Doctor’s Rebirth

Chapter 84

The first thing visible is pitch-black mud with a foul odor.

That is, waste products expelled from the body.

The second, surprisingly, is neatly trimmed nails. Delicate hands with a peach-like hue, as if they’ve never done any rough work in their life.

Yet the joints are thick and long, suitable for a martial artist.

“What is this…?”

Jin Cheon-hee sat up.

The solid, muscular body remained. However, the perfectly symmetrical body looked as if it had been carved from sculpture.

Beneath smooth skin without a single scar, his waist, pelvis, and muscular thighs and calves were visible.

Shocked, Jin Cheon-hee looked at his reflection in the pond.

Despite having large eyes and a strong impression, when he lowered his eyelashes, it gave a strangely languid feeling.

His lips, seemingly thin yet thick, were red and vivid.

The corners of his mouth were slightly upturned, making him look like he was smiling even when still.

He somewhat resembled a cat.

‘Handsome.’

It was a face that made excellent use of the original features.

Anyone who knew him would recognize him as Jin Cheon-hee, but strangely, it was also true that his beauty was enough to make one’s heart race.

The same was true for his physique.

Looking at each part individually, it was clearly that of a martial artist, but for some reason, it had an air of nobility as if he’d never done any hard labor in his life.

‘I’ve read about body transformation many times in martial arts novels, but…’

Body transformation.

He wasn’t sure exactly how it was triggered.

He only knew it was a phenomenon that occurred when the mind (心), energy (氣), and body (體) aligned harmoniously by chance.

When body transformation occurs, all the energy meridians in the body change once, transforming into the most suitable form for martial arts.

If the body is old, it becomes young, and if young, it’s reconstructed to suit martial arts.

All impurities and waste in the body are completely removed, signifying a state of being reborn once again.

Any disease can be cured with one body transformation.

‘This is the state our master needs to reach…’

As Bloodborne Elder Eccentric mentioned in the past, what’s preventing it is none other than Master’s constitution.

Mind (心) and energy (氣).

These two are already in an advanced state, but the body (體) can’t keep up.

Ironically, the body transformation that could cure the severed meridians is a state that can’t be achieved unless the severed meridians are cured.

Jin Cheon-hee completely washed off the waste with cold pond water.

“Why on earth was my Baihui acupoint open?”

The Baihui acupoint.

It refers to the acupoint at the center of the crown.

It’s open when first born, then gradually closes as time passes.

It’s the most crucial point to be careful of when breaking through to the upper danjeon, as touching it wrongly can easily lead to disability.

It had clearly been closed all this time.

Jin Cheon-hee was certain of this, not just as a martial artist but as a doctor who could read pulses.

But this time, as if it had been waiting, his body opened the Baihui acupoint on its own and accepted the inner energy.

‘This is strange.’

Jin Cheon-hee looked down at his hands.

‘A body with unknown parents, unknown age, and according to Yoo Ho’s investigation, even the hometown is unknown.’

He had simply thought of himself as an extra who dies very early in the original work.

It was strange.

‘Now, for the inner energy…’

Jin Cheon-hee searched for the inner energy that should be in his danjeon.

‘Huh? It’s gone…? Where did it all go?’

It was strange.

He had calculated that he should gain about two realms of inner energy from taking the elixir.

Originally, if one takes the Profound Origin Five Elements Divine Pill properly, one can gain inner power equivalent to one realm.

However.

If one takes them all at once and manages to control it, one should gain at least two realms of inner power.

Inner energy that would take over a hundred years of training to obtain, all at once!

The inner energy that should have been there was now gone when he checked.

‘No… it has increased but…’

Jin Cheon-hee frowned.

Upon closer inspection, his inner energy had increased.

His original inner energy was equivalent to about ten years’ worth.

Since one realm equals sixty years’ worth of inner energy, it would be about one-sixth of a realm. Even that was fast, in fact.

It hadn’t been long since Jin Cheon-hee had fallen into this martial world.

But now, looking at it, that inner energy had doubled. About twenty years’ worth!

‘Did I use it all up during the body transformation?’

It doesn’t matter. He had gained something more important than one realm of inner energy.

Jin Cheon-hee used fire energy to dry off the moisture on his body.

Now, without any preparatory movements, just with his will, fire and wind energy moved to blow away the moisture.

The realm of harming with will and energy!

It refers to the realm where one can manipulate energy with just will to harm others.

It’s known that one must reach the Transformation Realm to do this.

But Jin Cheon-hee became capable of this when his upper danjeon opened. To be clear, it’s not quite the Transformation Realm. Should we call it halfway there?

It was partly because his inner energy was insufficient, but also because he lacked practical experience.

‘Alright. At this level… I should be able to catch that spiritual carp. The preparations are now complete.’

After drying himself off, he looked for spare clothes.

“Damn… there aren’t any.”

The last set of clothes had become a sacrifice to the body transformation along with the waste.

They were already more like rags than clothes, and now they had received a definite death sentence.

He couldn’t help but laugh.

“I have no clothes to wear.”

Jin Cheon-hee unconsciously tried to tie his hair.

“No hair tie either. Hahaha.”

Even the bitter smile on his transformed face was fatally attractive.

“Right. Now it’s really time to leave this place.”

Of course, he had no intention of leaving through the main entrance. If he did, Master would discover him.

To the outside world, Jin Cheon-hee is supposed to be in closed-door training. The plan is to secretly slip out through a hidden exit in the training hall and catch the Ten-Thousand Fire Carp.

Only Jin Cheon-hee and the chief steward Yoo Ho know about this plan; as long as Yoo Ho keeps his mouth shut, there’s no chance of being discovered.

Jin Cheon-hee gathered the money pouch and various odds and ends he had prepared in advance and stood before the pond.

“Shall we see where this water leads?”

This is a secret briefly mentioned in the novel.

The pond in the training hall is connected to somewhere in a valley through underground water.

However, because the water veins are connected like a spider’s web, if you lose your way, you’ll just die.

Normally, one would drown before even reaching the valley.

But for Jin Cheon-hee, who had mastered the Five-Elemental Divine Technique and the Bewildering Steps to the extreme and even completed body transformation, it wasn’t much of a problem.

Moreover…

“Finally, I get to use this.”

One of the miscellaneous books he brought when he first entered closed-door training.

Jin Cheon-hee reached out and caught a fish.

Large and fat, it was clearly the boss of this pond, having lived here for a long time.

Jin Cheon-hee forcibly injected inner energy into the fish.

It wasn’t a great martial art.

The Minor Summoning Technique.

It’s a miscellaneous skill that injects inner energy into small animals to control them.

It doesn’t work on animals with high intelligence, and you can’t give complex commands beyond very simple ones.

The command Jin Cheon-hee gave was simple.

‘Escape as far as possible.’

The creature’s body quivered.

After taking a few more measures to ensure he wouldn’t lose it, Jin Cheon-hee released the fish.

The fish flapped its tail fin vigorously and went deep into the pond.

Jin Cheon-hee immediately entered the water, following it.

‘I’d be perfect for being called a pervert once I get outside.’

The money pouch isn’t a problem since he prepared it in advance.

Going to buy clothes is the problem.

***

Arc 14: Ten-Thousand Fire Carp

The water continues.

Even though it’s underground water, the stream winds on and on.

Jin Cheon-hee pursued the fish using the sensation in his fingertips.

‘I never thought I’d use the black heavenly blood silk Little Heavenly Demon gave me like this.’

The black heavenly blood silk is tied to the fish’s tail.

It’s so thin and transparent that you can’t see it unless you look closely, and it’s strong enough that an elephant could step on it. This thread acts as a lifeline connecting Jin Cheon-hee and the fish.

The boss of the pond, experiencing the fear of a predator for the first time in its life, swam roughly. And it guided Jin Cheon-hee along the fastest route it knew.

Even in this situation, Jin Cheon-hee was careful not to get caught in the vortexes created by the underground water.

But more terrifying than that is the high temperature created by the concentrated hot spring water.

While the fish living in this volcanic area have adapted to both the rough currents and hot water temperatures, it was different for Jin Cheon-hee, a human.

‘But if I’m not skilled enough to survive here, I won’t even be able to reach where the Ten-Thousand Fire Carp is.’

Jin Cheon-hee circulated the Five-Elemental Divine Technique to protect his body.

And finally. Light began to appear above the water’s surface.

It seemed to be connected to somewhere in the upper part of the valley.

Jin Cheon-hee swam to the surface with all his might.

“Puha!”

A deep valley where his feet couldn’t touch the bottom. And right below, a waterfall revealed itself.

Roar–

Jin Cheon-hee quickly untied the thread attached to the fish. Then he applied one of the second miscellaneous techniques, the Ten Million Thousand Jin Weight.

Boom!

The Thousand Jin Weight is a basic technique that temporarily increases body weight.

The Ten Million Thousand Jin Weight uses twice as much inner energy as the regular Thousand Jin Weight while increasing weight more quickly and strongly.

Moreover, it temporarily makes the body as hard as steel, and at its peak, it’s said to be able to deflect even hidden weapons.

However, its major drawbacks are that it’s difficult to master and has poor inner energy efficiency.

In other words, it’s an inefficient miscellaneous skill. That’s why it had been buried in the miscellaneous books section of the Zhuge library for a long time, deemed unimportant.

But there was nothing better for maintaining balance underwater.

Jin Cheon-hee planted both feet firmly on the valley floor.

Then he walked out of the valley.

Thud, thud, thud.

“This is why I learned these miscellaneous skills.”

Jin Cheon-hee took a deep breath of the valley’s fresh air.

He had never tasted such sweet outside air after so long.

After a moment, he wrung out his long hair, wet like seaweed, as if wringing a rag.

“Now, what’s next?”

Jin Cheon-hee opened the bundle he had brought out.

“I brought quite a bit of money, the preparations for the Ten-Thousand Fire Carp that I packed before going into training, and my Baek Rin token to prove my identity…”

Jin Cheon-hee paused for a moment and shook his head.

“Hmm, but if I use it wrongly, it might reach Master’s ears, so I should only use it when absolutely necessary. I had a fake identity token made in advance by requesting it from the Beggar’s Sect, so I can use that instead. The round trip distance to the destination is about a month on foot.”

It’s a month round trip because it’s in a neighboring area.

A bigger problem remains. Although he had read about the characteristics of where the Ten-Thousand Fire Carp lives, it’s only a fictional description.

The author didn’t include a map illustration, and he needs a guide to narrow down the search range.

“I need someone to narrow down the range. I should hire a guide.”

After sorting that out, only the final assessment remained.

“How much stronger have I become?”

He has already reached the level of the Bewildering Lightning Spear, or Ten Steps Divine Spear. Though not at the great accomplishment stage, it’s enough to be considered top-tier in the martial world.

The problem is that he’s sick of the Three-Elements Fist, Footwork, and Sword techniques, but once he fully masters them, the speed at which he learns the Bewildering Lightning Spear increases exponentially.

He thinks it should be enough to catch the Ten-Thousand Fire Carp, but nothing is certain.

Jin Cheon-hee lightly struck a nearby tree with his palm.