Doctor’s Rebirth

Chapter 81

 

Bang!

Jin Cheon-hee transitioned into a low kick.

His hair gently billowed.

“Master. I’m so glad I was able to save Yeo Ha-ryoon. It’s one of the two best things I’ve done in my life. The other is becoming your disciple.”

“Hee, you’re too kind.”

Translated, it would mean ‘You’re being deceived because you’re kind.’

Suddenly, the master said:

“Hee. This time, would you try demonstrating the Three-Elements Fist technique while holding a spear?”

“I’ve never used a spear before. Will that be okay?”

“Yes. You’ll be able to grasp the subtle principles.”

Saying that, he stretched out his hand.

A wooden practice spear that had been hanging on the wall flew into the master’s hand as if sucked in.

Air Absorption.

‘What level is Master’s inner energy?’

Due to the Five Elements True Qi characteristic of dividing energy into five and moving them, it was difficult to accurately measure the amount of inner energy even when taking the pulse.

The master twirled the spear once, as if flowing like water, and threw it to Jin Cheon-hee.

He felt mesmerized by the perfect arc drawn by the spear.

Clack.

The spear was lighter and heavier than expected.

It was light to just hold, but heavy to wield all day long.

Above all, being long made it more difficult to balance than a sword.

Zhuge Rin said:

“There’s nothing to be difficult about. If you can’t do it, just keep doing it until you can. But since you’ve practiced the Three-Elements Fist technique until it’s ingrained, you’ll probably grasp it quickly.”

Grasp it? What?

Considering Master’s habitual words so far, the meaning of this was simple.

‘It means I can move on to the next level right away if I grasp it. And if I don’t grasp it, it means he won’t teach me the answer and will just make me work to death until I do grasp it.’

Thinking deeply about what I’m supposed to realize only makes my head hurt.

Let’s just try it for now.

Jin Cheon-hee first twirled the spear around once.

His body was sufficiently well-built from all the training so far.

Needless to say, his strength and endurance were excellent, and though not as much as that Little Heavenly Demon, he was growing taller properly too.

He felt like he could do it.

Jin Cheon-hee wielded the spear using the forms of the Three-Elements Fist technique.

Bang!

The spear tip struck the air.

‘Ah, is this the feeling?’

The spear needed to be sharp. It was different from a fist.

‘Let me try making it sharper, with a feeling of cutting through the air.’

Surprisingly, even though he was just wielding the spear in the posture of the Three-Elements Fist technique, there were no parts that felt blocked at all.

Whoosh!

The sound of a hit rang out.

High strike, middle strike, low strike, block, deflect.

The movements flowed as if it had always been that way.

Jin Cheon-hee wasn’t doing it on purpose. As if his body remembered, it was moving as if he had learned spear techniques.

‘I see. Because it’s simple, it’s easy to apply.’

If comparing to a vessel, the Three-Elements Fist technique was like a large, undecorated earthenware jar.

It wasn’t pretty and had no flashy parts at all, but it could contain many things.

This is interesting.

A smile formed on Jin Cheon-hee’s lips.

As if playing with a toy for the first time in her life, Jin Cheon-hee began wielding the spear in a trance-like state.

‘I want to try perfectly replicating that perfect line Master just showed.’

Once, twice, ten times, twenty times.

He had no idea how much time had passed. He just kept doing it over and over.

Tang!

The elasticity of the spear shaft felt good.

The weight when touching the spear blade felt good.

The feeling of cutting through the air was fun.

As he thought that far, inner energy began to flow out over Jin Cheon-hee’s body.

The Five Elements True Qi flows out to create four characteristics. And when the four qi of fire, wind, metal, and water combine, they create a new characteristic of qi.

Rumble-

Five Elements True Qi Lightning.

Electricity began to spark along the spear blade.

It was a form of qi similar to but slightly different from sword energy.

Jin Cheon-hee’s spear continued to move. Electricity flowed along the lines traced by the spear’s movement.

It was like a meteor. The light created by the lightning scatters and gathers like stars.

Rumble!

Meanwhile, lightning-shaped marks began to be engraved on the training ground floor.

The Three-Elements Fist technique, which was said to be the most modest and without characteristics, transforms into a brilliant spear technique imbued with lightning.

The lightning drawn by Jin Cheon-hee blooms in the training ground.

And that spear technique reaches its climax.

Crackle–!

The wooden spear was thrust into the granite floor.

Enlightenment courses through her entire body.

He was out of breath.

With his head leaning on the embedded spear shaft, he panted heavily for a while. He closed his eyes and savored the enlightenment he had just gained.

As his consciousness sank into introspection for a moment, Jin Cheon-hee quickly organized what he had realized.

‘Five-Elemental Divine Technique, 6th level. Lightning! I’ve reached the 6th level.’

That wasn’t all.

He had learned spear techniques through the Three-Elements Fist technique.

Jin Cheon-hee didn’t know exactly what this spear technique was.

Then Master said:

“It’s called the Bewildering Lightning Spear. That’s what they called the shape of lightning gathering and scattering. But in the martial arts world, it’s known by another more famous name. The Ten Steps Divine Spear.”

The moment he heard those words, chills ran down his spine.

‘Ten Steps Divine Spear? This was the Ten Steps Divine Spear?’

It’s a spear technique mentioned a few times in the novel.

It’s a legendary spear technique named for the fact that no enemy can approach within ten steps.

In the story, when connoisseurs have occasion to mention spear techniques, they say lines like this:

‘It’s an impressive spear technique, though not as good as the legendary Ten Steps Divine Spear.’

‘It might even surpass the Ten Steps Divine Spear.’

‘I’ve lived my whole life as a spear user. I dare say I’m a match for the Ten Steps Divine Spear.’

And yet the Ten Steps Divine Spear itself never actually appeared.

He hadn’t thought it particularly strange. The focus of martial arts novels is always the sword.

It’s not called the king of all weapons for nothing.

The spear plays a supporting role in martial arts novels.

In martial arts novels, if they hold a tournament that could be called the world’s greatest martial arts competition, spear users would be at most one or two out of the bunch. Most are sword users.

So there weren’t many occasions to mention spears in the first place.

The main weapon used by the protagonist, that Little Heavenly Demon, is also a sword or his fists.

Thinking that far, he suddenly realized why Master had thrown him the spear.

‘A spear has good compatibility for facing Heavenly Demon Yeo Ha-ryoon.’

The length of a weapon is quite important.

Even in battles between masters who have grasped the principles of the mind sword, the length of the weapon is considered quite an important variable.

A spear is longer than a sword. It was also good for countering destructive sword techniques.

It was originally a matter of not letting them get close enough to touch you.

There was no weapon better suited for facing that Little Heavenly Demon.

Master said:

“To master the Ten Steps Divine Spear, three conditions are needed. One is that you must master the boring and tedious Three-Elements Fist technique to the extreme. The second is the Three-Elements Stride. For this too, you need enough enlightenment to master the Bewildering Steps. The last is…”

“…You must master the Five Elements Divine Qi to at least the 5th level.”

“That’s right. And you need a bit of talent. It’s a spear technique that requires a special person to master the most trivial martial art to the extreme, and it won’t work without the Five-Elemental Divine Technique added to it.”

It was a martial art that was highly dependent on the person.

It wasn’t simply about physical constitution, but greatly relied on a person’s intellect and personality.

Master said:

“Congratulations on entering the initial stage of the Ten Steps Divine Spear, Hee. You’re the only one who has achieved that in one go in the entire Zhuge family.”

At that moment, Master coughed lightly.

It was as small as a child’s breath, but sharp as if something was bursting out.

When Master removed his hand, there was black blood on it.

A second cough follows.

This time, bright red fresh blood flowed between his fingers.

Master’s large body staggered once and then collapsed.

At the same time, Jin Cheon-hee threw down the spear and ran towards Master.

“Yoo Ho, Yoo Ho! Master is! Master is…”

Master’s unconscious body was heavier than a mountain and colder than ice.

***

Master was moved to a warm bedroom and treated continuously.

Fortunately, Master quickly regained consciousness.

“Another attack happened, I see.”

“…”

Instead of answering, Jin Cheon-hee just held Zhuge Rin’s large hand with both of his.

Zhuge Rin let out a small sigh at the eyes full of guilt.

“Hee. I’m fine.”

“…”

The smell of death emanated from Master’s voice.

What angered him even more was how extremely calm Master’s voice was.

“Look for the Bewildering Lightning Spear in the bookshelf that only the pavilion master can enter. I’ve already arranged for you to be able to enter as the young pavilion master.”

As always, he had made preparations for the day he would be gone.

So that Jin Cheon-hee could live on alone even after he wore away to nothing.

Jin Cheon-hee’s face contorted with emotion.

“Master.”

“Don’t look at me like that. Isn’t this just the natural order of things?”

Master let out a small cough.

Perhaps due to Jin Cheon-hee’s treatment, fortunately no blood came out this time.

Zhuge Rin’s long silver hair flowed down, wet with sweat.

Even though the room was heated like this, even though he was sweating so much like this, why was Master’s body so cold? It was frustratingly worrying.

Jin Cheon-hee infused his inner energy into Master’s hand.

He needed to raise his body temperature.

‘You overexerted yourself. To teach me. You overexerted yourself to pass everything on to me.’

Somehow, every day had felt like it might be the last as he taught him.

Blood seeped through his bitten lips. Master reached out and wiped away his disciple’s blood.

“Master. Can I sleep with you today?”

“If it’s because of my condition…”

Jin Cheon-hee shook his head.

“It’s not that. It’s just, when I get older I won’t be able to act spoiled, so let me do it as much as I can now.”

At those words, Zhuge Rin smiled slightly.

“You always put me in a difficult position.”

It was truly strange. That Master, whom people whispered was a monster, would be weak only to his disciple.

Jin Cheon-hee laid out his own blanket next to Master’s bed.

He planned to watch over him all night, pretending to sleep until Master became more stable.

‘It’s much better than in the original work, but that’s not enough.’

He needed to move on to the next treatment quickly.

As always, time would not wait.

***

After that, on days when his condition worsened, Zhuge Rin often shut himself in the main house and didn’t come out.

Even when teaching Jin Cheon-hee, coughing sounds began to accompany him. The meaning of that was obvious.

‘His condition is getting worse every day.’

That’s how illness is. In the early and middle stages, one can go about daily life, eat meals, and get by.

Many times, people don’t even notice until you say you’re a patient.

But in the final stages, the condition rapidly deteriorates.

By now, he had lived longer than the time mentioned in the novel.

The novel doesn’t specify exact dates.

But he knew that before the Beggar’s Sect Leader incident, Zhuge Rin collapsed severely at the Dragon Phoenix Gathering, couldn’t get up from his bed, endured and endured, and finally passed away.

Now it was different.