Doctor’s Rebirth

Chapter 102

Where on earth did this man hide it?

Jin Cheon-hee lifted the blanket on Namgoong Woon’s sickbed.

Whoosh!

There was no alcohol there.

“Please tell me where you’ve hidden it.”

“Didn’t you say not to eat greasy and salty things? You told me to consume lots of fluids.”

“That’s right.”

“Alcohol is a fluid too.”

What kind of doctor-infuriating nonsense is this?

“Al… alco?”

“No, don’t drink alcohol! Just drink water! Water!”

Just like the elderly in modern times, martial artists also don’t listen to doctors at all.

While rummaging through Namgoong Woon’s belongings, Jin Cheon-hee found a small gourd bottle under the bed.

When he opened the lid, the scent of Shaoxing wine wafted out strongly.

“They must have checked all the luggage when entering the medical pavilion, so where on earth did you smuggle this from?”

“Heh, just a bit of sleight of hand. This too is part of the refined lifestyle.”

‘To hell with your refined lifestyle!’

Jin Cheon-hee confiscated the Shaoxing wine and thoroughly searched for any other alcohol.

Judging by his expression, there seemed to be more, but he wasn’t going to say.

Jin Cheon-hee finally decided to use his trump card.

“Hwanggu! Where are you, Hwanggu?”

Woof!

It was Hwanggu, who hadn’t returned to the Beggar’s Sect since joining Jin Cheon-hee.

He had sent a letter to the Beggar’s Sect about Hwanggu’s whereabouts, and their reply was extremely simple.

‘Hwanggu is the top disciple of the previous sect leader Il-geol, and unless ordered by the previous sect leader, no one can decide on Hwanggu’s whereabouts.’

Usually, messenger birds were, as the name suggests, private property used by each sect. However, dogs were treated differently in the Beggar’s Sect.

Hwanggu was literally a full-fledged member of the Beggar’s Sect.

Considering Hwanggu’s intelligence, it wasn’t that strange.

In any case, Hwanggu followed Jin Cheon-hee’s orders and found all the hidden alcohol bottles.

Jin Cheon-hee asked in disbelief,

“In all my life, this is the first time I’ve seen someone hide alcohol bottles under orchid pots. Why? Couldn’t you have put them in your undergarments?”

“That wasn’t possible because they keep coming in to wash the patient’s clothes. Ugh… Little brother Jin, are you really going to take it all away?”

“Do you want to die from kidney stones? Do you want to feel that deathly pain again?”

“I didn’t eat any side dishes, so it should be fine, right?”

‘You’re not supposed to drink alcohol either! Why do you only hear what you want to hear!’

At that moment, Hwanggu barked, woof woof, towards somewhere. It was Namgoong Woon’s belt.

“Excuse me for a moment.”

“Hey now, how can a man touch another man’s belt…”

“Stop talking nonsense.”

“Little brother Jin, your words have become too harsh.”

What came out of the belt was beef jerky. It was exactly what a kidney stone patient should never eat.

“So you prepared side dishes too. And judging by how little is left, it seems you’ve eaten quite a lot.”

“Ahem. Little brother Jin… you see…”

As Namgoong Woon tried to make excuses, Jin Cheon-hee sighed.

“We’ll go with extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy. If it’s broken up and excreted through urine, that’s good, but if there’s no response, we’ll have to do surgery.”

Jin Cheon-hee confiscated all the alcohol and side dishes. He also made Hwanggu ‘walk’ through this hospital room three times a day.

“Yoo Ho, keep making the patient Namgoong Woon drink water.”

“Understood.”

“Hwanggu will detect any outside food or alcohol being brought in, but if anything slips through, please let me know.”

Namgoong Woon was a terrifying patient. But Hwanggu was even more terrifying.

Hwanggu went as far as finding and eating the lamb jerky that Namgoong Woon had somehow smuggled in again from somewhere.

***

On the day of the procedure.

Jin Cheon-hee laid Namgoong Woon down.

The medical pavilion members surrounded Namgoong Woon.

“Somehow, I feel like I’ve become an example. Little brother Jin.”

Jin Cheon-hee replied.

“Consider it karma. Since it’s come to this, I’ve decided to use Young Master Namgoong as fertilizer for medical skills.”

“In other words, I’m a learning tool?”

“Yes. The other medical pavilion members need to learn how to treat kidney stones too.”

Jin Cheon-hee slowly pressed on Namgoong Woon’s lower abdomen in front of all the medical pavilion members.

“The best option is for it to be naturally expelled through urine, but if that’s difficult, we use this method. First, we need to identify the shape and location of the stone. Before the procedure, what we need to be careful about is…”

Jin Cheon-hee continued with his explanation.

Scribble scribble-

The medical pavilion members diligently took notes according to Jin Cheon-hee’s words.

The interesting thing was that they weren’t using the usual brushes, but writing instruments made of sharpened graphite wrapped in cloth.

It seemed convenient as it didn’t require ink or an inkstone, and allowed for quick note-taking of only what was necessary.

“In Young Master Namgoong’s case, it’s lodged between the kidney and the ureter, which is one of the common locations for kidney stones. To be precise, there are two spots. Depending on the person, stones can form in multiple places. In that case, multiple procedures are necessary.”

“Little brother Jin, didn’t I only have a stone in one place?”

“I never said it was just one place. Are you feeling more inclined to stay away from alcohol and meat now?”

After saying that, Jin Cheon-hee gave all the medical pavilion members a chance to press on Namgoong Woon’s lower abdomen and diagnose the stones through pulse-taking.

“Come on, even if I hid some alcohol and meat, is it right to use a person as an experimental subject like this?”

Jin Cheon-hee calmly replied.

“If you hadn’t shared it with the patient in the next room, I wouldn’t have gone this far. Thanks to that, we performed emergency surgery well. There was a bit of a crisis, but the patient is safe.”

Jin Cheon-hee smiled brightly.

All the medical pavilion members took pulses and diligently wrote something down.

“Next is the external shock. We’ll use strong shock waves to break it up. Some people feel a stinging sensation depending on the individual.”

Jin Cheon-hee gently clenched his fist.

“We’ll combine the wind and water aspects of the Five-Elemental Divine Technique to use shock waves. Because we’re using the principles of the Penetrating Abdomen Fist, if we hit properly, it would rupture the intestines. We absolutely can’t do it that way, right?”

“Little brother Jin. You’re not going to use the Penetrating Abdomen Fist on my kidneys as an example, are you?”

Jin Cheon-hee ignored Namgoong Woon.

“There should be no metal or earth energy mixed in. We need to use a pushing feeling rather than a hitting feeling. You should recall the principle of flow.”

Jin Cheon-hee opened his fist. Then he pressed the affected area with his palm.

Woong-

As Jin Cheon-hee concentrated, Namgoong Woon felt his lower abdomen vibrating.

A stinging sensation like being pricked also came.

“We maintain this state and break down the stone. The broken-down stone is then excreted through urine.”

Surgery without putting a knife to the body.

Sounds of admiration naturally came from among the medical pavilion members.

Namgoong Woon, lying down as a lab rat, felt a strange sensation.

‘I heard that little brother Little White Dragon was amazing, but I didn’t know it was to this extent.’

Extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy.

This is how a new treatment method appeared in the medical pavilion.

***

Jin Cheon-hee, his master, and Yoo Ho visited Namgoong Woon’s hospital room.

It was to observe the progress after the procedure.

Jin Cheon-hee placed his hand on Namgoong Woon’s lower abdomen one last time and took his pulse.

‘The broken-down stone has been safely excreted through urine as expected. That’s a relief.’

When the desired result came out, Jin Cheon-hee smiled slightly.

He was happy when he treated a patient’s illness.

That was an important driving force for Jin Cheon-hee.

“You can be discharged tomorrow, right?”

“That’s a relief.”

“Still, be careful with alcohol and side dishes from now on. Quite a few people have recurrences.”

“I don’t know how fortunate I am to have met you, little brother Jin.”

In modern Earth, such hospitalization procedures wouldn’t be necessary. But here, there were many things to prepare, and to guard against possible accidents, they managed the progress at the medical pavilion.

If the treatment method becomes more stable, doctors who have cultivated internal energy could perform the procedure in medical rooms, and if that happens, many martial artists could be saved.

‘Now then, how should I deal with this brat?’

According to the original work, he dies at the hands of the Heavenly Demon Yeo Ha-ryoon.

Jin Cheon-hee hoped that this person would somehow survive.

While he was organizing things in his head one by one, Tang Ah, who had been watching, opened her mouth.

“Little White Dragon. Duel with me.”

“I don’t know anything about poison arts at all.”

Just as he was about to refuse again, she hurriedly said,

“I want a martial arts duel!”

“Huh?”

It was an unexpected statement. But while it might have been understandable at their first meeting, Jin Cheon-hee had a lot on his schedule today.

Just as he was about to refuse, Zhuge Rin spoke.

“Accept it.”

“Master?”

“There are few opportunities to duel against the Tang family’s unique martial arts. It will help with your growth.”

Since his master went so far as to say that, Jin Cheon-hee had no reason to refuse.

Zhuge Rin added one more thing.

“Young Miss Tang is known as one of the most outstanding poison users of her generation and a later-stage seed of the Tang family. She’ll probably be very different from the Hao Sect trackers you’ve faced before.”

He knew that the martial arts of the evil sects and righteous sects were different.

Certainly, the righteous sects’ education method involved tailoring one’s physique to the sect from a young age, going through the Nine Palace Acupoint Pressing and Punishment Technique.

Even if they were equally skilled, it was clear that Young Miss Tang’s fighting style would be different from the Trio Assassin Rats.

Jin Cheon-hee became curious too.

***

The two faced each other in the martial arts training ground.

His master, Phantom Archer, and Yoo Ho were observing.

As Jin Cheon-hee was about to pick up a wooden sword, Tang Ah spoke.

“According to the characteristics of our Sichuan Tang Clan, I would like the duel to be with real swords.”

Zhuge Rin grinned.

“Alright, Young Miss Tang. However, if either of your lives seems to be in danger, I or someone else will intervene. Is that okay?”

“That’s fine. The elders in our family do that too.”

It seemed that the Sichuan Tang Clan’s basic practice was dueling with real swords.

‘Well, it would be a bit odd to carve throwing knives out of wood one by one.’

Tang Ah said,

“In exchange, I’ll only use paralyzing poisons. I’ll give the antidote to Divine Doctor Baek Rin Rin.”

She handed a small gourd bottle to Zhuge Rin. Zhuge Rin said,

“Understood. Yoo Ho, that sword…!”

As if he had been waiting, Yoo Ho threw the Ice Clarity Sword to Jin Cheon-hee.

Ping-

Thud.

Jin Cheon-hee caught the sword without even looking to the side.

Swoosh-

Between the flowing scabbard, the blade emerged, exuding a cold aura.

Tang Ah said,

“It looks like a peerless treasure sword at a glance.”

“…”

Instead of answering, Jin Cheon-hee took a stance for his first move. Then Tang Ah smiled coldly towards Jin Cheon-hee.

“You mean there’s no need for long words before a duel? I like that indeed.”

‘If she likes it, why does she want to fight?’

Jin Cheon-hee still found the psychology of martial artists hard to understand.

At the same time, it was fascinating how she had clearly been a typical teenager earlier, but now that she took her stance, she exuded an intimidating presence like a mountain.

‘Wang Gak-yeon was like this too.’

It was a natural stance, as fluid as water, as if practiced thousands or tens of thousands of times.

At a glance, there seemed to be no openings at all.