Doctor’s Rebirth

Chapter 27

Zhuge Rin said:

“When you completely reattach this tree, the first task will be completed. Well… until when should we make it?”

He thought for a moment and then said:

“It would be good to try until the day after tomorrow.”

***

“Isn’t that too rushed?”

Yoo Ho said as Zhuge Rin was returning to the medical pavilion. Zhuge Rin replied:

“It is rushed.”

“And it’s too difficult. It’s a task three levels above the first stage. No one in the medical pavilion can do such a thing with just the first stage.”

“Then why on earth…”

Zhuge Rin cut off Yoo Ho’s words.

“…It seems you’ve developed quite a bit of tough love for our Hee lately. Your words are getting long.”

Zhuge Rin looked at Yoo Ho with a voice devoid of laughter.

“No, that’s…”

Yoo Ho eventually couldn’t say anything and trailed off.

He is Zhuge Rin’s confidant. Even if he was a favored confidant, his position as a confidant remained unchanged.

Zhuge Rin didn’t say anything more to Yoo Ho.

Yoo Ho also didn’t ask Zhuge Rin anything more.

‘He becomes stricter than anyone else when it comes to education.’

Separate from his doting, his teaching was unrelentingly harsh.

‘Well, even if he fails, that’s all there is to it.’

It’s not something to be ashamed of.

No one in the medical pavilion would be able to complete such a task within three days of reaching the first stage.

Yoo Ho thought. That not only successful experiences are good experiences. Failure experiences are also good experiences.

‘Is he trying to teach a mindset?’

If that’s why he gave an impossible task, it could make sense.

***

“Heal with Water Qi…”

With the ability of the first stage of the Five-Elemental Cultivation Technique, one can only set fire to dry rice paper at best. Even a match can do that much.

A match would be more convenient actually.

You don’t need to concentrate, just strike it against wood.

The first stage Water Qi isn’t any different.

‘How am I supposed to heal this giant tree…’

He slowly focused Water Qi on the surface of the tree.

A bean-sized Water Qi that started from the danjeon rose and seeped into the tree.

“…”

That was it.

“I can’t even heal a single piece of bark.”

The wound Master had lightly created. However, it seemed the tree would never bloom again.

“How did he cut half of this thick thing with just a fan?”

Jin Cheon-hee sat with his back against the tree trunk.

‘Master must know that it’s not possible with my inner power. He must have ordered this knowing that. Did he order something impossible knowing it’s impossible? Just to teach frustration?’

He felt that wasn’t the case.

Even if that was the lesson, it didn’t seem like it would be done this way.

It’s quite a majestic tree, but for Jin Cheon-hee, it’s a tree he’s seeing for the first time with no memories attached.

He didn’t think he’d be particularly sad even if this tree dried up and died.

To begin with, he’s not an environmentalist, and this isn’t the only giant tree in this vast mountain.

“I think you have no choice but to die. If it was just cut, it might be different, but since it was burned, the vascular tissues and cambium must all be cooked and destroyed.”

It seems they express that as being eroded by Fire Qi in the local terminology.

‘Even if eroded by Fire Qi, there’s a possibility if the roots are alive, but returning to its original form is impossible.’

No matter how many times he thought about it, there was no way to solve Master’s task.

“Ha ha ha.”

Jin Cheon-hee hugged the tree and laughed like a madman.

At that moment, a water droplet fell on Jin Cheon-hee’s forehead.

Looking up at the sky, it was cloudy.

Lightning flashed in the distant sky. And a few seconds later.

Rumble-

Sound was always slower than light.

“Even the weather isn’t helping.”

Two water droplets brought four streams of rain. The four streams of rain became a wall of downpour.

Jin Cheon-hee leaned his back against the tree.

“Good for avoiding rain.”

Muttering that, he looked at the ground that had turned to mud.

His gaze suddenly moved from the mud to the roots. Even at this moment, the tree was absorbing water.

“Oh… right. Water prospers Wood. Wood prospers Fire, Fire has affinity with Earth. Earth has affinity with Metal. Metal… prospers Water again.”

Master had said.

Relationships with affinity prosper qi.

It’s a method used for weakened patients.

“Then I can use it on myself too, right? What I need is Water Qi. If I cultivate using Metal, which has affinity, wouldn’t Water Qi prosper?”

An application of the Five-Elemental Cultivation Technique.

‘Is it… possible?’

The five energies settled in his danjeon.

Jin Cheon-hee furrowed his brow.

‘But what if I fail?’

He clearly knew how dangerous it was to cultivate in a way he hadn’t learned. However, Jin Cheon-hee’s brain whispered that it was okay.

That it was possible.

No matter how many times he thought about it, it only gave the answer that this was the correct solution…

Jin Cheon-hee placed his hand on the split part of the tree.

“Phew… If I die because of a tree, I’ll be recorded as the greatest fool in martial arts history for ages.”

With those words, Jin Cheon-hee closed his eyes.

Ironically, the first thing Jin Cheon-hee moved was Earth Qi.

He judged that it would be okay even if an accident happened because it was the gentlest and most solid energy.

Earth Qi meets Metal.

Woong–

The danjeon inside his body vibrated softly. At the same time, he felt Metal combining with Earth Qi and gradually growing stronger.

‘Compound interest?’

It wasn’t addition. It was multiplication. Jin Cheon-hee hesitated at the energy that felt exponential.

It was fortunate.

Even if it’s multiplication, a bean-sized amount is still bean-sized.

Two bean-sized amounts multiplied don’t become a watermelon.

This much he could handle sufficiently.

And Jin Cheon-hee added the Metal that had grown this way to Water Qi.

Wooong–

Cubed.

He felt the Water Qi grow 8 times, like 2x2x2.

‘It’s starting to get hard?’

Jin Cheon-hee infused Water Qi into the tree. He felt the energy of life seeping inside.

When he opened his eyes, he saw that a bit of tree bark had reattached.

‘Wow, I succeeded, but this is still far from done.’

Then how about starting from Wood Qi? If he went from Wood through Fire, Earth, Metal, to Water?

It’s 2 to the 5th power.

32 times.

‘So this is why purity was more important than quantity.’

Even if impure qi increases, it just ends up being impurities.

It becomes increasingly difficult to handle and perfect for falling into qi deviation.

It’s better to have less. The purer it is, the easier it is to handle.

‘That’s why he told me to eat the Thousand-Hundred Years Pine Pill later.’

The core of the Five-Elemental Cultivation Technique is mutual restraint and mutual generation.

If one energy becomes excessively strong, it’s perfect for falling into qi deviation.

Everything fits together like a puzzle.

“Well, let’s do this. You won’t have disturbing dreams even if you fail…”

Understanding was complete.

What remained was concentration and boldness.

Jin Cheon-hee repeatedly clenched and unclenched his hand.

This is a tree, not a person. Where else could there be a more suitable practice material?

There was no reason to hesitate.

Jin Cheon-hee took a deep breath and closed his eyes.

***

The next day.

Zhuge Rin got up early in the morning and came outside.

The rain that had been falling all night had stopped at some point.

“So, he’s sleeping in his quarters?”

“Yes. Should I wake him?”

“No. He must have had a lot on his mind last night, so let him be.”

Is it okay to make a child take such a big test?

Perhaps it would be better to lower the difficulty to the level that other medical pavilion members see, even now.

Zhuge Rin sighed.

‘If a master’s greed is excessive, it can ruin the disciple’s talent.’

He walked slowly. Towards the tree that had been cut.

How far had he walked? His steps stopped.

“Is that… the same tree?”

Zhuge Rin’s eyes widened. There stood the tree that should have been cut, looking exactly the same as before.

‘Looking closely, the grain of the wood is misaligned. It’s clearly the mark where it was cut.’

It remained only as a scar.

That wasn’t all. Green moss had grown in the shape of a person’s handprint at the base of the tree. Zhuge Rin placed his hand on the moss handprint.

The hand was much smaller than his.

‘That’s right. It’s Jin Cheon-hee’s. He did it alone, without anyone’s help.’

It was the trace of Water Qi left behind.

Moss had grown over the Water Qi that remained after healing the tree.

“To do this in a day… No, not a day, just half a day.”

Even Yoo Ho, who was watching from the side, was so dumbfounded he lost his words.

‘From the first test, he completed something three levels above… so easily?’

Mastering the basics is the minimum qualification to take the test.

One must gain insight and apply it. It doesn’t end just because the idea jumps that far.

One had to be able to fuse and amplify inner power of different natures while still pushing it in the desired direction.

Inner power is like water.

When small, it’s calm like a spring or a pond, but as it gathers, it becomes like a swollen valley stream, growing fierce.

Humans cannot defeat nature.

Blocking it head-on is madness.

One had to guide it, like building a riverbank.

It can’t be rushed, but it can’t be delayed either. That control far exceeded the realm of what a child could do.

“He did it. He did it! Ahem… Well, it’s not just anyone, but the future successor of White Dragon Medical Pavilion, so isn’t this much to be expected?”

For saying that, the corners of Master’s mouth were ascending infinitely towards the sky.

“Master.”

“Ho ho, having such a talented individual is not just my good fortune, but the good fortune of all doctors in the martial world. I must make sure to announce this fact in the next medical report.”

‘We’re doomed.’

Yoo Ho thought.

He had already heard news that the heads of each medical clinic had started grumbling at their disciples, asking why they couldn’t do as well.

The medical clinics are connected like a spider web centered around the medical pavilion.

And Divine Doctor Baek Rin is committing atrocities in the medical report issued to those very medical clinics.

‘Do you know about something called ondol? The direct disciple of Divine Doctor Baek Rin…’ ‘Don’t even compare it to a brazier. The official disciple of the proud Baek Rin Pavilion Master who developed something called a stove…’ and so on.

The titles were slightly different, but they all referred to one person.

To put it in South Korean terms, Jin Cheon-hee had taken on the role of that ‘son’ in ‘my dad’s friend’s son’.

In local terms, he had become the ‘known master’s disciple’ position.

“Ho ho, ho ho ho ho ho!”

Master’s footsteps heading back to the medical pavilion were as light as clouds.

“First, I must inform everyone in the medical pavilion about this fact. I’m looking forward to the morning assembly time. Yoo Ho.”

The number one power in the medical pavilion stepped forward to commend the efforts of the second power in the medical pavilion.

***

After pouring out inner power all night long, there wasn’t a place that didn’t hurt.

The amazing thing is that the more you use inner power, the more the body adapts to it. Moreover, you can feel that the pathways through which inner power moves, the meridians, gradually widen and strengthen as much as they were painful at first.

‘It’s similar to the super compensation phenomenon.’