"Sister Jiu, are you a doctor?"
Hui'er wore a smile, but her eyes held a hint of undetectable disappointment.
"We've asked physicians before, and they said my mother's illness is difficult to treat, and besides, we have no money for medical expenses."
Hui'er said this without regard for her mother, and Jiu could tell that her mother knew she was beyond treatment, so she didn't even show any emotion.
"Can Sister Jiu first let your mother eat something?"
Jiu was not confident. She knew nothing about this plague. If her sister-in-law were here, perhaps she could glean some details from her and then consult the books in the system.
"Yes, Sister Jiu, my mother hasn't eaten anything for a long time."
Hui'er quickly ran out and brought a stool.
Jiu sat down, took out her needle bag, closed her eyes, and took a deep breath to calm herself before inserting a few needles.
After these few needles, Jiu surprisingly found that her ears were not red, which was a sign of depletion of vital essence.
What kind of plague could exhaust a person to this extent?
Even when Jiu rotated the needles, the woman felt nothing.
"Jiu'er, how is it? Any leads?" Wang Shi had not left and was watching.
Jiu shook her head silently.
"Auntie, may I take a piece of flesh from you?" Jiu suddenly made a request.
The woman on the bed was on the verge of death and had no strength: "Mm."
Fearing she would be in pain, Jiu carefully used a silver needle to prick an acupuncture point and then used a cow horn knife to shave off a small piece of flesh from her festering area.
Looking at the woman again, she showed no reaction. She didn't even feel pain.
Jiu felt the pressure increasing. No pain meant the nerves were also damaged.
Jiu wrapped the small piece of flesh in a cloth.
Strangely, no blood flowed from the wound. Jiu wasn't surprised by this. She was so depleted that her entire body was like a frame; where would blood flow from?
"Hui'er, I'll come back tomorrow."
Jiu didn't say a word on her way back.
This time, she truly didn't have the leisure to go purely for merit points as her grandmother had said. This illness was too terrifying, and the suffering was beyond what ordinary people could bear.
She didn't go home, finding it too noisy, and climbed to the mountaintop alone.
Wang Shi did not disturb her, sitting on a rock not far away and meditating.
Jiu took out the tattered cloth and unfolded it to look at the piece of flesh, the size of a fingernail. She frowned.
She had only heard her sister-in-law say that eating the flesh of someone with this illness was definitely contagious.
Space.
Jiu spread the piece of flesh by the spiritual spring:
"Earth Dragon, you try it."
Jiu knew it was the king cobra. It was immune to all poisons, and many snakes feared it. She decided to give it a try.
The water in the spiritual spring pool rippled slightly. Little Earth Dragon's head emerged from the water, and it crawled ashore, swaying its body.
Without hesitation, it ate the piece of flesh.
Jiu stared intently at Little Earth Dragon.
It flicked its tongue repeatedly, looking around. It held its head high, as if it wanted to eat more.
"Do you feel uncomfortable now?" This was what Jiu wanted to know most.
Seeing Earth Dragon move about as if nothing had happened, Jiu decided to observe it further.
She might as well take this opportunity to read the book "Eight Methods of the Spirit Turtle."
To Jiu's surprise, the inspiration for the book's title came from a turtle shell. The outer ring represented the twenty-four solar terms, the inside represented the five elements, and the middle ring was the Eight Trigrams.
The acupuncture points of the human body were all displayed on the turtle's shell.
She understood that among the eight meridians in the "Eight Extraordinary Meridians," the Liver and Gallbladder meridians, particularly the Shao Yang and Shao Yin channels, could promote detoxification.
Jiu read the first part and then put the book away. When she opened her eyes, she saw Little Earth Dragon still swimming happily in the water.
The book mentioned, "Using poison to fight poison"?
Jiu's hands trembled. If it all went wrong, she would not have saved the person but poisoned them instead.
Jiu didn't use anything else. She directly used the silk handkerchief that Aunt Wu had given her, grabbed Little Earth Dragon, and stuffed the handkerchief into its mouth.
"Earth Dragon, I know you can understand me. Release some of your venom for me."
Its two fangs were raised, and a mouthful of snake venom was extracted.