After seeing the three off, Lin Yao returned to his previous life, but with the difference of serious injuries, the danger of being recognized and retaliated against by thugs, and the lingering feelings in his heart—he had vaguely fallen for Ruonan.
Lin Yao found his own behavior strange. Logically speaking, he and Ruonan had no interaction whatsoever, and they hadn't even exchanged more than a few words after meeting, so there was naturally no possibility of any feelings between them. If he had to force an explanation, it might be that he had some feelings for her. Ruonan's dashing and heroic demeanor, decisive and efficient style of doing things, as well as her strong confidence and self-respect, all made him feel favorably towards her.
People who study psychology are used to analyzing others and themselves. Lin Yao's self-analysis concluded that his past life experiences left him feeling a deep-seated lack of certain qualities. When he saw someone possessing these qualities appear before him, he immediately felt a sense of attraction. So far, there are two such people: Long Yihun and Ruonan.
Of course, since Ruonan is of the opposite sex, different feelings naturally arise, and a kind of ambiguous relationship, whether present or absent, naturally forms. Lin Yao noticed that Ruonan had the same confusion as him. There was no affection between the two, let alone love. They simply admired each other, and perhaps they were both avoiding misunderstandings. Therefore, they hardly spoke to each other, and never even made eye contact. Perhaps this was just a tacit understanding, a tacit understanding between kindred spirits.
When Lin Yao came to this conclusion, he felt a little uncomfortable. He shook his head, gave up the idea of continuing to investigate, and went back to his life.
The confrontation with the thugs made Lin Yao feel a sense of crisis. Human life is so fragile; just because you don't cause trouble doesn't mean others won't bother you. Even if others don't bother you, it doesn't mean your friends or temporary companions won't impulsively provoke others. Therefore, conflict is almost inevitable. You're only truly safe when you're with people who share your thoughts and style, but in that case, it's better to look in the mirror—being with your own kind is so boring.
The method of using ejected blood to subdue the enemy gave Lin Yao some inspiration, and he thought about the self-defense capabilities he could possess.
Flying needles—that was his choice.
Having diligently practiced acupuncture since childhood, he possesses extremely stable hands with astonishing control over strength and precision. Previously, his body was weak, preventing him from truly mastering advanced acupuncture skills. Now, his strength has increased rapidly, surpassing the normal level of his peers. Of course, this comparison is made with peers of the same weight; monsters like Long Yihun, who resemble gorillas, are naturally not included in the comparison.
If one carries some silver needles or fine needles with them, and encounters the same situation as yesterday again, there is no need to wait for others to speak. One can even take the initiative to attack, injecting poison into the other person's body even through clothing. In this way, different poisons can be used to achieve different attack effects, and one can even subdue the other person invisibly.
Thinking and acting immediately is a good habit of Lin Yao's. He immediately went out and bought several large bags of steel needles for sewing, and went home to practice. Practicing launching steel needles is of course different from holding a needle between your fingers. It requires a high level of strength and skill. However, the sense of crisis and urgency made him persevere in this kind of practice.
Sixth Ring Road, Ninth Ring Road, Ninth Ring Road, Tenth Ring Road, Seventh Ring Road...
The short sewing needle was difficult to handle, and controlling its trajectory was also troublesome. Several circles were drawn on the wall four or five meters away; these were targets Lin Yao used to practice his shooting accuracy. At this moment, he could only barely shoot the needle into a certain area, unable to control the precise landing point. This result dissatisfied him. If he accidentally pierced his opponent's eye while shooting head-on, there would be no turning back. Only by continuing to practice diligently could he truly master a self-defense skill.
That evening, I received a call from Long Yihun. He was all smiles on the other end of the line, saying that his family strongly supported his actions and that he hadn't even been scolded for his injury, which made him very proud.
Lin Yao thought about it carefully. This was actually the first time Long Yihun had brought a girl home to meet his parents. He didn't expect that it was a girl he had only known for one day. Lin Yao didn't even know Xiao Lian's exact name. He wondered if Long Yihun knew it at this time.
Lin Yao wasn't surprised that Long Yihun's parents accepted Xiaolian so easily, because the couple were naturally romantic people and would easily develop feelings for Xiaolian, who shared a similar situation.
He decided to observe further and wait until Long Yihun was truly settled before helping to treat Xiaolian, since Xiaolian still had about a year left. Lin Yao was actually somewhat resistant to the treatment method; it required taking blood from the patient and then consuming it himself so that Xiaocao could analyze the components and find the appropriate medication. Although he was a middleman, he was doing the work of a vampire, which made him very uncomfortable.
One cannot do the same tedious task all the time. After getting tired of shooting steel needles, Lin Yao tried to read medical and pharmacological texts, but the pain in his left arm affected his concentration, so he had to give up reading. Although his injury was healing very quickly with the help of the grass, pain and numbness were unavoidable, and these were torments that he had to endure.
What other methods could alleviate the pain? Lin Yao searched his memory and suddenly had the idea to try practicing martial arts, because novels always described how powerful the protagonists became after practicing martial arts, which made his young heart a little restless.
There is a set of cultivation techniques passed down from the Luo family. However, this ancestral technique has been regarded as a joke by the Luo family members because no one can cultivate it and it has no effect whatsoever. Therefore, after hundreds of years of inheritance, this technique only exists in the records of books. Although every Luo family member is required to learn the introductory technique, the result for dozens of generations is without exception that it has no effect at all, so it is naturally not valued by the Luo family.
When Lin Yao was a child, his father also made him rest from the introductory cultivation method, but of course, it had no effect. He heard that the formal cultivation method was actually very simple: using medicinal energy to circulate through the twelve meridians one by one, and after the twelve meridians were connected, it circulated through the eight extraordinary meridians. Lin Yao saw in the family's "Complete Collection of Traditional Chinese Medicine" that the cultivation method could form a medical elixir when it reached a certain level, and there were three higher realms after that, the final realm being breaking through the void and ascending to heaven. Lin Yao listened to these descriptions as stories, like "Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio," not even worthy of being called legends. He thought the Luo family's ancestors were quite eccentric.
But it was this very strange technique that gave Lin Yao hope, because after he took the medicinal properties he could sense as medicinal energy, the beginner technique began to take effect, and the legend began to become real.
When he practiced using the medicinal energy controlled by the small grass according to the introductory technique, he felt that the injury on his left arm was recovering better. Even the pain and numbness would disappear when he practiced. This made him look forward to the Luo family's technique. Unfortunately, his father only had the introductory technique and not the formal cultivation method. He would have to get the complete technique next time he went to the Luo family. He knew that the Luo family's technique was casually stored in the cabinet in the study along with the family tree.
With the progress of his initial training, Lin Yao had gained better control over the strength of his fingers. After three days of practice, he could generally shoot steel needles into the ten-ring area on the wall. As long as the needles carried toxins, they would be effective if they hit the opponent's exposed skin. However, to pierce through thick winter clothing, he needed to practice further to increase his strength.
This new skill was named "Little Lin Flying Needle" by Lin Yao.
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Chapter Eleven: Masters of Hidden Weapons
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Little Grass truly lives up to her reputation as a phenomenal existence. Such a severe injury was completely healed in just five days, without even leaving a scar on her skin. I wonder what kind of medicinal formula Little Grass used; this is a powerful tool for making huge sums of money in the beauty industry.
Unfortunately, Xiaocao's intelligence was too low, and she mostly acted on instinct, which made Lin Yao feel a bit frustrated. Seeing the silver right in front of him but not being able to get it was probably one of the greatest pains in the world.
Having resumed his normal life, Lin Yao began searching for medicinal herbs everywhere. He continuously collected or purchased some traditional medicinal herbs. Another action he took was to emulate Shennong, the ancestor of medicine, and Lin Yao began to taste hundreds of herbs.
He ran to the wilderness and forests, grabbing any green leaves and grass roots he could find and stuffing them into his mouth. At this moment, he was eager to improve his medicinal energy database, so he had no choice but to resort to such a desperate measure.
Indeed, all herbs have medicinal properties, but unfortunately, the medicinal properties of most flowers, grasses and trees are too weak. Apart from a few plants that have been found to have relatively considerable medicinal properties, Lin Yao has gained nothing these days. This makes him admire his ancestors. They were able to clearly understand the medicinal properties of various herbs even without the help of small grasses. How many arduous attempts and practices must have been made to succeed? How many ancestors like Shennong must have sacrificed their precious lives in the process?
Western medicine believes that celery has aphrodisiac and virility-enhancing effects. After personally consuming celery, Lin Yao agreed with this conclusion. Having eaten fifty pounds of celery, Lin Yao concluded that celery must be eaten raw, the rawer the better, to minimize the destruction of its natural plant hormones.
Secondly, after celery is digested by gastric juices, its plant hormones are severely destroyed, so its aphrodisiac effect will not be very obvious. Lin Yao reached this conclusion by not allowing Xiao Cao to directly absorb the raw celery in her stomach and then tracking and observing the pharmacological reactions of the celery, because the amount of medicinal gas absorbed by the celery itself is much less than that absorbed by Xiao Cao. As for whether drinking a glass of soda water before eating celery would enhance the effect by neutralizing stomach acid, Lin Yao did not conduct an experiment. After all, there are many aphrodisiacs, and other effects can be very good; he didn't need to conduct such a detailed experiment.
Cauliflower does indeed have anti-cancer effects because some of its components can reduce free radicals in the body. This is a finding of modern medical research, and Lin Yao agrees with this conclusion.
Lin Yao discovered that the medicinal properties absorbed from cauliflower had a good repairing effect on cell tissues. He even thought of extracting substances from cauliflower to make beauty products, but after calculating the cost, he found it was not worthwhile.
Many beauty products sell for hundreds of yuan per small bottle, but the actual cost is only a few yuan. Cauliflower is already so expensive, and the cost of extracting the essence is even higher. Are they really going to sell it for thousands or tens of thousands of yuan per bottle?
If they didn't sell at such high prices, they couldn't guarantee the profit margin for beauty products. The beauty industry is inherently a highly profitable one; just look at the products advertised most frequently on television to understand this. Of course, a significant proportion of these advertisements also appear in medical advertisements. The fact that the medical industry is highly profitable is already widely known, so it doesn't need further explanation.
That day, Lin Yao went to the veterinary hospital in the south to contact his classmate who was interning there, hoping to use connections to conduct animal drug experiments privately to study the effects of plant hormones on animal estrus. These hormones would be most valuable for research if applied to animals that estrus seasonally; otherwise, human trials would be too unrigorous unless a very large number of people participated. This is because some animals are constantly in heat and become aroused without medication, although the effects might be minimal; others are naturally frigid, making it difficult to evaluate the effectiveness of medication.
After injecting several animals with plant hormones, Lin Yao headed back. On the way, he encountered a farmer selling bitter herbs on a shoulder pole, so he stopped and started bargaining.
Lin Yao planned to buy these bitter herbs because he had tasted this plant in the wild and found that it had a high medicinal content, which was remarkably effective against many cancers. Unfortunately, the amount of this medicinal energy needed to treat cancer was far too large, and a few pounds of bitter herbs wouldn't kill many cancer cells. But even a mosquito's leg is meat, so he figured he might as well buy some to eat. It was rare to find someone specifically digging up bitter herbs to sell these days; if he had to go to the field and dig them up himself, who knew how long it would take to gather this basketful?
Lin Yao enjoys haggling, although he will eventually buy at the farmer's original price to surprise the farmer. But the fun of haggling is worth spending some time on.
As Lin Yao nearly finished his bargaining mission and prepared to relax his tired body from bending over, he looked up and saw two of the thugs from the night of the altercation. Clearly, these two thugs remembered Lin Yao; the memory of that day was too vivid for them. Brother Biao was still lying in bed groaning.
Looking at the group of five, Lin Yao thought to himself, "This world is too obsessed with trends; everyone blindly follows the crowd. Even street thugs are starting to travel in groups of five, emphasizing teamwork. Don't they realize that even when playing mahjong, someone will always be the sole player?"
That's what I was thinking, but I was in a dead end at a corner, with no way out. If I wanted to run, I'd have to go right past those thugs. Should I start a fight? They were just walking over looking cool; they hadn't even made a move yet. Was I, a law-abiding citizen, supposed to make the first move?
Having no other choice, Lin Yao pretended to be oblivious. He pretended not to see the people walking towards him and continued to haggle with the vendors carrying loads around the corner.
"This is the guy. He was fighting with him and three other guys the night Brother Biao got into trouble and he fell to the ground." One of the thugs who participated in the fight that night recognized Lin Yao. He had forgotten that Chen Debiao hadn't even made a move before he fell to the ground.
"What are you waiting for? Go for it! Kill this guy and everything will be fine." A man who was obviously a stranger acted arrogantly, relying on his superior numbers.
Lin Yao found that his mental fortitude was improving. Since accidentally eating the cardamom, his confidence and many of his views had changed. Now, facing several thugs who were clearly hostile to him, he felt that he could use his disguise skills to deal with them, so he decided to give it a try.