Zhou Donghuang did not practice after returning from his visit to Yang Yunji. Instead, he sat at the stone table in the courtyard, sipping tea and enjoying the sunshine.
“Big Brother Zhou.”
A gentle voice, followed by a beautiful, slender and elegant young lady, slipped into Zhou Donghuang’s field of vision.
It was Yang Zixi.
“Have a seat.”
Zhou Donghuang smiled gently as he beckoned Yang Zixi over to have a seat. Perhaps it was the whole episode with Chen Dandan that gave him a sense of goodwill towards this young lady who knew the meaning of gratitude.
Of course, it was only goodwill and not mixed with other feelings.
“Big Brother Zhou, First Uncle and Third Uncle asked me to give this to you.”
She placed the brocaded box she was holding on the stone table and pushed before Zhou Donghuang, making sure to display it before Zhou Donghuang before opening it.
Inside the box was the ten-year survival weed.
“I have not yet finished purging the poison from Patriarch Yang’s body, and you are already giving me the ten-year survival weed? Aren’t they afraid that I will not be able to complete the job?”
Zhou Donghuang shook his head with a smile.
“Big Brother Zhou must be kidding.”
The young lady laughed breezily. Just from the skill that this youth had shown that day, she was fully confident that he would be able to completely purge the poison from her uncle’s body.
“Big Brother Zhou, how did you come to have such skills? Where did you learn such a skill?” the young lady asked curiously.
The technique and skill that the youth had displayed in acupuncture had left her starry-eyed and in awe. In her opinion, such skill was impossible to master without at least eight to ten years of hard work.
“I learned it from an ancient record, through trial and error.”
Zhou Donghuang’s reply was the truth. He had indeed found an ancient record on acupuncture on Earth by accident, and he had eventually mastered it after a period of trial and error.
However, the young lady did not believe Zhou Donghuang but assumed that he was unwilling to reveal the truth, and so she did not pursue it further.
“Big Brother Zhou, Shi Yu of the Shi family left and returned with Medicine Master Xiao… Medicine Master Xiao is acknowledged as the foremost expert on poisons in the Chu royal city. He was stunned speechless when he saw the state First Uncle was in after you treated him.”
The young lady changed the subject, smiling as she shared this with Zhou Donghuang. “Or perhaps, he never imagined in his wildest dreams that youth could purge even a poison even he was helpless against.”
“The Russell’s Viper is extremely rare, and perhaps not even ten of them could be found in the whole of Yunyang country… perhaps he does not even know of Russell’s Viper, so how could he treat its poison?”
Zhou Donghuang graciously made light of it.
Of course, there was something that he did not say.
Even if the source of an ordinary poison was unknown, an intermediate-level medicine master would be able to purge it… however, usually only an earth-level medicine master and above would be able to purge the poison from a Russell’s Viper.
“Big Brother Zhou, are you really an inferior-level medicine master?” the young Lady asked curiously.
“An inferior-level medicine master?”
Zhou Donghuang was momentarily stunned, but recovered with a casual laugh and countered, “Zixi, do you think an inferior-level medicine master would be able to detoxify your uncle?”
“No.”
The young lady shook her head. She knew what level an inferior-level medicine master would have. Even an intermediate-level medicine master might not have such ability.
For example, the ten great medicine masters of the Chu royal city, who were all outstanding intermediate-level medicine masters, had been helpless against the poison that her uncle was suffering from.
“Big Brother Zhou, then are you be an intermediate-level medicine master?”
The young lady stared wide-eyed, her beautiful face full of surprise.
“I’m not.”
Zhou Donghuang shook his head.
“How about a superior-level medicine master?” the young lady asked again.
Zhou Donghuang shook his head once more.
“Big Brother Zhou, are you telling me… that you are an earth-level medicine master?” the young lady asked with a smile.
“Also, no.”
Zhou Donghuang continued shaking his head.
“Big Brother Zhou, could you possibly mean that… you are a heaven-level medicine master?” the young lady asked with a bitter smile.
There had never been a heaven-level medicine master in the history of the country of Yunyang. The best medicine master in the history of the country of Yunyang had only been an earth-level medicine master.
“A heaven-level medicine master? Perhaps I could be considered as one,” Zhou Donghuang murmured, nodding his head solemnly.
Adepts below the stage of Primal Core could not use their essential core to forge the Samadhi fire, and without the Samadhi fire, they could not practice alchemy.
No matter how skilled a person might be at alchemy and how knowledgeable he was about medicine, he could only be considered a heaven-level medicine master at most if he had not advanced to the stage of Primal Core.
This was the situation that Zhou Donghuang was in now.
In his previous life, not only had he been at the pinnacle of the universe in terms of martial power, but also in terms of practicing alchemy, no one could match him.
However, even though he had a brain full of unsurpassed knowledge about alchemy and medicine, his level of practice had not yet advanced to the stage of Primal Core. He could also only be considered a medicine master and not an alchemist.
A heaven-level medicine master? Could he be considered as such?
The young lady naturally did not believe Zhou Donghuang and assumed that he was joking with her. “Big Brother Zhou, you are truly… interesting.”
Though he saw that the young lady did not believe him, Zhou Donghuang chose not to say more. He had no control over whether people believed him or not.
Moreover, he could not be bothered about it.
After chatting with Zhou Donghuang for a while more, the young lady bade him farewell. “Big Brother Zhou, I’ll come over tomorrow morning, and we’ll go over to my uncle together.”
“Mhm.”
After acknowledging the young lady, Zhou Donghuang returned to his room to begin formulating the new qi-gathering elixir.
Although he could have formulated a qi-gathering elixir that increased sensitivity to qi by 900% percent earlier, he was in no hurry to do so.
He had been waiting for the ten-year survival weed from the Yang family.
Now that he had the ten-year survival weed, he could immediately formulate a qi-gathering elixir that increased sensitivity to qi by a thousand percent!
With this maximum strength qi-gathering elixir, my rate of practice can be increased even further.
Several hours later, Zhou Donghuang was looking at bottle after bottle of maximum strength qi-gathering elixir, his eyes glittering.
With this maximum strength qi-gathering elixir, when I enter that state of complete concentration needed for the Lord of the Four Supremes, my rate of practice will be even greater!
At this thought, Zhou Donghuang’s eyes began to glitter even more brightly.
Of course, he knew that he would not be able to enter that state of practice for the next few days… because he needed to help the patriarch of the Yang family purge the poison from his body every day for the next four days.
Of course, although he would not be able to enter that particular state of practice for the next few days, Zhou Donghuang was nevertheless impatient to consume the maximum strength qi-gathering elixir and begin practicing.
Now, in the process of practicing the Lord of the Four Supremes, he could distinctly feel his rate of practice increasing… The increase in his rate of practice was so great compared to before that it could not even be mentioned in the same breath!
Zhou Donghuang practiced till late at night before collapsing onto his bed and falling asleep. The next morning, he continued practicing as soon as he awoke.
At Zhou Donghuang’s current level of practice, he still could not enter a state of practice that was as good as sleep.
In the boundless universe, only adepts who had achieved the stage of Primal Core could enter a state of practice that was as good as sleep. At the stage of Primal Core, the body could enter a state of sleep while using the core condensed inside the body to absorb qi to practice, and this process would not affect the practice.
“Big Brother Zhou.”
After practicing for several hours, Zhou Donghuang heard the voice of a young lady. He stopped practicing immediately and left the room. He went with Yang Zixi to the accommodation of Patriarch Yang Yunji of the Yang family.
Similar to the previous day, Zhou Donghuang allowed only the young lady to remain in the room as he purged the poison from Yang Yunji.
Less than half a day later, after Zhou Donghuang had put the thirty-six gold needles back in the brocaded box, and the robe that Yang Yunji was wearing was once again stained with black poisoned blood.
Besides that, almost half of Yang Yunji’s hair had turned black.
There were significantly fewer wrinkles on Yang Yunji’s face. After purging the poison the previous day, he had looked just over sixty years old, but now, he looked less than sixty years old.
“First Uncle, rest well.”
The young lady wished Yang Yunji before leaving with Zhou Donghuang, not lingering as she had the previous day.
As they were leaving, the third master of the Yang family, Yang Yunchong, entered the room, smiling at Yang Yunji who was sitting cross-legged on the bed. He said, “Big Brother, that girl Zixi seems to have feelings for that Medicine Master Zhou… I’ve never seen her so close to any young man of similar age as her.”
“It’s a pity he is from an inferior-level prefecture, if not, we could seriously consider matching Zixi with him.”
Yang Yunji was very enthusiastic in front of Zhou Donghuang, but now, at the mention of Zhou Donghuang, a look of distaste crept into his eyes.
He changed his demeanor like flipping the pages of a book.
He had just found out yesterday from Yang Zixi herself that Zhou Donghuang was from Yunfeng prefecture, an inferior-level prefecture.
“Big Brother, although he is from an inferior-level prefecture, there is something about him… to be able to treat even the poison you are suffering from, if he and Zixi end up together, and he stays with our Yang family, it would be a great asset to our Yang family,” Yang Yunchong said.
“He can purge the poison from me only because he happens to recognize this particular kind of snake poison, and therefore knows how to purge this kind of snake poison,” Yang Yunji said indifferently. “At his age, he can only be an inferior-level medicine master at best. Our Yang family does not lack a mere inferior-level medicine master.”
Although Zhou Donghuang had demonstrated an extremely skillful method of acupuncture before Yang Yunji, in Yang Yunji’s view, that could only have been familiarity that resulted from practice and did not prove anything.
Even if a youth of sixteen or seventeen years of age could master such a dazzling technique, he could still not possibly be an intermediate-level medicine master.
To become an intermediate-level medicine master, a person’s mastery of medicine must meet a certain standard. How high a standard could a youth reach?
“Patriarch, the patriarch of the Shi family is here.”
Just as Yang Yunji finished speaking, he heard the voice of a Yang family junior coming from outside the room. “With him are Young Master Shi Yu and Medicine Master Xiao.”
“The patriarch of the Shi family?”
Yang Yunji squinted at the Yang family junior’s words. “What is he here for?”
The Shi family was a tycoon family, and although it was at the bottom of the pile among the tycoon families, the Yang family was likewise at the bottom of the pile among the grand families and could not compare to them.
“Shi Yu and Xiao Chen are with him… why do I feel for some reason that the patriarch of the Shi family is here concerning the matter of Medicine Master Zhou treating your poison?”
Yang Yunchong guessed with a frown.
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