Doctor’s Rebirth

Chapter 28

When muscles are used extensively, they get injured. This is professionally termed as a rupture. The phenomenon where these ruptured muscles recover and develop into bigger and stronger muscles than before is called supercompensation.

Of course, this doesn’t happen easily. One needs to rest well and get sufficient nutrition.

This is what fitness trainers do.

They help members create muscle by inducing this supercompensation in their bodies.

‘Without rest and nutrition, it’s just wearing out your body.’

One must accurately understand their own limits.

It’s fortunate if you can do it alone, but most people find it difficult to objectively see their own limits.

It’s hard to consciously consume the necessary nutrients, and it’s difficult to know what ‘appropriate’ rest means for oneself.

That’s why experts are needed.

In that sense, this test was similar.

‘It’s important to understand the limits of what I can handle. I should repeatedly inject inner power to the limit and then rest. In graph terms, it would look like a wave pattern.’

Medically speaking, it’s the perfect graph for inducing supercompensation.

‘Even so, inner power is incomparably more efficient than muscle. This is why everyone ignores external martial arts and focuses on inner power, inner power. Ugh-‘

Jin Cheon-hee groaned and wrapped his arms around his waist. He had lost sense of how long he had been like this.

‘Oh my, today’s training is done. But since they didn’t wake me, it seems they left me to rest well…’

Jin Cheon-hee scratched his head vigorously.

His body was uncomfortable, but a smile spread across his face.

‘Still, I did it.’

He finished it perfectly, to the point where no one could say anything.

Even to himself, it was an impressive achievement. He felt proud.

‘It will still take time to make it completely my own.’

Fusing different qi while sitting still is different from doing it while fighting in a chaotic battlefield.

Jin Cheon-hee is still at the stage of controlling qi while staying still.

That alone is already a passing grade for a doctor. After all, patients aren’t going to play tag with their doctor.

However, to learn martial arts, one must be able to do it while fighting. To reach that point…

Jin Cheon-hee’s face was full of smiles as he pondered deeply.

‘Hee-ya. First, you need to get accustomed to it.’

Master Zhuge Rin had said so.

So Jin Cheon-hee first checked his body in the training ground.

He could feel that his physical abilities had changed.

First, he clearly felt that his five senses had become more sensitive than before.

Objects appeared more clearly, and when he smelled fragrances, he could immediately identify what they were.

Although he hadn’t tested it yet, his sense of touch and hearing must have improved as well.

‘Certainly. My body doesn’t feel like my own. It’s like I’ve become a superhuman?’

He felt like he clearly understood how inner power worked.

It felt like becoming a hero from a movie.

Moreover, this was just the beginning.

As inner power increases and one reaches higher realms, one transcends humanity even more.

He felt the clear difference from before while doing basic actions to measure physical ability, like standing high jumps and jumping jacks.

‘Martial arts are really amazing. At this level, I’m already beyond an adult? It’s probably because I learned the Zhuge family’s secret martial arts and took spirit medicine…’

Jin Cheon-hee was filled with admiration.

‘At this rate, won’t I become stronger than that Heavenly Demon kid?’

He smirked at that thought.

‘As if. That Yeo Ha-ryoon guy has the Heaven-Killing Star, and I taught him a few life tricks, so he’ll become even stronger.’

Maybe when he’s ready, he’ll contact the medical pavilion.

After all, he’ll need Jin Cheon-hee until he defeats the other young cult leaders and properly awakens as the Heavenly Demon.

At that moment, a loud noise erupted from outside.

Boom–!

It was an explosion. Had someone launched an attack?

Jin Cheon-hee quickly left the training ground.

Meanwhile, a loud voice resonated:

“Divine Doctor Baek Rin, are you there–?! Please, I beg you. Just come out once!”

It was the voice of a middle-aged man.

Arc 4: Phantom Archer

When he went to where the sound came from after leaving the training ground, he could see that the main gate had been smashed, and around it, White Dragon Medical Pavilion’s guard warriors were standing with their swords drawn.

Jin Cheon-hee raised the Water Qi in his danjeon to enhance his eye power.

The Five-Elemental Cultivation Technique is a martial principle that emphasizes harmoniously handling five types of true qi, and among them, Water Qi had a stronger effect on the body compared to other true qi.

This would have been impossible in the past. But it’s a skill he gained while healing a single tree.

Thanks to his eyesight activated by Water Qi, Jin Cheon-hee could see what was happening.

There stood a handsome middle-aged man carrying a child on his back.

He was holding a bow in his hand, but strangely, he wasn’t wearing a quiver.

In martial arts novels, even among archers, their rank differs depending on the arrows they shoot.

Those who shoot basic wooden arrows always appear as extras who die.

Those who shoot fire arrows or poison arrows often come from the Green Woods or Hao Sect. And these guys also die by the protagonist’s blind sword.

There are also those who shoot iron arrows called heavenly arrows, and these guys are given a bit more credit than the previous ones.

If they shoot this, they’re given at least a line mentioning their name or title.

And those who carry empty quivers…

‘They’re revered as Archer Gods or Phantom Archers.’

The man carrying a child in front wasn’t even carrying a quiver.

Nevertheless, to hit the eye of the dragon decoration at the end of the eaves from this distance without an arrow says it all.

This man isn’t something like an Archer God. Rather, he’s playing the opposite role.

A man who doesn’t hesitate to kill for money.

He’s said to be able to shoot and hit martial arts masters even a hundred ri away.

Between Righteous and Evil.

Those who are neither orthodox nor unorthodox.

In modern language, they would be in the gray zone, but there were quite a few such people in the martial world.

‘I guess the Phantom Archer was coming here.’

The Phantom Archer is a significant villain in the novel.

He, who drives the protagonist Yeo Ha-ryoon into crisis, reaches the realm of Mind Archery, which is on par with Mind Sword.

According to the novel, he deepened his grudges while living as Jeongsa Jikan.

As a result, his only daughter dies from an ambush, and after that, he becomes evil.

‘I guess his daughter dies here… Wait. What would happen if I save the Phantom Archer’s daughter here?’

Phantom Archer.

One of the main villains. And he was strong. And although a villain, he’s not an evil and cruel person.

He appears as a charismatic and loyal existence in his own way.

‘Let’s take a look for now.’

He immediately ran towards the people confronting at the main gate.

The man who had been carrying the child on his back was now kneeling in front of the child laid on the ground, sobbing.

He could also see that the doctors belonging to the medical pavilion and the guard warriors all had troubled expressions.

“Please, I beg you. Just once. Can my daughter live, just take a look once, that’s all I’m asking!”

‘Oh. They definitely said daughter… I guess they dressed her as a boy. Good disguise.’

Jin Cheon-hee calmly looked at the child and thought.

A child who looked about the same age as the current Jin Cheon-hee was lying there with a pale complexion.

A medical pavilion member said:

“The Medical Immortal is a busy person. We cannot treat those who are not in the carrier birds. It would be better to find a nearby medical clinic…”

In modern terms, it means to get treated at a primary care hospital and bring a referral.

In modern times, primary care hospitals refer to neighborhood clinics like internal medicine, pediatrics, dermatology.

Usually called “~ clinic”, many of them specialize in treating only one thing.

Here, they first diagnose the patient, and if a disease that cannot be diagnosed or treated at a primary care hospital is found, they move up to secondary hospitals which are medium-sized, and if more is needed, to tertiary hospitals which are called large hospitals.

And the martial world in this novel was like that too.

The medical pavilion is the main headquarters and like a tertiary hospital.

The medical pavilion takes on patients that cannot be treated at medical clinics.

That’s what the medical clinic’s referral is for.

After writing a referral and sending it by carrier bird, the medical pavilion arranges a place. Or if it’s a condition that can be resolved at the medical clinic, the medical pavilion sends down treatment methods or prescriptions.

‘These martial world guys climb these high stairs carrying patients. Well, I guess carrying full water buckets up is also the basics of basics…’

Jin Cheon-hee thought this as he looked at the Phantom Archer.

The Phantom Archer’s face reddened.

“The medical clinic I consulted belonged to Hwaju Medical Pavilion. They said they couldn’t write a proper referral, expressing reluctance. We’ve already attempted treatment for over ten days, and it took nearly five days to get here. I carried her here thinking we couldn’t delay any further.”

At those words, the expressions of the medical pavilion members crumpled.

Looking at their faces, Jin Cheon-hee also hardened his expression.

‘Ten days of treatment, and five days running here? No. Let’s say not writing a single referral is one thing, but moving for five days… In the novel, it says she was killed by an attack, so it must be an external injury. How is she still alive?’

Jin Cheon-hee was inwardly curious about why the Phantom Archer’s daughter was still alive.

For Jin Cheon-hee, who had studied modern medicine, it was as good as an incomprehensible mystery.

The Phantom Archer continued speaking with a devastated and angry expression:

“Medicine Sage Hwaju. That person said he couldn’t do more for those who aren’t orthodox… This grudge, I will surely…”

His words gradually faded and became inaudible.

Medicine Sage Hwaju.

As befitting the title of Yakseon, he’s famous for his extraordinary use of medicine. However, he’s a figure who only treats those from the orthodox sects.

He says he does this for his medical skills to be used well, but the reality was different.

He ends up committing many evil deeds behind the scenes, deeply colluding with corrupt martial artists.

‘After treating for ten days and failing, they finally sent them away without even a referral…’

Things had gotten worse.

It meant they had just wasted the time to properly treat the patient.

“I’ve saved money with all my might for times like this. I’ll give you my entire fortune. Please, just save my daughter.”

“…”

‘Hah… Seeing it directly makes it even more pitiful…’

Jin Cheon-hee sighed and recalled the story about the Phantom Archer.

In the past, he was an ordinary archer.

If anything, he was closer to being a chivalrous hero.

He was the kind of person who would save common people oppressed by the unorthodox sects with just his bow, say it’s fine when offered compensation, tell them to live well, and then disappear.

It was a life poor in means but rich in heart.

That is, until his wife died of illness.