Chapter 12 Nine Mythical Dao Veins

What is "Jin Chuang Chuan Chi"?

"I forgot, that's what they call it on the battlefield. 'Golden wound' is because this kind of injury is often caused by sharp metal weapons, and 'chicken' is the symptom after the injury. It makes people curl up like shrimp in pain on the bed. That's what my dad usually calls it."

"In folk medicine, it seems that some doctors also call it...tetanus."

Ouyang Rong was stunned for a moment. No wonder he had just seen Ashan wrapped in thick winter coats by his mother and sister, as if he had caught a cold.

Moreover, the man's expression was blank at the time, which could be attributed to either a desire to die or facial muscle spasms and stiffness.

"This is an incurable disease. He won't live for many more days. What a pity for such a good man." Yan Wuxu shook his head.

Ouyang Rong pondered, "Tetanus... it should still be in the incubation period..."

In this era without antibiotics, it is indeed a terminal illness... but not necessarily, after all, there are Qi practitioners in this world, and the external alchemy techniques of the Northern and Southern Taoist schools are also very famous.

When he was taking the imperial examinations in Luoyang, he even heard that there were immortal alchemists overseas who sought immortality and were highly sought after by the powerful and wealthy in Luoyang. Therefore, it is possible that there are some kind of miraculous elixirs beyond his understanding among the Qi practitioners.

But it is clear that these forces that wield mythical power would not waste their elixirs on a mere government slave.

In this world, only Liu's mother and that sorrowful-eyed Aqing would be moved by the life or death of this nameless nobody named Ashan.

However... now there's another half of a person.

"I'd count as half."

Ouyang Rong muttered something to himself and turned to walk towards the kitchen of Donglin Temple.

Yan Wuxu quickly followed, asking curiously, "Your Excellency, what do you mean by half?"

"Give me half a moldy taro."

"..." Yan Wuxu thought for a moment and gently reminded him, "Your Excellency, you can't eat moldy things."

Ouyang Rong: "?"

Yan Wuxu still didn't understand why the magistrate suddenly stopped going down the mountain and went straight to the kitchen, borrowed a kitchen from the head monk, locked himself inside, and started tinkering...

Outside the door, the man holding the constable's knife smirked slightly as he watched the young magistrate, whom he had always regarded as a refined, gentle, and weak scholar, rummage through boxes and cabinets, pulling out taro, charcoal, rice soup, vegetable oil, earthenware pots, cotton, and so on. Then, he rolled up his sleeves and began to work with the ferocity of a tiger. The man holding the knife also heard the young magistrate occasionally muttering strange and eerie words such as "Hey, the dead memories are attacking me again."

Ouyang Rong wiped the sweat from his forehead with his elbow, glanced at the crude purification equipment on the table, and couldn't help but frown:

"I underestimated the difficulty of this thing... It doesn't seem like it will work..."

Ouyang Rong wasn't just a keyboard warrior who "knew a little about everything." Back in college, he took an elective course in the School of Chemical Engineering for credits. Because the teacher was a blonde, busty Russian woman, he found it fascinating, especially the way she bent down in her white lab coat to inspect the tubing on the podium...

In any case, unlike other LSPs in the class, he actually learned something beyond just visually estimating chest circumference.

In addition, he is a human with strong hands-on skills and a max-level physical auto-clicker.

Ouyang Rong was initially quite confident, thinking that with more patience, time, and adapting to local conditions, it wouldn't be difficult to develop an antibiotic with low purity.

But after all that effort, he realized he had underestimated the difficulty of purification.

The main problem lies in the purification equipment. The crude antibiotics contain too many bacteria, and using them would actually harm Liu Ashan.

"This road is blocked... No wonder novels are all lies; how could a normal person possibly climb this kind of technological tree..."

Ouyang Rong let out a long breath, undeterred, and decisively turned around to fetch paper and pen.

Let's try a different approach.

Ouyang Rong lowered his head, dipped his brush in ink, and wrote down several prescriptions, saying:

"Sixth Brother, could you help me get some medicine and pay for it in advance?"

"No...no problem."

Although Yan Wuxu, who was assisting on the side, couldn't understand what Ouyang Rong was doing, he was greatly shocked by the whole ordeal.

As Ouyang Rong recalled the prescription, he couldn't help but frown and ask:

"Your Excellency, you...you have studied the mechanical arts of the Mohist school?"

"What Mohist lineage? What mechanical arts?" Ouyang Rong asked curiously without looking up.

"You really aren't?"

"Uh, no. It's your turn to answer me."

Yan Wuxu, holding his sword and leaning against the door, seemed to think for a moment before saying:

"I heard it from someone while drinking. The Mohist lineage is one of the nine mythical lineages that have been passed down from the pre-Qin period. Before the First Emperor sought the elixir of immortality, it existed on par with the lineage of scholars and the lineage of Daoists. However, after the Red Emperor killed the White Emperor and seized the Han dynasty as a commoner, the Mohist lineage began to diverge and gradually declined. In the end, the families of the Grand Masters disappeared into the long river of history."

"However, the Qi cultivation techniques and mechanical arts of the Mo family lineage were scattered throughout the world, eventually giving rise to the countless sects, large and small, of the Ten Dao and the Jianghu in the North and South. It can be said that when one tree falls, ten thousand trees grow, preventing the mythical Qi cultivation techniques from being monopolized by the imperial court and a few powerful clans, just like the path for poor children to rise to power."

Clutching his sword, the county magistrate's son, who had yet to enter the martial world, looked on with longing. "So some people say that the Mo family is not dead. All of us in the martial world are actually white-robed Mo knights, disciples of the Grand Master."

Ouyang Rong looked up. This was the first time he had heard of such things, and he couldn't help but ask, "Nine mythical Dao veins? What about the other eight?"

Yan Wuxu scratched his head. "I only know that the Great Zhou Dynasty controls the military lineage, the Yin-Yang Qi-observation lineage, and the three lineages controlled by the three prominent sects of Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism. I don't know anything else. They should all be reclusive high-ranking families."

Ouyang Rong thought for a moment and decided to go straight to the heart of the matter: "Which lineage does Liu Lang follow? Is it the Mohist lineage?"

Yan Wuxu's face flushed red instantly. After a while, he muttered to himself, "If only I had really reached the rank of Qi Refiner, I wouldn't have had my knife knocked from my hand by the aunt of the Ming family that day..."

Ouyang Rong comforted her, "It's alright, I... I've never seen anyone who could beat my aunt since I was a child, of course, in that rural place in Nanlong."

Yan Jia Liulang coughed twice. "By the way, before I met you, I thought you were a scholar who practiced Qi cultivation."

“Me?” Ouyang Rong was speechless. “Why is this…” He was blind.

"It's very simple. Because Bailudong Academy belongs to the Confucian school, and the magistrate is a scholar who came from there and is famous throughout the world, it's hard for people in the martial arts world who understand the background not to think in that direction."

Ouyang Rong recalled for a moment, shook his head, and continued to do what he was doing. "However, when I was studying at Bailudong Academy, I always followed my teacher and never came into contact with this kind of thing."

Yan Wuxu nodded. "Then it must be that Master Ming was not selected. I heard that the three schools of Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism all have implicit but formal mechanisms to select suitable talents for Qi cultivation from among their disciples and students. Master Ming has been a renowned scholar in Jiangnan for a long time, and Bailudong Academy would not have missed him."

"Just give me a useless card, right?" Ouyang Rong chuckled, "Whatever."

Yan Wuxu comforted him, "But that's normal. Don't worry, Your Excellency. These kinds of talented people are extremely rare. Just like in the martial arts world, most of them are small, insignificant local sects. There are very few sects where you can truly learn the master's Qi cultivation techniques."

Ouyang Rong nodded, "But they're all acting like immortals. I'd like to see what these so-called Qi cultivators are like when they fight. Are Qi cultivators really that amazing? But when I was taking the imperial examinations in Luoyang, I never saw any masters who could fly over rooftops and walk on walls. If they really exist, wouldn't they often show off their skills?"

Having experienced the disillusionment of the Pure Land Palace, he now harbors deep doubts about the power level of this world.

Yan Wuxu said seriously, "Your Excellency, please do not underestimate those who have reached the rank of Qi Refining. The reason they are so rare is firstly because their numbers are indeed few, and secondly because the martial world is not just about fighting and killing, but about human relationships and social interactions."

“…” Ouyang Rong.

Goodness, you're a junior constable who hasn't even entered the world of martial arts yet, and you've already gotten the correct answer to the last big question. Quietly awarding such a high score, do you think that's appropriate?

"Ahem, Your Excellency, actually I saw it in a martial arts book, it seems to have been written by a senior martial arts master."

Yan Wuxu pulled out a well-worn book from his bosom and remarked with emotion, "It also records how he successively met the arrogant senior, the infatuated fox demon, the noble lady, the female teacher of the academy... and delved into their stories."

Ouyang Rong waved his hand, "Sorry, I study the Spring and Autumn Annals."

After finishing speaking, Ouyang Rong wrote down the prescription in his hand, folded it twice, and handed it to Yan Wuxu, saying, "Help me go down the mountain to get the prescription, and do it as quickly as possible."

Yan Wuxu glanced down, about to ask, but suddenly heard hurried footsteps outside. He put away the prescription, immediately turned around, placed his hand on the hilt of his sword, and stood guard at the doorway.

"who?"

Xiufa and Banxi rushed over in a flurry. The former spoke hurriedly from a distance, and her first words made Ouyang Rong's eyelids twitch.

"My lord, my lord, your wife wants you to go back quickly, your mentor has come to see you!"

"...?"

Thank you to the brothers "寒雨漓洔", "莫忆海", "梦里寻花繁似锦", "云自说", "杉木AD", "是首丘吖", "柠句", "桃花源之避世人", and "Qcber" for their generous donations!

(End of this chapter)