Chapter 178 - 131: Built-in Ultrasound Diagnosis

Chen Jue snapped out of his [Meditation] state and opened his panel, his face a mask of surprise.

’So the skill leveled up! It strengthened my nerves and five senses!’

’No wonder my hearing improved so much. I can even clearly hear the sounds of my organs and bones.’ Chen Jue’s face lit up with understanding after reading the notification on his panel.

However, after exiting [Meditation], Chen Jue found that when he tried to listen for those two faint sounds with his normal hearing, they were drowned out by the other noises from inside and outside the room.

Left with no other choice, he tried the lotus position again, adjusting his breathing rhythm to slowly enter [Meditation].

Probably because of the upgrade, he had become more proficient with [Meditation]. This time, it only took Chen Jue a little over three minutes to enter that wondrous, low-frequency brain state.

In this state, Chen Jue felt his mind grow tranquil as the distracting thoughts in his head slowly began to dissipate.

Gradually, he began to try listening to the sounds inside his body with both ears.

The eardrum is a marvelous structure. Though it’s just a thin membrane, it has a peculiar duality: it vibrates in response to stimuli from both outside and inside the ear canal, creating a reflection in the auditory center.

For instance, pinching your nose, closing your mouth, and blowing forcefully can also increase the eardrum’s sensitivity.

However, the [Meditation] state Chen Jue entered was clearly more effective than just blowing air. The moment he entered it, he began to hear all sorts of peculiar sounds inside his body.

First came the loudest sound: his heartbeat. The THUMP-THUMP was like the rhythmic backfire of a powerful engine.

Chen Jue listened carefully to his heart. He heard no abnormalities. In fact, because he had entered the [Meditation] state, his body’s metabolic functions slowed, and the frequency of his heartbeat began to decrease.

’Not bad! Nothing wrong with my heart!’ A simple thought arose.

Next were his churning stomach and intestines. Since he had just eaten dinner not long ago, his digestive system was hard at work.

Normally, when a person gets hungry, they can hear their stomach gurgling. That’s because when the stomach is empty, gastric acid secretion increases, and the gastrointestinal tract begins to contract, creating sound as it squeezes the air inside.

But the churning sound after a meal was different. It was more like a blender mixing a pile of food paste—a slight, rustling, churning sound with no other abnormalities.

’Stomach and intestines are fine, too. Very healthy.’ Another simple thought surfaced.

After listening to his digestive tract, Chen Jue focused his efforts on the sound coming from his gallbladder.

The gallbladder is also part of the digestive system. Whenever food enters the stomach and intestines at a person’s biological mealtime, the gallbladder contracts to expel the concentrated bile within, a process somewhat like squeezing a water balloon.

But Chen Jue had a small gallstone. It was like a rock inside that water balloon, so the sound produced during the expulsion of bile was naturally a bit different.

There was an extra, abnormal noise, like a stone rolling around in water. It was clearly the gallstone being pushed by the gallbladder’s contractions, moving about in the bile.

’There’s a strange noise in my gallbladder!’

’But the noise is very faint. It looks like the stone has shrunk again.’ A pleased thought arose, and Chen Jue shifted the focus of his hearing to the joints of his skeleton.

Using yoga poses, Chen Jue tested every joint he could hear.

Aside from an abnormal, dissonant sound at his 4th and 5th vertebrae, the movement of all his other bones and joints was normal.

’That’s my herniated lumbar disc!’ Chen Jue’s eyes flew open as he exited the wondrous [Meditation] state in amazement.

He discovered that this newly acquired [Meditation] skill, besides training his spirit and willpower, had its greatest use in creating a synergistic effect with his ever-improving hearing. It could dig, monitor, and discover lesions within the human body, functioning similarly to an ultrasound diagnosis at a hospital.

He had only just learned this technique of "diagnosing by listening inward," so he wasn’t very proficient with it yet. Hearing the sounds of his heart, digestive tract, gallbladder, and joints was his current limit.

’If my hearing gets even stronger and can cover my whole body, won’t I be able to skip hospital check-ups altogether?’

’If I keep improving my medical knowledge, I can monitor and diagnose myself, checking for any lesions or abnormalities! I won’t have to worry about accidental injuries during exercise anymore.’ Chen Jue’s eyes burned with excitement, as if he had just developed an incredible human tool.

...

The night of yoga and meditation practice was very fulfilling for Chen Jue. Most importantly, through practical application of the skill, he had mastered a special technique he called "Inner Listening."

After two hours of meditation, his Skill Level had increased by another 100-plus points, and his Spirit Attribute had grown by 0.02. He estimated that another night of practice would be enough to level up again.

Around 9 p.m., Chen Jue took his medicinal bath, continuing to rub his entire body’s joints with the purchased ointments and lotions.

Previously, to be able to lift the gold brick sooner, his exercises had all targeted his hands, so he had concentrated the medicinal applications on his hands as well.

But after using "Inner Listening" to monitor all the joints in his body, he found that the sounds of his hand joints moving were much smoother and more fluid than his other joints, with almost no abnormalities at all.

In order to make all the joints in his body achieve a similar smoothness, Chen Jue decided to expand the application area to his entire body. From the bones in his hands to his ankles, and then to his shoulder blades and lumbar spine, he treated every part equally.

Although the consumption rate was a bit high—the dozen or so types of Tongluo Wine and Bone-Penetrating Ointment he had stocked up would be gone in a few days—Chen Jue didn’t mind the expense for the sake of his body’s improvement.

He was a major online celebrity earning well over 100,000 a month now; he wasn’t going to sweat such a paltry sum.

...

After applying the medicine, he slipped into bed and went to sleep. The next morning, he woke up and began his usual routine of taking various supplements, swallowing a handful of everything from calcium tablets to vitamins with a glass of warm water.

When he opened his panel, he was surprised to see a new notification had appeared while he slept:

——————

[Ding~]

[Under the stimulation of the medicine’s potency, your overall bone density has increased, and your joint toughness has slightly improved.]

[Constitution Attribute +0.01]

——————

’I can even gain Attributes while I sleep! It seems applying the medicine all over is indeed more effective than just local application.’ Chen Jue looked at the panel notification, his face beaming with joy.

With a clear head from just waking up, he quickly went online and ordered more of the topical medicines he’d bought before, lest he run out in a few days.

Of course, he was just casting a wide net, trying every method that could improve his attributes and physical fitness. If one of them worked, great.

He put down his phone, went upstairs, and continued to train his eyes and ears while facing the morning sun.

The temperature in Hang City had dropped to -2 degrees Celsius due to a cold front moving south, but with the morning sun shining on him, Chen Jue didn’t feel cold. In fact, the more he trained, the more comfortable he felt.

By the time he went downstairs and drove to the park, his eye sockets and ears were slightly red. The abnormally accelerated blood circulation inside them generated enough heat to offset the damp, cold southern weather.

You have to understand, under this kind of "magic attack that bypasses all armor," if you didn’t keep your hands and ears warm, you could easily get frostbite or similar ailments from being active outdoors for too long.

But Chen Jue, relying solely on his training, generated internal heat that provided a powerful defense against the cold, a testament to the remarkable effectiveness of his daily exercises.

...

He drove to the Morning Exercise Park. Because the temperature had suddenly dropped by more than ten degrees, there were noticeably fewer elderly people exercising.

The chess tables, in particular, were completely deserted at 7 a.m. The usual boisterous old men were probably all huddled at home for warmth or had moved to an indoor venue to play.

Even Elder Wu hadn’t come today. Only Wu Fang was there on this frosty winter morning, using a chess table to do leg stretches. Puffs of white, steamy breath billowed from her mouth and nose as she inhaled and exhaled.

"Good morning!" Chen Jue walked over and greeted her.

Seeing Chen Jue appear with the Bow Box on his back, a light sparked in Wu Fang’s calm eyes. "Good morning, Brother Jue! I thought you wouldn’t come since it’s so cold."

"It’s not so bad. A little exercise will warm you right up," Chen Jue replied with a small smile. ’When a girl you like is waiting for you, you’d charge into Antarctica itself.’

The two chatted for a bit by the chess tables at the park entrance. Once the morning sun had properly spilled into the park, they headed together toward the central lake area.

To their surprise, the overnight temperature drop had frozen the park’s small lake. A thin, flat layer of ice covered its surface, glittering beautifully under the sunlight.

It rarely snowed in the south, and in Wen City, where Chen Jue grew up, seeing ice like this was a once-in-a-decade event.

Hang City was in the northern part of Jiang Province, so it experienced snow every year or two.

But the weather this year was a bit abnormal. Just two weeks ago, it had been comfortable enough for a light jacket, but after last night’s temperature drop, it was time to break out the down coats.

"I wish it was thicker! When I was little, my favorite thing to do in winter was step on ice like this." With a touch of childlike playfulness, Wu Fang went to the lake’s edge to test the ice’s thickness.

The thin layer shattered at the slightest touch, offering none of the joy of skating on a frozen river up north.

Chen Jue’s heart stirred at the sight. He, too, had loved stomping on the thin ice that formed over the stinky ditches near his home as a child. He never thought he’d share such a similar childhood hobby with Teacher Wu.

Intrigued, he went over and placed one foot on the ice. He didn’t dare put much weight on it, fearing it would break. He tried scraping his shoe across the surface, and to his astonishment, a notification popped up on his panel:

——————

[Ding~]

[A qualifying physical movement has been completed.]

[Skill Activated: Ice Skating]