Joe Di contentedly put away the wooden blade in his hand, his whole body surging with energy. It was as if a scorching current was flowing through him, filling him with strength and vigor. Joe Di knew that he had stepped into the ranks of a Martial Artist.
The Di Family's martial arts were cultivated through movement. In just six days at Tan's Apricot Hall, he had already mastered the First Blade of the Di Family Seven Blades. Mastering the First Blade marked the entry into the Martial Artist stage.
Such cultivation speed was unprecedented in the history of the Di Family.
According to Joe Di's memory, even the most talented disciple in the Di Family needed three months to master the First Blade of the Di Family Seven Blades. Yet he had done it in just six days—and without a teacher.
Moreover, the medicinal herbs he used were of inferior quality—the ginseng and snow lotus he bought were too young, and some ingredients were even artificially cultivated. In the wealthy Di Family of Jiguo, even distant relatives would never use such poor herbs.
This was only possible because Zoe Shen had given him a bank card. After buying those herbs, the more than three hundred thousand yuan in the card was completely spent.
Joe Di touched the gray stone hanging on his chest, feeling deeply grateful for it. The reason his martial aptitude had become so strong was all thanks to this gray stone. Not only that, but even his comprehension and memory had grown frighteningly powerful.
His comprehension had always been good, but never to this extent.
The only regret was that he did not have a good blade. The wooden blade he used was one he had carved himself from a heavy piece of timber.
Mastering the Third Blade of the Di Family Seven Blades meant crossing from Martial Artist to Warrior. Mastering the Fifth Blade elevated one from Warrior to Martial Master. If one could wield the Sixth Blade, that meant becoming a Grand Martial Master. The Seventh Blade signified stepping into the realm of the Martial King.
In the entire history of the Di Family, only the ancestor Ethan Di had mastered the Seventh Blade and reached the realm of the Martial King.
Joe Di put away his blade, knowing that after mastering the First Blade, he needed to find better tonic herbs to consume. The Di Family Seven Blades demanded great physical strength, and if the damage from cultivation wasn’t remedied with medicinal herbs, it would be impossible to reach higher stages—and could even leave serious aftereffects. Every Di Family disciple had to know this.
The money Zoe Shen gave him was gone, and he had already given the Northlake Martial Arts Academy registration to Felix Yu. If he wanted money, he would have to find another way.
Bang bang bang! A series of knocks sounded from outside. Joe Di, puzzled, put down the wooden blade and stepped out of the backyard.
In these six days, aside from Uncle Hu visiting once, not a single patient—or even a stray cat—had come here.
Even Uncle Hu only came at noon. That’s why Joe Di usually got up at four in the morning, practiced martial arts until ten, and then opened the door. After opening, even if he wasn’t training, he would study the Di Family Seven Blades. At four in the afternoon, he’d close up and practice until ten at night.
It was only about five o’clock now, so someone knocking at this hour was a first.
When the door opened, standing there was a woman around thirty years old, carrying a man of similar age on her back.
Her hair was a bit messy, with a few strands stuck to her face still damp with the morning dew. The woman was rather delicate-looking, and from the sweat on her face, it was clear she had carried the man all the way here.
To carry a grown man here, no matter how far she had come, showed that this woman possessed considerable strength.
Wait, there was a faint scent of blood. Looking down, Joe Di saw that blood had already soaked through the woman's back, even staining her pants.
The man's face was pale; he was clearly gravely injured.
"Doctor, please help him..." The woman ignored Joe Di’s gaze, her tone pleading.
"There’s no doctor here right now. You should go to the hospital..."
Before Joe Di could finish, the woman pleaded again, "Please, please save him. If you don’t help, he won’t make it..."
Even without her words, Joe Di could see that the man she carried was on the verge of death; he had lost far too much blood.
After a moment’s hesitation, Joe Di stepped aside and said, "Then bring him into the operating room."
The old master of Tan's Apricot Hall no longer practiced medicine, and his granddaughter Yvette Tan had gone to the Yanda Martial Arts Department. Joe Di was only here as a caretaker.
The woman stepped inside in a single stride. Even in such a tense moment, she remembered to use her foot to close the shop door behind her.
After the woman placed the man on the operating table, Joe Di immediately understood why she hadn’t gone to the hospital, or even begged someone who clearly wasn’t a doctor for help. The man’s injuries were gunshot wounds—and not just one.
Regardless of whether the woman was desperately seeking help, Joe Di could tell that the man had been through a gunfight and was severely wounded as a result.
Joe Di retained part of his memories from his previous life and knew that guns were forbidden in Huaxia. Clearly, these two were not ordinary citizens.
The woman nervously stared at Joe Di, making him wonder if the man was really her husband.
Whether the two were married or not, Joe Di didn’t care. In Jiguo, though he couldn’t learn martial arts, he had seen plenty of corpses. Without asking any questions, he simply put on a white coat and mask, took out the surgical kit from the rack, and got to work.
Joe Di used acupuncture to seal the acupoints at two of the man’s wounds, stopping the bleeding, then took out a scalpel. As soon as the scalpel was in his hand, he felt a strange sensation—not a medical insight, but a realization about the Di Family Seven Blades.
After a brief pause, Joe Di made a swift cut with the scalpel, and with the fastest motion, used forceps to extract the bullets. As for disinfection and anesthesia, he didn’t bother with any of that.
Joe Di was already a master of medicine, and after becoming a Martial Artist, his hands were even steadier. As a Martial Artist, he could also use true energy. While his true energy couldn’t completely prevent infection, it could minimize the risk as much as possible.
Even if Joe Di took the time to disinfect, it wouldn’t be much better than using true energy. Besides, the man didn’t have that much time left.
The woman who carried the man clearly hadn’t considered any of this. She stared blankly as Joe Di swiftly removed two bullets and tossed them aside. By the time she snapped out of it, Joe Di had already sprinkled some medicinal powder on the wounds and bandaged them.
The medicinal powder was made by Joe Di himself, using herbs he had gathered.
"It’s done. You can take him away now." Joe Di wiped his hands. In fact, after the surgery, there was barely any blood on his hands.
"Thank you, thank you..." The woman came to her senses and kept thanking Joe Di. She realized that he was definitely not just some ordinary errand boy. Someone who handled a scalpel so steadily couldn’t be a mere helper.
She had seen people remove bullets before, but never as simply and quickly as Joe Di did. She was certain that even the world’s top surgeons couldn’t match that speed.
Joe Di waved his hand. "No need to thank me."
"But I don’t have any money right now. The fee for the surgery..."
"Just pay me next time when you have money." Joe Di interrupted her. The surgery had given him an insight—if he replaced the wooden blade with a real one, his cultivation of the Di Family Seven Blades would progress even faster.
This minor surgery wasn’t worth much; the truly valuable thing was his medicinal powder.
What he needed most now was to find a blacksmith to forge a steel blade for himself.
"Alright, my name is Sherry Shi. I’ll definitely bring your money, but please don’t tell your boss about this." The woman was decisive; after speaking, she picked up the two bullets, hoisted the man onto her back again, and left.
As soon as Sherry Shi left and before Joe Di could finish cleaning up the operating room, a cold voice sounded: "You refuse to live well, and insist on courting death."
Joe Di suddenly turned, staring intently at the door of the operating room, gripping the scalpel tightly in his hand.
(That’s all for today’s update. Good night, friends! As for bonus chapters, the Silver Alliance Leader still has a second bonus, and other leaders have one each. Also, the bonus chapters owed for 'Immortal Mortal' and others will be delivered gradually—as long as I keep writing, those debts won’t be forgotten. Progress is slow in the early stages of a new book, but once the story picks up, I’ll speed up and deliver them one by one.)