31: Chapter 31 The Engine!

The next seven days passed very quickly.

Su Ye went to work as usual every day. Life in the hospital was naturally like this; when you got busy, you'd look up and find the sky already dark. It was exhausting, but it was precisely because of the busyness that time seemed to fly even faster.

During these seven days, Su Ye clearly felt that Zhang Yuanping's attitude toward him had undergone a noticeable change. Although he had been good to Su Ye before, there was now clearly something more. Furthermore, their temporarily assembled "small group" was gradually starting to feel like a permanent team.

Wang Luo was loud and boisterous in the group chat every day, practically wishing he could send eighty messages a day. Wang Dandan remained lively; she was small in stature, but she talked the most, constantly complaining about how bad the cafeteria food was, how difficult the teachers were, and how troublesome the patients could be. Sister Su Bei always responded gently and warmly, keeping the conversation going without stealing the spotlight.

Over the seven days, they actually organized several of their own activities quite decently.

Once, after finishing a night shift, the four of them ran to the hospital's back gate for barbecue. Another time, on a rest afternoon, Wang Dandan insisted on dragging everyone to karaoke, only to end up being the one singing the craziest while Wang Luo roared along beside her until his voice almost cracked. There was also a time when Sister Su Bei's rotation was about to end, so they gathered for milk tea and chatted about which departments they wanted to go to and whether they wanted to stay at the hospital.

These things were all very ordinary.

Yet it was precisely this ordinariness that occasionally caused Su Ye to daze for a brief moment.

It felt as if he had truly and completely integrated into this world.

It was as if the absurd dreams of his previous life—the overtime, the rented rooms, and dropping dead at his workstation—were being covered up bit by bit by the mundane warmth of the life before him.

However, Su Ye never forgot the most important thing.

Cultivation.

In those seven days, he didn't miss a single day.

Working by day, cultivating by night.

With every session, Su Ye attempted to further perfect his Breathing Technique, adjusting it, filling in the gaps, and optimizing that marvelous rhythm between his breathing and heartbeat.

What he wanted wasn't a barely usable rudimentary form.

But a Breathing Technique that truly belonged to him.

A technique that could be continuously pushed upward, one that could support him all the way through his journey.

Unfortunately, the progress was so slow it was a headache.

Although the efficiency of spiritual energy entering his body was much higher than before, the feeling of "incorporating the spiritual energy of heaven and earth into the body along with the breath" was unstable. Sometimes he could smoothly absorb seven or eight strands of spiritual energy in a night; other times, he'd get stuck on a certain rhythm, struggling back and forth for an hour only to catch two or three strands in the end.

There were indeed improvements every day. Su Ye felt his physique growing toward a 'non-human' state.

But truly unifying these scattered changes into a complete cultivation system was too difficult.

Sometimes Su Ye would stand by the window, feeling the night breeze, and couldn't help but sigh.

Starting a cultivation path from nothing was indeed set to 'Hell' difficulty!

He even missed those academic systems he had studied in the past that had already been thoroughly researched by others.

Mathematics, physics, medicine—no matter how difficult, at least predecessors had paved the road. But now, the road beneath his feet didn't even have a map; he was completely crossing the river by feeling the stones.

Thinking of this, Su Ye couldn't help but recall the man who had fainted during the Marathon.

Li Tong.

After that day, Li Tong seemed to have completely vanished from his life.

No follow-up appointments, no phone calls, no return to the hospital for a check-up.

Su Ye had originally thought that since he had left his business card, Li Tong should contact him even if there was just a slight abnormality in his body later on. But seven days had passed without a word.

This left him feeling a bit regretful.

Because that time was the closest he had ever been to a Fire-type Rudimentary Golden Core.

"His Fire-type Rudimentary Golden Core showed signs of forming, originating in the heart."

"The heart belongs to the fire element..."

Su Ye sat at his desk, twirling a pen in his hand as his thoughts delved deeper.

His own Golden Core grew in the kidney area; it was a Water-element Golden Core with effects leaning toward the mental, enhancing memory, understanding, perception, and deduction abilities.

What about a Fire-type Golden Core?

Since it grew in the heart, what exactly were the special effects it brought?

Explosive power?

Speed?

A drastic increase in blood and qi?

Or was it more related to the heart itself?

Su Ye tapped the tabletop lightly, suddenly recalling what he had perceived through his palm when Li Tong was unconscious that day.

That heart drove the breathing, blood, and even some invisible energy within the body, forming a singular rhythm.

It was precisely from that rhythm that he had truly grasped the rudimentary form of the Breathing Technique for the first time.

Su Ye's eyes brightened bit by bit.

"Could it be spiritual energy?"

"No, or rather, not just spiritual energy."

"The heart... is more like a massive engine."

For a person who had truly stepped onto the path of the extraordinary, the heart might be the most fundamental power source.

A normal person's heart is responsible for supplying blood and maintaining life.

But an extraordinary person's heart might also be responsible for 'igniting' the entire body.

Igniting blood and qi.

Igniting spiritual energy.

Igniting that strength that supports the physical body in transcending its limits.

Su Ye suddenly realized something.

Then, he became even more expectant.

His chest felt as if it were being scratched by a cat's paw, an itch that reached deep into his heart.

He was now almost certain that he had reached the threshold, but he still didn't know what lay behind the door or what kind of qualitative change the heart would bring after truly evolving.

And the more he didn't know, the more his heart burned with anticipation.

However, this kind of thing couldn't be rushed.

Su Ye knew very well that the biggest taboo in cultivation was haste.

Take too big a step, and you'll trip yourself up.

One especially couldn't mess around with something like the heart.

He fell silent for a moment and whispered to himself as if in a daze:

"If I get the chance, I should still look for some books on ancient martial arts and flip through them."

"Even if nine out of ten sentences in them are nonsense, as long as I can find a single clue from the wisdom of the ancients, it'll be better than struggling alone."

After saying this, Su Ye laughed and shook his head.

A modern medical genius researching a Breathing Technique by night and thinking about flipping through ancient martial arts manuals by day.

It was somewhat ridiculous.

Just then, his phone vibrated.

In the small group chat, Wang Luo suddenly @-mentioned him.

Su Ye tapped it open to look.

[Wang Luo: @Su Ye, Brother Ye, your fame is huge lately! All the colleagues are talking about you, saying that our Jiangcheng has produced a medical genius who could make the medical titan, Old Master Zhou Jingtang, come out of retirement!!!]

That's how it was in the group; once someone started a topic, the chatter would immediately become endless.

[Wang Dandan: Not just that! I even heard people talking about you while I was taking a dump in the ladies' room today, saying you're the "new face of The First Hospital."]

[Wang Luo: Hahaha, the new face! I feel honored by association!]

[Wang Dandan: Give it a rest, what does it have to do with you? Scram, you loser.]

[Wang Luo: ? Feed me peanuts!]

[Wang Dandan: I suggest Big Shot Su wear a mask and sunglasses when going out from now on to avoid being gawked at.]

[Wang Luo: Hahahahahaha]

[Wang Dandan: Seriously, it feels pretty good. A provincial-level big shot actually ended up in our group.]

[...]

The group was rowdy.

Su Ye looked at those messages and didn't speak for a long time.

In the end, he just leaned against the back of his chair, feeling a bit troubled, and let out a helpless laugh.

Fame brings trouble just as a fat pig invites slaughter.