The Balak Kingdom where Shrek Academy was located was extremely far from Heaven Dou City. Not only was there the Silvis Kingdom in between, but one also had to pass through an important checkpoint—Jialing Pass!
Jialing Pass was Heaven Dou's final line of defense and had been the main battlefield of the Twin Gods War in the original world. For now, however, it was just an ordinary checkpoint.
The nearly month-long journey was very long, especially traveling alone over mountains and rivers.
Lin Yang crossed the Silvis Kingdom, passed Jialing Pass, and finally arrived at Heaven Dou City without any major incidents.
From a distance, Heaven Dou City looked like a ferocious beast crouching on the ground, exuding a sense of historical weight. Compared to this majestic city, both Nuoding City and Suotuo City were simply insignificant.
Before even entering Heaven Dou City, the wide official road was already bustling. Various merchant caravans came and went endlessly.
Lin Yang followed the flow of carriages and slowly approached Heaven Dou City in his own.
After the routine inspection at the city gate, Lin Yang was informed that carriages could not enter the city. More precisely, non-noble carriages could not enter.
Lin Yang shrugged. He wasn't surprised. In a city like Heaven Dou, class divisions were even more pronounced.
After leaving the carriage at a carriage yard, Lin Yang entered Heaven Dou City on foot.
Heaven Dou Imperial Academy was located outside the city, but Lin Yang did not go there directly. Instead, he wandered around the city alone for a while.
It wasn't registration time yet. Showing up rashly would only lead to embarrassment. It was better to use this time to learn more about Heaven Dou City and prepare for his future plans.
Over the next few days, Lin Yang visited several landmark locations in Heaven Dou City and memorized the positions of several medical clinics and pharmacies.
He couldn't stop acquiring whale glue and medicinal herbs. He purchased whale glue under different identities to avoid unnecessary trouble.
At the same time, he rented a small courtyard in a quiet alley as a temporary residence. He planned to stay here until it was time to officially register at Heaven Dou Imperial Academy. The quiet location also meant fewer disturbances.
Ten days later, at the entrance of Lin Yang's small courtyard, a middle-aged man happily accepted a money pouch. After weighing it in his hand, he already knew the amount. With a flattering smile, he said,
"If you need any more medicinal materials next time, sir, just send someone to notify Hundred Herbs Pharmacy."
Lin Yang nodded and gave a simple reply.
After the middle-aged man left, Lin Yang carried the bags of medicinal herbs into the courtyard. He gave them simple preliminary processing and sorted them.
Then, Lin Yang took a portion of the herbs into one of the rooms.
The room was very spacious. In the center was a long rectangular table covered with various instruments: test tubes, beakers, distillation flasks, and so on. These instruments, which seemed out of place in the Douluo world, had all been specially made for him.
Sitting in front of the experiment bench, Lin Yang's hands moved extremely quickly—peeling, grinding, extracting, purifying, and mixing. From his skilled movements, it was clear this wasn't his first time handling medicinal herbs.
Soon, seven or eight test tubes were arranged in front of Lin Yang. Each contained a small amount of liquid—some yellow, some pale green, and some a blood-red agate color.
Lin Yang added the extracted herbal essences into a large test tube in a specific order and dosage. Then, his pupils contracted to the size of needle tips as he split off a strand of spiritual power to carefully sense the reaction of the solution inside the tube.
The mixed potion seemed to undergo some marvelous change. It first turned from pale red to pale yellow, and finally became a blue-green solution.
Lin Yang frowned, then tilted his head back and drank most of the solution in the test tube. He added the remaining small amount to a diluted sample of his own blood.
The moment the diluted blood was added, the blue-green solution seemed to be rapidly dyed by something and finally turned into a pale red liquid.
Failure!
Lin Yang ignored the change in the test tube and simply wrote in the notebook beside him:
No. 18 potion. Long-term use can slightly improve physical constitution. After consumption, there is a high probability of losing sanity. No resistance to Demon blood. No research value for now!
There were many similar records. They included the properties and effects of various herbs, the efficacy of potions, and the symptoms of failed products—all accumulated from his past experiments.
Every herb or potion had been personally tested by Lin Yang, even the poisonous ones. Only someone like Lin Yang, with the Demon God Body, could reduce the effects of poisons to a minimum.
Could this be considered the Douluo version of Shennong tasting a hundred herbs?
Just as Lin Yang was about to try another reagent, urgent knocking sounded from outside the courtyard.
"Doctor Lin, open the door! Save us…"
Hearing the urgent cry for help, Lin Yang subconsciously sighed and muttered, "I already said I'm not a doctor!"
Even so, he quickly got up, left the laboratory, and opened the courtyard gate.
Outside stood three or four burly men, each tall and strong. From their weathered auras, they were clearly a group of mercenaries.
Mercenaries were not soul hunting teams. They were mostly ordinary people without soul power. They took on jobs like guarding merchant caravans, escorting goods, gathering herbs in the wild, or treasure hunting—thankless and exhausting work. If the pay was high enough, some would even hunt soul beasts, even if it meant being cannon fodder to attract them.
When they saw Lin Yang come out, a young burly man who seemed to be the leader—about twenty-something years old—had a pleading look on his face. His posture was practically lowered to the dust.
"Doctor Lin, please save my brother…"
Lin Yang followed his gaze. Behind the burly men was a simple stretcher. On the stretcher lay a relatively young boy. His face was deathly pale, twisted in pain. He kept coughing up bloody foam from the corner of his mouth. It was obvious he was breathing more out than in and didn't have long to live.
Lin Yang only glanced at him and said, "Bring him inside!"
A smile appeared on the young burly man's face. He quickly called to the others, "Hurry, carry Little Hai inside."
The group clumsily carried the boy into an empty room.
Lin Yang asked, "What happened?"
The young burly man showed a bitter expression.
"We're not entirely sure either. Last night we were camping in the wild as usual when Little Hai suddenly became like this. We gave him detox powder, but it had no effect. We had no choice but to bring him to you."
Lin Yang nodded. He didn't ask why they hadn't gone to a healing-type soul master. In reality, healing-type soul masters were like hot commodities among the upper nobility. Even a one-ring healer would have plenty of nobles fighting over them.
As ordinary commoners, how could they have access to healing soul masters? Even if they had connections, they probably couldn't afford the exorbitant treatment fees.
Similarly, because of the existence of soul masters, the world's medical system was extremely polarized. Powerful healing soul masters could instantly cure fatal injuries. The most famous were naturally the "Nine Heart Begonia" or the "Seven Treasures Glazed Tile Pagoda."
But for the bottom-tier common people, medical care remained extremely backward. There wasn't even a complete medical system. Even ordinary doctors relied mainly on experience and shallow herbal knowledge.
It was quite funny—Lin Yang's current identity as a "doctor" had come about purely by accident. It had all started with one Heimlich maneuver. From then on, the neighbors decided he was a young doctor, and people kept coming to him for treatment.
Although Lin Yang repeatedly emphasized that he wasn't a doctor and told them to see a proper physician, it had no effect. People still came on their own.
With no other choice, Lin Yang couldn't just watch patients die in front of him. He had no choice but to step up. As the husband of the Butterfly sisters, he had picked up some basic medical knowledge through osmosis. Combined with the experience he had gained from "tasting a hundred herbs," he had somehow managed to establish the persona of "Doctor Lin."
It could only be said that this was a case of unintentionally planting a willow that grew into shade.