Divine Level Witch Doctor

HISS!

Seeing the *Treasure of Life and Form Theory* appear on the screen, the students all sucked in a sharp breath of cold air.

Without any punctuation, nearly a thousand characters were crammed together, forming a dense block of text that could make you dizzy just by looking at it. For an article like this, forget about beginners like them; even the second and third-year upperclassmen wouldn’t dare claim they could accurately punctuate and recite the entire text, let alone translate it.

This wasn’t just any ancient text, after all. It was a medical treatise. Many of the terms involved specialized knowledge; the slightest mistake in translation could lead to a meaning that was worlds apart!

The difficulty was off the charts!

Everyone looked at Zhao Yuan with pity.

No one believed he could do it. Even if he hadn’t been daydreaming and had been paying close attention, this was an impossible task!

Cao Han, however, was gloating. He jeered sarcastically, ”Oh, Zhao Yuan, Zhao Yuan. If you’re going to space out, just admit it. Why lie and say you were paying attention? Look at you now, feeling stupid, huh? Heh heh. Weren’t you paying close attention? Then go on, recite it. Translate it. What’s wrong, cat got your tongue? Hmph, if you can accurately recite and translate this article, I’ll twist my own head off and let you kick it like a ball!”

Hearing this, his roommates from dorm 301 were all furious. If Teacher Ma Hanqing hadn’t been in the classroom, they would have marched right over to teach Cao Han a lesson. But Zhao Yuan, upon hearing Cao Han’s taunts, didn’t get angry. Instead, he just smiled at him.

The smile baffled Cao Han and stirred a flicker of unease within him. ’How can he still be smiling? Does he actually think he can handle this? No way! He was clearly scared stiff just a moment ago!’

How could Cao Han know that Zhao Yuan’s silence hadn’t been from shock at all? He had been searching for the contents of the *Treasure of Life and Form Theory* on his Information Leaf.

The article came from the *Inner Canon of the Yellow Emperor* and fell under the category of fundamental medical theory, which happened to be recorded on the Information Leaf. Not only did it have complete punctuation, but it also came with a detailed translation. Zhao Yuan summoned it and began to recite, ”The Yellow Emperor asked: Heaven covers, Earth supports, and all of creation is complete. Nothing is more precious than man. Man is born from the Qi of heaven and earth, formed by the laws of the four seasons...”

”Holy crap, he’s actually reciting it.”

”Did he memorize the whole thing, or is he punctuating it on the fly?”

”Quick, open your books! See if he’s right.”

A wave of gasps erupted in the classroom. Amid their astonishment, the students quickly buried their heads in their textbooks, checking to see if Zhao Yuan’s recitation was correct.

Cao Han was dumbfounded. ’He was definitely spacing out just now, so how could he possibly recite and translate this correctly? Ah, I get it. He must be bluffing! I just need to follow along in the textbook, and I’ll definitely catch his mistakes!’

Cao Han hurriedly grabbed his Medical Ancient Texts textbook, his eyes glued to the *Treasure of Life and Form Theory*. He focused intently, waiting for Zhao Yuan to slip up.

His effort paid off. As Zhao Yuan reached the middle of the article, Cao Han noticed that his punctuation for a certain passage was different from the textbook’s. Overjoyed, he shouted, ”Stop! Stop! That’s wrong! The sentence you just recited is wrong! That’s not how it’s punctuated in the textbook!”

”Wrong?” Zhao Yuan was taken aback.

’I’m reciting this exactly as it’s written on the Information Leaf. In other words, this version of the *Treasure of Life and Form Theory* was punctuated and translated by Wu Peng himself.’

’And who was Wu Peng? He was the founder of the Medical Dao, a peerless Witch Doctor whose medical skills were so profound they could shake the heavens and move the Ghost Gods, a man who governed the world in place of the Celestial Dao! It was even highly likely that the classic text of the Medical Family, the *Inner Canon of the Yellow Emperor*, was connected to him! The famous ancient physicians in the book who answered the Yellow Emperor’s questions, like Qi Bo and Bo Gao, might have learned their skills from him! Could his punctuation be wrong?’ Zhao Yuan refused to believe it!

Compared to that, Zhao Yuan was more inclined to believe that the textbook’s punctuation was wrong!

After all, the version of the *Inner Canon of the Yellow Emperor* passed down from antiquity had no punctuation. The breaks in the text were figured out by later generations. And while generations of scholars from the Medical Family had studied it and reduced the chance of error to a minimum, that didn’t mean it was completely infallible.

While Zhao Yuan was pondering this, Ma Hanqing’s reaction at the front of the class was rather odd.

His expression was grave and his brows were tightly furrowed as he constantly muttered something under his breath. If you were close enough, you could hear that he was reciting, over and over, the very passage with the punctuation that differed from the textbook.

The different punctuation changed the meaning of the passage. At first, Ma Hanqing was angry. But after reciting it twice, he was surprised to find that the altered sentence wasn’t utter nonsense. In fact, it made a certain amount of sense.

’This passage can be punctuated this way? And the resulting meaning is still coherent…’ Ma Hanqing looked at Zhao Yuan with a new level of surprise. ’Did this kid stumble upon this new punctuation by sheer luck? Or is he a genuine genius in the study of Medical Ancient Texts?’

A flicker of anticipation suddenly grew in Ma Hanqing’s heart. He was eager to know if Zhao Yuan had other unconventional yet logical interpretations for the rest of the article.

Just as he was about to let Zhao Yuan continue, Cao Han, his face flushed with excitement, shouted, ”Teacher Ma, Zhao Yuan is just punctuating it randomly! He wasn’t paying attention to the lecture at all—”

Before he could finish, Ma Hanqing cut him off with a furious roar, ”You, shut your mouth!”

”Huh?” Cao Han was stunned once again.

’What’s going on? Aren’t you supposed to be yelling at Zhao Yuan? Why are you shouting at me? Did you get us mixed up?’

After a moment of hesitation, Cao Han said, ”Teacher Ma, did you make a mistake? You meant to tell Zhao Yuan to shut up, right?”

”I made no mistake. I was telling *you* to shut up!” Ma Hanqing shot Cao Han a fierce glare. He now understood what was happening: Cao Han was simply using him as a weapon. If he weren’t so anxious to hear if Zhao Yuan had more new interpretations, he would have dealt with Cao Han right then and there.

Cao Han’s mouth hung open, utterly unable to comprehend what was happening.

Ma Hanqing ignored him and turned to Zhao Yuan. ”Continue reciting.”

”Yes, sir.” Zhao Yuan nodded and continued reciting the *Treasure of Life and Form Theory*.

After a moment of stunned silence, Cao Han actually managed to rationalize the situation to himself. ’I see now. Teacher Ma is going to let Zhao Yuan finish reciting and translating the whole thing before pointing out his mistakes one by one, ensuring his complete and utter humiliation. I was too hasty in pointing out his error just now. I almost ruined Teacher Ma’s plan. No wonder he yelled at me.’

With this thought in mind, Cao Han said no more. He picked up his pen and, whenever Zhao Yuan’s punctuation or translation differed from the textbook, he quickly jotted it down.