“A cat’s meow?”

Chen Ji sank into thought. He realized that others couldn’t hear Wuyun speak. It wasn’t that Wuyun could now speak human language; it was that he could understand cat language!

Changing the subject, he asked, “Brother Liu, why are you still awake so late?”

Liu Quxing looked at the open *Compendium of Medical Arts* on the counter and said feebly, “It’s hard for me to sleep when you’re studying so diligently…”

Chen Ji silently closed the book.

He was studying not to become an imperial physician, but to conceal his identity—a fact Liu Quxing wouldn’t realize.

At that moment, Liu Quxing leaned in and lowered his voice. “Today, my family came to ask Master to treat someone, and they casually asked him if he had any direct disciples.”

“What did Master say?”

“Master said he would decide who his direct disciple would be very soon,” Liu Quxing replied.

Chen Ji poked the lamp wick with a bamboo stick, making the light brighter. “What do you mean by that, Brother Liu?”

Liu Quxing pulled his padded jacket tighter around his shoulders, carefully choosing his words. “Chen Ji, although imperial physicians have a relatively comfortable life, they are still part of officialdom. It’s not easy to survive there; one wrong step could lead to your entire family being executed.”

Chen Ji looked confused. “What exactly are you trying to say, Brother Liu?”

Liu Quxing, for once, became genuinely sincere. “You and She Dengke are both unsuited for officialdom. Your understanding of the world, your social skills, and your connections all indicate that you would have no future, even if you entered. And since your family, Chen Ji, is no longer willing to pay your tuition, I’ll give you some money. You can leave the medical hall and start a small business. That way, you’ll never need to rely on your family for support again. How does that sound?”

Chen Ji was noncommittal.

Liu Quxing finally said, “Chen Ji, since you came to the medical hall, you’ve been slower at learning characters than She Dengke, and you can’t even take a pulse accurately. You don’t have the talent to inherit Master’s legacy. Give up.”

Chen Ji replied with a smile, “Brother Liu, you’ve considered my situation very thoughtfully, but may I take some time to think it over?”

“Alright,” Liu Quxing nodded. “Then think it over carefully.”

With that, he turned and returned to the backyard.

Chen Ji, however, saw a black shadow dart out from under the counter, chasing after Liu Quxing.

Fortunately, he was quick, grabbing Wuyun by the scruff of its neck and pulling it back. “What are you doing?” he asked.

Wuyun thrashed angrily in mid-air. “He looks down on you!”

Chen Ji didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. “You’re not exactly polite to me either.”

“That’s different!” Wuyun retorted.

“Alright, alright, I understand him,” Chen Ji sighed. “In this era, it’s not easy for anyone to carve out a path for themselves; when an opportunity arises, you have to seize it…”

Before he finished speaking, Chen Ji’s expression suddenly changed. At the first quarter of the Chou hour, the icy current arrived as promised, flowing through his blood like icy slush.

This time, the icy current was even fiercer than before. It seemed to have tens of thousands of years of animosity with the molten current, inherently incompatible.

The icy current permeated his body little by little, as if an ice tree were growing within him, constantly branching out. Every breath Chen Ji exhaled was white frost. In just a single breath, the icy current didn’t even give him a chance to adopt the “Bearing the Stone and Embracing the Stake” stance before he gradually froze like a statue.

What could he do?

Chen Ji stiffly turned his head to look at the medicine cabinet. He wanted to struggle to get the ginseng, but found that his legs had lost all sensation at some point, frozen in place!

Wuyun stared, stunned, at the frosty breaths Chen Ji exhaled. “What… what’s wrong with you?”

Chen Ji wanted to tell Wuyun to find the ginseng for him, but he found his lips were already stuck together. He could only watch himself slowly lose vitality…

No, there was still a chance!

At this moment, seeing Chen Ji’s dire state, Wuyun became frantic, circling around him.

It wanted to save Chen Ji but had no idea how. “Say something!” it cried. “What should I do?”

The next moment, Wuyun noticed Chen Ji staring intently in one direction. It followed Chen Ji’s gaze and saw, to its surprise, the medical hall’s medicine cabinet.

Wuyun leaped onto the cabinet and used its paws to pull open the drawers one by one. It didn’t know what was inside, but since Chen Ji was staring so intently, there had to be a reason! The cabinet was packed with drawers, and it didn’t know which herb to pick. So, it quickly pulled open all the drawers and tried out the medicinal herbs inside one by one!

Angelica root, no.
Dried tangerine peel, no.
Cistanche, also no.
Wuyun failed again and again, frantic with desperation.
When it turned back to look, it saw that the light had faded from Chen Ji’s eyes.

Chen Ji seemed to return to that long, dark night.
There was the sound of wind, rain, and oars stroking the water. Someone carried him in a small boat through a sea of black clouds.
In this dark night, he heard sounds—the cries of battle he had often heard in his childhood dreams!
The sounds roared like thunder on an ancient battlefield, as if the seas overturned, mountains crumbled, and even the sky cracked with dozens of fissures.

In the boundless void, a grand voice boomed like a great bell, questioning:
“Who stole my divine path?”
“Who stole my sword essence?”
“Who stole my green mountains!”
Chen Ji didn’t answer, nor did he know how to. Who was the other party? What did “divine path,” “sword essence,” and “green mountains” refer to? He knew nothing.
After a long silence, the grand voice finally spoke again: “Enough! I can use your body to descend upon the world once more!”

Chen Ji had a premonition that once he was completely frozen, it would be the moment for the other party to resurrect themselves by borrowing his body!
Could it be that Li Qingniao had sent him to this world just to help this unknown entity awaken?
Was he going to die? But he had just gotten a cat.
Chen Ji’s thoughts wandered chaotically; he was already at the brink of death.

However, at this very moment, Wuyun flew back, holding a ginseng root with missing tendrils in its mouth, and brought it to Chen Ji’s lips!
The moment the old ginseng touched Chen Ji, it instantly sucked away most of the icy current like a whale inhaling, transforming it into six crystal-clear beads that dropped onto the counter and rolled towards the edge.

He was saved!
Before he was completely frozen, Chen Ji used his last remaining strength to shift his gaze, hoping Wuyun would understand what he meant.
And Wuyun, in its desperation, truly grasped this glimmer of hope for him.
The next moment, Wuyun chased the rolling beads on the counter, swallowing them one by one.

A massive molten current flowed back from Wuyun’s body, entering Chen Ji’s glabella, forcing all the remaining icy current back into his *dantian*, flushing his body, and pulling Chen Ji out of the darkness!
After regaining consciousness and movement, he immediately closed his eyes, sinking his legs and bending his knees, using the “Bearing the Stone and Embracing the Stake” technique to resist the icy current.

Once he adopted the “Bearing the Stone and Embracing the Stake” stance, the molten current suddenly surged and rose!
It was as if an army, once without a commander, now had a general. The general rode an armored warhorse, holding a royal banner!
Chen Ji wondered why the “Bearing the Stone and Embracing the Stake” stance, which Old Man Yao had taught him so casually, suited him so perfectly.
Wait!

After the molten current suppressed the icy current back into the *dantian*, it was attracted by the left *Tianshu* acupoint within the *dantian*, swallowing almost all of the molten current like a vortex!
In an instant, a vigorous furnace fire ignited within the *Tianshu* acupoint. The icy current in his *dantian* recoiled deeper, seemingly a little afraid of this furnace fire.

“With this furnace fire in the *Tianshu* acupoint guarding it, can it completely suppress this icy current? No, one acupoint isn’t enough.”
Among the twelve main meridians, there are four ‘dantian gates’: the left and right *Tianshu* acupoints, and the left and right *Daju* acupoints. Igniting just one *Tianshu* acupoint wouldn’t be enough to seal off the icy current.
Unfortunately, after igniting the left *Tianshu* acupoint, very little molten current remained…

As he was pondering, Wuyun gently raised a furry paw and touched Chen Ji’s index fingertip.
Along with it, all the molten current within Wuyun’s body surged into Chen Ji’s, rushing straight to the right *Tianshu* acupoint and igniting the second furnace fire!

The two furnace fires continuously permeated Chen Ji’s body. A powerful and abundant energy flowed within him, his fatigue vanished, and his strength also increased!
He suddenly remembered Old Man Yao saying: “Heaven has three treasures: the sun, moon, and stars; man has three treasures: essence! *Qi*! Spirit!”
“When essence is abundant, lust is absent; when *qi* is abundant, hunger is absent; when spirit is abundant, sleep is absent.” So this was the feeling of abundant *qi* and spirit!

Chen Ji opened his eyes, which shone brightly, with flames seemingly burning in their depths.
So, this was cultivation!

He smiled at Wuyun, reaching out to gently stroke its head. “Thank you,” he whispered.

“It wasn’t much trouble, really,” Wuyun said, tilting its head, as if it had simply done a small favor.

“Mm, well, thank you anyway. Without you, I would have died… Wuyun, you’re the most amazing cat in the world!”

“I’m alright, but this is just the beginning!” Wuyun lifted its head even higher.

The oil lamp on the counter had been burning for a long time, its flame gradually dimming. Chen Ji stood in the main hall, his gaze, like fire, surveying the new world before him.
But this fire was quickly extinguished by a bucket of cold water: the ginseng was gone!

“I’m finished!” Chen Ji exclaimed.

Wuyun, puzzled, asked, “What’s finished?”

“I am.”

Chen Ji sprang to his feet, pulling out the medical hall’s account books and flipping through them. “Let me see how much that ginseng is worth… What?! Thirty *liang* of silver?!”

“A *baozi* costs two *wen*, carrying a jar of water costs two *wen*, and nowadays about nine hundred *wen* can be exchanged for one *liang* of silver. And this fifty-year-old ginseng costs thirty *liang* of silver?! Is this ginseng made of gold?!”

Even if he sold himself, it wouldn’t be enough!
He was already burdened with a debt of two hundred forty *wen* for tuition fees and three hundred twenty *wen* for the Zhou residence’s medicine. Now, an additional thirty *liang* of silver was added, making his already impoverished family’s situation even worse!

“I’m so poor! Why am I so poor? If I can’t replace this ginseng, will Old Man Yao kill me?”
Wuyun listened to Chen Ji muttering for a while, then remained silent for a while.

Finally, it struggled for a long time, then seemed to make a mournful decision. “How about you take me to Heaven’s Street to perform? I can do backflips!”

Chen Ji was filled with solemn respect. “…That would truly be a great sacrifice.”

As they were speaking, a knock came from outside the medical hall.
Knock, knock, knock.
Knock, knock, knock.
The visitor knocked twice in a calm and deliberate manner. The muffled sound was particularly abrupt in the dead of night, as if directly knocking on one’s heart.

Chen Ji gestured with his eyes for Wuyun to return to Prince Jing’s residence by climbing over from the backyard. He then slowly approached the door, cautiously asking, “Who’s there?”

The visitor replied with a light chuckle, “Yun Yang.”

This time, Chen Ji had no Master by his side.