Doctor’s Rebirth

Chapter 40

“Let’s be friends! But you have to speak comfortably, okay?”

Wang Gak-yeon was dazed that her wish was granted so easily.

“What? Oh, okay! Got it.”

She nodded and then added one more thing.

“About what I said earlier, to Dad…”

“Yeah. It’s a secret. I’ll count as one of your many friends.”

Only then did Wang Gak-yeon’s expression become serious.

“No. Not like that. You’re special. You’ll always be a special friend to me.”

Jin Cheon-hee thought.

Sometimes when consulting in pediatrics, such things happen.

Children crying because injections hurt are still okay, but those who look at their dad and say, ‘I’m good at getting shots. It doesn’t hurt at all.’

‘Right. It’s not that you’re difficult, but it seems like it’s because of you. Always.’

Jin Cheon-hee was about to pat her head but stopped himself.

He was in a child’s body too, and it would look silly to pat the head of someone the same height as him.

Jin Cheon-hee said.

“Then shall we go out and play?”

“Is that okay?”

“Yeah. At this level, nothing bad will happen if you skip a day. I guarantee it since I checked your pulse.”

At those words, Wang Gak-yeon’s face brightened. But only for a moment…

“H-how do we play?”

“First, you can’t use internal energy.”

“Of course. I’m not fully recovered yet.”

“It’s not just that. Even when you’re fully recovered, you absolutely can’t.”

Wang Gak-yeon quickly understood the meaning of those words and nodded.

“Right. Only evil sect ruffians oppress civilians with martial arts skills.”

Perhaps because she had heard heroic tales since she could walk, it was deeply ingrained in her mind.

Jin Cheon-hee thought to himself.

‘Someone from that righteous faction oppressed you. As if civilians are all grown adults, my child, you… oh my.’

Anyway, these are things to think about when she grows up.

Whether she’ll forget this grudge by then or not is entirely her choice.

This was all Jin Cheon-hee had to say.

“Let’s follow the rules of that neighborhood for how to play. They must be playing something too.”

Jin Cheon-hee stood up.

“Let’s go.”

“Hehehe.”

Wang Gak-yeon’s face relaxed. She had made her first friend.

Her wish had come true. For the young girl, this was a much happier event than having all her meridians opened.

****

Arc 6: Four Pillars

Days passed.

Phantom Archer had joined the medical pavilion, and Wang Gak-yeon was still in the state of a patient.

Winter had begun in earnest.

The nights in the mountains were long and darker. The cries of wild beasts could be heard from afar.

Occasionally, human screams could be heard too. But an old medical pavilion member told young Jin Cheon-hee that it was impossible to know whether those were really from humans or from monsters.

As the days grew shorter, wounds on hands became more frequent.

Even healthy skin turned red from the knife-like strong winds.

Regardless, Jin Cheon-hee continued to devote himself endlessly to training.

‘They said when the Five-Elemental Cultivation Technique reaches a certain level, these things become okay.’

Indeed, the medical pavilion members of White Dragon Medical Pavilion all looked 10 or 20 years younger even as they aged.

There were even medical pavilion members who boasted that among the three great medical pavilions in the world, White Dragon Medical Pavilion members were the most beautiful in appearance.

Of course, it goes without saying that they were also the best in skills.

Time bloomed and withered repeatedly like flower petals in the deepening winter.

‘It’s been several months since I came to this world.’

Jin Cheon-hee opened his eyes to the cold dawn air.

It was snowing outside.

The mountain range where White Dragon Medical Pavilion was located was also a place where it snowed heavily throughout the winter.

This was because the northwestern winds that came down during winter collided with the mountain range and scattered snow.

He learned this after seeing a map of this continent, but surprisingly, the people here already knew this fact.

It was quite fascinating that they reached similar conclusions by interpreting it through the principles of yin and yang, though not in the same way as on Earth where Jin Cheon-hee had been.

The fortunate thing was that because it was in a hot spring basin, it wasn’t as cold as other mountains.

‘Two-hour sleep, huh.’

Jin Cheon-hee’s sleep time is from 10 PM to 2 AM, a total of 4 hours.

It was also the time when growth hormones were released.

Somehow the master knew this and made sure Jin Cheon-hee went to bed by 10 PM without fail. And waking up at 2 AM was Jin Cheon-hee’s own decision.

Thanks to the innate true qi filled in his danjeon, he felt refreshed after 4 hours of sleep as if he had slept for 10 hours.

‘So this is what Master meant by vessel.’

After thoroughly mastering the basic five elements true qi, he built up his body.

In fact, for an ordinary person, this would have been too boring to continue.

When he filled that vessel with the Five-Elemental Cultivation Technique, the synergy was tremendous.

Jin Cheon-hee slowly did exercises in his room.

It wasn’t some amazing qi exercise or tai chi.

It was Pilates.

It was something he had been doing every morning since his previous life.

Stretching was good for muscle relaxation and improving blood flow. It also had the effect of awakening muscles that weren’t usually used.

In fact, more than that, he had once had his waist and pelvis twisted due to poor posture in his previous life, and trying to fix it somehow before resorting to surgery had become a habit like this.

Then meditation.

Jin Cheon-hee closed his eyes and slowly regulated his breathing.

The time between inhales and exhales gradually lengthened, became distant, and faded away.

The boy thus felt the true qi between heaven and earth.

As he awakened his senses, the boy realized several times that this wasn’t Earth.

This world was a place full of the principles of the five elements, and yin and yang.

As the old medical pavilion member said, the screams heard from the mountains might not be from humans but from monsters.

Because such beings really existed in this world.

Just as there were immortals and spirit beasts, there were also their opposites.

However, if one talks about them, ‘they’ can really hear, so people rarely talk about it. It’s one of the long-standing superstitions of the elders.

‘Well, there are stories in martial arts novels where the protagonist fights monsters or earthbound immortals after unifying the world.’

These often appear when the novel is doing well, the publisher is begging for it not to end, and the author feels like paying off their mortgage loan while things are going well.

But Jin Cheon-hee found this unexpectedly interesting and kept reading while cursing.

As expected, strong enemies are always good when they appear.

‘Speaking of earthbound immortals, Jang Sanbong always appears to have a showdown with the protagonist or impart some insights before leaving.’

Jang Sanbong (Zhang Sanfeng)^[1].

He can be considered the representative earthbound immortal in martial arts novels.

Depending on the novel, but in epic martial arts novels that go on for an enormous number of volumes, at some point this person becomes a power level measuring stick.

‘There are monsters in this novel too.’

Befitting a long novel, monsters do appear. Very late in the story, though.

Jin Cheon-hee slowly began to gather his energy. Then suddenly, he felt a strange energy from afar.

‘Huh?’

A jet-black dot-like thing was emitting a powerful energy wave and moving far away along the mountain.

It was enough to give him goosebumps with its magnificent yet secretive energy. The person running while emitting this couldn’t be seen.

Normally, it would be impossible for Jin Cheon-hee to sense such a thing.

‘What is this? Did the Five-Elemental Cultivation Technique have such an effect? I’ve never heard about this from Master.’

Maybe he had sensed it wrong. Jin Cheon-hee came to that conclusion himself.

‘Right. How could a novice like me sense that?’

Jin Cheon-hee thought that if he, who had just learned, could sense it, anyone in the medical pavilion would have sensed it first.

When he felt the black dot completely disappear, Jin Cheon-hee slowly opened his eyes.

Two hours.

In other words, he had spent exactly 4 hours on morning internal cultivation practice in modern time.

Now his internal energy was quite substantial.

At least 15 years worth of cultivation could be felt in his lower abdomen.

‘The medicinal power of the Thousand-Year Pine Pill has been completely absorbed into my internal energy.’

It was the spirit medicine he received from Kong Son-hyeon.

In fact, if he were greedy, he could have accumulated more internal energy, but impurities only hindered the operation of the Five-Elemental Cultivation Technique.

He absorbed only the purest wood qi and burned the rest without hesitation.

On top of this, he ate all kinds of medicinal herbs and spirit medicines as they were given to him and continued internal cultivation practice every day without fail.

Moreover, he was practicing not only seated meditation but also the Five-Elemental Cultivation Technique, so the speed at which his internal energy accumulated was beyond imagination.

Having gained 15 years’ worth of internal energy in half a year, he had exceeded the common sense of the martial world. It would have been impossible without the help of spirit medicines.

‘Today’s internal cultivation practice is over!’

6 AM, or Myo-shi (卯時 / 5-7 AM) in martial arts world time.

As it became 6 AM, White Dragon Medical Pavilion began to wake up.

The bell rings in the medical pavilion.

The heavy bell sound shakes the bamboo grove and begins to shake off the cold from every corner.

Servants wake up and start the work of the medical pavilion, and medical pavilion members finish their internal cultivation and start their duties.

Since medical pavilion members also needed to cultivate internal energy for treatment, morning internal cultivation practice for internal energy cultivation was essential.

‘Today is the day I’m officially appointed as a medical pavilion member.’

He’s skipping the trainee period.

It was not just unprecedented, but unthinkable. However, this trainee had saved a patient that even White Dragon Medical Sage Zhuge Rin couldn’t save at the Cloud-Dragon Escort Agency branch, and had saved Phantom Archer’s daughter whom White Dragon Medical Sage Zhuge Rin had given up on.

Therefore, a meeting would officially start today to decide Jin Cheon-hee’s position.

Because of this, the four great hall masters of White Dragon Medical Pavilion gathered in one place.

***

The atmosphere in the medical pavilion is heavy.

The four hall masters who run White Dragon Medical Pavilion sat in their seats like the star points on a Go board. Then, the direct disciples serving each hall master sit on either side of their master like Go stones.

Jin Cheon-hee sat at the very end following Yoo Ho’s guidance.

It was the position of Jin Cheon-hee, who had just entered the medical pavilion and hadn’t been assigned an official seat yet.

In the chilly air, no one could greet Jin Cheon-hee.

But only one kind-looking old lady gave Jin Cheon-hee an eye greeting. She was Man Pagok, in charge of the Medicinal Herbs Hall.

This woman with a unique name often gave Jin Cheon-hee things like honey-preserved balloon flowers and dried persimmons.

She was well-liked and had no enemies within the medical pavilion, with a generous and large build, big hands, and a deep and hearty voice.

As an expert in medicinal herbs and quick with calculations, she had strong connections with wealthy merchants and often easily obtained herbs that other medical pavilions couldn’t.

Finally, the door opened and the master walked in.

The master, with his long silver hair neatly tied, looked taller than usual.

‘He was already tall, but now he even exudes an imposing presence.’

1. Zhang Sanfeng was a legendary Chinese Taoist priest who is believed to have lived during the late Song Dynasty or early Yuan Dynasty (12th-14th century). He is credited as the creator of Tai Chi Chuan, a popular internal martial art and meditation practice. Zhang is said to have been a master of Neidan (internal alchemy) and possessed supernatural abilities. Many stories depict him as an immortal who could disappear at will. Although historical evidence of his existence is scarce, Zhang Sanfeng remains an important figure in Chinese culture, Taoism, and martial arts traditions, symbolizing the perfect blend of spiritual cultivation and physical prowess.[↩]