They checked into a hostel and introduced themselves. The man was Zhao Shutong, the woman Zhang Guilan. The two children were Zhao Jun and Zhao Min. After some small talk, Mu Lin started to take Zhang Guilan’s pulse. He extended a thread of spiritual awareness, inspecting her internal organs. Combining the traditional Chinese methods of “inspection,” “inquiry,” and “listening and smelling” with the Western medicine he had learned from his teacher, he diagnosed her with hepatitis accompanied by ascites and severe malnutrition.
Turning to the elderly Zhao waiting nearby, Mu Lin said, “Uncle, Aunt Guilan has hepatitis. Let me have five days, and I guarantee she will be cured!”
“Five days!” Zhao Shutong exclaimed in astonishment.
“Yes, no less than five days,” Mu Lin said shamefacedly.
“No, no, what I mean is, how can you cure it in such a short time? The big hospital said it would take three months. If we weren’t short on money…”
“I plan to use acupuncture and herbal medicine from traditional Chinese medicine, combined with Western medicine tablets and injections. Five days should be enough,” Mu Lin replied confidently.
“Then… how much will it cost?” Zhao Shutong hesitated.
“Uncle, I still have some money. My main concern is for Zhao Min. He’s so young, and his microcosmic orbit practice isn’t complete. Don’t you know his Conception Vessel is damaged?” Mu Lin said.
“What!” This time it was Zhang Guilan who cried out. She hugged Zhao Min tightly while crying, “My poor child! It’s all because of me. Shutong, let’s not treat me anymore. Let’s go home!”
Zhao Shutong stared blankly at Zhao Min. For Mu Lin, who had never experienced parental love since childhood, this family deeply moved him.
After a while, Mu Lin said, “Auntie, this treatment won’t cost much. I have the Chinese herbs already. I just need to buy a few dollars worth of Western medicine.”
“That’s not right…” “Alright, it’s settled then!” Mu Lin left the stunned family behind.
“Well then, let’s treat it as treating a dead horse as a live one,” Zhang Guilan thought. “If it doesn’t work, we’ll just go home, at most five days late. Maybe we can also cure Zhao Min’s damaged meridians.”
The main reason Mu Lin needed five days was because Zhang Guilan was too weak. He planned to first use the Yuan Nourishing Pill he had cultivated to strengthen her body.
On the third day, he would use acupuncture on the Shuidao point, located two cun lateral to the Guanyuan point. Shuidao, meaning the waterway, is used to nourish yin and resolve exterior symptoms (sweating), combining exterior-resolving and yin-nourishing herbs. This method is suitable for treating yin deficiency with external contraction syndrome, helping to eliminate ascites.
On the fourth day, he would use spiritual awareness, true qi, and acupuncture to corner the hepatitis pathogens. He would then use Western medicine tablets (erythromycin) and injections (penicillin), along with the Chinese herb Shuanghuanglian to eliminate the pathogens.
On the fifth day, he would use acupuncture on the Zhongwan (also known as Taicang), Guanyuan, Zhongji, and Qimen points. He would apply the method of harmonizing and resolving the exterior, using formulas that regulate qi and expel pathogens, allowing the illness to be resolved by expelling the pathogens from the interior to the exterior.
“Five days! This will definitely live up to my reputation as the young divine physician. I am a genius young divine physician!” Mu Lin smugly thought, fully aware of the reason why the Zhao family was so stunned.
“Just think, I cured the team leader in just one day, and treated Xiaohua (a dog) and Xiahei (a monkey) in half a day.” Of course, he didn’t mention the time he took over a month to cure a teacher, which was an embarrassing memory.
Six days later, the Zhao family, now with rosy cheeks, prepared to return to their hometown. Each of them wore a grateful expression, but also a fearful one. They looked at Mu Lin, wanting to say something but hesitating, and finally, one after another, they shyly bid farewell to him.
During these days, the family endured countless acupuncture sessions and experimental medicines from Mu Lin. Vomiting and diarrhea were minor issues; abdominal pain, swollen meridians, being unable to speak, not dying but not really living either—they were tortured by Mu Lin. Although in the end, Mu Lin cleared their damaged meridians and significantly increased their internal energy, they didn’t really want this kind of enhancement.
They thought to themselves, no wonder the elders always say that in the martial world, children, women, monks, and Taoist priests are not to be trifled with. It’s all based on experience!
Mu Lin, on the other hand, cheerfully said goodbye. How could he not smile? First, he gained the second volume of “Golden Needle Compendium,” which was the dowry of Old Zhao’s great-grandmother. Originally, the Zhao family were traditional medicine traders. Later, they married the daughter of an old village physician, whose dowry was this very book. Later, due to war and chaos making the medicine trade difficult, the Zhao family joined the Earth Dragon Sect. This time, they also gave Mu Lin “Complete Compendium of Medicinal Herbs.”
Secondly, he learned some martial world customs and became familiar with the secret lingo of the martial world. Since his great-uncle had never left the mountains, he knew nothing about martial world etiquette. Mu Lin could be said to have initially integrated into the martial world.
Thirdly, he became familiar with the Earth Dragon Sect’s Earth Dragon Heart Method and mastered the ten sets of Earth Dragon Fist techniques, which were martial arts he was previously unfamiliar with.
As a disciple of the Xuanqing Sect, they generally mastered the martial arts and techniques of the major martial world sects, even many that had already become lost to history. Therefore, disciples of the Xuanqing Sect were usually unmatched when they entered the martial world. The Zhao family, who were also reputed to be martial experts, were, in Mu Lin’s opinion, like children compared to adults. Those who had not entered the martial world were generally unknown, like his great-uncle.
Mu Lin continued his journey in his own way. After secretly and from a distance observing all the martial experts he encountered, Mu Lin inwardly greeted the teachers.
He always remembered the teachers’ words: only they could contact him, he could not contact them. Mu Lin didn’t consider himself a martial world person, so he wasn’t really wandering the martial world, just traveling and studying. Following the list provided by the Zhao family, he would find local martial experts wherever he went, observe them secretly, verify his martial arts knowledge, and then leave.
In fact, the Zhao family had already secretly told their friends about their experience, and the news spread along the way. Mu Lin had already become a famous figure in the martial world.
Both the black and white factions were worried about encountering Mu Lin. Many martial artists would avoid any lone teenager they saw. The martial world suddenly became much quieter.
In the Shennongjia area, Mu Lin swept through like a Japanese raid, collecting almost all the valuable medicinal herbs except for the young seedlings into the storage bag in his ring. There, he discovered a Daoist cultivation cave dwelling. Due to its ancient age, the formation in front of the cave dwelling was somewhat weakened. Even so, it still nearly cost Mu Lin ten days.
In the end, Mu Lin obtained a collection of formation books, a batch of items for crafting artifacts, and a furnace for crafting. He initially learned how to set up five different-sized formations. Now he no longer had to worry about wild beasts when camping outdoors.
He entered the Wudang Mountains, passed through Sichuan, Emei Mountain, and Qingcheng Mountain, and from Ya’an, he set foot on the highway to Tibet. In 1982, there were very few civilian vehicles heading to Tibet, mostly military trucks.
Mu Lin hitched a ride on a military truck. Not long after crossing the majestic Erlangshan Tunnel, he arrived at Luding County, which is under the jurisdiction of Garze Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in Sichuan. The mighty Dadu River flows from north to south through the city, and the world-famous Luding Bridge is located to the north of the county.
From the Chengdu Plain at nearly 500 meters above sea level, heading west over more than 20 snow-covered mountains with an average elevation of over 4,000 meters, the Sichuan-Tibet Highway has always been accompanied by danger and grandeur. During the construction of this highway, more than 4,000 soldiers sacrificed their lives.
Mu Lin silently prayed for the fallen soldiers. The violent blizzards, high-altitude hypoxia, and complex road conditions left the most direct impression of the Sichuan-Tibet Highway on Mu Lin: danger. This danger made him feel awe and shock.
After the convoy entered the Shannan area of Tibet, the car sped through dense forests. Watching the wheat fields in the distance and the Tibetan people waving to them, he experienced the ultimate joy of “transcending nature.” After several days of crossing mountains and rivers, when he stood on the streets of Lhasa at the end of September and looked back at the road he had traveled, a feeling arose from the bottom of his heart: “I have arrived at the paradise on earth.”
The Potala Palace, located on the Marpo Ri Hill in the northwest of Lhasa, Tibet, is a famous palace-style architectural complex and the essence of ancient Tibetan architectural art.
At that time, there were also relatively few Han Chinese working there. After entering, Mu Lin directly approached a young monk and told him in Tibetan that he wanted to see the great lama Namtso.
The young monk found it strange that a Han Chinese child wanted to see the great lama and could even speak Tibetan, so he went inside to report.
Before the reply came, a child’s voice in Mandarin rang out from behind: “Great Lama, I can read Phags-pa script! Someone sent me to find you!” Phags-pa script was created by Phags-pa, the national teacher of Kublai Khan of the Yuan Dynasty. Based on Tibetan script, it was a phonetic script created by applying Han Chinese grammar. It was used throughout the Yuan Dynasty for over a hundred years.
The key point is that Phags-pa script was used for a very short time, so it has long been a forgotten language in modern times, known as a “dead language.” There exists a collection of artifacts written in Phags-pa script granted by the Yuan Dynasty in the Potala Palace, including martial arts and medical texts, among other things. However, no one in the temple understood it. For a long time, the temple had longed to unlock the secrets within the books but had been unable to do so. Now, a little kid suddenly came and told him the secrets could be deciphered. Namtso was so shocked he sat on the ground.
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