119: Chapter 119 Reencounter with Old Chen!

Su Yun put on a pair of lightweight running shoes and adjusted his collar in front of the mirror.

The trash was cleared; it was time to exercise.

He pushed open the door and strode out.

The sunlight today was quite nice.

Outside the Jinxiu Jiangnan Community was a wide riverside park.

It was just after nine in the morning.

There were quite a few people in the park.

Some elderly folks were practicing Tai Chi, while others were doing square dancing.

Su Yun jogged along the synthetic track by the river.

His current physical condition was countless times stronger than before.

After running five kilometers, he wasn't even out of breath.

Not a single drop of sweat had fallen.

If this had been in the past, he would have collapsed from exhaustion long ago.

There was an octagonal pavilion ahead.

Su Yun slowed down, intending to go over and stretch his leg muscles.

Just as he approached the pavilion...

...he saw an acquaintance.

It was the old man who had been playing chess that morning, Elder Chen.

Today, the old man wore a loose grey Tang suit and sat at a stone table, looking down and fiddling with the pieces on a chessboard.

Beside him still stood that buzz-cut young man, standing as straight as a javelin.

Su Yun didn't want to join the commotion.

Just as he was about to turn around and find another place to stretch...

...Elder Chen looked up and caught sight of him.

The old man's eyes lit up.

"Young man!"

Elder Chen waved him over.

"Come here, come here!"

Su Yun stopped in his tracks.

Great.

He'd been conscripted.

He walked over helplessly.

"Good morning, old man," Su Yun greeted casually.

Elder Chen pointed to the chessboard on the stone table.

"That move of yours yesterday, 'sacrificing the rook to save the king'—I spent all night thinking about it."

Elder Chen held a red "King" piece and tapped it twice on the board.

"It truly was a brilliant move."

"But if the opponent doesn't take your rook and instead advances a pawn to checkmate, how would you solve that?"

Elder Chen stared intently at Su Yun.

His posture suggested he wouldn't let Su Yun leave without an explanation.

Su Yun glanced at the chessboard.

This old man was quite persistent.

Setting up an endgame puzzle here early in the morning—he was likely waiting to intercept him.

However...

Su Yun hadn't come here to play chess today.

He looked at Elder Chen.

Although the old man was hale and hearty with a strong voice...

...his face had an unnatural sallow tint.

Especially when he breathed, his chest rose and fell much faster than a normal person's.

Su Yun didn't answer Elder Chen's question.

He shoved his hands into the pockets of his sweatpants.

"Old man."

Su Yun spoke up.

"Whenever it rains, do you feel a sharp pain below your left ribs?"

Elder Chen's hand, holding the chess piece, froze in mid-air.

Su Yun continued.

"It feels as if a needle is being driven in."

"And lately, this sharp pain has been occurring more and more frequently."

"It's even accompanied by symptoms of coughing up blood."

"Am I right?"

As soon as these words were spoken...

...the atmosphere in the pavilion changed.

The buzz-cut young man standing behind Elder Chen immediately took a step forward.

He blocked the way in front of Elder Chen.

His right hand reached directly toward his lower back.

Though he was in civilian clothes, that movement and posture...

...it was definitely the motion of reaching for a gun.

The young man's gaze was fixed dead on Su Yun.

If Su Yun made any suspicious move, he would undoubtedly draw his weapon without hesitation.

Su Yun didn't even give the buzz-cut young man a second glance.

He just looked calmly at Elder Chen.

The expression on Elder Chen's face froze for a few seconds.

Then...

...he raised his hand and patted the buzz-cut young man's shoulder.

"Xiao Zhang, stand down."

The buzz-cut young man didn't move.

"Chief, this person's background is unknown..."

"I told you to stand down!" Elder Chen's tone sharpened.

The buzz-cut young man gritted his teeth.

He withdrew his hand from his lower back and took half a step back.

But his gaze remained locked onto Su Yun like radar.

Elder Chen looked back at Su Yun.

He placed the "King" piece back onto the board.

"Young man."

Elder Chen dropped his previous approachable demeanor.

An aura of authority from someone long accustomed to a high position radiated from him.

"Who exactly are you?"

Elder Chen stared into Su Yun's eyes.

"Even my family doesn't know about my physical condition."

"The doctors at the Health Care Bureau only said I was overworked."

"How did you see it?"

Su Yun smiled.

"How I saw it isn't important."

"What matters is, am I right?"

Elder Chen fell silent.

He looked at Su Yun for a full half-minute.

Then, he nodded.

"You're spot on."

Elder Chen sighed.

"For the past half month, whenever it rains, the pain under my left ribs becomes unbearable."

"Yesterday morning, I coughed up some phlegm with streaks of blood in it."

"I didn't dare tell my family, fearing they would make a fuss."

Elder Chen looked at Su Yun.

"Do you know medicine?"

Su Yun didn't answer.

He silently issued a command in his mind.

"System, activate Tianji Divine Calculation."

"Combine it with Ghost Valley Medical Arts to investigate the target's physical condition."

A panel popped up directly in mid-air.

[Name: Chen Guodong]

[Age: 72 years old]

[Occupation: Retired General (Former Chief of the Jiangnan Province Military Region)]

[Recent Fortune: Great Luck (Meeting the benefactor Su Yun; chronic ailments will be completely removed, life will be extended, and the family's fortune will stabilize as a result)]

[Past: Spent half a life in the military; thirty years ago, commanded operations on the Southern Border battlefield, leading from the front; residual shrapnel remains in the body; formerly the top leader of the Jiangnan Province Military Region; students and former subordinates are spread throughout military and political circles; holds extremely high prestige...]

[Future: Peaceful old age; health becomes robust due to Su Yun curing the old ailments...]

[Sin Value: 0 (Protected by the golden light of merit)]

[Detailed Crimes: None (Lived a life of integrity, killed enemies to serve the country, with a clear conscience).]

[Modern Medical Judgment: Location is extremely dangerous, pressed against a major blood vessel; the success rate of surgical removal is less than five percent. Forced surgery is highly likely to cause fatal hemorrhaging.]

[Ghost Valley Medical Arts Diagnosis: Metal energy has entered the body, damaging the heart and lungs. Need to use Taiyi Divine Needles to seal the heart meridian, supplemented by true qi to draw out the metal fragments.]

After reading the information on the panel...

...Su Yun had a clear understanding.

This old man was a veteran who had been on the battlefield.

No wonder he had an aura of decisive ruthlessness.

Those three pieces of shrapnel had been in his body for thirty years.

Now, they had become a death warrant.

Modern medicine indeed had no way.

That position was too tricky.

A slight hand tremor would directly sever a major artery.

Even a deity would find it hard to save him.

But for Su Yun, this was manageable.

He had the remnants of the Ghost Valley Medical Arts and the Tai Xuan Qi Induction Mantra.

Although he had only just started with the Tai Xuan Qi Induction Mantra and hadn't even found the sensation of qi...

...with the system's merit points, he could completely force the execution of the Taiyi Divine Needles.

Su Yun pulled out the round stool opposite the stone table and sat down.

"Old man, you've been to the hospital for this, right?"

Su Yun looked at Elder Chen.

"Did the doctors tell you that the surgical risk is too high and suggest conservative treatment?"

Elder Chen's eyes narrowed.

This kid even knew this?

He had just gone to the Military Region General Hospital the day before yesterday.

Several cardiothoracic surgery experts had consulted for an entire afternoon.

The final conclusion they reached was conservative treatment.

To put it bluntly, it was waiting to die.

Elder Chen didn't speak, just looked at Su Yun.

Su Yun extended a finger and tapped the stone table.

"An old injury from thirty years ago."

"Shrapnel fragments left from the battlefield."

"Now they've drifted to the edge of the heart, right against a major artery."

"Am I wrong?"