Chapter 46: Cold Wind, Tea Aroma

How can that be possible? Guo Sirou had the same experience as what the middle-aged man had experienced. The only difference was that she wasn't prepared for it. Instead, she was just frozen.

In fact, these young trees were very small and thin—they couldn't block anybody. If they wanted to come out, they would be able to go through the trees. But a few bruises and some blood would be inevitable.

"Move one step to the left, then walk back." When Guo Sirou was in shock and had no idea what to do, she suddenly heard the prompt behind her. So she followed the instruction and came out of the array method.

"What is this?" She had never seen this before although she was from a prominent family and had seen much of the world. It was the first time she saw something so mysterious.

It is the art of becoming invisible and five lines of eight diagrams, which have been spread from one generation to another over one thousand years. It is our national treasure. I thought this was ancient and hidden—I didn't expect to see it here. I'm really surprised. Now I'm more and more curious about who this young man is! Thought the middle-aged man.

Now, the young man they were in a hurry to meet was standing outside the door. When Wang Yao heard the dog barking he knew that there were people coming to the hill again. He went out and saw two familiar figures.

"Hello Ms. Guo and Mr. He," said Wang Yao.

"Hello. It's a bit weird for you to call me Ms. Guo. I'm a bit older than you so you can just call me auntie. As for Mr. He, you can call him uncle He or just He," said Guo Sirou.

"Okay," smiled Wang Yao.

"Did you make this array method?" asked the middle-aged man eagerly.

"Yes, why?" said Wang Yao with a smile.

"Where did you learn it from?" asked the middle-aged man.

"I learned it myself from a book," said Wang Yao.

"What?!"

Guo Sirou and the middle-aged man were so surprised to hear that.

"That's impossible!" laughed the middle-aged man.

"Why?" asked Wang Yao.

"Do you understand I Ching?" asked the middle-aged man as he ignored Wang Yao's question.

"I don't." Wang Yao shook his head.

"How about the fine lines of the eight diagrams?"

"I know a little bit of it," said Wang Yao and he was not lying. The book Fine Lines Method had mentioned knowledge of fine lines but rarely mentioned eight diagrams.

"Do you know Yin and Yang?"

"I know a little," Wang Yao's answer surprised the middle-aged man. Wang Yao wasn't lying about that either. The Natural Classics book given to him by the system mentioned Yin and Yang, which were the most basic and most mysterious things in the world. He had also read a number of classic books about Tao, a lot of which also mentioned Yin and Yang.

"Do you know geography?"

Wang Yao shake his head. He knew the geography the man was talking about was not the same thing he studied in school. It was more profound—Geomancy.

"To my knowledge, it is not easy to make such an array. It requires the knowledge of I Ching, fine lines, Yin, Yang and Geomancy. Otherwise one can only get the shape of the array, but not the essence of the array you made," said the middle-aged man.

Wang Yao was surprised to hear that and he started to be cautious. As the old saying went, "an innocent man gets into trouble because of his wealth".

Sometimes it was not a good thing to know too much. Especially in today's society. The middle-aged man, whose name was He Qisheng was obviously very interested in the array Wang Yao made.

"Uncle He?" said Guo Sirou.

"I'm sorry, I was so surprised that I was a little bit lost!" He Qisheng just recovered himself.

"That's alright. I think you two must be here for other things," Wang Yao said with a smile.

"Yes. I'm not sure if you can introduce us to your master?" asked Guo Sirou.

"No!" Wang Yao declined without hesitation.

"Why?" asked Guo Sirou.

"My master doesn't see any strangers now. And he is not in Lian Shan," said Wang Yao.

"Where has he gone?" asked Guo Sirou nervously.

"He has gone to the Northwest." The story Wang Yao Made up about his master was getting bigger and less logical. So he just told people he didn't know where his master was.

"Northwest?" Guo Sirou frowned after she heard this.

"Miss, maybe he himself can help," He Qisheng reminded Guo Sirou quietly.

"Well," Guo Sirou looked at Wang Yao, "can you do it?"

"What's happening is that one of the elderlies in the family has been quite sick. We want to get someone capable to have a look," said Guo Sirou.

"I..." as soon as Wang Yao was about to talk, he heard the prompts from the system.

Task: special request, satisfy Guo Sirou's request.

Reward: one bag of seeds and one formula.

Punishment for failure: deduct one point from any of the attributes.

P.S: you cannot leave the hill voluntarily.

The tasks were getting trickier. This time, he didn't even know what disease the patient had and he was not allowed to leave the hill voluntarily. That meant that the patient had to come to him. Wang Yao was not confident with his medical skills and he was worried that people would find out he was not that good. The only good thing was that there was no time limit on this task.

"Well, what kind of disease does your family member have?" asked Wang Yao after some hesitation.

"He has been very weak; he has multiple organ failures," said Guo Sirou.

"What?!" said Wang Yao.

This was a very tricky disease. He was filled with wisdom by the system and obtained some knowledge of Traditional Chinese Medicine by reading some books related to Chinese Medicine. So, he knew there could be various reasons for multiple organ failures and it would be very hard to find out the exact cause.

"How old is he?" asked Wang Yao.

"84," said Guo Sirou.

That old?! Wang Yao frowned.

"I could try," said Wang Yao.

"What?!"

"Really?!"

Guo Sirou and He Qisheng opened their mouths at the same time but different words came out.

"But I'm pretty occupied now. I am unable to leave the hill for a long time. He would have to come here," said Wang Yao.

"My grandpa is bedbound. He can't even talk properly. How can he come here?" said Guo Sirou with a forced smile.

"I see. Can you show me his medical notes?" Wang Yao didn't care too much about the task. After all, he would only lose one point if he failed. It would only affect him mildly given his current situation, but he would still try to do it.

"Okay, I will bring it to you as soon as possible," said Guo Sirou.

"Don't stand here. It's cold outside. Please come inside," Wang Yao invited the two of them into the cottage.

One small table, one pot of tea, and a mild aroma.

"Nice tea!" Guo Sirou's eyes brightened after she drank the tea.

"Indeed!" said He Qisheng.

The two of them were average Joes; they had tasted almost all the famous teas in the country, but they were still impressed by the tea given to them by Wang Yao.