Eternal Life Begins with Learning

"You want to study medicine?"

In Mingxin Hall, Elder Li set down the book in his hands, looking somewhat surprised.

"Yes."

Chu Mu nodded without another word. He had known Elder Li for some time now and had a decent grasp of his personality.

He was a man of his word, so there was no need for excessive talk.

It would be best if he agreed. If not, Chu Mu would just have to find another way.

He couldn’t access Extraordinary powers, but mundane medical skills weren’t out of reach.

"Every family has its own rules for passing down its trade."

"But I have no children, so I don’t place much importance on such things."

"However, the path of medicine is as vast as the ocean. It cannot be mastered overnight. You are busy with official duties, so I’m afraid..."

Chu Mu acted as if he hadn’t heard the gentle refusal in Elder Li’s words and continued, "I’ve recently been promoted to team leader, so my schedule is much more flexible. It shouldn’t be a problem."

"I’m curious. Since you’re already making a name for yourself in officialdom, why do you also want to study medicine?"

Chu Mu smiled. "Studying medicine... helps one live longer!"

Elder Li gave Chu Mu a long, deep look, then mused for a moment. "Brother Mu, since you are so insistent, it would be improper for me to refuse."

"Don’t worry, Elder Li. I understand the customs."

As he spoke, Chu Mu took a small wooden box from his robes and placed it on the table in front of Elder Li.

There was nothing else in the box—just a thick stack of paper currency.

Three hundred silver!

This extremely expensive price, which nearly emptied Chu Mu’s remaining savings, was not without reason.

Before coming, Chu Mu had made inquiries through the Inspection Office’s channels about apprentices at Mingxin Hall—and of course, this meant true apprentices who would inherit Elder Li’s medical skills, not just errand boys.

Based on what Chu Mu had heard, there were two types of such apprentices. One was someone Elder Li himself appreciated and took on as a disciple to pass on his knowledge.

The other type used various connections and offered valuable gifts to eventually be accepted as a disciple.

The value of these gifts was generally around two hundred silver.

Studying medicine, in this era, was clearly not some lowly profession.

In fact, one could even say it was a respected position.

After all, medicine was indispensable, whether for understanding the body’s structure at the beginning of Qi and Blood Cultivation, or for the support of medicinal herbs once cultivation began.

From what Chu Mu understood of the current situation, studying was something only wealthy families could afford, while practicing martial arts required both wealth and status.

Without money, one couldn’t support the expenses of martial arts; without status, one couldn’t even get access to martial arts techniques.

The reverence for martial arts, in a sense, also directly caused the status of medicine to skyrocket.

Elder Li, standing before him, was undoubtedly the best example of this.

’Three hundred silver is probably still a little low,’ Chu Mu thought.

’After all, for others to become apprentices at Mingxin Hall with gifts worth around two hundred silver, there must have been other favors and connections involved.’

’His three hundred silver might seem like a high price, but it lacked that crucial element of personal connection.’

Elder Li didn’t glance at the wooden box on the table. Instead, he looked at Chu Mu again. "I heard there were mass casualties at the mine yesterday?"

Chu Mu frowned. He wasn’t concerned about how well-informed Elder Li was, but rather, whether he was allowed to speak about it.

A gag order was in effect, after all.

Disaster could come from a careless mouth.

After only a moment, Chu Mu made his decision. He paused thoughtfully before slowly recounting what he had seen and heard at the mine yesterday. 𝕗𝕣𝐞𝐞𝘄𝐞𝚋𝚗𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗹.𝚌𝕠𝚖

"Lives are as worthless as weeds..."

After hearing Chu Mu’s account, Elder Li’s expression grew melancholy, and he let out a soft sigh.

Then, Elder Li stood up and pulled a stack of books from a nearby shelf. "Brother Mu, take these books home and study them first."

"The path of medicine is vast; what matters most is perseverance."

"Since you have chosen medical skills, Brother Mu, you must not slack off."

"I understand."

Chu Mu accepted the thick stack of books, his expression turning solemn.

He knew very well that to him, this stack of books was no longer just a simple collection of medical texts, but a representation of the future he could now look forward to.

As for other things... like the higher level of the Extraordinary, while it was something he dreamed of, he currently had no way to access it.

Outside Mingxin Hall, Chu Mu paused. The winter sun shone brightly overhead, and the weather in the dead of winter was still clear. On the streets, the number of patrolling Inspectors had returned to its former state of high alert.

Chu Mu headed straight home. He wasn’t in a great hurry; Wu Shuo was in full control of the town’s patrols, and with his considerable authority, had granted him a full day off.

A whole day off. A rare moment of leisure.

Back home, the most conspicuous sight was, of course, the large hole in his bedroom roof.

But having just parted with three hundred silver, which had nearly wiped out what little savings he had left, there was no money for repairs. He could only put it off for now.

He patted the spot on his robes where the money had been, and the corner of his mouth couldn’t help but twitch.

’When I think about it, my income has actually been pretty good.’

’The reward for the beheadings alone was nearly a year’s monthly stipend, and that’s not even counting the black gold. In just one or two months, I’ve earned several hundred silver!’

’An ordinary farming family probably wouldn’t earn this much in a lifetime.’

’But it’s true what they say: the more you earn, the more you spend.’

He walked into the room and spread out the stack of books. He had already moved the reclining chair from his bedroom, and now he leaned back in it, casually picking up a book to flip through.

Having already grounded himself with several books on human anatomy, Chu Mu naturally had some understanding of this era’s medicine.

As Chu Mu understood it, the medicine of this era was like a combination of traditional Chinese and Western medicine.

Although it still used the same theories of Yin Yang and the Five Elements, the dialectical thinking within it was also quite apparent.

In other words, it was as if traditional Chinese medicine had adopted a spirit of scientific pioneering.

This was clear from the medical books on human anatomy, which were comparable to professional anatomy textbooks from his previous life. The medicine of this era had not clung to old conventions or limited itself; instead, it was exploring the unknown.

If Chu Mu had been puzzled by such anomalies before, now that he knew about the higher level of the Extraordinary, it all seemed perfectly natural to him.

Whether that higher level of the Extraordinary was a world of immortal cultivators or high-fantasy martial artists, it was bound to involve the mysteries of human evolution.

In a world that delved into the mysteries of human evolution, how could it possibly remain stagnant and bound by tradition?

And in a mundane world influenced by such a reality, it was inevitable that it would be affected, no matter how feudal or backward it was.

Those anatomy books, that ridiculously cheap grain—in Chu Mu’s view, these were likely tangible manifestations of the influence from the higher-level Extraordinary world.

There were surely many other such manifestations.

For instance, the iron ore in the mines, the secular ruling structure of Nanshan Town, Qinghe County, and even the entire commandery...

There were bound to be others.

Chu Mu just hadn’t discovered them yet. After all, despite having been in this world for several months, his sphere of activity—aside from that one trip into the mountains to exterminate bandits—had been confined entirely to Nanshan Town.

His knowledge and understanding were still limited.

...