His Acupoints Had Been Sealed

Su Ziyang had no idea how much time had passed when he heard someone calling him.

"Ziyang. We're home. Wake up!"

Su Ziyang opened his eyes and looked around. It seemed they had arrived in a small mountain village.

The village was well developed, though, with a detached two-story villa for every household.

After some sleep, Su Ziyang felt a little more comfortable, but his head was still dizzy.

"We're home, huh?" Su Ziyang rubbed his face, trying to stay awake.

"We're here, we're here." Seeing that Su Ziyang was still in a daze, Jiang Tian got out of the car and helped him out. Supporting Su Ziyang, he went through the gate with him.

"Uncle! Mr. Mengfei's disciple, Ziyang, is here!" Jiang Tian called as soon as he entered.

"What's all the shouting about... rushing around like a whirlwind!" A middle-aged woman came out of the house. Su Ziyang couldn't quite understand what she said, but he caught the gist of it.

"Hehe! Auntie." Jiang Tian greeted the woman as Auntie, and Su Ziyang followed suit.

"You must be Su Ziyang. Come inside, come inside." After hearing Jiang Tian's introduction, the middle-aged woman hurriedly ushered them both into the house.

Jiang Tian's uncle's house was lavishly decorated, with a large tea table in the living room.

The middle-aged woman asked Su Ziyang to sit down, then began making tea. "Auntie, sorry for the trouble."

"You're Mengfei's disciple, aren't you? Make yourself at home here. Have some tea, have some tea! Don't be shy. My husband went out to treat someone. I expect he'll be back in a little while!"

Jiang Tian's aunt spoke as she made the tea.

"Auntie, um, Ziyang's caught a bit of a cold, and he has a fever now. Don't bother making tea. Just get him some plain water. And hurry and call Uncle back! Mr. Mengfei's disciple is coming today, and he still went out to treat someone!"

Jiang Tian was impatient by nature and spoke in a great rush.

"A fever?" Jiang Tian's aunt said in surprise. "You young people, I always tell you to wear more clothes. Tian, hurry and help Ziyang upstairs to the guest room I tidied up. Let him lie down and rest. Your uncle went to the next village. He won't be back anytime soon; I reckon it'll be this afternoon."

"Okay!"

Jiang Tian hurriedly helped the still-feverish Su Ziyang upstairs.

Su Ziyang was terribly dizzy. At a time like this, he couldn't worry about saying things like "I've just arrived, please take care of me." He lay down on the bed and soon fell into a deep sleep again.

Su Ziyang was sleeping in a daze when a buzzing sound suddenly woke him. It was his phone.

The caller ID showed it was his master.

"Hello, Master." Su Ziyang's throat was a little dry, and he greeted him weakly.

Hearing the weakness in Su Ziyang's voice, Mr. Mengfei asked, "What's wrong? Have you reached Jiang Kui's house?"

"I'm here, Master. Jiang Kui's nephew Jiang Tian picked me up. I caught a cold on the train, and I'm feeling a little unwell now." Hearing his master ask, Su Ziyang remembered that he had felt so awful he had forgotten to call him.

"A cold?" Mr. Mengfei said in surprise. "That can't be right. How could you catch a cold?"

Su Ziyang didn't know what his master was so surprised about, so he forced himself to rally and said, "Maybe the air-conditioning on the train did it. I'm not sure either."

"Oh!" Mr. Mengfei said, no longer dwelling on why Su Ziyang had caught a cold. He then asked, "Have you met Jiang Kui?"

"Not yet, Master. From what Jiang Tian's aunt said, Jiang Kui seems to have gone to the next village to treat someone. I really wasn't feeling well, so I took some cold medicine and slept at his house. Your call just woke me up," Su Ziyang explained.

"All right. When you see Jiang Kui, give me a call. I have a few things on my hands lately. Once I'm done, I'll go over there to see you and check how much you've learned while I'm at it." After giving these instructions, Mr. Mengfei hung up.

Su Ziyang tossed his phone aside and closed his eyes again. His head was still dizzy, swelling with pain in time with the throbbing of his blood vessels, and his joints still ached.

After lying there for who knew how long, Su Ziyang suddenly felt a burning sensation in his chest. His throat was dry and itchy, and he began coughing violently.

"Ziyang? Feeling any better?" Hearing the commotion in the room, Jiang Tian came in and patted Su Ziyang on the back.

Su Ziyang shook his head. "I still feel awful. I'll take some more medicine!"

"Eat something first. My aunt made you some congee. You have to eat something, at least. Taking medicine on an empty stomach will make you feel terrible! Get some more sleep after you eat. My uncle should be back after lunch, I reckon," Jiang Tian urged.

Su Ziyang nodded. He had to get better quickly. He had come here to learn, and although his master had his back, it wouldn't do to fall ill as soon as he arrived and spend all his time lying around in someone else's house.

So Su Ziyang went downstairs and, suppressing the nausea in his stomach, ate a bowl of hot congee.

After finishing the hot congee and taking his medicine, Su Ziyang started coughing again.

"I'll go buy you some cough syrup!" Jiang Tian said, hearing Su Ziyang coughing so much.

"Okay. Thanks, Xiaotian. I'll transfer you the money in a bit." Su Ziyang felt embarrassed again.

"No need. Wait here."

Jiang Tian went out, and Su Ziyang returned upstairs and lay down on the bed.

Su Ziyang felt himself sink into a state between sleep and wakefulness, waves of discomfort in his body constantly stimulating his brain.

Half asleep, Su Ziyang heard people talking outside the door. A middle-aged man with a deep voice and a woman were saying something, though he didn't know what.

Su Ziyang listened to a couple of sentences, but he couldn't quite understand them because of their accents. Suddenly, his throat felt uncomfortable again, and a wave of inexplicable agitation rose in his heart. Then he began coughing violently.

Coughing hard, Su Ziyang covered his mouth with his hand. After several violent coughs, he looked at his hand, and what he saw frightened him half to death.

His palm was covered in bright red blood...

Before Su Ziyang could take a closer look, his throat began itching as though insects were crawling through it. He hurriedly crawled to the edge of the bed, and with a cough, a mouthful of blood sprayed onto the floor.

Su Ziyang was truly frightened. In his eight years of studying medicine, what kind of cold and cough could make someone cough up blood so quickly?

Hearing the commotion in Su Ziyang's room, a sturdily built middle-aged man pushed the door open and entered.

Seeing Su Ziyang coughing up blood at the bedside, the middle-aged man rushed over in a single stride and held him up, shouting toward the door, "Wife, wife! Quick, quick, quick! Bring a basin of water, hurry!"

As he spoke, he quickly tapped several points on Su Ziyang's back with his middle finger.

After the middle-aged man finished tapping, Su Ziyang felt a cool sensation spread across his back. The burning sensation that had just been wreaking havoc in his chest vanished without a trace in an instant.

Hurried footsteps sounded outside, and Jiang Tian's aunt ran into the room carrying a basin of clear water. The sight of the blood Su Ziyang had spat onto the floor gave her a shock. "Oh my, Old Jiang, what's wrong with this child? Didn't he catch a cold? How is he spitting up blood?!!!"

The middle-aged man was none other than Jiang Tian's uncle, Jiang Kui.

"Hurry and bring the water over!" Jiang Kui motioned for his wife to put the basin on the floor.

Having just spat up a mouthful of blood, Su Ziyang felt his whole body go limp and powerless. The world outside slowly darkened, and he gradually became unable to make out the voices around him. All five of his senses failed him.

Jiang Kui laid Su Ziyang on the bed and took his pulse with both hands at once.

As he checked Su Ziyang's pulse, Jiang Kui's brows gradually knitted together. "Who was it? Do they hate him that much?! Could they be getting revenge on Mengfei?"

"Old Jiang, what's wrong with this child?" Jiang Kui's wife asked.

"Alas, someone from the Rang Character Sect sealed his acupoints. Hurry downstairs and get my box of silver needles." Jiang Kui sent his wife downstairs for the needles, then rolled Su Ziyang over and began rapidly striking his back with his palm.

Su Ziyang later felt that Jiang Kui had seemed ready to beat him to death. Every blow had made his internal organs feel as though they were about to shift out of place...

As Jiang Kui struck him, Su Ziyang felt a stream of exceptionally cold air flowing continuously from his chest and out through his right arm.

"Cough, cough!" Su Ziyang coughed twice more. This time, he spat the blood directly onto the bed.

Jiang Kui rinsed a towel and wiped Su Ziyang's mouth, then continued striking him around the waist.

"Uncle." It was Jiang Tian, who had gone out to buy medicine, who brought the needles upstairs. Seeing his uncle striking Su Ziyang, Jiang Tian respectfully set the needles down beside him.

His aunt had just told him that Su Ziyang was ill because an expert from the Rang Character Sect had sealed his acupoints, so he had taken the silver needles from her and hurried upstairs himself.

"I'll deal with you in a minute." Jiang Kui turned and glared fiercely at Jiang Tian. Seeing his uncle's glare, Jiang Tian hung his head like a child.

"What are you standing there with your head down for? Unseal his acupoints! Needle the Quchi and Xiabai acupoints!" Seeing Jiang Tian bow his head without speaking, Jiang Kui scolded him again.

Only then did Jiang Tian come to his senses. He took the silver needles from the pouch and quickly inserted them into the acupoints on Su Ziyang's arm, then rapidly twirled them with both hands.

As soon as Jiang Tian inserted the needles, Su Ziyang's consciousness slowly began to return.

But his whole body still hurt, and he couldn't move.

As the silver needles kept turning under Jiang Tian's hands, a red flush slowly appeared over the Taiyuan acupoint on Su Ziyang's wrist. It grew redder and redder, then turned purple. Gradually, a thumbprint actually appeared, and a close look revealed even broken traces of the fingerprint...

Seeing the fingerprint emerge, Jiang Tian breathed a sigh of relief and wiped away the sweat on his forehead from his rapid needling.

Seeing this, Jiang Kui slowly stopped striking Su Ziyang.

"Whew..." Jiang Kui let out a breath. What he had just done seemed to have cost him quite a bit of strength.

By now, Su Ziyang's consciousness had returned to normal, though he still couldn't speak, and the pain in his body had begun to ease.

Seeing that Su Ziyang was out of danger, Jiang Kui, seated beside the bed, looked at Xiaotian with a stern expression.

"Xiaotian! Were you the one who picked Ziyang up?"

Jiang Tian didn't dare look his uncle in the eye. With his head bowed, he nodded to indicate that he was the one who had picked Su Ziyang up.

"In your opinion, how long ago was this acupoint sealed?!" Jiang Kui asked.

Looking at the fingerprint over the Taiyuan acupoint on Su Ziyang's wrist, Jiang Tian said, "About a day ago."

"A day?!" Jiang Kui's brows shot up as he scolded him. "Little Hand sealed a major acupoint on Su Ziyang's lung meridian, and you didn't notice for a whole day?!"

Seeing his uncle's anger, Jiang Tian didn't dare argue. "Uncle, my skills aren't good enough. When Ziyang first got off the train, I felt something was a little off when I shook his hand. But this person really is an expert, and I thought Ziyang had just arrived and couldn't possibly have any enemies, so I didn't examine him carefully."

Jiang Kui looked at the fingerprint on Su Ziyang's wrist, took a cigarette from his pocket and lit it. He took a drag and nodded. "He really is an expert. He sealed this acupoint so well! Even I could definitely do it just as well."

Seeing that his uncle had no intention of punishing him, Jiang Tian had just breathed a sigh of relief when he heard him say, "Get over to the grandmaster's statue and kneel there as punishment!"

Jiang Tian didn't dare say a word. He went downstairs with his head bowed.