Hidden Meridians

Hidden Meridians

Before dinner, Huang Ji had already returned ahead of time to the bookstore downstairs from the apartment.

By the time Zheng Xuan came downstairs to find him, he had already picked out more than a dozen books he wanted to buy.

"Mechanical Drawing" and "Mechanical Basics" were the most fundamental basics. He had to master them.

"Materials and Metal Technology" was also essential. Every component of any machine was made of materials, so he had no choice but to study it.

"Mechanics Basics" was important too. The design of mechanical products had to conform to the basic principles of mechanics. Although he had learned a little physics in middle school, it had been far too superficial. Huang Ji thirsted for knowledge, so he also picked up "Mechanical Design Basics."

Finally, machinery and electricity were inseparable in modern society. To study machinery, he had to study electricity. At the sales clerk's recommendation, Huang Ji bought "Electrical and Electronic Basics" as well.

"Well, well, you're already thinking about teaching yourself? They'll teach all this once you're in school. There's no need to buy them now." Zheng Xuan looked over Huang Ji's list and smiled.

Huang Ji said blankly, "But they look pretty good."

"..." Zheng Xuan shrugged and paid.

When they had brought Huang Ji into the city this time, his grandpa had given them quite a bit of money to keep for him.

So whatever Huang Ji wanted to buy, Zheng Xuan simply bought it for him.

The two went upstairs and ate dinner. Huang Ji then returned to his room to read, while Zheng Xuan was happy to see him being so well-behaved and buried himself in coding in his own room.

Rustle, rustle... Huang Ji flipped through the pages.

To Huang Ji, studying had already become a pleasure.

First, in order to improve his control over his own abilities, he had to strengthen his knowledge.

At the same time, this was the foundation for breaking Earth's predicament, so Huang Ji's enthusiasm for learning was extremely high.

He had never properly studied in his entire life. Now that his intelligence was finally normal, he was practically starving for knowledge.

Second, under his information-sensing ability, his memory was unbeatable.

It could no longer be called memory. It was as though the universe was keeping records for him!

Anything he had ever seen, even if he himself forgot it, his "personal information" would not.

As long as his mind was clear, he could search his own personal information. Even details he had not noticed or remembered at all at the time would be as clear as a movie when he reviewed them afterward.

It was like photographic memory, except even more stable and clear than photographic memory.

Even if Huang Ji lost his memories and his mind became completely blank, nothing he had seen or heard could possibly vanish. Those records of information, stored who knew where in the unseen, would forever exist objectively...

His enthusiasm for learning and his memory were not problems. What remained was comprehension.

In that regard, Huang Ji was merely ordinary, with aptitude and intelligence only somewhat above average.

However, his ability to apply knowledge after learning it far exceeded everyone else's.

For example, once he understood the concept of gravity, knew that "kilograms" were kilograms and "kilogram-force" was kilogram-force, that one was mass while the other was weight...

Once he possessed that concept, he did not even need the formula G = mg to unlock an entirely new piece of information: gravitational-force data.

With one glance at the wardrobe, Huang Ji directly perceived that the gravitational force acting on it was "2905.251... N."

If the wardrobe were moved somewhere else, okay, the gravitational force would be different.

Though the difference was extremely minute, changed was changed. The value Huang Ji sensed would visibly shift, at the very least in the digits after the decimal point.

An ultra-precision observation eye!

People usually recorded the gravitational parameter on Earth's surface as 9.8, sometimes even roughly treating it as 10.

But after Huang Ji unlocked this concept, what he received was not a result obtained by simply multiplying by 10 or 9.8. It was the actual gravitational force that object was truly experiencing at that exact moment!

Information sensing was not a computer. The answer he sensed differed from an answer calculated with pen and paper!

True information, incomparably real and without falsehood!

It was super-objective information that could be precise to an unknown number of digits after the decimal point.

He knew exactly how much gravitational force he experienced standing on the bed, how much standing on the floor, how much acted on his head, how much acted on his waist...

Besides that, he had also unlocked the corresponding values for "weight," as well as the gravitational acceleration values in different regions...

No matter where Huang Ji went, whether underground or in the sky, whether at the North Pole or the Equator, he could provide data detailed to the utmost for even the slightest difference in gravity.

Of course, gravitational data was not the key.

The key was that, with such precise objective facts available for verification, Huang Ji was essentially the world's strongest detector, as well as a formula-verifying machine.

Was a formula correct? Was an existing theory complete? Did the constants provided by the scientific community contain errors? As long as he understood the relevant knowledge, and the direction—or rather, the foundation—of that knowledge was not wrong, Huang Ji could unlock the true answer.

Study, and he immediately gained something. Study, and he could immediately put it to use.

This greatly enhanced Huang Ji's comprehension, giving him a deeper understanding of gravity and an incomparably solid foundation.

When he turned to more advanced knowledge afterward, he achieved twice the result with half the effort, smooth and effortless, like a torrent pouring down.

As a result, his learning speed accelerated.

Starting from the basics and progressing step by step, once Huang Ji learned enough foundational knowledge, he would charge into the most cutting-edge and profound fields of knowledge at accelerating speed.

Late at night, the only sound left in the room was Huang Ji turning pages.

Word problems, writing test papers? Those things were utterly meaningless. After studying for a while, Huang Ji would get up and gaze into the distance, admire the moon, or walk around the room and sense the objects around him.

In this way, he continuously reinforced his basic knowledge. Once he learned those things, they truly became his.

Apply what he learned, then use it in turn to aid his learning.

Huang Ji immersed himself wholeheartedly in the ocean of knowledge.

Early the next morning, while Zheng Xuan was still asleep, Huang Ji secretly used his own money to buy even more books.

They were mainly books on medicine, along with some foundational subjects.

"Physiology," "Medical Microbiology," "Human Parasitology," "Medical Immunology," "Medical Higher Mathematics," "Medical Physics," "Basic Chemistry," "Organic Chemistry," "Medical Biology," "Systemic Anatomy," "Regional Anatomy," "Histology and Embryology"...

Besides modern medicine, Huang Ji had also taken an interest in traditional Chinese medicine. He had heard his grandpa say that some illnesses Western medicine could not cure could be treated with traditional Chinese medicine.

So he specifically sought out "Human Acupoints and Meridians," "Basic Theory of Traditional Chinese Medicine," "Traditional Chinese Medicine"...

Some of these books were especially expensive, costing Huang Ji a total of one hundred thousand yuan.

But in order to study medicine, cure his grandpa, and make himself stronger, these were all necessary expenses.

Huang Ji truly did not care about money. In his view, being able to buy knowledge with money was an incredible bargain.

Thus, Huang Ji crammed mechanical engineering, mathematics, physics, and chemistry during the day, while studying medicine and the human body at night, lest Zheng Xuan notice and ask too many questions.

As his basic knowledge increased and he understood more concepts, he unlocked a great deal more information.

Every day, he immersed himself in this information, though most of his energy was focused on information about the human body.

The more he knew, the more Huang Ji realized how much remained unknown.

"Meridians... acupoints... are only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the human body's nodes."

After studying deeply for a while, Huang Ji soon became thoroughly familiar with the locations of human acupoints.

He could easily see the positions of other people's acupoints. There could not possibly be the slightest error; they were all clearly marked.

Many of the various nodes he had identified when defeating the kidnappers now displayed names. They were acupoints.

But even more remained unnamed.

Without question, these were human response points that no one had yet discovered.

Traditional Chinese medicine's four hundred and nine acupoints accounted for only half of them.

As for meridians, they linked some response points hidden within the human body and related to the viscera and bowels. Traditional Chinese medicine had not summarized many of them, only the Twelve Principal Meridians, the Fifteen Collateral Meridians, and the Eight Extraordinary Meridians.

"From the remaining response points, I feel like I can connect another nine meridians, plus more than a dozen or twenty branch meridians."

"This one is the easiest to distinguish. These dozens of unnamed acupoints are all related to the viscera and bowels, yet traditional Chinese medicine never discovered them."

"This should belong to a main meridian, except the positions of ten acupoints constantly shift, so no one throughout history was able to summarize it."

The Twelve Principal Meridians were all related to the viscera and bowels, and Huang Ji had already learned some basic medical theory.

Using the existing theories of meridians as a model, Huang Ji swiftly summarized a hidden meridian from the remaining response points related to the viscera and bowels.

Unlike the Twelve Principal Meridians, this hidden meridian did not involve the circulation of qi and blood. After all, if it did, famous physicians would surely have discovered it long ago.

It was a hidden meridian that influenced and even governed the other Twelve Principal Meridians, primarily responsible for transmitting the neurochemical signals of the Five Viscera and Six Bowels.

What did that mean? It meant this meridian managed communication between the viscera and bowels and the brain!

The human heart, intestines, and other visceral organs could influence the brain's judgment, even one's personality and emotions.

They constantly affected neurotransmitters such as serotonin and endorphins in the brain, raising or lowering their concentrations.

In turn, the brain controlled every organ in the body. It was merely that electrochemical information was too complex, so a person's subjective self remained unaware of it. The brain controlled everything in the background, manipulating all sorts of organs at every moment—what people called bodily instinct.

And this hidden meridian was precisely the pathway linking the diverse physiological systems between the brain, heart, intestines, and microbial flora within the human body. The response points involved—or rather, the hidden acupoints—were valves.

If the Twelve Principal Meridians were responsible for circulating qi and blood, then this hidden meridian was responsible for circulating neurotransmitters.

All communication between the brain and visceral organs such as the heart and intestines relied on it.

For example, stimulating one of these hidden acupoints could affect a person's appetite.

It could make someone unable to eat at all, make everything taste bland. This was precisely because neurotransmitters affected the brain's judgment and caused anorexia.

If it was coordinated with other acupoints on the same meridian, it could increase appetite. The principle was merely the difference between rising and falling hormone concentrations.

This was the intestines influencing the brain, so the result was a change in mood and desire.

Conversely, if the neural signals the brain sent to the intestines were adjusted, the result would be physiological changes!

If signals from the brain reached the intestines, the hormones secreted would alter the intestinal microbial environment, which would in turn affect the intestinal flora.

It was like a flood washing through a forest. The forest's ecosystem would inevitably change.

Changes in intestinal flora would directly affect the intestines' digestive ability.

If digestive ability declined, a person would quickly lose weight. If digestive ability became paralyzed, a person might be starved to death alive by their own stomach and intestines...

Unless they were kept alive with glucose infusions.

Likewise, adjusting dietary preferences and accelerating digestive ability could also be achieved.

In theory, with the right method, he could turn the intestines from a small workshop into a high-powered furnace, digesting food completely at a speed beyond common sense.

And that was only for response points related to the intestines. The heart, kidneys, and liver each had their own uses.

Combined together, they could rapidly strengthen and stimulate every aspect of the human body's functions.

Oxygen supply, blood supply, detoxification, blood production, immunity, growth, reproduction... fluid regulation, body temperature regulation, blood pressure regulation...

What made top athletes stronger than ordinary people was not their muscles, but their internal viscera and bowels.

Muscles had some influence, but they were merely minor details. The viscera and bowels were the key.

If muscles were strengthened without proper planning, they would not make a person stronger. Instead, they would burden the human body.

Upgrading a machine was not about making its casing bulkier, but strengthening its power system and computing system.

Inner strength was true strength.

The first hidden meridian Huang Ji had summarized was a platform that controlled the functions of the human viscera and bowels. The so-called Twelve Principal Meridians were merely branches that assisted it.

Yet for thousands of years, not a single doctor had discovered it. Huang Ji was the first.

"But the problem is, how do I coordinate and control them? Do I have to use needles every time?" Huang Ji pondered.

P.S. Sorry.