Volume One, Chapter 11: The Tale of Hua Tuo, Part Two — Divine Healer? Cursed Doctor!

Huatuo’s expression softened once more, but Chen Yan’s face remained utterly unmoved. He merely regarded him calmly and said:

“Whether you are a divine physician or a demonic physician, what you need to do now is fight for the person you once were, isn’t that right?

“If you refuse, how many more people will be forced to follow the same path you took?”

Chen Yan made no move. He simply continued to watch him.

The other man met his gaze. After several seconds of silent standoff, Huatuo was the first to speak.

“Are you confident this time, Human Emperor?”

“Of course!”

Chen Yan smiled, and the two of them burst into laughter as though they were old friends meeting again after many years.

Then Chen Yan stepped forward and extended his right hand.

Huatuo likewise reached out his right hand and said:

“Then let us do this one more time.”

With those words, he transformed into a streak of golden light and merged into Chen Yan’s body.

The next instant, countless memories of Huatuo flooded into Chen Yan’s mind.

Huatuo’s memories:

Qiao County, Pei Kingdom.

“You—what will it take for you to let me go?”

At the center of Qiao County, Pei Kingdom, more than a dozen figures clad in silver-white armor surrounded an old man with snow-white hair, a frail figure who looked as though the slightest disturbance might send him to his grave.

A closer look revealed that this was Huatuo in his old age.

The soldier standing nearest to him stepped forward and pointed his weapon at Huatuo.

“You have pried into the secrets of Heaven. Heaven will not tolerate your existence. We have descended this time only to give you a choice: either destroy your own cultivation, or we will send you into reincarnation.”

“Destroy my own cultivation?!”

Huatuo’s eyes widened in shock as he stared fixedly at the soldier before him.

If he died, Shu and Wu would likely not last much longer either.

In this age of chaos among the Three Kingdoms, the combined strength of Shu and Wu was, in truth, far inferior to Wei.

Under normal circumstances, Wei should have unified the other two kingdoms long ago. Yet the world had instead settled into a tripartite balance.

The greatest credit for this went to Huatuo’s medical mastery and power.

In his youth, he had possessed extraordinary talent. Wandering the realm, he had treated and saved people from every faction.

Yet by a stroke of chance, the young Huatuo overheard that Wei was borrowing the power of Heaven to strengthen itself. Fury burned within him. This was the realm of humankind, so how could Heaven be allowed to interfere?

Thus, Huatuo became dissatisfied with merely practicing medicine throughout the world. He entered Wei and began constantly searching for Heaven’s location and its ascending paths.

At last, after years of investigation, he caught a glimpse of Heaven’s secrets and embarked upon the path of peering into the celestial order.

It was also at this time that Wei began to expand with astonishing speed, swallowing one neighboring warlord state after another.

Seeing the situation turn dire, Huatuo prepared to oppose the entire kingdom of Wei alone.

But then Wu and Shu rose from the ground like sudden mountains, forcibly halting Wei’s fierce advance.

This gave Huatuo hope. Yet he could not join either Wu or Shu at that time. All he could do was remain within Wei and continuously strip away the power Heaven had bestowed upon it.

As a result, his own strength grew ever greater.

But as his power increased, so too did the scale of his attempts to pierce Heaven’s secrets.

In the end, Huatuo finally drew Heaven’s attention. Heaven then used Cao Cao as a pretext to have him killed.

Huatuo, naturally, refused to comply. He fled throughout Wei, yet he would not leave the kingdom as Heaven wished.

He understood perfectly well that as long as he remained in Wei, the power bestowed by Heaven could never be fully inherited by the kingdom. In other words, as long as he stayed within Wei, the balance among the Three Kingdoms could not be broken.

However, by the time his flight had carried him into old age, his strength, though formidable, still could not rival Heaven.

Ordinary soldiers were likewise powerless against him.

So Heaven dispatched its personal guards to pursue him, resulting in the scene before them.

Huatuo looked at the soldiers holding their weapons, then surveyed the devastation surrounding them. This was the heartland of Cao Cao’s power, yet it had already been reduced to a landscape of ruin.

His eyes reddened as he gazed at the assembled soldiers, and his expression twisted.

“Do you know why I possess such extraordinary medical skill—and the ability to spy upon Heaven?”

“Do not listen to his nonsense. Finish this before complications arise,” one of the heavenly soldiers said.

He stepped forward, preparing to execute Huatuo, but Huatuo cut him off with a shout.

“Do you truly not wish to know how I glimpsed Heaven’s secrets? Do you intend to keep dealing with these troublesome insects from the mortal world forever?”

As he spoke, he drew several dozen silver needles from the white cloth pouch he carried.

The heavenly soldiers made no further move. They merely stared at Huatuo, the chill in their eyes colder even than the armor covering their bodies.

In their view, Huatuo had already suffered grievous injuries and was at the end of his strength. If they could learn from him how a human being had managed to glimpse Heaven’s secrets, that would naturally be ideal.

Seeing their hesitation, Huatuo knew that his words had bought him a brief respite. He gave a soft laugh.

“Then let me tell you.”

With that, he slowly drove a silver needle into his chest. As the needle sank in, the light in Huatuo’s eyes gradually cleared.

“Heaven has three hundred and sixty-five days, and man has three hundred and sixty-five acupoints. Heaven and earth are not connected, yet an opportunity exists through which they may be linked—just as you are able to descend into the mortal realm and wreak havoc here.”

“The same is true for us humans. Some acupoints are not open, but through the power of the outside world, we can open the passage between man and those acupoints.”

Huatuo picked up a second silver needle and inserted it into the depression at the center of the groove beneath the lower lip—the Chengjiang acupoint.

“Heaven is man, and the acupoints are earth. Heaven and earth are one. Man is the world. I am Heaven!”

The corners of his mouth lifted continuously, while the contempt and grief in his eyes grew ever more intense.

“Your celestial realm relies on external force as well, does it not?”

The instant his words fell, several silver needles pierced different acupoints in succession.

“Shenfeng, Chengjiang, Qimen, Mingmen, Yamen, Chengqi, Qiangjian, Zigong!”

As the final needle entered, an incomparably powerful aura surged outward from Huatuo.

In an instant, the life force around him withered rapidly. Flowers, grass, beasts, and humans alike were drained of vitality.

In the briefest moment, everything within a radius of five kilometers fell into absolute silence. The inhabitants within that area were robbed of their lives before they could even utter a cry.

The wounds on Huatuo’s body began to heal at astonishing speed.

The heavenly soldiers reacted swiftly. The moment his aura changed, they had already launched their attack.

Yet their weapons could advance no farther once they came within a few centimeters of Huatuo.

Even more terrifyingly, their bodies could no longer move in the slightest, as though they had been fixed in midair.

Viewed from behind, one could see that slender silver needles had appeared atop the heads of the heavenly soldiers at some unknown point.

Huatuo looked at them, his pupils already filled with dark green light, tears streaming endlessly down his face.

His hand lightly touched the weapon of the heavenly soldier at the front.

The next instant, the weapon shattered, and the soldier’s body transformed into something resembling drifting sand, streaming toward Huatuo and gathering around him.

The surrounding heavenly soldiers were horrified, but no matter how desperately they struggled, they could do nothing.

One by one, they were completely absorbed by Huatuo.

Just as the final heavenly soldier vanished into him, the sky abruptly changed.

Countless dark clouds gathered overhead, centered around Huatuo.

The next moment, a bolt of lightning tore from the clouds and struck him directly.

Yet after the lightning faded, Huatuo still stood upright, green ripples of energy rolling across his body.

His jade-green eyes gazed toward the heavens. He took out a silver needle and drew it through the empty space before him.

A weightless slash appeared in the air, and countless wails poured from within it.

“Heaven is man, and man is Heaven. One day is one world; one man is one Heaven. This is the enlightenment by which I shall shatter Heaven.

“Heaven, I am coming!”