Doctor’s Rebirth

Chapter 96

‘I’m nervous. Usually, you’re not supposed to operate on family members…’

Jin Cheon-hee thought about how lonely it was to have no one to take his place.

His fingertips trembled.

This was his master’s surgery.

Jin Cheon-hee pressed one hand with the other.

‘It’s okay. I’ve made all the preparations. That’s why I came this far.’

Wasn’t he someone strong under pressure? He had no intention of crumbling.

He repeatedly clenched and unclenched his cold hands. Strangely, his palms were wet with sweat.

His palms tingled with fear and tension.

This was the moment to show his strongest self in life.

Jin Cheon-hee took a deep breath. He felt the breath reach and inflate even the dark corners of his mind.

Then he exhaled slowly.

Gradually, his breathing became more regular.

The sensation of his heartbeat also slowly returned to normal.

Once he was certain his inner self had achieved calmness, Jin Cheon-hee circulated his internal energy.

This marked the beginning of the day.

***

Hearing that preparations were complete, Jin Cheon-hee stood wearing his surgical gown.

He passed by the medical pavilion disciples preparing the medical formation and entered.

This was the place to operate on the pavilion master.

And by the hands of his disciple, no less.

All the medical pavilion disciples looked at Jin Cheon-hee.

They must have many questions. How does such a young child possess so much knowledge? And how was he able to absorb the medical pavilion’s knowledge so quickly?

He couldn’t answer the former, and for the latter, he just worked hard.

The sterilization formation brushed past Jin Cheon-hee’s body.

Entering the operating room, there were countless medical pavilion disciples and Yoo Ho.

And his master in an anesthetized state.

Don’t be fooled by his handsome face; the master has quite a large frame.

It was an immense pressure to see the nearly 190cm tall body lying there.

Instead of greeting the medical pavilion disciples, Jin Cheon-hee asked:

“Vitals?”

“No major abnormalities in the pulse state.”

“You’ve been continuing the acupuncture, right?”

“Yes. We haven’t missed a single day.”

They had used acupuncture and moxibustion to slow down the master’s whole-body circulation until just before surgery.

This was to stabilize blood pressure and pulse as much as possible to reduce the pressure on the aortic wall.

The problem is that this also causes the master’s body temperature to drop rapidly.

That’s the nasty part of the Nine Yin Meridian Obstruction.

The balance of yin and yang is severely disrupted, artificially creating cold energy within the body.

Countering martial arts meridian blockage with modern medicine creates such a crazy situation.

What prevents this is the ondol.

The heating system.

Jin Cheon-hee had prioritized building the heating system.

‘We bought time with medical treatment.’

The next challenge was managing pain.

To describe the pain from aortic dissection, it’s often compared to being hit in the chest with an axe.

It’s not just pain, but excruciating pain.

The master had lived with pain from meridian blockage since childhood, and with aortic dissection progressing, he endured severe, constant pain.

‘That seems to have greatly influenced the master’s personality formation, causing frequent misunderstandings from those around him…’

In any case, controlling pain until the day of surgery was a crucial task.

They managed pain using acupuncture as much as possible while minimizing movement.

Balancing internal energy with the Five-Elemental Divine Technique also helped.

Jin Cheon-hee assisted with that directly.

‘We’ve bought precious time.’

The master endured well. Now it was time for Jin Cheon-hee to step up.

All those efforts existed for today.

“The procedure itself is simple. If we don’t make mistakes, there should be few aftereffects. We won’t be using a knife to cut bone and flesh like before.”

Jin Cheon-hee forced a faint smile.

He was the leader here.

If the operating surgeon is tense, the staff becomes even more nervous. Tension leads to mistakes.

“Let’s finish this quickly and eat. I feel like having meat today.”

He strained his facial muscles with a brazen voice.

Jin Cheon-hee felt for the femoral artery in his master’s thigh.

Surgery begins.

***

It starts with inserting a catheter into the femoral artery in the thigh.

Jin Cheon-hee inserted the thin gold thread that would serve as the guide wire, following his master’s slow pulse.

‘I never imagined I’d be performing this kind of surgery in the martial arts world. Not even me.’

He especially didn’t expect to have to procure the materials himself.

A thin tube about 6mm in diameter continued to enter along the aorta.

It was like a salmon swimming upstream.

“Whew…”

Even though he had learned internal energy, he still missed medical imaging.

The medical pavilion disciples watched Jin Cheon-hee’s every move.

‘A technique that doesn’t use a knife, is this even possible?’

What Jin Cheon-hee brought was that revolutionary.

Usually, when there’s a problem with the aorta, it’s considered an internal injury and death is common. The patient complains of severe chest pain before their heart stops.

Even if a renowned doctor takes the pulse and identifies the cause, it ends with acupuncture or preparing herbal decoctions.

They call it a heart disease, advising to be careful of things that make you angry, avoid intense exercise, and stay away from greasy foods.

If these methods don’t work, the patient dies in pain.

And more often than not, they didn’t work.

The Nine Yin Meridian Obstruction is even worse. The same measures would cause the patient to die from cold energy.

The pain is so severe that the patient’s pulse races from pain alone, and the vicious cycle continues.

In the end, there’s a high probability the patient passes away before reaching adulthood.

What Jin Cheon-hee showed was a medical technique they had never seen in their lives.

Among them, this one was the most unbelievable technique.

Theoretically, of course, it’s possible. But would it actually work?

‘He’s the disciple favored by the Divine Doctor. If he’s willing to offer his own body, it probably means it’s possible.’

‘But if this technique succeeds following the White Dragon Divine Pill, what kind of storm will it cause in the martial world?’

Treating the supposedly incurable meridian blockage.

According to Jin Cheon-hee, it’s not a complete cure.

It only eases the burden and extends lifespan.

Even that was unbelievable.

Jin Cheon-hee’s closed eyes half-opened.

His beautiful eyes shone with intelligence.

He spoke in a voice overflowing with brilliance that could invoke jealousy.

“We’ve finally arrived.”

The gold thread had reached the problematic thoracic aorta.

Now it was time to install the stent graft Jin Cheon-hee had prepared in advance.

In martial arts language, they agreed to call it an artificial blood vessel. But perhaps due to old habits, Jin Cheon-hee kept using the word “stent”.

***

The stent arrived at the diseased area.

The metal mesh inside expanded like a balloon, and the folded stent began to unfold.

Both the metal mesh and the stent were made from gold thread obtained from the Ten-Thousand Fire Carp’s internal core.

Jin Cheon-hee concentrated even more as he unfolded the stent.

‘If it’s not fixed properly and blood leaks into the aortic wall, we’ll need to reoperate. But we won’t have a second chance.’

Not only would it be impossible to catch two Ten-Thousand Fire Carps, but even if they somehow found one, there was no way to know what his master’s condition would be by then.

Even when Jin Cheon-hee slipped out during his closed-door training at the end, any normal master would have noticed long ago.

His master’s condition was so poor that he couldn’t even confirm that.

‘Whew…’

From here on, the sensation in his fingertips was crucial.

***

Zhuge Rin opened his eyes.

It was strange.

It didn’t hurt. The languid feeling remained, but there was no pain pressing on his heart.

He slowly raised his upper body.

Then he suddenly noticed Jin Cheon-hee sleeping on his knee.

Perhaps he had been directly monitoring the post-operative progress.

Jin Cheon-hee’s face was etched with extreme fatigue.

Since making the promise with Zhuge Rin, he hadn’t had a proper night’s sleep.

During days that seemed like self-abuse, Jin Cheon-hee had done everything he could.

Zhuge Rin stroked his disciple’s back.

“You’ve given everything for me, so now I must give everything for you.”

Zhuge Rin neatly tied his silver hair.

He laid Jin Cheon-hee on the bed and went outside.

It was the middle of the night, and everyone was asleep.

Outside, Yoo Ho was in the middle of moving something when he looked at Zhuge Rin in surprise.

“Master.”

“Strangely, my chest doesn’t hurt. It seems the effect of the medicine has almost worn off.”

He closed his eyes briefly and opened them again.

“No. Even with the medicine, it has never been this painless.”

“The procedure was completed successfully.”

“Yes. My heart is telling me that.”

Zhuge Rin looked up at the night sky.

“I never knew the stars shone so brightly. Nor that the air could be so fragrant.”

Zhuge Rin muttered as if he had just been born.

Eventually, he said:

“Just the absence of pain makes life this delicious. That’s how it was.”

Creating an artificial blood vessel from the Ten-Thousand Fire Carp’s internal core was madness.

But as a result, the Ten-Thousand Fire Carp’s fire energy continued to circulate.

Of course, Zhuge Rin’s internal energy didn’t increase. Trying to absorb the artificial blood vessel to increase internal energy would simply mean death.

But there was no more pain or risk of death.

Jin Cheon-hee had said it wasn’t a complete cure for the meridian blockage, but even that was enough to bring brilliance back to Zhuge Rin’s eyes.

“You should rest today without overexerting yourself, Master.”

“Yes. But there’s just one thing I’d like to do.”

A small smile formed on Zhuge Rin’s lips.

***

There was a delicious smell.

Jin Cheon-hee slowly opened his eyes.

‘Ah, I fell asleep!’

Opening his eyes, he found himself lying neatly on his master’s bed.

Jin Cheon-hee looked around.

‘Master?!’

As he jumped up, he heard a low voice laughing.

“Hee-ya.”

“Mas…ter.”

“I’ve made breakfast, would you like to eat?”

Jin Cheon-hee sat at the table with disheveled hair. There were delicious-looking delicacies and a particularly large soup bowl in the center.

“Master, how are you feeling?”

“With all these delicacies in front of you, that’s the first thing you ask?”

“…”

“How can someone so kind-hearted survive in the martial world?”

The master clicked his tongue and opened the lid of the soup bowl.

A carp soup revealed itself, emitting a rich aroma.

“I’m fine. Well enough to make medicinal cuisine with Ten-Thousand Fire Carp flesh.”

“Wow, then…”

“Your treatment was successful.”

At those words, Zhuge Rin watched for a long time as Jin Cheon-hee’s retinas swelled and filled with water.

“Eat.”

“Master.”

“The soup will get cold.”

Jin Cheon-hee wiped his eyes with his sleeve.

Then he picked up a piece of the Ten-Thousand Fire Carp’s flesh.