"Why Has She Lived This Long?"

Even this secondhand book alone was worth a third of a Medical Hall. It showed just how expensive anything related to soul masters could be.

Still, the book was truly impressive. It contained nearly every common Soul Beast and Soul Skill.

When he had first obtained it, Huo Yuhao had checked the author and discovered that it had been compiled by a Limit Douluo from a thousand years ago, who had personally traveled across the continent to record Soul Beasts and Soul Skills.

The boy carefully read through the detailed introduction to the Sunpetal Flower and the Soul Skill effects it might provide.

When he saw that they were mostly healing or support-type Soul Skills, dissatisfaction appeared on his face.

"Huh? Support type?"

"No, Hall Master, can't you give me something more offensive?"

Although he did not recommend ordinary Blue Silver Grass taking the assault or control path, since the customer had made such a request, Huo Yuhao upheld the principle that the customer was God and patiently introduced other Soul Beasts to him.

"This is the Dream Mist Flower. It usually grows in cold, gloomy caves around the outskirts of the Star Dou Great Forest and can produce illusion-type Soul Skills. What do you think?"

"Illusion-type Soul Skills aren't straightforward enough. They're cheap tricks. I don't want them!"

Hearing that, a vein bulged on Huo Yuhao's forehead. That remark had hit a little too close to home.

Suppressing his temper, he continued, "Rage Thunder Vine grows in Thunderclap Gorge and generally produces lightning-summoning Soul Skills. What do you think?"

"You still have to rely on the weather. There's too much luck involved. Not good!"

"Sword Grass grows in Disaster Mountain. Absorbing its Soul Ring can give a plant Martial Soul sharp properties and even grant armor-piercing Soul Skills. What do you think?"

The boy hesitated for a moment before shaking his head. "The range is too small, and the distance is too short. Not good."

Huo Yuhao was genuinely getting angry. He slapped the book onto the table and said, "Tsk, it's just a First Soul Skill. Do you think you can fly to the heavens? This won't do, that won't do."

"How about this? Go to the Star Dou Great Forest and keep heading toward the Core Zone. Once you reach the Lake of Life, kill the Myriad Demon King. The Soul Skill you get will definitely satisfy you."

The boy's eyes actually lit up. Just as he was about to say something, his mother covered his mouth. Then she apologetically said to Huo Yuhao:

"I'm sorry, Hall Master Huo. This child has been reading those Ranger Novels in the residence all day. They've muddled his mind."

"I think the Sunpetal Flower is quite good. It's easy to obtain, and the Soul Skill it grants is very useful."

When the boy heard that, he was about to make a fuss, but his mother shot him a fierce glare, and he immediately behaved himself.

After glancing at the boy, Huo Yuhao wrote down the relevant precautions and locations for the Sunpetal Flower on a sheet of paper and handed it to the Middle-aged Woman.

The Middle-aged Woman accepted it with profuse thanks. She took out three Silver Soul Coins and a book from the small bag behind her and handed them to Huo Yuhao.

"Hall Master, thank you for all your trouble just now."

"Consider this book additional payment. When the Tang Sect split into branches back then, my grandmother brought this Mysterious Heaven Skill out of the Tang Sect."

"There were originally several other secret arts, but they were lost during the hardships that followed. Only this Mysterious Heaven Skill was preserved."

"If you don't mind, please accept it. These days, the Tang Sect no longer even exists. No one cares if cultivation methods leak out."

After watching the two leave the Medical Hall, Huo Yuhao looked at the manual in his hands with a mixture of amusement and helplessness.

Without even joining the Tang Sect, he had obtained the Tang Sect's most core cultivation method so easily.

It made him wonder whether Buddha had decided to lend him a hand.

With nothing else to do, Huo Yuhao flipped through the Mysterious Heaven Skill.

The Meditation Method recorded within was indeed much better than the one Huo Yuhao currently used. It involved more meridians and was more logically structured.

However, Huo Yuhao discovered something odd. The general outline clearly mentioned the essentials of the Eight Extraordinary Meridians, but the later content only introduced several main meridians used in cultivation.

The core knowledge of the Eight Extraordinary Meridians and the related diagrams had not been recorded at all. Moreover, the wording in many places felt distinctly unnatural, as though parts had been deleted.

Huo Yuhao immediately understood. The Tang Sect's Mysterious Heaven Skill had probably been crippled, and coupled with the Tang Sect's later decline, the version in his hands might be worlds apart from the original.

"Useless to eat, but a pity to discard."

That was Huo Yuhao's evaluation of it. For now, the only thing useful to him was the knowledge of meridians it recorded.

He truly did not dare practice this cultivation method. He was afraid someone had slipped something into it and that he would cultivate himself into a problem.

Developing a problem would be the lesser issue. If he unknowingly ended up with a God King's dog leash around his neck, he would really be finished.

At this moment, Jiang Nannan had finally arrived at Huo Yuhao's shop with her mother.

After seeing the ridiculous slogan on the signboard, she still gritted her teeth and led her mother inside.

After all, this was her last hope.

After entering the shop, Jiang Nannan called out to Huo Yuhao, who was reading behind the counter:

"Hall Master, please take a look at my mother. I'm begging you."

The moment Huo Yuhao looked up, he saw an incomparably beautiful young girl with long golden wavy hair. Her face was streaked with tears as she supported her mother and looked at him with pleading eyes.

The instant he saw her, Huo Yuhao's brain CPU began spinning wildly, immediately pulling up several keywords.

"Blonde hair, beautiful, sick mother, Xuanfeng City, Xuan Ming Sect."

"Holy crap, this is Jiang Nannan's hometown?!"

Huo Yuhao finally understood the point in time he was in. Jiang Nannan was currently in her third year and would begin her fourth year when school started.

In other words, in four months, the normal plot would begin, and both Sky Dream Ice Silkworm and Electrolux would gather in the Star Dou Great Forest.

His two greatest cheat codes from the original story were about to come online.

Under Jiang Nannan's pleading gaze, Huo Yuhao temporarily set aside his thoughts. He quickly stood up, helped her mother into the back room, and laid her on the sickbed.

Then he asked Jiang Nannan about the patient's condition.

Jiang Nannan hurriedly repeated every detail of the diagnosis Xu Wei had given, word for word.

"Hall Master, please, you must save my mother. She's suffered too much. I... I..."

Huo Yuhao interrupted her spiraling emotions. "Go outside for a while first. Let me see what's going on."

Jiang Nannan nodded heavily, then held back her sobs and retreated to the front hall.

After Huo Yuhao drew the curtain, he slowly examined her mother's condition bit by bit with Spiritual Power.

Especially around her heart. He had not known how bad it was until he checked; once he did, he was stunned.

"Holy shit. Ventricular septal defect, atrial septal defect, patent ductus arteriosus, pulmonary valve stenosis."

"She's got every congenital heart condition there is."

"How the hell has she lived this long? Why is she even alive? Medicine has ceased to exist!"

Huo Yuhao stared at the woman on the bed in utter amazement.

Without exaggeration, in his previous life, this woman would have been worth at least five Nobel Prizes in Medicine.

Any one of these conditions would have been enough to put an ordinary person through hell, yet she had hit the grand slam and was still alive and kicking after more than thirty years.

If they could figure out the fundamental reason she had survived until now, medical research on the heart could leap forward fifty years overnight.

Driven by curiosity, Huo Yuhao continued examining her. Then he realized why she had survived until now.

This woman's Martial Soul, like Jiang Nannan's, was the Soft Bone Rabbit. Her Innate Soul Power was not low either, probably around rank six or seven.

Her Beast Martial Soul, together with the greater innate essence brought by her relatively high Innate Soul Power, had continuously supported her survival.

However, as time passed and her physical condition weakened, the source essence of her Martial Soul declined and could no longer compensate for her bodily functions. The problems with her heart had begun to erupt.