Leisurely Doctor Life (1)

With his own dwelling secured, a weight finally lifted from Bai Sui's heart.

After lying quietly for a while, Bai Sui rose to busy himself; to say nothing of the long term, there was still someone waiting for his treatment tomorrow.

At the very least, he could not use those unsterilized rags to dress wounds again tomorrow; he had to perform some form of disinfection.

He searched through the supplies the village chief had prepared for him, hoping to find some useful implements. After rummaging through them, he discovered that the village had truly provided him with quite a substantial household.

Not to mention the pots, bowls, basins, and ladles, there were all sorts of jars, stone mortars, and stone mills—everything related or unrelated to a doctor's work was there. They had arranged everything they could think of for Bai Sui, even filling the water vat in the courtyard to the brim.

Thus, Bai Sui began his grand project of boiling water, scalding every piece of food that could withstand the heat.

It was only because he hadn't found any mugwort that he didn't fumigate the entire house; after all, the scent of certain medicines made one look more like a doctor.

In truth, Bai Sui did not understand the extent to which medical arts had developed in this Warring States period; he could only hope that the gap between himself and the mainstream was not too vast.

Once the house was tidied, the sky had already darkened. Bai Sui began to cook, and unexpectedly, the hunting captain Murai Sae came to deliver a portion of black boar meat. Bai Sui did not refuse, and after some polite exchanges, he accepted it. Consequently, Bai Sui's dinner that evening became a bowl of meat porridge.

He had originally intended to go out and look for medicinal herbs, but it was truly too late. Although he could see in the dark, it would appear quite eerie in the eyes of others.

Therefore, Bai Sui did not act out of the ordinary; he began to meditate in his room, preparing to head out early the next morning.

Upon entering deep meditation once more, Bai Sui discovered something different.

While fleeing previously, Bai Sui had not stopped, and thus had not actively practiced.

Of course, this did not mean he had not practiced at all during those three days; as mentioned before, when his heart was in harmony with heaven, he had passively received cultivation.

During the day, he had only felt that the elixir bead within his dantian had grown larger and more rounded, but now, upon inspecting it in meditation, he realized the changes within his dantian.

Beyond the elixir bead condensed from his own essence, energy, and spirit, a thick layer of energy permeated the surrounding area, and beneath the dantian lay a small pool of spiritual liquid formed from this very energy.

After sensing it carefully, he found this energy somewhat similar to the natural qi outside his body, only more refined and compatible.

With a movement of his primordial spirit, a golden light enveloped his entire dantian, and he immediately understood the cause and effect.

It turned out that this was natural qi, left behind after being imbued with his own energy during his previous communion with heaven and earth.

When this qi first entered Bai Sui's body, it was no different from the outside, but it had been guided by his own cultivation path, eventually flowing into the dantian and being continuously refined. That pool of spiritual liquid had been condensed in this very way.

Not only that, but this refined natural qi was spontaneously drawing in the qi from the heavens and earth outside; in other words, Bai Sui had gained another means of growing stronger without active cultivation.

Currently, he lacked any techniques to unleash it, otherwise, this would be equivalent to having an extra mana bar that automatically regenerated.

Furthermore, through Bai Sui's experimentation, this natural qi could not only be recovered passively but also increased through active absorption.

The only difference lay in whether it had been refined and imbued by Bai Sui.

What was absorbed passively was already refined and ready to be deployed, while what was absorbed actively remained unrefined, making it clumsy to control and requiring further refinement.

Because this assimilated natural qi was of the same origin as the qi of heaven and earth, it could be easily influenced and controlled.

Although Bai Sui lacked the corresponding techniques to unleash it, he could already use it through crude methods.

For instance, by throwing it out in a burst, it would attack in the form of an energy projectile; while it seemed like a waste of energy and lacked finesse, it at least provided Bai Sui with another form of ranged attack.

If he were to imbue his physical body with it, it would significantly enhance his strength and capabilities, much like a divine descent.

As Bai Sui practiced in the night, he suddenly felt a hint of chill.

It turned out that Bai Sui had run for three days and three nights. With his ability to travel 500 li a day, although he hadn't taken a straight path, he had run from the far southeast of the Land of Fire to the borders of the Land of Fields, crossing the entire territory of the Land of Fire.

This place was much colder than the Uzumaki Clan Territory. During his conversation with the village chief in the day, he had learned that this forest belonged to the border area between the Land of Fields and the Land of Iron.

Therefore, ninjas were rare, and conversely, there were quite a few samurai. That samurai guarding the village at the outpost, Kubota Noriyuki, was said to have come from the Land of Iron.

The samurai hadn't mentioned the specific reason, but it didn't seem like a pleasant matter, so the villagers hadn't delved into it. After all, picking at someone's scars was not a good thing, and picking at a samurai's scars was an even less wise choice.

No one was willing to entrust their life and death to them out of mere, insignificant curiosity.

Bai Sui had now witnessed the power of ninjas, albeit only partially, but he had yet to see the capabilities of a samurai, even though they were being comprehensively crushed by ninjas and forced to exit the stage of history.

However, the history of ninjas spanned a thousand years; even so, samurai still existed, which meant they must possess something extraordinary, so Bai Sui would not underestimate them.

Although there was no good opportunity or excuse right now, he figured that after interacting for a while, he would be able to learn what he wanted to know from the samurai Kubota Noriyuki.

Discarding his distracting thoughts, Bai Sui spent another night in cultivation.

The next morning, as Bai Sui prepared to light a fire to cook, a sudden thought occurred to him: since he could now incorporate the qi of heaven and earth into his body, could he be considered someone who "eats qi"?

The Huainanzi states: "Those who eat meat are brave and fierce; those who eat grain are wise and clever; those who eat qi are divine and long-lived; those who eat nothing do not die and become spirits."

Bai Sui felt that he could indeed be counted as one who eats qi; after all, although he had yet to attain the status of an immortal, he could already live for well over a hundred years.

Could he then use this to achieve the state of eating nothing? He tried to infuse the natural qi within his body throughout his entire frame, using it to replace food as his energy source.

After some experimentation, he found it was indeed possible; relying solely on the qi absorbed passively was enough to satisfy Bai Sui's daily energy requirements.

It was just that doing so prevented Bai Sui from passively increasing his qi reserves; it was a case of gains and losses.