Chapter 749: Outer Scripture

Chapter 749: Chapter 749: Outer Scripture

"Are you getting shy?" Wang Chuyun laughed heartily. "It’s only natural for young men and women to marry when they come of age. What’s there to be embarrassed about?"

"It’s really not what you think," Wang Xue hurriedly explained. "I... I’ve asked around. Li Xu has a girlfriend, and their relationship is very good. I heard they’ve even bought a house together and are getting married soon."

"Oh? You’ve already asked around?" Wang Chuyun was old and shrewd. He instantly caught the loophole and stared at his granddaughter with a smile. "You’ve even dug up the fact that he has a girlfriend and is getting married soon. In other words... you still like him. You’ve clearly taken a keen interest in him."

"Grandpa!" Wang Xue stomped her foot anxiously. "It’s just pure admiration! A reverence for someone highly capable, understand?"

She said earnestly, "Although Li Xu’s medical skills are absurdly high, he doesn’t have the arrogance typical of geniuses his age. He doesn’t have that icy demeanor that keeps people at a distance, nor does he have an aloofness that makes people too intimidated to approach him. On the contrary, he’s very grounded. Being in the same consultation room with him and watching him treat patients makes you feel very comfortable. It’s like a breath of fresh air.

"Who wouldn’t admire an upperclassman like that?"

Wang Chuyun looked at his granddaughter’s expression and decided not to pry any further. He just smiled and patted the back of her hand. "Alright, alright, it’s pure admiration. It’s also excellent for you to follow him around and learn some real skills."

A new day dawned.

Li Xu stretched and woke up from his sleep. After freshening up, he sat on the sofa and checked today’s refreshed intelligence. He originally thought it would just be solutions to some difficult and complicated diseases. However, when the intelligence surfaced before his eyes, Li Xu’s breath hitched.

The intelligence was very simple. It was just a short line of text—no formulas, no medical cases. But the content of these few words was anything but simple; it could even be described as earth-shattering.

Because the intelligence provided was impressively—the Yellow Emperor’s Outer Canon (Complete Edition).

When Li Xu saw those words clearly, he subconsciously froze. He rubbed his eyes vigorously, scarcely believing what he was seeing, and confirmed it word by word once again.

It really was the Yellow Emperor’s Outer Canon.

The Inner Canon of the Yellow Emperor was familiar to any person from China, or even anyone with a little common sense about traditional Chinese medicine. It was the foremost of the four great classics of Chinese medicine, the supreme sacred text that laid out its theoretical foundation.

But the Yellow Emperor’s Outer Canon? Very few people knew of this name. Even many students formally trained in traditional Chinese medicine had only ever caught a passing glimpse of it in the footnotes of medical history.

Legend had it that during the time of Emperor Huang, three historically renowned doctors emerged. Aside from the two well-known protagonists of the Inner Jing—Duke of Thunder and Qi Bo—there was another highly famous but mysterious healer named Yu Fu.

Yu Fu’s medical expertise was exceptionally brilliant and unique. He was particularly skilled in surgery. In that ancient era where "shamanism and medicine were undivided," this was simply unimaginable.

It was said that Yu Fu did not generally use traditional decoctions, stone needles, or massage and Guiding to treat illnesses. Instead, after clearly diagnosing the cause, if it was an organic lesion that required excision, he would use a sharp knife to slice open the patient’s skin, dissect the muscle, ligate the bleeding veins, go straight into the organs, cut out the root of the disease, and clean the stomach and intestines. After this surgery, supplemented by medicinal conditioning, the patient’s spirit and body would quickly return to normal.

Therefore, in that era, people praised Yu Fu’s medical skills with mythological reverence: "A departed hearse can return, and a corpse ready for burial can be resurrected."

It was widely known that the Inner Canon of the Yellow Emperor was primarily a dialogue concerning life, disease, and internal conditioning between Emperor Huang, the Heavenly Master Qi Bo, Duke of Thunder, and others. The Yellow Emperor’s Outer Canon, on the other hand, was rumored to be a dialogue between Qi Bo and other subjects of Emperor Huang (primarily Yu Fu).

The Outer Scripture not only contained a grand cosmic view—covering yin and yang, the five elements, internal organs, meridians, the three powers, the four seasons, and the five movements—delving into the interaction between heaven, earth, and humanity, and its impact on the human body’s microscopic tissues. It also provided a deeper, more practical discussion on surgery, anatomy, and first aid for trauma, which were not detailed in the Inner Jing.

There had always been a saying in ancient medical circles: The Inner Canon of the Yellow Emperor mainly discussed the "Dao" and the "Laws," providing a solid theoretical foundation for Chinese medicine; whereas the Yellow Emperor’s Outer Canon likely contained more of the "Techniques" and "Operational Methods."

There were even unofficial historical legends suggesting that during the Eastern Han Dynasty, the Divine Physician Hua Tuo’s superb craniotomy and surgical techniques, as well as his Mafeisan anesthetic formula, likely drew their inspiration from the remnant scrolls of this very Yellow Emperor’s Outer Canon.

The reason it was only a "likelihood" was that the true Yellow Emperor’s Outer Canon had been permanently lost over two thousand years ago, obliterated in the dust of history.

The so-called *Subtle Words of the Outer Scripture* or partial remnant scrolls of the Outer Scripture occasionally seen on the market today were merely a small fraction of content pieced together by descendants during the Ming and Qing Dynasties. They gathered fragmented words and various medical cases left among the people and compiled them under the forged name of Emperor Huang. Although they held some value, they were entirely unable to reveal the true, complete picture of ancient Chinese surgical medicine.

But now, the system had directly given him this medical treasure—lost for millennia—in its complete edition.

In terms of its exalted status in medical history, the Inner Canon of the Yellow Emperor was undoubtedly the foundation and general outline of Chinese medicine—the cornerstone of its theory. But if measured by its status in medicine, the Yellow Emperor’s Outer Canon was on par with the Inner Canon of the Yellow Emperor. In fact, in the fields of surgical practice and microanatomy, it might have been even more advanced and hardcore than the Inner Jing.

Li Xu was thrilled. This book was simply too sacred for anyone who studied and loved Chinese medicine. It was akin to the Holy Grail or the Spear of Destiny that had been lost for a millennium in the Western Church. For the inheritance of Chinese medicine, it was a hundred times more important than those inanimate holy relics. It carried wisdom capable of saving countless lives.

Even though the status of the Inner Canon of the Yellow Emperor was supreme, it still existed in the world in the form of remnant or revised copies, and people could still draw nourishment from it. That being said, the inheritance of the Inner Canon of the Yellow Emperor had also experienced extremely tragic twists and turns.

Many people might not know that a large portion of the complete Inner Canon of the Yellow Emperor we can see today was actually recovered and restored from Japan.

Opening the heavy scrolls of history to the Chu-Han Contention, even though Xiang Yu was the ultimate loser, countless literati over the centuries had lamented his suicide at the Wu River, praising him with the words, "In life, be a hero among men; in death, be a champion among ghosts."

However, many people had actually overlooked—or simply didn’t know—just how many priceless ancient texts were hidden within the Epang Palace when Xiang Yu captured Xianyang and burned it to the ground. Many classic texts of the Hundred Schools of Thought from the pre-Qin period, including a massive number of ancient medical books, were committed to the flames and reduced to ashes in that very fire.