Ning Tao scrutinized the young man, then said, “You ought to be lying in your bed, resting. Yet you’re roaming around with your crutch. In other words, you’re an active man. Judging from your twenty-year-old face, I guess you must be an undergraduate? You like playing basketball, but broke your leg by accident. I’ve examined you. You have fractured your left kneecap. Although you have undergone surgery, your kneecap is no longer smooth. Your mobility in your right leg is affected. Moreover, your periosteum is clearly infected. I can tell that from the many intravenous needle marks on your arm. Am I right in my diagnosis?”

The young man stared dumbfounded at Ning Tao. He was initially very irritated by Ning Tao, since he thought he was just a pretext for Ning Tao’s speech. But Ning Tao’s words dumbfounded him, simply because every word he said was true. The doctors in the hospital had given him multiple X-rays and CT scans. They had spent a lot of time diagnosing his injury, yet this country doctor with a wooden chest could tell that in a glance!

Was he Sun Wukong with fiery samadhi eyes?

Ning Tao continued. “Give me two minutes and I can let you discharge from the hospital without a crutch. You won’t suffer any complications. Would you like to try?”

“I… ” The young man naturally would like to discharge from the hospital. But in his subjective opinion, this roving doctor from the countryside was most likely a quack. He did not trust him, so he hesitated.

“All for free. I won’t take a cent. If I can’t cure you, I will pay you ¥10,000,” Ning Tao added.

“Let him try! We will be your witnesses. If he can’t cure you and won’t pay ¥10,000, we won’t let him go!” Someone from the watching crowd cried.

No matter where you are, there will always be some bystander creating trouble from the stands.

‘Fine, I’ll let you treat me. You said it will only take two minutes. I will give you two minutes.” The young man agreed, retreating two steps and sitting down on a flower stand. He crossed his leg, waiting for Ning Tao to act.

A security guard wanted to stop them, but a bodyguard in suit restrained him for some reason.

Ning Tao walked up and slapped the cast covering the young man’s right leg. It instantly shattered, its pieces scattering to the ground.

“Ah— ” The young man screamed horrendously.

Ning Tao grabbed the young man’s knee and twisted it. His fingers were streaming with special spiritual power.

The young man opened his mouth and was about to scream. This was his instinctive response. Yet although Ning Tao’s action seemed brutal and reckless, he did not feel any pain at all. Instead, there was a soothing, comfortable sensation in his leg. He could not scream at all.

Ning Tao massaged the young man’s injured kneecap with his fingers, sliding them up and down, left and right. He treated the man’s muscles and tendons affected by the periosteum infection.

A minute passed.

“Can you do it?”

“Why ask? He looks like a quack doctor to me.”

“Right. What is he doing? Performing qigong? It isn’t the 80s now. No one believes in qigong nowadays.”

“Make him stay later. Don’t let him run!”

As the onlookers clamored, two minutes passed.

“It’s already two minutes. Where’s your ¥10,000?” someone shouted.

Ning Tao stopped his treatment and stepped to one side, so that the opposing reporters could see that young man sitting on the flower stand.

The young man was still sitting on the flower stand, crossing his leg. Facing the horde of reporters, he did not know how to react.

“You quack! Pay up!”

“Dazed, aren’t you? Don’t just stand there, pay up!”

“Look at him. Does he look like someone with ¥10,000?”

There was a clamor of voices. Ning Tao suddenly reached out and grabbed that young man’s arm, pulling him in his direction. The young man was pulled up from the flower stand. Ning Tao stepped to one side, letting him walk.

As his feet touched the ground, the young man instinctively tried to steady himself. But Ning Tao’s pull could not be resisted. He could not balance himself, tottering a few steps before stopping.

The crowd immediately quietened down. It would totally silent.

The young man started for a couple of seconds before taking another tentative step. Then he took a second, a third. He started to laugh. “Haha! My leg’s healed! It has indeed recovered!”

No one would call Ning Tao a roving doctor from the countryside now, or a quack doctor. The expression in their eyes watching him all changed.

The horde of reporters gathered up to him. Electronic lights flashed as reporters holding microphones and pen recorders crowded in to ask their questions.

“Doctor, where are you from? Can you really cure Mr. Meng, our hero?”

“Please tell us how you managed to heal that young man!”

“Could you tell us what those medical skills you exhibited are?”

“Please tell us… ”

Ning Tao did not answer a single question. To him, it was just a simple physiotherapy session. The doctors of this hospital had performed the surgery. He was only using his spiritual power to treat the man. Of course, he could not say this to the reporters.

Moreover, he had done all he could. Whether he would end up treating the patient would depend on Meng Bo’s destiny. If those men would not let him see Meng Bo, Ning Tao would not stay.

At this moment, two young man clad in Western suits and leather shoes walked over, dispersing the reporters who were trying to interview Ning Tao. As they approached, one of them said politely, “Could this mister come with us? We would like a word with you.”

Ning Tao nodded. He followed that two young men in suits and leather shoes into the inner hall of the hospital.

Tang Zixian walked beside Ning Tao, but no one blocked her way this time.

Ning Tao lowered his voice. “Tell me, what is this all about? Who is this Meng Bo?”

Only now did Tang Zixian open her mouth. “Don’t you ever read the papers?”

Ning Tao started slightly. “What papers? What do you mean?”

Tang Zixian gave Ning Tao a strange look. “Didn’t you hear them call Meng Bo a hero? Meng Bo is an astronaut just back from a trip to the moon. He was on the moon for three days and did some scientific work there. After he returned to the shuttle, something went wrong and he became totally paralyzed. He’s still in a coma, his life in danger. I have brought you here to cure him.”

Ning Tao felt bewilderment in his heart, as well as a strange feeling. Since becoming the owner of Sky Clinic, roaming around the cultivating world, he had rarely taken note of current affairs. He would only learn of events long after they had happened. This was a typical example. An astronaut from his country had reached the moon and stayed there for three days. Yet he did not know this!

Tang Zixian added, “I’m sure you will treat such a man. If you aren’t willing, we can leave now.”

Ning Tao said, “Of course I am. He’s a hero. Even if they won’t let me, I will still do my best to cure him.”

“Well, the ball’s in your court now,” Tang Zixian said.

“Wait.” Ning Tao stared at Tang Zixian with strange eyes. “You don’t know this Meng Bo and you’re an American. So why are you so interested in this matter?”

Meng Bo had stepped on the moon and remained there for three days. This was not surprising to Ning Tao. Their country was now flourishing and it was not difficult to send an astronaut to the moon for scientific research. But he was baffled by Tang Zixian. She was a practitioner from abroad, from the Tang Sect. Why would an injured astronaut from Hua Country interest her? And she had scampered to him and brought him here to treat Meng Bo! She couldn’t be a zealous Chinese emigrant fervent about the motherland, could she?

Tang Zixian remained silent for a while before asking Ning Tao, “How did you know I am an American?”

Ning Tao said, “Need I ask? You grew up in America. You couldn’t be a Hua citizen, could you?”

Tang Zixian snorted lightly. “Go back and get your girlfriend, that secret agent called Jiang Hao, to check my identity.”

Ning Tao was not satisfied with this answer. But before he could say more, the two bodyguards leading them opened a door. One of them said, “Please wait here for a while. Someone will be here to talk to you.”

“Okay, no problem,” Ning Tao answered, walking in.

It was a reception room temporarily vacated, with a few sofas and a water dispenser. There were a few human anatomical pictures on the wall, as well as one on acupoints of the body. In the air, there lingered the faint odors of mingled medications.

One of the two bodyguard left, but the other stayed behind to watch over Ning Tao and Tang Zixian. Ning Tao had wanted to “cross examine” Tang Zixian, but since the bodyguard was staring at them, he thought better of it.

Tang Zixian did not seem in the least uncomfortable. She smiled at the bodyguard at the door. “Comrade, your shoelaces are undone.”

The bodyguard lowered his head and looked. The laces of one of his shoes were indeed undone. He thanked her and then squatted down to tie it.

Tang Zixian suddenly drew close to Ning Tao’s ear and said rapidly, “Later, tell them I’m your nurse or your assistant. No matter what, you must take me along to see Meng Bo.”

Ning Tao neither agreed nor disagreed. He merely waited, sitting down.

Tang Zixian glared at Ning Tao.

Ning Tao simply turned his head to one side, watching the water dispenser in the corner.

Leima Water Dispenser. This brand seemed quite unique.

The bodyguard at the door tied his shoelaces and stood up again. He continued to watch Ning Tao and Tang Zixian.

Tang Zixian’s lips parted slightly, her voice compressed into a stream into Ning Tao’s ear. “Alright, you… l’ll give you some valuable intelligence first. There’s an alchemist like you by Wu Yue’s side, Unlike you, he only knows how to refine pills. He’s not a doctor.”

“What’s his name?” Ning Tao asked in a low voice.

Tang Zixian’s voice answered, “Let’s settle the business at hand first. Will you take me with you?”

Ning Tao nodded.

The other bodyguard who left reappeared. There was a woman by his side.