Doctor’s Rebirth - Chapter 177

Two weeks had passed since Jin Cheonhee started living with Cheon-woo in the separate quarters. As he was washing Cheon-woo’s clothes, Jin Cheonhee found himself lost in thought.

‘Have I mastered all the basics now? Though I haven’t fully grasped the profound meanings yet.’

His achievement was between seven and eight tenths. It was an astonishing speed.

‘Come to think of it, Elder Jeong Gwang has been quiet lately. He used to act like he wanted to eat me alive.’

He wasn’t visible, perhaps engaged in secluded cultivation. It wasn’t unusual for someone of elder rank to suddenly disappear somewhere for training. Even though Elder Jeong Gwang couldn’t use one arm, there were times when one needed solitude for enlightenment. There wasn’t much concern within Wudang about this. Moreover…

‘The other elders who followed Elder Jeong Gwang would probably want him to step down.’

Even if Jeong Gwang had left his position, the rot couldn’t be cut out all at once. It meant those people were still there.

In the recent fight between the Sect Leader and Elder Jeong Gwang, Immortal Myeong Gil, who usually didn’t care about power, had intervened and supported the Sect Leader. Now that things had turned out this way, they probably needed time to calculate whether to side with the Sect Leader or not. That’s why they weren’t looking for him.

‘I should go collect that secret manual stuck to the back of the Primordial Heavenly Lord statue soon…’

With the internal instability and Jin Cheonhee no longer being an outsider, he could move around alone now.

‘This is why background is important for social life.’

Jin Cheonhee had the backing of Wudang Fist Emperor. Instead of scolding him about where he was going, all the elders were trying their best not to make eye contact with him. It was a strange situation where they couldn’t speak informally to this young man due to the complicated family tree. Normally, Jin Cheonhee would have told them to speak comfortably, but this time he let it be. Jin Cheonhee could hold a grudge for a long time. And if they avoided him while he was trying to find the secret manual, that was a thank you.

‘Shall I go?’

Jin Cheonhee wrung out the laundry thoroughly and shook off the moisture with a bang using only his qi.

‘Hmm. My brother is tall, so his robes are big too.’

Cheon-woo thought the training Taoists were doing his laundry. But Jin Cheonhee was secretly washing Cheon-woo’s clothes while also training.

Jin Cheonhee threw the washed clothes where the training Taoists folded the laundry. The randomly flying laundry folded neatly with a thud. It would arrive at Cheon-woo’s separate quarters like this. Since it would arrive by the hands of the training Taoists, he still wouldn’t suspect anything.

‘You don’t need to grow any more now.’

With that done, he headed straight for the temple building.

‘The oldest and largest Primordial Heavenly Lord statue.’

Although it wasn’t clearly described where it was enshrined, there were only two places with large wooden Primordial Heavenly Lord statues. The place Jin Cheonhee found was open to worshippers. It was a temple tucked away in a remote location with few visitors.

‘It looks like they only clean this place once a week?’

Places that brought in a lot of donations were polished frequently, while places that didn’t were barely cleaned once a week. It seemed symbolic of the current Wudang Sect.

‘Secret manual. I’ll take good care of it!’

Jin Cheonhee paid his respects in the Taoist manner and offered incense.

Daeng-

“……”

After a minute like this, he narrowed his eyes and checked if anyone was around.

Woof! – No one here, Master!

Hwanggu was truly useful. Jin Cheonhee patted the dog’s head a few times, then immediately climbed up to the back of the Primordial Heavenly Lord’s head and reached out his hand.

Nothing was immediately caught. After groping around for a while, something finally caught on his fingertips.

Jin Cheonhee pulled it out.

Seureureuruk-

Instead of a book, a silk scroll in the form of a roll came out.

On the ancient scroll was written:

[Taiji Wisdom Sword^[1]]

“…?”

After reading that, Jin Cheonhee muttered.

“Hwanggu, I think my eyes have gone bad. This looks like the Taiji Wisdom Sword to me?”

Keong?

“Right. You don’t know letters. But why does this look to me like…”

Jin Cheonhee rubbed his eyes.

“It still looks like the Taiji Wisdom Sword… huh?”

“The Supreme Heavenly Demon” is an unfriendly novel to readers. Although it was known that there was a secret manual, the original work didn’t explain exactly what kind of secret manual it was. What was discovered in the original work was a secret manual found in burned remains.

During the Heavenly Demon Blood Path incident, Wudang was utterly rotten. In the novel, a Taoist whose name wasn’t mentioned ended up betraying Wudang Sect and joining the demonic cult. The betraying Taoist set fire to Mount Wudang, which was like a parent to him.

The fire demon burned countless halls and temples, and in the remains, traces of a secret manual were found in the back of the head of what used to be the Primordial Heavenly Lord statue.

-So it has come to this… it has. The ancestors made arrangements to save Wudang from crisis, but even this is too much for the current Wudang. What should be done? What should be done! How could a child burn their parent! How could a Wudang Taoist set fire to Mount Wudang!

There’s a scene where Wudang’s Sect Leader coughs up blood while clutching the ashes of the secret manual. His demonic heart had surged.

Although it wasn’t mentioned what kind of secret manual it was, it was clearly something extraordinary.

‘I was planning to take it for myself since it would burn and become unusable anyway…’

But it turns out it was the Taiji Wisdom Sword…

‘This is definitely worth coughing up blood over from a demonic heart.’

The Sect Leader collapses after seeing that and ends up dying without even maintaining his position.

At that time, while reading, Jin Cheonhee had clicked his tongue, thinking, ‘I understand, but he’s still the Sect Leader. No matter what, Wudang’s future is at stake, he shouldn’t collapse like that. Tsk tsk.’

Now he understood.

The Taiji Wisdom Sword is considered one of the strongest martial arts among sword techniques that appear in most martial arts novels. It’s a sword technique that ranks in the top 5 even among divine techniques.

And strangely, whether it’s new martial arts or old martial arts, it often gets lost.

It gets lost so that later the protagonist can collect it and use it as a fortuitous encounter.

In “The Supreme Heavenly Demon,” it was just lost.

Thinking about it now, it seemed like a balance patch to weaken Wudang Sect so that the competing young sect masters could grow and give Yeo Ha-ryoon a hard time.

‘Well… I’ll gratefully partake.’

He had prevented one future where the Sect Leader coughs up blood and dies.

‘I hope he overcomes the burning halls with his own will.’

Since he didn’t see the Taiji Wisdom Sword burn, the Sect Leader should be able to maintain his position without dying.

Jin Cheonhee ordered Hwanggu.

“Let me know immediately if anyone approaches.”

Keong.

Hwanggu answered very softly and took a forward guard stance.

Since being able to communicate with its master, Hwanggu had become even more perceptive. Detailed situation explanations were no longer necessary.

Jin Cheonhee looked at Hwanggu with trusting eyes once, then quickly flipped through the pages of the Taiji Wisdom Sword.

He planned to use the Profound Origin Heaven and Earth Divine Technique to cram all of this into his head.

‘This is incredible…’

Although he was reading it, he could hardly understand the content.

It was natural. Jin Cheonhee had only just mastered Wudang’s basics, and the Taiji Wisdom Sword was Wudang’s ultimate technique. It contained profound knowledge that could only be understood when those who had seen its end were ready to go to higher places.

Jin Cheonhee read it several more times, and once he was sure he had memorized it all, he closed the book.

Tak-

Now, what to do with this Taiji Wisdom Sword was the key going forward.

‘Should I burn it?’

From the beginning, pretending this secret manual didn’t exist here.

If he went cleanly, that would be beneficial for Jin Cheonhee.

There had been precedents of becoming troublesome just from learning the Dual Mind-Intention Technique.

But when he actually tried to do it, the martial arts maniac inside Jin Cheonhee shouted.

‘Are you really going to do that? Looking at the beautiful corners of this secret manual, do you still think that? It’s the Taiji Wisdom Sword! The real Taiji Wisdom Sword!’

Far from burning it, his hands trembled so much he couldn’t even bring himself to fold the corners of the pages.

It wasn’t a matter of reason. It was a matter of fan power.

‘Wudang’s things… should be returned to Wudang.’

Keeping it all to himself didn’t suit his temperament.

Even if it did, putting fire to the corners of this beautiful ancient book made the martial arts maniac’s years grab him by the collar.

‘Thinking calmly, when I master the Taiji Wisdom Sword, Wudang might notice.’

Although Immortal Myeong Gil, who would test Jin Cheonhee, would be gone from the human world whether he ascended to immortality or not, Jin Cheonhee thought.

‘Ah, but like the Dual Mind-Intention Technique secret manual, this one is really classy too. This is how fortuitous encounters should be. Yes.’

Jin Cheonhee gently stroked the cover of the Taiji Wisdom Sword.

Just feeling the texture made him happy.

***

“You’re saying you didn’t keep it for yourself but are giving it to me?”

Immortal Myeong Gil froze upon hearing Jin Cheonhee’s words.

“Wudang’s things should be returned to Wudang.”

“……”

Immortal Myeong Gil was momentarily speechless, overwhelmed with emotion at Jin Cheonhee’s words.

“How did you know the secret manual was there?”

“It was contained in the deceased’s last words.”

Unable to say he had seen it in the original work, he used the name of the late Elder Myeong Deok. At those words, Immortal Myeong Gil shed tears.

“Myeong Deok… that fool. How did he bear such a heavy burden alone? The dull-witted one, not trusting Wudang and yet… unable to leave Wudang.”

Immortal Myeong Gil was lost in reminiscence, recalling memories with Elder Myeong Deok for a long time.

“The Taiji Wisdom Sword is a martial art that was lost long ago, its lineage broken.”

“But Wudang is synonymous with the Taiji Wisdom Sword. How could it be lost?”

Jin Cheonhee asked with a pretend surprised face.

“Such things are common in the martial world. The inheritor of a divine technique might die an untimely death in the martial world, or be killed by a plot, or fall into qi deviation… Secret manuals are merely safety measures left behind for such times. I heard that the inheritor of the Taiji Wisdom Sword died several generations ago, and even the secret manual had disappeared…”

“Died?”

“There was a fight. An untimely death that cannot be spoken of outside, that I can hardly bear to mention.”

Immortal Myeong Gil said this with a reddened face.

For such an untimely death, it should be known to everyone in the martial world, but if it couldn’t be spoken of, there was only one reason.

“Was there a fight over the Taiji Wisdom Sword?”

It was an untimely death that occurred within Wudang.

Having already received a Taoist name in Wudang, it would be difficult for such an untimely death to occur merely out of greed for money or fame.

Therefore, Jin Cheonhee naturally guessed there was only one cause.

And his guess was correct.

“Even with just the Dual Mind-Intention Technique, there are those who forget the Way like this, so how could it be different with the Taiji Wisdom Sword? The martial arts in the main text are very picky about one’s character and qualifications, so passing them on is also difficult. However, that doesn’t comfort the Taoists who fail to qualify.”

“……”

“They gave up having descendants for martial arts, abandoned their names, and gave everything to Wudang, but if you tell them to just practice Taiji Fist from now on, would they accept it? After all, anyone can learn Taiji Fist without the risk of qi deviation.”

“That’s…”

“Of course, that’s an extreme example. Usually, we pass on intermediate techniques up to the level I’ve taught you. But even if someone without the qualifications and character forcibly learns beyond that, their body and mind will be destroyed. That’s why Wudang is selective about people. It’s to protect the Taoists.”

“It seems hard to accept.”

It meant that even though they had devoted everything to be in Wudang, there was a set limit.

No matter how hard they tried, they couldn’t become stronger than those who learned the Dual Mind-Intention Technique.

The Taiji Wisdom Sword was out of the question.

A true martial artist would beg to be allowed to learn it even at the risk of death.

“That… is an old problem Wudang has had.”

With a disillusioned expression, Immortal Myeong Gil rubbed his forehead.