Physician's Odyssey

Su Tao's luck wasn't good or bad. He was placed in the second bracket, together with a powerful competitor, Bai Fan, while Wang Guofeng was on the first bracket.

He drew a number of 19, and his first competitor was a Physician from Yuezhou, Yi Ruhuan. This fellow was a slightly plump, 32-year-old that took the initiative to look for Su Tao during the break.

Yi Ruhuan smiled. "Do enlighten me in our competition. I'm the competitor numbered 20!"

Su Tao had some knowledge on everyone that participated in this tournament, but he was briefly stunned when he saw Yi Ruhuan. On the photo he received, Ri Yuhuan was a slender young man. But in reality, he looked plump and old, looking to be in his forties at first glance.

From the information that was given to him by Yan Jing, he knew that Yi Ruhuan was an authoritative figure in Yuezhou TCM Hospital. Although he wasn't famous, his foundation was sturdy and especially excelled in acupuncture. Taking a glance at Yi Ruhuan, Su Tao could sense the faint Qi circulating in his body. Sure enough, none of the competitors in the Physician King Tournament were pushovers.

Shaking his hand with Su Tao, Yi Ruhuan's intention wasn't just a simple greeting. He had briefly circulated the Qi in his body to come in contact with Su Tao's palm, but he felt that his Qi was a pebble thrown into the ocean, immediately disappearing without a trace. Yi Ruhuan had quickly analysed that this young man had a knack or two.

However, he wasn't particularly worried about that. After all, Su Tao looked to be in his twenties, so how many patients could he have treated? Experience was something that TCM strongly emphasised on.

Returning to his seat, a brown and skinny middle-aged man asked, "What's the result of sounding him out?"

Yi Ruhuan replied with a casual smile, "It's a young brat, what does he know? But he has trained in Qi, so his acupuncture techniques should be pretty good."

"If your opponent isn't strong, then preserve your strength. After all, the champion is what you're aiming for, so remain low-profile so that you can stun everyone in the final moment!" A light flashed in the eyes of the middle-aged man.

"You still hope to win a large sum of money?" Yi Ruhuan's eyes flickered as he grinned. "Rest assured, I will certainly drag Wang Guofeng down from the height and let him know who the true genius in TCM is."

The middle-aged man nodded in satisfaction. He had dumped a considerable sum of money on Yi Ruhuan. He reminded with his eyes narrowed, "But you can't underestimate Bai Fan from your bracket. He's the Senior Disciple of the Medicine King Valley. Since he dares to compete with Wang Guofeng at the same tournament, that means that he must have confidence in himself."

Yi Ruhuan grinned that revealed his yellow-stained teeth before he replied in disdain, "The Medicine King Valley is only good at playing petty tricks. Since they want to use this tournament to prove their strength, then I'll turn Bai Fan into a stepping stone."

The middle-aged man knew Yi Ruhuan's strength. Although Yi Ruhuan wasn't from a Sect, his father and grandfather were pretty famous. But last year, the Yi Family suffered a disaster, with everyone in this family, aside from him, dying in a car accident.

It was also because of this incident that caused a significant change in Yi Ruhuan's character, prompting his weight to increase, along with his medical skills at the same time.

The middle-aged man was Yi Ruhuan's Senior Brother, Tao Zhen, and also the Vice-President of Yuezhou TCM Hospital. He once obtained the second runner-up in the past Physician King Tournament and was known as the biggest dark horse in the history of the tournament.

With his understanding of Yi Ruhuan, it's not impossible for the latter to obtain the championship, since the latter's medical skills have already surpassed him.

Tao Zhen was known as the biggest dark horse back then, but it was a pity that he lost to the Physician King. After so many years of practice, his medical skills have also improved. But even so, he wasn't Yi Ruhuan's opponent, so one would expect how powerful Yi Ruhuan was.

At the same time, Tao Zhen also wished to earn a sum of money through Yi Ruhuan, since he had practically lost all his savings in the trip to Las Vegas a while ago.

Wang Guofeng was the third to compete. When he stepped onto the stage, he was immediately basked in a sea of claps. In this tournament, the two competitors would be provided with two patients with identical illnesses. The competitors would then use their medical skills to treat the diseases, and the first to complete the task would be the victor.

Wang Guofeng's competitor was that Ge Wen, who came from Qiong Jin's Tianhe Hospital, and when Ge Wen knew that his opponent was Wang Guofeng, he practically lost his confidence.

Ge Wen shook Wang Guofeng's hand while smiling, knowing that there's practically no chance for him to win. "It's my honour to compete in skills with the seeded competitor of the tournament."

Nodding his head in response, Wang Guofeng walked towards the patient. His hand moved swiftly and gently, kneading the patient's back. A rumbling noise instantly resounded from the patient's throat before a mouthful of phlegm, tainted with traces of blood, was spat out. Wang Guofeng returned to his seat and wrote down a prescription with a fountain pen. "Take it for three days after you've returned, and you'll be fully recovered."

Ge Wen was shocked while looking at Wang Guofeng. It was just barely two minutes, and the latter had already treated the patient?

Although phlegm was a common illness that plagued people, it's tough to treat through physical treatment. It had to be coordinated with prescriptions. Ge Wen had to take the pulse of the patient to be sure of the illness before he could come up with a prescription.

Through observation, Wang Guofeng had determined the patient's illness and alleviated the patient's suffering through massage before writing a prescription. It was a perfect combination without any flaws.

Ge Wen helplessly sighed. This was the outcome of someone that tried to compete with Wang Guofeng in terms of skill. However, he did not leave the stage and continued to head towards the patient, taking the pulse and asking questions before writing down the prescription.

The five judges were satisfied with Ge Wen's performance and gave him a score of 89, while Wang Guofeng obtained 100 before their competition ended, and a sea of claps resounded.

Wang Guofeng crushingly won the competition and displayed the strength of a seeded competitor, obtaining the respect of Ge Wen in the process.

Ge Wen walked down the stage and saw Lu Shimiao and Su Tao. Seeing how the two of them were chatting, he felt unhappy, since he thought that the two of them were talking about him. Walking to Su Tao, he sneered, "I lost to the number one seeded competitor, it's a glory of mine to lose. As for you, I'm afraid that you will lose more miserably later."

Su Tao was briefly stunned while looking at Ge Wen for a long time, before he recalled their grudges from before and smiled. "There are some people that hold their heads high up, even when he loses. If I was in his shoes, I would have suicided."

Lu Shimiao couldn't hold back her laughter as she mocked as well, "If you won, wouldn't you shame him to the point that he wouldn't dare to show his face?"

"Don't compare us together, you're lowering my status here!" Su Tao rubbed his nose as he sighed.

Ge Wen was extremely pissed by Su Tao, but he could only stomp his foot and head back to his seat, since there were so many people around. In his heart, he's expecting Su Tao to lose later so that he could humiliate him!

Following her gaze until Ge Wen left, Lu Shimiao lowered her voice, "Wang Guofeng looked at you just now."

Su Tao smiled and nodded his head. "He must be curious about what method I would have used if I was in his shoes."

"Can you beat him?" Lu Shimiao asked.

"Nope." Su Tao responded with a complicated smile, before he continued, "If I started at the same time as him, I could only accomplish a tie."

What Wang Guofeng did was nearly perfect; thus, the judges awarded him with a score of 100. Su Tao could tell that Wang Guofeng's skills have improved quite a bit, the Qi in his body was more refined. If Wang Guofeng tried to treat Qin Meimei again, he would surely be able to manage it, even without Su Tao.

With such improvements in just a month, Su Tao finally felt that the Physician King Tournament was a little interesting.

It was finally Su Tao's turn to go on the stage. Yi Ruhuan was still holding a smile on his face while the host pulled the curtains apart to reveal the patients.

Exclamations resounded from the surroundings. The organising committee had found a pair of twin lolitas.

Both of them looked to be about fifteen to sixteen years old, blessed with delicate appearances and fair skin. As they looked around, their brows were slightly knitted.

The host did a basic introduction about the patients before handing the stage over to the contenders. The elder one was called Xiao An, while the younger one was Xiao Jing.

Casting his gaze over, Yi Ruhuan had already determined that his patient, Xiao Jing, should be suffering from stomach heat. He turned to glance at Su Tao with ridicule in his eyes when he saw Su Tao's eyes knitted together. Was there a need to observe such a simple illness for so long? Without any hesitation, Yi Ruhuan walked towards Xiao Jing.

With a smile, Yi Ruhuan got Xiao Jing to lay down on the bed before applying acupuncture on her acupoints like Gegu, Zusanli, Shenque, Guanyuan and Qihai.

The silver needle in Yi Ruhuan's hand gently trembled and it would emanate sizzling sounds whenever it was placed in Xiao Jing's acupoints. At the same time, his actions had attracted praise from the judges for his high acupuncture technique.

He had adopted the acupuncture technique handed down in his family, since the Yi Family had a history of a few hundred years in Yuezhou. Although they weren't famous in China, they're pretty locally renowned in Yuezhou.

At a young age, Yi Ruhuan lived in a comfortable environment and did not study the family acupuncture technique too much. But the car accident was a wake-up call to him. He would have to bear the responsibility or revitalise his family.

Aside from Qi, the Yi Family's acupuncture technique also emphasised on steady hands, and to make his arms stronger. He even changed his eating habits. Although he looked plump, one would be able to see the sinews meat in his body if he removed his clothes.

Looking at how Yi Ruhuan applied acupuncture on Xiao Jing, Su Tao shook his head and sighed in his heart. As he had expected, beads of sweat were starting to appear on Xiao An's forehead and her pupils started to widen with uneasiness on her face.

As a pair of twins, their illness wasn't as simple as one would imagine. If they're treated according to Yi Ruhuan's method, then there might be severe danger. Thus, Su Tao walked towards Yi Ruhuan and gently stretched his hand out to block the latter from continuing with his acupuncture.

"What are you doing?" Yi Ruhuan was currently concentrating on treating Xiao Jing. Thus, he was caught by surprise by Su Tao's actions.

With a stern voice, Su Tao replied, "This isn't the method to treat her!"

With a sneer, Yi Ruhuan replied, "What a tone you have there. Aren't you a little too hilarious to disrupt your competitor because you couldn't come up with a method to treat her?"

The moment Yi Ruhuan spoke, it had instantly caused a commotion from the spectators. Ge Wen especially, he burst into laughter. He felt that Su Tao was a clown right now.

Even if he couldn't compete against his competitor, he could have shown elegance. On the contrary, Su Tao went to disturb his competitor, did that guy have a screw loose somewhere in his brain?