The Medical Guru

Chapter 1567 To the Top of the Heavenly Ladder

“Am I going to die?”

Lying in bed, Fang Qiu felt the pain in his body, the swelling of his head, and the fear of imminent death, while looking at the ceiling with a pale face.

He knew clearly that he was going to die.

However…

He had experienced death once long ago.

Was the imminent death more painful and terrifying than jumping into the magma of tens of thousands of degrees?

No.

So, he smiled.

Even though he was very panicked and scared, even though he couldn’t help shedding tears, even though he had always wanted to stand up and call for help, he didn’t do anything and remained quiet.

He thought of the various conceptions advocated by Confucianism.

Only by knowing what you should achieve can you have strong aspirations.

Only when you have strong aspirations can you stay calm and patient.

Only when you stay calm and patient can you be at peace with yourselves.

Only when you are at peace with yourselves can you think carefully.

Only when you think carefully can you get achievements!

The truth, he had learned from the book The Great Learning in the thatched cottage in the Zengzi ruins, came to Fang Qiu’s mind.

Because he had already understood it, Fang Qiu instantly put everything down in such a situation.

Then…

Fang Qiu found himself motionless.

It was as if everything in the world had nothing to do with him. The pain, as well as everything he could feel, had vanished.

Lying on the bed, he seemed dead.

But…

He was not.

He was still conscious.

Under the guidance of his heart and the perception of his consciousness, Fang Qiu felt that his body seemed to have melted directly into half-black gas and half-white aura.

Yin and Yang!

Then, they began to merge with each other.

The black gas and white aura mixed together into something gray. Everything around was gone, leaving only a mass of chaos.

For an unknown period of time…

Fang Qiu’s consciousness had been wandering in this mass of chaos.

He saw nothing and felt nothing.

He couldn’t even feel that time glided past.

That feeling could be described in a similar situation where a mental patient stood next to a big tree and told it that he was a tree, and then became the tree he was imagining.

Time made no sense to him.

Similarly…

Time was nowhere in the chaos. Fang Qiu felt like his consciousness was something necessary but useless in the chaos.

Actually…

The only thing he could do was to watch the mass of chaos transforming.

And nothing, but the mass of gray chaos, was before him.

However…

Just as he was about to lose all his emotions while watching…

Some changes took place in the chaos, all of a sudden.

After a closer look…

An extremely tiny golden spot of light actually appeared within the mass of gray chaos.

Then, the spot of light immediately began to grow, bit by bit. Although slowly, it was indeed growing, just like a flame.

As time went by, it grew larger and brighter.

Eventually, the mass of chaos completely turned golden, shining and dazzling.

“Is it internal Qi?”

Fang Qiu sensed a particularly familiar aura.

He found that…

The golden glow turned out to be internal Qi.

Exactly, it was the same as the golden internal Qi that had once appeared in his body!

At this moment, Fang Qiu suddenly felt a tremor throughout his body, as if a surge of energy, like an electric current, was flowing into his body.

Then…

He woke up

He opened his eyes.

And he found himself back in the ruins, standing on the steps of the Heavenly Ladder.

He realized that the golden internal Qi he had lost before had been completely replenished, and it had even tripled from its previous maximum!

After a brief inspection, Fang Qiu was exceptionally delighted.

He had never expected to gain such great benefits from ascending the Heavenly Ladder this time.

Filled with joy…

Fang Qiu stood up.

He discovered that he was standing at a high point on the Heavenly Ladder, just one step away from the top. With one more step, he would reach the top!

However…

Fang Qiu was not in a hurry to take that step.

Instead, he looked around and surveyed the surroundings.

To his surprise…

he found that there was no one else standing on the same step as he was.

When he looked down, he saw that everyone else was standing below at different steps of the Heavenly Ladder. Among them, it was Master Numinous who was standing at the highest step, only two steps away from Fang Qiu.

It seemed that all of them had already awakened, and each of them had a bitter smile on their face.

“You all?”

Fang Qiu was confused.

“We didn’t make it through.”

Master Numinous shook his head and said, “This section of the Heavenly Ladder is too challenging. I only made it this far, but you passed all of the trials.”

Everyone nodded in agreement.

Fang Qiu also thought of the various trials he had just gone through.

Those trials were nonexistent and meaningless to him. As long as he did what he usually did, he could overcome them easily.

However…

It was different for the others.

Fang Qiu had long lost any desires for wealth, women, or power. None of them held any allure for him.

And as for his habits, it went without saying.

He had adhered to those habits consistently for decades.

Since when he began martial arts training, he had become accustomed to a supremely healthy lifestyle. So, even when faced with hardships and fatigue, he did not feel the slightest pain. Instead, he naturally believed that was what he should do.

But for others, it was not that simple.

To maintain the same habits every day was almost impossible.

For the masses…

There would be times when they felt tired and sleepy.

And at such times, they needed to rest, making it impossible for them to persist at all.

For the same thing…

To persist for a day was considered perseverance, to persist for a month was considered willpower, and only to persist for a year was considered a habit!

Sure enough…

Apart from that…

The most critical point was that everyone had their own obsession.

Under the influence of the obsession, they could not achieve perfection.

Therefore…

They admired John Doe sincerely.

“Go ahead.”

Master Numinous smiled and raised his hand towards the top of the Heavenly Ladder.

“Yes, go ahead.”

The patriarchs of the four great families, who were one step lower than Master Numinous, also smiled and waved their hands to signal for Fang Qiu to go up.

“Come on, you’re almost there.”

He Gaoming and the others shouted, “Once you go up, you will truly achieve immortality!”

“Brother John Doe.”

Sword Fanatic also shouted, “We still have to fight side by side. No matter what, you must take this last step!”

“John Doe.”

The four gurus of the Sword Sect looked at Fang Qiu and said, “This is a rare opportunity, not only for you but also for the whole Huaxia. So go up!”

Hearing these words…

Under everyone’s gaze…

Fang Qiu beamed and nodded.

He looked ahead.

The last step of the Heavenly Ladder was at the top of the clouds.

As long as he took this step, Fang Qiu would be able to walk above the clouds and see the scenery beyond the clouds.

“I’m coming.”

He whispered in his heart.

Fang Qiu took a step forward, stepped onto the last staircase, and then exerted force with his legs. Immediately, he stood up straight.

His entire body entered the realm of clouds.

He disappeared from the eyes of everyone below.

At the same time…

After he took this step…

The scenery in front of Fang Qiu instantly underwent a tremendous transformation.

He realized that…

The view above the clouds was completely different from what he had imagined.

Before them…

It was a small plain, shrouded in clouds.

And under his feet…

The Heavenly Ladder that he had just stepped on had disappeared as if it had never existed at all.

Looking at this desolate world…

Fang Qiu suddenly felt a strange sensation in his heart.

He waved his right hand.

Those people he couldn’t see below the staircase suddenly ascended inexplicably and quickly reached above the clouds.

On the clouds.

Everyone was puzzled.

“How could this happen?”

“How did we come up here?”

“Is this the top of the Heavenly Ladder?”

“We were clearly blocked under the Heavenly Ladder. How did we suddenly come up?”

Everyone was confused.

They looked at each other in inquiry.

In the end…

Everyone’s eyes fell on Fang Qiu.

“What’s going on?”

Master Numinous asked on behalf of the crowds.

“I can’t explain it clearly, either.”

Fang Qiu frowned, shook his head, and said, “After coming up, there was a split second when I suddenly knew that by waving my hand, everyone could come up, so I did it.”

As he spoke…

Fang Qiu recalled his experiences on the Heavenly Ladder.

Fang Qiu guessed inwardly.

On the Heavenly Ladder, everything he had experienced was a baptism.

After burning his physical body, suppressing his thoughts, overcoming his habits, and experiencing death and rebirth, he took just the first step into the immortal world.

Sure enough…

Fang Qiu had never thought that it would be so easy to enter the immortal world.

Even becoming a guru took more than ten or even dozens of years, so how was it possible to easily enter the immortal world just by climbing the Heavenly Ladder?

“Let’s go.”

Fang Qiu waved his hand and led everyone forward.

On this small plain surrounded by clouds, as they walked, they encountered a wall of clouds.

They passed through the cloud wall.

Then, everyone arrived at a new place.

It was still a plain, but there were some buildings on this plain that looked like flower gardens. And on the main gate of this flower garden, there was a sign with ancient characters that read: the Forages Garden.

Because they were all Huaxianese, everyone could understand these three characters.

At the moment when they understood…

They thought of the same thing.

That was, Laozi’s mount, Black Ox!

“Forages?”

“Could it be for feeding ox?”

“Did Laozi personally start the Forages Garden?”

Everyone asked with doubt.

While they chatted…

Following John Doe, they walked into the Forages Garden.

As soon as they entered…

Everyone couldn’t remain calm anymore.

It was not a forage garden, but a garden full of spiritual herbs!

At this very moment…

They felt that something was wrong.

“Are these spiritual herbs only used to feed Black Ox?”

Were they treated worse than an ox?

With sighs and wry smiles on their faces, they didn’t hesitate to pick the herbs!