Chapter 22: You Are Very Healthy and Very Unhealthy
Hongcheng First People's Hospital.
It was the finest hospital in Hongcheng.
Oncology Department.
"Doctor, what do my test results say? Is there still something wrong with my body?"
Inside the oncology office.
A filing cabinet, a desk, and an elderly doctor sat behind that desk, holding several routine examination reports, reading them over and over again.
The old doctor was around fifty years old.
He wore thick black-framed glasses.
He was the most authoritative expert in the oncology department, and today happened to be his shift.
In the past, he only needed to glance at a report once to know roughly what was going on — either he would regretfully tell you that you didn't have much time left and to eat whatever you wanted, or he would say there was nothing to worry about...
But today, faced with this stack of examination reports, he remained silent for a long, long time.
His expression was grave...
And deeply puzzled!
The wrinkles between his brows had multiplied.
"Strange... strange..."
"This is far too strange..."
The old doctor muttered to himself.
"I have never seen such a bizarre set of examination reports in my entire career!"
Su Ning was baffled and asked again: "Doctor, what's the matter?"
"Is there something wrong with my body?"
"Your body — there is absolutely nothing wrong with it!" The old doctor snapped back to his senses, still studying the reports as he replied.
"However... there is also a great deal wrong with it..."
Su Ning: ...
What on earth was that supposed to mean?
Was that even an answer?
"Strictly speaking, your incurable cancer... has worsened by an astronomical degree. The numbers are staggering — any normal person with readings like these would already be a corpse. And even if they weren't dead, they certainly wouldn't be able to move... they'd be on their last breath," the old doctor said.
"And yet... not only are you not dead, you're positively brimming with energy."
"In fact, looking at your physical fitness data across the board, you far exceed the standard benchmarks for a healthy person — which means... you should, by all accounts, be in perfect health."
The old doctor paused, then added: "Your healthy and unhealthy conditions are completely tangled together... as if you have the physical state of two different people."
"In all my years of practice, this is the first time I've ever seen a case like this!"
"Extreme health, and extreme illness... at the same time."
Hearing the old doctor say all this, Su Ning finally understood why the man had been furrowing his brow for so long.
He also got the general picture — his current physical condition was deeply strange.
Absurdly healthy, and absurdly unhealthy at the same time...
"So am I actually healthy, or not?" Su Ning asked.
"Hmm..." The old doctor thought for a long while. "Do you feel healthy?"
"Of course I feel healthy!" Su Ning said.
"Then you are healthy," the old doctor answered.
Su Ning: ...
He truly didn't know what to say.
The old doctor didn't know what to say either.
After so many years in the profession, with all that specialized knowledge, he genuinely couldn't make heads or tails of it.
"Will it affect my normal life?" Su Ning asked again.
"Do you feel like it's affecting your normal life?" the old doctor asked in return.
Su Ning: ...
Who's the doctor here — me or you?
I ask you a question and you throw it back at me?
If this weren't a legitimate city hospital, and if he hadn't confirmed he was in the right place and that the man before him was the city's foremost oncology expert, Su Ning would have suspected he'd wandered into some back-alley clinic by mistake.
"No!"
"Well, there you go then..." the old doctor replied.
"As long as it isn't affecting your normal life, you're normal."
He had said a lot, and yet somehow said nothing at all.
So it seems I could just be my own doctor.
Su Ning figured that was about all he was going to get — the old doctor had no useful information to offer.
He picked up his reports, said a quick thank-you, and turned to leave.
"Oh, right — remember to come back for a follow-up examination every so often. Even though this isn't affecting your daily life, we still need to keep an eye on how it develops. Although..." the old doctor paused.
Although the numbers on your condition are so terrifying that even if it worsens, there's nothing we can do about it.
So perhaps there's no real point in frequent check-ups?
But the old doctor couldn't help his curiosity. Su Ning's case was the kind that could be written into a medical textbook.
He also wanted to see just how long Su Ning would manage to live.
"Understood," Su Ning replied.
He left the hospital.
After taking several bus transfers, Su Ning arrived home.
"My body has no problems... but my cancer is severely advanced? So do I have a problem or not?" Su Ning shrugged.
Judging by how his body felt, he certainly wasn't going to die anytime soon.
But the cancer — that thing had actually gotten worse.
He was thoroughly bewildered.
"Whatever, I'm not going to die from it anyway... who cares!" Su Ning shook his head and pushed the matter of the cancer to the back of his mind.
Back home, his first instinct was to check on the little people and make sure they were safe.
Beneath the small tree.
The little people were living in peace and contentment.
They were growing more and more accustomed to life in this world.
The aura around them, the color in their faces — both were improving day by day.
They seemed happier,
and no longer cultivated around the clock without rest.
They had learned to balance work and leisure.
Some played chess, some practiced sword forms, others sipped tea and composed poetry.
They had wanted to drink wine, but the alcohol of this world was far too potent for them to handle.
They feared it might kill them.
Others were carefully building up their dwellings.
Some grew vegetables, some planted flowers, arranging the scenery around them.
Gradually, the area around the small tree, shaped by their efforts, had taken on the feel of a secluded paradise.
It was beginning to look more and more like the Immortal Realm.
"These ascenders have finally come to understand that cultivation and life are both long-term endeavors. They intend to live here for a very long time, and they've started paying attention to building their home," Su Ning thought to himself.
Rumble...
Suddenly, just as Su Ning was quietly observing the little people's daily lives, a faint explosive sound shattered the tranquility of this small world.
Around the small tree.
Three small black holes appeared.
Each was roughly the size of a fist.
Within the black holes, rolling thunder and lightning crackled.
Crackle, crackle, crackle...
A dazzling display of light filled the eye.
"What is this?" Su Ning was at a loss.
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh...
The nine little ascenders heard the commotion and immediately shot up into the air.
They hovered in a line before the black holes.
"Ascenders... more ascenders have come through?" Kunlun Immortal Maiden said.
"Who could it be?"
"Before we ascended, we used our divine sense to scan Qiankun Realm — there were no more cultivators at the Saint Realm. So why..." Great Xia Sovereign said.
"Perhaps some beings used secret treasures to conceal their aura, intending to sit back and reap the benefits — letting us blaze the trail first so they could follow behind and collect the rewards," Li Qingxuan said.
Everyone nodded in agreement.
Crackle, crackle...
The black lightning continued to flash, densely surrounding the black holes.
It looked just like a conduit that had short-circuited.
Su Ning watched, transfixed, filled with wonder.
This was his first time witnessing an ascension in progress.
So this was what a spatial passage looked like?
Rumble...
The black holes and lightning persisted for four or five minutes.
A beam of light blazed from within a black hole.
It was like a tiny light bulb flickering inside the darkness.
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh...
In an instant, three figures slid out from the black holes.
At the same moment, the black holes snapped shut.
Leaving behind only the three cultivators who had just ascended.
When the Nine Great Saints caught sight of the true forms of those three, their expressions shifted to one of astonishment.
"It's you!"
These three...
were not human.
They were three pitch-black demonic beasts.