Your clinic returned to peace and quiet.
You practiced while treating patients.
Your medical skills became even more renowned.
Many wealthy and influential people from Youtong County began coming to you for treatment and medicine.
People from nearby prefectures and counties even came to have you examine their illnesses.
Through treating illnesses and saving lives, you gained a deeper understanding of the human body.
Your alchemy was nourished in turn, improving considerably.
Your refinement of third-grade pills showed obvious progress.
Your success rate rose from one pill to two.
However, it had never reached the Initial Mastery level of three pills.
One day, you were seeing patients.
A timid little girl of fifteen or sixteen came to find you.
She wore coarse cloth clothes covered in patches.
Yet she was very pretty, and her eyes sparkled brightly.
She brought two gastrodia tubers she had dug up in the mountains to thank you for curing her illness.
Her parents had originally given up on her and left her to fend for herself.
You had pitied her before and cured her illness for free.
She did not recognize gastrodia tubers. She had merely seen this kind of medicinal herb in your pharmacy, so she dug some up to express her gratitude.
You remembered that her name was Liu Jing.
You had only tried to treat Liu Jing's illness and had not held much confidence.
Seeing that she had recovered completely confirmed several of your conjectures.
This resolved several problems in your refinement of third-grade pills as easily as splitting bamboo.
You accepted Liu Jing's two gastrodia tubers and wanted to pay her their market price.
She only accepted enough money to buy two steamed buns, then happily trotted away.
After Liu Jing left, you immediately went to the clinic's back courtyard to refine third-grade pills.
The effect was immediate.
From a single furnace of ten third-grade pills, you successfully refined four.
Your proficiency in third-grade alchemy reached Initial Mastery.
After that, Liu Jing often brought you medicinal herbs she had gathered in the mountains.
Whenever you gave Liu Jing money, she still only accepted enough for a few steamed buns.
Liu Jing kept coming like this for an entire month.
Each time, she brought some medicinal herbs.
You suspected Liu Jing might possess some special constitution.
One that allowed her to discover heavenly treasures hidden in the mountains.
You told Liu Jing to come help at the clinic whenever she had time.
You would pay her some wages.
After carefully observing her,
you discovered that you had simply read too many novels.
There was nothing special about Liu Jing.
She was merely lucky enough to find some medicinal herbs.
Sometimes, Liu Jing even pulled up a couple of weeds and brought them back.
Thinking they were something good, she grinned and held them right up to your face.
"I'm not eating those, thanks." You waved your hand.
Liu Jing treasured this job greatly.
Whenever the farmwork at home was not busy, Liu Jing came every day.
Once she arrived, she scrambled to do every kind of chore.
This greatly reduced Bai Chen and Jiao Mingxu's workload.
Bai Chen had even more free time.
He went to Manchun Courtyard more frequently.
Recently, Bai Chen had become infatuated with a courtesan named Qiu Niang.
In order to taste her fragrance, Bai Chen had already spent more than half his fortune.
He had even promised Qiu Niang that he would help redeem her freedom.
Where he should have used his body, Bai Chen had instead used his heart.
You recalled that old saying—simps never die well.
Even honest and straightforward Jiao Mingxu had been acting a little strange lately.
He was often nowhere to be seen, and no one knew what he was off doing.
Your focus remained on cultivation.
After your not-so-diligent cultivation,
three months later,
your true qi completed its sixth condensation.
The true qi within your body became frighteningly solid.
Your Martial Path talent received another boost.
With your current talent, you could be a core disciple even in a first-rate sect.
A few more days passed.
Liu Jing suddenly stopped coming to the clinic.
Her family sent you a wedding invitation.
It turned out that Liu Jing's father had sold her to a wealthy middle-aged merchant as a concubine.
Three days later, the merchant would come to take Liu Jing into his household.
Liu Jing's father forbade her from running outside again.
Your face darkened.
You rushed straight to Liu Jing's home, intending to stand up for her.
But it was different from what you had imagined.
Liu Jing was not crying and making a fuss, refusing to marry no matter what.
On the contrary, Liu Jing was very happy.
She happily told you that she was going to get married.
Though she would be a concubine, it was far better than having one meal and no idea where the next would come from at home.
Only then did you realize that you had been mistaken.
Your fixed way of thinking had assumed that becoming a concubine was always forced.
But for impoverished families like Liu Jing's, they longed for a chance to marry into wealth.
You gave Liu Jing a jade bracelet as a wedding gift, an imperial green piece full of rich color, exceptionally fine at first glance.
Three days later, you attended Liu Jing's wedding banquet.
Liu Jing smiled very happily during the feast.
You returned to the clinic to see patients.
You gradually felt that practicing medicine no longer helped your alchemy much.
You gradually stopped seeing patients yourself.
You taught Bai Chen and Jiao Mingxu some simple medical skills.
You had Bai Chen and Jiao Mingxu see the patients.
They would only call for you if they encountered difficult and complicated illnesses they could not handle.
Normally, you silently cultivated in the clinic's back courtyard.
There were still more than three hundred Inner Divinity Pills remaining.
You had no choice but to ration them carefully.
You could no longer swallow them by the handful like Qi and Blood Pills.
Now, you savored them one pill at a time.
You planned to reveal your Qi and Blood Pill refinement proficiency as Great Mastery next year.
You needed to obtain the Inner Divinity Pill formula as soon as possible, lest the night grow long and more trouble arise.
By then, your Inner Divinity Pills should also be nearly used up.
If you obtained the Inner Divinity Pill formula at that time, you could essentially achieve seamless replenishment of your Inner Divinity Pill supply.
That night, you finished cultivating.
You were about to take a piss before going to bed.
After finishing, you shivered.
Then, out of the blue, you broke through.
The breakthrough came rather suddenly, and you were so excited that you pissed all over your shoes.
Your Desolate Heaven Saber Technique reached the late Marrow Washing Realm.
The Heavenly Desire Formless Skill you cultivated alongside it also reached the late Marrow Washing Realm.
Vast true qi roared continuously through your body.
Dragon roars and tiger howls thundered deafeningly.
Even if you faced an Essence Refinement Realm martial artist at the late stage now, you could kill him with a casual raise of your hand.
You revealed your concealed cultivation as the Skin Refinement Peak.
Steadiness was your true color.
One day, you were cultivating intently in the back courtyard.
Bai Chen rushed in frantically.
"Senior Brother, that clinic across the street is causing trouble again! They even smashed up our shop!!"
You stopped cultivating. "As usual, close the doors and release Mingxu!"
"We released him already! That kid Jiao Mingxu got beaten so badly by them that even his own mother wouldn't recognize him!!"
At that moment, Jiao Mingxu ran into the back courtyard with a swollen, bruised face.
"Senior Brother, I can't hold them off!!"
This time, the other side had gathered a group of local gang members.
There were more than twenty of them in total.
Among them were two Bone Tempering Martial Artists.
They were determined to put you out of business.
Bai Chen panicked. "Senior Brother, notify the sect!!"
Jiao Mingxu agreed as well. "Senior Brother, they're too strong. We can't beat them!"
He Youshan said, "Senior Brother, Brother Xu is right!"
You stood up directly, just about to head into the front hall.
Then you suddenly felt that something was off.
"Wait." You turned toward He Youshan. "Who the fuck are you?"
Why was there one more person?
She had nearly slipped past you.
Jiao Mingxu hurriedly said, "Senior Brother, it can't be explained in a sentence or two. Let's escape through the back courtyard first!"
Bai Chen rolled his eyes. "Senior Brother, she's the girl this kid Jiao Mingxu has been flirting with lately."
You looked at Jiao Mingxu. "Wasn't that explained in one sentence?"
"Cough, cough, I suppose it was..." Jiao Mingxu scratched his head awkwardly.
You had rarely gone out to see patients during this period.
You had been cultivating in the back courtyard the whole time.
You had not expected even honest and straightforward Jiao Mingxu to start chasing girls.
You felt that the world had changed too much.
You told them, "I'm going out for a moment. Stand right here and don't move."
You lifted the curtain to the back courtyard and walked into the front hall.
"Senior Brother!"
They wanted to call you back and flee together, but you had already vanished from sight.
Your voice faintly drifted in from the front hall. "You people really have never seen the mafia before!"
Anxiousness filled Jiao Mingxu's honest face.
At last, he gritted his teeth and said, "Youshan, hurry and flee to the Danxia Sect. We'll rescue Senior Brother and come meet up with you!"