"Senior, can I take a look at the sore on your back?"

"No problem, is it okay here?" Qingye didn’t hesitate at all and agreed immediately.

"Let’s go to the back." Lin Miao thought for a moment, realizing they might need to treat Qingye back there. It was better to go directly.

"Is she coming along too?" Seeing Sun Youwei following closely, Qingye frowned slightly.

"Medicine knows no gender; to a healer, there are only patients." Lin Miao explained, "Moreover, she is my fiancée."

"Oh." Qingye nodded, saying no more. Since her fiancé didn’t mind, why should he, as a patient, care?

In the back, there was a room specifically for full-body examinations.

Lin Miao and Sun Youwei both put on masks. Qingye took off his top, lying prone and naked on the bed, revealing a sore on his back the size of an infant’s palm.

A layer of green ointment was applied on it, already dried. The smell of the medicine was mixed with an unpleasant, slightly foul odor, although it was faint.

Lin Miao naturally had the prescription for this antitoxic ointment, but there was none on hand; it had to be prepared. However, Lin Miao needed to see the sore to decide what medicine to use.

If the sore was broken, the medicine used would be different.

"Senior, this ointment?"

"I carry it with me in my jacket’s inner pocket," Qingye replied.

Lin Miao nodded, reached in, and pulled out a small bottle that looked familiar. Wasn’t this made by Poisonous Fourth?

"So it’s Qingfu Ointment." Lin Miao opened the stopper, took a sniff, and recognized it immediately.

"Mr. Lin, you know this ointment?"

"I’ve seen it. This Qingfu Ointment can only alleviate pain but cannot eliminate the poison in your body, and it needs to be used every three days. Its efficacy weakens over time; they must have deliberately increased the dosage when they made it. Fortunately, it’s for external use; if ingested, this Qingfu Ointment would be highly toxic!"

"Your words are exactly the same as Mr. Fu said. Now I truly believe in your medical skills. No wonder Mr. Fu, a National Hand, recommended me to find a small physician like you." Qingye sighed with relief. Fortunately, he came with an influential person; otherwise, he might have left just now.

"Senior Sister, I’ll write a prescription. You go get the medicine and make an ointment according to my method for the senior to use," Lin Miao instructed.

"You want to change my ointment?"

"Senior, don’t you trust that my ointment is no less effective than Poisonous Fourth’s Qingfu Ointment?"

"Poisonous Fourth? You say this Qingfu Ointment is Poisonous Fourth’s?" Qingye asked, turning his head in shock.

"The formula for this enhanced Qingfu Ointment was decided after discussing with Poisonous Fourth. At the time, I didn’t know what he intended to do. Now I understand; he was making ointment for the senior." Lin Miao suddenly came to a realization.

"Is that so?" Qingye shuddered all over. He wasn’t naive; over the years, he had been using this Qingfu Ointment to prolong his life, most likely all thanks to Poisonous Fourth, and he had always thought it was Mr. Fu.

Lin Miao wrote down the prescription and clearly explained the process of preparing the ointment. He also reminded Sun Youwei about the selection of medicinal materials.

Ordinary people wouldn’t need to be so particular, but Qingye’s poison sore required special attention to the medicinal ingredients, such as the length of centipedes, the size of earthworms, and the size of pangolin scales.

Sun Youwei took the prescription to Yongning Hall, where the medicinal materials were more complete. After Guan Biyun and Lien Yurou left, most of the medicines from the small medicine storeroom in the backyard had been moved there.

Except for some emergency medicines.

Seeing this, Qingye was about to put on his clothes and get up.

"Don’t rush, senior. I have a therapy here; you might as well try it. It might not have other effects, but for you, the effect is certainly not bad," Lin Miao said.

"What method?"

"Cupping therapy."

"Cupping therapy? What is this therapy?" Qingye looked puzzled.

"You will know soon, senior." Lin Miao chuckled, getting up to fetch a set of glass jars and a homemade alcohol lamp.

"Mr. Lin, is this such precious colorless glass that you take out so casually?" Qingye, knowledgeable, was surprised to see Lin Miao casually bring out these beautifully crafted glass jars.

"Rest assured, senior, this isn’t something expensive," Lin Miao chuckled, "Lie down, and I’ll cup you."

Lin Miao’s cupping wasn’t simple; he needed to use acupuncture points first and then apply the cups. This method was much more effective than simple cupping.

Of course, only someone with high-level martial arts cultivation like Qingye could perform it; for ordinary people, it was not possible.

Bodies were different, and some methods, if used, could be fatal.

"Lie still, senior." Lin Miao, in one go, applied twelve cups to Qingye’s back.

Qingye didn’t dare move. A single colorless glass jar was expensive. Though his court salary was not low, coupled with his income from the fief, he governed his army strictly, did not indulge in corruption or bribery, and over the years, he had to practice martial arts, take medicine, and support brothers wounded or killed in battle. As a Grand General and Marquis Wu’an, he actually hadn’t accumulated much wealth.

The mansion in the capital was bestowed by the emperor, otherwise, with his meager salary, he could never have afforded such a large house.

If one day he loses his official post and the mansion is taken back, the whole family wouldn’t know where to live.

"How long does Mr. Lin need?" 𝙧𝙚𝙚𝔀𝒆𝓫𝓷𝙤𝓿𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝙤𝓶

"About the time it takes to drink a cup of tea."

"That’s good, that amount of time is no problem for a General." The army demands steadiness like a mountain; if he can’t achieve it, how can he expect his subordinates to do so?

Lin Miao used a small knife to scrape off the ointment from the poison sore, then cleaned it with alcohol for disinfection. Finally, he carved out the inflamed flesh with a single cut.

"Mr. Lin, what are you doing..." Qingye couldn’t help but question through the pain.

"Out with the old, in with the new, Senior. If the decayed flesh of this poison sore isn’t removed, how can new flesh grow?" Lin Miao explained, "Rest assured, I may not be able to cure the poison inside you, but I can help with this back sore, saving you from sleepless nights for years."

"It’s useless. I’ve had this sore on my back cut out countless times, yet it always ends the same." Qingye gritted his teeth. Lin Miao’s knife was swift and didn’t cause prolonged pain; his technique was far superior to those physicians.

"Don’t worry, I’m different from them, I promise it won’t recur." Lin Miao vowed confidently.

"If Mr. Lin can make my back sore not flare up again, I, Qingye, will promise you one thing, as long as it’s within my capabilities." Qingye gritted his teeth.

"General, as you serve the country and protect the peace of the people, how could I use this to coerce you to do something for me?" Lin Miao swiftly cleaned the wound with warm saline until the black blood was gone and fresh blood appeared.

Inner energy can not only explore the internal organs but also condense into a needle to stop bleeding. By constraining the blood flow for some time, the coagulation factors in the blood will take effect, and the bleeding will stop on its own.

In just a few minutes, as long as a major blood vessel wasn’t pierced, the bleeding in Qingye’s northern area was quickly halted.

Lin Miao applied the Muscle Regeneration Powder for him.

The inner energy was driven to block the infiltration of toxins, then a layer of gauze was applied. It was still not time to bandage.

This wolfsbane had deeply permeated the back, and visibly Qingye’s back showed a dull, dark blue color. The Antitoxic Ointment wasn’t applied to the sore but on his back.

Only by extracting the toxins infiltrating his skin and bones from the back could the sore be thoroughly closed.

If the recovery speed cannot keep up with the toxin infiltration speed, the sore will never heal. Conversely, if the sore heals, the pain from the back sore can be resolved, at most causing a dull pain on overcast or special weather days, but this is a thousand times better than in the past when he couldn’t lay down his back, missing out on a good night’s sleep.

After removing the fire cupping, Lin Miao wiped away the black-purple clotted blood inside, then used warm water to clean it. The skin color on the back significantly improved.

Apart from the back, Qingye was actually in an unhealthy state all over his body.

The toxin had infiltrated the bone marrow and could only be slowly extracted; it was a long process. The toxins could never be fully extracted, only controlled within a safe coefficient.

But the lost lifespan couldn’t be regained unless there were a miraculous pill that could strip and cleanse Qingye, washing away the toxins in his bone marrow.

Of course, another method would be the Bone Marrow Cleansing Scripture.

Lin Miao certainly wouldn’t teach such a secret art like the Bone Marrow Cleansing Scripture to someone unrelated; he wasn’t that magnanimous.

He understood the story of the favor of a peck turning into the hatred over a dou.

Of course, whether the Bone Marrow Cleansing Scripture would work, he also didn’t know, as many things remained unknown until tried.

Through cupping, internal medication, and external application, he could now control Qingye’s condition.

In just this short treatment session, Qingye’s pulse showed a significant turnaround. As long as things don’t worsen, living another three or five years should not be a problem.

"The cultivation technique Senior practices seems quite aggressive, it would be best to use it sparingly in the future. Each use damages you further." Lin Miao said while washing his hands.

"How do you know my cultivation technique is aggressive?"

"I am also a martial artist; earlier I probed Senior’s inner reactions with inner energy and discovered it." Lin Miao said, "Senior should be practicing the most Yang and rigid inner energy. This technique is indeed excellent, and that’s why Senior has survived till now. This wolfsbane is extremely Yin and malicious, and Senior’s technique just happens to counteract it, otherwise, it wouldn’t have lasted this long."

"In that case, why can’t I use it again?"

"It’s like adding oil to a blazing fire; if you were in the prime of your life, it might not be a big issue. But now, at this age and with such a serious loss of vitality, even if your martial cultivation realm is still there, how much of your combat power can you still exert? Four or five-tenths at most." Lin Miao chuckled, analyzing and explaining.

"Just from this, you can judge that I’m only at fifty percent of my peak combat power?" Qingye was once again surprised. Lin Miao had truly brought him many surprises. Such a physician, who seemed to know his body better than he did just by asking a few questions and feeling his pulse, knew so much; if these secrets reached the ears of the Beihu people, the consequences would be unimaginable.

"Senior isn’t in a hurry to return to Juxu Pass, is he?"

"In no hurry..."

"Then stay a few more days, I’ll do some conditioning for Senior. This winter, Senior should feel better than in previous years." Lin Miao said.

"Alright, then I’ll trouble Mr. Lin. How much for the consultation fee, I’ll pay." Qingye said.

"This is a convenient medical diagnosis point. The consultation fee isn’t expensive, but the treatment and medication fees aren’t cheap. A treatment session here costs a hundred taels of silver."

"A hundred taels, not expensive!"