Ninth In the World

Di Jiu nodded before he replied, “If I intervene now, I could save her. However, if we delay helping her, I can’t guarantee that she will survive.”

Signs of vitality were metaphysical. Di Jiu could sense the woman’s slowly deteriorating signs of vitality, but he was uncertain when those signs would disappear completely.

Lin Bo fell to his knees with a loud sound and looked at Di Jiu earnestly as he pleaded, “Please save Lian Shayu…”

Lin Bo had no idea whether Di Jiu could actually save Lian Shayu, but the girl was already dead, so there could be no worse consequence than death.

Di Jiu nodded as he told Lin Bo, “Please go to my room and bring my bag.”

“Sure, sure!” Lin Bo did not ask Di Jiu how he intended to save the girl. He just rushed out and did as Di Jiu had requested.

As soon as Lin Bo left, Di Jiu started to quickly strike different acupuncture points on Lian Shayu’s body. It was obvious that she had suffered from a heart-related disease, so Di Jiu did not understand Lin Bo’s decision to administer a heartrate-quickening drug. However, that was no longer important. He just had to focus on the fact that Lian Shayu was not completely dead.

There were many different cases of false death. In Lian Shayu’s case, her heart had stopped temporarily, which had caused her to fall into a temporary death-like coma. If she remained in this state for a certain period of time, then she would die for real.

Back when Di Jiu had been studying medicine in the Ji Nation, the occurence of false death could be reversed with some extra effort. Di Jiu had practised the Major Conduit Internal Records and the Di Clan’s Sabers’ Qi, so each stroke he made was full of Essence Energy.

A constant stream of Essence Energy was being transferred from Di Jiu’s strokes into Lian Shayu’s body through her acupuncture points. Lin Bo, who had just returned with the backpack, watched in awe the speed that Di Jiu’s hands moved over Lian Shayu’s body. Lian Shayu’s body ascended from the bed and started rolling in the air. Lin Bo could see clearly that Di Jiu’s hands did not remain in contact with Lian Shayu’s body for long.

What kind of skill was that?

Lin Bo, who had been a Deputy Chief Physician at the Ai Bo Hospital, could be considered an experienced doctor, yet he had never seen the moves that Di Jiu was executing before.

After more than 10 minutes of these strokes, Lian Shayu moved towards the floor. Lin Bo noticed a stream of hot air leaking from Di Jiu’s forehead. This was almost similar to the legendary qigong.

As Lian Shayu descended, Di Jiu grabbed a few medicinal herbs from his backpack. He crushed the herbs by rubbing his hands together and placed them in Lian Shayu’s mouth. He proceeded to keep administering the same strokes on her body.

Lin Bo was excited to see Lian Shayu’s throat move as she swallowed the crushed herbs Di Jiu had placed in her mouth.

When Di Jiu finished administering those strokes, he reached into his bag for a towel to wipe his sweat away. Then, he turned to Lin Bo and said, “She will be awake in a few minutes. You will need to find a way to explain how you saved her and take her away.”

Lin Bo walked over to Lian Shayu’s side and squeezed her wrist to check for her pulse. “She’s awake… She has really come back to life!” Lin Bo said excitedly.

His excitement made him incoherent. Lian Shayu was still unconscious, but Lin Bo could feel a pulse on her wrist.

Di Jiu gave Lin Bo a pat on the shoulder before he said, “Calm down. She did not come back to life. She had never died in the first place. It was just a case of false death. She has not regained consciousness yet, but her blood circulation has been revived.”

“Sir…” Lin Bo stuttered.

Di Jiu waved his hand indifferently as he replied, “My name is Di Jiu, Doctor Lin. Please do not call me sir. I have not earned it…”

Di Jiu was reminded of his time in Pearl City. Even though there had definitely been other loafers besides him and Qu Xiaoshu, who had not had a lot of experience in this occupation, they had still been highly respected and addressed politely.

“Yes, Master Di. Given your medical expertise, you could easily be appointed as the hospital’s chief physician.”

Di Jiu interrupted Lin Bo before he could finish his sentence. “Doctor Lin…”

“Please do not call me Doctor Lin, Master Di. You can address me by my name, or just call me Xiao Lin. That will do,” Lin Bo said, placing his hands tensely against his sides.

Di Jiu’s medical expertise had shocked Lin Bo, who was too excited to stay calm. As a medical practitioner, he felt a sense of admiration for Di Jiu.

Lin Bo’s excitement showed accurately his admiration for medical expertise. Although most people would look up to Di Jiu’s abilities, Lin Bo, who had been a Deputy Chief Physician at a hospital, knew clearly how high Di Jiu ranked in the medical field.

Di Jiu’s technique was most definitely worth Lin Bo’s respect. This had been a special technique used by the first major physician of the Ji Nation, Xue Tuo. The technique was called the Five-Yin Six-Yang Hand.

In order to learn the Five-Yin Six-Yang Hand, Di Jiu had sought the support of his father, Di Shan, and even offered the Di Family’s most treasured possession, an 1,000-year-old ginseng, to Xue Tuo as a gift. However, the 1,000-year-old ginseng alone had still been an inadequate price for this technique. It was the combination of the 1,000-year-old ginseng and the Di Family’s status that had given Di Jiu the opportunity to master the Five-Yin Six-Yang Hand.

The Five Yin, which were also known as the five elements, were the lungs, liver, kidney, heart, and spleen. Each element represented metal, water, wood, fire, and earth respectively. The Six Yang were the gallbladder, stomach, large intestine, bladder, and sanjiao.

Di Jiu had mastered this technique better than Xue Tuo. After he had mastered the Major Conduit Internal Records and the Di Clan’s first saber move, his display of the Five-Yin Six-Yang Hand had become more formidable than Xue Tuo’s.

Di Jiu chuckled as he said, “Do you think it would be difficult for me to become a doctor given my medical expertise? I came here to seek peace though, and there is no place around the hospital that is quieter than this one. Therefore, you do not need to recommend me for a doctor position at the hospital or ask me to treat patients here.”

“I’ll keep that in mind,” Lin Bo replied quickly. “Are you a Chinese Medicine practitioner, Doctor Di? Chinese Medicine takes longer to heal patients, but I thought it no longer mattered. I did not know that real Chinese Medicine was so powerful.”

“I am not a Chinese Medicine practitioner, but I have read about Chinese Medicine. Chinese Medicine is immensely profound. It actually follows the evolutionary theory of nature, so it is a natural means of human medical treatment. You are right, though. Chinese Medicine is unable to treat terminal illnesses,” Di Jiu answered truthfully.

Lin Bo looked at Di Jiu with a puzzled expression. “I saw you use two types of herbs just now and crush them with a certain technique…”

“In my opinion, Western Medicine is just a form of Chinese Medicine. The Yin and Yang already exist in nature, just like the male and female gender. If there is a Yin, there must also be a Yang. Every ailment has its medicinal cure. The reason Chinese Medicine may not be able to cure certain ailments is that the right medicinal herb has not been found yet. Western Medicine uses man-made techniques to extract the medicinal properties of these herbs to treat illnesses that Chinese Medicine cannot,” Di Jiu explained patiently.

“Some people who studied Chinese Medicine created a lack of expertise in the field. Medicinal herbs may be scarce or hard to find, which makes Chinese Medicine less effective compared to Western Medicine. The decline of the practice of Chinese Medicine in the near future is normal and expected.”

“How can we reverse this decline?” Lin Bo had completely forgotten where he was. He felt like he had gone back to the time when he had been asking questions at school.

“It’s inevitable,” Di Jiu replied coldly.

Earth’s resources were becoming increasingly scarce. The discovery of the Fairy Planet could ease the decline of Chinese Medicine in the short term, but it wouldn’t do so for long. Human greed would continue to propel the decline of Chinese Medicine. The remaining quantity of medicinal herbs would run out, and mass production of man-made medicine would definitely take less effort than cultivating medicinal herbs.

For the sake of efficiency and revenue, mankind would not spend any time cultivating medicinal herbs. It would rather invest time and energy into creating synthetic drugs for medicinal treatment.

“Ah… Doctor Lin? Where am I…” Lian Shayu, who had regained consciousness, interrupted Lin Bo’s next question.

When she surveyed her surroundings and realized she was not in the hospital ward, she was relieved to see the familiar face of Doctor Lin.