Once the blocked blood vessel was cleared, natural recovery happened very quickly. With the continued medication, six hours later, Zhang’s father gradually regained consciousness.
Watching him slowly wake up and being able to speak again made Zhang Linyun and her mother overjoyed. They were incredibly grateful to their savior, Xu Ze.
Zhang’s mother couldn’t help but admire Xu Ze more and more, wishing she could betroth her daughter to him on the spot. She secretly lamented that her daughter had lacked foresight back then and let such a promising future son-in-law slip away.
As for Zhang Linyun herself, she had long realized that things between her and Xu Ze were impossible. The fact that he was willing to help her like this, to save her father, already showed how much he valued their past connection.
So all she could do was gaze quietly at Xu Ze’s tall, upright figure as he slowly walked away, crystal tears streaming silently down her cheeks…
The surface of North Lake rippled gently under the moonlight, patches of silvery-golden light shimmering and fading. Xu Ze took a light breath, drawing the slightly damp air into his lungs, which instantly cleared his mind.
He had entered the twenty-sixth cycle of energy circulation over a month ago. During this past month, he had attempted to break through to the twenty-seventh cycle twice. Neither attempt had succeeded smoothly. The last try was over a week ago, when the energy cluster had passed the Dazhui acupoint at his neck, coming within just one step of the Baihui acupoint at the top of his head. Still, Xu Ze had failed.
Today, he was ready to try again. Over the past week, the significant consumption of energy followed by replenishment had created a beneficial cycle. Xu Ze felt that his recent energy absorption rate seemed to have improved compared to before.
So, he was very confident about today’s renewed attempt.
Energy particles above North Lake rapidly gathered around Xu Ze’s body and were quickly absorbed. The Conception and Governor Vessels within him, like an empty sponge, desperately absorbed the external “moisture,” drawing in these energy particles swiftly. They were then absorbed by the rapidly circulating energy cluster, strengthening its development.
The energy cluster moved swiftly through the Conception and Governor Vessels: one cycle, two cycles, three cycles… gradually growing larger. Meanwhile, external energy particles continued to gather wildly around Xu Ze, even creating subtle, almost imperceptible air currents around him.
As the energy particles merged in wildly, the energy cluster within his vessels became increasingly massive and moved faster and faster. It wasn’t until it entered the twenty-sixth cycle that its speed slowly began to decrease.
After completing twenty-six cycles, the energy cluster slowly entered the Qihai (Sea of Qi) area again. Feeling the massive energy cluster there, Xu Ze was filled with confidence. He took another light breath and began his third attempt, striving to advance to become a Level Three Super Medic.
“Now my physique is about D-class. This time, I should be able to break through the twenty-seventh cycle smoothly… then I should be able to advance successfully, right…” Xu Ze murmured softly.
His broad forehead was covered in fine beads of sweat. The massive energy cluster was now at the point where he had failed last time. With all his effort, it slowly inched upward at a snail’s pace.
“It will succeed…” Xu Ze chanted inwardly while gently urging the energy cluster upward.
As the sweat on his forehead grew thicker and waves of dizziness washed over his mind, Xu Ze clenched his jaw, focusing all his strength on pushing the energy cluster forward.
“Almost… almost… just three centimeters left…” Xu Ze encouraged himself, refusing to give up as he propelled the energy cluster upward.
“One centimeter, five millimeters, two millimeters…” Feeling the energy cluster getting closer and closer to the Baihui acupoint at the crown of his head, the excitement on Xu Ze’s face grew.
Finally, at his Baihui acupoint, a soft “pop” sounded. The energy cluster instantly broke through the boundary and then joyfully slid down toward the Qihai below…
And with that soft “pop” at the Baihui, the energy particles around Xu Ze suddenly found a breakthrough. They swarmed toward his Baihui, and a massive influx of energy particles poured through it into his Conception and Governor Vessels, filling them completely.
Due to this surge of energy particles, the energy cluster began to expand wildly. It continued to further enlarge the Qihai, swirling in the center…
Gradually, the Qihai expanded to a certain extent and could stretch no further. But the energy cluster was still rapidly expanding until it filled the Qihai completely.
Yet, energy particles continued to pour in wildly. Compressed by these incoming particles, the energy cluster suddenly burst apart, and waves of immense bio-energy surged rapidly toward Xu Ze’s limbs and throughout his body.
“Whoosh…” Impacted by this vast bio-energy, his entire body felt light and airy, causing Xu Ze to exhale a long, comfortable breath.
This massive bio-energy continued to infiltrate, thread by thread, into the cells of his muscles, bones, and skin, slowly settling there and gradually strengthening them.
As this strengthening occurred, Xu Ze felt a tingling numbness throughout his body. Standing on the balcony, he had to take several light breaths to suppress the tingling sensation that reached deep into his heart.
Fortunately, the tingling slowly faded. Xu Ze now felt refreshed and full of energy, as if brimming with immense strength.
Suddenly, the voice he had been eagerly awaiting echoed in his mind: “Host successfully established Level Three energy circulation. Physique: Class D. Knowledge Level: One. Meets advancement requirements. System upgrade commencing…”
“Beep… System upgrade complete. Time elapsed: sixty seconds. Energy consumed: sixty-eight percent. Level Three access granted…”
“After months, the upgrade is finally successful…” In the virtual space, Xiao Dao looked at the system display and couldn’t help but smile softly. This was great. Advancing to Level Three Medic not only further enhanced Xu Ze’s abilities but also significantly increased his own processing speed. Many new functions were now accessible, which was truly exhilarating.
Xu Ze was also extremely satisfied with his current state. After the bio-electrical energy transformation during the advancement, he could feel that his strength had increased again compared to before. His sensory and reaction abilities were also noticeably enhanced. It seemed he was not far from reaching C-class physique.
Xu Ze gently wiped the sweat from his forehead, walked back into his room with a light smile, grabbed some clean underwear, and headed to the bathroom to wash off the sweat. Only then did he lie back on the bed, enter the virtual space, and see if Xiao Dao had changed.
Entering the virtual space, Xiao Dao didn’t look visibly different, but the smile on his face showed that he had certainly gained significant benefits as well.
“What does Level Three access include?” The first thing Xu Ze always wanted to know after each advancement… because these were the main drivers pushing him forward.
Hearing Xu Ze’s request, Xiao Dao smiled slightly and said, “Can’t you be less impatient?”
“How can I not be impatient? Ah… after all this hard training, isn’t the whole point waiting for this day of advancement? And all the new features…” Xu Ze chuckled.
“Alright, alright… take a look then…” Seeing Xu Ze’s eagerness, Xiao Dao waved his hand, and a light screen appeared before Xu Ze.
“Color B-ultrasound, myocardial enzymes, amylase, thyroid hormone determination, bacterial analysis, drug sensitivity testing…” Xu Ze wasn’t surprised by the first few testing functions, but his eyes lit up when he saw drug sensitivity testing and toxin analysis.
“Drug sensitivity testing is a great feature… This is generally used for antibiotics. Due to the overuse of antibiotics in modern hospitals, many bacteria have developed resistance, showing low sensitivity to drugs. That means many antibiotics are ineffective for treating certain patients… doctors have to try various antibiotics or use powerful ones to achieve effective treatment.”
However, the prolonged use of multiple or strong antibiotics inevitably leads to further increases in drug-resistant bacteria, creating a vicious cycle. For patients on long-term medication, increasingly stronger and more numerous drugs become necessary later on.
So, in modern medicine, testing methods like bacterial culture and drug sensitivity testing on a patient’s blood or body fluids have emerged to analyze these bacteria. Such tests can identify the specific pathogen in a patient and then test dozens of drugs against it in vitro to determine which ones are effective.
From these effective drugs, one or two can be selected to treat the patient, achieving better results.
However, this testing process is quite cumbersome. From culturing the bacteria and testing drug sensitivity to obtaining the final results usually takes about three days.
These three days often mean missing the optimal window for treating the patient.
But now, with this testing function added to the system, what thrilled Xu Ze most was that this test didn’t require three days. After obtaining the sample, it could analyze and return results in just a few seconds.
That meant if Xu Ze was treating critically ill patients, he wouldn’t have to randomly pick common antibiotics to use, only switching after they proved ineffective.
With this testing capability, he could ensure the medication he chose would be effective for the patient, saving more time and achieving better outcomes.
