Almost Too Healthy!

Seeing the young doctor turn back to prepare the medicine behind the counter, Chen Jue stayed where he was and waited a little.

Before long, an elderly Chinese medicine doctor slowly made his way from the back to the front counter, carrying an insulated mug. When he caught sight of Chen Jue's rosy, fair skin, as soft as a baby's, he gave a quiet murmur of surprise.

As everyone knew, cross-talk performers had four fundamental skills: speaking, mimicry, comedy, and singing. Traditional Chinese medicine likewise emphasized four basic diagnostic methods: observation, listening and smelling, questioning, and pulse-taking. Naturally, the information these doctors gleaned from someone's appearance differed greatly from what an ordinary person saw.

Noticing Chen Jue's unusual complexion, the elderly doctor couldn't resist approaching him. "Young man, you look almost too healthy. Would you mind letting me check your pulse?"

Chen Jue paused in surprise. "Please, go ahead!" Then he held out his hand.

The elderly doctor promptly placed his fingers on Chen Jue's wrist. A few seconds later, his expression began to change!

"Sir, is something wrong with me?" Chen Jue was puzzled. The elderly doctor seemed a little too easily startled.

"Your pulse is balanced and steady, with a strong, powerful beat. You're almost too healthy!"

"Young man, would you mind letting me listen to your heart? I'll check you over for free!" The elderly doctor pursed his lips, then took a stethoscope from his breast pocket.

"For free? Then please, go ahead!"

Hearing he was getting such a good deal, Chen Jue leaned closer and lifted his short-sleeved shirt so the doctor could place the stethoscope against his chest.

After listening to his heart and several other organs for a while, the elderly doctor looked increasingly astonished. He lowered the stethoscope. "Young man, are you a school PE teacher?"

"No." Chen Jue shook his head.

"An athlete, then?" the elderly doctor continued.

"No, not that either! I just lost my job, so I'm out of work," Chen Jue replied.

"Now that's strange!"

"Your heartbeat and pulse are strong and powerful. In all my years practicing medicine, I've never seen anyone who could match you! You could even say you're almost too healthy. Without regular exercise, you wouldn't have a body in such good condition." The elderly doctor then held Chen Jue's face, turning it from side to side for a closer look.

"Can you concentrate your vital energy and attain suppleness, becoming like an infant?" the elderly doctor murmured to himself as he examined him.

This was a famous line of wisdom from the Tao Te Ching. It meant that regulating the flow of vital energy within the body could make it supple and full of vitality, leaving the skin as soft as a baby's.

In martial arts novels, this was the so-called return from the acquired state to the innate state, a sign that one's training had reached an extremely profound level.

While the elderly doctor was chatting with Chen Jue, the young doctor finished preparing the prescription and returned from the back. Seeing the elderly doctor examining Chen Jue, he couldn't resist handing it over. "Grandpa, this is the prescription he wants filled!"

The elderly doctor took one look at it, and understanding dawned on his face. "Mighty Pills? So that's it! I was wondering why you looked so healthy. You practice martial arts!"

"Martial arts?" The young doctor beside him was also taken aback. Apparently, he hadn't heard of anyone pursuing that occupation in many years.

"Huh? You figured it out, sir!" Chen Jue replied in surprise.

"I practiced qigong for a few years when I was young. It was all the rage across the country back then, though I never achieved much. While studying medicine, I also treated a few Southern Boxing practitioners, but none of their pulses were as healthy as yours." The elderly doctor smiled, having finally worked out Chen Jue's occupation.

The praise made Chen Jue's ears grow a little hot. On second thought, though, his constitution and health index were far beyond those of ordinary people, so a strong, powerful pulse was only natural.

After chatting with the elderly doctor a little longer and paying for the Mighty Pills, Chen Jue finally left Ye Tong Ren Tang.

With noon approaching, Chen Jue didn't hurry back to the countryside. Instead, he found an upscale quick-service restaurant called the Golden Rice Bowl and went in for lunch.

Why call it an upscale quick-service restaurant?

Because the restaurant used excellent ingredients. The rice was supposedly Wuchang Rice from northeastern China, and a small bowl cost two yuan. It had been open since Chen Jue first came to town for school, making it an established business of over a decade.

Still, there was a reason for the price. The rice tasted excellent. With Dongpo braised pork, fish with pickled vegetables and tofu, and poached shrimp to accompany it, Chen Jue polished off five bowls in one sitting, leaving the woman serving rice dumbfounded.

What an appetite!

But that was also because his five-hundred-meter sprint that morning had burned a great deal of energy.

Especially when he ended his practice and sweat poured from his entire body, Chen Jue had felt a wave of weakness wash over him. It was far more intense than what he felt after training at home for a whole day, and it had taken him nearly half an hour to recover.

He opened his attribute panel for a look:

Player: Chen Jue

Age: 27

Health index: 98%

Strength: 1.01

Agility: 0.98

Intelligence: 1.23

Constitution: 1.58

Skills mastered: [Boat Boxing Level 1 (132/200)] [Twelve Forms of the Muscle-Tendon Change Classic Level 1 (10/200)] [Eight Immortals Stance Level 1 (145/200)]

Unallocated attribute points: 0.26

That state of closed pores actually produced this much attribute growth?

Looks like I'll have to ask the experienced experts on Tieba when I get back!

His strength and agility had each increased by 0.02, while his constitution had risen by 0.01. The biggest increase was in his unallocated attribute points, which had jumped by a full 0.06.

And that was just from sprinting a little over five hundred meters!

If he could maintain that miraculous state of closed pores and run farther, would the training effects be even greater?

Besides that, putting the Eight Immortals Stance to extensive practical use had sent its proficiency soaring as well. It was already close to reaching level 2.

After sitting in the Golden Rice Bowl and studying his gains for a while, Chen Jue felt that his food had settled and paid for lunch. Before leaving, however, he made a point of asking a server for an online purchase link for that Wuchang Rice.

Ever since he began practicing martial arts, Chen Jue had paid increasing attention to his daily diet and lifestyle. He could roughly tell from the taste whether anything he ate was good for his body.

The Wuchang Rice felt much better than ordinary rice, so Chen Jue ordered fifty kilograms without a second thought.

What Chen Jue didn't know, however, was that authentic Wuchang Rice was sold under quotas, with extremely limited production. It was almost impossible to buy online.

The link the restaurant had given him was actually for a northeastern long-grain fragrant rice. Its flavor and nutritional value were very close to those of Wuchang Rice, but it was marketed under the Wuchang Rice name as a sales gimmick.

It was the same principle as tossing ordinary hairy crabs into Yangcheng Lake for a bath, then fishing them out and selling them at a premium.