The recovery ward of the Medicine Hall was quiet, smelling of dried chamomile and the bitter scent of boiled roots. Thin shafts of late afternoon sunlight filtered through the paper screens, illuminating the dust motes dancing in the warm air.
Su Ming stood beside the wooden cot where the lady lay in a deep, motionless slumber, her breathing faint and shallow. Her face was pale, almost translucent under the soft light, and her usual cold, distant aura had softened into a fragile stillness.
'While I am here, I should inspect her meridians as well,' Su Ming thought. 'To reconstruct Wang Tian's shattered dantian, I need to understand a wide variety of cultivators' meridian structures. As I recall, she had some sort of special meridians.'
Focusing his mind, he activated his Essence Sight.
The world before him lost its physical colors. The wooden cot, the stone floor, and the white walls dissolved into a quiet grey background.
Turning his gaze to the first bed, he inspected the comatose senior. The old man's dantian radiated the energy of a Golden Core cultivator. However, the sheer width of his meridian pathways and the fading, ancient traces within his core suggested he most likely had once reached a higher realm, perhaps the Nascent Soul or even the Avatar Formation stage.
Turning his focus to the other cot, Su Ming's eyes narrowed as he looked at the sleeping young lady. Her twelve primary meridians were standard but highly refined, pulsing with a slow, ice-blue current. But what drew his attention was a secondary network of silver veins beneath her skeletal frame. These micro-pathways wove beneath traditional routes, wrapping around her bones and branching into star-like nodes concentrated around her spine, throat, and upper torso.
'As I suspected, this is not a standard physique,' Su Ming analyzed. 'The primary meridians are just the outer shell. These secondary veins act as a refinery. By purifying raw energy through these silver veins, it further compresses the Qi and strips impurities, delivering it directly to her core.'
Engrossed, Su Ming leaned closer, tracing the silver nodes across her chest and collarbones with absolute precision. He needed to map the exact pathways to understand how her body could support these secondary veins without collapsing under the pressure of dual circulation.
"Ahem."
A dry cough broke the silence of the room.
Startled internally, Su Ming did not show it. Closing Essence Sight, he let the grey world return to its standard colors and stood up straight.
Elder Lu stood in the doorway holding a steaming wooden bowl of dark medicinal soup, a mischievous glint in his old eyes.
"Peak Master Su," Elder Lu said, stepping into the room and setting the bowl down on a side table. "While the young lady is indeed a peerless beauty, staring so intensely at a patient's chest is... impolite, even for a Peak Master of our sect."
Su Ming's face did not waver. "I was observing her for research purposes, of course."
"Of course... Of course..." Elder Lu chuckled. "A scholarly pursuit, no doubt. Yet the senior she traveled with might not see it as such, should he wake to find a man leaning so close to her face."
Su Ming chuckled lightly, maintaining a calm demeanor, refusing to let the old healer's teasing get under his skin.
'This old man is making jokes now,' he thought.
"And did you find anything special?" Elder Lu asked, his tone dripping with gentle amusement as he picked up a clean linen cloth to wipe the table.
"No," Su Ming replied. He decided not to spill the beans about the silver veins for now; such secrets were best kept close to his chest. "Her circulation is stable, though the healing speed is slow. She will likely remain asleep for another few weeks."
Elder Lu's smile faded slowly. "You have sharp eyes, Peak Master Su. I sensed those secondary meridians, though my skills are insufficient to map them. Her bloodline is ancient, and her cultivation is unusual. Be careful. Dealing with such ancient clans often brings disasters."
"She is a guest of the White Lotus Peak," Su Ming said, his voice flat and absolute. "So long as she remains as such, I will consider any attack on her to be an attack on the White Lotus Peak."
He reached into his sleeve and retrieved a sandalwood box from his spatial ring, placing it quietly on the table. "Elder Lu, please take care of them. If the Medicine Hall requires further ingredients for their recovery, you need only ask."
Lu opened the box, his eyes widening at the rich scent of Crimson Yang Ginseng. He chuckled. "Nephew Su is indeed generous. Very well, I shall ensure they receive the best care. The books you requested are outside. Take them, but do not push yourself too hard."
***
Ascending the steep stone steps under the setting sun, Su Ming looked up at the towering peak. The cold wind rustled his white robes, the meridian templates of Lin Yao, Wang Tian, and the comatose girl now mapped in his mind.
'Three months,' he calculated. 'I need at least three months to study the anatomy, consolidate my cultivation, and prepare a cure for Wang Tian. There is no room for error. A single mistake will destroy the boy's life permanently.'
***
An hour later, Su Ming sat in the quiet inner chambers of the White Lotus Peak Master's hall, lit by a single spiritual stone lamp that cast a steady, yellow glow across the wooden desk. Before him lay the medical texts and the scroll of the Primordial Yang Demon Body.
'It is time to address my flaws,' Su Ming thought, tapping his fingers on the desk. 'The Primordial Yang Demon Body is a supreme inheritance, but cultivating it blindly will consume my flesh, mutating my vessel to suit a chaotic demonic path rather than my own will. I must address its flaws.'
He picked up the white scroll, closing his eyes as he sank his consciousness into the text.
Essence Sight. Halo of Insight.
Sinking his consciousness into the scroll under Essence Sight and the Halo of Insight, he began mapping. He systematically read the art from the first stage to the ninth, tracing every meridian, marrow path, and energy node until the entire technique lay in his mind as a complex web of golden Qi.
Once mapping was complete, he sorted the scripture's flaws into different categories.
'The first three stages—Skin, Blood, and Bone refinement—are structurally crude,' Su Ming analyzed.
'The skin vents too much heat, the blood lacks soothing tempering, and the bones harden with no restrictions.'
He focused on the skin refinement stage, where pores drank ambient Yang energy without regulation, wasting energy as scorching heat. Conceptualizing a different breathing principle, he tried to mentally project the altered pathways onto his skin.
But as he simulated the pathways, a searing heat surged under his skin. His forearm turned bright crimson, veins bulging. He gritted his teeth as a sharp pain flared across his arm, feeling like molten lead in his pores.
The Halo of Insight flashed a severe warning.
He snapped his focus back, dispersing the Qi before it caused permanent damage. Exhaling a trace of hot steam, he felt his arm cool, though the skin remained tender and his throat dry.
'No,' Su Ming's brow furrowed. 'A human body is not a metal sword. Metal stays still when carved; flesh reacts dynamically. A fraction of error will destroy my skin from the inside out.'
He shifted his analysis to the second stage, Blood Forging, and the third, Bone Tempering. The blood needed a cooling pathway to prevent boiling, and the bones needed flexible nodes to avoid becoming brittle stone. But where do I draw the paths? Which joints do I leave unrefined? A single mistake could boil his blood and shatter his bones.
He looked further down at the severe flaws of Marrow Inversion, Organ Subjugation, and Meridian Overwrite. Here, the body was being subjugated by the demonic Yang energy. Without proper pathways, his organs would reject the technique and decay.
Finally, the flaws of the last three stages threatened to mutate him permanently.
The warnings from the Halo of Insight grew louder.
'I have mapped out the flaws,' Su Ming thought, rubbing his temples to soothe the mental strain. 'But I lack the correct anatomical flow. Correcting a Saint-level body art without understanding the body's variables is like solving a puzzle blindly. Without a clear template, I will destroy my vessel.'
Furthermore, he realized he needed a macro-level balance. If his Body Path was destined for Yang and Extreme Yang, and his Qi Path was a fusion of both Yin and Yang, then his Soul Path had to go in the direction of Yin and Extreme Yin. To prevent these forces from clashing and tearing his Golden Core apart, he would have to establish a three-fold systemic balance across his body, Qi, and soul.
'I cannot rush this,' he concluded, looking at the books. 'To reforge my body and soul, I need a complete map of human anatomy and array structures. I must study these medical texts, the soul archives of Illusion Moon Peak, and the Central Library.'
Only after mastering these principles would he dare execute the changes. With a deliberate hand, he pulled the first medical text and opened the cover.
'The plan is set,' he thought, scanning the dark ink.
The research begins.