Chapter 227

Chapter 227: She Brought Hope

What Yu Zhi Yi planned to attach for Su Yuan Lin were hands formed from wood.

The wood was something her master had left her. It was called Xianlin Wood, very precious, and even within the Mystic Sect it was hard to obtain.

Xianlin Wood was first-class material for building mechanisms. It was said there was a group within the Mystic Sect called the Tianmo Gate, very skilled at mechanisms and arrays. They had an art called the Wood Soldier Technique, which used wood to make soldier puppets.

Puppets made from Xianlin Wood could look no different from ordinary people.

If a full puppet was fine, then a single hand would be even easier.

The only problem was this was Yu Zhi Yi’s first time. She was not sure she could do it well.

Seeing Su Yuan Lin’s tense face, Yu Zhi Yi grew serious. She reviewed the object-control method in her mind. After making sure she remembered every detail, she began.

She set the Xianlin Wood hand against Su Yuan Lin’s severed wrist and ran the object-control technique.

In the blink of an eye, the Xianlin Wood hand turned into a living palm.

Many fine tendrils unfurled from the palm. Each tendril matched a meridian in the human body.

Yu Zhi Yi connected the tendrils to the matching meridians one by one.

After finishing one hand, she did the same for the other.

When both were in place, she sent a thread of spiritual energy into each wrist.

With the flow of spiritual energy, the palms that had only a “shape” seemed to come alive.

Su Yuan Lin’s face lit up and he said: “I… I can feel them.”

Yu Zhi Yi said: “These two hands are not truly hands yet. Right now they only have the shape. You must learn to control them. When you can fully make them yours, then they can be called hands.”

In truth, for ordinary people, Xianlin Wood had another powerful trait: it was very hard.

It was even harder than many swords in the mortal world, and though it was wood, common fire could not burn it.

Because of this, people of the Tianmo Gate used Xianlin Wood to make a wooden soldier puppet.

But she did not plan to mention this for now. First, he had not yet learned to control his new hands, so telling him would not help.

Second, if he had no wish to harm others, this trait would be useless to him. If he did have that wish, she should not tell him.

Even without knowing other secrets of the wood, Su Yuan Lin was already content to feel the link between it and his body.

He dropped to his knees with a thud and said: “Official Yu, from today this life of mine belongs to you. Whatever your heart desires, I will stake my life to achieve it for you.”

Yu Zhi Yi said: “There is no need.”

She did not plan to fight for power. She only wanted to focus on cultivation.

He said: “I know you do not need me, but this is the only way I can repay you.”

After both hands were ruined, he had fallen into a long slump and almost lost the will to live.

Only not to fail his mentor’s hopes and not to make his parents and friends sad did he hang on, taking another path and learning to paint with his mouth.

No matter how much outsiders praised him, it could not change the fact that he was disabled.

Even if he could paint with his mouth and use his feet to replace his hands for some tasks, he was still not the same as a whole person.

No one could truly understand his pain and loneliness.

He thought he would drift through life like this until he died, but then Yu Zhi Yi came.

She brought hope.

Yu Zhi Yi said: “If you must repay me, then help me teach the people in the Quehan Institute.” After thinking, she added: “To avoid trouble, before you can normally use your hands, I will hide them. When people at the Quehan Institute have found hope again, and when you can use both hands well, I will let them be seen.”

Su Yuan Lin said: “All right.”

After settling Su Yuan Lin, Yu Zhi Yi returned to Yiluan Charity.

In the first-floor living room, Red Luan was curled on the sofa, munching snacks and laughing at a storybook.

Yu Zhi Yi was surprised and said: “You are not asleep yet?”

Red Luan waved the booklet and said: “I will sleep after I finish reading,” then asked, “How did it go?”

She had learned in the day that Yu Zhi Yi would invite Su Yuan Lin and help heal his hands. She stayed up late mainly to wait for Yu Zhi Yi to come back.

Yu Zhi Yi did not hide anything and said: “I have attached his palms. But at first he may not be used to them. He has to learn like a baby, slowly adapting.”

Red Luan dropped the melon seed shells into the trash and said seriously: “There is one big problem with this plan.”

Yu Zhi Yi indicated she was listening.

Red Luan said: “We invited Su Yuan Lin because he is disabled and shares the same struggles as the people at the Quehan Institute. That is why he can inspire them. If his hands get better, a gap opens between him and those people. Then his words will feel less convincing.”

Yu Zhi Yi said: “I have thought about that. So I already told Su Yuan Lin that before he can fully control the two hands, they will be hidden. Outsiders will not see them, and he will not use hands in public.”

She added: “When he and the hands become one, we will tell the people at the Quehan Institute that his sincerity and merit moved the heavens, so I was able to attach his palms.”

Red Luan’s eyes lit up and she said: “Brilliant. It is like the divine right of kings.”

Yu Zhi Yi said: “It is not that grand.” [When in doubt, just bring in mystic arts.] A kind lie like this should not bother the Way of Heaven, right?

And to be strict, it was not really a lie.

Because he worked hard to learn painting with his mouth, Yu Zhi Yi noticed him. Because of his skill, she went to invite him. To invite him, she took out the Xianlin Wood.

Talk of luck is tied to the Way of Heaven.

If the Way of Heaven did not allow his palms to be “reborn,” he would not have met Yu Zhi Yi holding Xianlin Wood.

Yu Zhi Yi said: “Also, I want to gather some famous physicians and bring them here to train.”

Many people at the Quehan Institute could be healed by her.

But she did not plan to take on every disabled person.

After all, she could not stay at the Quehan Institute every day, and cultivation depends on fate. She might go into seclusion and not come out for years.

The Quehan Institute needed physicians who could hold the place on their own.

Among the five traditional skills, she understood some medicine too.

Once she trained a few physicians who could work independently, she could be a hands-off shopkeeper.

This would also meet Red Luan’s idea of bringing in income.

Physicians who specialize in treating disabled people were very rare in this era.

When those physicians later went out to see patients, they could set aside a small part of their fees as repayment for their training.

That money could go into the Quehan Institute’s accounts to heal more people.