Zhang Yan was still immersed in the aftertaste of the extreme contrast between ice and fire, with his mind blank.
He stared blankly at the hand extended by Lu Jiu. It was clean, slender, and neatly trimmed, standing out starkly in this old clinic.
"Hands." Lu Jiu's voice sounded again, calm but carrying an irresistible tone.
Zhang Yan shuddered, driven by his body's instinct to obey. He cautiously extended his right hand from the metal bucket, with ice crystals still hanging from his wrist. The redness on his skin had faded, revealing a bluish-white hue.
The wrist was still burning hot, but it was temporarily suppressed by the coldness of the refrigerant.
Lu Jiu extended his index, middle, and ring fingers and, without hesitation, placed them on the "Cun, Guan, Chi" three points on the inner side of Zhang Yan's wrist.
His fingertips distinctly sensed that Zhang Yan's skin was at an extremely high temperature, hot enough to instantly cause ordinary people to develop blisters.
However, Lu Jiu didn't even frown, as if what he was touching wasn't a red-hot iron but a piece of warm jade.
He closed his eyes and muttered softly, "Three parts, nine conditions, open." In an instant, the world before Lu Jiu's eyes changed.
It's no longer a clinic filled with mist, nor are there patients shivering in fear.
His perception sank into a strange space.
Zhang Yan's pulse, under his fingers, was no longer the throbbing of blood, but rather three surging rivers of energy.
The "Cun pulse" closest to the palm is as red as blood, no, even more brilliant than blood, like a river of boiling lava. Countless bubbles explode in the river of lava, and every explosion sets off a towering heat wave.
The pot is boiling away from the fire.
These four words emerged in Lu Jiu's mind.
His perception flowed downstream, reaching the "Guan pulse" in the middle. The condition of this river was slightly better, but it was already turbid and unbearable. The river water was squeezed by two forces from above and below, alternating between crimson and deep blue, barely maintaining a fragile balance amidst conflict and collision.
Lastly, it is the "Chi pulse" near the arm.
When Lu Jiu's consciousness "saw" the scene there, his heart sank.
Where is the river?
It was clearly a completely dried-up riverbed.
The earth cracked, the cracks deep and bottomless, devoid of any moisture, leaving only deathly silence and exhaustion.
The water of the tenth month is about to dry up.
The imbalance between water and fire, and the disorder of yin and yang.
Zhang Yan's body felt like a pot being heated over a fire, with the water inside about to boil dry. The next step would be the destruction of both the pot and the person inside.
No wonder he felt like he was on fire.
This is not a feeling, but a fact.
Lu Jiu's consciousness did not linger. He ventured against the fiercest river of magma, probing towards its source.
He wanted to find out where this unparalleled domineering fire came from.
The river of magma grew increasingly turbulent, its searing energy sweeping over his senses, attempting to incinerate him, an "outsider," to ashes.
Through the layers of heat waves, in the deepest part of the fire vein, Lu Jiu's consciousness was abruptly pulled in by a stronger force.
The scene before my eyes shifted once again.
He found himself hovering above an endless sea of fire.
The flame was not an ordinary one; it shone brightly in golden color, burning without producing a trace of smoke, appearing sacred and pure.
In the midst of the sea of fire, a giant bird bathed in golden flames stood on one leg in the void.
It is crimson all over, with feathers like burning red clouds and a beak as sharp as a hook.
It closed its eyes, stretched its neck towards the sky, and let out a long cry that pierced the clouds and shattered rocks.
The sound carried no emotion, yet it was filled with two diametrically opposed majesties: sacredness and tyranny.
It's him.
This is the root of all Zhang Yan's pain.
Lu Jiu's heart skipped a beat, but immediately after, a stronger sense of interest surged up in his heart. He had seen records about this item on the oldest beast skin scroll in his school, but seeing it with his own eyes was still a first.
This is much more interesting than what's depicted in the book.
At the moment he was intently observing, the one-legged firebird seemed to sense his prying eyes and abruptly stopped its long cry.
It suddenly opened its eyes.
That was a pair of golden vertical pupils.
There was no white of the eye, only pure, burning gold, cold and arrogant, filled with a tyranny that treated all things as mere playthings.
Its gaze pierced through the illusion, spanning reality and nothingness, and met the strand of consciousness that Lu Jiu had probed deep into his pulse, gazing at each other across the void.
"Buzz——" A surge of indescribable violent will, carrying the searing heat that could incinerate everything, followed Lu Jiu's fingertips and rebounded furiously along the energy meridian.
The will was roaring and howling, as if warning the mortal who dared to pry into the realm of the divine.
Get out!
Lu Jiu's body involuntarily trembled, and he let out a muffled groan.
His face instantly turned a shade paler.
But the three fingers resting on Zhang Yan's wrist were as steady as Mount Taishan, seemingly nailed to the spot, not moving an inch.
Crouched inside the metal barrel, Zhang Yan could only see the young doctor with his eyes closed, a thin trail of sweat oozing from his forehead, yet his expression remained eerily calm. Just moments ago, he felt the searing heat within him, as if it were about to incinerate everything, but it seemed to have hit an invisible wall of ice, and was even forcefully pushed back by an even more domineering and ominous power!
The doctor's "coldness" is even more terrifying than the "fire" inside me!
He was unaware that within these mere seconds, Lu Jiu's consciousness was undergoing a perilous confrontation.
"A mere mortal, how dare you pry into my presence!" The voice, ancient and grand, boomed directly in Lu Jiu's consciousness.
Lu Jiu laughed.
His consciousness no longer remained in a state of emptiness, but transformed into a hand composed of countless profound runes, emanating a deep and cold aura, effortlessly grasping the oncoming shadow of the firebird.
"A remnant soul of Bifang that nearly burned its host to death also dares to claim itself as the true self?" The berserk will suddenly faltered, as if it had never expected this mortal to not only reveal its true form with a single word, but also to suppress its divine fire will so easily!
"You..." "The host you're parasitizing is about to be burned dry by you," Lu Jiu said, not giving it a chance to speak, his voice still calm. "If the host dies, how long can you sustain with this remnant soul?" The remnant soul of Bifang fell silent.
"I can save him, so naturally I can save you," Lu Jiu continued. "Save me?" Bifang's remnant soul's voice was filled with disdain and tyranny. "Mortal, do you know who you're talking to? My true form only needs a trace of divine fire to incinerate your soul!" "Is that so?" Lu Jiu's hand of consciousness gently twisted, and the shadow of the firebird let out a mournful cry, its light dimming a bit.
"Then let me see how much ability you still have left." In reality, Lu Jiu's lips curled up slightly, revealing a hint of amusement.
He gently twisted the finger resting on Zhang Yan's wrist.
"Just in time, I'm still lacking a high-quality essence of yang fire in my clinic's medicine cabinet," he thought to himself. Recently, he had consumed a considerable amount of resources to maintain the operation of his clinic, and it was time to find some "tonics".
"I think this little bird is quite suitable for you."