Doctor’s Rebirth

Chapter 45

Jin Cheon-hee once again practiced his footwork on the snow.

The boy’s movements continued, stopped, and repeated.

Jin Cheon-hee thought that the white snow was like paper. And he was an ant moving across it.

‘I see. The Three-Elements Stride technique is about two dimensions.’

If that was the case, it was obvious that the Mystifying Stride would move on to the next stage, dealing with three dimensions.

No matter how detailed the books were, gaining insight directly was different.

Jin Cheon-hee stopped mimicking the movements.

Instead, paths that weren’t in the Three-Elements Stride began to unfold.

Following the diversified paths, footprints blossomed like a mandala.

It also meant ‘essence’.

‘The three of the Three-Elements Stride didn’t just mean three directions.’

How could the truth of enlightenment be contained in a plane? And why did it take the shape of Buddha’s wheel?

Jin Cheon-hee felt he understood.

Finally, the boy’s footprints drew a perfect essence.

Mandala. It was a circle.

As the boy moved, his internal energy began to move with him.

It was just the Three-Elements Stride.

To this basic footwork, dismissed by everyone in the martial world, internal energy responded.

Following the boy’s footwork, internal energy began to circulate through all the meridians in his body.

Five different types of internal energy drew a circle.

At that moment, the impurities in the boy’s body began to burn.

Metal energy protected his whole body, earth energy nourished him, and wood energy absorbed the surrounding energy. Water energy drove out the impurities and expelled them, while fire energy burned them.

The end of non-self.

The boy realized that the three insights of the Three-Elements Stride had ended.

This meant the beginning of the Mystifying Stride.

At that moment, Jin Cheon-hee’s body collapsed onto the snow.

“Kuhek!”

The moment after enlightenment was when a martial artist was at their weakest.

Jin Cheon-hee realized that his danjeon was empty.

At the same time, he also realized that the size of his danjeon had increased and energy was rapidly filling up through the meridians throughout his body. This alone would be good news.

However, there was bad news.

The place of enlightenment happened to be in the mountains, on a snowfield where no one was around.

Usually, he didn’t need thick outerwear because he used fire energy to keep his body warm. But now it was different. He had no internal energy to maintain his body temperature.

And the boy didn’t even have the muscle strength left to move his body.

The time of non-self had been too long.

If he had at least practiced for enlightenment within the Medical Pavilion, there would have been someone to protect him. But Jin Cheon-hee realized that if that had been the case, enlightenment wouldn’t have come.

It was because he was alone, because of those footprints he made alone, that enlightenment had come.

“Haa, haa…”

After the cold, a pain like his whole body was being cut swept over him.

Frostbite comes to the tissues farthest from the heart first. The hands and feet.

The thick snowflakes landed on Jin Cheon-hee’s hand for a moment, then melted, stealing his body heat. The wind began to blow as well.

The mountain’s blizzard was harsh on a child who wasn’t wearing a fur coat. It was only because this area was a volcanic zone that he had endured this much.

He thought that once hypothermia started, it couldn’t be reversed.

Jin Cheon-hee forcibly raised his body.

Usually, he would have received help from those around him to recover. But that was impossible.

Jin Cheon-hee moved his legs.

His subconscious led him to the most familiar breathing technique he had repeated tens of thousands of times.

The Cyclic Circulation Technique.

It was the most basic of basics that Jin Cheon-hee had practiced so much.

The Cyclic Circulation Technique began through the newly purified meridians.

Paradoxically, not being able to rest in a situation where he should have rested began to give Jin Cheon-hee another insight.

The harsher the snowfall became, the more steadily Jin Cheon-hee’s feet moved forward.

And in an instant, the boy’s feet walked not in the snow, but on top of it.

The insight of ice condensation, said to be learned only upon reaching the fifth level of the Five-Elemental Cultivation Technique, began to weigh on the boy’s shoulders. But in his will to survive, the boy didn’t even realize what he was comprehending.

The cold continued, and his body temperature kept dropping.

When the blizzard filled his vision, and he truly didn’t know where to go anymore.

Jin Cheon-hee, with blank eyes, stepped in the Three-Elements Stride.

It was a moment that astonished the Medical Pavilion members who had come to meet Jin Cheon-hee.

“U-Unperceivable Snow Gliding?”

It refers to the realm of supreme masters who can walk on snow.

In fact, it wasn’t really walking on snow without traces.

He had merely gained the insight of ice condensation.

But because what the boy was stepping on the snow with was merely the Three-Elements Stride, the confusion was even greater.

Later, when Yoo Ho heard about this, he forgot his position as steward and laughed until his intestines nearly split.

Jin Cheon-hee gained the nickname “Young Master Who Walks on Snow Without Traces”.

It was obvious who was responsible for this.

***

The production of medical texts was progressing smoothly. Although his master helped with quite a bit, there was still a considerable portion that Jin Cheon-hee had to do himself.

Needless to say, medical texts need to be accompanied by illustrations. It was impossible to fully explain human organs with words alone.

Surgery is the act of opening up a living human body.

Even in an anesthetized state, the lungs continue to function.

The heart also moves incessantly, and depending on the anesthesia, the intestines may also be active.

Without understanding all of this, surgery is impossible.

Following Jin Cheon-hee’s instructions, Yoo Ho drew illustrations beside him.

Even though he was drawing with a thin brush, somehow the lines were finer and clearer than if drawn with a pencil.

Eventually, an internal map of the liver was completed.

Four lobes and the hepatic artery and portal vein were completed.

It was so precise and easy to understand that it looked like a textbook print.

“Is there anything Chief Yoo can’t do?”

Without taking his hand off the fine brush, Yoo Ho continued to draw as he spoke.

“I couldn’t save Master.”

Though his voice was indifferent, his words had quite a bite to them. Jin Cheon-hee said,

“Your loyalty to the master always seems remarkable. Is there some reason for it?”

“Well, that’s none of your business, young master. By the way, young master, it seems you have quite a talent for martial arts. I hear you’ve already gained the insight of ice condensation at the fifth level of the Five-Elemental Cultivation Technique with a body at only the fourth level.”

He subtly changed the topic. Yoo Ho was always like this.

Whenever Jin Cheon-hee tried to probe, he would put up an iron wall to block it. But from Jin Cheon-hee’s perspective, this attitude of Yoo Ho’s only fanned the flames.

‘This Yoo Ho bastard, for an extra, it’s too hard to gather information on him.’

Information is important. It’s the only weapon Jin Cheon-hee has in this world where swords run rampant.

Phantom Archer was a villain who kept tormenting Heavenly Demon, so there was a lot of information about him from the start, and while not everything was known about the hall masters of the White Dragon Medical Pavilion, he knew roughly about them.

But Yoo Ho was different.

This guy was an extra among extras, or rather, it was too much to even call him an extra.

We call such beings ‘background’.

If we were to rank them by importance, the protagonist would be the king. Supporting characters would be nobles.

Extras would be commoners.

And Yoo Ho was something below even that.

Such a guy had settled in as Jin Cheon-hee’s close confidant who wasn’t really a confidant, so it was frustrating.

Yoo Ho said,

“Young master, you’re too interested in me. Was the threat to kill me from before not enough for you? I’ve heard there are people in the world who enjoy being bullied.”

“Ha, hahaha…”

Jin Cheon-hee laughed awkwardly.

‘This bastard is really seeing me as a psycho.’

Yoo Ho continued,

“Even if you try to dig into me like that, I can’t do more work. Do you know that the amount of work you’ve given me is already enough to cause nine people to die from overwork?”

The face of the guy saying this was the very picture of health.

That was always a mystery to Jin Cheon-hee. Just what kind of energy was this bastard using to do all that work?

“I’m not trying to dig into you to give you more work. It’s just that you and the master have been together for so long, so I’m curious as a disciple.”

“Hmm, is this curiosity as a disciple following the master? Or is it curiosity as a physician wondering if there’s anything more that could help with the patient’s treatment?”

“It’s neither. I’m just curious because we’re going to be together for a long time.”

“Well, that’s true. Unless I fail in the treatment and kill you, young master, we’ll be together for quite a while.”

‘This background character is casually making death threats as easily as breathing.’

He’s certainly a convenient guy, handling the work of nine normal people alone, but on the other hand, he’s also a guy who constantly makes death threats as casually as eating meals.

Of course, Jin Cheon-hee wasn’t one to bat an eye at such threats.

Jin Cheon-hee hadn’t forgotten his grudge from the demonstration in front of the Martial Force Hall master.

Jin Cheon-hee, smiling cutely, assigned even more tremendous work to Yoo Ho, and Yoo Ho, while completing that murderous amount of work, was now even doing the illustration work for the medical text compilation.

Whether it’s because of the increased workload or not, he’s been making death threats more frequently than usual.

Jin Cheon-hee asked,

“Are you really going to kill me?”

“…If I do, will you let me live after giving me all this work?”

This is what Yoo Ho is currently doing:

The martial world’s first nurse + The martial world’s first graduate student + The martial world’s first lab assistant + Medical text illustrator + Medical device manufacturing engineer + Medical pavilion office manager + Original duties as steward + Assisting the master + Jin Cheon-hee’s personal slave.

Each one is a stress-inducing job that could tear a person apart.

And there are nine of them in total.

While Yoo Ho, who threatens to kill a child, is certainly a vicious villain, Jin Cheon-hee, who laughs it off and keeps pushing him to the brink, isn’t in his right mind either.

“I am a bodhisattva, young master. You may not want to admit it, but that’s not my problem. I am indeed a bodhisattva.”

“Isn’t that self-evaluation a bit too high?”

“I’m letting you breathe, aren’t I? It seems you’re getting used to my death threats. Should I emanate some killing intent?”

‘Huh, just because you’re doing nine jobs at once, you’re talking about killing intent.’

Jin Cheon-hee didn’t empathize with Yoo Ho’s pain at all.

It wasn’t his business.

Yoo Ho was a useful personal slave for Jin Cheon-hee.

It was power directly granted to Jin Cheon-hee by the master.

“Sigh, Chief Yoo. If you hadn’t threatened to kill me, I wouldn’t have gone this far.”

“No, young master. You would have done it anyway. Because you’re someone who doesn’t empathize with others’ workload.”

“Would you like to say that I don’t discriminate in means and methods when it comes to treating patients, to put it nicely?”

“Well, I’ll agree with that. As proof, you’re pushing yourself like this too. That’s why I’m enduring it.”

‘This bastard will cause trouble if I push him any further here.’

Although Jin Cheon-hee might be a sociopath who can’t empathize with others’ workload, he understands human limits better than anyone.

It was because Jin Cheon-hee himself was already working to his limit.