Young hero, stay put and don't be reckless.

Chapter 41 So that's how it is

Jiang Xun's hands were still shaking at lunchtime.

Yu Xiaoyi sat opposite him, watching him hold the bowl and tremble incessantly, and couldn't help but smile.

"What's wrong? Are you tired?"

Jiang Xun glared at him and said irritably, "Why don't you try? I've been grinding them all morning, my hands are almost broken!"

Yu Xiaoyi picked up a piece of food with his chopsticks and said slowly, "When I was a child, I spent three hours a day grinding grain."

Jiang Xun paused for a moment and looked at him.

Yu Xiaoyi chewed his food, his face expressionless, but there was something in his eyes.

"Grandpa said that to practice kung fu, you must first practice your hands, and grinding medicine is the best way to train your wrist strength."

Jiang Xun looked down at his own hands, then at Yu Xiaoyi's hands.

No wonder this kid has such a strong grip.

The afternoon was the time for Lao Yu to treat his illness.

Acupuncture.

When Jiang Xun first saw that set of silver needles, his legs went weak. The needles were as thin as a hair, dozens of them of varying lengths, arranged in a cloth bag, gleaming with a cold light.

"Lie down," Old Yu said, taking out a silver needle and heating it over the candle flame.

Jiang Xun obediently lay on the bed, burying his face in the pillow, not daring to look.

When the first needle went in, he shuddered, but strangely—it didn't hurt.

It's a little sour and a little bloated, like there's an ant crawling under my skin.

The second stitch, the third stitch, the fourth stitch...

Jiang Xun felt the heat within his body gradually subside, like a cool stream flowing through his meridians, soothing the turbulent true energy little by little.

He was so comfortable he almost groaned out loud.

Old Yu inserted the needles quickly and steadily, saying as he inserted them, "The true qi in your body travels through the twelve meridians, but the route is different from that of ordinary people. Ordinary people's true qi starts from the dantian, travels through the Ren meridian, passes through the Tanzhong point, and ascends to the Niwan point. But yours starts from the dantian, travels through the Du meridian, passes through the Mingmen point, ascends to the Yuzhen point, and then plunges headlong into the Dai meridian and runs wildly."

Jiang Xun didn't understand, but he thought it was very impressive.

"so what?"

"So your true energy isn't following the rules, and ordinary methods can't suppress it." Old Yu inserted another needle. "This set of needles I use is called 'Dragon-Locking Needles,' which is specifically designed to block those chaotic meridians and lock the true energy in the dantian. But it can only lock it temporarily. If it goes on for too long, it will still relapse, and it will be even more troublesome than it is now."

Jiang Xun lay on the bed, asking sullenly, "Then what should we do?"

"What to do?" Old Yu chuckled, his hands still busy. "Just deal with it!"

"..."

After acupuncture, there is a medicinal bath.

That evening, Yu Xiaoyi boiled a large pot of water for him, poured it into a large wooden tub, and then threw in various medicinal herbs.

Angelica sinensis, Ligusticum chuanxiong, safflower, Clematis chinensis, and some other unidentifiable roots and leaves were thrown in, and the hot water instantly turned into a pot of dark soup, emitting a strange smell.

When Jiang Xun first tried it, he almost fainted from the fumes.

The smell was like boiling a hundred pairs of socks that had been worn for three years in a pot.

"Can this thing really cure diseases?" he asked, pinching his nose.

Yu Xiaoyi stood at the door, watching him with schadenfreude: "Yes. If you die from the fumes, your illness will naturally be cured."

Jiang Xun: "...With such a sharp tongue, you'll never find a wife."

Yu Xiaoyi's face darkened, and he slammed the door and left.

Jiang Xun chuckled twice, then gritted his teeth and submerged himself in the pot of dark soup.

It's hot. That's the first feeling.

Then came the numbness. It felt like countless needles were pricking my skin, from the soles of my feet all the way to the top of my head.

Then there's the heat. That heat penetrates from the skin, into the flesh and blood, into the bones, and finally converges into a stream of heat that flows along the meridians.

Jiang Xun closed his eyes and silently sensed it.

He kept in mind what Lao Yu said during the day—he didn't understand the names of those meridians or the routes of true qi circulation, but he was trying to remember them.

Remember the sensations in your body, where the heat flows, where the soreness and distension are, remember them all.

He soaked in the water for half an hour until it cooled down before he finally climbed out. His whole body was bright red, like a boiled shrimp.

Yu Xiaoyi pushed open the door and came in, carrying a bowl of dark, murky medicinal soup: "Drink it."

Jiang Xun took it and smelled it; the bitterness made his brows furrow into a knot.

"Can I not drink it?"

"Yes." Yu Xiaoyi said expressionlessly, "If you don't drink it, your money will have been wasted."

Jiang Xun took a deep breath, pinched his nose, and gulped it down.

bitter.

It was so bitter he felt like vomiting.

But he held back, swallowed it down, and then opened his mouth, panting like a dog.

Yu Xiaoyi glanced at him, a slight smile playing on his lips—Jiang Xun swore he saw it; the kid was smirking.

"What are you laughing at?" Jiang Xun said irritably. "When I get better, I'm going to give you a good beating."

Yu Xiaoyi snorted and left with the bowl.

As he reached the door, he suddenly stopped, took a small booklet from his pocket, and placed it on the table.

"What is this?"

"Meridian chart." Yu Xiaoyi opened the booklet and pointed to the winding lines on it. "Grandpa said that if you want to control your true qi, you have to know how the true qi in your body moves and memorize it."

Jiang Xun was stunned for a moment.

"Why are you helping me?"

Yu Xiaoyi didn't answer, and pushed the door open and went out.

Jiang Xun sat on the bed, looking at the closed door, and suddenly smiled.

This kid may have a sharp tongue, but he's not a bad person at heart.

late at night.

Jiang Xun lay on the bed, and by the dim light of the oil lamp, he opened the first page of the meridian chart.

There was a human figure drawn on it, covered with lines and densely packed small characters on the sides, making him dizzy.

"The Lung Meridian of Hand-Taiyin..." he read aloud, his tongue seemingly tied in knots, and he almost closed the booklet and threw it aside.

But thinking of his own life, he sighed and patiently turned the pages one by one.

"...The Hand Yangming Large Intestine Meridian originates at the tip of the index finger, ascends the arm to the shoulder, and enters the supraclavicular fossa..."

As he chanted, he suddenly stopped, raised his hand to his eyes, and stared at his fingers for a long time. Then he closed his eyes and began to sense the internal energy within his body.

He also tried to feel it while grinding herbs during the day.

The heat would still coursing through my body, but it was milder than before.

He tried to "guide" it according to the instructions in the picture, but each time it was like catching a slippery eel, impossible to catch.

It was late at night, and he sat cross-legged, holding his breath.

The vital energy flows slowly within the body, starting from the dantian and moving towards the limbs.

He tried to "see" it—walking and walking.

Suddenly, a surge of heat rushed up my arm, following a specific path from my shoulder to my elbow, from my elbow to my wrist, and from my wrist to my fingers.

He suddenly opened his eyes.

Hand Yangming Large Intestine Meridian!

Looking down at my hands, my fingers felt slightly warm, just like the picture described.

He closed his eyes again and continued to sense.

This time, following that warm current back, from the fingers to the wrist, from the wrist to the elbow, from the elbow to the shoulder—and then, it was gone.

The heat disappeared at my shoulder, as if it had been blocked by something.

After a moment of hesitation, he tried a few more times, but the result was the same.

He recalled what Lao Yu had said during the acupuncture session earlier that day—that some of his meridians were blocked.

This should be it.

I opened my eyes, looked down at the picture on that page, and suddenly smiled.

It turned out to be the case.