Li Xu returned to the clinic.

After a busy day, he was feeling a bit exhausted.

After a quick wash, he lay down on his bed and went over Zhao Qingya’s condition in his mind.

There was the qi stagnation from her depression, the blood stasis from her heart disease, and the knot of phlegm and toxins from her tumor.

The three were like a tangle of venomous snakes.

If he could resolve the mental knot of her depression, her qi would flow freely, and the strain on her heart would lessen.

If he could control the tumor, the pressure on her heart would be alleviated.

But it was a vicious, chicken-and-egg cycle.

He needed a powerful method to slice through this tangled mess in one stroke.

’What on earth should I do...’

Li Xu drifted off into a hazy sleep.

「The next morning.」

The moment Li Xu opened his eyes, he pulled up the system interface to check the day’s intelligence report.

Lately, nothing else had been going on.

The intel had been as bland as water.

But with such a severe case yesterday, he knew from experience that there had to be some crucial intel today.

[Today’s Intelligence: Patient Zhao Qingya suffers from severe depression, her heart’s apertures clouded. Her congenital heart disease has damaged her heart meridians. The tumor is in fact an internal knot of "rock qi." Nothing less than an extraordinary formula and potent medicine will suffice... The Ghost Gate Thirteen Needles, in conjunction with the Ten Thousand Year Old Agarwood, can break this stalemate!]

[Guangxi... Buried wood... Ten Thousand Year Old Agarwood... It has the miraculous effect of clearing passages and opening apertures, even bringing the dead back to life. Furthermore, it can drastically reverse a depressive state and repair damaged heart meridians. Specific coordinates: Latitude 21° N...]

[Attachment: Ghost Gate Thirteen Needles.mp4 (Complete instructional video, including the core mental techniques for needle application)]

"She can be saved!"

Li Xu let out a long sigh of relief.

As expected, the intel really came through.

The Ghost Gate Thirteen Needles!

This was the most mysterious, eerie, and powerful needle technique in all of traditional Chinese acupuncture.

It specialized in treating ailments of the mind and spirit, such as mania, depression, and possession by malevolent entities (schizophrenia).

Legend had it that this technique could commune with ghosts and gods, and even defy fate itself.

But because the technique was so aggressive and prone to backlashing against the practitioner, it was a closely guarded secret among physicians of every generation, and most of it had long been lost to time.

He never expected the system to provide a complete instructional video.

What’s more, the intel had also mentioned the "Ten Thousand Year Old Agarwood."

Agarwood itself was the "king of all fragrances," capable of promoting qi circulation to alleviate pain, warming the body’s core to stop nausea, and helping the lungs grasp qi to relieve asthma.

And this particular strain of Agarwood was the finest of its kind. As for a Ten Thousand Year Agarwood... that was a divine object straight out of legend.

If yesterday’s Sandalwood Fragrance was for calming the spirit, then this Ten Thousand Year Agarwood was the ’Breaking Demon.’

Use the Ghost Gate Thirteen Needles to open the heart’s apertures and expel the ’ghost’ of depression.

Use the Ten Thousand Year Agarwood to repair the heart meridians and neutralize the ’poison’ of the tumor.

This was the key to breaking the stalemate.

Li Xu took a deep breath and opened the video.

In the video, a figure was demonstrating the needle technique.

The first needle: Ghost Palace.

The second needle: Ghost Letter.

The third needle: Ghost Fortress...

The location and depth of each needle, the techniques for lifting, thrusting, and twirling, and even the coordinated breathing exercises—it all became imprinted in Li Xu’s mind with perfect clarity.

He felt his hands start to heat up, as if an invisible power was surging through his meridians.

At the same time, he was reminded of his childhood.

It was on a dark and stormy night, and the lights in the old clinic were dim.

While polishing the ancestral Golden Needles, his father would tell a young Li Xu stories about traditional Chinese medicine that bordered on fantasy.

"Son, the Ghost Gate Thirteen Needles is what we in traditional Chinese medicine call a ’Forbidden Technique.’"

His father’s voice was low, filled with an indescribable sense of awe.

"Why is it called a Forbidden Technique?"

A wide-eyed young Li Xu asked.

"Because it’s too unnatural."

His father sighed. "The ancients said this technique was created by Celestial Master Zhang to deal with ’unclean’ things. Things like mania, depression, or strange illnesses where a person suddenly seems to have become someone else."

"The ancients called this kind of illness ’possession,’ while we call it mental illness today. But in terms of treatment, these thirteen needles are miraculously, even divinely, effective. You administer the treatment, and some patients wake up on the spot as if they’ve become a whole new person."

"Then isn’t that a good thing? Why forbid it?"

His father shook his head, his expression growing serious. "Because this technique involves karma. As the old saying goes, a healer must have a benevolent heart. We don’t just save people; we must also respect Heaven, Earth, and the spirits. Some illnesses in this world are karmic debtors coming to collect a debt. If you just stick a needle in to drive them away, indiscriminately, you’ll have made a powerful enemy."

"So, there’s a rule in traditional Chinese medicine: don’t use the Ghost Gate Thirteen Needles unless you have absolutely no other choice. And even if you do, your primary goal should be to harmonize, never to push things to the point of no return. Among these thirteen needles, a few are ’death points.’ Once you use them, it becomes a fight to the death."

His father then told him a story.

It was back in the Republican Era. A Divine Physician was performing acupuncture on a young master who had gone mad.

The first needle, Ghost Palace.

The second needle, Ghost Letter...

Halfway through the treatment, the young master suddenly fell still. But a large, black guard dog nearby went berserk, barking madly until it finally slammed its head against a wall and died.

The Divine Physician’s face fell. He immediately withdrew the needles, bowed three times to the dead dog, and had the master of the house give the animal a proper burial. Only then was the matter considered resolved.

"The Divine Physician explained that the entity, forced out by the needles with nowhere else to go, possessed the dog and used it to die in its place. This is called ’Misfortune Transference.’"

His father patted Li Xu’s head. "This kind of act harms your karmic virtue. So, as for this technique... it’s enough that you know it exists. If you ever learn it, don’t use it lightly."

Back then, Li Xu had treated it as just a scary story, listening with fascination but never taking it seriously.

As a materialist with a modern education, he had always been skeptical of such superstitious mumbo-jumbo.

But now, looking at the Ghost Gate Thirteen Needles.mp4 video from the intel and considering Zhao Qingya’s bizarrely complex illness, Li Xu was forced to re-evaluate this ancient technique.

Zhao Qingya’s illness really did seem like a case of ’possession.’

The delirium from her depression was a classic case of a ’ghost clouding the mind.’

The damaged heart meridians from her congenital heart disease were like a ’ghost wall’—an impassable barrier.

And the tumor, constantly spreading and on the verge of enveloping her heart, was uncannily similar to the legendary ’internal knot of rock qi’—what was also known as a ’ghost embryo.’

Perhaps ancient traditional Chinese medicine truly had a different logic for things that modern medicine couldn’t explain.

Furthermore, the video provided by the system was incredibly detailed. It wasn’t full of abstruse theories, but rather precise acupoint locations and needle manipulation techniques.

Leaving aside all talk of spirits and karma, from a purely acupuncture standpoint, this technique’s ability to regulate the nervous system, stimulate the body’s latent potential, and forcibly clear blocked meridians was unparalleled in its sheer, aggressive power.

It was like force-flashing a low-level BIOS command into a crashed computer. It was risky, but it was also the only chance for a reboot.

’Forbidden Technique or not, I’ll bear whatever karma comes from this if it means saving her.’