Chapter 174 - The Fifth Master Physician (2)

"What is happening?!" Lu Feng cried out in panic.

He tried to yank his hands away, but the wild chain reaction had already taken hold. The raw vital energy he pumped into the patient acted like dry twigs on an open flame.

Inside the wounded disciple’s chest, the demonic fire flared with savage fury, crashing straight into the bone-freezing frost. The disciple’s chest bulged outward as his skin turned purple.

"The rampant energy is tearing his body apart!" an elder shouted from the gallery in horror.

Master Lu Song’s face turned pale.

"Suppress the clash before the fire reaches his heart!"

The four Master Physicians rushed forward in unison, channeling their medical qi to stabilize the runaway reaction. The grand hall descended into chaos as disciples jumped from their seats in dread.

Before the masters could make contact, a figure appeared before them.

Bai Qingxian stood beside the patient. Behind her, Ye Lingxi arrived carrying a silver basin.

"Hold the basin," Bai Qingxian said softly.

Ye Lingxi nodded firmly, setting the silver basin beneath the patient.

Bai Qingxian’s fingers blurred as thirty-six silver needles appeared in the air around her.

Spirit Piercing Needle Technique: Thirty-Six Pulse Resonance

Thump! Thump! Thump!

The thirty-six needles whistled through the air, sinking into thirty-six critical pulse points on the disciple’s body with pinpoint precision.

A pale aura radiated from each needle tip, forming a spiritual barrier. The raging fire and rotting frost slammed violently against it, but the spiritual barrier held firm, instantly sealing the principal meridians and cutting off the energy feeding the two poisons.

"She sealed the meridians in a single move!" Master Gu’s eyes widened. "She is insulating the heart vessels now!"

Bai Qingxian did not pause. With her left hand guiding three auxiliary needles, she blocked several minor pathways along the lower abdomen, creating auxiliary loops.

The demonic flame energy and rotting frost energy surged into the auxiliary loops, and the two lethal poisons tore into each other, devouring one another in a violent struggle for dominance.

The spectator hall watched with held breath.

"She is actually executing the mutual annihilation method alone," Master Lu Song murmured, his hands trembling slightly with awe. "Guiding two opposing poisons through auxiliary channels simultaneously... her spiritual control is monstrous."

For dozens of breaths, the hall remained dead silent. The violent tremors beneath the patient’s skin gradually weakened as the opposing energies exhausted themselves, reducing each other to toxic residue.

Bai Qingxian placed her right palm flat against the disciple’s chest, guiding the toxic residue downward along the leg channels in a measured wave.

As her qi reached the bottom of his feet, her finger tapped both Yongquan points.

Psssssh!

Two streams of dark sludge shot out from the bottom of his feet, hissing as they splashed into the silver basin held by Ye Lingxi. A foul stench of blood rose into the air, quickly dissolving.

Next, with a flick of her sleeve, Bai Qingxian recalled all thirty-six silver needles in a sweeping arc. She infused a thread of gentle qi into his meridians.

The swollen bulge on the disciple’s chest receded completely. The purple tint on his skin faded, his ragged breath steadied, and a healthy color returned to his cheeks.

The warning runes on the stabilizing formation dimmed, turning back into a soft green.

The entire grand hall fell into silence. Thousands of spectators stared in utter disbelief at the young woman who had single-handedly tamed two lethal poisons without damaging the patient’s body.

On the floor, Lu Feng slumped onto the stone tiles. His hands trembled uncontrollably as he stared at the silver needles, his face completely drained of color.

"Foolish!" Master Lu Song’s roar shattered the silence like thunder.

He marched up to Lu Feng in fury. "You treated a fellow disciple’s life like a reckless gamble! Such arrogance is the mark of a fool, not a physician!"

The elders who had cheered to accept Lu Feng as a personal disciple moments ago now looked away in disgust, shaking their heads in silence.

Lu Feng lowered his head in tears to the cold floor. "I... I... I..."

Bai Qingxian looked down at him with cold eyes. "A physician holds the life and death of patients in their hands. A special constitution is a gift, but without proper diagnosis, knowledge, and skills, it is nothing more than a curse."

She knew it very well herself.

"Since you agreed to the wager, you will honor it. From this day forward, you are an apprentice of the medicine hall. You will sweep the halls, sort seedlings, and clean patients until your foundation is solid."

Lu Feng shivered. He pressed his forehead against the stone floor, tears blurring his vision.

Memories of his past rushed into his mind.

Years ago in Autumn Leaf City, a plague took his parents and his older sister within a single winter. Left alone as an orphan, he begged at the gates of the local physician guild until an elder took pity on him, teaching him the bare basics of herbs.

When that elder passed away, the guild kept him as a menial servant. For years, the other apprentices treated him like dirt, throwing waste in his face and ordering him to clean the toilets.

Then, his fortune changed. In a mountain cave, he stumbled across an incomplete ancient healing art that also awakened his Wood Spirit Constitution.

Overnight, the boy once treated like dirt became a prodigy. He used his overwhelming wood energy vitality to force plants to bloom and heal wounds, believing that heaven had chosen him to stand above everyone else. In his arrogance, he forgot why he wanted to learn medicine in the first place.

It was to save people like his family from dying helplessly. He had convinced himself that foundational study and diagnosis were only for ordinary people.

Now, staring at the cold tiles, the reality crushed his delusions.

The delusion of arrogance in his heart shattered, leaving behind only the forgotten resolve of that helpless boy from Autumn Leaf City. If he had to start over from scratch as an apprentice to correct his ways, he would do it.

"This junior... accepts the punishment."