"No, no, no, no, no. I can't do it. I-I don't know how to do it. I'm not so talented like you," Luo Mei said as she walked into her room.
"Sister!" Alex called out, making Luo Mei turn around. "You have True Qi right?"
"Y-Yes," Luo Mei said.
"How much?" he asked.
"Uh... About 30 percent I would say," she said.
"Then you have to do it," Alex said.
"Bu-But why can't you do it?" Luo Mei asked.
"I don't have True Qi," Alex said. "Common Qi won't be able to handle 5 people's True Qi by itself. So it has to be True Qi that shows the way."
"If it could, I wouldn't make you do it," Alex said.
"But… I don't know the human body as you do. Will I be able to know how blood vessels are even placed in the human body? In the first place, are blood vessels the same as Meridians?" Luo Mei asked.
"They overlap in most of the places but there are a few places they vastly differ," Alex said.
"For example, the origin and end of blood vessels is the heart, while the meridians don't have an origin or ending as far as I can tell. Although, there is something weird in the naval area, but I don't know what that is exactly," Alex said.
"So how can I who knows nothing about blood vessels help navigate them then?" Luo Mei asked.
"Don't worry, I will teach you," Alex said.
"Sit down, I will show you by sending some in through your own body. You can use your Qi and spiritual sense to check it out," Alex said.
"O-okay," Luo Mei said and sat down.
"Alright, give me your hand," Alex said.
Luo Mei put forth her hand, but then questioned, "Aren't we doing it from the back for father?"
"For uncle's treatment, the back is the only thing that makes sense. But for now, since you are learning, we will start with the easiest way, the wrist," Alex said.
"To start with, you need a clear idea of where the blood vessel is. You cannot just prick your Qi into anywhere you want. So, places that had more of an exposed blood vessel like the wrist is the easiest one to start with."
"For uncle's back, we will have to spend a few minutes searching for one that is the closest to the parasite," Alex said.
"Alright, do what you want," Luo Mei said.
"Okay, releases your Qi around my fingers with your left hand. I will take them inside," Alex said.
Luo Mei nodded and released an almost cool feeling Qi onto Alex's hand.
Alex nodded too and released his own vibrant yellow Qi. The yellow Qi was definitely influenced by his Yang; there was no question about that. But he sometimes wondered if his Supreme Metal root also influenced its yellow color. After all, Metal Qi was golden in color.
"Phew," Alex softly released his breath and said, "Here I go."
He slowly started grabbing onto the Qi next to his hand with his own Qi and started dragging it. He could suddenly feel a lot of weight on his Qi, but it was nothing his robust Qi couldn't handle.
In fact, he felt like he could carry about 10 of such Qi before his connection with the Qi thread broke. He didn't know how accurate his assumption was though.
"Watch with your spiritual sense," Alex said without looking at her and slowly pierced through the wrist's blood vessel.
The moment it entered, he started sending his Qi up her hand. However…
"AH! AH! Ouch! Stop, Stop, Stop, Stop STOP!!!" Luo Mei started crying out. Alex's attention was broken and he immediately released his Qi which faded into her body.
"What's wrong, sister?" he asked.
"Ouch," Luo Mei cried as she held her hands. "What the hell was that? Why did it burn my hand so much? Is it supposed to hurt like that?"
"Hurt?" Alex was surprised for a moment. "Wait, no, you said burned right? Hmm… is my Qi too hot for your body then?" Alex wondered.
"What was that about?" Luo Mei asked.
"Ah, I think my Qi might be… um, too Yangful for you," Alex said.
"It has too much yang? You have a yang-focused spiritual root?" Luo Mei asked as she massaged her wrist. "Thank god I have a water attribute Qi so I can cool my burnings. Imagine you do it on someone with spiritual roots that could not handle it."
Luo Mei had just said it when she remembered, "Ah! Father. You must've hurt father too."
"Shouldn't be," Alex said. "Uncle is in True Realm, he should be able to handle common yang Qi."
"I see. Well… what do we do now? Our plans flopped though. What do we do now?" Luo Mei asked.
"Hmm… ah right," Alex thought as he brought out a book. "This book has the stuff about blood vessels. Try to read it and just understand a general level of knowledge on it."
"You really just need to remember how they are arranged. Once you do that, I will give myself up as a guinea pig for you to try on. Or, you can test on yourself as well."
"For now, I think I will just go and get some rest. I spent all night thinking about Uncle's problem," Alex lied.
"Oh, okay. I will read it by the time you are rested," Luo Mei said.
Alex said his goodbyes and walked out of her room before making his way into his own room. Finally, he logged out of the game.
The day did not differ from any other day aside from the fact that Hannah took away some of his money to pay rent.
He didn't care about it much though. He had enough retirement funds and could earn some more money from the games if need be.
Besides, his stock in the Deva Corp shares was growing every day, along with the other ones.
He logged back into the game after he returned home and went directly to Luo Mei's room.
Luo Mei had read all she could and was gaining a bit of confidence.
"Come here quick. I think I can do it," Luo Mei said happily.
"Sure," Alex walked up to her. "Do it slowly though, or I might have problems."
"Of course I'm going to take care. I'm not going to ruin my talented junior brother's cultivation. Don't worry, just give me your hands," Luo Mei said.
"Very well. I will also check to see if you are doing it right. I will forcefully stop you if something goes wrong," Alex said and put front his wrist.
Luo Mei took a deep breath to calm herself and started pouring in her Qi. Alex used his spiritual sense to look at where she was going, but she didn't make any mistake at the beginning.
'Oh, she knows a little,' he thought. As it went on for more and more, he realized that she truly had learned a lot.
'She didn't slack off after all. Makes sense given her father's life is on the line,' Alex thought.
Luo Mei carefully navigated through his blood vessels. She looked like she would stumble at some places and Alex was ready to destroy her Qi inside of his body, but she found her footings and fully revolved her Qi before it came back to the wrist once more and left.
"Yes! I did it. Haha, see?" Luo Mei proclaimed loudly.
"Congratulations, sister," Alex said.
"Hehe," Luo Mei was really happy. "Wait, does this mean I can become a medical examiner too?"
"No," Alex said as he shook his head. "Learning how to send in your Qi is to check for the problems. You need to know what you are looking for, what you are not looking for, other forms of diagnosis, as well as general knowledge of alchemy to cure someone's illness."
"Oh… then I won't be able to reach your level even if I have spiritual sense huh? That sucks. Whatever, let's proceed with your back then," Luo Mei said.
"Urghh… sure," Alex said and laid on the bed on his chest.
"Um, you are sleeping?" Luo Mei asked.
"It's better if I don't move, so I laid down. You should have uncle do the same thing when you do it as well," Alex said.
"Alright… I just have to reach the stomach right? How do I know what's the stomach? Do I use spiritual sense?" she asked.
"You don't know what blood vessel is connected to what organ, do you?" Alex asked.
Luo Mei shook her head.
"Sigh, alright. You just start and use your spiritual sense to follow around. Unlike the wrist, you might not be able to immediately tell where you are starting from," Alex said.
"Okay," Luo Mei said and lifted Alex's robes. His pristinely smooth back showed itself to Luo Mei for the first time, and she immediately got to searching for the blood vessel."
"I think this is it," Luo Mei said.
"Can you tell me what you think it is?" Alex asked.
"It's the vessel that immediately goes towards the intestines and from there I take a branch to the stomach," Luo Mei said.
"Um… just try a little bit. I will tell you if you are correct," Alex said.
"Okay, here it goes," Luo Mei said and started using her Qi to enter Alex's body. She had just touched onto Alex's blood vessel when he immediately shouted.
"Stop! Stop!"
Luo Mei stopped pouring in Qi and dispersed what remaining there was. "What? Was I wrong?" she asked.
"Yeah. That's the vessel that goes directly to my heart," Alex said. "Try again."
"Hmm… how about this one?" Luo Mei asked and chose another blood vessel around the same area.
"That one goes to my legs," Alex said.
"This?"
"That one goes to the stomach, but it first goes through the lungs," Alex said.
"What about this one?"
"Legs."
"Damn, why are there so many blood vessels in one small place?" she got angry.
"I told you, sister. That's why we use the wrist," Alex said.
"Sigh, what about this one?" she asked.
"Oh, right that's it," Alex said. "You got it."
"Did I? Okay I will start now," Luo Mei said and sent in her Qi. This time, however, she sent in her spiritual sense as well.
"Woah! Why are your meridians so multicolored? What's this… like 6 colors?" she asked.
"7, the yellow and gold colors are hard to differentiate at a glance, but they are there," Alex said.
"Woah, is this what all meridians look like? Mine is just one single deep blue color," Luo Mei said.
"That's because you have the Superior Water roots, sister," Alex said. "Mine is many, meaning it's not that good of a spiritual root."
"Ah, I see," Luo Mei said.
"Anyway, sister. Focus! I don't want you messing up my innards okay?" he said.
"Stop worrying so much. I can split my attention quite easily," Luo Mei said.
She proceeded to send her Qi to the intestine and from there found a blood vessel she could travel up to the stomach.
"That's it," Alex said. "That's right around where you will find your Qi disappearing."
"So, that's where the parasite is stuck?" Luo Mei asked.
"Yes," Alex said.
She immediately stopped all of her Qi from moving anymore and dispersed it. "Okay, let me try once more," she said.
Alex sighed and nodded. She practiced on him for a little longer before deciding to leave and find her father.
She wanted to practice on his body for a while so she could be comfortable when it was her time to bring the True Qi from the other people up to the parasite.
Alex left too and thought about what he needed to do. "Hmm… I should go find sister Xing. She might be able to help me understand more about formations."
