Open a Clinic to Cultivate Myself Chapter 258 Clever Use of a Talisman with an Error

“Tao, what are you doing?” Ge Ming asked out of curiosity as he watched Ning Tao bent down poking around in the kitchen.

Ning Tao did not turn back, casually answering, “Catching mice.”

Ge Ming furrowed his brows. “The kitchen is new; I've also cleaned it thoroughly. How could there be any mice? Are you checking for hygiene or are you trying to deduct my pay?”

Ning Tao stood up. “Check my foot. I need mice for something.”

“For barbecue or to make wine?” Ge Ming asked again.

“To make medicine!” Ning Tao did not bother talking to him any longer and left the kitchen.

Ge Ming mumbled, “Mice could be used for medicine? A miracle doctor indeed. How incredible. How could he be so talented?”

Under a tree in the field, Qing Zhui and Su Ya were chatting.

“Sister Su Ya, how old are you?” Qing Zhui asked, smiling gently.

“18… and a half,” Su Ya said. She was in fact just 18, but it was unsure why she had added the “half”.

Qing Zhui heaved a sigh. “It would be great if you were 20. You can get married if you were 20.”

Su Ya blushed. “Sister-in-law, I don't want to get married so soon. I'm not done having fun yet.”

“Then when do you want to get married?” Qing Zhui asked.

Su Ya said, “When I'm 29 at least. Sister-in-law, why do you ask?”

Qing Zhui sighed again. “I can't afford to wait that long. Sigh, looks like you're not suitable. I'll have to look for someone else.”

Su Ya was puzzled. “Sister-in-law, what do you mean?”

“Nothing much. Your brother is here,” Qing Zhui said.

Su Ya looked over, and saw Ning Tao walking over while mumbling to himself. It was not sure what he was talking to himself about. Her heart felt warm and fuzzy for an instant when she saw Ning Tao, yet it was followed by a faint feeling of sadness. Even though she had acknowledged Ning Tao as her older brother and Qing Zhui as her sister-in-law, the teenage girl in her was still constantly hesitating. Until then, she still couldn't help but think about Ning Tao. She would even dream of him sometimes. Who could she confide to about such a matter of the heart?

But Su Ya only pretended to look happy, and greeted “brother” Ning Tao as he approached.

Ning Tao acknowledged them, then asked, “Have you all seen any mice?”

Su Ya asked curiously, “Why are you looking for mice?”

Ning Tao answered, “To make medicine.”

Su Ya shook her head. “The Sunshine Orphanage is newly built, there won't be any mice here. Go to the village if you want to catch some. How about I go get Sister Lu for help?”

Ning Tao said, “I think it's better that I go on my own. She's the village chief after all. Being a leader, how could I make her help me catch mice?”

Qing Zhui giggled as she said, “Brother Ning, why didn't you ask me for such a help? I can catch you as many mice as you want.”

Ning Tao then came to realization. Mice were the natural prey of snakes. With such a snake beauty present, did he need to fret over not being able to catch any mice?

Asking a snake was better than asking a person, indeed.

“Go go go, let's go catch some mice.” Ning Tao could no longer wait.

He had finally managed to acquire a paper talisman which he could draw and use, so it was natural that he was excited to try it out. Over the past three days, he had been staying in the Sky Clinic cultivating his spiritual power, studying the runes and crafting talismans.

He could not even bother to gather the spiritual material for crafting the talismans, and instead took that wooden chest from the Scriptures & Scrolls Store apart. He then searched for instructions to make homemade paper online. He first made it into wooden pulp using the delicate perfumed tripod and lastly made it into medium paper using the traditional method.

Everything had been prepared, except the one last ingredient, mouse blood.

Qing Zhui followed Ning Tao out of the entrance.

Su Ya said, “I want to go too, let me join you.”

Ning Tao said, “What are you going to do there? Mice are scary, you better not go. Just stay at home to study your nursing knowledge.”

Su Ya pouted. She was evidently unhappy, but did not continue following them.

Ning Tao was not worried about Su Ya being afraid of mice; he was actually worried of Su Ya being afraid of snakes. He did not know how Qing Zhui was going to catch the mice. What if she revealed her snake demon form? Would Su Ya not be scared to death?

Once out of the entrance, Qing Zhui led Ning Tao around the orphanage and into the woods behind the orphanage. The woods were completely secluded; not a person was there, and neither were there any mice.

Ning Tao said, “Qing Zhui, where are the mice? Quick, get me one.”

“Okay,” Qing Zhui responded, then transformed into a snake immediately, hissing with her tongue stuck out.

In an instant, a few mice escaped from a cave.

Hiss hiss hiss…

Qing Zhui's hissing grew stronger and the mice from the cave lay on the ground shivering in fear. They did not dare to run away even if they wished to.

Ning Tao went up and caught one. He then grabbed a porcelain bottle and the Blade of the Solar Eclipse from his small medicine chest, then made a cut on the mouse. Fresh blood flowed from the mouse's wound and dripped into the porcelain bottle. After cutting up a few more mice, the porcelain bottle was filled with fresh mouse blood.

With the mouse blood acquired, Ning Tao did not return to the Sunshine Orphanage. Instead, he took Qing Zhui straight back to the House of Sword Pavilion Cave.

Mouse blood, incense ash and medium paper had all been acquired. Ning Tao mixed the mouse blood and incense ash together according to what he had learned from the “Runes Handbook”. After that, he dipped his right index finger in the blood and drew the talisman on the medium paper with his spiritual energy activated.

Qing Zhui was shocked as she watched on, and said, “Brother Ning, didn't you say you were making medicine? You're drawing talismans now.”

Ning Tao said, “I was lying to Su Ya. The lesser she knows, the better.”

Qing Zhui watched in anticipation at Ning Tao drawing the talismans, appearing to be even more excited than Ning Tao himself. “Sister has been learning the runes and how to draw talismans, but the results had been limited. And I've been worse. I can't even recognize most runes. Brother Ning, you know how to draw talismans, can you teach me?”

Ning Tao smiled wryly. “I'm learning the clinic's runes and talismans; you won't be able to use them even if you learn. When I have the chance in the future, I'll find you some runes and talismans which you can learn.”

Since he was unable to use the magic tools of ordinary practitioners and demons, the talismans he could draw would definitely not be usable for ordinary practitioners and demons. He was able to learn the many runes from the “Runes Handbook” in the past three days but he was unable to read a single rune he photographed from the Feminine-moon City.

Qing Zhui nodded, then asked curiously, “Brother Ning, what paper talismans are you drawing then?”

Ning Tao said, “Plucking talismans.”

“Plucking talismans?” Qing Zhui repeated the name, and found it funny. She said, “What an interesting name. It's my first time hearing of it.”

Ning Tao looked awkward. “This talisman is a paper talisman for the cupping therapy.”

Qing Zhui: “…”

After the short chat, a plucking talisman was completed.

The plucking talisman began with a symbol of a tripod in which its legs were extended along both sides of the medium paper and then rejoined at the end of the paper. Tens of runes were written in the space between the two legs of the tripod. There were runes with the pronunciation of “en”, “chi”, and also “ba”…

Ning Tao picked up the newly completed plucking talisman and promptly blew on it.

“Doesn't it cost too much just for a cupping therapy talisman?” Qing Zhui could not help but express her doubts after all.

Ning Tao forced a smile. He too thought that the costs were too high, since most of his patients were ordinary. There was almost zero chance of meeting a patient who was wounded by bullets or arrows. It was indeed a waste just for a mere cupping therapy.

“Brother Ning, try it on me,” Qing Zhui said.

Ning Tao smiled saying, “Are you feeling unwell anywhere? This is a talisman for medical use. It can remove bullets, arrows, virus, lesions, acne. Besides, it would need a bamboo cup, but I have yet to find a suitable one.”

Qing Zhui said, “Just let me play with it. I don't need the therapy.”

Ning Tao passed the plucking talisman to Qing Zhui, then started drawing a second one. When he was drawing the talisman, his gaze unintentionally fell on a brush pot which was on the table. It was Xuan Tianzi's brush pot, which was made from a lush green bamboo. It was clearly not an ordinary object, but instead, a bamboo-type spiritual material. He thought to himself, “Isn't this an existing bamboo cup? I'll take it back later and use it to carry out cupping therapies for my patients.”

Qing Zhui suddenly let out a sound, “Eh”.

Ning Tao looked up at her from his talisman, suddenly feeling exasperated yet amused at the same time. Qing Zhui had pasted the talisman on her chest, and it got stuck on her clothes since the mouse blood had not been dried. She could not take it off no matter what, but was also worried that she would destroy the talisman if she had used too much force, so she ended up looking flustered and helpless.

“You're already so old, why are you still so playful? I'll take it off for you.” Ning Tao chided her, then promptly reached out to pull off the talisman which was stuck on her clothes.

Whoosh!

The plucking talisman had been removed, but it was not the only thing which came off – the blue long dress on Qing Zhui had also come off. In that instant, it was like the talisman had thousands of feelers which had suddenly plucked off all the fabric on Qing Zhui's body.

A bare and exposed image came into view.

Ning Tao was so shocked he was completely stunned.

Qing Zhui screamed in agitation and covered her face with her hands.

Ning Tao collected his composure and looked down at the plucking talisman in his hand.

The talisman was still present, the clothes had fallen to the ground. Qing Zhui was unable to take it off no matter what, yet he had managed to remove it effortlessly. What was even more bewildering was that the various pieces of long dress and smaller fabric showed no sign of wear and tear, it was as good as before.

“This…” Ning Tao could not believe his eyes. He found it even harder to believe that the plucking therapy could be used that way.

Indeed, the things taught in books were idealized and had discrepancies with reality.

Plucking talisman; the word “pluck” was already enough to explain the issue. It could pluck out bullets, pluck out arrows, it could even pluck out acnes and viruses, so wouldn't that make plucking off clothes a piece of cake?

“Brother Ning, you've cast a spell to take off my clothes, right?” Qing Zhui spoke with a voice entirely saturated with shyness.

Ning Tao suddenly felt like he had been gravely accused yet there was no way of explaining himself out of it. He hurriedly said, “Quickly get dressed, I… am going to continue drawing talismans.”

Qing Zhui pouted, but obediently picked her clothes back up and got dressed anyway.

Ning Tao felt miserable as he listened to the soft movement noises, but did not dare to look at her and continued drawing his talismans. As he was drawing them, he suddenly realized that he had drawn a rune wrongly!

The plucking talisman which had taken off Qing Zhui's clothes was not the authentic talisman, but one with an error!

Ning Tao was surprised yet also oddly amused by a perverted paper talisman being produced from a careless mistake. He quickly drew a second authentic plucking talisman and gave it to Qing Zhui.

“What are you doing?” Qing Zhui asked curiously, after she was just done dressing up.

Ning Tao said, “Try this one again.”

Qing Zhui giggled. “I knew you did it on purpose. Aren't you ashamed?”

It was hard to explain, so Ning Tao just smiled awkwardly.

Qing Zhui took the second authentic plucking talisman and pasted it on her clothes without hesitation, then promptly pulled it off.

The talisman came off very easily, while the mouse blood which had yet to dry off did not stay on her clothes.

“Eh? What happened?” Qing Zhui then pasted it again, and it came off easily once again.

Ning Tao tried it too, and he too had removed it effortlessly without removing Qing Zhui's clothes.

Qing Zhui said, “How strange. Brother Ning, give me the first one to try again.”

Ning Tao hurriedly kept the first talisman and was thinking to himself that he had to study the uses of the erroneous plucking talisman.

Chapter end