Chapter 75: The Descendant of the Divine Physician

Chapter 75: The Descendant of the Divine Physician

Zhou Shiyun was late getting off work that day.

The hospital suddenly received several badly injured patients near death, all victims of a pile-up accident. Because there weren’t enough hands for the emergency rescue effort, Zhou Shiyun had to stay and help.

After continuously saving four patients, relying on her unique acupuncture technique, all four patients’ lives were preserved. She was busy the entire evening and only left the hospital late at night.

Today was the fifth anniversary of her master’s death. Every year during this time, she would come alone to her master’s old residence to pay her respects.

Her entire medical knowledge was personally passed down by her master. It’s just that her master was very low-key all those years, and most people didn’t know her master’s reputation. But those who knew called her master the Divine Physician.

“Hands reaching, sickness gone” was the best description of her master’s medical skills.

As her steps drew nearer to the master’s former home, Zhou Shiyun’s mood gradually grew heavy. Memories of the past surfaced in her heart; her master’s voice and smile still remained vividly clear in her mind.

Just as she was immersed in these memories, a figure came stumbling towards her from the opposite direction, suddenly collapsing to the ground without warning and lying completely still.

A doctor’s heart is like that of a parent. Naturally kind-hearted Zhou Shiyun couldn’t ignore this. She immediately pulled herself together and hurried over with quick, small steps.

When she helped the passerby up and saw their face under the streetlight, Zhou Shiyun was shocked. The person in her arms was surprisingly Lin Mu!

Lin Mu’s face was turning blue-purple, blood trickled from his mouth and nose, and he was barely breathing. Drawing on years of medical experience, Zhou Shiyun immediately diagnosed him.

These were symptoms of severe poisoning. If no one treated him, Lin Mu would likely pass away within half an hour.

There was no time to ponder why Lin Mu appeared here or why he suffered such an incredibly strong poison. Zhou Shiyun hurriedly struggled to lift Lin Mu up.

The surroundings were utterly quiet now, not a single other pedestrian in sight. Zhou Shiyun naturally couldn’t find anyone to help.

Lin Mu was a full 185 centimeters tall. Though proportioned, his physical weight was substantial. For Zhou Shiyun, such a delicate girl already in poor health herself, lifting him was incredibly strenuous.

After only half carrying, half dragging him just a few steps, a fine layer of sweat had already beaded on Zhou Shiyun’s forehead, and her breathing quickly became labored.

But Lin Mu’s condition was critical. Ignoring her own exhaustion, she dragged him forcefully into the alley.

The usually short two-minute walk today took a full fifteen minutes. Reaching double wooden doors at the alley entrance, Zhou Shiyun propped Lin Mu against the doorframe, pulled out her keys, and quickly unlocked the door.

It was a large courtyard resembling the layout of a traditional Siheyuan courtyard residence, everything arranged exactly as one. Because Zhou Shiyun’s master had grown up in such surroundings, she chose this style for her retirement years.

Still half dragging Lin Mu, Zhou Shiyun was gasping for breath, utterly worn out. She finally managed to get the completely unconscious Lin Mu onto the room’s bed.

By then, she herself was so tired her vision was swimming with stars.

Without pausing to rest, she rummaged in a cabinet inside the room and took out two small bottles. She swallowed a pill from one and fed a pill from the other to Lin Mu.

Her right finger lightly touched Lin Mu’s throat. A swallowing reflex activated immediately, and the pill slipped down Lin Mu’s throat into his stomach.

After taking the pill and resting for a few minutes to catch her breath, Zhou Shiyun carefully examined Lin Mu’s entire body. Unsure of other injuries, she quickly stripped him bare.

“What a perfect physique!”

Seeing Lin Mu naked for the first time, Zhou Shiyun gasped in involuntary admiration. As a doctor, she’d seen countless patients’ bodies. But one as flawlessly proportioned as Lin Mu’s? It was a first.

Truly, adding even a touch would seem plump; losing even a touch would seem thin.

While there were no bulging explosive muscles, nothing like those bodybuilders, Zhou Shiyun, familiar with medical principles and understanding the human body’s mysteries, knew this balanced frame concealed immense explosive strength.

Shaking her head, Zhou Shiyun forced herself to regain focus. Now was not the time to dwell on that. Intentionally avoiding glancing at Lin Mu’s private areas, she began a meticulous head-to-toe examination.

“Whew, thank goodness. Just this wound here near his waist. But… the wound seems different from what it should be? There are signs it’s already started healing. The original deduction suggested the wound shouldn’t be this small.”

Zhou Shiyun was not only proficient in the Acupuncture Secret Technique; she also possessed deep knowledge of Western medical theory. Integrating Chinese and Western medicine, blending ancient and modern practices, made her medical skills exceptionally brilliant. She spotted the abnormality in Lin Mu’s wound instantly.

“Such a potent healing ability. If not for this unknown severe poison, this wound probably couldn’t have significantly harmed him. Given some time, it would entirely heal, potentially without even a scar.”

Studying Lin Mu curiously, Zhou Shiyun found more puzzles surrounding him now, far more mysterious than when she’d met him in the hospital.

An ordinary person wouldn’t collapse poisoned on the street in the dead of night.

“But this potent toxin, it’s spread with the blood, invading his major organs. Without an antidote… forcibly expelling it requires using that Secret Art.”

“But Master said… I can’t control that Secret Art skillfully yet. If I force it… it won’t just endanger the patient’s life. Mine could be forfeit too.”

“Yet… at this critical moment, we don’t know the poison’s name or formula. Discovering an antidote is impossible. This is the only option we have.”

Gazing down at Lin Mu’s unconscious face, still an alarming blue-purple, Zhou Shiyun wrestled with her dilemma—

Should she save him? Or not?

Once she started the treatment, she could easily lose her own life, potentially costing them both.

Taking a deep, long breath in her profound conflict, she happened to glance upwards as she exhaled. She caught sight of the painting of her master hanging on the wall.

The portrait depicted a kindly old woman with snowy white hair, her gentle gaze seemingly taking in the whole world. That peaceful, comforting look shook Zhou Shiyun deeply. A cascade of memories flooded her mind.

When her master first adopted her, Zhou Shiyun had been weak and constantly sickly from birth. If not for her master’s years of treatment, she likely wouldn’t have lived to this day.

That particular day… she still remembered it clearly.

Even now, she didn’t know the exact nature of the illness inside her. Yet Zhou Shiyun understood: without her master consistently using acupuncture techniques to suppress it, her condition would have erupted long ago.

Though they delayed it again and again, the eruption finally struck.

Lying in the hospital bed, barely breathing, she’d pleaded tearfully with Master to stop saving her. She knew… each effort deepened the silver streaks in her master’s hair.

It consumed her own life force. Zhou Shiyun absolutely refused to let her master sacrifice more.

Master had simply looked at her warmly, softly saying, “Don’t worry, Yun’er. With Master here, nothing will happen to you.”

When Zhou Shiyun awoke later, Master sat quietly beside the bed. Her eyes soft and closed… she had parted from this world forever.

A note lay on the bedside, bearing just two sentences.

“With skill that restores life, worthy of the Divine Physician’s title; With wisdom that crafts wondrous cures, compassionate solutions are left behind.”

“Yun’er… live well.”

The handwriting… strong, decisive strokes… definitely Master’s own hand. Saving Zhou Shiyun one final time had turned Master’s hair completely silver.

The painting on the wall was one Zhou Shiyun herself had painted later to commemorate Master.

Recalling those events, tears threatened; moisture glistened in her eyes.

Master and her… they were but strangers who crossed paths by chance. Yet Master treated her like a daughter. To heal this unknown illness… she had drained her own vital life energy.

What spirit… what immense compassion… possessing a heart dedicated to healing the world like this… only then is one truly fit for the name Divine Physician!

Zhou Shiyun snapped back to the present. She inhaled deeply. Her gaze settled, turning resolute. Giving Lin Mu one last glance, she rose and walked to a nearby cabinet. She unlocked a small padlock at its base.

Carrying a long, thin wooden box back to the bedside, she opened it. Inside lay twenty-seven slender golden needles, each gleaming brightly. This was the only possession her master had left her.

Just as she prepared to start the Acupuncture Secret Technique on Lin Mu, Zhou Shiyun suddenly remembered something. She took the little bottle from earlier and swallowed two more pills herself.

She feared she might not endure it. Taking extra pills forcibly boosted her strength, buying an extra safeguard.

After all, this involved two lives. She couldn’t afford recklessness.

She closed her eyes. Deep inhale. Slow, long exhale. She repeated this cycle ten times. Her vital energy, subtly shifting over the course of her breaths, began to gather visibly.

An inexplicable aura slowly coiled around her.

Just as this energy peaked, Zhou Shiyun’s eyes snapped open instantly.

The dimly lit room seemed suddenly flash lit by electricity. It was the intensity of her concentrated consciousness, tangible radiance shining from her focus.

Her hands moved in a blurring flurry. Almost instantly, faint golden light shimmered over Lin Mu’s body. It emanated from the tips of those long, slender golden needles.

Each needle pierced a vital point and withdrew instantly, lingering on no single spot for more than half a second before finding the next.

Under Zhou Shiyun’s control, these twenty-seven golden needles formed a radiant, mysterious pattern shimmering across Lin Mu’s body. Strangely reminiscent… almost like an ancient Bagua Diagram.

As the gleaming pattern cycled persistently across Lin Mu’s skin…

The dreadful blue-purple pallor of Lin Mu’s face… it faded. Slowly.

Her hands trembled—barely a quiver, but enough. Zhou Shiyun bit her tongue sharply, refocusing instantly. The gold light, which had slightly wavered, regained its fierce brilliance.

Five full minutes passed thus. The pattern created by the twenty-seven needles traversed Lin Mu’s body…

Dozens of cycles done.

The blazing speed, the pinpoint accuracy, the overwhelming complexity of these maneuvers—for Zhou Shiyun, whose body was more fragile than most to begin with—this far exceeded mere exhausting limits.

Only when the blue-purple staining Lin Mu’s face vanished completely did she finally stop. Immediately…

She coughed up a mouthful of blood. Her body weakened entirely. Collapsing forward without consciousness, her head landed limply on Lin Mu’s stomach.