"Make way, Zhuoka is here!" Nika shouted urgently to the Miao men and women gathered in front of the wooden house. The crowd immediately made way for her.
"Zhuo" was Lin Yao's clan name, given to him by the clan chief Jinka. He didn't care whether Lin Yao accepted it or not, and simply announced it. When Lin Yao heard this, he knew that Jinka had no intention of letting him leave; all the promises he'd made before were lies, just a way to fool him.
Nika usually still calls Lin Yao "Mr. Lin," but in front of other tribesmen, she obediently uses the new name "Zhuoka," which makes Lin Yao very uncomfortable.
With a certain emotion in mind, Lin Yao walked through the dense crowd and entered the wooden house.
The wooden house doesn't look very big from the outside, only about two stories high. But once you step inside, you realize that the space is not as small as it appears. The six or seven-meter-high roof, the surrounding pillars, and the walls are all carved with colorful religious patterns. In the very center is a statue of the great god Chi You, which is five meters tall. His angry eyes are wide open, and his indescribable fierce aura makes Lin Yao's heart skip a beat.
This ancient shaman, with only one eye visible from the front and another eye on each side of his ears, is truly terrifying. Just his appearance alone exudes an extremely bloodthirsty and ferocious aura. Four eyes, six arms, ox hooves, and a powerful body—all these features reveal the innate killing nature of this ancient shaman.
"Zhuoka, come quick, the card deduction is serious." Hearing Nika's voice, Le looked up and whispered to Lin Yao.
Although there were many people in the temple, they were all very quiet. Le's deliberately lowered voice seemed very abrupt. All eyes were focused on Lin Yao, wondering why the temple master Le would stop his treatment work to greet a stranger.
Lin Yao ignored the gazes falling on him and walked straight over to check the status of the deducted card. Although he considered this person an enemy, he still felt some goodwill towards this simple and honest young man who was not scheming, and he didn't want the deducted card to just disappear in front of him like this.
"What's going on?" Lin Yao gripped the wrist holding the card and realized that the other party's situation was very serious.
The visible external injuries were extremely severe. Kouka's entire left arm was almost completely broken, with only a small amount of skin and flesh connecting it. The chest injury was even more fatal. A wound caused by an unidentified object ripped open Kouka's right lung and down to his left abdomen. The exposed flesh and blood, along with the internal organs faintly visible through the abdominal wound, looked horrific.
“It’s a mandrill, there must be two mandrills. The wounds are different, so it must have been caused by at least two mandrills.” Le explained, his hands not stopping, applying piles of medicinal mud to the wounds, only to have it immediately washed away by the gushing blood.
"Leka, stop the bleeding!" Lin Yao remembered that Le had mentioned the Miao medicine's hemostasis methods, which should be quite effective.
“It didn’t work. The mandrill itself possesses divine power, so my method was useless. It’s not suitable to do the door wax now either, because the card can’t withstand that long.” Le’s tone was somewhat low, and his somewhat gray eyebrows were furrowed.
"Should I do it?" Lin Yao looked at Le and decided to take action. No matter what, he didn't want this young man he had been in contact with for more than ten days to die in front of him. However, he needed Le's consent to treat him, otherwise he didn't know what other taboos the Miao people might have.
Le gave a soft "hmm" and moved aside, directly conveying his answer to Lin Yao through his actions.
He reached for the satchel at his waist, which contained gold and silver needles and other tools—crucial at this moment. The satchel was hand-sewn by Dika from animal hide; it was soft yet sturdy, with an excellent appearance and structure, which Lin Yao liked very much.
Raise your hand, insert the needle.
With a series of needle-like sounds, two gold needles and numerous silver needles were inserted into various acupoints on Kouka's body, instantly stopping the gushing blood. This astonished Le and Nika, who were watching from the side. They thought to themselves that this person who had been captured by the clan leader was indeed skilled, and this was the first time they had witnessed Lin Yao's medical skills.
He removed the needle, threaded the suture, and began to perform the work of a surgeon, suturing the wound. While suturing, he used his medical internal energy to help stop the bleeding and align the blood vessels and nerves in the wound. This amazed Le, who had never witnessed modern Western clinical surgery before. He stared intently at Lin Yao's hands, trying to gain experience from them.
Fortunately, Lin Yao's medical kit was well-prepared, containing gold and silver needles, tweezers, surgical forceps, and absorbable catgut sutures, which gave Kouka a chance to survive.
After two hours of surgery, coupled with Lin Yao's medical internal energy and the ritual performed by the person beside him, Kou Ka's breathing and heartbeat gradually stabilized, but he remained unconscious due to excessive blood loss.
Lin Yao didn't need to worry about the rest. He knew that Miao medicine had unique skills in restoring limbs and treating external injuries. At this point, unless he continuously channeled his medical energy to help heal, he couldn't compete with Le in this area.
Back in his cabin, Lin Yao dismissed Dika and began meditating. Before meditating, he carefully considered whether it was worthwhile to help, considering Dika was, after all, an enemy who had kidnapped him. Helping an enemy? Was this principled or unprincipled?
After cultivating his healing true qi for a while, Lin Yao could clearly feel that his healing true qi had made great progress in the ten days or so since he came to the valley. Perhaps this could be considered one of the benefits of turning misfortune into fortune.
Another benefit was learning some unique Miao skills, such as the art of raising Gu poison and witchcraft. Lin Yao even discovered that using the techniques taught by Le could rapidly improve the strength of the body's muscles and bones, which was very effective for the cultivation of the Yi family disciples. This method of physical training, which combined witchcraft, might allow the Yi family disciples to make rapid progress.
This technique was acquired by Lin Yao when he was experimenting with Kouka. With Le's great instruction and Lin Yao's own super senses, he conducted small-scale verification on the muscles and tendons of Kouka's body. Practice proved that he had surpassed his teacher Le in some aspects. However, Lin Yao kept it a secret from others, otherwise, he might have been forced to hand over his experience to Le.
Every night, Lin Yao would use his newly invented method to refine his body. Although the effects were minimal, he could still feel a slight improvement. His body, modified by the grass, was difficult to further modify with witchcraft unless he obtained the secret to the mysterious energy within his body, which would allow him to progress rapidly.
That kind of energy might be the legendary witchcraft.
The situation with the card stabilized, the high fever subsided the next day, and his consciousness gradually returned. In the short ten seconds after waking up, he recounted his experience, confirming that he had indeed encountered two mandrills and fought them fiercely before managing to escape by chance.
Upon hearing the news from Dika, Lin Yao thought of even more things.
Given the profuse bleeding he experienced yesterday, how could he possibly have managed to escape back to the valley from such a distance? With such injuries, let alone running several thousand meters, it would be highly unlikely that he could even walk ten meters.
That can only mean that the Miao people have other secret methods that can temporarily stop bleeding and other symptoms. Perhaps this is related to the mysterious witch power in Kouka's body. Maybe I lifted Kouka's state before I arrived at the temple yesterday?
Just then, Nika rushed into the cabin in a flurry of activity. "Mr. Lin, the chieftain wants to see you. Come with me."
Nika's tone carried a hint of joy, which made Lin Yao feel a little strange. This girl didn't seem to care much about him, and her usual attitude even carried a hint of contempt. Why was she so happy today?
Lin Yao's doubts were soon answered. It turned out that he was going to be officially accepted as a member of the Daika family. Perhaps this was the reason why Nika was happy. Anyone would be happy to have an outstanding doctor in the family, let alone Nika, who was a warrior.
The acceptance ceremony was held in the square in front of the temple, and the content of the ceremony disgusted Lin Yao. He found it extremely offensive!
Jin Ka actually decided to use a curse on Lin Yao!
According to Jinka, only by afflicting Lin Yao with a powerful Gu poison could they be on the verge of being reassured. Only then could Lin Yao truly be accepted by the Daika family.
"That damned old man!" Lin Yao cursed inwardly.
Who cares about the Daika family's trust? Who wants to be truly accepted by the Daika family? Lin Yao had no interest in it at all. This old man was talking like he was doing Lin Yao a favor. Did he expect Lin Yao to be grateful to tears? This old man is too vicious!
However, this trick was ineffective against Lin Yao. Once Xiao Cao emerged from seclusion, it would be the death of all the Gu worms. Being used as food would be the best outcome. Xiao Cao could even control the mother worm through her offspring, making the person who cast the Gu worm suffer the consequences.
After making the decision, Lin Yao outwardly cooperated fully with the matter of having someone cast a spell on him, his smiling face making people think he couldn't wait to become a member of the Daika family.
Seeing Lin Yao's performance, Jin Ka nodded repeatedly, a broad smile spreading across his face. He thought to himself that he had truly seized the opportunity to accomplish something extremely beneficial to the family. Everyone had witnessed Jin Ka's progress. With Lin Yao, the Dai Ka family could wipe away their shame and rise to become the number one family among the Miao people within ten years, and might even become one of the four great families in the world.
That status, that position, was nothing short of a glorious honor that brought glory to one's ancestors!
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