Chapter Summaries

Su Ziyang examined a tall high-school student who suffered from poor sleep, exhausting dreams of fighting, constipation, and signs of internal heat. He traced the symptoms to pressure causing abundant yin and yang qi, while the student’s mother asked for medicine to improve his health and memory.

• Su Ziyang returned to work after paying his rent and treated several acupuncture patients.
• A worried mother brought her tall son to Su Ziyang, and he noticed the boy’s tense expression and lack of spirit.
• Su Ziyang asked the mother to let her son speak for himself and learned that the boy had trouble sleeping, dreamed of fighting, and often suffered from constipation and dry mouth.
• The boy described dreams in which he fought but could not strike with strength, and Su Ziyang explained that such dreams could signal abundant yin and yang qi.
• The mother asked Su Ziyang to prescribe medicine for her son’s health and memory, and the boy objected, saying, "Mom!"

Su Ziyang prescribed Zhang Cong two formulas for his symptoms and study-related stress. After Zhang Cong and his mother left, Auntie Yu Xiushui brought Li Jinghao and three others to meet Su Ziyang, and he agreed to examine another boy with gallstones despite the two hospital doctors’ displeasure.

• Su Ziyang prescribed Zhang Cong a tea formula and Nine-Spirit Intelligence-Benefiting Pills, explaining that the herbs addressed his symptoms and other issues related to studying under pressure.
• Su Ziyang told Zhang Cong and his mother that the pills would be ready for pickup the day after tomorrow, and they left.
• Auntie Yu Xiushui arrived with Li Jinghao, Zhang Yu, Song Liangtao, and another boy after Li Jinghao reported that his gallstones had disappeared following Su Ziyang’s treatment.
• Zhang Yu and Song Liangtao questioned Su Ziyang about Li Jinghao’s case, and Su Ziyang challenged their framing of what counted as medicine.
• Auntie Yu Xiushui asked Su Ziyang to examine Li Jinghao’s classmate, who also had gallstones, and Su Ziyang agreed to take his pulse.

Su Ziyang diagnosed Li Tongle’s gallstones and related symptoms by taking his pulse, then prescribed herbal medicine instead of surgery. The skeptical department heads left unsettled and planned to learn more about Su Ziyang and his clinic.

• Su Ziyang examined Li Tongle and identified his gallstones and symptoms, including diarrhea, poor appetite, and coldness in his abdomen and limbs.
• Su Ziyang prescribed Aconite Decoction to Regulate the Middle and Chinese brake fern for Li Tongle.
• Li Tongle thanked Su Ziyang and told Zhang Yu and Song Liangtao that he would try Chinese medicine rather than undergo surgery.
• Song Liangtao decided to ask around about Su Ziyang and arrange a meeting, while Zhang Yu remained skeptical.
• Yu Xiushui apologized for Li Jinghao’s unannounced visit, and Su Ziyang reassured her that he understood their good intentions.

Su Ziyang gave Li Weiwei a traditional formula for removing stretch marks, which brought a stream of mothers to his clinic. Meanwhile, Yang Tianzheng and Mr. Mengfei vanished before Su Ziyang's promised special training began, leaving him uneasy about his place in the sect.

• Fairy Li treated Su Ziyang to a crab pot, but he lost his appetite after remembering Master Luo had forbidden him from eating fish.
• Li Weiwei returned to the clinic, said her lochia had cleared up, and asked Su Ziyang for help with her stretch marks.
• Su Ziyang gave Li Weiwei Mr. Mengfei's Belly-Firming Lotion formula and warned her to let it steep for 20 days before using it.
• Li Weiwei shared the remedy with mothers in her parenting group, and women began visiting Su Ziyang's clinic for stretch-mark medicine.
• With Yang Tianzheng and Mr. Mengfei gone and training postponed, Su Ziyang worried that the sect might expel him, while Fairy Li teased him and asked him to wash her an apple.

Mr. Mengfei and Yang Tianzheng delivered 869 medical books as Su Ziyang’s special training, and Su Ziyang began studying cold-damage texts. He noticed his landlady had refused his rent payments, but Fairy Li tried to stop him from calling her.

• Mr. Mengfei and Yang Tianzheng brought Su Ziyang 869 medical books and told him to read them within four years.
• Fairy Li helped arrange the books on a new bookshelf, while Su Ziyang worried about the scale of his assignment.
• Su Ziyang began reading works on cold damage and the Golden Cabinet and found himself absorbed in their ideas.
• Fairy Li made steamed pig brains for Su Ziyang, who praised her cooking.
• Su Ziyang told Fairy Li that the landlady had rejected his rent payments, then tried to call her himself.
• Fairy Li stopped Su Ziyang from calling and insisted she would ask the landlady about the rent.

Su Ziyang discovered that Fairy Li owned the apartment he rented from her, and the two joked about raising the rent. After Teacher Yi challenged him to a medical contest in Hunan, Mr. Mengfei announced that he would take Su Ziyang there the following week.

• Su Ziyang realized Fairy Li was his landlord, and she admitted she had rented him the apartment while charging him rent; he embraced her and agreed to wash the dishes.
• Su Ziyang blocked Teacher Yi after receiving messages insulting his medical skills and challenging him to a contest.
• Three days later, Fourth Uncle told Su Ziyang that Teacher Yi had threatened to make Fourth Aunt sick, though Teacher Yi later admitted she only had a stomach flu and he had been bluffing.
• Su Ziyang agreed to compete with Teacher Yi at his traditional Chinese medicine clinic in Hunan, but hesitated about traveling there alone.
• Mr. Mengfei told Su Ziyang the clinic would close for a week because of a religious assembly and said he would take Su Ziyang and Xiao Zijun to Hunan.

Su Ziyang accompanied Mr. Mengfei to visit his dying master, where he fought through a crowd so Mr. Mengfei could enter. After meeting his grandmaster, Su Ziyang returned to the hotel as Mr. Mengfei stayed behind.

• Su Ziyang told Mr. Mengfei on the plane that he had agreed to compete with Teacher Yi, and Mr. Mengfei gave him permission to proceed.
• Mr. Mengfei took Su Ziyang to a village, where Xiao Qi and the others blocked their way to the house.
• At Mr. Mengfei's command, Su Ziyang knocked Xiao Qi down and fought the crowd while Mr. Mengfei slipped into the courtyard.
• Su Ziyang entered the house, knelt before Mr. Mengfei's master, and watched the old man die peacefully after welcoming his grand-disciple.
• Mr. Mengfei sent Su Ziyang back to the hotel, where Fairy Li noticed his injuries and offered him spicy stinky tofu.

Su Ziyang met Zhang Rongyi at his clinic to settle their dispute with a treatment contest. After Su Ziyang relieved one patient's stomachache with acupuncture, Zhang Rongyi treated another similar patient with Bagua Image-Number Therapy, leaving the contest tied.

• Teacher Yi called Su Ziyang and gave him an address in a neighboring city, and Su Ziyang told Mr. Mengfei before setting off with Fairy Li.
• Su Ziyang met Teacher Yi, whose real name was Zhang Rongyi, at his clinic and noticed signs that Zhang Rongyi had trained in Iron Sand Palm.
• Zhang Rongyi proposed that they take turns treating patients who came in before nightfall, and Su Ziyang agreed.
• Su Ziyang diagnosed a patient's stomachache as the result of catching a chill and relieved it with acupuncture using Burning Mountain Fire.
• Zhang Rongyi wrote the number 380 on paper and placed it over a second patient's Guanyuan point, and the patient's stomachache stopped after about five minutes.
• Zhang Rongyi challenged Su Ziyang to admit his therapy worked, but Fairy Li looked concerned as the first stage of the contest ended in a draw.

Zhang Rongyi demonstrated his Bagua Image-Number Therapy, while Su Ziyang treated Zhang Daolin’s chronic back pain with acupuncture and won their contest. Zhang Rongyi invited Su Ziyang and Fairy Li to his solitary home for dinner, where they waited for food over tea.

• Zhang Rongyi used Bagua Image-Number Therapy to make a young basketball player’s swollen ankle shrink and stop hurting.
• Su Ziyang diagnosed Zhang Daolin’s lower back pain, then relieved it with acupuncture despite the shrapnel scars from Zhang Daolin’s battlefield injury.
• Zhang Rongyi conceded that Su Ziyang had won the contest because of his ability and youth.
• Zhang Rongyi invited Su Ziyang and Fairy Li to his home, where he brewed tea and said he had ordered dinner.

Su Ziyang learned that Zhang Rongyi had treated the people who insulted him and discovered that Zhang Rongyi used cultivation power alongside Bagua Image-Number Therapy. After they cleared up their misunderstanding and shared a meal, Zhang Rongyi invited Su Ziyang to compare their skills.

• Su Ziyang reviewed Zhang Rongyi’s private messages and learned that the group members had abused him after he refused their unreasonable demands, despite having helped them with their illnesses.
• Zhang Rongyi showed Su Ziyang old letters about Bagua Image-Number Therapy and explained how he had come to practice it and start his own online group.
• Fairy Li recognized that Zhang Rongyi’s treatment involved cultivation power, and Zhang Rongyi sensed that Su Ziyang had an aura that blocked his attempts to read him.
• Su Ziyang and Zhang Rongyi cleared up their suspicions, shared a meal, and toasted as friends.
• Zhang Rongyi proposed that they compare their backgrounds and test their skills after eating, while Su Ziyang said his master had not taught him such things.

Zhang Rongyi demonstrated his outwardly manifested inner power and taught Su Ziyang the healing skill One-Handed Grab. The next morning, Su Ziyang and Fairy Li bought gifts and headed back to Zhang Rongyi’s home.

• Zhang Rongyi meditated and manifested a golden sphere of inner power above his head, then explained that he had cultivated it for over thirty years using the Tao Te Ching.
• Su Ziyang showed Zhang Rongyi the abundant True Qi he had cultivated, and Zhang Rongyi offered to teach him the healing technique Grab Illness Qi.
• Zhang Rongyi taught Su Ziyang how to channel Qi through his fingers to remove illness Qi, and Su Ziyang successfully produced a mist-like extension from his palm.
• Su Ziyang and Fairy Li declined Zhang Rongyi’s offer to stay, booked a hotel, and Fairy Li scolded Su Ziyang for playing with her hair using the new skill.
• Su Ziyang called Mr. Mengfei, and Fairy Li told him to stop troubling his upset master and to buy Zhang Rongyi a gift.
• The next morning, Su Ziyang and Fairy Li bought a pile of things at a shopping mall and went to Zhang Rongyi’s house.

Zhang Rongyi taught Su Ziyang the family massage technique Eight and a Half Locks after deciding to pass it on during Su Ziyang’s return visit. Su Ziyang experienced the technique’s effects as Zhang demonstrated its preparatory steps and methods for treating the neck, shoulders, arms, armpits, and elbows.

• Su Ziyang and Fairy Li visited Zhang Rongyi, watched him practice, and gave him gifts.
• Zhang Rongyi explained that he had decided to teach Su Ziyang another massage technique if he came back in person, and Su Ziyang eagerly agreed to learn.
• Zhang Rongyi introduced Eight and a Half Locks and demonstrated the preparatory acupoint massage and neck-relaxing techniques.
• Zhang Rongyi taught Su Ziyang how to open the Azure Dragon Lock, work the arm meridians, and treat the three gates of the Soul-Returning Lock.
• Zhang Rongyi demonstrated elbow treatment, finger shaking, and hand movements, leaving Su Ziyang feeling light and relaxed.

Zhang Rongyi taught Su Ziyang a series of massage techniques for opening meridians and easing the flow of qi and blood, demonstrating them on him as he went. After two hours, Su Ziyang offered to massage Zhang Rongyi in return so he could correct his technique.

• Zhang Rongyi continued teaching Su Ziyang by massaging him from head to toe and demonstrating the techniques.
• Fairy Li supported Su Ziyang while Zhang Rongyi pinched and twisted his abdominal muscles, making him wince in pain.
• Zhang Rongyi demonstrated foot meridian massage and toe shaking, explaining their effects and how to perform them.
• Zhang Rongyi taught Su Ziyang a mnemonic verse and explained the conditions in which the manual technique was forbidden.
• After two hours of instruction, Su Ziyang offered to massage Zhang Rongyi while Zhang Rongyi corrected him.

Su Ziyang learned Zhang Rongyi’s Eight and a Half Locks massage technique and joined him and Fairy Li on a trip to the forest park to gather medicinal herbs. Zhang Rongyi showed them how to identify and harvest Solomon’s seal, while Su Ziyang photographed the plants they encountered.

• Su Ziyang practiced the Eight and a Half Locks and learned when to open different locks according to a patient’s symptoms and blocked qi and blood.
• Zhang Rongyi invited Su Ziyang and Fairy Li to gather herbs in the forest park, and they agreed to go with him.
• Zhang Rongyi led them away from the main paths and taught Su Ziyang to recognize fragrant Solomon’s seal and Polygonatum cyrtonema.
• Zhang Rongyi dug up mature Solomon’s seal with a bamboo-and-wood shovel, explained how to preserve it, and left the smaller plants undisturbed.
• As they continued through the forest, Zhang Rongyi identified more medicinal plants, while Su Ziyang took photos of them.

Su Ziyang learned more about identifying and gathering herbs from Zhang Rongyi, then returned with Fairy Li to meet his master’s old acquaintance, Zhenze, who gave them protective bracelets. At a hut behind Zhenze’s temple, Mr. Mengfei knelt before Master Zhenze, leaving the reason for his sudden deference unexplained.

• Zhang Rongyi taught Su Ziyang herb-recognition rhymes and warned him about a venomous hundred-pace viper, but Su Ziyang immobilized the snake and later released it.
• Su Ziyang stayed with Zhang Rongyi while the harvested Solomon's seal dried, then returned with Fairy Li after Mr. Mengfei called him back.
• Mr. Mengfei told Su Ziyang and Fairy Li how he and a martial uncle had accidentally shattered Zhang Rongyi’s protective golden light with Five Hundred Savage Thunders, then proposed visiting the martial uncle.
• Mr. Mengfei brought Su Ziyang and Fairy Li to Zhenze’s Daoist temple, where Zhenze welcomed them and gave each a Heaven and Earth Yin-Yang Bracelet made from lightning-struck wood.
• Zhenze led Mr. Mengfei, Su Ziyang, and Fairy Li to the back of the mountain, where Mr. Mengfei knelt before Master Zhenze.

Su Ziyang met Master Luo, the grand martial uncle, who made him drink a bowl of blood-red liquid to test his affinity. Su Ziyang vomited it back up, and after he poured it into a pit and discarded the bowl, an explosion erupted in the bamboo grove as Master Zhenze rushed him away.

• Mr. Mengfei told Master Zhenze that his master had passed away, then brought Su Ziyang to meet Master Luo.
• Master Luo spat a mass of blood-red liquid into a bowl and ordered Su Ziyang to drink it.
• Su Ziyang swallowed the liquid and endured intense burning and turmoil in his body before vomiting it back into the bowl unchanged.
• Master Luo ordered Su Ziyang to pour the liquid into a pit in the bamboo grove and throw the bowl in after it.
• Master Zhenze led Su Ziyang away, and an explosion shattered bamboo behind them.

Su Ziyang survived the grandmaster-uncle’s Flying Sword, learned the old man’s history, and stayed at the Daoist temple to recover and train. After Fairy Li took him down the mountain to visit a doctor who treated patients through conversation, they saw a young woman break down and admit she defied her parents over her boyfriend.

• Su Ziyang learned that the grandmaster-uncle had died and that his Flying Sword inheritance had come from a mysterious expert, though it had not passed to Su Ziyang.
• Master Zhenze explained that the grandmaster-uncle had spent years seeking someone worthy of the inheritance, and that Su Ziyang had been the only visitor to make him speak.
• Su Ziyang recovered at the temple, learned Demon-Subduing Fist from Zhenze, and persuaded him to demonstrate his Thunder Arts by electrifying a wall.
• Fairy Li teased Su Ziyang for flattering Zhenze, then took him down the mountain to meet a doctor who treated patients without medicine.
• Su Ziyang and Fairy Li watched the doctor question a young woman until she confessed that she talked back to her parents because they opposed her relationship with a boy.

Su Ziyang watched Ren Qushun ease a young woman’s headache by confronting her feelings toward her parents, then followed him with Fairy Li to visit a bedridden woman with late-stage liver cancer. Ren Qushun drew the dying woman into speaking about her grudges, and she began by saying she hated her husband because he was good for nothing.

• Ren Qushun spoke to a crying young woman about her relationship with her parents until she said her headache had stopped.
• A man in a gray shirt asked Ren Qushun to visit his wife, who was bedridden with late-stage liver cancer, and Su Ziyang and Fairy Li went along.
• Su Ziyang sensed Illness Qi in the house and recited a protective incantation, while Fairy Li told him to look after himself.
• Ren Qushun told the sick woman plainly that she was near death and asked her to speak about anyone she hated.
• The woman said she hated her husband, the man in the gray shirt, because he was good for nothing.

Ren Qushun persuaded a dying woman to release her resentment over an old dispute, and Su Ziyang witnessed her condition change after she cried and vomited. Ren Qushun then explained how emotions and character could cause illness, while Su Ziyang reflected on his method.

• Ren Qushun asked the dying woman why she resented her husband and learned she blamed him for losing a fight over irrigation water two years earlier.
• Ren Qushun urged the woman to forgive her neighbors, warning that anger would leave her a weak ghost, and she quieted down before grieving for her family.
• The woman confessed her regret and cried, after which Su Ziyang sensed a faint breath of life emerge through her deathly aura.
• The woman vomited foul water and bile as the heavy deathly aura in the room dissipated, and Ren Qushun left after telling Dada to care for her.
• Su Ziyang praised Ren Qushun's method, and Ren Qushun explained how resentment, hatred, vexation, anger, and irritation could lead to illness.

Ren Qushun explained to Su Ziyang how illnesses were connected to emotions, conduct, and spiritual faults, describing causes and remedies for many conditions. The chapter ended with his brief explanation that white hair was related to the nervous system, fire, and blood.

• Ren Qushun welcomed Su Ziyang and Fairy Li into his home, then spoke with Su Ziyang over tea.
• Ren Qushun linked eye diseases to looking for faults in others and urged people to examine themselves and seek the good in others.
• He connected blood and meridian disorders to irritability and anxiety over money, and advised people to calm their tempers.
• Ren Qushun attributed mouth ulcers and nighttime navel pain to harmful speech and resentment, urging sincere repentance.
• He linked facial nerve paralysis, cervical spine disease, and joint pain to resentment, conflict, and fault-finding, and recommended cheerfulness and a change in outlook.
• Ren Qushun said white hair was related to the nervous system, fire, and blood.