Chapter 50: The Copper Needle
Chen Changsheng looked at the Xuan Yuan Po before him, thought for a moment, then said, “Try to beastify your right arm.”
Xuan Yuan Po had no hope at all that he could heal his injury. Having sat dryly on the floor for so long, he was already quite impatient. Now hearing that he was being asked to beastify his already crippled right arm, his expression turned very ugly. He stared at Chen Changsheng as if he wanted to swallow him alive.
“Didn’t you hear what the teacher said?” Luo Luo interjected.
Xuan Yuan Po’s momentum immediately deflated. He obediently began trying to beastify.
Although his right arm was crippled, he had already cultivated in his tribe to the level where his form moved with his will. In no time, his right arm underwent a visible change. It kept swelling, tearing through his clothes, and the surface of his arm grew countless thick black hairs, as hard as an iron brush.
Chen Changsheng reached out and grasped his wrist, feeling the strong pulse, the clearly twisted meridians, and the tangled knots of true essence. He carefully felt, analyzed, and compared them with the relevant records in the Dao Canon.
Time passed slowly. Xuan Yuan Po watched his grave expression and suddenly felt a glimmer of hope, making him tense up.
No one knew how long it had been when Chen Changsheng released his hand.
Luo Luo asked, “Teacher, how is it?”
Chen Changsheng didn’t answer her question. Instead, he had her fetch the needle case from the luggage they had brought from the building earlier. He took out a copper needle and stabbed it down with a casual air.
This copper needle was the thickest in the case, mainly used for promoting blood circulation, but now he was using it for a different purpose.
The surface of the copper needle gleamed with a cold light, and its tip was extremely sharp. However, after Xuan Yuan Po’s arm was beastified, his skin became extremely tough, impossible to cut with ordinary weapons. Logically, acupuncture should have been impossible, but who would have thought that the copper needle, held between two of his fingers, would pierce through with such ease?
“What do you feel?” he asked, looking into Xuan Yuan Po’s eyes.
Xuan Yuan Po was somewhat dazed. He felt for a moment and said, “Some… numbness?”
Chen Changsheng gently rubbed the needle’s tail with his fingertip and asked again, “And now?”
“Some soreness.” Xuan Yuan Po’s expression became excited.
Whether it was soreness or numbness, having any sensation was good—even pain would be better than the past few days when his right arm felt like stone!
Xuan Yuan Po looked at Chen Changsheng, his lips trembling slightly, filled with shock and admiration to the extreme.
Although it was only a small change, the other party had truly done what even the instructors of Star Seizer Academy and the imperial physicians had failed to do!
Seeing his expression, Luo Luo snorted twice, extremely proud.
She had never doubted Chen Changsheng’s ability. She firmly believed that for some reason, he was simply hiding his talents.
Since coming to the National Teaching Academy from the Herb Garden, countless things had happened that proved her point.
Now, even her tribesmen, like Chief Historian Jin and Lady Li, were almost convinced by her.
…
…
“Dispersing those true essences and repairing the meridians won’t be a matter of a day or two.”
Chen Changsheng put away the needle case and looked at Luo Luo. “It might take a very long time. I don’t recommend he return to the tribe from the capital.”
Luo Luo said, “We’ll follow the teacher’s advice.”
Chen Changsheng looked at Xuan Yuan Po and said, “Stay at the National Teaching Academy. There’s plenty of space still empty.”
The National Teaching Academy was very large. Now, with only him and Luo Luo as students, it did feel too empty and desolate. Adding one more wouldn’t matter.
Xuan Yuan Po was still immersed in shock and ecstasy. Thinking of his earlier rude attitude toward Chen Changsheng, he felt uneasy. When he heard this, his face flushed bright red, and he clamped his mouth shut, unwilling to speak, too embarrassed to accept this charity.
Chen Changsheng looked at Luo Luo and said, “You handle it.”
Luo Luo picked up the teaching rod and looked at Xuan Yuan Po. “Say it yourself.”
Xuan Yuan Po refused, meaning, even if you beat me to death, I won’t say it.
Luo Luo was at a loss. She looked at Chen Changsheng and asked, “Teacher, what do we do?”
Chen Changsheng asked Xuan Yuan Po, “Refusing any sympathy or help isn’t always pride; sometimes it’s just stupidity.”
Xuan Yuan Po was very troubled. He scratched his head and said, “I know, but I just can’t do it.”
Chen Changsheng sighed and said nothing more.
Luo Luo was a bit annoyed and asked, “What will it take for you to stay?”
Xuan Yuan Po said awkwardly, “I’m not a student of the National Teaching Academy.”
Luo Luo’s eyes lit up slightly. “That’s easy to fix.”
“Huh?”
“We’ll just make you a student of the National Teaching Academy.”
“Huh?”
“No exam needed.”
“Huh?”
“Just need to register.”
With Chen Changsheng’s consent, Luo Luo took out the student roster of the National Teaching Academy from the drawer, ground the ink, dipped the brush, and handed it to him.
Xuan Yuan Po’s mouth hung open. Holding the ink brush, he looked at the two names on the roster and felt this whole thing was far too unserious.
Even if the National Teaching Academy had declined, it was still one of the Six Ivies. Could writing a name down so casually really make him a student?
He thought it over and finally put down the brush.
He wrote his name stroke by stroke, the strokes stiff and clumsy.
Luo Luo said, “Congratulations, you’ve become the third student of the National Teaching Academy.”
Xuan Yuan Po asked, “What are the academy rules?”
“There are no academy rules.”
Luo Luo said, “The teacher’s words are the academy rules. Whatever the teacher says, you do.”
Xuan Yuan Po asked in confusion, “Isn’t there a dean or a teacher?”
“The teacher is the dean.”
“The teacher is the teacher.”
“Of course, the teacher is also a student.”
“Three in one, so the teacher is the National Teaching Academy.”
Luo Luo didn’t feel at all that these words sounded like the priests of the National Religion brainwashing their followers, because that was truly how she thought.
Xuan Yuan Po was bewildered and asked, “So I study under him?”
Luo Luo didn’t want Chen Changsheng’s time and energy to be spent on others, even if it was a young man from her tribe whom she admired. She shook her head and said, “I’ll teach you.”
Xuan Yuan Po was delighted to hear he would become her disciple, thinking that if this got back to the tribe, the whole tribe would surely celebrate.
Luo Luo added, “The teacher is my master, so he’s your grandmaster.”
Xuan Yuan Po was bewildered again, thinking, suddenly I have a grandmaster?
Chen Changsheng was also bewildered, thinking, suddenly I have a disciple’s disciple?
Luo Luo said, “Greet the teacher.”
By now, Xuan Yuan Po was already impressed by Chen Changsheng, and with Luo Luo’s request, he didn’t hesitate. He knelt on the floor and kowtowed three times to Chen Changsheng, each bow very forceful. Dust rose from the cracks in the floorboards, dyed like stardust by the soft lamplight.
Chen Changsheng was speechless. He bowed toward the faint dawn light rising in the east outside the window.
He truly hadn’t expected that at just fourteen, he would become a grandmaster.
Master, do you know?
Senior Brother, it seems our lineage is really going to flourish in the National Teaching Academy.
Just as he was lost in thought, a sound of tearing air came from outside the window.
Tang Thirty-Six’s face appeared at the window.
He looked at Chen Changsheng kneeling on the floor and asked in slight surprise, “What did you do to wrong me that you have to bow so deeply?”
Chen Changsheng looked at his pale face and asked in alarm, “Are you injured?”