With virtue

The old man was dressed in the same coarse cloth short brown as Sun Shouxin, and his gray hair was tied haphazardly at the back of his head.

He walked in with unsteady steps, almost unable to stand, and took a few more breaths while holding onto the door frame before coming in.

Looking at the old man, Chen Wanchuan thought to himself, "This old man... probably doesn't have much of a chance to live."

When firing porcelain, whether it's grinding glaze or clarifying clay, everything needs to be ground into powder, so most of the master craftsmen at the kiln have some kind of lung problem.

The dust inhaled over the years becomes a serious illness, accumulating in the lungs year after year, becoming so severe that it's hard to reverse; clearly, one doesn't have many days left to live.

His eyes swept around the shed, finally settling on Zhao Yunshu's face.

"You are... Zhao Yunshu?"

Zhao Yunshu stood up, bowed to the old man, and said with a smile, "Master Zhou, it's me. It's been many years."

Zhou Chengan walked over, and then a smile bloomed on his wrinkled face.

He rushed forward, grabbed Zhao Yunshu's arms, and looked him up and down: "It really is you, lad! You've grown so tall! You've become even more handsome. Last time I saw you, you were just this little thing, following your master around. Now you're a grown man!"

As he said this, he suddenly remembered something, peeked behind Zhao Yunshu, and asked, "Where's your master? Didn't Master Li come with you?"

Zhao Yun paused for a moment, then said in a low voice, "My master passed away a few days ago."

Zhou Chengan's smile froze on his face, and his grip on Zhao Yunshu's arm loosened slightly.

Zhou Chengan was stunned.

He opened his mouth, his Adam's apple bobbed up and down a few times, and after a long while, he finally let out a sigh.

He opened his mouth, and after a long while, he sighed: "Gone? Just like that? I remember he was even more robust than me... Sigh, what a good man... The kiln was haunted back then..." As he spoke, his voice lowered.

"It's my fault," he said in a low voice. "My health has been failing me these past few years, and I haven't been able to visit the temple. Master Li was such a good person, and I didn't even get to see him one last time."

As he spoke, he raised his sleeve to wipe the corner of his eye. "Very well, your master was a cultivator; even if he passed away, he ascended to immortality. What brings you here today?"

"I won't say what I'm going to say for now, Master Zhou, you don't look too well?" Zhao Yunshu asked.

"It's an old problem at the kiln. I'm over fifty, and most people my age who work at the kiln have it. It's not unusual. But you, you've come all this way. You couldn't have come just to see this old man. So, what's the matter?"

Just now, when Master Zhou was speaking, Zhao Yunshu had noticed that his fingers were trembling slightly, his fingernails had an abnormal bluish-gray tinge, and he would occasionally stop to take a deep breath while speaking, as if each sentence required a lot of effort.

Zhao Yunshu had also seen the scene of him leaning against the door frame and panting when he entered. It seemed that something was really wrong with the old craftsman's health.

"Your illness doesn't seem like a common ailment," Zhao Yunshu said, her tone suddenly becoming more serious as she looked at Zhou Cheng'an. "May I take a look at you?"

Zhou Chengan was taken aback, then laughed and said, "You can even treat illnesses now? Your master knows some medical principles, but I didn't expect you to have learned this too."

"Traditional Chinese medicine and traditional Chinese medicine are inseparable, Master Zhou," Zhao Yunshu said with a smile.

Since ancient times, Taoism and medicine have been inseparable. Taoism emphasizes the cultivation of both mind and body. It not only cultivates the mind but also pays great attention to the cultivation of life force. Young Taoists need some secret medicines to practice, and they even need to observe the operation of their own five internal organs before they can practice. If they do not understand medical principles, they may even cause their gallbladder to rupture and die when practicing the thunder of the gallbladder.

Therefore, he still needs to learn basic medical principles.

Seeing that Zhao Yunshu's expression was serious and not just being polite, Zhou Cheng'an also stopped smiling and stretched out his wrist. "Fine, take a look if you want. But I know my own problem. Every old master craftsman at the kiln has been through this at this age."

Yun Shu didn't reply, but simply reached out and gently placed his hand on Zhou Cheng'an's wrist. The moment his fingers touched that withered wrist, he closed his eyes, concentrated, and entered the inner realm.

An interior viewer not only sees their own interior, but also the interiors of others.

In the past, old Taoist priests would often look into the inner visions of young Taoist priests to guide their practice.

This is one of the advantages of having a good teacher. If you try to figure things out on your own, you won't even know when you make a mistake in your practice, but a teacher can guide you and help you improve in time.

Inner vision refers to observing oneself, while observing others is called self-reflection.

This method is similar to pulse diagnosis in traditional Chinese medicine, but it goes a step further. Pulse diagnosis can only reveal the strength or weakness of Qi and blood, while by using internal observation to look into another person's body, one can directly see the Qi of the five internal organs, the flow of the meridians, and the source of the disease.

When the old Taoist priest passed on this method to him, he said that the art of observing the body should not be used lightly. Firstly, it is exhausting, and secondly, the appearance inside another person's body is not as pure as one's own. If the other person is suffering from a serious illness or is afflicted by evil spirits, the observer will also be affected by it.

But Zhao Yunshu couldn't care less about that at the moment, since he needed Master Zhou's help and he really didn't want anything to happen to him.

His consciousness flowed along his fingertips into Zhou Cheng'an's meridians, like a thin, warm current, slowly ascending along the other's three Yin meridians.

Initially, the flow was smooth and unobstructed. Although the flow of qi and blood in the meridians was somewhat sluggish, this was still normal for a man in his fifties.

However, as he continued along the lung meridian and reached the lungs, the sight before him made his heart sink.

When an ordinary person has been ill for a long time, their inner vision will inevitably be desolate—when qi and blood are deficient, the inner vision will be dim, and when the five internal organs are weak, the light will be faint.

But what Zhou Cheng'an felt in his lungs was far more than just illness. He saw a thick, impenetrable mass of black energy, like years of sludge, clinging tightly to his lung lobes, almost completely blocking his lung meridians.

The black mist surged and writhed, as if it were alive, rolling and churning in the lungs.

Moreover, what made Zhao Yunshu frown was that this black aura was not a sign of illness.

The color of illness is gray and rotten; though turbid, it is not unpleasant.

But these black energies were chilling and piercing. When one looked inwards and examined the body, the moment they came into contact with them, a chilling sensation rushed back through the meridians. One could faintly hear countless noisy sounds in one's ears—wailing, cursing, screaming, hundreds of voices overlapping, pouring out malice like a tidal wave.

This is the drawback of using a physical mirror.

Zhao Yunshu abruptly stopped his internal meditation to prevent the thing from spreading further towards him. He withdrew his meditation technique and opened his eyes to find a fine layer of cold sweat on his forehead.

"Taoist Master?" Chen Wanchuan noticed his unusual expression and quickly stepped forward.

Zhao Yunshu waved his hand to indicate that he was alright, but his gaze remained fixed on Zhou Cheng'an's face as he asked in a deep voice, "Master Zhou, have you offended anyone at the kiln recently?"