TLDP: Ch11. The Precious Ginseng

No… that’s not good! This was too disgusting… Moreover although this patriarch was not a good person, he definitely could not take advantage of another’s perilous condition.

I thought again for a while then pulled out a root hair from the ginseng, crunched it and shoved it into the side of Xu Xiaoling’s mouth. Then I put the Shadowbane sword her hand. At that time, two sounds were approaching from the outside; they pushed the door and walked inside while arguing about something.

The young sound said: “Lao Chen, don’t look down upon the ability of traditional Chinese medical doctor. However, according to the results of the instrument test, the patient indeed has a precursor to AIDS.”

“Nonsense!” an old powerful sound reb.u.t.ted: “According to her pulse phase, it’s obvious that she has excessive Yin qi and a shortage of Yang qi, and because the balance of Yin and Yang in her body is crumbled. This caused her to be in this weakened state. Young man, it’s absolutely not AIDS, it’s caused by her chaotic energy flow. Xiao Lu, Chinese medical knowledge is a heritage that has been pa.s.sed down for thousands of years. Our research of the human body far surpa.s.ses Western medical knowledge… Huh? Hundred years old ginseng?” The old man abruptly stopped talking and shouted when he saw my ginseng.

The old man was about 60 years old, but his vigor and strength seemed to be no different than that of a young person. Both of his eyes were s.h.i.+ning as he walked toward me and carefully sized up the small ginseng in my hand, then slowly said: “Although that ginseng’s quality is not the best, its age is more than 500 years! It’s a precious and valuable raw material for medicine! Young man, do you want to sell this ginseng? I will buy it for 800,000 RMB!”

800,000 RMB? I had eaten many of these ginsengs like eating radish, but the price for each was 800,000 RMB? Miss Daiyu had given me more than 100 ginsengs to eat! Where did that lady acquire so many high quality ginsengs? Since the ginseng’s value was so high, if I sold two of them, wouldn’t it be enough to repay the debt?

I thought more deeply and finally realized Miss Daiyu’s good intentions. She wanted to temper me in constant pressure and was preparing me to obtain ability to repay the debt with my own efforts. A person could only grow in adverse circ.u.mstances, and although I must go through an inhuman exercise every day. As well as getting beaten miserably by Miss Daiyu, it made me more spirited and more vigorous. It seemed that this was also thanks to the efficacy of those ginsengs. If this was the case, then I cannot make her disappointed. Therefore I shook my head and replied: “This ginseng is not for sale, it can only be used to a save life.”

The young doctor who was trained in Western medical was about 27 years old as he wore gla.s.ses and looked gentle. When he saw that Xu Xiaoling’s mouth was filled with a crunched ginseng root, he quickly said: “Don’t feed the patient random things.” Then he moved forward to take out the chewed ginseng root from Xu Xiaoling’s mouth.

“Don’t move!” The old man and I spoke in unison. Then the old man said to the young doctor: “Xiao Lu, this patient is my responsibility… I’ll talk with the president about this, just go and take care of your other a.s.signments.”

The young doctor seemed to know about the close relations.h.i.+p between this old man and the hospital’s president. Since the other has spoken like that, he had to back off and left.

The old man looked at me and asked: “Young man, who told you to use that ginseng to save her?”

I didn’t speak a word. The old man saw that I didn’t want to answer his question, and continued speaking: “This girl’s Yin qi is far too dense while her Yang qi is declining. Supplementing the shortage of Yang qi within her body by giving her the ginseng is a good way indeed. It’s just the Yin qi inside her body is too heavy, it is best to unblock her meridian too. This old man has been a doctor of traditional Chinese medical for a lifetime, and had mastered a set of acupuncture technique. If I were to dredge her vital energy circulation veins, then the ginseng efficacy will be doubled and its effect will be enhanced; however young man, your body also has a shortage of Yang qi, do you want to try my acupuncture method?”

I’m really surprised; even it was clearly shown on my face. This old man was really a high skilled person. Not only he could diagnose Xu Xiaoling Yin qi with his traditional Chinese medic, but he could also see my body’s Yang qi state. Though I knew that after the extinguis.h.i.+ng of Yang fire on one’s shoulders, the Yang qi within the body would certainly weakened, so it would be strange if it didn’t.

“No, there’s no adult from my family now, so I can’t decide about it. Doctor, please come again in the afternoon!” My intention was very obvious as I saw the visitor out. He would delay me from saving her. Although this traditional Chinese medical doctor seemed to have high medical skills, the Yin qi invasion was not something trivial. Who would have known if he could truly stabilize the energy or not?

This old man was an experienced person, he certainly understood my intentions. He took a glance at the ginseng in my hand again: “Umh… I also want to meet your family’s senior. All right, the girl’s body is weak, don’t give her another portion of ginseng anymore, otherwise it will result in counter reactive effects.” The old man left after he finished speaking.

What the old man said was perhaps true. The ginseng in my hand was one with the highest quality, and although I only gave Xiaoling the fibrous part of the ginseng. The Yang fire within her body gradually stabilized, coupled with the fierce sunlight at noon, that helped her Yang qi recover. I ignited a Sun Charm and placed one on each of her shoulders. I actually succeeded in the first attempt.

Then, I hugged Xu Xiaoling with one arm, stood before the window, and let the sunlight s.h.i.+ne on her body. With this method the Yin qi overcast in her body could be dispelled quickly. This method was also recorded in the ‘Niu School Past Records on Demon Subjugation’.

After 3 minutes, Xu Xiaoling finally regained her consciousness and woke. However she let out a small scream with a look of fear on her face which quickly faded. She relaxed after she discovered my presence.

I laid Xu Xiaoling down and pulled out a stool, then propped her back to sit on the stool in front of the window, and asked solemnly: “What exactly happened last night after I left?”

Xu Xiaoling’s complexion instantly paled, revealing a terrified expression. Her body s.h.i.+vered violently although she was under the sunlight, and in trembled voice she said: “After you left for about a half hour, a woman in ancient palace gown suddenly appeared. The left side of her face was badly mutilated and was covered with blood, and her left eye was hollow. I wanted to scream but no sound came out. I lost control of my body and laid in front of the dressing table. That dreadful woman was holding a wooden comb and combed my hair, her long tongue often stretched to the top of my head and licked it, after I blacked out.” Xu Xiaoling stopped and wept in fear. I could feel her fear, if that dreadful thing happened to me, I would also cry the same way.

Xu Xiaoling cried for a long while then slowly quieted, and asked while sobbing: “That comb was a part of the makeup case. I clearly remembered that after I use it yesterday morning, I put it back into the makeup case, and you had taken the case last night. How come the comb came back again?”

So, that’s how it was. The wooden comb was the true culprit, this explained why the makeup case only emitted a faint Yin qi. It was because it had absorbed the Yin qi from the wooden comb for years! But to my shock, the wooden comb could unexpectedly conceal its Yin qi aura. Added to the description from Xu Xiaoling just now, it seemed that the woman’s ghost hid in the wooden comb! This… this ability could only be casted by high-leveled ghosts!!!

However there was one thing that was bugging me, if this woman ghost was a really high-leveled ghost, why didn’t she kill Xu Xiaoling directly? It seemed that I must go back to Xu Xiaoling’s apartment to cope with the ghost while the day was still noon!

I quickly looked at Xu Xiaoling: “Miss Xu, we must hurry to your apartment while the Yang energy is still powerful and burn down that comb! If I’m not mistaken, the comb and that evil spirit have been fused already. As long as we burn the comb, that woman ghost will be terrified and easy to handle.”

“No, I’m afraid to go back, but I’ll give my key to you, please help me burn it; I will move after I am discharged from the hospital.”

“But, the problem is not with the apartment!”

“I just don’t want to live there anymore!” after that, she took off the red thread necklace with the key on its thread from her neck.

I was really racing against time, and quickly rushed to Xu Xiaoling’s apartment since I must be there around 11 am to 1 pm. And it was now already 11 am!

I grabbed the keys and spoke to Xu Xiaoling: “Stay in front of the windows and don’t go anywhere.Sit in the places that has sunlight!” I took out 3 Sun Charms and pasted them on the door. After completing everything, I took the black backpack and quickly left.

It was 12.30 pm when I arrived at Xu Xiaoling’s apartment.

Xu Xiaoling’s apartment was very strange, even in broad daylight every room was blocked by a curtain. I closed the door, turned on the lights and then went straight to Xu Xiaoling’s bedroom because the comb was likely to be put on the dresser.

When I was just about to open the bedroom door, the room had been illuminated by a small red lamp near the bed. There was a woman sitting in front of the dresser. She looked like an ancient lady with her court lady dress. She combed her hair slowly, and because her hair was hung down loosely, I could not see her appearance. Glancing at the comb in her hand I realized that it was made from the same kind of wood as the makeup case.

The court lady ghost slowly turned over her head. Her left face was badly mutilated and she let out a smirk and talked to me: “Am I beautiful?”

“Beautiful your grandmother!” seeing this demoness’ looks, my a.s.s was so tight, and instantly retreated backwards. I quickly grabbed my backpack as I prepared to take out and hold my Shadowbane sword. However I felt the chilly wind moving fast before my face and forcefully swept the surface of my face! I instinctively reacted and avoided the chilly wind in a swift movement as a strand of Yin qi scratched the tip of my nose.

How dangerous!!!

The court lady ghost spoke in gently tone: “Son, let me comb your hair… son, let me comb your hair…”

My mind froze instantly, mesmerized. In that instant all I wanted was to listen to her voice so much. However a thought flashed inside my mind! Miss Daiyu once had taught me that ghosts usually used confusing and hypnotizing methods, and if a person fell into their charm, that person would absolutely be in danger!

The method to break away from this kind of situation was simple: Bite your own tongue…

“Why bite one’s tongue? Why wasn’t it the toe or the a.s.s?” I had once played the fool and asked Miss Daiyu this abstruse matter. She answered that there are 3 reasons: firstly, you do not have time to take off your shoes to bit your toe, even more so, it is absolutely impossible to bite your own a.s.s. Secondly, biting the tip of your tongue may perhaps be very painful, but it can dispel the distraction from illusion with the sensation pain. Thirdly, a human’s essence and blood is concentrated in the tip of the tongue, which means that it has the strongest concentration of Yang qi! That Yang qi is even more powerful if the one who used this method was a Daoist cultivator and was still virgin! This blood was famous with the name of ‘True Yang Saliva’. When this blood essence was to pasted on Daoist’s charms it would augment and increase the power that the charm can deliver by several folds. Which of course could inflict ma.s.sive damage against ghosts and evil spirits!

When I remembered this, I immediately bit the tip of my tongue without hesitation!… d.a.m.n… it was truly painful!!!… However, the effect was true, my consciousness was sobering fast. I quickly removed a Sun Charm from my pocket, spread the essence and blood of my True Yang Saliva on the charm and swiftly pasted it to the demoness’ chest, while simultaneously cast an incantation from my mouth: “Promptly, Promptly, in Accordance with the Statutes and Ordinances.”

(T/N: its 急急如律令 traditional and simplified Pinyin jí jí rú lǜ ling, a Daoist incantation used to ward off evil spirits, somehow I was tempted to write it in shorter sentence Promptly, Promptly, in the name of Laws and Decrees).

The court lady ghost was surely not stupid enough to just stand by to let me paste the symbol on her. She dodged and moved to the side to hide. The charm was supposed to be attached to the middle of her chest, but because she was dodging it was pasted on her left chest. I definitely didn’t want to give her a chance to run! This sister was far uglier than the old corpse from the shabby mountain village cemetery. Who am I really, after tasting her attack, I still had the nerve to give her advantages?

Along with my incantation, the Sun Charm broke and erupted into a powerful Yang qi explosion.

Bang!

The court lady ghost let out a long shrill scream as she fell backwards.There was a big hole in her left chest, which was caused by the explosion of Yang qi.

When I was just starting to feel relaxed, I could see the demoness’ ten nails instantly elongating as they moved toward me in a flas.h.!.+ What the h.e.l.l? That blast was not enough to kill her?!!

This demoness’ attack speed was very fast, her nails were very sharp! In an instant I was wounded and there were 3 scratches on my face as blood was flowing out from the wounds. My body was forcefully thrown as I fell on the tea table, my chin had also been destroyed by her!

A fatal mistake!!! If I had known that it would be like this, I would have pulled out the Shadowbane sword from my backpack. Now I had no time to take it out and it made everything more difficult…

It’s really unfortunate that I knew nothing about martial arts. I could only respond and try to withstand the demoness’ attack, relying solely on my instincts and reflexes to parry them. I almost fainted as my vision suddenly grew dizzy and I saw 7-8 halos due to being beaten by the court lady ghost. The most painful regret was that I didn’t have any Sun Charms left on me. All of the charms were stored in my black backpack. The bag had long been kicked into a corner since the beginning of the fight.

~~~~~~~~~~end of ch11 ~~~~~~~~~~