Mage's Cultivation Journey 24

“Sit down near the fire, and remove your shirt,” I ordered. The kid followed my order, but Su Mi retreated, her blush visible despite the darkness.

Children…

I sighed while I pulled the set of silver needles, the one that the kid purchased from the market, which was, apparently, a default medical equipment. It didn’t take long for me to realize why. Channeling internal energy through them was surprisingly smooth.

Technically, with my level of control, I didn’t need to. Previously, it was my lack of knowledge about internal energy — or the spies around — that kept me back. However, there was no harm in using tools to help me apply some finer control.

Especially when it was expected locally.

“Take a deep breath, and release it slowly,” I told him even as I stabbed the first needle to his left shoulder, avoiding his meridians while targeting a small scratch he got during our trek. It was the safer method, testing if his body would react to my internal energy adversely.

I still softened my internal energy as much as I could manage, copying the method that worked on my own small injuries. A minute passed, and I watched as his scratch slowly recovered. The first confirmation.

“How are you feeling?” I asked.

“A small itch, and some warmth. Nothing else,” he said.

“Excellent,” I said. “Now, I’ll examine your meridians directly. It may be uncomfortable. Tell me if you feel anything problematic.”

However, once again, I didn’t immediately target his injured meridian. I pushed the silver needle to his left shoulder, targeting one of the less critical meridians. “Don’t breathe too hard,” I instructed as I gently probed the meridian, to see if there was an adverse reaction.

A good thing that I did, as unlike his flesh, his meridian refused to interact with my softened internal energy, repelling it. I frowned. It was what I was afraid of.

But, I needed to see if the meridians were refusing the foreign internal energy, or internal energy that was yet to transform.

“Can you channel some of your internal energy to your right shoulder. But, don’t transform it, just maintain your hold as much as possible.”

He nodded, following my request. There, I surrounded his internal energy with my own, keeping them separate while using the pressure to soften it the way I had done on my own.

That, his meridians didn’t refuse.

Excellent.

With that done, I moved on to the next step. The location of his injury, I had long detected, but that had been an indirect observation. Having my own internal energy allowed me to see the exact nature of the damage.

Ultimately, the diagnosis was simple. Some kind of rapture, very similar to what I had caused in others by blocking their energy flow. Though, in his case, the location of it, just above the left lung, close to the heart, made it more challenging.

Especially when the critical function of the lungs is factored in.

However, when it came to medical issues, a simple diagnosis didn’t automatically mean a simple solution. His meridian’s rupture was only partial, but it didn’t heal right, with its jagged nature. It needed to be cut and destroyed.

The next part, was to see if the meridian could be cured. I inserted more needles around the meridian, isolating the wounded area completely. This time, rather than softening my internal energy, I sharpened it, and injected it to target the edge of the wound.

During the diagnosis, the silver needles had been merely there to make it easier. But the same wasn’t true when I sharpened it. It allowed me to direct my energies directly to his meridian without ripping his skin.

Yu Xing started to give feedback on exactly where it was hurting, and how much, yet his tone was soft like he was commenting on someone else’s injury. Tough kid.

I worked carefully, still exploring the jagged edges of the wound without getting closer to the meridian. As I worked on the delicate yet tedious work, I came up with half a dozen ways of weaponizing the silver needles I had been holding. I added it to the list of things to be experimented on.

A pained yelp escaped his mouth once I started to get deeper into the scar tissue directly on his meridian, which was responsible for partially blocking the flow. His internal energy reacted almost reflexively, but the cage of silver needles blocked the flow easily.

“Be careful, you’re hurting him,” Su Mi shouted from the side.

“It’s alright. Don’t worry about it,” Yu Xing responded. “It’s just a little pain.”

“Good kid,” I said. I would have liked to numb the pain, but the meridians and the body connected in a way I didn’t dare to risk. Nor could I hurry up, not when a mistake could destroy the fragile channel completely.

I ignored his gasps and twitches, demolishing every part of the poorly healed scar tissue. It took more than an hour to finish it … and I ended up looking at a raptured meridian. Now, it was time to cure it.

It would have been easy if I could simply push my energy directly to heal, but I could not. His meridian would refuse it. So, I removed some of the needles, adjusted the others, which modified the channel enough to allow the flow of the internal energy, but while keeping the injured part isolated.

“I want you to push your energy to your shoulder, the smallest energy you can manage,” I said, which was only possible because I had already taught him meditation, giving him better control over his energies. If not for that, trying to punch with his channel blocked would have just ruptured his meridians in a different spot.

He did so. I intercepted some of the energy and dispersed the rest. But, only after softening the energy sufficiently, I pulled one of the needles and let it touch the injured part, carefully directing it to the edges of the meridian.

Just like that, the recovery started; easier than I expected, considering all the snippets I had heard about the risks of damaging the meridians. But then, they didn’t seem to feel even their own internal energy perfectly, let alone others. I might be judging them unfairly.

“It’s working,” I said. “Your meridian is recovering. But, it’ll still take some time,” I warned.

Though, while I worked to repair his meridians, I also had the chance to examine them more in detail. The difference between the newly grown parts and the rest was stark. In the old parts, I could feel hints of the transformed energy of his punches, while the recovered part lacked that.

It stood to reason that, like how muscles changed by punching, the meridians also transformed to adapt to the strain of the martial arts, which would explain why every martial arts manual I had highlighted constant, daily practice; along with strict warnings about the risks of trying the stronger moves before they were ready.

“We’re done,” I said after three long hours, pulling the needles. He immediately attempted to throw a punch, a terrible idea. I slapped his back to disperse his internal energy before he ripped the part I had carefully fixed. “Let me finish before you start throwing punches, kid,” I warned him.

“Sorry, master. I was …”

I waved it. “Yes, I understand. You are excited. But, you need to be careful. I have fixed the ruptured meridian, but it’s still weak. We need to be careful and test its limits.” I kept my hand on his back. The needles were out, but I was ready to put one in if there was trouble. “Throw the weakest punch you know,” I said.

He did so, his body once again moving with perfect coordination. I didn’t care much about the physical part, and fully focused on the energy flow. The repaired part of the meridian held up … but if there was any improvement from one punch about strengthening it, it was too subtle for me to catch.

“A hundred punches,” I ordered. He followed that, while I kept my hand on his back. It made an awkward stance, but the continuous practice made the changes obvious.

After a hundred punches, there had been a slight improvement. But, it also strained the damaged part. I asked him to push his internal energy directly once more, and used it to heal the damaged part.

It healed, and the slight improvement he experienced stayed there. “You are officially healed,” I declared.

He bowed immediately despite my attempt to wave it off. “Master. I owe you everything,” he said. “I will die if you need me to.”

“Nothing so dramatic, kid,” I responded, still not used to the dramatic intensity of the locals. “But, don’t push yourself too much. Throw another hundred punches, then come back, and I’ll heal you between sessions.”

He wore a brave expression. “I can go longer, master —” he started, but I silenced him with a flick to the forehead.

“Did you learn medicine when I was not looking?” I asked. He shook his head. “Good. Then, listen to my orders.” Then, I turned to the girl.

It was time to learn the local language. Properly.