Physician's Odyssey Chapter 521 - A New Door

Under everyone's attention, Su Tao and Ling Yu started their treatment for Tan Luoyou's sleep disorder that's caused by a lack of Yang in his body.
The difficulty in this treatment lies in reforging his kidney meridian.
With Su Tao and Ling Yu's standards, they're both confident in performing acupuncture, not to mention that the two of them were working together. Thus, the efficiency was also higher than imagined.
The main focus for Tan Luoyou's illness lied in the diagnosis. As long as one could tell that his illness originated from his kidney meridian, a treatment would be able to begin.
The reason why Su Tao gave Ling Yu the opportunity to perform the acupuncture was that he wanted to see Ling Yu's standards, which was an eye-opening session.
In TCM's acupuncture, treating the head when the head aches and treating the foot when the foot hurts was a taboo to be avoided, by all means, so Ling Yu chose to start his acupuncture from Tan Luoyou's arm, which often felt numb.
Roughly one or two minutes later, Ling Yu's acupuncture followed along the entire arm with a total of forty-nine needles. This was the Shaoyin Heart Meridians of the Hand.
According to TCM's theory, the heart was known as the Monarch of Organs out of the five viscera that holds one's consciousness. Thus, clearing the Shaoyin Heart Meridians of the Hand was a crucial step in treating sleep disorders.
In TCM, the consciousness, spirit, thoughts, and other higher mental functions were all managed by the heart. Thus, treating a sleep disorder had to start from the Shaoyin Heart Meridians of the Hand.
Su Tao noticed that Ling Yu was especially focused when performing the acupuncture at a slow speed, which left Su Tao startled. Ling Yu seemed to have slowed down the rhythm on purpose to show him the Medical Dao Sect's acupuncture technique.
TCM prioritised the sect's inheritance, so wasn't Ling Yu violating the taboo by doing this?
When Su Tao was hesitating if he should memorise this Medical Dao Sect's acupuncture technique, Ling Yu seemed to have noticed his dilemma and said, "Senior Brother Su, you don't have to avoid it as a taboo. My Master has once told me that acupuncture is a higher-level technique in TCM, but it's a pity that the threshold is too high. Over the past thousands of years, many precious techniques have been lost. Thus, my Master told me to spread the techniques that I know if there's an opportunity and to focus on other people's techniques at the same time to ensure TCM's development."
Surprised by those words, Su Tao sighed, "The Medical Dao Sect's Sect Master has a broad mind."
All along, he never had any good impression of the Medical Dao Sect, mainly because of Wang Guofeng. But pondering it now, Wang Guofeng could only represent himself as an individual and not the entire sect. As a sect that had been passed down for thousands of years, there were still many people in the sect with outstanding medical ethics.
From Ling Yu's acupuncture, Su Tao managed to deduce many things about his character. Although Ling Yu had a delicate appearance, there wasn't any hesitation in his acupuncture, but was permeating with confidence that belonged to someone from a great sect.
There's a difference between Su Tao and Ling Yu's acupuncture technique, Su Tao went with unusual techniques that chose strange acupoints.
After Ling Yu finished the Shaoyin Heart Meridians of the Hand, he made preparations for Jushao Meridians of the Kidney.
Since Tan Luoyou's condition was a lack of Yang in his body, his condition could only be treated by reforging the Jushao Meridians of the Kidney. Otherwise, the treatment would only be temporary.
Reforging and clearing were two different concepts, so the exhaustion of energies was also different.
Taking a deep breath, Su Tao started his massage before Ling Yu performed the Jushao Meridians of Kidney.
Very quickly, both the Bian Que Hands and Heavenseizing Hands soon showed their powers.
Watching his massage, Ling Yu's eyes flashed with a hint of astonishment. He naturally heard of the two techniques before, but he never expected that they would be so magical.
The Bian Que Hands had many changes and gave off an illusion, as if it's not a treatment but a performance.
At the same time, the Heavenseizing Hands was also unfathomable, since Qi was being compressed in every finger.
Within five minutes, Tan Luoyou let out weird noises from time to time. Those were his subconscious reactions from the massage, but no one here would laugh at him, since they were only amazed at Su Tao's exquisite techniques.
There seemed to be magic in Su Tao's fingers, since Tan Luoyou felt as if his muscles and bones had been renewed like adding oil, changing the chain, and components for a tattered bicycle.
Ling Yu naturally noticed the magic of the Heavenseizing Hands and Su Tao's fingers seem to be replenishing the vitality in Tan Luoyou as a foundation to put a protective barrier on his meridians. So no matter what Ling Yu did later, Tan Luoyou's meridians would be protected.
That also meant that Su Tao's massage had lessened Ling Yu's difficulty.
In western medicine, Tan Luoyou's condition belonged to a mental disorder that could be treated with hypnotic medication to calm the nerves.
But in TCM, Tan Luoyou had injured his meridians, which resulted in the abnormal course of his blood and energy. Since this affected the blood supply to his heart, his arms would feel numb and often encountered sleep paralysis. If it's not treated, not only would it be a sleep disorder, but it might even cause paralysis.
In TCM's records, there were many cases of reforging the meridians by using violent medicine and acupuncture.
At this moment, Ling Yu realised that Su Tao had already prepared for this, since he had given Tan Luoyou a prescription during the examination phase.
So when he saw Tan Luoyou this time, he noticed that the latter no longer required any medicine, which was why he suggested stopping the medication.
After figuring it all out, Ling Yu realised that he still had some distance before catching up to Su Tao. He naturally noticed Tan Luoyou's condition the first time they met, but he did not speak up due to TCM's principle that a doctor never knocks on a patient's door, while Su Tao took a head start. In this matter alone, he had to admit that Su Tao's foresight and schemes far exceeded his own.
Right now, he finally knew why his Senior Brother, Wang Guofeng, would repeatedly lose to Su Tao. This was an opponent that always plans ahead before his opponent.
But Ling Yu had a favorable impression of Su Tao, since he could see lots of useful knowledge in Su Tao that he could learn.
Take the Heavenseizing Hands as an example; it would give a new breakthrough to his medical studies.
While Ling Yu performed the Jushao Meridians of the Kidney, Su Tao did not stay idle but would occasionally apply pressure on Tan Luoyou's acupoints by using Bian Que Hands' Broiling Torrent technique to lessen Tan Luoyou's pain.
The Rising Dawn Qi used the Yang energy, so Tan Luoyou would feel his entire body boiling as he let out a weak groan. But every single time Su Tao performed the Broiling Torrent technique, his pain would lessen. So as time passed, he would yearn for Su Tao's massage.
"Agh!" Tan Luoyou yelled out in pain. As someone with strong willpower, one could imagine how painful it was for him to yell out.
Meanwhile, Ling Yu's Rising Dawn Qi had also reached the crucial meridians.
If reforging a meridian was compared to building a bridge, then Ling Yu's needles right now were akin to opening a canal, so one could imagine how much pain Tan Luoyou was currently suffering.
Immediately, Su Tao stretched out his finger to press on a few acupoints and muscles to alleviate Tan Luoyou's pain and the latter's trembling started to die down.
"Do you want to take a rest?" Su Tao suggested. "You might be able to endure, but as a patient, you still need to rest a little to readjust yourself."
Even Ling Yu nodded his head as he took a wet towel to wipe his forehead. Su Tao's judgment was right, the patient required rest now.
But Tan Luoyou refused as he gritted his teeth, "I'm fine!"
However, he was extremely weak with his entire body covered in his own sweat, looking extremely pitiful.
"The meridians in your body are in a mess like a canal being rinsed by a flood, creating many lakes, rivers, and streams that have formed into a bizarre course. So by reforging them, we need to get rid of those useless lakes, rivers, and streams to ensure the smooth circulation of your meridians. This is a colossal work that cannot be rushed." Su Tao patiently explained.
Five minutes later, Ling Yu put in the last few needles while Su Tao constantly used the Broiling Torrent technique to alleviate Tan Luoyou's pain.
If it's smooth, it wouldn't be painful, and pain meant that the flow wasn't smooth. So whenever there's a blockage, Ling Yu would increase his strength while Su Tao was also cautious so that Tan Luoyou wouldn't faint from the pain.
Normally, he would only use 70% of his strength, but he had used 90% of it right now.
This was the National Healer Selection, and there were also three western medicine candidates looking at him. Hence, he needed to convince everyone that TCM was capable of creating miracles.
When the last four needles were inserted, Su Tao immediately took the prepared cloth and put it in Tan Luoyou's mouth, since the patient might bite his tongue if he was late in this process.
Along with that, Tan Luoyou's expression became savage and twisted from the pain.
Fortunately, it only took a few breaths for the needles to be removed, and Ling Yu was also faster than an ordinary person.
Meanwhile, Tan Luoyou felt as if he's experiencing a life and death tribulation with his face turning pale. Even after the needles were removed, his muscles were still twitching.
Everyone looked at each other. Most of them were western medicine doctors, so they had no idea what just happened.
On the other hand, the TCM judge, Zhu Wenyuan, became emotional. Although this scene only seemed like an ordinary performance in the eyes of others, it was a performance that shook him down to his core.
"Is that the Medical Dao Sect's Rising Dawn Qi and Blazing Acupuncture Technique?"
"Is that the Bian Que Hands and Heavenseizing Hands?"
Zhu Wenyuan never expected that he would witness such divine techniques by two juniors.
"Old Tan, are you alright?" Helian Zhen asked out in concern upon seeing Tan Luoyou slowly straightening up his body.
"I'm fine; I just feel weak at this moment. Furthermore, why do I also feel a chill on the back of my head?" Tan Luoyou curiously asked as he looked at Su Tao.
"This is a good phenomenon. Your meridian has already been reforged, so it's susceptible to heat, swelling, sour, numb, and cold. Drink two cups of warm water later and a small bowl of congee, if possible, to recover your physical strength."
Su Tao then asked, "Why don't you try stretching your arms a little and see if you still feel numb?"
As Tan Luoyou tried to stretch his arms, he was instantly startled and exclaimed, "I can stretch them out fully now!"
In the past, he would suffer great pain if he wanted to stretch his arms. But not only could he easily spread his arms right now, but he could even move his arms with more agility.
Finally, Zhu Wenyuan couldn't hold it back anymore as he bounced up from his seat and hollered, "Fellow judges, I can only say that this performance is beyond exclamation. From TCM's angle, both Su Tao and Ling Yu can be known as modern divine physicians. Even in the long history, there aren't many talents like them. Please let them pass through the National Healer Selection, or I can only resign in guilt!"
Hearing his words, everyone was startled, since they never expected that Zhu Wenyuan would give such high praises for Su Tao and Ling Yu's strengths!
There's another meaning in Zhu Wenyuan's words. He meant that both Su Tao and Ling Yu have already surpassed him, and if even people like the two of them couldn't become National Healers, then he would be embarrassed to be one.
Hence, his words have undoubtedly raised Su Tao and Ling Yu's position in everyone's hearts.