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Dao of Healing - Chapter 150
🕑 Added 2025-06-17 12:48:30 +0000 UTCI wasn’t quite sure what to expect from my physique
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I wasn’t quite sure what to expect from my physique. Four refined organs were working in sync to produce the most potent, vibrant medicinal energy I’d ever wielded. I couldn’t say for certain, but I might even guess this energy was more powerful than the healing energy the Celestial Jade Emperor had wielded outside the Blossoming Heavens.
It coated my brain. This was my attempt to push the fifth and final organ of the first layer of the Fivefold Medicine Forge Physique to completion.
The boost in my healing abilities and overall strength would be incredible. However, it wasn’t the reason I truly wanted to achieve it.
More than anything I was overcome with a sense of overpowering curiosity. I simply wanted to know what the function of the refined brain would be.
I wanted to know what would happen when all five organs were refined. If just four of them could produce this incredibly potent energy, then how ridiculous would the results of five organs working in concert be?
Nothing had happened so far. I knew what the sensation of my organs pushing to complete refinement felt like. It was obvious.
Despite the lack of results I continued to suffuse my brain with the medicinal energy. I focused harder, not only coating it but attempting to draw the energy into my brain.
On Earth, neurosurgeons were some of the most respected surgeons in the entire field. The brain was incredibly delicate and there were so many things that could go wrong when performing surgery on it.
Not only were the known errors dangerous, but there were an infinite number of unknowns. The brain was far from a completely understood phenomenon.
Even in this magical world, I had to assume that remained true. In fact, the very path of cultivation itself seemed to focus on the spiritual rather than the mental. The fact that the highest major realm of cultivation was known as the Nascent Soul Realm made that clear.
It was when I began to draw the energy into my brain that something changed. It was too late to turn back. I had to hope that the changes it would bring about were beneficial.
A chime rang out through my body. The familiar metallic ring was the same sound that had pealed out when my first four organs were refined to completion. A charcoal grey metallic sheen coated the surface of my brain, but the energy continued to seep into it.
For about five breaths’ time, this absorption of energy into the brain continued. I began to grow disappointed.
It was a grand achievement to refine the five organs, thereby completing the first layer, but I had been expecting more. Some grand cycle or great boon granted by my physique.
As those feelings took hold and began to settle, my body, as if protesting my pessimism, did something miraculous.
A shimmering wave of green-blue light travelled across my brain. I almost missed it, overly focused on my brain as I was, but thanks to my keen spiritual senses what happened was clear as day.
Within my spiritual sea, where my dao fragment of healing floated atop a serene lake, a cloud appeared. The cloud was the same colour and shimmered in the same manner as the glow that coated my brain.
All this time I refused to let the cycle of energy stop. Now, I sped it up in anticipation.
From ambient spiritual energy drawn into my heart and purified, it was then condensed and made more potent in my liver, forged and blended in my stomach with the powerful toxic energies, then refined once more into powerful medicinal energy in my lungs, it was brought to the fifth and final stage—my refined brain turned medicinal energy into a cloud with an unknown function.
Unknown until it began to rain on my spiritual sea.
I had a suspicion as to what this rain would do, but the reality exceeded every expectation I had. When the rain fell in my spiritual sea, it began to turn a greener colour.
My very spiritual sea itself was becoming medicinal in nature. What effects that would have on my cultivation or personality I had no idea, but if it advanced my understanding of healing then I would accept it graciously.
That was far from the greatest effect. When the medicinally charged rain fell on my dao fragment, a shockwave struck me from within. It was as though I had a thousand epiphanies in a single breath.
Yet this continued with each passing moment. Knowledge about healing, from the esoteric to the general, filled my mind.
I was paralysed by this overwhelming influx of random knowledge and understanding. It wasn’t as though I was being fed concise ideas in an orderly manner. No, it was chaos.
Like the falling rains, each drop contained dozens of insights that seemed to fade seconds after they entered my mind. If I didn’t focus or comprehend them, the knowledge was lost forever.
So, I put my enhanced cognitive functions to work. Though that wasn’t all I did. This wasn’t simply a mental exercise, but a spiritual one.
My dao was condensing and advancing with every insight. The fragment was becoming larger, impurities and false understandings of healings chipped away each moment.
I had never experienced something like this before. I imagined Xiao Cui likely felt this way when she consumed that drop of Golden Millenium Dew. It was metamorphic.
I felt as though I was drowning in a sea of knowledge. It wasn’t all beneficial. While every insight I gained and comprehended benefited me—I felt as though all of my healing techniques had improved from this advancement—my mind felt as though it was being torn into a million pieces.
Without getting a firm handle on this experience it might simply sweep me away. My dao fragment continued to glow brighter with every moment.
I was faced with a difficult dilemma. My path was growing clearer with every moment. My entire spiritual sea was evolving; the very essence of my dao was clarifying. However, all of this was worthless if I lost my sense of self in the process.
To be honest, I could just stop the flow of energy through my refined organs. That would stop my newly refined brain from producing the esoteric cloud that was providing me these insights. However, I had no idea if I would be able to do this again if I stopped now.
These insights might simply be the regular function of my refined brain or a one-time boon granted to me for reaching the second layer of the Fivefold Medicine Forge Physique. I couldn’t risk losing out on knowledge like this; knowledge that was lost to the world.
I forced myself to continue for another half an hour. That proved to be my limit. I was starting to lose details.
I was a healer. A cultivator. I was the leader of…
I couldn’t remember.
This was enough. My body seemed to fight against me, but I imposed my will and stopped absorbing spiritual energy from my surroundings.
My heart still had a decent quantity of energy within it. It was still feeding my liver. That was fine. I let whatever was stored within the liver remain, cutting off the flow towards my stomach.
As the last remnants of the blended energy were drawn into my lungs and refined, entering my brain, I allowed myself to relax. As my refined brain consumed the last of the extraordinarily potent medicinal energy, the rain of insights began to slow and eventually stopped as the blue-green cloud dissipated.
Gradually my sense of self returned. Even once the experience ended, I felt as though I’d lost important parts of my memories and self that I might not get back. Then again, that wasn’t necessarily the worst outcome.
Change was inevitable.
If they were parts of me that weren’t required to reach my goal then perhaps it was for the best. I was a healer. A cultivator.
The Sect Leader of the Grasping Life Sect.
Zhao Dan.
Content with my recovery, I returned my focus inwards to my spiritual sea. The changes were monumental. The sea itself was now an emerald blue.
Every single action I took seemed more aligned with the world in some unseen way. More than the sea itself was the dao fragment that floated above it. I wasn’t even sure I could call it a fragment anymore.
Before it had been a rough, green-black, rock-like formation. It enhanced my healing techniques and my comprehension of techniques. It was no longer that incomplete tenant in my mind.
The dark impurities had fallen away, the greenish surface now seeming polished and cut. Dozens of facets glowed a vibrant emerald green, reflecting on the calm surface of my spiritual sea.
A faint green mist seemed to travel through the spiritual sea towards the fragment. I widened my eyes as I realised what it was.
The passive flow of my qi travelled through my refined brain into my spiritual sea before returning to my dantian. It was slowly condensing and refining my medicinal qi into an even more potent form.
Beyond that, I sensed that with the completion of the first layer of my Fivefold Medicine Forge Physique, each of my refined organs had gained a slight boost to their efficiency and function.
Along with that, all of my medical knowledge had taken a step forward. In the moment it was hard to tell what exactly the insights being showered on me were, but now it had ended I had more clarity about the situation.
Rather than anything concrete, it was as though my medical creativity had been forcefully expanded. When I considered any medical problem or disease, I felt as though I could come up with practically endless feasible solutions to it.
Not only that, but things I believed I’d forgotten had returned to my mind. Every single iota of knowledge from my past life as a war doctor was compartmentalised and ready to be accessed with the barest thought.
Even the forgotten pieces of knowledge I’d crammed for medical school exams and had fallen out of relevancy as my career progressed were back. That wasn’t all.
Connections between my old knowledge and this world appeared—links in diagnosis and treatment I’d never seen before. Much of this might not directly help me improve my techniques, but when it came to developing new techniques it would be invaluable.
Looking forward, I had been slightly stuck as to how I would advance in my path to reach a higher level. Now I had a boundless sensation of confidence. Nothing would block me from becoming the greatest healer this world had ever seen.
There was also some information about how to progress and complete the second layer of the Fivefold Medicine Forge Physique. Unlike the first layer which had been laid out to me like an instruction manual, it was enigmatic hints wrapped in mystery. However, a cloudy path was better than no path at all.
As far as I could tell, the second layer of the physique involved the creation of internal gates which stored some sort of energy or object which was medicinal in nature. I guessed it would become clearer if I managed to make progress, but it wasn’t my first priority.
Completing the first layer was plenty for now. Finally taking my focus away from my own body, I realised it was light. The morning mists hung low over the peak, shrouding the forest in a peaceful aura.
Exhaling and releasing a few stubborn impurities from my body, I stood up and stretched. Today was the day I’d been waiting for.
The healing competition of the Grasping Life Sect was starting soon.
There was one thing bugging me. It had been a year since that fateful day I announced the competition. Little Cui’s exile was over, yet there had been no sign of her.
I had hoped she would return to take part in the competition. I facepalmed. I’d sent her away before announcing the competition. Whoops.
To be completely honest I’d expected her to come running back to me in tears after a couple of months. She’d grown more independent, but her behaviour back then had shown me just how childish she still was.
The fact she had managed to last this long meant either she was more resilient and adaptable than I’d thought or that something had happened to her. I hoped it was the former and not the latter.
Still, I couldn’t hold up the competition just for her. Either she turned up or she didn’t. All of the healing disciples had grown over the past year, but I had a feeling that if Little Cui didn’t take part, Feng Mei would win uncontested.
Shrugging and leaving it to fate, I left the forest and made my way back to my house. I needed to bathe and change my robes before heading to the arena. A cup of tea wouldn’t go amiss, either.
****
“Senior Brother, why are you making us wait. You saw that pathetic display yesterday! Their strongest disciples are barely in the Qi Gathering Realm. We should just storm the place and demand fealty to the Soaring Sword Sect,” the hook-nosed disciple complained.
The tall disciple who led the group of five Soaring Sword Sect disciples sighed and shook his head. “You’re such a brute, Junior Brother. Wielding a sword requires elegance and refinement, not simply force. They said the finals of their martial competition would take place today or tomorrow. I will wait for the winner to emerge, then challenge them fairly and crush them in front of all these people. That will truly remind them why our sect is the hegemon in this territory. After seeing that, their Sect Leader will have no choice but to capitulate.”
“Senior Brother is a genius!” “A plan worthy of our Senior Brother.” The other disciples all praised his strategy. Mostly to suck up to him, given his master’s status, but partly because they truly admired his prowess.
There was another reason the leader didn’t want to show their cards too early. He was curious about this healing competition. Why have a competition for such a ridiculous thing? Were they just going to throw pills into each other’s mouths?
This was why he held off. He wanted to know what they were dealing with. His master had always taught him to gather as much information as possible before acting.
“Don’t stay up too late drinking. I want you all on top form tomorrow in case anything goes wrong,” he said while standing up to go and meditate.
“Ha! What could possibly go wrong?” the hook-nosed disciple snorted. “We are disciples of the invincible Soaring Sword Sect. If even the Cloudy Falls bastards can’t stop us, what do we have to fear from some backwater upstarts?”
The others cheered in agreement. The leader shook his head, but wore a confident smile on his face as he left them to drink.
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