A top star in the Chinese entertainment industry, but also a Taoist priest.

Chen Shouyi smiled, picked up his teacup, took a sip, and waited for her to finish speaking.

"It's not that I don't believe in Traditional Chinese Medicine, it's that I don't believe a young man in his early twenties can be more skilled than the experts at Ruijin Hospital. I agree to the fee he agreed to, but he wants me to increase it further—"

She didn't finish her sentence, but her meaning was already very clear.

"Benefactor Fang," Chen Shouyi put down his teacup and looked her in the eye, "whether you believe it or not is irrelevant to this humble Taoist."

However, since I have promised to treat him, I will certainly be able to cure him. As for you, Benefactor Fang—you can just watch and see.

"The Taoist priest is quite straightforward."

"I am a Taoist priest, not a businessman."

Just then, Fang Xu pushed the door open and came back: "Sister, the kitchen has already made arrangements, it should be ready in about half an hour."

He sat down again, looked at his sister's face, then at the Taoist priest, and found that the atmosphere seemed to have eased a bit compared to before he left. Only then did his heart, which had been hanging in suspense, settle down a little.

Chen Shouyi took out a long, rectangular wooden box from his cloth bag.

He opened the wooden box, inside which were neatly arranged in two rows, varying in length, the longest being four inches and the shortest just over an inch.

Each needle gleamed with a dull golden light under the lamp, its tail as thin as a hair, yet its tip so sharp that a cold glint could be seen.

Fang Ying looked at the needles without changing her expression, but she slightly adjusted her posture, a result of her body unconsciously tensing up.

Fang Xu looked at the needles, his Adam's apple bobbing involuntarily. He then pulled a piece of white ginseng from his pocket.

"Master, that golden needle... I brought the ginseng slices you mentioned last time."

"I remember."

Chen Shouyi arranged the gold needles from the box on the table, then turned to Fang Xu and said, "Take off your shirt and lie down over there."

Fang Xu responded, quickly took off his shirt, walked to the sofa, lay down, rested his chin on the armrest, and took a deep breath.

Fang Ying stood up, hesitated for a moment, and asked, "Do I need to avoid them?"

Chen Shou didn't even turn his head: "It's alright. If Benefactor Fang wants to see, just sit to the side. Just don't make a sound and don't touch my golden needles."

Fang Ying sat down on the chair next to him. Her position allowed her to see her brother's back and Chen Shouyi's every move.

Fang Xu lay there, pleading, "Daoist Master, what should I do—"

"Hold the ginseng slice in your mouth."

"Okay, okay." Fang Xu put the ginseng slice into his mouth and closed it.

Chen Shouyi stood by the sofa. He did not make a move immediately, but closed his eyes and regulated his breathing for a moment.

The spiritual energy in his dantian slowly circulated, rising along his meridians to his fingertips. He opened his eyes and looked down at Fang Xu's back.

Fang Xu's back skin was so white it looked almost imperceptible, the muscles on both sides of his lumbar spine were loose and flabby, and his vertebrae could be counted one by one. From the Mingmen point to the Shenshu point, the flow of qi and blood under the skin was sluggish, as if it were stagnant with mud and sand.

Chen Shouyi extended his right hand and gently pressed his thumb on Fang Xu's Mingmen acupoint on his back.

The moment his fingertips touched his skin, a chill ran up his fingertips. The cold evil was lurking deep in his kidney meridian, even more serious than the conclusion he had reached when he used his spiritual energy to investigate last time.

The cold air is solid enough that it would probably take two or three years to slowly replenish it with medicinal herbs, and there can be no other accidents in between.

Chen Shouyi took out the first gold needle from the needle box, which was two and a half inches long.

"Benefactor Fang, this humble Taoist is about to insert the needles."

Fang Xu, biting into a ginseng slice, mumbled an "Mmm."

The tip of the gold needle was pressed against the skin of the Mingmen acupoint. Chen Shouyi's fingertips paused slightly, and then gently twisted.

The needle tip pierces the epidermis, then penetrates the fascia layer, and finally stops steadily at the core of the Mingmen acupoint, which is known in Traditional Chinese Medicine as the "kidney-internal movement qi".

A wisp of spiritual energy seeped into the golden needle.

This spiritual energy was extremely subtle, but after entering the meridians, it began to spread silently in all directions. The spiritual energy slowly spread along the Foot Shaoyin Kidney Meridian, and soon covered the entire area from the waist to the abdomen.

Chen Shouyi "saw" the cold energy lingering deep within the kidney meridian, a hazy gray mass, like a semi-transparent membrane clinging tightly to the meridian wall.

He twisted the needle's end and sent in another wisp of spiritual energy. This time, the spiritual energy didn't spread; instead, it condensed into a tiny vortex at the needle tip, beginning to peel away the cold membrane bit by bit.

Fang Xu's body trembled slightly, and a surge of heat rose from his waist, traveling up his back and spreading throughout his entire body.

Fang Ying looked at her younger brother lying motionless on the sofa, and then at Chen Shouyi's fingers as he manipulated the gold needles.

The gold needle was gently twisted on the Mingmen acupoint, the needle body moving steadily without the slightest tremor.

The young Taoist priest's expression was focused and calm, all his attention was on the needles.

Fang Ying's gaze never left Chen Shouyi's hand, and then she saw something even more unbelievable.

On my younger brother's back, centered around the gold needle at the Mingmen acupoint, his skin began to sweat.

The beads of sweat weren't transparent; they had a grayish-white tinge, as if something inside the body was being forced out.

What shocked her even more was that, as beads of sweat continued to seep out, a faint wisp of white mist was rising from the spot where the golden needle had been inserted.

She didn't speak, nor did she stand up again, but her gaze remained fixed on the thin wisp of white mist.

Chen Shouyi pulled out the first gold needle, and then took a three-inch long needle from the box and placed it on Fang Xu's Shenshu acupoint.

This time, he channeled even more spiritual energy than before.

Fang Xu's meridians began to respond clearly to the guidance of spiritual energy. The temperature of the acupoints where the gold needles were placed rose rapidly, and his skin color changed from white to red, and then back to normal.

After the grayish-white cold mist was pierced by the golden needle at the Shenshu acupoint, it was carried by spiritual energy and pushed towards the Mingmen acupoint, where it merged with the remaining cold energy at the Mingmen acupoint and was then slowly forced out of the body.

Fang Ying is not someone who is easily moved. She has seen too many situations and too many people, some with real skills and some who are just pretending to be something she's not.

But at this moment, the scene before her eyes could not be explained by any medical technique she knew.

Will the gold needles emit steam on their own? Will a bluish mist rise from my back?

This was something she couldn't understand, but she saw it with her own eyes.

About half an hour later, Chen Shouyi took out the last two gold needles from the needle pouch and inserted them into the Yongquan acupoints on the soles of Fang Xu's feet.

The needle pierced the deepest and lingered the longest. Fang Xu groaned, then suddenly relaxed. His head lolled to the side, and he lay motionless.

"Xiao Xu!" Fang Ying suddenly stood up.

"It's alright." Chen Shouyi raised his hand to stop her from going forward. "Benefactor Fang fainted from the acupuncture. Her meridians were suddenly unblocked, and her qi and blood couldn't adapt immediately. This is a normal phenomenon."

Fang Ying stood there, looking at her younger brother lying on the ground, then at Chen Shouyi.

Fainting from needles? She wasn't familiar with this explanation, but she noticed that Chen Shouyi's forehead was covered in a fine layer of sweat, and his face was paler than before.

But his expression remained unchanged, and his hands continued to move without stopping, pulling out needles one by one.

She slowly placed the back of her hand on Fang Xu's back, then froze.

The heat had subsided, and the bluish-gray sweat had been replaced by a very faint red layer that stretched from the lower back to the nape of the neck, like the flush of blood that rises after a bath.

Fang Ying's hand remained on her younger brother's back for a long time.

Fang Xu opened his eyes groggily. He blinked first, then propped himself up on the sofa and sat up.

He stretched his shoulders, stood up and took a couple of steps, then suddenly stopped.

"sister."

Fang Ying looked at him, and Fang Xu took two more steps, touched his lower back, and then touched his knees.

"This area used to feel sour and swollen, like there was always something blocking it. Now it feels like it's cleared up."

Fang Ying's gaze lingered on her younger brother's face for a moment. His face had regained some color, the fatigue in his eyes had vanished, and he looked much more energetic.

She was silent for a moment, then spoke.

"Please sit down."

Fang Xu obediently sat down.

Fang Ying turned around and looked at Chen Shouyi, who was leaning back in his chair with his eyes closed, resting.

"Master Daoist," Fang Ying said solemnly, "I have truly seen something new today."

Chen Shouyi waved his hand, indicating that there was no need to say more; his breathing had already been evened out.

"Benefactor Fang, please take the medicine as prescribed. I will administer a second acupuncture treatment for you in seven days. After four treatments, the cold pathogen will be completely eliminated. At that time, a new prescription will be used for three months of recuperation, and your body will naturally recover."

"Okay, okay, I'll do whatever you say." Fang Xu nodded repeatedly.

"Master," Fang Ying said politely, "please rest first. I've already arranged for the meal, it will be delivered shortly." She picked up her phone and sent a message.

Chen Shouyi leaned back in his chair and nodded in response. Using spiritual energy to cast a spell had taken a toll on his body, and all he wanted to do now was close his eyes and rest.

Fang Xu had recovered by now, and while getting dressed, he regained his usual enthusiasm:

"Sister, what did I tell you? The Taoist priest is truly skilled!"

Fang Ying glanced at him and said, "You'd better keep quiet."

Just then, there was a knock on the door. A waiter pushed in a food cart and began setting the table.

A few light seasonal dishes, a bowl of free-range chicken soup, and a steaming bowl of herbal medicine on the side—unassuming, but thoughtful.

Fang Xu got up to help the waiter set out the dishes and ladled a bowl of soup for Chen Shouyi, acting as attentive as a waiter.

"You must have worked hard just now, Taoist priest. Here, have a bowl of soup to nourish yourself."

Chen Shouyi thanked him and accepted the gift. Fang Xu chuckled and looked at Chen Shouyi: "Daoist Master, actually I have another favor to ask."