The system doesn't allow returns.
Tao Mian was troubled.
"You've come all the way to Peach Blossom Mountain, and with such severe injuries, I can't just let you die. That would shorten my lifespan."
Shen Bozhou was placed in an empty guest room, the bedding on the bed freshly aired. Not wanting to dirty it, Tao Mian laid an old blanket on top and let the injured man lie there.
Shen Bozhou remained unconscious. Tao Mian talked to himself for a while, with the yellow chicken circling at his feet.
After some deliberation, he decided to treat the man's injuries first.
"Let's be clear, once you recover, you sneak down the mountain, and I'll pretend I know nothing. That way, the Golden Finger can't do anything to me."
Tao Mian fetched a basin of hot water, sprinkled in some medicinal powder, and the clear water quickly turned a light brown.
"Given our relationship, this is as much as I can do."
Little Tao Immortal learned from experience, his intuition telling him that Shen Bozhou was different from his past disciples.
He was too complicated, too unpredictable. Having repaid the favor from Mist Tower, they were even. The rest would be left to fate.
The Immortal made up his mind but still felt uneasy.
"Let's put it in writing."
He drafted a promise, stamped it with his seal, and pressed Shen Bozhou's handprint onto it.
Now he could finally treat the man with peace of mind.
Shen Bozhou's injuries were severe, but fortunately, there was no difficult-to-treat poison, which was Little Tao Immortal's weakest area.
The fabric of his clothes was mixed with blood and dirt, and tearing it off would pull at the flesh.
Tao Mian used scissors to cut the clothes open and wiped the bloodstains with a medicinal solution, making it easier to see where the injuries were most severe.
The external injuries were obvious. There were fractures in the right leg and left arm. A sword wound in the abdomen was deep, nearly fatal. It was clear he had bandaged himself several times, but without proper treatment, the wounds had festered badly.
There were also various scrapes and cuts of varying depths, as if caused by a weapon like a zither string or a torture device.
As for internal injuries...
Tao Mian first checked his pulse, then placed two fingers on Shen Bozhou's forehead, probing his spiritual root.
As expected, the information from the Golden Finger was accurate: Shen Bozhou's spiritual root had been forcibly extracted halfway, and the remaining half was barely hanging on.
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
A spiritual root is like the root of a plant, the source for a cultivator, the foundation of everything.
After choosing to cultivate, what kind of cultivation technique suits someone, and what spiritual tools they resonate with, is determined by the spiritual root.
A person's potential and how far they can go on the path of immortality are also dictated by the spiritual root.
As the saying goes, "Three years old sees the old," a master teaching immortal arts only needs to touch a beginner's forehead to see what realm they might reach in decades or even centuries.
Shen Bozhou had a High-Grade Water Spiritual Root, an extraordinary talent. Unfortunately, he had wasted his early life in self-abandonment, and later was harmed by enemies, nearly destroying his spiritual root.
Even the best talent was wasted like this.
Tao Mian felt it was a pity, but it was Shen Bozhou's own fate, and outsiders had no say.
He didn't intend to truly become the man's master; even if he wanted to, the other might not be willing.
Little Tao Immortal was too old to do things that would be unappreciated.
He would only heal the man's injuries. As for cultivation, if it didn't work out, he'd give him a secret manual and let him comprehend it on his own after leaving the mountain.
Tao Mian withdrew his hand.
Having examined both external and internal injuries, he had a rough idea. He took paper and pen, wrote down several medicinal ingredients, and crossed out some. After careful consideration, he went to gather the herbs.
The dried and ground herbs were all placed in a small, cool, and ventilated room. Initially, Chu Liuxue had cleaned it out to use as a pharmacy, and Tao Mian had been using it ever since.
Later, Rong Zheng, whenever she returned to the mountain, would bring large bundles filled with immortal herbs and spiritual medicines, which were sorted and stored in the pharmacy.
It was unclear whether she was going to the Divine Doctor for treatment or to help the doctor move house.
Tao Mian's medical skills were not great for dealing with complex illnesses, but for basic wounds like Shen Bozhou's, his fluctuating skills between incompetence and miraculous healing were generally sufficient.
His medical skills were uncertain, but he dared to treat.
If he accidentally killed someone, there was still space in the back mountain to bury them.
External injuries were easy, and internal injuries could be slowly nursed. Only the destroyed spiritual root was difficult to restore.
A ruined spiritual root was a devastating blow to a cultivator; hopefully, he wouldn't be too upset when he woke up.
Tao Mian gathered the herbs from the list, placed them in a copper medicine stove, and began to brew them.
With the stove set to a low simmer, he turned back to the guest room.
Shen Bozhou was still unconscious.
Tao Mian first treated and bandaged the external injuries to ensure they wouldn't bleed for the time being.
Then he positioned Shen Bozhou in a meditative pose, placed his hands on his back, and began transferring spiritual power to him.
An Immortal's spiritual power is primordial, the most basic chaotic form before spiritual power is divided into different attributes.
Though chaotic, it is not turbid. On the contrary, this power is exceptionally pure and can support all kinds of cultivators with different attributes.
This was the confidence of the famous mediocre doctor of Peach Blossom Mountain in treating people.
The foreign spiritual power flowed into Shen Bozhou's meridians, circulated through his body, returned to his withered dantian, and then flowed out again, like a gentle stream, repeatedly cleansing his parched body from within.
Tao Mian was not in a hurry to achieve results; spiritual power is more potent than ginseng, and over-replenishing could easily lead to bleeding from the seven orifices and sudden death.
...Sudden death?
He suddenly had a bad idea and was about to try it when the Golden Finger suddenly intervened.
[Any reckless decision will lead to the system's own collapse.]
"......"
Little Tao Immortal had something to say.
"Did Shen Bozhou pay you guys off?! Did he?! Why is there so much fuss over him? It's annoying."
The Golden Finger didn't respond. If it had, it might have said—because you've never had murderous intent towards any disciple before.
However, the Golden Finger was still considerate of its host. Seeing Tao Mian genuinely troubled, it offered a suggestion.
[Once the disciple completes the cultivation of two techniques, the system will automatically determine that the master-disciple relationship can be dissolved.]
In other words, if Shen Bozhou mastered the "Ice Yi Sword Technique" and the "Wangchuan Art," Tao Mian could even knock him out with a shovel and bury him without any adverse consequences.
This pleased Tao Mian.
Seeing that there was a way to resolve the trouble, he became much more enthusiastic about treating Shen Bozhou.
"Hurry up and recover, hurry up and learn, then I'll bury you... I'll send you out of the mountain."
He muttered under his breath, like chanting a spell, brainwashing Shen Bozhou.
On the first day of becoming the sixth disciple of Peach Blossom Mountain, Shen Bozhou was in a deep sleep.
His consciousness was not very clear, only feeling someone talking incessantly by his ear.
He thought he was in the underworld, and the person speaking was a judge, deciding his reincarnation, rewarding good and punishing evil.
Logically, it should have been a very solemn occasion.
Why was this person acting like both the joke and the punchline guy, rambling on endlessly?
Where did this chatterbox judge come from...
In his dream, Shen Bozhou mumbled.
"Just send me to reincarnation already."
Tao Mian, who was busy fixing a fractured bone, paused in surprise.
"Do patients make such requests?"
He was overjoyed, thinking he could save himself some trouble, and bent down to carry the man to the back mountain.
[Any reckless decision—]
"......"
Stop repeating that.
He figured he could just put him back, right?
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