Chapter 30: The Real Nine Yin Blocked Meridians (1)
Chapter 30: The Real Nine Yin Blocked Meridians (1)
“A curse? A currrse?! Hey, you son of a bitch, is that any way to talk about a child? A curse?!”
“Young Master, please calm down.”
“Calm down? Why should I calm down? I’m going to teach this bastard that the very real violence right in front of him is much scarier than some invisible curse!”
“Grab him! Hold him tight!”
“Hold him for dear life! If the Young Master gets loose, that doctor is a dead man.”
Sanson and the other soldiers grabbed Patrick with all their might, but Patrick was dragging them along, inching closer to the doctor.
From the doctor’s perspective, he looked like a rabid dog snapping its chains to get at him.
He’s a demon. A demon lives in this territory.
The doctor even began to wonder if the curse on the girl had been cast by this very demon.
It was then that Lawrence spoke to Patrick.
“Young Master. Please, calm yourself for a moment.”
“Grrrrr…”
“It is true that the child’s condition is quite strange, just as the doctor said.”
“Arrrgh…”
There was no sign of him calming down.
As Patrick grew closer to becoming a mad dra—no, a mad dog, Lawrence continued.
“Her body is freezing, and she is in a state of extreme emaciation. I do not believe it is a curse, but her condition is certainly not normal.”
“Kyarrr… Huh?”
The reason that had escaped Patrick’s brain finally returned. He looked at Lawrence and asked, “Is the kid’s body really that cold?”
“Yes.”
“Does her skin have a faint bluish tint all over?”
“…Uh, yes.”
“If you check the whites of her eyes, have the capillaries turned black?”
“Th-That’s right. Young Master, have you studied medicine?”
The one who answered Patrick wasn’t Lawrence, but the doctor who had been sent flying after a blow to his ribs.
“Medicine? Don’t make me laugh.”
How would he know medicine?
He’d been busy enough cutting people down, making money, and researching martial arts to the point of exhaustion.
However, a martial artist is ultimately someone who studies and trains the human body in depth.
The correlation between muscles, skeletal structure, meridians, the Dantian, and the mind—they knew it all.
Because of this, they often possessed a wealth of knowledge regarding the unique, abnormal constitutions found among martial artists.
In Patrick’s case, he had a very strong suspicion right now.
“Where is the girl?”
“She is lying over there.”
“I need to see for myself. Let go of me. I’m fine now.”
When Patrick said that, the soldiers released him. And then…
“Aaaagh!”
“You hack bastard!”
The moment the soldiers let go, Patrick pounced on the doctor and started stomping on him.
“What? Abandon the kid? A curse? You want to die?!”
“Aigo! Argh! Aaaaagh!”
“I paid you to save people, and you say abandon her? Die, you quack!”
“Aaargh! Help me… Gack!”
It was a scene of truly desperate violence.
“Oh, Young Master!”
“Stop him! I said stop him!”
“You said you were fine!”
The soldiers rushed back in to pull him away. Patrick, whose legs were dangling in the air as Sanson held him back, flailed his feet and shouted, “I’m fine, but that’s separate! Once I’ve decided to give someone a beating, I have to finish it!”
Ah, I see.
Even when his sanity returns, there is no withdrawing a resolution to commit violence.
What steadfast conviction.
* * *
After giving the quack a few more kicks, Patrick examined the girl’s condition.
He already had a hunch.
But he had to confirm it just in case.
He grabbed her wrist and sent his Qi into her body to check…
“As I thought…”
Patrick’s face filled with astonishment.
He had suspected it, but he hadn’t expected it to actually be true.
“The Real Nine Yin Blocked Meridians.”
This girl had the Nine Yin Blocked Meridians.
And it was the genuine version, far more severe than his mother, Ava’s.
Wait, is this common in this world? I’ve only lived ten years and I’ve already seen two cases of Nine Yin Blocked Meridians.
In the Central Plains, the Nine Yin Blocked Meridians was a constitution so rare that it was hard to find even one person in an entire era.
Especially after a cure was discovered, this blockage became a blessing rather than a heavenly curse. Martial artists across the Central Plains would search with fire in their eyes for any child with blocked meridians, yet it remained incredibly rare.
And yet, Patrick had already found a second case since being reborn.
It was absurd, but as he calmed down and assessed the situation in his head, he realized something.
“Jackpot!”
This was a massive win.
* * *
The girl had been born into a wealthy family.
But that didn’t mean she was happy.
Her father was a noble and her mother was a commoner who had become the noble’s concubine due to her exceptional beauty.
In such cases, it might have been better to be born a commoner.
The primary wife’s scrutiny and jealousy had tormented the girl and her mother relentlessly.
It was rare for a primary wife and a concubine to live harmoniously like sisters.
Perhaps one in ten cases involved them ignoring each other like a cow looking at a chicken, but even that was uncommon.
Most primary wives constantly pressured and pushed away concubines out of jealousy.
Recognizing a concubine and her child meant a smaller inheritance for her own children, and in the worst-case scenario, it could threaten the succession.
So how could they get along?
In the first place, the fault lay with the man who thoughtlessly took a lover and had a child outside of marriage.
Most of the girl’s childhood was like that.
Her mother always had to live as if hiding in a small corner of the mansion. If she dared to go outside and was spotted by the primary wife or her half-brothers, she was scolded immediately.
[How dare a lowly thing wander about the mansion?]
On days when the primary wife and her children were angry, the girl was locked in a dark warehouse and forced to starve without a single bite of food.
Her father never took her or her mother’s side.
His affection for her mother had already cooled significantly, and he knew that if he took their side and the primary wife’s family intervened, his own position would be jeopardized.
The only person who cared for her was her mother, but she lacked the power to protect the girl.
[April. I’m sorry. Mommy is… I’m so sorry.]
Whenever the girl returned after being scolded or beaten, her mother would always embrace her and apologize.
In a harsh and painful world, that small embrace was the only place the girl could find peace.
But even that small sanctuary didn’t last long.
Because of the girl herself.
[A curse. This is a curse.]
[What? What do you mean? A curse in this day and age?]
[It is true. There is no way to cure this, and if left alone, it will sicken everyone around her.]
[Is that true?]
[I swear it in the name of God. You must exile this child immediately.]
At the words of the priest who examined the sick girl, her father kicked her out without a second thought.
A young girl who was only seven years old.
And when the decision was made to cast her out, the girl’s mother left the mansion with her.
The primary wife was overjoyed by the mother’s decision and threw a few coins at them as if being generous.
[Please, leave for a far-off place so I never have to see you again. Never set foot here again.]
Just as the primary wife wished as she drove them out with a smile, the girl’s mother took her to a distant place.
Life was hard after that.
The small amount of money they received upon leaving the family was quickly exhausted on the daughter’s medical expenses.
Not that she was ever cured.
[Mom. I’m okay now. Stop…]
[No, April. You will definitely get better. There are no curses in this world. So your illness will surely be cured one day.]
April wished her mother would just give up on her, but she never did.
Even after the money ran out, she did her best to work and earn money for the child’s treatment.
But that eventually led to overwork, and finally, the girl’s mother collapsed.
[Mom. Mommy…]
[April. I’m sorry. Mommy is… Mommy is sorry.]
The girl couldn’t even shed tears as she watched her mother grow thinner day by day.
She had learned at too young an age that if she cried, her mother would be the one most pained by it.
Unable to survive the cold winter, the girl’s mother grew cold and still.
After her death, the girl’s illness grew more severe, and now it was difficult for her even to move her body.
It was then that strange men took the girl away.
[What’s this? Is it even alive?]
[Let’s just take her. We have to fill the quota, don’t we?]
[True. As long as we have the numbers.]
The ones who took the girl as she lay dying next to her mother’s corpse in a dilapidated house in the slums were thieves who were then subordinates of Billy.
They had been ordered to kidnap children from the slums for an illegal slave trade, and they took the girl just to fill their quota.
The girl didn’t resist then.
No, she didn’t even have the energy to resist.
Instead, she thought to herself:
If I really am cursed and that curse is real, I hope it brings misfortune to these people taking me away.
It was an unexpected turn of events, but her wish came true.
Patrick wiped out Billy’s faction in a single night, and afterward, Billy was caught by Red and subjected to a hideously cruel punishment.
After that, the girl’s memories were faint, connected only in fragments.
A memory of someone finding them and being shocked.
A memory of being moved somewhere along with the other children nearby.
And when she regained consciousness again, a man who looked like a doctor was shouting that she was a cursed child.
The girl wanted to say something.
That it wasn’t true. You can abandon me or kill me.
But she wanted to say she wasn’t a cursed child.
Mommy said so. She said I’m not a cursed child. So… please…
If she really was a cursed child, then her mother’s entire life would become meaningless.
That was the one thing she couldn't bear. And then…
[Is it you? The quack bastard talking about curses?]
That was the last scene the girl remembered.
A boy appearing and kicking the doctor who said she should be exiled.
At that moment, the girl thought:
In the final moment of her life, what should she call this boy who appeared to grant her most desperate wish?
Usually, such a being is called…
An angel?
Let’s be understanding. She was in a very bad state.
Anyway, that was the girl’s last memory.
* * *
Patrick brought the girl to his room and forbade anyone from entering.
After giving Lawrence strict orders, he carefully sat the girl on the bed.
“I have to be careful, right?”
Patrick was serious.
In the ten years since he had been reborn into this world, he had never been as serious as he was now.
A mistake means death.
But success meant a jackpot.
Patrick had the girl with the Nine Yin Blocked Meridians sit cross-legged, placed his hand on her back, and pushed his Qi inside.
Then, through that Qi, he began to stimulate the meridians in her body as if tapping them.
True Qi Guidance.
It was a technique to move Qi into another person’s body and guide it along the correct paths. For a master of Patrick’s level, it wasn't particularly difficult.
Unless the subject was someone with an extreme case of Nine Yin Blocked Meridians.
It’s different from my mother’s case. This… this Yin Energy is on a completely different level.
Even though Ava had the Nine Yin Blocked Meridians, she only had four blocked meridians.
Even that had worsened significantly through childbirth; before that, it was likely only two or three.
But this child, true to the name Nine Yin Blocked Meridians, had all nine major meridians blocked.
Honestly, it was a miracle she was even alive.
How could she maintain her life force when Qi wasn't circulating in her body at all?
Is it because the Qi density in this world is much richer than in the Central Plains?
Regardless, this girl was alive.
Even while harboring an immense amount of condensed Yin Energy within those nine meridians.
While performing True Qi Guidance, Patrick had to open the meridians one by one, draw out the Yin Energy circulating through her body, and make it his own.
Afterward, he had to create a vessel in the girl’s Dantian to hold Qi.
If he made even the slightest mistake in this process, not only the girl but Patrick himself would be in danger.
But if this succeeded…
There is so much to gain.
First, if he improved her Nine Yin Blocked Meridian constitution, he would gain a talent born with the greatest Martial Talent.
Furthermore, if he could absorb the Yin Energy from the girl’s body and turn it into his own, his internal energy would increase significantly.
He might even see an effect greater than consuming Shaolin’s Great Return Pill.
“I just can’t make a mistake. Just no mistakes…”
By infusing his Qi, he had already identified where and how the blockages were.
Well, since everything was blocked, there wasn't much to confirm.
“Alright. Let’s gooooo!”