Doctor’s Rebirth

Chapter 127

After bidding farewell to the Abbot, Jin Cheon-hee stepped outside to find the young swordsmen of Putuo Temple laughing casually. Upon seeing Jin Cheon-hee, they were startled and bowed hastily.

‘Looking at them like this, they seem just like ordinary kids their age.’

In the distance, a Putuo Temple swordsman who had smashed something was now fleeing across the temple grounds, chased by Nun Abi.

Someone who witnessed this also started running away from Nun Abi.

“Senior sister! We’ve been caught!” A short cry rang out, suggesting they had caused trouble together.

Nun Abi shouted that if she caught them, they’d both face wall-facing meditation.

Her face truly resembled the Buddhist hell of Avici, one of the Eight FieryHells.

Now that everyone had recovered from illness, the whole Putuo Temple seemed full of energy.

It was truly strange.

‘Maybe Nun Abi should just become the Sword Emperor…?’

Jin Cheon-hee pondered.

‘Do we really need to look for a successor? With that vigor, she might even aim for Returning to Youth…’

The woman’s form as she ran, unleashing sword energy in streams, was that incredible.

And the Putuo Temple swordsmen who were running away from such an Nun Abi at full speed weren’t in their right minds either.

‘I see. So the previous tranquility was because everyone was sick.’

He had thought it was the kind of temple serenity described in martial arts novels.

One of Jin Cheon-hee’s illusions was shattered.

‘No matter how deep the sea, an island never sinks.’

Thus, Jin Cheon-hee confirmed the latent strength of Putuo Temple.

***

Jin Cheon-hee descended from Mount Putuo like that.

Many people saw him off. From now on, Putuo Temple would have to carry on by themselves.

Jin Cheon-hee tucked the Putuo Temple token into his sleeve.

There was one more task left for Jin Cheon-hee.

“Can you guide me to the contaminated water source?”

Woof! – You mean the place that smells of strange water, Master?

“Yes.”

As Jin Cheon-hee nodded, Hwanggu lifted its head, sniffed the air for a while, then barked briefly as if telling Jin Cheon-hee to follow.

Then it ran off at a rapid pace.

Jin Cheon-hee followed Hwanggu towards the location of the contaminated water source.

‘Once I purify the water source, my work here will be done.’

He could use the energy of the Five Elements to purify the contamination.

If it were his master, he could do it effortlessly, but for Jin Cheon-hee alone, it would take some time.

‘And one more thing. What if the Blood Immortal Sect is behind the epidemic?’

Since it was just a hypothesis, Jin Cheon-hee didn’t voice it out loud.

Moreover, an accident caused by a natural disaster and one caused by someone’s malicious intent are different.

If the enraged Putuo Temple nuns were to leave the temple grounds, there would be no way to prevent the spread of the epidemic.

He couldn’t carelessly speak about such things based on mere speculation.

Jin Cheon-hee thought to himself.

‘For the Blood Immortal Sect to search for the Heavenly Thunder Hawk, they’d need to keep Putuo Temple’s feet tied.’

The swordsmen of the righteous sects wouldn’t leave the Blood Immortal Sect alone, let alone an evil sect or demonic cult.

After all, they’re a group whose existence is still unknown in the martial world.

If they’re discovered like this, it’ll surely cause them trouble in their future operations.

‘To my small brain, this hypothesis seems quite plausible.’

How do you verify a hypothesis?

You check it directly.

Woof, woof woof! – Master, it’s too rough here.

After running through deep and steep mountains that made even Hwanggu pant with its tongue out, they finally reached their destination.

It was a small spring.

In that spring, there was a wooden box with a hole in it, and Jin Cheon-hee saw what was inside the box.

It was a rotting human arm.

“Ugh…”

The box was haphazardly covered with talismans, and just looking at it gave an eerie feeling, seeming like some kind of vicious sorcery.

“I shouldn’t touch that directly. Hwanggu, step back. You’ll need to disinfect your paws when this is all over.”

Woof! – Understood.

Jin Cheon-hee pushed Hwanggu back and drew his sword.

As he slowly circulated the wind and cloud techniques of the Five-Elemental Divine Technique, he was able to create the wind that his master had previously demonstrated with a fan.

Jin Cheon-hee swung his Ice Clarity Sword instead of a fan.

He lifted the cursed wooden box into the air. The box floated up and flew towards Jin Cheon-hee.

This time, Jin Cheon-hee imbued his Ice Clarity Sword with fire energy.

Although it was a sword that harbored coldness, it willingly surrendered itself to Jin Cheon-hee’s Five-Elemental Divine Technique.

He swung the sword over the box without even touching it, just brushing past.

Whoosh-

When the wind and fire of the Five-Elemental Divine Technique met, the wet wooden box burst into flames at an incredible speed.

But only for a moment. Jin Cheon-hee completely reduced it to ashes.

‘It’s not Void Seizing Technique, but I can do something similar using the wind technique of the Five-Elemental Divine Technique.’

He also did something akin to the Samadhi True Fire, though it wasn’t the real thing.

‘I wonder if the Zhuge Clan has a reputation for being frauds because of this…?’

It’s not Void Seizing Technique. It’s a similar product.

It’s not Samadhi True Fire either. It’s a similar product.

‘Hmm…’

Jin Cheon-hee furrowed his brow and then stopped thinking deeply about it.

Instead, he set up a Five-Elemental Formation around the spring and began the purification.

Though not as skillful as his master, his technique was quite proficient.

After several hours like that.

Jin Cheon-hee was able to completely purify the spring.

Woof. – Master.

“What is it, Hwanggu?”

Grr. – Come to think of it, that rotten meat from earlier. It moved at the last moment.

Grrr. – It’s strange, but when you burned it, Master, it moved on its own. I saw it clearly.

“How could it have moved?”

Was it not just a simple rotting corpse?

‘If we’re dealing with the Blood Immortal Sect, it wouldn’t be surprising.’

In typical martial arts novels, aren’t jiangshi as common as ginseng in a pharmacy?

Since the Blood Immortal Sect are villains, it seemed like they could easily use jiangshi.

“This is proving to be quite challenging from the start.”

A slight smile appeared on Jin Cheon-hee’s face as he said this.

‘Oh, am I going to see a jiangshi this time?’

Jiangshi, when Jin Cheon-hee was young, there were many jiangshi-related videos.

A dead corpse. In some ways, you might think of it as a zombie, but it’s quite different.

Think of it as a corpse with stiff limbs, arms stretched out in front, hopping and bouncing as it moves.

He remembered how the jiangshi would move to the sound of the bell when a Taoist priest shook a staff with paper charms.

In Jin Cheon-hee’s previous life, he even had a jiangshi-shaped phone charm.

Although he couldn’t attach it because he switched to a smartphone, there was always a small jiangshi-shaped phone charm lying in a corner of his drawer.

‘No, it’s not like I particularly want to see one. It’s just that I might unavoidably encounter one.’

Jin Cheon-hee desperately denied the thought that would have made his master’s mental state collapse if he knew.

‘It’s not that I absolutely want to see one. It’s just unavoidable! It’s unavoidable.’

His soul as a martial arts maniac was boiling.

‘If I had a phone, I could have just taken one picture…’

***

After purifying all the sources of contamination, Jin Cheon-hee boarded a boat provided by Putuo Temple. Then, through a fisherman, he received a letter sent by Putuo Temple.

It contained the location of the island where the Heavenly Thunder Hawk frequently appeared.

Jin Cheon-hee immediately burned the letter so that no one else could see it.

The fisherman was someone who had been fishing in this area for a long time and was experienced in handling the currents.

He navigated around the complex reefs without even looking at them.

Thanks to this, Jin Cheon-hee could rest comfortably on the boat.

Finally, they arrived at the island where the Heavenly Thunder Hawk was presumed to be.

“Although it’s an uninhabited island, there’s still a hut where fishermen can rest. I’ll be resting there, so when you’re done with your business, just come down.”

Jin Cheon-hee made a respectful gesture with his hands.

“Thank you.”

“It’s nothing compared to the kindness Little White Dragon has shown our island. This humble fisherman is just glad to be of some help, however small.”

It wasn’t just Putuo Temple who were grateful to Jin Cheon-hee.

Among the patients affected by this strange illness were also villagers.

Everyone in the village knew that Jin Cheon-hee had cured them all without showing any signs of difficulty.

Jin Cheon-hee smiled awkwardly.

“Thank you. However, could you just return for now? Let’s meet again tomorrow at this time when you bring the boat back.”

The fisherman nodded.

“I understand. I’ll come back at this time tomorrow.”

For some reason, the fisherman didn’t question Jin Cheon-hee. It seemed he trusted Jin Cheon-hee that much.

‘I hope nothing happens, but if there’s a conflict with the Blood Immortal Sect, innocent civilians might get caught up in it unnecessarily.’

Jin Cheon-hee had no spare energy to fight while protecting the fisherman, let alone himself.

When the boat was sufficiently far away, Hwanggu spoke.

Woof. – Master, I found the scent of those prickly feathers, but there’s also a strange smell next to it.

As expected. It seems he’s found it quite accurately.

‘If I had ignored Sama Hyeon and Putuo Temple in the middle, I would have found it much earlier than the Blood Immortal Sect.’

Then there wouldn’t have been such danger.

But Jin Cheon-hee didn’t regret it.

He scratched Hwanggu’s head and threw it a piece of jerky.

Chomp chomp. – Wow, delicious! Loyalty, loyalty!

“Alright then, Hwanggu. Lead the way.”

Woof!

Hwanggu raised its tail straight up.

Then it started running, following the scent.

Jin Cheon-hee began to chase after Hwanggu using his lightness skill.

***

How far had they chased? Not too far away, lightning struck.

Boom!

The Heavenly Thunder Hawk, as a spiritual creature, is said to control lightning.

He had thought it might just emit electricity from its body like an electric eel on Earth, but it seemed to be on a different level.

‘Wow, well, I shouldn’t compare an electric eel with a spiritual creature of the martial world.’

Seeing it in person was definitely different from what he had known.

The lightning streaking across the clear sky was eerily beautiful enough to draw admiration.

His heart raced.

Woof! – Master, it’s around here.

How much further did they go through the steep ravine?

Finally, a giant hawk appeared.

Screech!

The magical tool Jin Cheon-hee was wearing jingled.

It seemed to be trying to translate the Heavenly Thunder Hawk’s cry as it did for Hwanggu, but it wasn’t translating properly yet because it was still far away.

‘It’s magnificent.’

The hawk was so enormous it defied perspective.

As Jin Cheon-hee approached closer, he saw a person in black standing there.

Around that person in black were other black-clad individuals already dead, struck by lightning.

Next to them stood another strange person, with steam rising from their body.

“Kuhahaha, Heavenly Thunder Hawk. If you don’t want to see your child die, surrender quietly!”

In the hands of the person in black next to the strange individual was a baby bird.

Cheep! Peep peep peep! – Mama. Mama!

That baby bird must also be a spiritual creature, as its cries were being translated.

The baby tried to twist its body, but couldn’t move properly because of the rough hand holding it.

‘I guess the baby can’t shoot lightning yet.’

Peep! Peep peep peep! – It hurts! Help me! Mama! Mama!

‘Well. If I hadn’t heard it, it would be one thing, but now that I have, there’s no helping it.’

Is this why that bastard Yoo Ho gave him the magical tool?

Jin Cheon-hee clicked his tongue. Then he gave a hand signal command to Hwanggu.

Sniff! – Attack the human in black clothes secretly!

As expected of a spiritual creature, it understood Jin Cheon-hee’s intention.

Hwanggu approached slowly with a low crawl.

It was such a stealthy movement that even Jin Cheon-hee wouldn’t have noticed if he hadn’t ordered it himself.

At that moment, the strange person seemed to notice something and was about to turn their gaze.