Eternal Life Begins with Learning

"Brother Mu, do you know what is most important in the study of medicine?"

Amidst the wind and snow, Elder Li spoke slowly. His voice was calm, yet it carried with perfect clarity into Chu Mu’s ears despite the howling, frigid wind.

"Know people, know medicine."

Chu Mu pondered for a moment before firmly speaking those four words.

"Brother Mu, you are truly gifted. You have only studied medicine for a month, yet you have already grasped its essence."

Elder Li’s face showed his admiration. "This principle is the ultimate truth of the medical path!"

"Know the person to understand their needs. Know the medicine to understand its properties. This allows you to treat the ailment and understand what is required."

"Brother Mu, you are a man of martial arts. I imagine you are learning medicine from this old man to aid your training. If so, you must remember this principle even more keenly: know the person, know the medicine, so that you may know your own needs."

Seeing that Elder Li had spoken so openly, many of Chu Mu’s reservations dissipated. He finally voiced the question he had long wanted to ask but never knew who to approach.

"If I may ask, Elder Li, is all Qi and Blood Cultivation just a matter of grinding away day after day?"

"A matter of grinding away day after day..."

Elder Li paused, something seemingly stirring within him. He let out a soft sigh. "For ordinary people like us, it is indeed a matter of grinding away day after day."

"A person’s life is so fleeting."

"Qi and Blood Cultivation can easily consume half a lifetime!"

"Alas... alas..."

A thoughtful look flickered in Chu Mu’s eyes. He then asked, "If one knows the person, and knows the medicine... can this grind be avoided?"

"Know the person... know the medicine..."

Elder Li chuckled. "Brother Mu, you are gifted, so it is natural for you to have such ambitions."

"An ordinary person might never reach that level in their entire life, so how could they even speak of avoiding the grind?"

"Besides, even if one could avoid the grind, what of it? In the end, how many of them don’t just waste away decades, accomplishing nothing...?"

Chu Mu’s head snapped up, a light flashing in his eyes. His gaze upon Elder Li now held a strange, new fervor.

Elder Li seemed not to notice Chu Mu’s fervent gaze. He looked up at the sky with his slightly clouded eyes and said faintly, "This sky... is too dark."

Chu Mu was silent. ’He was now certain that this Elder Li before him... whether he was truly Extraordinary or not, he had definitely come into contact with the real Extraordinary World.’

’Perhaps... just like that old man in Qili Village?’

’Or perhaps he had once stepped into the Extraordinary World, only to be crushed by reality, becoming disheartened and retreating to this small town?’

’This sky... is too dark?’

Chu Mu was lost in thought, but then, he felt a sense of relief.

’The sky of the Extraordinary is too dark.’

’But is the sky of the mundane world any brighter?’

Chu Mu could understand Elder Li’s lament, just as he understood the elder’s dislike for how the Inspection Office treated the lives of common people as if they were worthless weeds.

Chu Mu could understand, but he couldn’t truly empathize.

’People, in the end, are selfish.’

’He, Chu Mu, was just an insignificant speck among the teeming masses.’

’It was good enough to just look out for himself and, at most, do what he could for others.’

’As for saving the world... that was just nonsense.’

’Who would willingly look for trouble? He certainly wouldn’t.’

"Sigh. When you get old, you tend to get sentimental."

Elder Li shook his head. "I must have made a fool of myself in front of you, Brother Mu."

Chu Mu was a bit baffled. He didn’t quite understand the purpose behind Elder Li’s half-veiled words and actions.

’If he had no hidden intention, there was no need to say so much; they could have just maintained their previous, simple, transactional relationship.’

’But the reality was, he kept lifting the veil, revealing his mysterious side, yet he never spoke plainly, as if deliberately being cryptic.’

Unable to figure it out, Chu Mu didn’t dwell on it.

’Whatever the case, there had to be a purpose behind it all.’

’And if there was a purpose, it would reveal itself to him sooner or later.’

’He would simply meet all changes by remaining unchanged.’

Chu Mu said nothing more, silently following behind Elder Li.

Although he didn’t know who Elder Li’s specific patients were for the day’s house calls, Chu Mu could guess that the workload would not be light.

After all, given the massive turmoil last night, it was impossible that a large number of Inspectors hadn’t been killed or injured.

The dead could simply be buried; in the end, it would just be a matter of a pension for their families.

But the injured needed treatment.

And in Nanshan Town, there were no other doctors besides Elder Li.

The reality was just as Chu Mu had guessed.

The first day of his "paid leave" was spent trekking through the streets and alleys all day.

Although Chu Mu had already gained a deep understanding of this era’s Medical Skill over the past half-month, it wasn’t until this day of making rounds and witnessing Elder Li’s treatments firsthand that Chu Mu realized his understanding was still far too shallow.

In an era where the wondrous concept of Qi Blood was real, the seemingly backward system of Medical Skill, when combined with the miraculous Qi Blood constitution...

...produced therapeutic effects and a scope of treatment that seemed far superior, and far more... miraculous, than in the technologically advanced era of his past life.

If he hadn’t already gained some understanding of this era’s Medical Skill, he might have felt like he was watching... sorcery.

Perhaps doctors like Elder Li, who possessed both profound Medical Skill and extraordinary Martial Arts, were a minority. But in a way, it seemed to reveal that the upper limits of this era were indeed very, very high.

After all, this was still just the mundane world. The Qi Blood system and the Medical Skill system were, it seemed, also part of this mundane framework.

And above it all, there was the higher level of the Extraordinary, which surely held even more unimaginable things.

Chu Mu studied with great diligence. There were dozens of injured men, each with different wounds—some had burns, some had lost limbs, and some had been disemboweled. All of it spoke to the ferocity of last night’s battle.

Although Elder Li had already treated most of these injuries last night, the follow-up visits, coupled with Elder Li’s hands-on teaching, allowed Chu Mu to connect his own accumulated knowledge with reality. He undoubtedly benefited immensely.

Elder Li’s combination of medicinal ingredients, in particular, left Chu Mu nearly breathless with admiration.

Mingxin Hall kept 238 types of medicinal ingredients in stock, while a detailed herbology text Chu Mu had been reading recently cataloged nearly 600 types.

Each ingredient had different properties. Even the same ingredient, when used at a different time or processed in a different way, would produce entirely different effects.

It was like a math problem with infinite answers. Chu Mu was still lost in a fog regarding all this, often just reciting what he had learned from the books.

But in Elder Li’s hands, it was as if he had memorized all the answers.

Of course, Chu Mu knew this had to be an illusion. No matter how divine Elder Li’s Medical Skill was, he couldn’t possibly know all the answers.

After all, the answers were infinite.

But this illusion clearly demonstrated that in the path of Medical Skill—knowing the person, knowing the medicine—Elder Li had reached a level that Chu Mu found somewhat incomprehensible.

Without a doubt, what Chu Mu sought to achieve was exactly what Elder Li had already mastered.

His goal had never been clearer.