"Cultivation?" The family members chorused with identical expressions of doubt.
Only Yanan furrowed her brow. This sort of thing was simply too fantastical. When fantasy tropes on television aligned with reality, it not only stretched belief and defied acceptance, gradually eroding their worldview and disrupting social order, but it also brought a host of unnecessary troubles. She could not put her parents in harm's way.
With this thought, Yanan hurriedly chimed in, "Oh, it's just a novel Lingtian was reading! Isn't *Battle Through the Heavens* playing on TV right now? He just loves these kinds of fantasy novels. Right, Lingtian?" As she spoke, out of sight, she gave Ye Lingtian's waist a fierce pinch, asking with a smile full of warning in her eyes.
"Hiss~" Ye Lingtian winced in pain. Then, giving it some careful thought, he realized this matter truly could not be disclosed to them just yet. In the event that other cultivators discovered his whereabouts, it might implicate Yanan's family. Moreover, if they learned of Yanan's Yin Body, the consequences would be unimaginable. He had simply wanted to offer his sincere heart, never expecting it would bring them danger. Until he grew strong enough to protect them, it was best for now not to tell them. There would be plenty of time to discuss it once the proper opportunity arose. It seemed he still needed to think things through three times before acting. Still, Yanan was subtle and meticulous—she truly lived up to her Yin Body, destined to lead an extraordinary life.
With this in mind, Ye Lingtian quickly covered for himself, saying, "That's right! I read these novels in my spare time just to pass the hours. Because my three masters spent all year round in the mountains diligently studying Buddhist principles, I was influenced by them and developed a special interest in this genre!"
"Oh, is that so?" Dad nodded and said. The eldest sister's eyes rolled, and though she asked nothing, her heart was filled with doubt.
The younger brother, Ouyang Rui, naturally did not believe it and asked, "Future second brother-in-law, I like reading these kinds of novels too. Which one are you reading?"
"Uh..." As a practitioner of Cultivation, when would Ye Lingtian ever read novels to while away the precious hours? Everyone was busy seeking opportunities, elevating their Spiritual Power, and pursuing the Heavenly Dao as the paramount affairs of life, leaving him momentarily at a loss for words.
"It's *Return of the Former Emperor*!" Yanan said. This was a novel she had read previously.
"Then... Ow! Second sister, it hurts!" Before Ouyang Rui could finish his sentence, he clutched his forehead and cried out in pain. It turned out that Ouyang Yanan, seeing her inquisitive little brother pressing the matter relentlessly, had dealt him a direct rap on the head. It seemed Yanan was also a woman of decisive action.
"Serves you right! Messing around all day without a shred of seriousness, not studying properly, and just researching novels instead—do you still want a future?" Yanan lectured her younger brother with a straight face.
Ouyang Rui curled his lip and said sideways, "Aren't you the same?"
"What—did—you—say?"
"Nothing, Second Sister, you misheard. I didn't say a thing," Ouyang Rui said pitifully.
Ouyang Rui had been afraid of his second sister since childhood. Whenever she bullied him when he was little, he would holler about taking up taekwondo for a year, and once his studies bore fruit, he sought out his second sister for a sparring match to get his own back, only to be tossed to the ground by a single shoulder throw and left unable to climb back up for ages. From then on, he never dared to provoke this second sister again—she was simply too ruthless.
"Mmh, good boy. That's better!" Someone wore the expression of a villain who had gotten his way. It caused the corners of Ye Lingtian's mouth to curve slightly upward. It seemed this girl still had sides to her he didn't know about.
"Xiaotian, so what kind of work do you do?" Ouyang Fan did not forget his original intention and persisted in getting to the bottom of things.
"Strictly speaking, I'm a traditional Chinese medicine doctor!" Aside from spiritual cultivation, divination, and the arts and sciences, he was also a medical cultivator. A single set of his acupuncture skills could bring the dead back to life and flesh out bare bones. In the year since he descended the mountain, he had built up a vast network of connections entirely relying on his medical skills, so he richly deserved to be called a traditional Chinese medicine doctor.
"Then Xiaotian, which traditional Chinese medicine hospital are you affiliated with?" Since they had agreed he would be vetted for their daughter, they couldn't be sloppy about it.
"I am not affiliated with any hospital, but I promised the president of Beijing Guang'anmen Hospital that he may come to me at any time should he encounter any intractable illnesses he cannot resolve! The Guizhou Provincial Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, the Jiangsu Provincial Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, and the Xiyuan Hospital of the Dragon Country Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences also share quite good relations with me. Should they run into difficulties, I will lend a helping hand," Ye Lingtian said with composure.
"Brother-in-law, you're that formidable?" asked the eldest sister, Ouyang Can.
"Heh, just so-so," Ye Lingtian smiled modestly.
Yanan thought to herself: *Is this fellow trying to pull the wool over my dad and the others' eyes? Hmph! Fraud!*
"Traditional Chinese medicine places emphasis on looking, listening, asking, and feeling the pulse. In fact, the moment I walked in and saw you all, I knew Uncle and Auntie were having health issues, and that Eldest Sister and Little Brother also have minor problems," Ye Lingtian said calmly.
Eldest Sister Ouyang Can was full of skepticism and didn't believe it at all. How could someone so young know what ailments someone had just by looking at them? Wasn't her younger sister running the risk of having picked up a handsome con artist? Let her expose him.
"Pfft, who are you trying to kid? The traditional Chinese medicine doctors I've seen are all sixty- or seventy-year-old veterans who rely on taking the pulse plus medical instruments to determine a diagnosis. For you to claim you can diagnose an illness purely by looking—doesn't that mean you're claiming to be better than those veteran doctors? How old are even you? Twenty-one, right? Even if you started studying traditional Chinese medicine the day you were born, you'd only have twenty years of medical experience. Those veteran doctors have forty or fifty years of experience; you're better than them? Who's going to believe that?"
Ye Lingtian pondered for a moment before saying, "There are always people beyond people, and heavens beyond heavens; medical skill is not judged solely by age. Undeniably, the renowned traditional Chinese medicine physician Zhang Zhongjie completed the *Treatise on Cold Damage Diseases* before the age of fifty-six, yet officially and among the populace, greater age is still regarded as an important standard for judging the academic proficiency of a traditional Chinese medicine doctor.
When the former Ministry of Health, the National Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine, and the former Ministry of Personnel organized the selection of National Masters of Traditional Chinese Medicine, the criterion for the second session was 'fifty years or more of clinical work in traditional Chinese medicine.' That is to say, if one began practicing medicine at the age of twenty, one would only become eligible for selection at seventy. Nowadays, undergraduate students in traditional Chinese medicine typically enroll at eighteen, graduate five years later, and begin practicing medicine at the earliest by twenty-three—meaning they can only participate in the selection upon reaching seventy-three. The greater one's age, the more one's experiences, the broader one's horizons, and the richer one's clinical experience. Longevity also represents how well one practices self-cultivation, and since health preservation is a vital component of traditional Chinese medicine theory, a veteran doctor who can regulate themselves to be healthy and long-lived possesses profound theoretical mastery in traditional Chinese medicine and is truly worthy of respect and trust. That is precisely why the saying 'the older the doctor, the more valuable' came to be."
Ouyang Fan, Ouyang Can, Ouyang Yanan, and Ouyang Rui were already listening with rapt attention. Even Madam Wan Feng had long since stopped moving her spatula and sat with everyone, encircling the rather cramped living room to listen.
"That's right, nothing wrong with that! So a twenty-one-year-old kid like you still dares to brazenly boast that your medical skills are brilliant?" the older sister chimed in, dripping with sarcasm.
Ye Lingtian offered a calm smile and expounded smoothly: "Theoretically speaking, that is indeed how it goes. But similarly, everything has both advantages and disadvantages, which gives rise to numerous drawbacks.
First of all, the general introduction to medical skills begins with theoretical knowledge, relying entirely on rote memorization; only when the theory is firmly committed to memory does one begin clinical trials. Little do people realize that the older one gets, the poorer one's energy, the greater one's memory decline, the weaker one's cognitive ability, the lower one's capacity to accept new knowledge, and the more creativity drops. Creative thinking diminishes, and when faced with problems that transcend past experience, once the processing capacity declines, clinical efficacy is naturally minimal. Generally speaking, whether a doctor's skill is good or not can be seen around the age of forty. If someone hasn't mastered it by forty, they will mostly find it difficult to achieve great things thereafter.
Consulting a veteran doctor for an illness is never wrong, but one should not miss out on younger doctors either. However, traditional Chinese medicine is profound and vast; the general run of doctors rely on pulse-taking and pharmacology. The 'looking' aspect of traditional Chinese medicine has gradually fallen into decline. The traditional Chinese medicine I studied involves understanding a patient's condition through looking, listening, asking, and feeling the pulse, administering treatment using the Taiyi Divine Needles to purge the illness from the body, and then prescribing a few doses of herbal medicine to consolidate the results, allowing for an effortless cure."
"What is this Taiyi Divine Needles you speak of? Once it's used, surgery isn't necessary? Does it really work?" Dad Ouyang Fan pursued the question.
Ye Lingtian put his left hand behind his back and, while they weren't paying attention, retrieved a beige wrapping cloth from his storage ring, placing it on the coffee table. As he slowly unfolded it, two rows of golden needles came into view, the shortest being three centimeters and the longest reaching a full ten centimeters. These needles were as fine as cow hairs, and a single glance made it clear they were no ordinary articles.
Ye Lingtian said, "These are the Taiyi Divine Needles, crafted entirely from pure gold." This set of needles was a prized collection he had won during a wager with an old traditional Chinese medicine doctor when he first entered the mortal world—an event that had caused that old codger's heart to ache for a long time.
"You really are a doctor?" Ouyang Can asked in astonishment.
"Absolute truth!" Ye Lingtian said with a solemn expression.
Yanan thought to herself: *Seeing him converse with such ease and confidence, could this fellow really be a skilled traditional Chinese medicine doctor? Does he actually have a few tricks up his sleeve?*
"Then tell us what ailments we're suffering from!" Ouyang Fan said eagerly.
"That's right, Xiaotian, tell us about our illnesses!" Madam Wan Feng also wore an expectant look.
"Second brother-in-law, hurry up and tell us!" little brother Ouyang Rui chimed in as well.
Yanan instantly shot her younger brother a look of disgust: *Stinky brat, you were just calling him 'future second brother-in-law,' and after three words you've switched to 'second brother-in-law.' You really are something!* However, Yanan also craned her neck to watch Ye Lingtian with eager anticipation—you only need an expert to make a move to know if they've got the goods.
Observing the expressions of rapt attention on Uncle Ouyang Fan, Auntie Wan Feng, Ouyang Can, and Ouyang Rui, with Yanan also sitting up straight and proper, Ye Lingtian smiled smugly: *Hmph hmph, little girl, let me show you what I'm capable of!*
Ye Lingtian said solemnly, "Auntie is suffering from sciatica and pelvic hyperplasia, causing her to be unable to sleep through the night, making walking difficult, and sometimes even leaving her unable to walk at all. This onset happened a year ago, am I right?"
The moment these words fell, everyone looked at Yanan, their gazes asking: *Did you tell him about this?*
Yanan shook her head: *I only ran into him last night; I had no chance to tell him anything.*
Ye Lingtian continued, "As for Eldest Sister, her condition isn't serious; she merely suffers from rhinitis. Once I administer acupuncture and she takes three doses of herbal medicine, she will be completely cured. As for Little Brother, his body is very healthy, except that he took a fall when he was young resulting in severe head trauma, which led to a depletion of his vital essence and spirit, causing his memory to fall far short of what it used to be. He needs nourishment, and I happen to have ready-made medicine right here; take it for half a month and I guarantee you'll recover to peak condition. As for Uncle, due to a vasectomy during his youth for family planning, it caused an imbalance between Yin and Yang. Just like Auntie, this requires seven days of acupuncture, after which herbal treatments will bring about a full recovery."
"Xiaotian, your medical skills really are formidable! Then our illnesses... we leave them entirely in your hands," Ouyang Fan said with unnatural, expectant anticipation. "As for the medical fees..."
"Uncle, you are Yanan's family, which makes you my family as well. To speak of fees would be far too estranged!" *If I win the full support of Yanan's family—heh, little girl, where are you going to run then?*
"Right! Xiaotian, then let's thank you in advance!" Ouyang Fan said with gratitude.
Suddenly, Mother asked, "Xiaotian, how is Yanan's health?"
The entire family stared at Ye Lingtian. Ye Lingtian frowned slightly and fell silent for a moment.
Madam Wan Feng said anxiously, "Is it very serious?"
Once more, the entire family watched Ye Lingtian with tense expressions.
With complex emotions in his eyes, Ye Lingtian glanced at Yanan before finally speaking: "Yanan's condition is very peculiar. With my current capabilities, I have no method to resolve it. If nothing unexpected happens, Yanan will not live past the age of twenty-two..."