Chapter 11: Late Night Foraging

In the master bedroom.

The little girl hid her hands behind her back, her voice trembling:

"Lin Xuan, how do we kill them all?"

"Take medicine? I fear bitter medicine the least."

"Medicine is merely external force. Within your own body, there is already a great army."

Lin Xuan exited the microscope software and opened a medical science animation.

On the screen appeared a beating red heart, with countless red bloods surging through the vessels.

"These are called White Blood Cells." Lin Xuan pointed to some white spheres in the blood, "You can think of them as your body's Imperial Guard, specifically responsible for engulfing and killing those bacteria and viruses that sneak in." This book is first published on Tiantian Read Novels for entertainment, ttk s. tw, super smooth, providing you with error-free chapters and non-disordered chapter reading experience.

In the animation demonstration, the white spheres wrapped and digested the black bacteria.

The little girl watched, mesmerized, her eyes unblinking.

This concrete explanation was ten thousand times easier to understand than the obscure Yin and Yang Five Elements theories of the Imperial Physicians.

"But some viruses are too powerful, or disguise themselves too well; your Imperial Guard has never seen them and cannot defeat them."

"Then people will fall gravely ill, or even die."

"Then what is to be done?" the little girl asked anxiously.

"We have an extremely advanced method of training soldiers, called Vaccine."

Lin Xuan switched to a photo of a modern infant receiving a vaccine.

"Simply put, we catch those powerful viruses and beat them half to death."

"Or simply kill them, leaving only their corpses."

"Then, use a syringe to inject these half-dead viruses into your body."

The little girl opened her mouth in terror: "Injecting demon insects into the body? Is this not inviting a wolf into the house?"

Lin Xuan smiled and explained patiently:

"No, they have already been crippled and possess no killing power."

"But when your body's Imperial Guard sees them, they will sound the alarm and immediately rush up to surround and annihilate them."

"In the process of surrounding and annihilating, the Imperial Guard will memorize the weaknesses and appearance of this virus."

"When in the future, truly powerful viruses of the same kind dare to enter again."

"Your Imperial Guard will already be thoroughly trained and will rush upon them all at once, instantly killing them to pieces."

"This is called Antibody."

Great Tang, Imperial Medical Bureau.

Sun Simiao knelt in the courtyard.

The old man trembled violently, his whole body shaking like a sieve.

He grabbed the collar of a nearby medical official, his eyes bloodshot.

"Do you understand? Do you understand!"

"The highest realm of fighting poison with poison is not using poisonous drugs to suppress poisonous drugs, but using weak external evils to temper the body's own Original Qi."

Sun Simiao's mind flashed back to the cruel methods used by the common people to prevent smallpox.

Blowing the scabs of smallpox patients into the nostrils of healthy people.

That method was nine deaths to one life.

But the vaccine in Lin Xuan's words was to cripple and kill the external evil.

Stripping away its lethality, retaining only its "form and appearance."

The instant this layer of window paper was pierced, Sun Simiao felt a great door leading to the divine realm of medicine crash open.

Sun Simiao rolled and crawled into the inner room, grabbing a brush.

"Quick! Prepare paper and brush!"

"This old man must record this principle in the records! This Medical Canon of Later Ages will surely save thousands of common people!"

On the carpet of the master bedroom, the atmosphere changed completely.

The fear in the little girl's eyes vanished.

Know the enemy and know yourself, and you will never be defeated in a hundred battles.

When the mysterious Mandate of Heaven became tiny creatures that could be killed and defended against.

Her composure as a princess of the Great Tang returned to her.

"Lin Xuan, if we follow your words, and everyone receives this vaccine, killing all the demon insects within the body."

"What is the lifespan of people in your later ages?"

Hearing this, Lin Xuan smiled proudly.

"When sick, there are antibiotics to kill bacteria, and surgical operations to remove the lesions."

"To prevent trouble before it arises, there are various vaccines."

"In our current society and nation, there are approximately 1.4 billion people nationwide."

"The average lifespan exceeds 77 years."

"Elderly people living to eighty or ninety are everywhere on the streets."

"Living to a hundred is not just a blessing here, but a physiological indicator that can be achieved."

Lin Xuan spoke these words slowly and calmly.

But outside the Sky Screen, many people truly could not sit still.

Especially a certain Emperor.

"Seventy-seven years old... and that's an average?!"

Ying Zheng's voice echoed before the great hall, carrying extreme fury born of deception.

He looked back at the group of alchemists holding jade trays and carrying elixir furnaces.

Great Qin unified the world; he sat in possession of the four seas, enjoying the finest sustenance the world could offer.

But every day he felt his body heavy, his head splitting with pain.

The Imperial Physician said this was depletion caused by managing myriad affairs, while the alchemists claimed he was only one step away from immortality.

Look at the dark-red Golden Elixir in his palm.

The alchemists had used lead, mercury, and cinnabar to forge it in the Eight-Trigram Furnace for forty-nine days, boiling out the elixir of immortality.

"You said that taking this pill would grant a lifespan equal to heaven's." Ying Zheng held the Golden Elixir up before his eyes.

In later ages, without seeking immortality or asking for medicine, relying solely on killing insects and curing diseases, the average lifespan could reach seventy-seven years.

Yet he, the First Emperor of Great Qin, who swallowed these metallic and mineral substances day after day, felt his life force acceleratingly draining away.

"This is poison!"

Ying Zheng clenched his five fingers.

The Nine-Turn Golden Elixir, worth a fortune, was crushed by him with sheer force.

Dark-red powder, mixed with the pungent smell of sulfur and mercury, spilled through the gaps between his fingers.

"All of it is poison that deceives the world and steals fame!"

Ying Zheng drew the Son of Heaven Sword from his waist and slashed the copper elixir cauldron before him. Scalding furnace ash scattered across the great hall.

"Come!"

"Throw this group of alchemists who play with ghosts and gods into the death prison and interrogate them severely."

"Find out exactly what poison they have been feeding me to hasten my death!" Ying Zheng's eyes revealed pure killing intent.

The Black Armored Guard rushed up the high platform like wolves and tigers.

The alchemists were so terrified their souls scattered; they kowtowed repeatedly begging for mercy, yet the guards dragged them down the stone steps like dead dogs.

Ying Zheng stood amidst the mess on the ground, gazing up at the Sky Screen.

"Immortality is an illusion. But seventy-seven years..."

Ying Zheng's chest heaved violently. "I too will live to that age!"

A modern apartment.

After hearing Lin Xuan's words, the little girl's mind saw the final knot regarding fate completely untied.

No heavenly mandate, no divine punishment.

Only those tiny insects visible under a microscope, only that internal imperial army that could be trained through the Vaccine.

The death calamity at twelve years old was fragile and unable to withstand a single blow before the medicine of the twenty-first century.

She suddenly jumped down from the bed. Barefoot, she stepped onto the wooden floor.

"Where are you going?" Lin Xuan asked.

"To wash my hands!"

The little girl did not look back; she moved her two thin legs and rushed straight toward the bathroom at the end of the corridor.

"I will wash with hot water, with the scented ointment, and wash all those demon insects away!"

Just then, a rumbling sound came from Lin Xuan's stomach.

He walked toward the bathroom, leaned against the doorframe, and said, "Wash thoroughly; once you're done, it's time to go out."

The little girl, her hands full of foam, looked up at him: "Go out for what? Are you kicking me out?"

"Kicking what out." Lin Xuan touched his shriveled stomach. "It's the middle of the night, and we've been up to this for so long."

"Aren't you hungry? I'm about to starve to death."

"I'll take you downstairs to find food."