266: The flawed jade is the king (Part 5)

The old man kept the infant by his side.

He abandoned his wandering days and, in the depths of these desolate mountains, found a sun-drenched valley where he built a hut and settled down.

The thatched cottage was simple, barely enough to shelter from the wind and rain, but the courtyard was filled with various rare medicinal herbs that emitted a refreshing fragrance.

In the era before last, he had witnessed gods and demons bleeding, and in the last era, he had sat and discussed the Dao with a true Saint.

He had lived for too long.

So long that all his old friends had turned to dust, leaving only him to linger on in this withering world.

Perhaps it was the small character "Yun" on the infant's neck that touched his heart, which had long been as still as an ancient well.

Perhaps it was Heaven's will that at the end of his life, he had found a Disciple to inherit his Legacy.

He kept the infant alive.

Every morning, he would draw in the nascent purple Qi and channel it into the infant's body to nourish that weak, frail frame whose Origin had been forcibly stripped away, leaving it riddled with wounds.

Every deep night, he would gather starlight as a catalyst and, supplemented by countless rare herbs, brew pots of dark green medicinal liquid to give the infant a medicinal bath.

The process was incredibly painful; even the unconscious infant would involuntarily twitch under the scouring of the medicinal power.

But, he survived.

Time flew by, and in the blink of an eye, six years had passed.

The frail infant of that year had grown into a thin youth.

He had no name, so the old man just called him "Child".

In the mornings in the valley, there was always a thin youth, carrying a medicinal basket larger than himself, following closely in the old man's footsteps.

"Grandpa Mo, this is 'Dragon Tongue Grass'; it is pungent in taste, warm in nature, and can promote blood circulation and remove blood stasis."

"This is 'Continuity Flower'; it can knit broken bones and is the main ingredient for refining 'Bone-Mending Pill'."

The youth had an Innate sense of closeness to medicinal herbs.

Anything the old man taught once, he could remember at a glance, and he could even draw inferences, describing many medicinal properties and changes that the old man had never even mentioned.

This made the old man increasingly amazed, and also increasingly sympathetic.

One day, while the youth was identifying herbs alone by the stream at the foot of the mountain, several village children came running over, laughing.

"Hey! Nameless freak!"

The leader was a chubby boy with a tiger-like head; he was the village chief's son, named Gou-dan, and he had the most authority among the group of children.

He stood with his hands on his hips, looking provocative.

"What's the point of memorizing these flowers and plants every day? You can't even remember your own name!"

Another thin, tall boy who acted like a sycophant joined in the teasing.

"Exactly! My dad said that people without names are wild savages from the mountains, lonely ghosts that nobody wants!"

"My name is Gou-dan, his name is Er-mao, what's your name? You don't even have a name!"

Children's words are the most innocent, yet also the most hurtful.

The youth clenched the hem of his clothes, lowered his head, and said nothing.

He wanted to retort, but didn't know where to start.

It wasn't that he didn't remember; he truly... had no name.

Grandpa Mo, why won't you give me a name?

The youth felt aggrieved in his heart, his eyes reddened, and tears fell uncontrollably.

He didn't want to cry in front of them, so he shoved Gou-dan in front of him, dropped his medicinal basket, and ran crying back to the hut in the valley.

"Grandpa Mo..."

The youth rushed into the room and began to cry to the old man who was resting with his eyes closed on a rocking chair, pouring out all the grievances from the stream.

The old man slowly opened his eyes, a trace of imperceptible pity flashing through his cloudy pupils.

Looking at the tear tracks on the youth's face, he chuckled and was just about to say something.

Suddenly, outside the hut, came a series of urgent and panicked shouts.

"Old Mo! Old Mo, save him!"

Accompanied by the shouts, several burly hunters, carrying a makeshift stretcher made from a door panel, stumbled in.

On the stretcher, a blood-soaked, brawny man had breath as thin as a thread, looking like he was about to die.

The brawny man had a huge claw mark on his chest, stretching from his left shoulder to his right abdomen, deep enough to see the bone, with flesh and blood a mess.

"He was swiped by the Black Wind Tiger in the mountains, please take a look! He is the best hunter in our village; if he's gone, how will his wife and child live!"

The leading hunter shouted anxiously, his voice laced with tears.

The old man just cast a calm glance and waved his hand.

"Put him here."

His voice was not loud, but it carried a power that made people trust him.

"You all go out, let him stay."

The old man pointed to the still-sobbing youth.

The hunters dared not disobey in the slightest, hurriedly putting the injured man down carefully, retreating respectfully, and waiting anxiously outside the door.

Inside the hut, only the old man, the youth, and the dying brawny man remained.

The old man took out a set of silver needles as fine as ox hair from an ancient-looking wooden box; there were hundreds of them.

Without any hesitation, he picked up a silver needle and, with lightning speed, pierced several major acupoints on the brawny man's chest.

His movements were like flowing water.

Every needle that fell seemed to trigger some kind of rule in heaven and earth, forcibly injecting strands of vitality into that body on the verge of death.

The youth stood to the side, watching in a trance.

He forgot to cry, forgot his grievances.

That set of acupuncture techniques, clearly seen for the first time, gave him an incomparably familiar feeling.

It was as if... he had once performed it this way too.

In his eyes, the brawny man's body seemed to turn into a transparent network composed of countless meridians and Qi and blood.

And every needle of Grandpa Mo was repairing those damaged network nodes.

"That's not right..."

The youth whispered subconsciously in his heart.

"The third needle piercing 'Xuanji' can only temporarily lock the heart pulse, but it cannot stop the spread of Death Qi. If it could be shifted half an inch to the left and pierced into the 'Hidden Meridian', it could guide the Qi to return to its Origin, achieving twice the result with half the effort."

This thought flashed by, and the youth himself was startled.

How could he understand these things?

After the time it takes to burn an incense stick.

The old man put away the last silver needle.

The bleeding on the brawny man's chest had actually stopped, his originally pale complexion had regained a trace of rosiness, and his breathing had become steady and strong.

"Many thanks to Old Mo for saving his life!"

The hunters outside the door rushed in, thanking the old man profusely, and carried the brawny man away.

Inside the hut, tranquility was restored once again.

The old man looked at the youth, who was still in a daze, and asked gently.

"Have you learned this set of acupuncture techniques?"

"Yes, I have learned it."

The youth nodded subconsciously.

"Then let me ask you," a look of testing flashed in the old man's eyes, "the acupuncture technique I just performed is called the 'Seven-Star Life-Extending Needle', which has thirty-six variations. Which one is the most critical?"

The youth didn't even think; he blurted it out.

"It is the nineteenth needle, sealing the 'Qi Sea', guarding the Dantian. But if it can be combined with the twenty-seventh needle, shifting to pierce the 'Shenque', it can trigger the Innate Qi to nourish the Acquired, and the effect would be increased by more than thirty percent."

A flash of brilliance appeared in the old man's eyes, full of gratification.

As expected of a body with affinity for the great Dao; even without Innate bones, this Comprehension Ability is still rare in the world.

He couldn't help but sigh in his heart.

What kind of heartless person would perform such an act of digging out bones on an infant with such Aptitude?

The old man withdrew his thoughts and remembered the youth's grievances from just now.

"Very well, today, I will give you a name."

He remembered that broken jade pendant from when he first saw this child in the valley years ago.

A fragmented jade... The old man revealed a meaningful smile.

"Jade, remove one dot, and it becomes 'Wang'."

"From now on, you shall be called... Wang Yun."