capacity was overwhelming!
‘It sounds insane, but it actually happened.’
Using such overwhelming production capacity, I recruited additional staff and ran three shifts around the clock, beginning full-scale production of martial art manuals.
What I intended to do was simple.
Mass-print the Infinite Lotus Brahma Heart Method and distribute it throughout Gangho.
The Infinite Lotus Brahma Heart Method.
Rather than inner energy cultivation, this was a mental cultivation technique originating from the western regions where the Seorim Kingdom and Damjin Kingdom were located.
Derived from ancient Buddhist teachings, this mental cultivation possessed truly remarkable efficacy.
It transformed all heterogeneous demonic energy into the Buddhist energy of the Brahma Heart Method!
In other words, it possessed the remarkable benefit of preventing practitioners of demonic arts from falling into obsession or madness.
However, it wasn’t like ‘removing the side effects of demonic arts and growing absurdly strong at demonic arts’ unique insane growth rate—that’s pure honey!’ Nothing like that.
Because as the energy transformed into Buddhist energy, the absolute quantity of demonic energy decreased completely.
‘In other words, if you learn demonic arts and then learn this, it basically becomes a wash.’
Learning this alone was actually superior to learning demonic arts!
This was also a martial technique belonging to divine skill studies.
“Really? You’re planning to mass-print and sell this?”
The Printing House Director stared at me in astonishment.
“Yes. Unlike the demonic art manuals, I can’t distribute this for free, so I’m thinking of selling it for a small fee.”
It was the most insane thing the Printing House Director had ever heard in his entire life.

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————