I attained immortality through meditation in the Great Qian Dynasty.

The next day, Zhang Jing, sporting dark circles under his eyes, rushed out of the county government office.

He really didn't sleep all night.

Half of it was fear, and half was excitement.

He went back to the county government office, summoned several trusted yamen runners, and issued a gag order.

They only said that Butcher Zhang had fallen seriously ill and was being treated at Jishetang Hospital, and that no one was allowed to visit him.

After doing all this, his performance officially began.

Inside the Huichun Hall.

"Shopkeeper! Quick! Wrap up all your best ginseng and lingzhi!"

Zhang Jing slapped it on the counter.

The manager of Huichuntang hurriedly got up.

"Lord Zhang, what's wrong...?"

"Stop talking nonsense! Butcher Zhang is dying! Get the medicine now!"

The shopkeeper was quite frightened and quickly wrapped up the medicinal herbs.

"Lord Zhang, what illness do you suffer from? Perhaps this old man can..."

"What illness?"

Zhang Jing turned around.

"It's an evil disease! It's sorcery!"

He rushed out, leaving a room full of people staring at each other in bewilderment.

"An evil disease?"

"With Zhang the Butcher's physique, how could he be possessed by an evil spirit?"

"I heard it's that miracle doctor from Jishetang treating him, but it seems it's not working..."

Zhang Jing did not stop.

He went to the Xinglin Pavilion in the west of the city.

After listening to his description, the clinic owner, Dr. Liu, waved his hand.

He claimed that he only understood medical principles and not metaphysics.

The news spread wider and wider, and the versions became increasingly bizarre.

"Have you heard? Butcher Zhang is possessed by an evil spirit, he's spitting out black blood, and he's about to die!"

"They can only keep us alive with expensive medicinal herbs, and the money's going to flow like water!"

"This magistrate is practically frantic with worry. I think it's hopeless!"

……

Inside Jishetang.

The air was filled with the fragrance of herbs, and people came and went.

Zhao Zian sat behind the consultation table.

In front of him was a woman holding a child who had a fever and was crying incessantly.

"Doctor, please take a look! This child has had a fever all day, and although he's taken the medicine, it just won't go down!"

Zhao Zian took his pulse.

He took a silver needle and pricked the child's fingertip.

Strangely enough, the child stopped crying as soon as the blood droplets appeared.

The woman was both surprised and delighted.

"This...that's it?"

"Infantile convulsions, coupled with food stagnation generating heat, are just a minor ailment."

Zhao Zian prescribed a remedy to aid digestion.

"Go back and get the medicine as prescribed; you'll be better in three days."

The woman took the child and left.

Zhao Zi'an appeared to be focused on the diagnosis, but his spiritual sense had already spread out.

He is waiting.

When the venomous snake hiding in the shadows could no longer restrain itself, it poked its head out.

Zhao Zian's eyelids twitched slightly.

A person appeared in his consciousness.

A peddler.

The peddler carried a load on a shoulder pole, with needles, thread, rouge, and face powder hanging on it.

He looked like an ordinary country vendor.

He walked to the street corner opposite Jishetang, put down his load, and neither shouted nor solicited business.

He just stood there.

But his eyes were fixed on the door of Jishetang.

coming.

Ha, that was quite a convincing performance.

An ordinary peddler?

The footsteps of an ordinary peddler are silent, his breaths long and drawn out.

Would an ordinary peddler smell of blood?

This smell is from the same source as the Gu worm on Butcher Zhang's body.

No doubt about it, it's him.

Zhao Zian continued to examine the next patient with his head down.

……

street corner.

The peddler, or rather, Wu Qi, narrowed his eyes.

This kid surnamed Zhao, is the one who ruined my plans?

It looks like... nothing special.

There was no fluctuation of true energy, and no malevolent aura surrounding him.

He was just an ordinary doctor.

Wu Qi walked towards Jishitang.

"Sir, what would you like to see?" Accountant Sun greeted him.

Wu Qi ignored him and walked to Zhao Zi'an's medical record.

"doctor."

Zhao Zian looked up: "Fellow villager, where do you feel unwell?"

"I always feel a tightness in my chest."

Wu Qi pounded his chest.

"I can't breathe, and I can't cough anything up. It's been like this for months. Could you take a look?"

Without making a sound, he flicked the black energy from his fingertips towards the teacup in front of Zhao Zian.

It was the disease-inducing Gu he had created.

This poison will not be immediately fatal, but it will invade the human body.

It causes people to suffer from all kinds of illnesses, become listless, and eventually die from exhaustion.

It's perfect for testing the waters.

Zhao Zian's smile remained unchanged.

"Come here, let me take your pulse."

He gestured for Wu Qi to place his wrist on the pulse pillow.

Zhao Zian smiled.

A barely perceptible amount of spiritual energy enveloped the black thread.

Wu Qi knew nothing about this.

He placed his right hand on the pulse pillow as instructed.

Zhao Zian extended his index and middle fingers and placed them on top.

"Fellow villager, your pulse is quite interesting."

The true energy flowed from Zhao Zian's fingertips and into Wu Qi's meridians.

Wherever it passed, every meridian, every inch of flesh and blood in Wu Qi's body, and every hidden secret was exposed.

Cold sweat beaded on Wu Qi's forehead.

It bypassed those acupoints and found the cold, yin energy near his dantian.

Then it continued to delve deeper.

Around his heart, another powerful Gu worm lurked.

He didn't create it; someone else planted it!

This Gu is called Ten Thousand Devouring Hearts, and it awakens every full moon night.

It released countless tiny offspring that gnawed at his heart.

Over the years, he has traveled all over the country, killing people and practicing Gu poison, all in order to find a way to suppress or even eradicate this Myriad Devouring Heart.

"Um."

Zhao Zian pondered for a moment.

"Your chest tightness isn't an illness."

"Your pulse sounds steady at first, but it's actually restless inside. Every seven beats there's a very slight pause, like you've been bitten by something."

Wu Qi's mind went blank.

How did he know?!

"Furthermore, there is stagnation of qi and blood in your body, especially near your heart meridian, where an extremely cold and yin aura lingers. This aura doesn't seem to have been cultivated by yourself; it's more like it was forcibly implanted there."

Zhao Zian released his grip.

"If I'm not mistaken, you suffer terribly every time the moon is full, don't you?"

"It feels like thousands of ants are gnawing at your heart, doesn't it?"

Cold sweat trickled down Wu Qi's temples.

Wu Qi stood up, knocking over the stool behind him.

"I just remembered! I forgot to close the door to the pigsty! I have to hurry back! I can't look anymore!"

After saying that, he ran outside.

"Wow, this person is really strange."

Accountant Sun shook his head and bent down to straighten the stool.

The patients around him all thought he was crazy.

Zhao Zian held his teacup and took a sip.

He glanced at the little fox in the corner.

The little fox chased after it.

Zhao Zian put down his teacup.

"Next."

……

Jishetang has already closed down.

In the hall in the backyard, beside a round table made of rosewood.

Zhao Zian sat in the main seat, with Su Mei to his left and County Magistrate Zhang Jing to his right.

He recounted how Wu Qi had come to his door seeking medical treatment during the day.

Zhang Jing took a deep breath.

"Divine Physician, this matter is no small thing. This is no ordinary case; it is the work of a demon! This official..."

"Lord Zhang, please calm down."

Zhao Zian interrupted him.

"That man can run away from the monk, but he can't run away from the temple."