Wenren Lingmeng Might Not Be Sick

"Looks like the son-in-law is quite the glutton. Let me think—there are simply too many. Listen as I list them one by one."

Alright, alright, I get it. Stop talking!

Without question, Wenren Lingmeng was the one on the verge of collapse. Knowing she still had to drink plain congee that night had already been bad enough, yet the two of them kept rattling off dish names by her ear, stirring up all sorts of associations.

Tormented beyond measure, she was exhausted in both body and mind.

At that moment, Wenren Lingmeng wanted to die again. Just kill me with one sword already. It was as though she could hear her stomach rumbling beside her ears.

Whatever goodwill she had toward the two culprits, Mu Zibai and Xiao E, had vanished completely.

After quite some time, the pair finally finished talking. Wenren Lingmeng let out a breath of relief. Once I wake up, I'll eat until I'm stuffed! I'll lock Mu Zibai and Xiao E in a little dark room and starve them for ten days or so.

Then she would let them out and give them nothing but plain congee while she ate delicious food right in front of them.

The more she thought about it, the more resolute she became. She had to make them repent for the wrong they had committed against her!

At that moment, Mu Zibai took Wenren Lingmeng's pulse again. He had learned a few things from Shen Nong's Herbal Compendium, so naturally, he wanted to try them out on her.

About the time it took for an incense stick to burn, he sensed nothing unusual in Wenren Lingmeng's body.

He found it rather strange. Much of it did not match what was described in medical texts, which made things difficult. If Wenren Lingmeng's symptoms were not recorded in Shen Nong's Herbal Compendium, then even if Mu Zibai mastered it, he might not necessarily be able to cure her.

This was like an old Chinese doctor flipping through books—more likely than not, it was a terminal illness.

After thinking carefully for a while, Mu Zibai suddenly considered a possibility. Perhaps Wenren Lingmeng was not sick at all.

Instead, it might be something like her soul leaving her body. Her soul had separated from her body, leaving her unable to control it herself. That would make sense as well.

But if that was truly the case, they would have to investigate from the source of Wenren Lingmeng's coma.

"What's wrong, son-in-law?" Seeing Mu Zibai's puzzled expression, as though something was weighing on his mind, Xiao E asked curiously.

"Nothing."

Those matters could be investigated later. For now, he should farm points. Points were the most important thing. He needed to save enough points as soon as possible—first, a small goal: one hundred million points.

He flipped through Shen Nong's Herbal Compendium in his mind, looking over the sections on nourishing the body. Wenren Lingmeng was physically weak, and what she needed most was proper care and recuperation.

Since he, her son-in-law, was here, he had to be of some use. He could not possibly just watch Wenren Lingmeng grow weaker by the day, or would he not be thrown out?

Looking at the vast sea of knowledge, Mu Zibai frowned, his scalp tingling. Traditional Chinese medicine placed great emphasis on experience. Without twenty or thirty years of study, one truly would not dare call oneself a traditional Chinese doctor.

That was why the truly formidable traditional Chinese doctors were generally old men past fifty—and extraordinarily skilled ones at that.

Traditional Chinese medicine also tested one's comprehension. There was so much medical knowledge, along with so many examples, but one point had to be remembered: a patient's illness would never follow a medical text exactly.

That required flexible application of knowledge. Without some comprehension, ordinary people truly could not learn it.

After reading more than ten pages, he felt it was manageable. Since he was already cultivating Shen Nong's Herbal Compendium, his understanding of the cultivation technique made his insights much faster, but the speed was still too slow.

Mu Zibai did not want to cultivate for more than a decade. Though he did not lack time, he could not waste it like that.

He remembered seeing a kind of pill during the shop refresh called a Comprehension Pill. Its effect was to enhance comprehension, but he did not know when it would appear again.

Shen Nong's Herbal Compendium basically encompassed the entirety of medical texts. It covered an immense range of subjects and taught one to draw inferences from one instance to another, all with methods proven effective in practice.

Closing Shen Nong's Herbal Compendium, Mu Zibai felt his cultivation improve slightly again, while the wood-element Qi within him grew more abundant.

At this rate, he would reach Mystic Armor in two months, three at most. If the shop refreshed with another two Qi Nourishing Pills, Mu Zibai was confident he could break through within a month.

Mystic Armor focused on tempering the body. One needed one's physique to reach a certain level before having a perfect chance at a breakthrough. Otherwise, there would be risks, and failure would bring backlash.

Yet body cultivation was exceptionally difficult. Very few people could raise their chances to perfection through body cultivation alone, so most people were gambling when they attempted a breakthrough.

Thus, Mystic Armor became the first hurdle for many who sought immortality, stopping the vast majority in their tracks.

The Mu family was wealthy and powerful, with deep foundations, and it welcomed talented people from all walks of life. Many common folk with no resources came to the Mu family to seek pills, more or less hoping to try their luck.

The Mu family would also give pills to some people with decent talent. If they could break through, they would become retainers or guards of the Mu family.

Mu Zibai had once seen those common people begging for medicine, kneeling outside the Mu family gates. He had seen their thirst for immortality, and he had also seen the hardships of the body techniques they practiced in pursuit of a breakthrough.

They struck the sinews and bones of their bodies with clubs, soaked themselves in medicinal liquid, and repeatedly practiced body techniques to strengthen their physiques. The hardship involved had left a deep impression on Mu Zibai.

If Mu Zibai had not possessed Qi Nourishing Pills and a Mystic Armor Pill, he likely would not have broken through until at least a year later. And with his physique, the risk would have been great.

Evening arrived quickly.

Xiao E let out a sigh of relief. She had been watching Mu Zibai all afternoon, and it was hard to imagine that he had truly spent the entire afternoon here accompanying Wenren Lingmeng.

Even more frightening was that Mu Zibai did not seem sleepy in the slightest, nor did he show even a trace of boredom. On the contrary, he seemed to enjoy it, leaving Xiao E utterly shocked.

How had Mu Zibai kept it up?

Xiao E was a cultivator and could steady her mind. Even standing for long periods or going without sleep was not a problem for her.

But staying beside a Soul Loss Syndrome patient like Wenren Lingmeng was inevitably rather dull. She would grow sleepy and want to find something else to do.

Normally, Xiao E would read, cultivate, or ask someone else to watch over Wenren Lingmeng for a while before going off to handle other matters. If she had to keep watching like Mu Zibai, Xiao E figured she would go mad.

A full day and night without closing his eyes, simply watching Wenren Lingmeng without doing anything else, yet still so energetic—did this guy not need sleep?

Mu Zibai had never cultivated before, either.

And there was absolutely no need for him to do this.

Could it be that Mu Zibai truly treats Wenren Lingmeng well? Love at first sight? Xiao E's heart wavered slightly. I'll observe him a little longer.

"Please wait a moment, son-in-law. I'll go bring the dishes."

"Alright, thank you." Mu Zibai nodded slightly.

At the sound of the door opening and closing, Mu Zibai rubbed his shoulders. Sitting all day had left his waist aching and his back sore.

He checked his points.

[Points: 68481]

He was about to break through the seventy-thousand-point mark. Just seeing those points made him feel refreshed and invigorated. All that remained was to wait for the shop to refresh.

Among the items he had viewed so far, most of the higher-tier goods required more than one hundred thousand points.

Even if Mu Zibai stayed by her side without abandoning her, it would still take two days to save up one hundred thousand points, not counting the possibility of encountering other items he wanted.