Walking out of the barbaric mountain forest, the view suddenly opened up. On the distant plain, fields crisscrossed, villages scattered like stars, even further away, a not-small mortal town's outline was faintly visible, cooking smoke curling, human presence increasing.
Tang Xiao Qi restrained almost all cultivator aura, only maintaining weak fluctuations around Qi Condensation third or fourth layer, which under his deliberate disguise was no different from those low-level wandering cultivators with poor aptitude, hopeless for Foundation Establishment, only able tomixed in the mortal world. He changed into a washed-white coarse cloth long shirt, carried a half-old medicine box on his back, inside were some ordinary herbs, silver needles, and a few bottles of "Origin-Nourishing Powder" and "Heart-Clearing Pills" he refined in his spare time using lowest-level spirit herbs, quite effective for mortals.
He decided to integrate into this mortal mundane world as a traveling healer's identity.
The first stop was the town ahead named "Green Ox Town."
The town wasn't prosperous, but people came and went, quite lively. Both sides of the bluestone-paved street were lined with shops, peddlers and porters' cries endless. The air was filled with various scents—freshly steamed bun fragrance, medicine shop bitterness, livestock market's raw smell, and the mixed aura of sweat, dust, and hope on all living beings.
Xiao Qi found an unobtrusive corner at the town entrance, spread out a clean coarse cloth, set down the medicine box, set up a simple wooden sign, writing "Practicing Medicine for the World" four characters, the handwriting wasn't particularly good, but had a peaceful and upright air. He didn't shout, just quietly sat on a small folding stool, peacefully observing the passing pedestrians.
At first, no one paid attention to this overly young, weak-aired "healer." Mortals held awe for cultivators, but a Qi Condensation low-level wandering cultivator, in mortals' eyes, might not be as reliable as the old doctor sitting in the town's medicine hall.
Until an afternoon, a hunter with purple-blue face and barely breathing was carried to his stall by his companion.
"Healer, healer! Please save him! He was bitten by that black-line snake!" The hunter's companion's face was full of anxiety, with a crying tone. They had clearly already been to the town's medicine hall, but the old doctor was helpless, bluntly stating unless an immortal master acted, there was no hope. They were treating a dead horse as a live one, trying their luck.
Xiao Qi stood up and carefully examined. The hunter's calf was swollen and black, two clear black lines were spreading upward along the blood vessels, already past the knee bend, indeed bitten by a low-level demonic snake "black-line snake," its venom extremely lethal to mortals.
The townspeople gathered around, pointing and discussing, most with doubt and pity. No one believed this young man couldsolution this deadly poison.
Xiao Qi didn't speak. He opened the medicine box, took out silver needles, and skillfully lightly needled several acupoints on the hunter's leg,seemingly sealing the poison. At the same time, he secretly mobilized a trace of imperceptible purification power, like the finest breeze, following the silver needles into the hunter's body, precisely finding those rampant snake venoms, slowly decomposing and neutralizing them.
To outsiders, he only administered a few needles, then fed the hunter a self-made "detoxification pill" (actually Origin-Nourishing Powder). However, within the time it takes to burn an incense stick, the black lines on the hunter's leg actually began to recede at a speed visible to the naked eye, his purple-blue face gradually returning to ruddy, even issuing a weak groan!
"He's alive! He's really alive!"
"Amazing! This young healer really has skill!"
The surrounding crowd erupted in astonishment, their gazes toward Xiao Qi instantly filled with surprise and awe.
The hunter's companion was even more excited, about to kneel and kowtow, but was gently supported by Xiao Qi. "The poison is controlled, still needs several days of rest. Take this bottle of pills, one daily with warm water." He handed over that bottle of Origin-Nourishing Powder, his voice gentle.
"Thank you, benefactor! Thank you, benefactor!" The hunter's companion thanked him repeatedly, taking out all the silver on his body, though not much, it was everything he had.
Xiao Qi only took a few copper coins, enough for several days' food, and pushed the rest back. "Practicing medicine for the world, not for wealth."
This matter spread from one to ten, from ten to a hundred, and the news that "Green Ox Town has a young healer with superb medical skills and benevolent heart" quickly spread. More and more people came seeking medicine and consultation.
There were children with long-uncured coughs from cold, Xiao Qi used gentle spiritual power to smooth their lung meridians, supplemented with ordinary herbs, quickly curing them.
There were elderly with accumulated fatigue and weakening internal organs, Xiao Qi used Origin-Nourishing Powder to consolidate the foundation and cultivate the origin, secretly transmitting a trace of vitality, delaying their decline.
There were strong men with broken bones from neighborhood fights, Xiao Qi set bones and applied medicine, techniques precise, healing speed far exceeding normal.
There were even women consulting about infertility, though Xiao Qi wasn't skilled in this area, based on his understanding of vitality power, he prescribed some prescriptions for regulating qi and blood, and offered gentle comfort.
He treated diseases not completely relying on purification power and spiritual power. More often, he used the basic medical arts he had learned, combined with his understanding of medicine properties and his cognition of human qi, blood, and meridians. Only when encountering truly medicine-ineffective difficult diseases or evil qi entering the body would he use a trace of imperceptible purification origin, like spring wind turning to rain, quietly eliminating the root cause.
He charged very little, often only taking cost, even charging nothing for poor families. He stayed in the cheapest small inn at the town's end, eating the simplest meals.
Day after day, he sat behind that small stall, receiving patients of all kinds. He listened to their pain and worries, felt their despair and hope. He saw the hardships of life, and the radiance of human nature. There was the filial piety of children anxiously crying for their parents' illness, the deep affection of couples helping each other through hard times, also the helplessness of haggling over a few coins for medicine money, even rascals trying to extort him for being young (scared away by a trace of his weak aura).
These most ordinary, most true joys and sorrows, birth, aging, illness, and death, liketrickling streams, constantly flowed into his heart field, being quietly absorbed by the Dao seed in his dantian.
The Dao seed didn't become radiantly brilliant because of this, instead became more restrained, but the "intent" contained within grew thicker and warmer. It seemed to truly understand the meaning of "guarding" these ordinary lives, experience the comfort and hope brought by "purifying" pain. That was no longer a high-above concept, but transformed into "Dao" with temperature, tightly connected to this mundane world's smoke and fire.
Xiao Qi's state of mind also became more peaceful and inclusive in this daily routine. He was no longer just a cultivator pursuing power, but more like a traveler who truly understood and integrated into this mortal world.
One day at dusk, he saw off the last patient and was about to pack up. An elderly woman in simple clothes and sorrowful face hobbled over, not for consultation, but handed over a still-steaming coarse flour pancake.
"Young healer, eat a pancake... you always refuse to take more money, this old woman feels uneasy in her heart." The elderly woman's eyes were cloudy, but with sincere gratitude; her grandson had a high fever a few days ago, and Xiao Qi had brought him back to health.
Xiao Qi was slightly stunned, looking at that rough yet warm pancake, his heart seemed to be gently touched by something. He took the pancake and said softly: "Thank you, grandmother."
Watching the elderly woman's stooped back disappear into the twilight, he took a bite of the pancake. The rough texture carried the most authentic sweetness of grain.
He looked up toward the setting sun in the west, the sunset glow dyeing Green Ox Town with a warm orange-red. Cooking smoke curled up, children's play sounds came from afar, mixed with mothers calling their children home for dinner.
This was the human world's smoke and fire.
This was the ordinariness he wanted to guard.
Within this was contained the "Dao" he sought.
The Dao seed lightly trembled in the dantian, emitting a joyful and satisfied fluctuation. He knew his path was right. Mundane world refining the heart, healer's benevolent heart, this was merely a beginning.