Chapter 14. Curing the Matron of the Li Clan

    Bai Zhe followed the old woman’s qi until he finally found the old man and the boy whom he met at the herbalist’s shop.

    “Grandfather, that’s the boy we met at the shop.” Li Xi Yan was the first person who saw Bai Zhe. The boy tugged the hem of Li Feng’s shirt, then whispered this.

    Chen Feng turned immediately. He saw the boy he had met at the shop. This time the boy was in a tracksuit and was walking toward them. He stopped and stood 3 metres away from them.

    “You are having trouble, aren’t you?” Bai Zhe asked before looking toward the door of the operating room.

    ‘Is this guy in his right mind? Anyone who has to be in an operating room definitely has trouble,’ thought Li Xi Yan.

    ‘This boy is crazy,’ Li Feng thought.

    “The doctor in charge is a martial artist that has heart qi. Hmm, all the staff inside the room are martial artists,” said Bai Zhe after he sensed the power of the personnel in the operating room. It shocked Li Xi Yan and Li Feng. A person needed to be at the same or higher level of qi to be able to determine the levels. Moreover, the boy could sense the others’ power from a farther distance than the normal martial artists.

    “Are you a member of the Divine Sects?” asked Li Feng.

    “No, I am not from the Divine Sects. The last time we met was because I was buying herbs to make medicine. This time, I’m here for a check-up, and I saw you bringing the patient in when I was exiting. I saw that her condition was not very good, so I followed you,” said Bai Zhe.

    “Oh, but this doesn’t really involve you. Why do you still want to poke your nose into this?” Li Feng asked seriously because many of the families in the martial arts community wanted to kill the leader of the Li Clan who currently was sick.

    “Eh? What are they doing inside? They are transferring yang to alter the balance. But the patient’s body cannot receive any more qi. The yin will be released from her body and harm everyone in the room if they continue to do that.” Bai Zhe did not answer Li Feng’s question. Instead, he talked about the situation in the operating room which had started to get worse.

    “W…what are you saying?” Li Feng did not want to believe what the boy in front of him was saying. However, these words were the same as what Matron Li’s personal physician had told them before taking her into the operating room. At that time, there had only been him and Li Xi Yan.

    “Tell them to open the door. The unbalanced yin that is ready to release a large amount of coldness at any time like this is very dangerous. With her sky qi, innocent people in this hospital will die, including the two of you.” Bai Zhe saw the two standing still, so he ignored them and walked to the operating room’s door.

    “All locks and chains, be destroyed by my power.” Bai Zhe used his psychic soul power to destroy the locking system of the operating room’s door immediately, which made Li Feng and Li Xi Yan rush in to stop him from interrupting the procedure.

    The moment the door opened, a cold breeze surged out and hit Li Feng and Li Xi Yan instantly. The two circulated their qi in order to melt the ice that clung to their bodies. They saw the boy who had opened the door standing still. They could not sense any protection qi, yet the boy did not have any ice on his skin.

    “How did he do that?” Li Xi Yan asked Li Feng.

    The old man could only shake his head and follow the boy into the room. The staff were sitting on the floor, trying to control the qi throughout their bodies to heal themselves from the yin power that was released from Matron Li.

    “That is why I told you that doing it like this is dangerous.” The boy walked to the wall. Then, he dragged his fingers along the wall before poking them into it. He then pulled them out and placed them inside the room. The cuts he had made were neat like when a diamond is used to cut glass.

    “Grandfather, could you please help push the bed to the holes that I’ve made, pointing the patient’s feet toward the hole,” Bai Zhe told Li Feng.

    Li Feng thought that this boy might know how to cure the woman. He did not have much time to think because all of the medical staff were still healing themselves and Matron Li’s condition was not good. He instantly did what Bai Zhe told him to do.

    “You all just observe. Do not interrupt me.” Bai Zhe reached his hand out into the air. It disappeared in the twirling air before he pulled it back along with a silk box embroidered with a gold pattern.

    “Grandfather, what is that? How can he take things out of the air? Is it a dimension ring?” asked Li Xi Yan. Because what he witnessed was the same as how a dimension ring functioned. These days, there were only a handful of people who owned one.

    “Only the person who reaches the heart qi can use this method without using the dimension ring. But he or she has to be trained under experts. If not, their soul will be damaged and they might go crazy or die,” Bai Zhe answered the boy’s question immediately and unfolded a cloth bundle, revealing silver needles that radiated qi power.

    “These are…” Li Feng looked at them in surprise. The boy’s needles must have been made from a high-level qi iron because the power they were radiating was much more than the bangles that they were wearing.

    Bai Zhe did not waste time. The boy began skilfully inserting the acupuncture needles in various spots. His hand movements were smooth. He was able to insert the needles into various parts of Matron Li’s body without taking her clothes off.

    “Will you be sitting there watching for much longer? Come help me if you have finished healing yourselves and do what I tell you carefully.” Bai Zhe turned to tell the medical staff who had already healed themselves to help him heal the matron.

    “Transfer your yang to the needles. Then, slowly continue toward the feet,” said Bai Zhe.

    After following the boy's instructions, they found that the cold was being discharged through the Matron’s feet. Because it was being expelled outside the room, the staff were completely safe. After the cold was completely discharged, the doctors turned to the boy once more, asking for his guidance.

    “Your method, young man…ahem…your method, sir, is excellent, but her body is very weak. Can you suggest a way to heal and revive her body?” The head doctor asked for his suggestion.

    “Bring the patient back. Put honey all over her body, then place cabbage leaves over it. These two things normally are used with a patient who has a fever. Honey and cabbage will help to make the body’s temperature increase. When it has increased, please bring these herbs to me,” said the boy, taking out a pen and a paper to write a list of herbs and handing it to Li Feng.

    “Can you find them?” he asked Li Feng.

    “These herbs are with the Li Clan. I will call someone to bring them to us,” said Li Feng. He used his smartphone to call someone to prepare the herbs that Bai Zhe wanted.

    “Oh, do not boil them under any circumstances.” The boy promptly told him what should not be done to the herbs. Li Feng and Li Xin Yan looked at each other with confusion. They each thought that aside from boiling the herbs, what other method could be used to draw out their medicinal properties?

    “And prepare a steamer and a brazier. Do not put water in. I will start compounding the medicine when the herbs have arrived.” Bai Zhe started to give orders, without being the least considerate.

    Though Li Xi Yan was not happy that Bai Zhe had poked his nose into this and ordered around his grandfather as if the old man was his servant, the boy tried to keep the feelings to himself. Because it was clear that the person who was pointing his finger and ordering everyone was the one who had saved Matron Li.

    The herbs were delivered not long after that. The streamer and brazier were placed before Bai Zhe. Without hesitation, the boy lit the brazier with just one piece of charcoal as its fuel.

    After the brazier was successfully lit, Bai Zhe used his qi as fuel, replacing the charcoal. He used his psychic soul power to lift up the steamer and place it on the brazier.

    The steamer’s lid was opened, and then the herbs floated into the steamer before the lid was closed.

    “Be quiet from now on. Don’t interrupt me. To compound medicine by using qi power, one needs to be focused on controlling Wen Wu Fire. We will get only ashes if something goes wrong.” Bai Zhe said this to everyone in the operating room, then turned to concentrate on compounding the medicine.

    The medical staff, Li Feng, and Li Xi Yan smelled a light, pleasant aroma not long after that. The moment they inhaled the pleasant scent, their qi powers were amazingly revived little by little.

    “The result from just inhaling the scent is as good as our Li Clan’s best qi restoration medicine. Grandfather, isn’t this the ancient medicine fabrication technique that has been missing since three thousand years ago?” whispered Li Xi Yan.

    “It might be. These days, even the Divine Sects are boiling their herbs, not using this technique. If the medicine he makes is efficient, you should befriend him. Having such a gifted friend would be highly beneficial,” whispered Li Feng. Li Xi Yan nodded in agreement.

    “Done.” Bai Zhe waved his hand once. The steamer lid opened, and a translucent round object floated into his hand. The staff, Li Feng and Li Xi Yan instantly came to look at it.

    “This is the medicine that has been compounded by the technique which has long disappeared. The form is exactly like what is written in the ancient textbook,” said one of the doctors.

    “But we have used all of these herbs to heal her before. They only helped stabilize her condition for a while. Does using a different technique change the effect of the medicine?” Li Xi Yan questioned.

    “Boiling will bring out only one in one-thousandth of the medical properties of an herb. Even if we use the present-day method of extraction for medical use, it cannot even bring out one hundred in one-thousandth of it. But the fire that is fuelled by qi power will convert the chemicals in the herbs into medical components which will be exponentially more effective. Each herb needs a different temperature and type of fire. After the medical components are distilled, qi power is used to control the fire and clean all the dirtiness in the medicine, purifying it, before forming the medicine. And for the quality of the medicine, I think you might have known about it from the ancient textbook.” Bai Zhe roughly explained the steps of medicine fabrication. However, he did not mean to teach these people, especially the method of using qi fire, which was the most important part of this technique.

    “Could you possibly teach us?” Li Feng decided to ask.

    “I don’t think I can, because I will use it to build my fortune in the future,” said Bai Zhe before walking over to Matron Li, who had started to wake up.

    “Hmm. It seems that I have survived?” Li Zhou Ma slowly opened her eyes. She regained consciousness after she smelled the aroma of something. She felt her body start to recover little by little every time she inhaled the scent.

    “Water, ma’am.” Bai Zhe handed her a glass of water, surprising the matron a little because she had never met the boy before. Still, she sat up and accepted the glass from Bai Zhe and drank from it before looking around and seeing Li Feng, Li Xi Yan, and the familiar medical staff.

    “Xi Lan, is he your friend?” Li Zhou Ma asked her great-grandson. Li Xi Yan shook his head.

    “No, Great-grandmother. He came here when you were in a coma and he’s the one who saved you,” answered Li Xi Yan.

    “Is that so? Doctor, may I know your name?” When Li Zhou Ma knew that the boy in front of her was the one who helped to cure her, she wanted to know his name so she could pay him back in the future.

    “My name is Bai Zhe. I am not a doctor. I’m just a boy who practices qi and has a little knowledge about medical treatment.” Bai Zhe did not use a fake name because he knew he could not escape the CCTV in the room, and these people would send someone to find out if this was his real name or not anyway.

    “Ah. Mr. Bai Zhe, how old are you this year?” asked Li Zhou Ma.

    “Fifteen, ma’am,” said Bai Zhe, handing a ceramic bottle and a translucent ball of medicine to the matron.

    “This is…” Li Zhou Ma looked between the medicine, the bottle in the boy’s hands, and his face with curiosity. One thing she knew was that the medicine in front of her was a medicine that had its ten parts fully purified, exactly like how it was written in the ancient textbook.

    “This is yang medicine for altering balance. Try to swallow it first,” said Bai Zhe. After he saw the matron swallow it, he took her wrist.

    “I will send my qi power into you. Don’t let your qi power resist mine and observe how I control my qi to digest the medicine and move it to parts of your body. I will repeat it 3 times; then, you do it by yourself,” said the boy. He started to send his qi power into the matron’s body.

    Excitedly, Li Zhou Ma focused and observed how to use qi to digest the medicine. She had been suffering from the lack of yin power for a long time. With the medicine that she was using at the moment, she started to see a way that would help her continue her life. So, she would not miss this opportunity for sure.

    “Done. Do you have any questions?” the boy asked, letting go of the woman’s wrist.

    Li Zhou Ma shook her head as an answer because she had already memorized the technique.

    “That is good. From now on, use one of these per day. Don’t practice qi until you run out of medicine. This is absolutely forbidden. Otherwise, the symptoms will recur.” Bai Zhe reiterated the things that she should not do while she was recovering.

    “Thank you so much, Dr. Bai. I owe you,” said Li Zhou Ma, then she turned to Li Feng.

    “Li Feng, give the doctor a cheque. Write any number that he desires on it.” Li Feng brought the cheque book out as per Li Zhou Ma’s order. He handed her the cheque book. The lady had not even opened it when Bai Zhe spoke up.

    “I cannot accept it, because the equipment belongs to the hospital, while the herbs themselves belong to your clan,” said Bai Zhe. He did not need money at the moment. Replying to them like this would make them try to offer him something else in return for his actions. And he had already thought about what he wanted in return.

    “But only you could make this miraculous medicine,” said Li Zhou Ma. She wrote down an eight-figure number on the cheque, signed her name, and then handed it to Bai Zhe.

    “Great-grandmother, isn’t that too much?” protested Li Xi Yan. It was a whole ten million yuan; it was too much. But when she heard this, Li Zhou Ma swiftly turned to look at her great-grandson with a scolding gaze.

    “Xi Yan, do you think that my life is worth less than 10 million yuan?” She scolded her great-grandson because if Li Xi Yan was not careful with his words and made Dr. Bai displeased, when her symptoms recurred, Dr. Bai might not help her anymore.

    “N…no, Great-grandmother. Your life is priceless,” the boy swiftly denied. He just thought that his great-grandmother should not give so much money to this person.

    “If you are not pleased with the remuneration, first of all, may I ask whether you know a middle-aged man named Lao Lao?” Li Xi Yan gave a great start immediately after Bai Zhe’s question was asked. The boy covered his buttocks with his hands. Bai Zhe definitely noticed the boy’s reaction.