Chapter 12: 12. Nine Mythical Dao Lineages

12. Nine Mythical Dao Lineages

"What is 'Golden-Wound Spasm'?"

"Forgot, that's the term used in military formations. 'Golden-Wound' is because these injuries are often caused by sharp metal weapons, and 'spasm' is the symptom after being wounded; it makes a person curl up on the bed like a shrimp from the pain. That's how my father used to call it."

"In common parlance, it seems some physicians call it... tetanus."

Ouyang Rong paused, stunned. No wonder he had just seen A-Shan wrapped in thick winter padded jackets by his mother and sister, as if he had caught a cold.

And at the time, the man's expression was dull; besides the possibility that he was harboring a death wish, it should also have been due to facial muscle spasms and stiffness.

"This is an incurable disease; he doesn't have many days left to live. A pity for a good man," Yan Wuxu shook his head.

Ouyang Rong was lost in thought, "Tetanus, huh... it should still be in the incubation period..."

In this era without antibiotics, it was indeed something that could be called an incurable disease... But not necessarily. After all, this world had Qi Refiners, and the Outer Elixir arts of the Northern and Southern Daoist schools were also quite famous.

When he was taking the imperial examinations in Luoyang, he even heard that there were immortal alchemists overseas seeking longevity, who were quite sought after by the powerful and wealthy in Luoyang. Therefore, among the forces of Qi Refiners, there might truly be some kind of miraculous elixir beyond his understanding.

But obviously, these forces that grasped mythical power could not possibly waste miraculous elixirs on a lowly official slave.

In this world, the only ones whose heartstrings would be tugged by the survival of this nameless nobody called A-Shan were Mother Liu and that A-Qing with the sorrowful eyes.

However... now there was half a person more.

"I count as half."

Ouyang Rong muttered, then turned and walked toward the Fragrant Kitchen of East Forest Temple.

Yan Wuxu hurriedly followed, asking curiously, "Magistrate, what 'half'?"

"Go get me half a moldy taro."

"..." Yan Wuxu thought for a moment, then kindly reminded him, "Magistrate, moldy things cannot be eaten."

Ouyang Rong: "?"

Yan Wuxu actually still didn't understand why the Magistrate had suddenly stopped going down the mountain, ran straight to the Fragrant Kitchen, borrowed a kitchen from the managing monk, and shut himself inside to tinker with things...

Outside the door, the man holding the constable's saber opened his mouth slightly, watching the young Magistrate—who in his mind had always been an elegant, gentle, and scholarly figure—rummage through cabinets, pulling out taro, charcoal, rice soup, and even vegetable oil, clay pots, and cotton. Then, rolling up his sleeves, he performed a series of fierce operations, and the man holding the saber even heard the young Magistrate occasionally muttering some strange and eerie things like "Ah, the dead memories are attacking me again."

Ouyang Rong wiped the sweat from his forehead with his arm and glanced at the crude purification equipment on the table. He couldn't help but frown:

"Still underestimated the difficulty of this thing... It seems it won't work..."

Ouyang Rong wasn't just an "old keyboard warrior who knows a little bit about everything." Back in college, he had taken an elective course in the Chemical Engineering School for credits. Because the teacher was a blonde, busty foreign instructor, he had studied with great interest, especially every time she bent over on the podium to check the conduits in her white lab coat...

Regardless, unlike the other "LSPs" (lecherous people) in the class, besides visually estimating her bust size, he had truly learned some knowledge.

Coupled with being a max-level human with strong hands-on ability who could hand-craft physical auto-clickers.

Ouyang Rong had initially been quite confident, thinking that with more patience, some time, and adapting to local conditions, it wouldn't be difficult to tinker out some low-purity antibiotics.

But after tinkering for a while, he realized he had still underestimated the difficulty of purification.

The main problem lay in the purification equipment; the crude antibiotics had too many miscellaneous bacteria, and using them would instead harm Liu A-Shan.

"This path is blocked... Sure enough, novels are all lies. How could a normal person climb this kind of technology tree..."

Ouyang Rong let out a long sigh, but he wasn't discouraged. He decisively turned around to fetch paper and pen.

Change the method.

Ouyang Rong lowered his head, dipped his brush in ink, and wrote down a few prescriptions, saying:

"Liulang, can you help me go get some medicine? Please pay for it for me first."

"No... no problem."

Yan Wuxu, who was helping on the side, couldn't understand what Ouyang Rong was doing, but the whole process of tinkering just now had left him greatly shocked.

As Ouyang Rong recalled the prescriptions, he couldn't help but frown and ask:

"Magistrate, did you... did you learn the mechanism arts of the Mohist Dao lineage?"

"What Mohist Dao lineage? What mechanism arts?" Ouyang Rong didn't look up, asking back curiously.

"You're really not?"

"Uh, I'm not. It's your turn to answer me."

Yan Wuxu leaned against the door holding his saber, seemingly thinking for a moment, and said:

"I also heard it from others while drinking. The Mohist Dao lineage is one of the nine mythical Dao lineages passed down from the Pre-Qin era. Before the First Emperor sought the longevity elixir, it was an existence on par with the Scholar Dao lineage and the Daoist Dao lineage. But after the Red Emperor beheaded the White Emperor and obtained the Han world as a commoner, the Mohist Dao lineage began to diverge and gradually declined. In the end, the families of the Grand Masters disappeared into the long river of history."

"However, the Qi Refining arts and mechanism arts of the Mohist Dao lineage scattered across the world, eventually giving birth to the countless large and small sects of today's ten circuits and the northern and southern Jianghu. It can be said that one tree fell and ten thousand woods grew, preventing mythical Qi Refining arts from being monopolized by the imperial court and a few powerful clans, just like the path of upward mobility for commoner scholars."

Having held his saber well, but not yet having entered the Jianghu, the son of the County Commandant had a longing look in his eyes, "So some people also say that the Mohists didn't die out; all of us Jianghu people are actually white-clothed Mohist knights, disciples of the Grand Master."

Ouyang Rong raised his head. This was the first time he had heard of this, and he couldn't help but ask: "Nine mythical Dao lineages? What about the other eight?"

Yan Wuxu scratched his head, "I only know that the Great Zhou imperial court holds the Military Dao lineage and the Yin-Yang Qi-Gazing Dao lineage, as well as the three Dao lineages held by the three prominent sects of Confucianism, Buddhism, and Daoism. As for the others, I don't know; they should all be hidden powerful clans."

Ouyang Rong thought for a moment and decided to strike at the soul: "Which Dao lineage does Liulang follow? Is it the Mohist Dao lineage?"

Yan Wuxu's face turned red instantly. After a while, he muttered softly: "If only I had truly entered the rank of Qi Refiners, then I wouldn't have been flicked away by the Magistrate's aunt that day..."

Ouyang Rong comforted him: "It's okay, I... have never seen anyone who could beat my aunt since I was a child. Of course, that was in the countryside of Nanlong."

Yan Family's Liulang coughed twice, "By the way, before I met the Magistrate, I actually thought the Magistrate was a Qi Refiner of the Scholar Dao lineage."

"Me?" Ouyang Rong was dumbfounded, "Why is that..." Blind.

"Very simple, because Bai Bai Lu Dong Academy belongs to the Confucian sect, and the Magistrate is a scholar who came from there and is famous throughout the world. It's hard for Jianghu people who understand the origins not to think in that direction."

Ouyang Rong recalled for a moment, shook his head, and continued to lower his head to do his work, "But when I was studying at Bai Bai Lu Dong Academy, I was always following my mentor and didn't come into contact with these things."

Yan Wuxu nodded, "Then it must be that the Magistrate failed the selection. I heard that the three sects of Confucianism, Buddhism, and Daoism all have potential but formal mechanisms to select suitable seeds for Qi Refining from among their disciples. The Magistrate was a scholar seed whose name spread throughout the Jiang Nan Circuit very early on; Bai Bai Lu Dong Academy couldn't have missed the Magistrate."

Directly issuing a "trash card," right? Ouyang Rong laughed, "Doesn't matter."

Yan Wuxu comforted him again, "But it's also normal. Magistrate, set your mind at ease. These types of talented people are rare as phoenix feathers and unicorn horns. Just like the Jianghu, it's also mostly occupied by miscellaneous small-fry local sects. Sects that can truly learn master-transmitted Qi Refining arts are very few and far between. Sigh."

Ouyang Rong nodded, "But this is like immortals. Then I'd like to see what these so-called Qi Refiners look like when they fight. Are Qi Refiners really that magical? But when I was taking the imperial examinations in Luoyang, why didn't I see any experts who could vault over walls? If they really existed, wouldn't they show off their skills often?"

Having experienced the dream-shattering of the Pure Land Underground Palace, he held deep skepticism about the power level of this world.

Yan Wuxu, however, said sternly: "Magistrate, please don't underestimate ranked Qi Refiners. The reason they are hard to see is, first, because their numbers are indeed scarce, and second, because the Jianghu isn't about killing and fighting; it's about human relationships and worldly wisdom."

"..." Ouyang Rong.

Good fellow, you little constable haven't even entered the Jianghu yet, and you've already gotten the correct answer to the final big question. Quietly getting such a big score, do you think it's appropriate?

"Cough, cough, Magistrate, actually I saw it in a chivalry book. It seems it was written by a Jianghu senior."

Yan Wuxu took out a book with worn pages from his bosom and sighed with emotion: "It also happened to record how he successively got to know a tsundere senior, a devoted fox demon, a famous family's genius girl, a female teacher at the academy... and delved into their stories."

Ouyang Rong waved his hand, "Sorry, I read the Spring and Autumn Annals."

After speaking, the prescription in his hand was written. Ouyang Rong folded it twice and handed it to Yan Wuxu, "Help me go down the mountain to get the medicine. Be as fast as possible."

Yan Wuxu lowered his head to look, wanting to ask, but suddenly a rush of footsteps came from outside. He put away the prescription, immediately turned around, pressed his hand on the hilt of his saber, and stood guard at the door:

"Who?"

Xiufa and Banxi came rushing over in a panic. The former started speaking anxiously from far away, and the first sentence made Ouyang Rong's eyelids jump.

"Young Master, Young Master, the Lady wants you to go back quickly. Your mentor has come to see you!"

"..." ===== CHAPTER 13 =====