Doctor’s Rebirth - Chapter 188

The Sect Leader collapsed forward.

His limbs twitched, tendons bulging and receding repeatedly.

His heart began to stop.

“Sect Leader! Sect Leader!”

“This can’t be. What will become of Wudang now–!”

Screams rang out.

Not just the elders, but all the survivors of Wudang began to shout in pandemonium.

At that moment, one voice cut through the chaos.

“It’s not yet at the stage of qi deviation.”

Jin Cheonhee pressed the Sect Leader’s acupoints. Then he scraped out all of his remaining Five Elements True Qi to begin stabilization.

He didn’t know if he could do it or not.

But if he didn’t try, a person would die.

The blood energy stopped. But at the same time, the heart also stopped.

As he exhaled his last breath, everyone screamed again.

Jin Cheonhee immediately mounted the Sect Leader and attempted CPR (cardiopulmonary resuscitation).

“Damn it, have your mind demon when I’m not around!”

The elders’ bodies stiffened. They couldn’t understand what Jin Cheonhee was doing.

Could someone whose breath had already stopped be brought back to life?

But they felt that this act of pressing the chest strongly and regularly was somehow helpful.

“Uaaagh! Come on! Wake up!”

Jin Cheonhee continued pressing while even shouting.

After who knows how long.

“Kuk, kuhak!”

The Sect Leader cried out and took his first breath.

It was a miracle.

***

A day later.

Doctors were dispatched from the White Dragon Medical Pavilion branch.

Jin Cheonhee directed the tasks for the junior, intermediate, and senior doctors.

His field experience helped in both good and bad ways.

Collecting the bodies and treating the injured.

Allocating the necessary resources for these tasks was also Jin Cheonhee’s responsibility.

He distributed those who needed treatment first and those who were next in line, treating them in order.

Here, emergency trauma treatment, or what the martial world would call bone-setting, was essential.

Prioritizing hemostasis, he resected and sutured damaged organs.

He set bones and, when necessary, performed fixation using steel wires.

Senior doctors who had learned debridement helped Jin Cheonhee treat patients.

The sooner the treatment, the more likely they could fully preserve the patient’s limbs.

Elder Fist Emperor was easier to treat than expected.

He pushed out the poison he had suffered with his pure internal energy, and although there were places where his skin was torn, there were no major fractures. The only problem was his aged body.

Elder Fist Emperor received medicine from Jin Cheonhee and entered a brief seclusion.

He needed time to organize and store the martial arts insights gained from this battle.

Learning martial arts is similar to the process of forging a sword.

Constantly hammering oneself, but if one can’t endure in the end, it’s just a foolish thing that amounts to nothing more.

The old man immersed himself again in the harsh repetitive process that ordinary people couldn’t understand.

Master hadn’t even been notified separately, but somehow he knew so quickly and said he was rushing over.

He seemed worried about his disciple.

However, with pirates rampant on the Yangtze River recently, it would take quite some time if he had to cut them down one by one on his way.

In the meantime, Jin Cheonhee devoted all his remaining energy to treating urgent injuries.

Jin Cheonhee manually aligned bone fragments for a patient.

Crack-

Since this was done after the patient had taken medicinal decoction and had acupoints pressed, the patient’s pain should be minimal.

“It will be very difficult when the anesthesia wears off. It will hurt, and after the bone heals, you’ll need rehabilitation, which the branch’s junior doctors will help with.”

“I thought I’d inevitably lose my leg, I didn’t know you could save it.”

“What remains now is patience and luck. Humans have done all they can.”

“Thank you…”

The Taoist deeply thanked Jin Cheonhee.

Cheon-woo saw Jin Cheonhee’s left hand twitch, pause strangely, then move again.

“Brother…?”

It was hidden by his sleeve so others couldn’t see, but it couldn’t deceive Cheon-woo’s eyes.

“Hm?”

When Jin Cheonhee calmly asked back, Cheon-woo urgently grabbed Jin Cheonhee’s left hand below. Where it wouldn’t hurt as much.

Then he pulled down the sleeve with his other hand.

There, a blackened, discolored wrist was revealed.

With acupuncture marks stamped like bruises, it looked even more gruesome.

“Don’t force yourself to move, Brother.”

“It’s fine. I’ve taken care of it.”

“The color is strange! Even if I’m a fool, I know sick people need to rest. And…”

It was strange.

After that incident, all the Wudang Sect Taoists had become patients, unable to leave their sickbeds.

That’s what a life-or-death battle is like.

The series of processes of burning everything to defeat the enemy to survive, then returning to the nest to slowly recover.

But Jin Cheonhee didn’t have any of that.

“Brother, have you slept?”

“I’m fine.”

“When did you last eat?”

“I ate earlier.”

“You took some kind of pill during the fight, didn’t you? Don’t people usually suffer terribly after taking such pills? The side effects must be severe?”

“It’s more bearable than I thought.”

One of Cheon-woo’s pupils rolled.

Looking at his complexion, he was so pale he seemed about to collapse at any moment.

“There’s no one who will die without you now, Brother.”

“Right. I think I’ve done all I can do.”

Saying this, he tried to pull his hand away, but Cheon-woo didn’t let go of Jin Cheonhee’s hand.

“Brother, go and rest.”

“Cheon-woo.”

“Go and sleep a bit. Are you worried? It’s okay. There are no more emergency patients now, right?”

“…”

There was no answer.

At that moment, Cheon-woo saw it.

Jin Cheonhee’s body slowly falling backward.

It was like watching an empty snake skin collapse.

Cheon-woo caught Jin Cheonhee in surprise.

“Brother, Brother…?”

“…”

His pulse was barely beating, and he was unconscious.

Cheon-woo called for other doctors in alarm. Senior doctors rushed out at Cheon-woo’s shout.

After treating all the urgent patients without exception like this.

Jin Cheonhee lost consciousness.

***

He dreamed of a battlefield.

The smell of gunpowder and burning flesh was overwhelming.

He felt he should do something, but he couldn’t do anything.

His body was as heavy as if trapped in the deep sea.

People kept being brought in, and supplies were lacking.

Manpower… manpower should have been okay.

Screams rang out.

There wasn’t enough anesthetic.

A child called for his father. Interestingly, the words for mom or dad are somehow similar in any country.

‘I’ll save your dad.’

Could he do it? He wasn’t confident.

But if left alone, the person would die.

Rebels opened the tent and rushed in.

In this situation, what Jin Cheonhee thought was the regret that he could have treated just one more person.

Why do humans kill other humans?

Every year, humans have killed other humans through war, from hundreds of thousands to tens of millions at most.

It was ironic. To think that humans have killed more humans than tigers or bears.

A single 2cm bullet was enough to kill a person.

But to save that person, it took more than 6 staff members, a surgeon, and numerous resources that could be called the pinnacle of modern technology.

He felt himself going mad.

As the rebel’s gun barrel pointed this way, he quickly embraced the child.

Bang, bang!

When he opened his eyes, blood was seeping into his chest. And in his arms was his young self wearing martial arts robes.

The medical tent had become Wudang Sect’s burning hall, and the rebels had become Lord Golden Heavens.

The sky was red.

He felt his body slowly sinking into the ground.

Fortunately, the dream ended there.

When he opened his eyes, he saw Wudang Sect’s ceiling.

“Uggghk…”

It was pain like having every bone in his body smashed with a hammer.

He quickly tried to block the pain using the Profound Origin Heaven and Earth Divine Technique, but the pain still continued.

Jin Cheonhee tried to curl up his body.

Suddenly, his left arm felt heavy. It was in a cast.

It was a reproduction of a modern cast, tightly wrapped by the branch’s senior doctors.

“This isn’t a shackle…”

It was like a rock, with how thickly they had applied the plaster.

As the pain surged again, he curled his body into a ball.

Groans leaked out for a long time.

The door slid open.

“You’re awake as expected, Brother.”

“Cheon-woo.”

“Have some porridge.”

“…”

A sense of déjà vu washed over him.

He had experienced something similar to this in the past.

“I have no appetite.”

“The doctor said your stomach seemed to have been empty for a long time… You’ve been starving yourself, right?”

“…”

“I brought medicine that’s good for emotional distress too, Brother. You need to take that to live.”

The side effects of the pill. And his body with no uninjured part was also a problem, but the biggest issue was emotional distress.

War PTSD had returned as extreme stress.

He felt like he would vomit even if he just drank water. He couldn’t sleep well.

Because he felt like the nightmare he just had would attack again.

And that worry became reality.

“Brother.”

“I’m fine.”

“Brother, do you know you’ve been saying only that?”

He didn’t want to forcibly feed porridge by grabbing his brother’s chin.

How could he make him eat?

Cheon-woo pondered and pondered, then said this:

“You saved my life, Brother. I need to repay you somehow too.”

Cheon-woo placed the porridge in front of Jin Cheonhee.

“I made this myself, are you going to make me throw it away?”

“…Cheon-woo.”

At that moment, tears fell drop by drop from Cheon-woo’s large eyes.

“Brother. I’m sorry for being weak.”

“You were strong.”

Cheon-woo’s back, protecting Jin Cheonhee then, was vivid. Cheon-woo had fought well.

Well enough to fight on par with the Wudang Sect elders.

His head started to hurt.

When Cheon-woo was about to kneel, Jin Cheonhee grabbed him.

“It’s okay. It’s okay.”

“I’m not going to even drink water until you eat, Brother. I’d rather starve to death together.”

Murderous intent began to seep into his eye-patched eyes.

“Don’t you have any pride?”

“What need is there for pride in feeding my brother!”

At his desperate expression, Jin Cheonhee let out a small sigh.

‘What am I doing to this kid? I’m a grown-up making a child cry…’

Seeing tears welling up in Cheon-woo’s eyes, he finally came to his senses.

The thought that a full-grown adult had worried a child brought him back to reason.

“Alright. I’ll eat.”

Only then did Cheon-woo’s expression brighten.

He thought that appearance was like a giant dog.

To others, Cheon-woo might look like an evil sect’s top expert, but to Jin Cheonhee’s eyes, he was a kind and gentle younger brother.

As he ate the porridge that Cheon-woo fed him, Jin Cheonhee thought.

‘I’m dead when Master arrives. Now.’

This was the most important sign that reason had returned to Jin Cheonhee.