"Sorry, not yet. I still need to fix Aunt Qi's family's roof..."
The group, whose eyes had dimmed and whose expressions had turned sour, raised their heads together upon hearing this.
Fang Zhi hurriedly asked, "Xiao Ning, what about after you finish fixing the roof?"
Lin Ning glanced at him and said flatly, "Public is public, private is private. Even though we dislike each other, a healer should have a benevolent heart, and since you're going on an expedition for the stronghold, I won't stand by and do nothing."
Hearing this, Fang Zhi sucked in a breath of cold air, exchanged glances with Zhou Shi and Zeng Niu, and all of them began to look at Lin Ning with new eyes.
Fang Zhi recalled what his father had said before—could it be that he'd truly had an awakening?
If it had been the old Lin Xiaoning, even if he hadn't burst out laughing and mocked them with biting sarcasm, he would have at least looked at them with disdain and ignored them entirely.
The person before them now was truly very different from the impression they'd had of him...
After taking a deep breath, Fang Zhi looked at Lin Ning and said, "We'll come help too!"
Lin Ning naturally had no objection—the two merit points for repairing the house were already in hand...
……
Half an hour later, after Aunt Qi thanked them repeatedly, the group declined her offer to stay for a meal and returned to Ink Bamboo Courtyard.
Aunt Chun was stunned for a moment when she saw the group arrive, then laughed and said, "Why didn't you send someone ahead to let me know? I haven't prepared nearly enough food."
Fang Zhi hastily said, "No need, no need, we just came to ask Xiao Ning for a favor." Then he bowed and said, "Aunt Chun, today it was we juniors who were in the wrong. Please bear with us!"
Behind him, Zhou Shi and Zeng Niu, already bruised and battered, now flushed red with embarrassment. They hadn't expected Aunt Chun not to dig at them further this time, and together they bowed and said, "Aunt Chun, today we were the ones in the wrong..."
A flash of joy crossed Aunt Chun's eyes, and her gentle, warm face was full of smiles. She clapped her hands and laughed, "Oh, you children—which one of you didn't I watch grow up? Still standing on ceremony? Even the tongue and teeth quarrel sometimes, so how could a bunch of mischievous brats not? You're all good children. It'd be wrong for you to come home at noon and not eat. None of you are allowed to leave. I'll cook a bit more. Jiu'er, Cui'er, come help me."
So saying, she called Little Jiu Niang and Cui'er over to the kitchen.
Lin Ning glanced at Zhou Shi and Zeng Niu, both looking rather sullen, then led them inside and said, "Sit for now, I'll go prepare things."
Fang Zhi quickly laughed and said, "Xiao Ning, just go ahead. We're not strangers here, we know this place well."
Lin Ning smiled slightly, nodded, and went into the west wing.
After he left, the three of them were left in the guest hall, looking at each other.
After a good while, Zhou Shi asked Zeng Niu, somewhat irritated, "That day, was your judgment right or not?"
Zeng Niu looked wronged. "It was right, but..."
"But what?"
Fang Zhi asked.
Zeng Niu said helplessly, "But today they acted the same way, and it turned out to be just horsing around."
Fang Zhi thought for a moment, then asked, "That day when you hit him, did he not fight back?"
Zeng Niu shook his head.
Fang Zhi frowned and said, "That's odd. I heard my father say that Xiao Ning has eaten Dragon Blood Rice since childhood, and on top of that, Uncle Lin might have opened his meridians and activated his acupoints for him before, so even though he's never practiced martial arts, he has the strength of a second-rate master. Today, Shi Tou and you both got careless, and that gave him the opening he needed to defeat you both..." At this point Fang Zhi suddenly grew angry and scolded them out of frustration, "How many times have I told you? Never underestimate anyone. Even a lion uses its full strength against a rabbit, and yet look at you! Xiao Ning hasn't seriously practiced martial arts a single day in his life, and you two still..."
Today had truly humiliated this group of second-generation mountain bandits!
Zhou Shi and Zeng Niu flushed red to their ears, their hearts filled with shame.
Thinking back on it now, Lin Ning really hadn't displayed much in the way of martial arts skill at the time—he'd just had somewhat more strength, and a calm mind.
Though their martial arts were strong, they'd still paid the price for their arrogance and disdain...
"Enough. The elders are right—we're all brothers of the same stronghold, and the Lin family has done our families great kindness. A loss is a loss, let's not bring it up again. Besides, from now on the Herbal Hut will likely be handed over to Xiao Ning. Think carefully about the consequences of offending him."
Seeing the two of them with nowhere to hide their shame, Fang Zhi added this advice, somewhat helplessly.
Zhou Shi and Zeng Niu, their hearts bitterer than coptis root, nodded with faces full of bitterness...
From now on, Lin Ning, who controlled the Herbal Hut, practically held their lives in his hands—what more was there to fuss about!
……
In the west wing, Lin Ning first put away the needle box, changed into a clean set of clothes, and sat upright at his desk.
In his heart, he softly murmured, "Heavenly Dao."
The Heavenly Dao Panel appeared before his eyes:
Lin Ning: Lv 2（0/20）
Merit Points: 10
Strength: 42 Agility: 19 Intelligence: 8 Charisma: 4
Skill Slots:
Qiankun Strength: Minor Accomplishment（0/150）
Hundred Herbs Scripture: Initial Glimpse（0/10）
Level up!
From a level 1 rookie to a level 2 rookie.
The level-up granted 2 points of strength, 1 point of agility, and 1 point each of intelligence and charisma...
The increase wasn't very large, and Lin Ning didn't notice any obvious change.
However, the merit points needed to upgrade 《Hundred Herbs Scripture》 to Minor Accomplishment had finally been saved up!
Without hesitation, Lin Ning put all ten merit points into 《Hundred Herbs Scripture》.
Then he felt countless images fill his mind once more, and he slowly closed his eyes...
After the time it took to drink a cup of tea, he opened his eyes again, his gaze now even gentler and clearer.
Though he didn't notice it himself, the boost from that one point of intelligence and one point of charisma did in fact have an effect...
The data on the panel changed once more—his merit points reset to zero, but in the skill slots, 《Hundred Herbs Scripture》 had gone from Initial Glimpse to Minor Accomplishment（0/120）!
Seeing this number, Lin Ning sucked in a breath of cold air.
He knew well that in the Heavenly Dao game, the merit points needed to learn and upgrade support skills were far lower than those needed for martial arts manuals.
And yet the merit points required to upgrade half of 《Hundred Herbs Scripture》 were only thirty points less than for 《Qiankun Strength》.
From this, it was clear that the actual quality of 《Hundred Herbs Scripture》 was far higher than that of 《Qiankun Strength》.
Then again, that made sense—《Qiankun Strength》 was merely the signature cultivation method of a forest bandit leader, while 《Hundred Herbs Scripture》 was the valley-guarding ultimate skill of Medicine King Valley.
Medicine King Valley was, after all, a top-tier power that the Black Ice Platform, the Imperial City Department, and Jixia Academy—the three strongest powers in the world—had joined forces to suppress and destroy.
Thinking of this, Lin Ning once again felt grateful for Doctor An's generous gift...
……
The guest hall.
"Why isn't he coming yet?"
After waiting a long while, not to mention Zhou Shi and Zeng Niu, whose hearts had already been uneasy, even Fang Zhi began to grow restless.
Could it be that Lin Ning was toying with them?
Fortunately, just as the three of them were about to lose their patience, Lin Ning emerged, needle box in his left hand and a small wooden bucket in his right. Without any explanation, he simply said to Zhou Shi, "Take off your upper garment."
This bluntness, instead, left the three of them uneasy—they'd expected Lin Ning to toy with them and mock them a bit more.
Fang Zhi nudged Zhou Shi's arm and said, "Hurry up and strip!"
Zhou Shi hastily took off his upper garment, revealing a sturdy but rather battered-looking torso.
A large purple, swollen patch covered his abdomen, looking rather alarming.
Without giving the embarrassed Zhou Shi any chance to say anything, Lin Ning took out five silver needles, each five inches long, and inserted them into the five major acupoints on his upper body—Tiantu, Zigong, Zhongting, Jianli, and Guanyuan. Finally, he took out a seven-inch-long needle and, with Zhou Shi's face pale and his heart in his throat while Fang Zhi and Zeng Niu held their breath, slowly pierced it into Zhou Shi's Juque acupoint.
It sank in a full four inches, and Zhou Shi's eyes went wide with fright. Then they saw Lin Ning flick his finger against the tail of the needle—a soft "hum" sounded, and the three of them gasped in shock as a stream of black blood came rushing down along the silver needle.
Lin Ning brought over the small wooden bucket he'd prepared beside the desk earlier and placed it beneath the needle to catch the blood.
As the dark red, stagnant blood flowed out, Lin Ning worked from bottom to top, pulling out the silver needles one by one from the five major acupoints—Guanyuan, Jianli, Zhongting, Zigong, and Tiantu.
Finally, seeing the black blood gradually turn red, he casually removed the seven-inch-long needle.
With that, no trace of Zhou Shi's injuries remained visible.
This astonishing display of needlework left all three of them staring in open-mouthed shock!
They never could have dreamed that Lin Ning, who had always been an idle, arrogant, and rude good-for-nothing, would possess medical skill of this caliber.
It seemed he was perhaps not much inferior to Doctor An.
Truly...
They wouldn't have dared imagine it even in their dreams!
Seeing Lin Ning walk over to him with a calm expression, Zeng Niu had already flushed red to his ears. In a muffled voice, he asked, "Xiao Ning, you... that day, were you really... really just fooling around with Little Jiu'er? Like today?"
Lin Ning paused for a moment, then nodded and said, "Yes. I have so few relatives left—how could I ever hurt her?"
Hearing this, Zeng Niu's face flushed dark purple. He suddenly raised his hand and slapped himself across the face twice—"smack, smack"—tears of regret welling up in his ox-like eyes.
Seeing that he was about to hit himself again, Lin Ning frowned and snapped, "Enough. It was just a misunderstanding, what's the point of this? Are you still a child?"
Lin Ning was, in truth, also feeling helpless about it. If the original body had really been bullied, then having taken over everything that belonged to him, Lin Ning naturally ought to take revenge on his behalf.
But given the kind of person the original body had been, Lin Ning couldn't even bear to look closely at his character, let alone take revenge for him and go on hurting others...
The most he could do was treat the past as nothing but a misunderstanding...
Zeng Niu froze, then said shamefacedly, "It's all because I'm stupid that this happened..."
Lin Ning's expression eased, and he said flatly, "This matter isn't entirely your fault... Though I came from the stronghold, I've never been one to fit in easily, and with both my parents gone, it's inevitable that my temperament turned solitary and stubborn. But none of this is a major matter. Even if we can't be close, we shouldn't become enemies either. There's no deep grudge between us. In the future, if you're hurt or ill, feel free to come find me."
Hearing this, Zeng Niu's heart filled with even greater shame. He dropped to his knees with a thud and began kowtowing loudly.
Lin Ning, at a loss, said to Fang Zhi, "Pull him up. He's too dense, there's no reasoning with him."
Fang Zhi hurried over to pull Zeng Niu up. Once he was up, his face covered in dirt and tears, he said, "It was me who acted like a petty man. I'm sorry, Xiao Ning, and I even hit you..."
Seeing Lin Ning's expression grow increasingly displeased, Fang Zhi hastily urged, "All right, all right, Xiao Ning himself already said it was just a misunderstanding. We're all from the same stronghold—even if a misunderstanding sparked a conflict at first, does that mean it has to turn into a mortal feud? No need to be so petty about it... A Niu, quit rambling, get up already. From now on, earn more merit and help strengthen the stronghold's reputation—that's worth more than anything else."
After Zeng Niu got to his feet, Lin Ning administered acupuncture to him as well.
After finally withdrawing the needles, he said to Zhou Shi and Zeng Niu, "I've used the needles to suppress your internal injuries for now. Zeng Niu, you're fine, nothing serious. Zhou Shi, yours is more severe. Once you return from the expedition, come back for another round of acupuncture, and remember to go to the Herbal Hut to collect some medicine."
Hearing this, Zhou Shi looked at Lin Ning, took a deep breath, nodded, and cupped his hands in a bow. "Thank you... I'm sorry about today. Goodbye!"
With that, truly unable to stay any longer out of shame, he turned and left.
Zeng Niu handled himself a bit better, even grinning at Lin Ning and saying, "Xiao Ning, later—later you can beat me up again, all right!"
Lin Ning smiled slightly and said, "No need to keep repeating the same thing over and over. You all have a major event tomorrow, go back and prepare. Take care."
Fang Zhi and Zeng Niu both straightened their expressions, cupped their hands together in a bow, and took their leave.
……
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