Doctor’s Rebirth

Chapter 29

Money is needed to cure illness.

Even if you find a benevolent doctor who treats you for free, you still have to procure the herbs yourself.

He didn’t have money to buy those herbs. And he didn’t have money to buy opium to give his dying wife some comfort in her final moments.

His wife held his hand and said:

Please take care of our daughter.

You’re too kind-hearted, so I’m very worried.

She asked him to raise their daughter well in her place, without lacking anything.

That was the extent of her last words.

After that, she spent days and nights in pain, groaning in agony, until she died painfully. She couldn’t even close her eyes due to the pain.

This was the moment the Archer Hero became the Phantom Archer. He later gained an opportunity to learn martial arts. It was well-suited for him, who had been an archer.

After that.

He did anything that would earn money.

Bodyguarding, war, hunting, and various other jobs.

He did many things through Black Spot’s mediation, and killed countless martial artists. With the money he earned that way, he held his wife’s funeral and raised his daughter.

He wanted to pamper his daughter as much as he couldn’t do for his wife. But he didn’t know it would become poison.

The grudges of the martial world targeted him and his daughter. Because of this, he had to hide his daughter’s identity, and he needed to amass even more wealth to protect her.

And now.

He was saying he would give his entire fortune if only his daughter could be saved.

Saying this was the money he had earned for this purpose.

“What’s the matter?”

Finally, Zhuge Rin came out.

Long silver hair and handsome features. A tall stature with a trained martial artist’s body. In contrast, his pale skin, seemingly devoid of pigment, stood out.

Even those who had never met him wouldn’t doubt that he was Divine Doctor Baek Rin. Sure enough, the Phantom Archer planted his head on the ground.

Thud!

“Please, please save her.”

“I’ll at least listen to what’s wrong.”

“My daughter was attacked by seven assailants. The medical clinic of Medicine Sage Hwaju said she had internal injuries, diagnosing that her internal organs were shattered, and they used medicine, but there’s been no improvement.”

“The grudges of the martial world are frightening indeed.”

Zhuge Rin deduced how things had unfolded just from those words.

Even if he had only killed martial artists to avoid harming common people, the fact that he did it for money remained unchanged.

They were all someone’s martial uncle, martial nephew, or master.

The Phantom Archer is someone who has mastered both archery and body techniques.

If they can’t kill him, there are bound to be scoundrels who would take out their anger on his family.

“Let’s see the patient first.”

Zhuge Rin approached him.

The Phantom Archer offered the wrist of his daughter who was lying down. He checked her pulse and slowly examined her interior by sending in his qi. Then he finally sighed.

“…It’s amazing she’s been alive for this long.”

“Then…”

“It’s already too late for treatment. She can’t be saved.”

“…!”

Bloodshot eyes appeared in the man’s eyes. He reached out his hand to grab Zhuge Rin’s neck.

‘Oh! Master!’

Grab!

But that hand stopped in mid-air. Yoo Ho was lightly blocking him.

“Please calm down, patient’s family. This is White Dragon Medical Pavilion.”

‘Yoo Ho! As expected… Even though he was a person without much explanation in the novel… He’s strong.’

Jin Cheon-hee opened his eyes wide, watching this scene.

“Let go! Is it because the money I have is dirty that you treat me like this! Medicine Sage Hwaju, and you, Divine Doctor Baek Rin, are all just hypocrites! I’ll…”

Killing intent overflows. Jin Cheon-hee felt a chill down his spine.

‘So this is killing intent…’

The bodies of the medical pavilion members stiffen at the ominous killing intent. They couldn’t even breathe in front of the intense murderous aura.

He was indeed the Phantom Archer. It was then.

Step. Step. Step. Step.

The martial artists who had been confronting him until now stepped forward. And more martial artists appeared from here and there.

It’s natural if you think about it.

Since the medical pavilion is a sect rooted in the martial world and deals with martial artists, it can’t be without a military organization.

The difference from other sects is that they don’t use force to compete for interests.

It’s because they operate the sect by selling medical skills.

Tension envelops the scene. But Divine Doctor Baek Rin sighed.

“What’s impossible is impossible.”

“Then kill me and kill my daughter here too! If not, I swear on the name of Phantom Archer, I will kill everyone in this medical pavilion! And I’ll kill that hypocrite Medicine Sage Hwaju as well!”

The Phantom Archer spread his killing intent in anger. However, Jin Cheon-hee’s master Zhuge Rin and Yoo Ho were calmly facing his killing intent.

Zhuge Rin spoke calmly:

“Do as you please. However, you’ll see the corpses of the Phantom Archer and his nameless daughter rotting in the marketplace.”

“What do you…”

Zhuge Rin smiled coldly.

“Does it sound like a joke?”

Zhuge Rin’s hand held neither sword nor spear.

He only held an ordinary fan that could be seen anywhere.

Jin Cheon-hee knew what kind of power it possessed. But the expression Master was showing now was one he never showed to Jin Cheon-hee.

He got goosebumps at the coldness that made him seem like a different person.

The Phantom Archer laughs. It was the twisted smile of a madman.

“Kukukuk. I’ve heard rumors that Divine Doctor Baek Rin’s martial arts are unparalleled in the world. Perhaps, as you say, I might become a corpse. But, it seems I could take at least one person with me to the underworld?”

His gaze landed on young Jin Cheon-hee who was watching from a fair distance.

‘Me? Why me?’

Zhuge Rin said:

“Indeed, words befitting the Phantom Archer. Taking a child hostage. This removes any hesitation.”

Zhuge Rin looked down at him with a languid voice.

His movements were as natural as if he were in daily life.

Contrary to his voice becoming gentler like a spring day, cold air began to flow around Zhuge Rin.

Frost formed on the ground.

He intended to kill him for daring to take his one and only disciple hostage.

And he definitely wouldn’t kill him gently.

‘This, I need to stop this.’

Jin Cheon-hee decided and took a step forward.

“Master.”

“What is it, Cheon-hee?”

Even in this situation, his voice was warm only to his disciple.

Everyone’s gaze gathered on Jin Cheon-hee. They seem more curious that he’s not afraid of the killing intent, but rather calm.

Even the Phantom Archer was glaring at him with bloodshot eyes.

‘This is a bit burdensome.’

Still, it was better to say what needed to be said.

“Would it be alright if I take a look?”

“What?”

“I think Master is right that you can’t save her. But if she’s fated to die anyway, I think it might be good to take a risk. Also…”

“Also?”

‘And I want to try to recruit that villain.’

Jin Cheon-hee swallowed the rest of his words.

***

They eventually moved the patient into the medical pavilion.

With just that, the Phantom Archer’s face changed from a madman to a father.

Jin Cheon-hee thought that while nothing is as difficult to change as a person, nothing is as easy to change as a person either.

‘Originally, he wasn’t the type of person to take a child hostage.’

In the face of his daughter’s life and death, the father too easily threw away all his pride.

The Phantom Archer stared at his trembling hands for a long time.

He could still see the face of his wife who died with her eyes open.

It seemed like she was blaming him, asking why he had started a family when he couldn’t even afford to buy medicine.

In reality, she had asked him to take good care of their baby, saying that he was now the only support for this child, and to raise her well.

When the venom disappeared, only worry remained.

He grabbed his trembling forearm and cursed.

As Jin Cheon-hee approached, the Phantom Archer said:

“I’m… sorry.”

“It’s okay. Hahaha, next time why don’t you try taking someone else hostage instead of me?”

Jin Cheon-hee joked nonchalantly.

It was to ease the guardian’s tension. He didn’t realize it while doing it, but after doing it, he clicked his tongue, realizing this habit had come out again.

It was a long-standing habit as a surgeon.

The Phantom Archer said:

“Handling a bow requires good eyes. Walking the path between the black way and the white way for a long time, the only thing that grows is one’s discernment. At that time, I saw Divine Doctor Baek Rin’s eyes. Those were eyes that didn’t see people as people.”

“What did he see them as?”

“I don’t know. He was living with a beautiful face and an antique demeanor as a mask, but my instinct told me. That man wouldn’t budge no matter who died there. Except for just one person.”

Is that referring to Jin Cheon-hee himself?

“Master cherishes me dearly.”

“Yes. I felt that. Those who have reached the position of Medical Immortal have experienced death far more than ordinary martial artists. Because of that, I knew they tend to be much more eccentric compared to ordinary people. Medicine Sage Hwaju was a strange one too.”

“Have you seen him in person?”

“I didn’t see him while carrying my daughter. He absolutely wouldn’t meet me. But I saw him once from afar when I received a request long ago. He had the eyes of an old fox obsessed with honor and money. But he was very different from Divine Doctor Baek Rin. At least he looked human.”

He picked up a pebble from the ground.

“With my long-standing instinct as an archer, it seemed the Medical Immortal would smile the same way at this and at people. So I became hasty.”

He knew it was a self-justification of a father driven into a corner.

But he also knew that to apologize properly, one must be honest.

“I’m really, really sorry, child.”

If Jin Cheon-hee hadn’t stepped forward then, would he really have shot Jin Cheon-hee?

That answer was unknown even to Jin Cheon-hee who had read the book, and to the Phantom Archer himself.

Jin Cheon-hee only knew that people can do anything and change into anything for their family.

‘In the novel, the Phantom Archer lost his daughter and burned paper money. Not ceremonial paper money, but real money.’

While searching for the murderers who killed his daughter, and killing the doctors who refused treatment.

Later, he even killed unrelated people and burned that money.

Whether silver coins or gold coins, he gathered them meticulously and exchanged them for paper form at trading houses.

If that was difficult, he bought things his daughter liked when she was alive. And he burned them. But that’s still a future that hasn’t happened yet.

He is the Phantom Archer, but he hasn’t yet become the Bow Evil or Bow Devil.

The Phantom Archer said:

“Please save my baby. I’ll give anything for that. Please…”

The man exhaled with choking sobs.

Heart demons fill the air. It tasted more bitter than any poison.

Jin Cheon-hee held the Phantom Archer’s wet hand and thought.

‘Right. This is a hospital…’

Though the world he lived in and his age had changed, the boy felt he had stepped back into the ring.