Library of Heaven’s Path

Seeing how confused Zhang Xuan and Qi Ling-er was, a middle-aged physician sitting by the side of the room explained, “Guild Leader Liao suffered some grievous internal injuries in the previous Flood of Spiritual Energy. Over the past decade, he has been studying medical records and trying out all sorts of remedies, but there was nothing that worked.

“In the last two years, his internal injuries worsened significantly, becoming more and more severe. Guild Leader Liao thought that he would meet his end just like that… but a few days ago, someone bought a Beauty Pill and gave it to him. Initially, he didn’t think much of it, but after consuming it, he found that his internal injuries were actually lightening. So, he requested a friend to get him some more. After eating ten of those pills, not only did he manage to recover fully from his injuries, he noticed that his lifespan increased considerably. Due to that, he’s extremely grateful to you!”

Zhang Xuan nodded in realization.

The wonders of the Beauty Pill stemmed from the infused Heaven’s Path zhenqi. It was capable of healing internal traumas and fortifying one’s vitality, thus granting one greater longevity.

“I devoted all of my time and effort to understanding and curing my internal traumas, but I couldn’t find a cure at all. In the end, it was your pill that did the job so easily. Isn’t that more than enough to show that your skills in the Way of Medicine are above mine?”

“This… Well, I guess it’s not entirely wrong if you interpret it that way.”

Zhang Xuan was planning to turn down the compliment humbly, but when he thought about it, there was some truth in what Guild Leader Liao said. He would be humblebragging if he refused a compliment that was true, so he could only reluctantly accept those words.

The Heaven’s Path zhenqi was capable of healing most afflictions, and in the cases where the Heaven’s Path zhenqi did not work, the patients were more or less doomed.

Besides, his knowledge in the Way of Medicine went beyond just using the Heaven’s Path zhenqi. The fact that he was a 9-star physician back on the Master Teacher Continent was evidence of his skills.

He would be going against his conscience if he said that his medical skills were beneath those of Guild Leader Liao!

“Alright, I’ll send a message back right now to handle the processes. I’ll pass you the token required to use the Great Displacement Teleportation Formation once it’s done!” Liao Xin replied.

In truth, there was no need for him to go all the way there to partake in the Physician Tournament. He was esteemed enough in the physician community to not have to prove himself. The main reason he had gone there was to meet his benefactor and thank him in person.

Since his benefactor had a request, it was only right for him to fulfill his request so as to repay the favor.

Just as Guild Leader Liao was about to take out a special Communication Token to pass down the order, another old man rushed into the room and exclaimed, “Guild Leader Liao, you mustn’t do that!”

“Vice Guild Leader Wang, is there a problem?” Guild Leader Liao asked with a frown.

The person who barged into the room was the vice leader of Cloud Dragon Royal City’s Physician Guild, Wang Fei.

“Apothecary and physician are two separate occupations. It isn’t right to mix them together just because there are some similarities between the two. It is… inappropriate!” Wang Fei argued.

He admitted that the young man’s skills as an apothecary were probably unrivaled in the current generation, especially after witnessing the effects of the Beauty Pill in person, but pill forging was pill forging. No matter how formidable one’s pills were, that would not make an apothecary a physician!

The role of a physician was to diagnose a patient and come up with the best treatment method to cure the patient. On the other hand, apothecaries forge pills out of medicinal herbs in order to elevate their medicinal properties.

There was a vast difference in their specialties.

By giving the right to use the Great Displacement Teleportation Formation over to this young man, Guild Leader Liao was indirectly admitting that his skills in the Way of Medicine were beneath those of the young man. If the latter showed a lack of capability afterward, that could possibly tarnish the reputation that Guild Leader Liao had painstakingly built!

“Guild Leader Liao, please reconsider your decision!”

The other physicians in the group entered the room and bowed deeply.

“I am indebted to Apothecary Zhang, and I wish to repay his favor. Besides, it’s about time for me to retire. Alright, there’s no need to say anymore. My mind is made up.” Guild Leader Liao waved his hand.

In truth, he shared the same assessment as the other physicians. He felt that while Zhang Xuan was able to forge incredible pills, his medical skills were likely lacking in comparison.

The main reason he had accepted the request was to repay Zhang Xuan’s favor.

Compared to his life, he felt that a small stain on his reputation did not mean much.

Understanding the worries of the other physicians, Zhang Xuan did not lose his temper. “If that’s the case, shall we follow the proper process instead? The usual way to do it is through the Physician Tournament, right? Since everyone is here, shall we do that?”

He was still young, and it had not been long since he arrived in the Firmament. It was normal for others to doubt his capability.

“You wish to challenge us in a Physician Tournament?” Guild Leader Liao asked.

“I’m already here anyway,” Zhang Xuan replied with a smile.

“This…”

Guild Leader Liao was a little hesitant, but seeing that Zhang Xuan had made up his mind, he eventually nodded in agreement.

There are four main segments to the Physician Tournament, namely Observation, Scent, Inquiry, and Contact. In each step, you must jot down your diagnosis, determine the illness, write down a cure, and verify whether the cure is effective or not.”

Zhang Xuan nodded.

He had been wondering how the Physician Tournament would work, but from the looks of it, it appeared to be no different from how physicians usually diagnosed their patients. It was just that…

“What about the patients? Do we involve patients in the duel?” Zhang Xuan asked with a frown.

It did not seem right to him to make a tournament with the life of the patients at stake.

That infringed on the ethics that a physician should have.

“Of course not!” Guild Leader Liao replied. Then, he looked at Zhang Xuan doubtfully as he asked, “Could it be that… you don’t know what the Physician Tournament is?”

The young man was the one who proposed having a Physician Tournament, but based on what he was saying, it seemed like he knew nothing about it!

He had thought that he could just admit defeat to the young man in order to return the favor. Even though he did not think that the young man would actually be more skilled than him when it came to the Way of Medicine, as someone who was able to create the Beauty Pill, he thought that the young man still would not be too bad.

But based on what he had seen thus far, that did not seem to be the case.

A physician who did not even know what the Physician Tournament was… Was he even a physician at all?

“The top physicians of the Nine Skies have worked together to create an artifact known as the Stone of Symptoms, and it’s through this that we hold the Physician Tournament.”

Seeing that Zhang Xuan was really ignorant of it, Guild Leader Liao shook his head and explained the matter.

It seemed like Vice Guild Leader Wang’s worries were not unfounded.

From the current looks of it, it appeared that the young man’s medical skills were not too amazing. There was no way a skilled physician would not know about the Physician Duel.

“Stone of Symptoms?”

Yes, it’s a unique treasure that is able to record a patient’s physical condition with great precision. Through the data stored in it, it’s able to generate a projection of the patient in real time to provide the physician with information. If you can provide it with a feasible cure, the projected patient will be able to recover from their ailment.”

As Liao Xin spoke, he took out a stone and tapped lightly on it.

The stone released a light buzz before generating ten human projections.

These projections were created through a formation inscribed on the stone.

Every single one of these projected humans appeared sickly, as if they had been afflicted with some sort of lethal disease. It looked like they would not live much longer without treatment.

“These ten people are afflicted with diseases that have been discovered and treated from several hundred years to several millenniums ago. Through a special procedure, their conditions are logged in the Stone of Symptoms, allowing us to recreate a lifelike projection of them. Just like real patients, we can observe their symptoms, smell their scent, ask about their status, and feel their pulse. Through these four methods, we can determine the cause of their affliction and devise a treatment method for them.”

Seeing how Zhang Xuan was still looking at the projected patients with an uncertain look on his face, Liao Xin added, “Don’t worry, the illnesses faced by these patients are not entirely obsolete. Most of these ailments are around today, even though they have been altered in one way or another through interactions with different environments. Furthermore, as the records go many years back, it’s impossible for a person to memorize every case.

“Also, the patients projected change randomly each time the Stone of Symptoms is activated, so you can rest assured that there’s no way one can cheat!”

Hearing those words, Zhang Xuan nodded in relief.

Treating a patient was much more than memory work. The same disease could have vastly different symptoms depending on a person’s constitution. Based on these conditions, the treatment method devised and medicine dispensed by the physician must adapt accordingly.

So, if the projected patients were the same each time, one could simply memorize the specific symptoms of the patients in advance and treat them impeccably with ease. That would render the test utterly meaningless. However, it seemed like he had underestimated the Physician Tournament.

While the cultivators of the Firmament had exceptionally good memory, there was no way they could remember all of the ailments from the current date to over tens of thousands of years back, and that was assuming that they could even find the medical records of all the patients stored within the Stone of Symptoms.

This made cheating nigh impossible.

“After every step of the diagnosis, you are to write down your deductions. Once the Observation, Scent, Inquiry, and Contact procedures are over, you have to jot down a medical treatment and hand it over to the patient. If the medical treatment you proposed is in line with the one that cured the patient, the projected patient will be cured of his suffering. On the other hand, if you make a mistake, it’ll show the corresponding results!”

Zhang Xuan nodded in response.

He tapped his finger on the Stone of Symptom once more, and just as Guild Leader Liao said, all ten projections changed immediately.

“Now that you know of the rules, let’s begin.”

Guild Leader Liao raised his hand, and two physicians quickly passed a few pieces of paper and a brush to them.

As physicians, observing one’s patient was the first step for a diagnosis. Through taking in the patient’s expression, color, state, and form, one would be able to make a preliminary assessment of the symptoms he was facing.

Seeing that Guild Leader Liao had headed toward the leftmost patient, Zhang Xuan quickly walked over to the rightmost patient.

With one swift glance at all the projected patients, he was already able to deduce their symptoms with eighty to ninety percent confidence.

Nevertheless, he still decided to mutter ‘Flaws!’ beneath his breath.

Huhuhuhu!

Ten books immediately materialized in the Library of Heaven’s Path.

While he was quite confident of his analysis, he wanted to have an absolute guarantee for this. So, he tapped into the powers of the Library of Heaven’s Path to double check his diagnosis.

The result of this Physician Tournament would determine how long it would take him to get to the Sky of Spirit Origin and find Luo Ruoxin. He did not want to risk losing the duel and waste precious time.

Even though the patients before him were only projections, he was still able to compile the analysis of their conditions through the formation that projected them. After quickly browsing through it, he heaved a sigh of relief after seeing that his diagnoses were spot-on.

He had not really come into contact with medicine ever since he arrived in the Firmament, but back when he was still on the Master Teacher Continent, he had encountered all sorts of bizarre afflictions and resolved all of them with ease. His understanding of the human body and medicinal herbs had already reached a level unthinkable to most physicians.

Right now, the only thing that was hindering him was the difference in constitution between Gods and ordinary cultivators. As long as he could work that out, he should be able to tap into the vast knowledge in his head to cure these patients.

He sat down on the floor and spent a few moments organizing his thoughts to deduce the best treatment method. Then, he swiftly wrote down the treatment methods.

“Alright, I’m done,” Zhang Xuan said with a smile.

“What? You are done?”

“Really? It hasn’t even been ten minutes since the Physician Tournament started, right? Furthermore, you didn’t even conduct the other steps of the diagnosis before going right into jotting down the medical treatment!”

You must be joking! How can someone diagnose all of these patients and come up with corresponding solutions so quickly?”

Everyone was stunned.

There was a saying that physicians were constantly wrestling with time to save their patients from the clutches of death, but still, it was impossible for a physician to diagnose and cure ten difficult diseases in less than ten minutes!

Are you sure you aren’t pulling our legs?

The crowd looked at one another before turning their heads over to see how Guild Leader Liao was doing. The latter was still standing before the first patient with a deep frown. He had finished asking the patient for more details regarding his condition and was just about to move on to reading the patient’s pulse.

He read the pulse for quite a while before finally picking up a piece of paper and writing down the corresponding illness and treatment method.

After he was done, he heaved a sigh of relief before turning toward his second patient. It was at that moment that he realized Zhang Xuan had come to a halt, so he urged with a frown, “Don’t waste time. If our results are the same, the determining factor will be the time taken!”

He had been so preoccupied with diagnosing his patient earlier that he had not noticed the movements of the young man.

Right after saying those words, he was just about to turn his focus to the second patient when he noticed all the physicians in the room looking at him with speechless faces.

“What’s wrong?” Guild Leader Liao asked.

“Guild Leader Liao, Apothecary Zhang has already finished diagnosing and writing down all of the treatment methods.

You might be the one who needs to hurry up,” Vice Guild Leader Wang replied awkwardly.