Chapter 198: Three Questions of the Medical Path

Zhang Jun's heart gave a thump—what the hell kind of problem is this!

The old man is venerable and respected; saving him is honoring the elders; the child has limitless future; saving him is hope.

Both the palm and the back of the hand are flesh—how to choose?

Lin Xue's face also paled a bit, she pressed her lips tightly, staring at the two figures, her heart torn.

"This... this is deliberately making things difficult, isn't it?" Zhang Jun couldn't help but curse.

Lin Xue sucked in a breath, forcing herself to calm down.

She knew this was definitely a test left by Master Shouyi, not a joke.

In her mind, the teachings of the Shennong Medical Classic and her master's everyday words and deeds all surfaced.

Time passed bit by bit, and the two figures seemed to grow fainter.

"Xue'er, this..." Zhang Jun grew a bit anxious.

Lin Xue suddenly lifted her head, looking at Zhang Jun: "Zhang Jun, if it were you, how would you choose?"

Zhang Jun stared, scratched the back of his head: "I... I don't know. If I had to pick one... I, I might choose the child, he's still young..."

After he said that, he felt it wasn't right—"but that old man..."

Lin Xue's eyes lit up, she gently shook her head: "No, life has no nobility or baseness, no old or young. The old man has a lifetime of wisdom and contribution; the child has limitless future and possibility. If we simply give up one because the medicine is insufficient, what kind of saving lives and healing the wounded is that?"

She turned toward the barrier, her voice clear and firm: "Senior, I believe this question is not meant for us to make a cruel choice."

She paused, then continued: "A true healer, faced with scarce medicine, should not give up but try every possible way to see if both can be saved. I will attempt to allocate the limited medicine according to each patient's actual condition, making the most reasonable distribution. Perhaps it won't cure them instantly, but at least we can stabilize both lives, then think of other solutions. Even if there's only a sliver of hope, we will never lightly abandon any life. If it truly cannot be done, that only shows my medical skill is lacking, not that life itself can be lightly measured and discarded."

Zhang Jun listened to Lin Xue's words, his eyes lit up.

He nodded vigorously: "Right! Xue'er is right! We can think of a way—for example, first use a little medicinal power to sustain both lives, then we can go look for other herbs or think of other methods!"

As Lin Xue's words fell, the figures on the barrier and the cold question alike, like snow meeting the sun, slowly dissipated.

Immediately after, a soft white light spread from the stone platform, illuminating the whole cave.

The invisible force that had blocked Lin Xue from passing also vanished silently.

"The test... passed?" Zhang Jun still couldn't quite believe it.

Lin Xue let out a long breath, fine sweat beading on her forehead.

These three questions look simple, but each step is like dancing on a blade's edge, pointing straight to the original heart.

"Probably." Lin Xue's face showed a bit of fatigue, yet also relief.

She no longer delayed, striding toward the stone platform in the middle of the herb garden.

This time, nothing blocked her way.

Zhang Jun followed behind her, and the two arrived together before the stone platform.

On the stone platform lay a yellowed beast‑skin scroll and several jade slips, quietly resting, emitting a faint halo, ancient and mysterious.

Lin Xue reached out, her fingertips trembling slightly, and gently picked up the beast‑skin scroll.

The beast‑skin felt warm and moist in hand, exuding a strange medicinal fragrance.

She carefully unfolded a corner, seeing ancient characters and fine drawings depicting various rare flowers and herbs, with detailed notes on their properties, growing conditions, and preparation methods.

"Surely it's a fragment of the Hundred Herbs Classic!" Lin Xue's voice trembled with uncontainable joy, this matched the style and handwriting of the few pages she held exactly.

Many of the spiritual medicines recorded here are ones she has never heard of or seen before—precious treasures.

She then picked up the several jade slips beside it, extending her divine sense into one of them.

In an instant, a vast surge of information rushed into her mind.

This was Master Shouyi's cultivation insights, mostly profound understandings of the medical path and pharmacology, with a small part concerning the records of Wan Yao Gu.

It turned out that Wan Yao Gu, long ago, was not the poison‑mist‑filled wasteland it is now, but the Medicine Sect where Master Shouyi resided, a blessed land dedicated to cultivating various rare spiritual medicines.

Later, an evil force—the precursor of the Shadow Organization—took a liking to this place and waged a great battle against the Medicine Sect.

Although the Medicine Sect fought to the death, they were ultimately too few and weak; Master Shouyi suffered heavy injuries, leading a portion of the inheritance and disciples in a breakout, and Wan Yao Gu fell into enemy hands.

Those heretics, in order to turn this place into a site for practicing evil arts and raising toxic beasts, used some unknown vicious method to stir the earth veins, set up an evil formation, and placed in the valley's most important spot a device called the Heart of the Earth Vein Stabilizer, a nefarious artifact that completely altered the feng shui, turning Wan Yao Gu into the poison‑mist‑ridden land it is today.

Master Shouyi, in his later years, could never let this go; he once sneaked back to Wan Yao Gu, hoping to destroy that Heart of the Earth Vein Stabilizer and restore the valley to its former state. But at the time his wounds hadn't healed well, his abilities were no longer what they were, he failed—and nearly lost his life in the attempt.

He left clues in the jade slips, hoping that future destined disciples of the Medicine Sect could one day set things right and restore Wan Yao Gu to vitality.

Lin Xue finished reading the information in the jade slips, her heart a mix of emotions.

She never expected that behind Wan Yao Gu lay such a past.

As she pondered Master Shouyi's last wish, the knowledge from the fragment of the Hundred Herbs Classic and his medical insights, like a small stream merging into a great river, elevated her understanding of the medical path and her grasp of pharmacology to a new level, giving her a faint sense that a breakthrough was near.

Although Zhang Jun couldn't read the characters on the beast‑skin scroll, nor directly view the contents of the jade slips like Lin Xue could, standing beside her, feeling the shift in her aura, the rich medicinal fragrance in the cave, and the Dao resonance left by Master Shouyi, his own Hongmeng Creation Technique began to turn on its own, giving him a deeper sense of affinity with the essence of heavenly herbs.

The minor internal injury he had sustained from fighting that old fellow earlier also quietly healed under this nourishing aura.

Lin Xue lowered the jade slips from her hands, her expression solemn as she told Zhang Jun: "Zhang Jun, these jade slips record the secrets of Wan Yao Gu, and also contain an important admonition."

She briefly related Master Shouyi's dying wish.

After hearing that, Zhang Jun raised his eyebrows: "Heart of the Earth Vein Stabilizer? So if we destroy that thing, Wan Yao Gu can return to its former good state?"

"That's the idea in principle, but the jade slips also say the stabilizer is extremely nefarious, surely guarded by heavy forces." Lin Xue said, pulling from beneath a jade slip a simple map drawn on special beast‑skin.