Doctor’s Rebirth - Chapter 976

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

Chapter 976
Remarkably, as I held the wine bottle for quite some time, something began to bubble inside, and the bottle grew warm to the touch.
Soon after, I poured the warmed wine into everyone’s cups.
Glug glug—
A subtle fragrance spread in all directions.
“Haha! What do you think? My inner strength!”
Ordinarily, people don’t know how to channel inner strength, so even consuming elixirs proves meaningless.
One merely becomes slightly healthier.
But now that I’ve grasped the Divine Sect’s Orthodox teachings and learned to channel my qi, I’ve clumsily mastered how to project it like this.
Of course, money was the most crucial factor in this process. Because—
“Hehehehe. I heard you devoured Baekrin Uiseon’s elixirs like they were rice… and this is all you managed?”
“What did you say?!”
“Observe this.”
Man Haksa accepted a cup from Sim Haksa and proceeded to cool it down, cooling it further and further.
And how much time had passed?
Crackle—
The surface of the wine began to freeze!
Witnessing this, both Sim Haksa and Jang Haksa beside him gasped in astonishment.
“Impossible!? How did you create yin-cold qi using the Infinite Lotus Brahma Heart Method?”
It was natural for the two scholars to be amazed.
While most martial arts lack distinctly yang-attributed qi, once one reaches a certain level of mastery, they can trigger samadhi transformation or generate warmth through inner strength.
The reason was simple.
Generally, the qi accumulated within the body tends to lean toward yang nature.
The Five Elements insights of the Jegallim Family or the Tai Chi insights of the Mudang Faction—
These refine qi into desired forms within the dantian before releasing it. Even the Thunder Qi of the Namgung Family leans endlessly toward yang, does it not?
In that sense, creating yin-cold qi with the Buddhist qi of the Infinite Lotus Brahma Heart Method means reversing the attribute, which cannot be done through ordinary methods.
Man Haksa stretched his neck proudly.
“Hehehehe. I received special tutoring in Yeonmu City. They taught me the Yin-Yang Reversal Method there!”
“Hmm… I must immediately apply for special tutoring in Yeonmu City as well!”
“My, my. Both of you showing off your new toys like this… but in the end, you still can’t kill a single ant.”
“!”
That was true.
The two scholars hadn’t learned this divine method to become heroes or to pursue the ultimate heights of martial arts purely.
Had they, they would be at the Training Ground right now.
“…Ah, no, are you ignoring the new trend sweeping through Gangho?”
“Honestly, didn’t you just learn it to follow the fashion?”
Exactly.
In the moment, one enjoys it, but afterward, one forgets as if it never happened.
But when enjoying it, one spares no expense!
Consuming elixirs like rice, paying enormous tutoring fees in Yeonmu City, squandering my parents’ wealth like locusts today as well.
That is the virtue of a Gangho influencer.
And my parents seem to think that while my son has no interest in official positions, he does have interest in martial arts.
Perhaps he might become a Gangho swordsman and forge connections with renowned families, so they continue to harbor such hopes.
“Sigh… There’s no helping it. Just watch.”
Sim Haksa snatched up the wine bottle, and a deep humming sound began emanating from it.
“Isn’t that the same heat energy as before?”
“It’s different!”
Saying so, he poured wine for the two of them.
This time the wine was neither warm nor particularly special.
But then.
In that moment, a subtle fragrance began filling the air all around.
“The scent of lotus flowers!?”
“How is this even possible?”
Sim Haksa rubbed the bridge of his nose with a slight smile.
“Hehe. When one reaches the fifth stage of the Infinite Lotus Brahma Heart Method, it produces this lotus fragrance. Perfect for calming body and mind. And do you know how sweet wine infused with such fragrance becomes?”
At this display, Man Haksa finally swallowed his saliva.
“Ugh. I’ve lost.”
Suddenly observing the two scholars, Jang Haksa thought to himself.
‘Those two scholars’ parents spent all that money to have their sons master the Divine Sect’s Orthodox techniques, yet they don’t realize their sons are using it to pour wine and play around.’
Expectations breed disappointment.
Man Haksa spoke.
“Anyway, truly… Jin Ilgwang, Jin Cheon-hee, and Soggakju are remarkable. To orchestrate something like this!”
“What madman would release the Divine Sect’s Orthodox techniques for mere money to stop demonic cultivation? Normally, the proper sequence would be to subjugate all those who learned such demonic arts until none remain.”
That is the thinking of a normal Gangho person.
Fighting and fighting and fighting, surviving swordsmen would finally declare they had suppressed the demonic cultivation.
And eventually, through enlightenment, they would reach an even higher realm. Isn’t that the proper sequence?
That is the chivalry of Gangho that we know.
…Not some discount war profiteering scheme.
“And do you know what’s even more shocking?”
“What is it?”
“The Infinite Lotus Brahma Heart Method is an inner cultivation technique. They haven’t released external techniques, martial forms, or movement methods.”
“Why is that shocking?”
Isn’t releasing just that alone already a terrible loss for mere money?
It’s already insane that they released the inner cultivation.
“Tsk tsk. So if you want to properly learn martial arts, you have to come to Yeon Mu City, right?”
“Aha!”
“Ilgwang is determined to rake in money with both hands!”
Then suddenly, Jang Haksa, who had been listening, asked.
“Can’t one just learn martial arts on their own after mastering the Infinite Lotus Brahma Heart Method?”
“The martial arts that suit the Infinite Lotus Brahma Heart Method would only be found at Shaolin Temple. Rather than hastily modifying it, wouldn’t it be better to learn and master the customized martial arts prepared by Baekrin Medical Guild?”
“That’s true! You’re right about that!”
“I heard the special training classes at the Martial Arts City are already sold out.”
“Ooooh!”
Then Jang Haksa suddenly grew curious and asked.
“If you know so much about it, why don’t you go that far yourself?”
“Moving around is such a bother.”
“…Ah, right. That makes sense.”
“And getting injured while training is a bit…. Isn’t it?”
“…That’s true. I don’t like pain either.”
That was it.
They were influencers.
They had no genuine interest in martial arts, but as long as they could experience the feeling, that was enough.
Paying money just to enjoy the mood was sufficient for them.
“Right. Let’s just pick and taste only the sweetest parts and move on.”
The three of them knew well how to live the happiest lives.
Extracting their parents’ wealth appropriately.
Living as unemployed drifters while simply enjoying the mood like this.
They left advancing in official positions and achieving success to their brothers, while the three of them spent another enjoyable day as leisured connoisseurs of Gangho—in other words, as influencers.
“A toast to Ilgwang’s victory!”
“Yes. It’s strange how he won, but a victory is a victory, isn’t it?”
“If he won, that’s all that matters.”
I’m not sure how the Gangho Records will document this.
What mattered was that Ilgwang had driven back the demonic cultivation without even staining his blade with blood.
“Accomplishing it through methods only he could employ—that too is strategic wisdom.”
Eating delicious food and chatting with friends.
How delightful this was.
“A toast to Ilgwang, Gangho’s greatest mad strategist!”
Clink!
The cups of the Three Scholars collided.
* * *
After my victory, in Jegalling’s office.
Jegalling flipped through the ledger for a long while, examining the enormous sums of money pouring in.
It was an amount that would make anyone’s eyes spin, yet Jegalling’s expression remained utterly cold.
He asked.
“Was it necessary to go this far?”
“….”
A question lacking both subject and object.
Yet I knew what my Master was asking.
I paused in thought for a moment, then organized my words and spoke.
“…It’s something I’ve been thinking about ever since returning from the Jin Ju-eonga.”
It was there that I encountered her.
What could possibly be so dire that everyone must become a corpse demon?
What comes in the final age?
She revealed nothing, yet one thing remained certain.
Her concern for the Jin Ju-eonga family.
She worried for her descendants more than anyone, hoping they would survive.
Even if it wasn’t biological life, even if it brought suffering, they still possessed the ability to think for themselves.
And they could endure any circumstance.
After that, I encountered a certain entity in the underwater city.
That entity declared that since the final age had arrived, it would fill this world with water.
Ordinarily, one might interpret this as metaphor.
But it was no metaphor at all.
“Perhaps the choice of the Jin Ju-eonga’s her, mad as she may be, was not wrong. Corpse demons would survive even if the world filled with water.”
“They are dead beings from the start, so they need not breathe.”
The act of stripping away life paradoxically became the act of granting it.
Yet the problem was that no one in the Jin Ju-eonga family desired such an ending.
Her gift became a curse for all.
People wished to preserve their dignity as human beings.
They all begged to be killed instead.
This was not living, they said.
This was not life.
Jin Cheon-hee spoke.
“For now it costs gold, but later it will spread more cheaply.”
“True. I hear bookshops are beginning to appear where one can view texts for a fee, even if only briefly.”
Information would continue to spread.
Eventually, even the poorest could view it for the price of a day’s meal, should they possess the will.
“Of course, this alone cannot overcome the final age. It is merely a ‘clue.'”
“A clue…?”
“Yes. I have merely left behind a small fragment—a way to struggle as human in the final moment.”
“Is this your divine cultivation method?”
It cannot compare to the divine cultivation methods of great families.
In terms of divine cultivation, it ranks at the lowest tier.
Yet it remains stable in any moment and clears the mind in any circumstance, suppressing madness.
It prevents one from going insane.
That was quite important.
Should humanity encounter an entity like her when the final age arrives, they would not be swept away by waves of madness.
Merely an anchor to grasp reason.
That was what I desired.
Jin Cheon-hee spoke.
“If a talented child reads this text, I thought perhaps they might open possibilities even I cannot foresee. But… for now, it remains merely a ‘seed.'”
What will take root, I cannot say.
Perhaps no seed will germinate at all, and it will merely amount to gradually raising my martial prowess in Gangho by small increments.
“You wish for humanity to die with dignity—to at least die as human when that day comes.”
“The most important thing is that it never arrives.”
That was the full extent of this mad scheme.
“So it’s not merely about preventing the Ilwol Singyeo’s conspiracy?”
“That too, of course. Since they intend to create chaos, I have no reason to stand idle.”
I saw the child buried beneath the corpses.
That place was utterly saturated with madness.
An ordinary person encountering such a place would forget what was right and what was wrong.
Eungryong said that the end times approach, and beings who could not move before will move all the more.
And if this mere beginning—not yet truly started—is already this severe.
What can humanity do?
Then my Master’s enormous hand fills my vision.
“This small head has carried much worry.”
“….”
“You have suffered. Your spirit worn thin enough to fray….”
A surge.
For some reason, something hot rises in my chest.
My eyes redden.
My Master holds an ideal I can never reach, and I strive daily toward my Master’s spirit yet cannot attain it.
My Master wished to protect one person, while what I seek to embrace is far wider than that.
Upon the worn spirit, a flower bloomed.
A hydrangea, like rain itself.
It was the flower that symbolized Jin Cheon-hee.
Countless small flowers, not one, becoming one.
Its formal name is Hydrangea macrophylla.
Cut though it may be, again and again, countless flowers form one great blossom—undeniably resembling the hydra.
What cannot be achieved alone might become possible when all stand together.
Drinking in the rain, enduring clouded days, the hydrangea stands there.
Holding poison, awaiting the day it blooms bright.
Small and numerous flowers, each crossing hardship to blossom.
If that is how Jin Cheon-hee lives in this Gangho.
Then suddenly, among those hydrangeas, a single one.
A weed bloomed.
A single rapeseed flower, like the sun.
Resembling sunlight, making oil, becoming medicine that saves lives—a flower that saves.
Yellow signifies affirmation.
It also meant an ideal one wishes to reach, yet cannot.
For now, merely a single bloom.
It was also the color of positivity that I could hold within myself.
‘Yes. Humans live within such positivity.’
What does it matter if I cannot reach it?
What does it matter if this martial path never reaches the place I so desperately desire?
Even if I were to swallow bitter ink while watching my Master reach that longed-for place.
The thought that it would still be alright—
‘It must be thanks to the seed I planted today.’
Just as Cheonma sowed Demons, I too sowed Righteousness.
What will germinate at the end and cover the coming apocalypse, I cannot know.
Today, I affirmed the end, death itself.
That where there is a beginning, there can be an end, and so perhaps it might be so.
And so, paradoxically, I could move forward.
I could resist.
If all things must end, then so too within myself.
If this long journey must end, then I gained the strength to struggle all the more.
That was thanks to the Demon that had germinated within me.
Yet, ‘on the day humanity dies.’
When the apocalypse arrives and perhaps mankind faces extinction.
I merely wish that a single yellow rapeseed flower blooms even in that pitch-black wasteland.
For that was another name for ‘hope.’

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