Chapter 141: Drugging the Imperial Medical Hall
"Two qian of snakeberry, one liang and six qian of heavenly bamboo fruit, four qian of oleander..."
Qin Mu brought Fox Ling'er to the Imperial Academy's storehouse, handed over the prescription, and purchased the medicinal ingredients he needed. He said to Fox Ling'er, "The medicine I'm going to refine this time is called Lost Fragrance, a type of anesthetic. Grandpa Pharmacist once used it to take down a flood dragon. That ox is strong, but this will definitely bring it down! However, this medicine must be refined in a special furnace, with no room for carelessness."
Fox Ling'er asked curiously, "Why?"
"The fragrance this medicine emits can knock out even a flood dragon, let alone the pharmacist refining it!"
Qin Mu chuckled. "If the furnace isn't sealed, once the medicine is ready and the fragrance spreads, even a great cultivator at the Heavenly Being realm would fall wherever the scent reaches. I don't have such a sealed furnace, so I need to borrow one from the Imperial Medical Hall..."
Suddenly, a familiar voice said, "Little Divine Doctor, where are you off to?"
Qin Mu looked toward the voice and smiled. "So it's Physician Qu. Ah, you're a professor at the Imperial Academy, so I should call you Teacher Qu."
Physician Qu quickly said, "Don't say that, it embarrasses me! Little Divine Doctor, this afternoon is my lecture, and I'm supposed to teach medical theory to the scholars. Since you're a divine doctor, why don't you take over for me?"
Qin Mu laughed. "I'm just a student, how could I teach? Besides, I have things to do this afternoon, so I probably can't make it. I plan to refine a batch of medicine and need it by afternoon."
Physician Qu looked disappointed, but then his eyes lit up. "You're going to refine medicine?"
Qin Mu smiled. "It's not exactly alchemy, just medicine refining."
Physician Qu's gaze flickered. "Little Pharmacist, would you allow me to observe?"
Qin Mu hesitated for a moment, then nodded. "I plan to borrow a furnace from the Imperial Medical Hall. If you want to watch, you can come along."
Physician Qu was overjoyed. "Little Divine Doctor, go ahead to the Imperial Medical Hall first. I'll be right back!" With that, he dashed off like the wind.
Qin Mu headed toward the Imperial Medical Hall. Before he even reached the hall, Physician Qu was already waiting there, along with Physicians You and Yu from the Medical Office, all wearing excited expressions.
Qin Mu was puzzled. He was just refining an ordinary anesthetic—why all this fuss?
"Little Divine Doctor, hurry!"
The physicians urged him on, chattering. "Should we activate the earth-fire furnace?"
"We can assist!"
"Which medicinal ingredients? What's the order?"
"When to use gentle heat and when to use intense heat? How should the vital energy circulate when performing the techniques?"
...
Qin Mu entered the Imperial Medical Hall with them and was greeted by a massive furnace. This furnace could probably produce enough medicine to last two or three years—likely used for the military or for refining some earth-shattering elixir.
Besides that, there were other furnaces of various sizes, all with runic formations beneath them connected to the earth-fire three thousand zhang below, channeling it up for refining.
"Do you have a sealed furnace?" Qin Mu asked.
"Little Divine Doctor, this way."
Physician You quickly led him to a stone furnace in the hall. "This furnace is sealed. Little Divine Doctor, does it suit your needs?"
Qin Mu's eyes lit up. The stone furnace was carved from jade, hollowed out top and bottom, with the Eight Trigrams and Five Elements arranged inside. It had no air vents—once closed and twisted, it was airtight. Even if the medicine exploded inside, it likely wouldn't break the furnace.
"It'll do!"
Qin Mu lifted the lid, examined it carefully, then placed each ingredient into the Eight Trigram and Five Element compartments in order. These compartments had their own sequences; at the right time, they would open, dropping the herbs into the furnace, so there was no need to lift the lid to add ingredients.
After arranging the herbs, he slapped his palm down, drawing earth-fire from the runic formation on the floor to heat the stone furnace.
Fox Ling'er wasn't interested in the refining and looked around, while the white-haired elderly physicians watched intently from the side. When Physician Yu saw Qin Mu's technique, his eyes lit up, and he couldn't stop praising, "This technique is truly divine, beyond imagination, absolutely superb! Little Divine Doctor, why do you tap thirteen times in a row?"
Qin Mu explained, "Purple Cinnabar Stone is a type of jade, with medicinal properties hidden inside. It's harder to extract than other herbs, so thirteen taps are needed to draw out its essence. My cultivation is relatively weak; if you teachers had deeper cultivation, you wouldn't need thirteen taps—just extracting the essence would suffice."
The elderly physicians nodded repeatedly and quickly noted it down.
As Qin Mu refined the medicine, he exchanged ideas with them, but the physicians asked most of the questions. He rarely inquired himself, instead explaining the medical principles and refining techniques to them.
"Is this the Dragon-Tiger Mutual Aid technique?"
Suddenly, Physician Qu's expression changed drastically. "A lost technique!"
The other three physicians also showed shock, staring intently at Qin Mu's flying hands, trying to memorize his movements.
The white-haired Physician Yu murmured, "The Dragon-Tiger Mutual Aid technique has been lost for two hundred years. To see this legendary refining method again with the Little Divine Doctor—am I dreaming?"
"If you want to learn, I can teach you when I have time, but I'm busy lately."
Qin Mu was now at a critical stage of refining and couldn't afford distraction. The Dragon-Tiger Mutual Aid technique was just one of hundreds of methods the Pharmacist had taught him, nothing particularly special. He didn't think teaching it would be a big deal.
The most important thing in refining was mastering medical principles; techniques were just supplementary.
Still, the techniques were crucial in the physicians' eyes. Besides techniques, the prescription was also a treasure that countless medical practitioners dreamed of. If they obtained a rare formula, they would treasure it and never share it lightly.
This was completely different from what the Pharmacist taught Qin Mu. The Pharmacist never blindly believed in formulas or techniques, focusing instead on medical principles.
Qin Mu had never realized how extraordinary what the Pharmacist taught him was; he thought it was all ordinary. The physicians' astonishment struck him as strange.
By now, Qin Mu was ready to collect the medicine. His movements grew faster and faster, dazzling to watch. In just a short time, the physicians saw over a dozen lost techniques, some even more complex than the Dragon-Tiger Mutual Aid technique.
The techniques flashed by, each causing different changes in the earth-fire's form. Before the physicians could memorize them, Qin Mu stopped and waited quietly by the stone furnace.
Once the furnace cooled, Qin Mu's vital energy transformed into Black Tortoise vital energy. His hands grew colder and icier as he pressed them against the stone furnace, soon coating the walls with frost.
After another moment, Qin Mu had the physicians and Fox Ling'er step back. Then, holding his breath, he carefully opened the stone furnace. At the bottom was a thin layer of pink mist.
Qin Mu used one hand to channel Black Tortoise vital energy, cooling the mist, while the other hand took a small jade bottle. His vital energy formed a guiding technique inside the bottle, drawing the mist from the furnace bottom into the bottle.
He quickly screwed the lid tight, then, still uneasy, used Black Tortoise vital energy to seal the opening with a lump of mystical ice before finally relaxing.
"The medicine I need is ready."
Qin Mu thanked the physicians and smiled. "Teachers, I have things to do, so I won't disturb you further. This afternoon's class..."
Physician You chuckled. "Go ahead and handle your business. From now on, you don't need to attend lectures if you're busy. If you have time, just come by and teach us old bones a bit, or refine some medicine—that's enough."
Qin Mu took his leave and departed.
As soon as he left, the elderly physicians huddled together. Physician You said excitedly, "Everyone, did you note down all the ingredients?"
Physician Yu, trembling slightly, said, "Do you think you can fool us? I can identify every herb by smell—down to the qian and hao!"
"What about the order of the sovereign, minister, assistant, and envoy, and the Eight Trigrams and Five Elements?"
Physician Qu smiled. "Don't worry, I've got it all!"
"And the techniques?"
The old men laughed in unison. "We each remembered half. Put them together, and we can reconstruct his methods!"
Physician Qu hesitated. "But when he collected the medicine, he made us step back. I didn't memorize that part. Also, we don't know what medicine he was refining. If we rush into it..."
"Collecting medicine is just a minor detail—nothing too troublesome. As for what medicine it is, we'll know by smelling it once it's done! The Little Divine Doctor's medicine must be extraordinary!"
The elderly physicians were enthusiastic. Physician Yu immediately went to the storehouse for ingredients, while the others cleaned the stone furnace. When Physician Yu returned, they quickly placed the herbs into the Eight Trigram and Five Element compartments in order.
The physicians worked together, channeling earth-fire, each performing one or more techniques as they circled the stone furnace to refine the medicine.
Soon, many scholars arrived at the Imperial Medical Hall for the lecture, but the physicians were at a critical stage of refining and couldn't attend to them. In recent days, the Imperial Academy had first been blockaded by the Dao Sect's Dao Child, then by the Great Thunderclap Monastery's Buddha Child, injuring many. This made the scholars realize the importance of the Medical Hall, so they came to listen when lectures were held.
The scholars watched the physicians' techniques, ever-changing and divine, and couldn't help but admire them. Physicians Yu and the others moved around the stone furnace, their steps shifting, like old butterflies fluttering around the fire—truly immortal and ethereal, the image of accomplished masters.
Suddenly, the old men stopped, withdrew their hands, and adjusted their breathing, waiting for the stone furnace to cool.
At this point, the physicians hesitated. Physician Qu placed his hand on the furnace. "It seems like this technique... he pressed his hand like this..."
Physician Yu laughed. "If it doesn't work, no matter—we can just refine another batch. Open the furnace!"
Physician You stepped forward and lifted the lid. A fragrant aroma immediately filled the air. He smiled. "What a lovely fra—gra—nce—ah—ah—ah..."
Thud.
Physician You collapsed, a bizarre smile still on his face, like a flower that had only half-bloomed.
Thud, thud, thud.
Physicians Yu, Qu, and the others also fell backward, smiles frozen on their faces. The nearby scholars screamed in alarm. Some tried to help, others to flee, but suddenly all the scholars felt their limbs vanish, and they collapsed one by one with thuds.
Not only did their limbs seem to disappear, but their eyes, noses, ears, and even their heads also "vanished"!
Even their spiritual embryos were suddenly paralyzed, unable to move, and their vital energy was frozen solid!
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