Acupoint Research

Before treatment, Hu Mang had made a special trip home and stayed the night. After booking a plane ticket for his mother and making sure his stepfather was still behaving himself at home, he returned to the Hundred Herbs Spirit Hall's inpatient department.

Doctor Sun, the balding doctor from the meridian department, led him behind the inpatient department, to the heart of the entire Hundred Herbs Grand Array.

Falling back on his old trade, Hu Mang took out his industrial-grade "detector" and scanned the area.

66, Rosy Radiance Grade.

That was standard high-grade Spiritual Qi, and even among high-grade Spiritual Qi, it was on the stronger side.

Through the hazy green radiance, Hu Mang saw a large building.

"There, that's the Artificial Lightning Tribulation Tower."

It was a pagoda a full eight stories tall, with a regular octagonal platform at its base, cast from profound heavy iron and Spirit-Sealing Stone.

Dark clouds roiled around the tower. The array built into it was drawing in vast quantities of Spiritual Qi, compressing and intensifying it within the array to simulate the gathering of energy in natural tribulation clouds.

The higher up the eight-story tower, the thicker the dark clouds became.

The sight alone gave Hu Mang a powerful sense that his life was in danger.

"What level of Spirit Artifact is that?"

"It's not a Spirit Artifact. It's a Treasure Artifact, a custom-made one."

Seeing that Hu Mang was still puzzled, Doctor Sun offered a casual explanation.

"A Treasure Artifact is a class of treasure between a Spirit Artifact and a Law Treasure."

"In ancient times, heavenly materials and earthly treasures were born from nature. First came the 'material,' then the 'spirit.' When the two became one, they formed a Law Treasure."

"But with the breakthroughs in materials science at our Heavenly Gate, many 'heavenly materials' can now be manufactured artificially. That's why this class of treasure, the Treasure Artifact, was developed."

"To put it simply, it's a Law Treasure without an Artifact Spirit."

"...Amazing!"

Hu Mang said sincerely.

"This thing isn't easy to make. Generally, only major cultivation projects have the conditions to produce one, and it has to be cast as a single integrated whole."

"If it weren't for the goal of breaking through in Law Treasure manufacturing and furthering the 'mass production of Golden Cores,' Heavenly Gate wouldn't have poured so many resources into this area."

Doctor Sun walked up to the first-floor entrance, pulled out five small, crystal-clear stones, and set them into the stone platform by the door.

The first-floor door soon opened.

"Are those... Spirit Stones?"

"Yes, Low-Grade Spirit Stones. Each one is worth 1,000 Spirit Coins. Add in the Spiritual Qi consumed by the external array, and we really aren't making much money off your medical treatment."

Doctor Sun smiled.

"Of course, most of the time, we don't open just the first floor."

Hu Mang followed him inside. As he passed through the Spirit-Sealing Stone, the deadly Spiritual Qi pressure he had felt vanished at once.

Upon entering the first floor, Hu Mang's attention was immediately drawn to the ground beneath his feet.

It was a manifested chart of the heavenly cycle of stars, modeled on the lower Dantian. Different acupoints had taken the form of different planets, slowly revolving in a magnificent display.

"Looks like there are more than 365 acupoints."

Hu Mang estimated there were at least four or five hundred.

"Yes, this is the medical version. It includes hidden acupoints discovered through medical advances over the years, as well as artificial acupoints created through the development of meridian studies."

"Human acupoints can be made artificially?" Hu Mang asked in surprise.

"Some meridians allow it, others don't."

A thought occurred to Hu Mang.

"In that case, could there be a Cultivation Method that bypasses all the meridians and acupoints in the human body and relies entirely on artificial acupoints?"

"In theory, such a Cultivation Method could exist. If you cultivated one, you wouldn't have to worry about your Turbid Qi problem."

Doctor Sun answered casually as he adjusted the Artificial Lightning Tribulation Tower.

"But the problem is, developing such a Cultivation Method would require another breakthrough in meridian studies. That breakthrough could take a few years at best, or decades at worst. You'd have quite a wait ahead of you."

As he operated the tower, Hu Mang felt threads of chill enter his body. At the same time, a phantom image of his lower Dantian appeared on the floor and formed a faint, inexplicable connection with the entire Lightning Tribulation Tower.

"That's the benefit of having no Artifact Spirit. How could a person and an artifact become one so easily with a Law Treasure that had an Artifact Spirit? Of course, yours is only a first-level union of person and artifact, the most superficial kind."

"Sit down."

Hu Mang plopped down.

The next moment, half of the four or five hundred acupoints in the Dantian's reflection vanished at once.

What little remained was like fireflies beside the bright moon compared with before. The bright, brilliant "starry sky" instantly became "fireflies" along a nighttime road.

As Doctor Sun formed Hand Seals, a close, fine rumble of thunder sounded in the air, and countless flashes of electricity, nearly invisible to the naked eye, crackled.

Hu Mang felt as though his scalp was about to burst.

It was a threat similar to the one he had felt earlier, but sharper and deadlier.

The sensation was like countless red-hot steel needles brushing faintly against every pore on his body. Even the air seemed to carry a burnt smell.

"Normally, this would require anesthesia. But what you've been infected with is Turbid Qi, one of the kinds of Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi that's hardest to expel and neutralize. It requires every minute, deep part of your body to respond, so bear with it."

The next moment, thousands upon thousands of "red-hot steel needles" stabbed straight into him.

Hu Mang's eyes snapped open, blood vessels bulging in them.

"Ghk... ghhk..."

At the other ends of the golden threads, wisps of murky Qi were released as they were continuously scorched.

Almost every time some was released, the intensity of the Spiritual Qi on the first floor dropped a little.

One breath.

Ten breaths.

A hundred breaths.

Doctor Sun's expression gradually began to change.

As time passed, he grew increasingly surprised.

Before his eyes, countless golden threads formed from demon-subduing lightning were pinned into points all over Hu Mang's body.

The golden threads were there not only to expel the Turbid Qi, but also to pin down changes in his body.

They prevented his body from going into spasms or harming itself from the excruciating pain.

As a result, every violent movement of his muscles and bones was numbed by the power of lightning.

The sensation was a little like death by a thousand cuts.

Doctor Sun had therefore originally thought Hu Mang would do well to last a few dozen breaths.

But to his surprise, Hu Mang could endure more than he had imagined.

And-

He looked at the red lines that kept surfacing alongside the bulging veins on Hu Mang's body, and at the demonic, turbid eyes that had opened from the pain.

Demon Race blood?

Doctor Sun's eyes lit up.

As soon as the time was up, Doctor Sun immediately formed Hand Seals. Electricity crackled twice inside the tower, and light shone once more.

A dozen or so more "fireflies" appeared beneath Hu Mang's feet.

Hu Mang's upper body arched almost instinctively, like a demonic creature hunting its prey, while he gasped for breath.

He clenched both hands, and the crimson light that had nearly spilled out of his body vanished at once.

Doctor Sun, who had his head down gathering data, did not notice.

"How do you feel?"

"Absolutely awful!"

"Awful is right. I thought you could only last a few dozen breaths, but your willpower turned out to be tougher than I expected."

"At this rate, we might be able to open up your three yang meridians of the hand today. After that, you should basically have no problem casting spells."

"Mm."

After recording the data, Doctor Sun thought for a moment, then suddenly took something out and handed it over.

"This is-"

"Heavenly Origin Bone-Strengthening Salve, a prescription immortal medicine. It strengthens your bone marrow and nourishes and cultivates your Qi and Blood. It'll do you a lot of good."

Hu Mang wiped the sweat from his forehead but did not take it immediately. Instead, he said warily, "I've only heard of prescription spirit medicines."

"Yes, well, this is one of our internal medicines. It's costly and difficult to refine, so it can't be mass-produced for now."

"This portion I have is only a sample. At cost alone, it would come to fifty or sixty thousand."

Hu Mang scooted his backside away, an odd look on his face.

"Even a Golden Core-level doctor like you has a sales quota? Is the Hundred Herbs Spirit Hall really that much of a rip-off?"

Doctor Sun knew Hu Mang had misunderstood and said with a smile:

"Don't get me wrong, it's free."

"Then I really can't take it. I have a feeling you're definitely going to scam me!"

Doctor Sun shook his head and got straight to the point.

"I saw your demon markings just now. You have some Demon Race blood in you?"

Hu Mang frowned.

"Don't misunderstand. I don't mean to discriminate."

"You're discriminating against me? Do you even know what class of protected demonic creature I am in Heavenly Gate before you go discriminating against me?"

"..." Doctor Sun said,

"Besides the treatment, would you be interested in working with me and helping with my research?"

"Working with you?"

"Yes, working together. You know I'm in meridian internal medicine, and you probably also know that we have to submit a certain number of research papers and results every year."

"I was just worrying about what to do for this year's paper, but you've given me an idea."

"When it comes to locating and discovering hidden acupoints, all the 'acupoints' that can be found on ordinary human cultivators have long since been discovered."

"The protected Demon Beasts still remaining in Heavenly Gate have all had their physical examinations, whether they're wild or at the Demon Beast protection center."

"But humans with Demon Race blood might have some undiscovered variant acupoints in their meridians."

"If you cooperate with my experiment, this will be my deposit."

Hu Mang looked him up and down.

"Doctor Sun, you're not going to pull out my tendons and skin me, are you? My family's had only one son for eight generations, and I'm the sole surviving shoot. Besides, my whole family, young and old, are all registered at the demonic creature protection center. Don't knowingly break the law."

"I'm not a member of the demonic path! And what good would pulling out your tendons and skinning you do? To locate acupoints, I need a large, precision Law Artifact to scan your whole body. A living specimen is a good specimen. Searching a dead specimen is dozens of times harder."

Doctor Sun grumbled.

Hu Mang's expression grew hesitant.

He wasn't actually all that worried about his personal safety.

After all, this was inside Heavenly Gate. People had to follow some rules, at least.

Besides, if Doctor Sun had really wanted to harm him, he could have done it just now. There was no need to negotiate terms with him.

It was just that... didn't this count as selling his body in some form?

Seeing him waver, Doctor Sun immediately raised the stakes.

"If you agree, I can tell you a secret about recultivation. This secret can deepen the foundation of your Dao base."

"If you get the chance to cultivate a Golden Core in the future, that foundation could increase your chances of forming one by at least fifteen percentage points."

"Deal!" Hu Mang agreed on the spot.

Sell it, then. What's the big deal?