284: Chapter 284 Time is Running Out

The young girl raised her head and looked in the direction of the voice. Upon seeing the newcomer, her expression instantly changed.

She stood up in some surprise: "Senior Sister?"

"I came to take a look."

Bai Nianci walked up to the counter, turned slightly, and waved her hand slightly at the Disciple, signaling her to tend to other matters. Then, she cast her gaze back onto Chen Ran, her voice light yet steady:

"Young Master, come with me."

Chen Ran did not ask much and followed her inward.

...

Pushing aside the curtain revealed a small consultation room.

There was a low couch, a square table, a pulse-taking pad set on the table, and two chairs placed on opposite sides of the table.

Bai Nianci sat down on the inner side of the table with a calm expression, raising her hand to signal Chen Ran to sit.

Chen Ran sat down opposite her and rested his wrist on the pulse-taking pad without speaking much.

Bai Nianci lowered her head, her two fingers gently resting on his pulse gate.

At this very moment, Chen Ran reined in his thoughts, his gaze falling casually upon her as he sized her up for a few glances.

The young girl looked to be around eighteen or nineteen years old, with a simple hair bun held diagonally by only a single wooden hairpin, making her face appear even more plain and unadorned.

Her features were exceptionally fine.

Her eyebrows were like distant dark jade, her eyes like cold stars, her nose bridge straight and slightly upturned, and her lips like vermilion. There were no superfluous ornaments on her fair face.

At this moment, she lowered her head slightly, her expression solemn.

Chen Ran took all of this into his eyes without making a sound, letting her check his pulse.

Bai Nianci concentrated and listened closely.

What she cultivated was the Dao of the Medical Lineage. For her, taking a pulse was not merely distinguishing Qi and blood, but rather probing into the other party's Meridians with wisps of True Qi to perceive the circulation status within their body.

However, the moment she sent that wisp of True Qi in, she froze slightly.

This pulse condition was strange...

On the surface, the circulation of Qi and blood was normal, even extremely robust, worthy of being called a rare and sturdy foundation. Yet beneath this great vigor, she clearly sensed something hidden.

That thing was hidden extremely deep, like an undercurrent pressed at the bottom of a lake, quiet.

Bai Nianci quietly knitted her brows a bit tighter. She did not rashly probe deep, but instead added a fraction of True Qi, following the Meridians deeper inside.

When she reached the third step, she stopped.

That aura...

However, those Evil Qi were either as thin as smoke and not deeply contaminated, or they were already wreaking havoc within the body, causing one's Qi and blood to run in reverse and leaving one emaciated.

The person before her was a different matter entirely.

That Evil Qi... was too deep.

Bai Nianci slowly withdrew the True Qi probing the pulse, though her fingers did not loosen, and her brows furrowed deeper and deeper.

She tried to gently probe another Meridian.

The next moment, that wisp of True Qi that had probed in was lightly brushed aside.

Bai Nianci slowly closed her eyes, taking a moment to sort through those fragmented perceptions.

Then she opened her eyes and withdrew her fingers from his pulse gate.

Chen Ran had not spoken all along. With the vast disparity in their strengths, he did not need to use any hidden Cultivation Technique; he only needed to let her True Qi bypass areas inside his body.

Therefore, no matter how the successor of Ciyin Medical Valley before him investigated, she could only see a portion of the information Chen Ran wanted her to see.

Bai Nianci raised her eyes and looked at him for a moment before speaking with a solemn expression:

"Young Master has a hint of very aggressive Evil Qi inside your body."

Chen Ran said, "Mn."

Bai Nianci fell silent for a breath.

"Young Master knows?"

"I roughly guessed some of it."

Chen Ran was quite well-informed about his own Evil Qi. He himself Cultivated multiple Demonic Techniques, and every single one of those Demonic Techniques was a top-tier wicked method. If not for the righteous Qi suppressing them back then...

They probably would have erupted back in the celestial prison, entering a state of Qi Deviation.

Fortunately, Su Yuanshan had taught him Confucian arts at that time, which suppressed it.

Bai Nianci stared at him, paused, and said slowly:

"The Evil Qi Young Master is afflicted with is not ordinary external Evil Qi contamination. Ordinary external Evil Qi can be slowly suppressed and dispersed with medicinal herbs; with proper recuperation, it can be cleared within three to five years."

"The Evil Qi within Young Master's body has an extremely deep origin and has been intertwined with Qi and blood for a long time. It cannot be resolved by mere dispersal, let alone cured at the root by ordinary medicinal herbs."

Listening to this, Chen Ran asked casually, "If it is not controlled, what will be the consequences?"

"Given the current depth of the Evil Qi, if it is left uncontrolled and allowed to spread, in as short as five or six years, your Lifespan will be exhausted, your Qi and blood will be counter-bitten by the Evil Qi, and your vitality will be cut off."

"If it is controlled, coupled with recuperation to delay the erosion of Evil Qi," Bai Nianci's voice lowered slightly, "at most... ten years."

As her voice fell, the entire room fell silent.

Chen Ran sat there without answering, only lowering his gaze slightly.

Bai Nianci looked at his expression, her heart filled with an unspeakable complexity.

She had been doing consultations for three years, taken the pulses of countless people, and seen too many reactions when people heard bad news.

Yet the person before her was unprecedentedly calm, as if he were calculating accounts.

Chen Ran was indeed calculating.

Ten years.

At his current rate of cultivation power growth, in ten years, he could probably accumulate another four thousand years of cultivation power. By then, he would have long since lost track of what Realm he was in.

How could this little time limit affect him?

A thought flickered through his mind, but his face showed no change.

Ciyin Medical Valley was proficient in the Dao of medicine.

If he could use this connection to find a suitable pretext to ask someone to help him refine that Yao Beast inner core...

Chen Ran slowly turned this thought around in his mind.

He stood up, rolled back his cuffs, and dusted off the corner of his garments.

"Thank you for telling me."

Bai Nianci was slightly stunned. Raising her eyes to look at him, seeing that he already intended to stand up and leave, she felt a slight rush of anxiety, leaned her figure forward slightly, and said:

"Young Master, wait."

Chen Ran stopped and turned his head back.

Bai Nianci gently pursed her lips, weighed her words for a moment, and then spoke:

"Ciyin Medical Valley has a secret method for dispelling Evil Qi. Throughout the generations of the Medical Valley, this method has been used to extend the Lifespan of several people deeply trapped in Evil Qi, and some even achieved a complete cure because of it."

"I wonder what the cost is for this Evil Qi-dispelling method?"

Bai Nianci paused slightly; she understood Chen Ran's meaning.

There was nothing free in this world—this was a principle that people in the Jianghu all understood.

Bai Nianci picked up her brush again, lowered her head, and wrote down the medical record stroke by stroke.

"If Young Master wishes to come and fetch medicine in the future, is it necessary to notify in advance?"

"If it's convenient," Chen Ran said casually, "I'll just come directly. Will Miss Bai still be in the capital by then?"

Bai Nianci's brush tip paused for a moment, and she gently shook her head.

"This trip to the capital by the Medical Valley was originally to stay for a few days taking advantage of the Martial Arts Tournament, while also holding free clinics to give Disciples some practical experience."

She paused and slowly said, "In as fast as five days, or at most seven days, we will set off to return to the valley."

Hearing these words, Chen Ran raised his eyes slightly.

"Five days."

He pressed this number down in his heart, but on the surface he remained as indifferent as ever.

"If Young Master minds traveling, you don't need to make a special trip. Once the prescription for dispelling Evil Qi is formulated, several doses can be refined at once, which will last for a long time."

"On the day before the Medical Valley leaves the capital, if Young Master can spare the time, you can come here to collect the medicine, and I will have it prepared by then."

...

Outside the window lattice, the daylight was just right. The sun was leaning westward, casting that bit of light obliquely inward, landing on the drooping hair at the young girl's temples and shimmering with a faint halo.

Bai Nianci wrote down the final character, pushed the list of funds needed for the medical herbs that needed to be prepared in front of Chen Ran, and raised her eyes:

"Young Master, please review it."

Chen Ran glanced at it, nodded without much talk, and directly took out a brocade pouch from his bosom.

The brocade pouch faintly gleamed with gold—it had the appearance of gold.

"This is the deposit."

Chen Ran stood up, nodded slightly to her, and turned to walk out.

Walking to the curtain, his steps paused slightly, and without turning his head, he spoke indifferently:

"Sorry to trouble you."

...

Chen Ran stepped out of the clinic's main entrance, and the daylight outside rushed toward him, much brighter than inside.

He stood at the entrance for a moment, narrowing his eyes against the sunlight.

Five days later, the Medical Valley would leave the capital.

That Yao Beast inner core had been left aside for so long; it was time to find a suitable pretext to make a move on it.

"However, before that, I need to investigate the Master Xuandu case first..."

He turned this matter over once more in his heart, and his steps had already slowly begun to move, following the flow of people deeper into the street.