Physician's Odyssey

The eighth-finals were more intense than imagined; every single competitor was impressive. But what left others surprised was the fact that the competitor of the Great Compassion Gate, Chu Huilin, announced his withdrawal from the competition. Thus, Su Tao had smoothly entered the quarter-finals.

After the battle, Su Tao couldn't find Lu Shimiao below the stage and realised that a message was left for him by her after checking his phone, "The responsibility was all on me last night. I shouldn't have seduced you. Let's just treat it like a dream, and we will still be close colleagues in the future. In order not to make this awkward for us, I will be returning to Hanzhou first. I believe that with your ability, you can surely obtain the Physician King's title!"

Taking a deep breath, Su Tao recalled how Lu Shimiao behaved in the morning. There were many factors wrong with her, despite her natural behaviour. Su Tao could understand the complicated feelings in Lu Shimiao's heart. She needed to take some time to digest the matter.

Lu Shimiao was a woman that had high expectations for herself. Even if the relationship between her and Qiao Bo had broken, she still felt actively responsible that she cheated.

At the same time, Su Tao knew that Lu Shimiao had feelings for him. Since she had feelings for him, he only had to manage this matter properly for her to come back to him.

However, he never expected he would suddenly be a loner. He initially had Lu Shimiao with him so that he could talk to her when he's bored. But now that he's a loner, Su Tao felt depressed about the empty presidential suite, so he headed towards the café on the second floor.

But before the chair got warm, a silhouette in white clothes with sunglasses appeared before him. When he took off the sunglasses, he revealed his outstanding appearance, narrow eyes, and pointy nose with a cold smile hanging on his lips. "Let me introduce myself, I'm Bai Fan!"

With a faint smile, Su Tao responded, "You finished so quickly? How unexpected."

Bai Fan shrugged, "I don't like to beat around the bush. I have done some research on you, your medical skills are pretty good, but you do not belong to any sect. Has the thought of joining the Medicine King Valley ever come across in your mind?"

Giving a complicated look to Bai Fan, Su Tao stirred the coffee with a spoon and said, "Am I hearing you right? Just a while ago, your Medicine King Valley offered ¥1,000,000 to take my life."

Without any expression, Bai Fan slowly said without any emotions, "The times have changed. I was also taking orders last time, but the situation has changed now."

After a brief pondering, Su Tao said, "You're hinting that the Nie Family is no longer related to the Medicine King Valley?"

Bai Fan did not expect Su Tao to catch the point so quickly. He knocked his finger on the table. "If it goes as expected, the Nie Family will fall after the Physician King Tournament, and my Master, Xu Tiande will take over the assets of the Nie Family. For all these years, our Medicine King Valley has been the one helping the Nie Family manage their businesses, so I believe that our takeover will be a smooth one. My Master also has his eyes on you, which explains why I'm here today."

With a faint smile, Su Tao asked, "If I agreed to join the Medicine King Valley, won't I have to withdraw when I encounter you in the Physician King Tournament?"

Nodding his head in satisfaction, Bai Fan said, "Talking to a smart person is truly enjoyable. If you give up, the Medicine King Valley will compensate you with a sum of money."

When he finished speaking, Bai Fan pushed an exquisite bank card into Su Tao's hand. "There is ¥2,000,000 in there, the password is your birthday."

Weighing the card in his hand, Su Tao sighed before he broke the card into two and tossed it to Bai Fan with a smile. "I refuse!"

A cold light flashed in Bai Yan's eyes before he said in a deep voice, "Perhaps you feel that you have hope of beating me?"

Su Tao sourly said, "I'm a rather arrogant person, but I did not think that you'd be even more arrogant than me. I do not hope to waste my time talking to you. We'll meet at the stage!"

Bai Fan waved his hand and retrieved the broken card. "You will regret your decision today!"

With a faint smile, Su Tao responded, "I'm sorry to disappoint you, but regret doesn't exist in my dictionary."

Despite his composed character, Bai Fan couldn't help being angered by Su Tao's arrogant attitude, so he left after leaving a snort behind.

Not longer after Bai Fan left, a breeze that carried a fragrance blew from his side and Su Tao directed his attention at the source of the scent. As expected, the appearance and bearing of the lady fit perfectly.

"Mind if I sit here?" The elegant Liu Ruochen asked with a smile.

"You're already seated, but I can treat you to a cup of coffee." Su Tao naturally wouldn't mind having a beauty like her sitting before him.

Her dress code wasn't unusual. She wore a professional style; long skirt and white blouse with her hair draped over her shoulder. She was also tall, at the same time, with a height of 5'7" and faint makeup, or perhaps none at all. Her skin was smooth and glossy with eyes that looked like stars. Her every movement left the fragrance of herbs lingering in the atmosphere.

It's rare to see such an outstanding woman, and such a woman was usually treated like a goddess by others. However, Su Tao wasn't too concerned. His gaze was fixated on her ample chest, inwardly comparing her mounds with Lu Shimiao's.

"A cup of cappuccino." Liu Ruochen gave others a feeling that she's incredibly natural, a feeling that made Su Tao feel comfortable and also vigilant at the same time.

Su Tao waved his hand at the waiter to order the cappuccino for her, along with cakes, and smiled. "It's my honour to be treating the Physician King of the previous tournament to coffee."

"Aren't we splitting the bill?" Liu Ruochen playfully smiled before she continued, "But then again, if you insist on treating, then refusing would be impolite!"

Taking a sip of coffee, Su Tao asked, "You can't be here just for a cup of coffee, right?"

Gently nodding her head, Liu Ruochen answered, "Of course not. I have an important matter to discuss with you. But I'll come after you obtained the Physician King's title, this is just considered a greeting."

Su Tao's eyes flashed with doubt as he asked, "You're so sure that I will obtain the Physician King's title?"

Liu Ruochen blinked her eyes. "It's only a guess of mine. The gambling company, Utopia placed you last of the 32 people in the ranking, so the fact that you entered the quarter-finals earned them at least ¥500,000,000. If you obtain the Physician King's title in the end, then Utopia would earn at least ¥2,000,000,000."

Su Tao sighed, there were so many smart people in the world and Liu Ruochen must be outstanding, even amongst the geniuses, "Then you must bet on me so that you can win yourself some pocket money."

Luo Ruochen sourly smiled, "We'll end our chat today. Thanks for the opportunity to get rich, I'll consider it seriously. But I have to remind you that the difficulty is great for you to become the Physician King. Your opponent is not only Wang Guofeng and Bai Fan, but there's also still my Junior Sister, Mo Sui'er. I believe that you can bring surprises to me."

She then finished her coffee and left. Su Tao was a little stunned while looking at her silhouette and felt that something was fishy. Why did he get the feeling that Liu Ruochen had an extremely favourable opinion of himself? Could it be that he had gotten more handsome?

The quarter-finals were finally determined an hour later, and his opponent was the Senior Disciple of the Medicine King Valley, Bai Fan, whose ranking on Utopia's site was just second to Wang Guofeng.

Because of Chu Huilin's withdrawal, Su Tao remained the lowest amongst the rankings. For the first competition, he encountered an error made by the organising committee; thus, Yi Ruhuan had his participation rights taken from him. As for Su Tao's second battle, his opponent, Chu Huilin suddenly withdrew from the tournament, thus giving another burst to Su Tao's luck.

In the eyes of those that didn't know the truth, Su Tao was merely lucky. Now that he would face the second-seeded participant, his luck would inevitably fail before absolute strength.

As for the quarter-finals competition, not only did the audience not decrease, it increased instead with more attention being focused onto it. There was a total of four competitions, with Su Tao and Bai Fan being the last, so they could watch how everyone else faired.

Wang Guofeng still had it steady. His opponent was the direct disciple of Divine Needles Song. Both of them have reached high attainments in their acupuncture techniques, but Wang Guofeng won in the end because his Qi was thicker, along with his studies in Acupoints. So when he treated the stroke patient, his effects were slightly better than his opponent's.

The second match was between the third-seeded and sixth-seeded participants, and the organising committee gave a problematic question, a gallstone patient. The two of them competed in terms of their prescriptions. Although both of their prescriptions could cure gallstones, the sixth-seeded participant used more precious herbs, while the third-seeded player obtained victory because the herbs for his prescription were more common.

When the third match was about to begin, Su Tao glanced at Liu Ruochen, who drank coffee with him at noon, sitting at the front of the crowd. At this moment, she had turned her head around and nodded towards him.

Not only was she a Physician King, but she was also a publically-known goddess. Thus, she's an object of adoration by many people.

As someone used to a big scene, Su Tao casually smiled and saw Mo Sui'er quickening her steps into the stage with the fifth-seeded participant standing beside her, Tang Jian.

Mo Sui'er came from the prestigious TCM sect, the Aqua Cloud Stream, while Tang Jian came from Bashu's Tang Clan. The Tang Clan gave others a traditional impression. They're good at using poison. But in actual fact, the foundation of their medical skills was profound, especially in terms of studies in herbs. They're practically on par with the Medicine King Valley.

Entering the quarter-finals, the specialist of the organising committee also started to give questions based on what the competitors were good at, to test their comprehensive ability.

The door on the left slowly opened and two women came out with a baby in their hands.

Treating was what TCM specialise in, as treatments for western medicine would only resort to antibiotics, which would cause side effects for the babies. Thus, most parents would choose to use TCM, since it was more gentle and didn't have any side effects.