Chapter Four: Traditional Methods of Healing

At that time, he was just a struggling medical student.

Under the expectations of his parents and the unanimous praise of relatives and friends, he was admitted to a top ten university.

Upon enrollment, he discovered that the dormitory had 24-hour uninterrupted power, continuous hot water and dining services, and that all study rooms except the Yifu Building were open around the clock.

This... seemed to encourage open-book study.

Then came eight years of combined bachelor’s and doctoral studies, followed by three years of resident training, and then, when Shanghai introduced specialist training, another three years. Only then did he finally earn a salary of over six thousand yuan in Shanghai... Was the training period long?

Ha—some people even had a 5+3+3 combined bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral study track.

Training a doctor is truly not easy; everyone, please don’t blame ordinary doctors—they really are just like everyone else, hardworking and under immense pressure!

That night on call, he found a moment to sleep for two hours, but was awakened just before six in the morning by an emergency case involving drunken fighting. After cleaning wounds, stitching, and prescribing medication, it was already past eight.

He then had to attend rounds, only to be confronted with a complaint about his poor attitude.

It turned out a patient had been pleasuring himself in bed, which he caught and stopped.

The patient not only refused to stop but demanded his assistance. After the doctor scolded him, the patient filed a complaint.

After dealing with these ridiculous matters, he was ready to take off his white coat and go home to sleep, only to be told that a colleague had called in sick and he had to stay until the ten o’clock surgery was finished before ending his night shift.

By then, he was barely holding on. When he stepped outside the hospital, he found the breakfast vendors had been chased far away by the urban management officers.

Suddenly, he felt a wave of despondency; exhaustion dulled his hunger into numbness. He squatted right there, unwilling to eat or move, feeling weak and hollow inside, as if his soul was about to drift away from his body.

Patients and their families hurried past with anxious faces, too preoccupied to notice the doctor staring blankly up at the sky.

Though it was a bright and sunny morning, his eyes gradually lost their light, and his consciousness wavered and scattered.

His last clear vision was bowing his head to see a blind army ant, caught in a “death spiral” led by a leader ant whose pheromone trail was confused.

They endlessly circled, losing direction, until exhaustion claimed their lives.

He tried to stand but everything went black.

He died.

Then he was reborn as Johan in this world, and was very fortunate to meet a powerful archmage—Yemongade.

Yemongade raised him and took him as her final disciple, teaching him various kinds of knowledge and magic.

For sixteen years, Johan and Yemongade lived in isolation on the island of Yelantis until two years ago, when Johan was sixteen, Yemongade suddenly left.

Two years later, Johan received a message from his teacher, instructing him to leave Yelantis Island and wait in Red Hazel Town for further news. That was how he came here.

Although it was a critical time in his research on a new kind of magic, what could be more important than the summons from his teacher?

Johan liked immersing himself in magical research, but he was not without a longing for travel; otherwise, he wouldn’t have studied his teacher’s travel notes so diligently to learn from her experiences.

Ah! How he longed for it—the battles and exchanges between mages, the resonant skills of paladins, and all manner of splendid and enchanting legendary creatures:

Mermaids, banshees, elves, and especially the spider queen with eight humanoid long legs—

She could wear black silk, white silk, fishnets, mid-calf socks, thigh-highs, suspenders, nylon, velvet, nude tones, patterned stockings, and sheer glass silk all at once...

Beyond that, the dazzling array of wonders was surely countless!

His past life had been far too intense; the world was so vast and beautiful, yet he had never properly appreciated it.

As for Seriyad’s symptoms, perhaps they were born from his countless fantasies while studying magical creatures and history—he’d even drawn imagined pictures of a female vampire.

Who wouldn’t be interested in a female vampire?

Who wouldn’t want to examine a few cuts on them to see how their physiology differs from ordinary humans?

They were usually stunningly beautiful.

Legend had it that they especially liked medical students, eagerly anticipating sleeping with them to birth a vampire doctor hidden within hospitals to conveniently draw blood, and then star in a TV series lasting twelve seasons plus spin-offs based on themselves.

Johan shook his head; it seemed he was getting too excited and started to daydream. If someone took this moment to attempt an assassination, that would be disastrous.

Calming himself down, Johan looked at the door before him. He could sense the cold aura beyond it, similar to the chill he sometimes felt during rounds when passing certain wards.

Patients in such rooms were often unusual, possessing a negative aura that affected a certain radius.

Johan immediately cast a spell that rendered any bite from fangs shorter than five centimeters ineffective, then enhanced his bones, skin, agility, magic power, and mental acuity before opening the door.

The notoriously irritable and cruel Seriyad lay quietly on the bed, hands resting on her abdomen.

Her mother had once been the most beautiful woman in Red Hazel Town, so Seriyad naturally inherited an attractive figure and appearance.

Her complexion was rosy, lips bright red, neck slender, delicate collarbones and a gently rising chest—indistinguishable from any normal beauty.

He extended his staff, using magic to scan her, confirming she was not a sleeping assassin in disguise, nor was there anyone else hiding a weapon under the covers or the bed.

Once, his teacher passed by a border church during a blizzard, where many travelers were stranded. Among them, an assassin took a drug causing shivering and fever, feigning drowsiness under the covers. When the teacher tried to help, the assassin bit her hand, attempting to poison her through the concealed toxin on his teeth.

The result was, of course, “My blade is coated with poison too.”

Johan gazed at Seriyad’s tightly shut eyes. He had no time to check the room further, for he recalled a legendary cure with a 100% success rate.

He bent down and sniffed—no foul smell, only a faint fragrance—so he proceeded with the traditional and conservative treatment.

He kissed her lips.

Soft.

Then he straightened, observing her.

No movement.

“Hmm—”

Fairy tales were indeed lies.

He confirmed this.

He had thought that in such a magical world, a Sleeping Beauty would surely awaken by a handsome man’s kiss.

Success rate ↓50%

Seeing Seriyad’s lips looking a little more vibrant, Johan recalled the kisses from his teacher Yemongade.

When he was young, Yemongade often kissed him.

As he grew older, she only occasionally kissed his forehead, no longer pressing hard or forcefully on his lips.

He never understood why.

Perhaps it was because once, he slyly stuck out his tongue?

His teacher’s cheeks flushed an unusual red that day.

Ah—thinking of it now still sends a strange flutter through his heart.

Johan calmed himself, abandoning any shortcut treatments, and began a thorough examination of Seriyad’s body.

He lifted Seriyad’s eyelids and infused magic into her eye sockets.

The sclera was congested, deposits lay behind the cornea, tear glands were swollen, the retina showed exudates, eyelids were red and swollen, with microaneurysms and hemorrhagic spots—signs consistent with proliferative diabetic retinopathy.

How could this bloodthirsty vampire have diabetes?

It was probably due to the privileged lifestyle of the Aldos family. Apart from them, no one else in Red Hazel Town would be likely to have diabetes.

No wonder her mouth was so sweet.

Johan continued examining her. Seriyad’s condition made one want to inspect every inch of her body and every organ—

Comparable to the first time he encountered a "mirror man" during clinical symptoms—a person whose internal organs were mirrored left to right, occurring once in millions.

Seriyad’s symptoms were not a matter of probability but something only possible in this world.

Her brain showed enlarged blood vessels pressing on cranial nerves; the cerebral hemispheres were severely damaged, rendering her a vegetative state.

Brainstem functions remained relatively intact, allowing some primitive reflexes—perhaps the reason she periodically woke to drink blood.

Johan sensed that magical energy was slowly generating inside her, dispersing into her organs, especially her blood.

This could not be a natural illness but an artificial condition designed to transform Seriyad...

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