Elixir Supplier

Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

The night was quiet.

Wang Yao was standing outside his cottage and looking at the sky.

He was observing the sky and thinking. A huge amount of knowledge of Chinese massage or Tui Na he just gained was in his head. He heard that Chinese massages initially appeared in Qibo Jing, a classic Chinese medicine document from ancient China. Qibo Jing was a profound book with rich knowledge in meridians, internal organs, and bones.

What?

Wang Yao just found his knowledge of Chinese massages worked well together with the use of Qi inside his body.

I’m going to try to combine Chinese massages with breathing exercises and see what will happen.

The next day, Zhou Xiong and his son arrived at Lianshan. Zhou Xiong extended his lease of the unit for another few months so that they could live there temporarily.

“Kang, take a rest now, we are going to see your Uncle Wang in the afternoon,” said Zhou Xiong.

“Okay, Dad,” said Zhou Wukang.

Zhou Xiong then called Wang Yao to make a time for catching up.

It was nice and sunny in the afternoon.

Zhou Xiong and his son arrived at the foot of Nanshan hill at about 2 pm. They looked up and noticed that Nanshan hill was full of trees and plants.

“Wow, it has changed so much here in such short period of time!” said Zhou Xiong.

They went uphill and arrived at Wang Yao’s cottage. San Xian barked to alert Wang Yao.

“Hello, San Xian,” Zhou Wukang greeted San Xian with a smile.

“Hello, Zhou Xiong. Hello, Kang, please come in.” Wang Yao invited them into his cottage.

“Sorry to bother you again, Dr. Wang,” said Zhou Xiong.

“Not at all!” Wang Yao made them a pot of tea.

“Well, before we came here, my father asked me to bring a special gift to you. I hope you’ll like it.” Zhou Xiong took out a package out of his backpack. He opened the package, and there was a book inside. It was a thread-bound antique book, which looked quite old. There two ancient Chinese characters on the front cover—Quan Jing.

“This is?” Wang Yao took the book and went through a few pages. The book was about Chinese boxing, like those books containing Kung Fu secrets in the novels.

“This book was passed on from generation to generation in my family. It contains a lot of key points on how to practice Chinese boxing. It has at least one hundred years of history,” said Zhou Xiong.

“This is too precious for me to have. I can’t accept it.” After listening to Zhou Xiong’s explanation, Wang Yao realized that the book was probably a precious family possession. The gift is too precious for him to accept.

“The contents of the book are already in our heads now. Like what my father said, he would rather give it to people who will appreciate it than leave it there doing nothing. In addition, we owe you big debt, and we don’t know how to pay it back,” said Zhou Xiong.

“I see. But I still can’t accept it.” Wang Yao shook his hand and smiled.

But Zhou Xiong insisted on giving it to Wang Yao.

“Well, how about lending this took to me? I’ll keep the book for a year and return it to you a year later. What do you think?” Wang Yao was truly passionate about Kung Fu.

“Okay,” said Zhou Xiong without hesitation.

“Good, now let me take a look at Kang,” said Wang Yao.

It was a good opportunity for Wang Yao to test his new skills.

The child’s arm was still skinny without vitality. It was like a piece of dead wood.

The meridians inside his arm were still blocked. His arm was almost wasted.

“Let me massage your arm. Tell me if you feel pain,” said Wang Yao.

“Okay,” said Zhou Wukang.

Wang Yao started to massage his arm. He transferred his Qi to his right hand when massaging Zhou Wukang’s arm. His right hand slowly warmed up, and it even got a bit hot after a while. But it was still not very useful as some nerves of Zhou Wukang’s arm had died. His arm was like an old machine, which was delayed and had stopped functioning.

Zhou Wukang suddenly moved his arm slightly.

“What is going on, Kang?” asked Wang Yao.

“I feel a bit warm in my arm,” said Zhou Wukang.

A bit warm?

Wang Yao started to control his Qi and slowly transferred his Qi back to his body. He continued to use special techniques to massage Zhou Wukang’s arm.

Wang Yao pressed, rubbed, pushed Zhou Wukang’s arm with both his palm and fingers.

“Dr. Wang, your massage technique is so amazing!” sighed Zhou Xiong. It was the first time Zhou Xiong witnessed Wang Yao using a massage technique. He really admired such a technique and could tell Wang Yao’s identification of acupuncture points was extremely accurate. As a Kung Fu expert, Zhou Xiong was also familiar with acupuncture points and meridians. He noticed that Wang Yao massaged through the meridians of Zhou Wukang’s arm, which none of the average doctors could do.

“I just learned the technique,” said Wang Yao.

“You just learned? Stop joking!” said Zhou Xiong with a smile. Even people who were not familiar with Chinese massages could tell it would have taken years to develop such a technique.

Wang Yao just smiled.

Wang Yao focused on Zhou Wukang’s arm when conducting the massage. He also gently massaged Zhou Wukang’s shoulder and back. It took Wang Yao nearly one hour to complete the massage.

“How do you feel, Kang?” asked Wang Yao.

“I feel warm in my body, especially in my arm and the surrounding area,” said Zhou Wukang.

“Good, let me check your pulse again.” Wang Yao checked Zhou Wukang’s pulse again and found some change.

“Do you still live in that unit?” asked Wang Yao.

“Yes,” said Zhou Xiong.

“Okay, today’s session has finished. Bring Kang here whenever you are available. I’d like to continue to massage his arm. It will help him recover,” said Wang Yao.

“Thank you very much,” said Zhou Xiong.

“Thank you, Uncle Wang,” said Zhou Wukang.

“You are welcome, Kang,” said Wang Yao with a smile. He liked this strong and polite kid very much.

“Uncle Wang, can I take a look outside?” asked Zhou Wukang.

“Of course,” said Wang Yao.

Zhou Xiong and his son walked around Nanshan hill for a while. They deliberately avoided the herbal field as San Xian stopped them when they got close to it. Zhou Xiong guessed that the herbal field should be a forbidden place for strangers. He led his son away from the herbal field with consideration.

“Dad, I feel very comfortable here,” said Zhou Wukang.

“I feel the same,” said Zhou Xiong. He felt clear today on Nanshan hill. The comfort was throughout his body.

“There are not too many trees on the hill, which made me very comfortable. I’m not sure what Dr. Wang did to the trees,” said Zhou Xiong.

Although Zhou Xiong and his son felt very comfortable on the hill, they didn’t belong there. They left after staying on the hill for a short while.

Wang Yao watched them walking downhill then returned to his cottage.

Maybe the hill has good Feng Shui? thought Zhou Xiong after he had left Nanshan hill.

Wang Yao documented the change of Zhou Wukang’s pulse after the massage in his notebook.

It is a typical difficult disease.

The conditions of Zhou Wukang, Secretary Yang’s mother, Wei Hai, Mr. Sun’s son at Dao City, the girl in Beijing, and Zhou Wuyi from Cangzhou were all considered difficult diseases by the system. However, Wang Yao hadn’t been able to cure any of them.

He had a long way to go.

There is another herbal formula I can use to treat blocked meridians.

Wang Yao was rewarded two herbal formulas after he had completed previous missions. One of the formulas was called Tongluosan, which could unblock the meridians, activate blood, and clear the blood of contaminants.

The formula was given to him by the system, so no other common formulas could compare to it.

I need two licorice roots.

The formula consisted of some common herbs and two licorice roots.

One of the licorice roots was Ziyu, which could activate the blood, alleviate depression and unblock meridians.

The other one was Wuteng, which could strengthen muscles and vessels.

He had both of the licorice roots in his herbal field, but they were not ready to use. So, he required bonus points to buy the licorice roots from the medicine shop. However, he didn’t have enough points.

Looks like I have to wait.

After writing down his thoughts of treatment, Wang Yao took out the book, Quan Jing given to him by Zhou Xiong and started to read it. As Zhou Xiong and his son expected, Wang Yao was really keen on learning Kung Fu. Wang Yao had a Kung Fu dream. Most young men had dreams about Kung Fu. They longed for the bright colored clothing, savage horses, and making a living in the world of Jianghu. They wanted to become a well-known Kung Fu master. Wang Yao was no exception. But, he had limited idea of what Jianghu was. Actually, no one really had a clear idea of what Jianghu really was. But all people knew that the keyword of Jianghu was Kung Fu.

Flying over roofs, walking over walls, splitting stone tablets, attacking enemies with flowers—not all of these things were necessarily fake. Maybe they all had existed once, but they just weren’t passed on.

The book given by Zhou Xiong should be much older than one hundred years because a lot of contents in the book were in an ancient Chinese language. For a person who had practiced Chinese boxing for years, the book was rather enlightening, better than a textbook.

Wang Yao was so absorbed in the book that he even forgot to go home to have lunch. He didn’t stop reading the book until late afternoon. By the time he put Quan Jing away, it was dark outside.

“What a wonderful book!” exclaimed Wang Yao.

Chinese Kung Fu and Chinese medicine were both quintessences of Chinese culture. They were both profound. However, the essence of both failed to be passed down from generation to generation due to certain reasons. Some knowledge related to Chinese Kung Fu or Chinese medicine became secrets of the family, which would never be disclosed to people outside the family. This had its pros and cons.

It was a rare thing for Zhou Xiong’s family to have the determination and unprejudiced mind to share their family secrets

“Yao, your auntie will return to the village on the 1st of May. Can you pick her up from Huaicheng?” asked Zhang Xiuying while having dinner.

“Okay, not a problem,” said Wang Yao without hesitation. Both of his aunts treated him very well when he was a child.

Most people led a pretty simple life decades or twenty years ago. There was nothing else to do other than farming at that time. Wang Yao was the first boy born in the family, so both of his aunts were very fond of him. They often saved money to buy him toys and food.

His second aunt’s husband was a soldier. After he had retired, he settled in Beijing and had a job there. Then, his second aunt and her daughter joined him. They were lucky that they had bought an apartment in Beijing quite a few years ago when the real estate market in Beijing wasn’t that crazy. Now, they were quite settled in Beijing. Their salary wouldn’t be able to afford an apartment nowadays.

“How long is my auntie going to stay here?” asked Wang Yao.

“Three days,” said Zhang Xiuying.

“Only three days?” asked Wang Yao.

“Yes, your auntie’s husband’s mother was diagnosed with cancer a while ago. They are afraid that she won’t last very long. Your auntie’s husband wants to visit his mother. Your auntie and your cousin happen to be on holiday, so both of them will come back as well. Actually, they don’t want to come. You know, your auntie’s husband is thrifty. The train tickets are not cheap, and they have to prepare thousands of yuan to buy presents for friends and family members. He’s going to spend a month’s salary on those costs,” said Zhang Xiuying.