A few days later, Lin Sheng arrived at the Su Family courtyard.
The Su Family residence occupied an enormous section of the inner city.
Unlike ordinary noble estates, it resembled a small city within the city. Tall walls of pale-blue stone surrounded the compound while intricate carvings of clouds, mountains and flowing rivers decorated the surface. Several enormous trees stood along the outer courtyard, their branches spreading across the sky and casting cool shadows over the paved paths.
Everywhere Lin Sheng looked, there were traces of wealth.
Spirit Jade lamps were embedded along the walkways.
Rare flowers grew beside carefully maintained ponds.
Even the water within those ponds carried a faint spiritual fluctuation.
The Su Family had existed for generations.
Its foundation was naturally far beyond what ordinary families could imagine.
Several guards stood at the main entrance.
Their postures were straight and their gazes sharp.
Although they appeared ordinary at first glance, Lin Sheng could immediately tell that each had undergone considerable martial training.
He didn't pay them much attention.
A maid soon approached and respectfully bowed.
"Physician Lin, this servant will lead you to the receiving courtyard."
Lin Sheng nodded.
"Thank you."
The maid turned and began walking.
Lin Sheng followed quietly.
His expression remained calm.
Yet the moment he entered the Su Family estate, his Mental Perception had already spread outward.
He didn't release it too aggressively.
Instead, he kept the range relatively small while allowing his perception to flow through the surrounding structures.
Courtyards, buildings, guards and servants.
Formation nodes.
Everything gradually appeared within his mind.
He wasn't merely checking the Su Family's defensive arrangements.
He was also looking for something else.
Ever since learning about Su Yang, Lin Sheng had possessed a faint suspicion.
A person who couldn't cultivate Internal Martial Arts despite being born into one of Dongtai Prefecture's strongest martial families...
And who had nevertheless managed to develop such an unusual External Martial foundation...
Wasn't something that could be explained simply by blocked acupoints.
There had to be a reason.
The receiving courtyard was quiet.
Several ornamental bamboo plants swayed gently in the breeze while a small pond occupied the centre. A stone table sat beneath an ancient tree, surrounded by several wooden chairs.
The maid respectfully gestured toward the courtyard.
"Physician Lin, please wait here."
Lin Sheng nodded.
The maid withdrew.
He calmly sat down.
His Mental Perception continued spreading.
Nothing unusual.
Several breaths later...
Footsteps sounded from outside.
The door opened.
Su Yang walked in.
Lin Sheng's eyes immediately narrowed slightly.
His first impression was...
Bright.
Su Yang's eyes were unusually clear.
There wasn't the slightest trace of the despair one might expect from someone who had spent years being treated as a cripple.
Instead, there was a faint vitality within them.
Whether he had discovered some new hope...
Or whether this was simply his natural personality...
Lin Sheng couldn't yet determine.
His hair was predominantly black.
However, under the sunlight, Lin Sheng noticed a faint reddish tint hidden within several strands.
Interesting.
Perhaps it came from his mother's bloodline.
Su Yang's complexion was slightly flushed.
His breathing was steady.
But Lin Sheng's eyes quickly landed on his hands.
Callouses.
Not ordinary callouses from household labour.
These had been formed through years of weapon practice and repeated martial training.
His fingers were particularly hardened.
The muscles beneath his sleeves also possessed a firmness that didn't match an ordinary young man's physique.
He had been training.
Recently.
Very recently.
Su Yang approached before respectfully cupping his fists.
"Junior greets Senior."
Lin Sheng smiled.
"You don't need to call me Senior."
"Just call me Physician Lin."
Su Yang nodded.
"Physician Lin."
"Sit."
Su Yang took a seat opposite him.
Lin Sheng calmly observed him for several breaths before speaking.
"I've heard about your condition."
"The reason your father invited me here is to examine the blockages within your acupoints."
Su Yang's expression became slightly serious.
"Yes."
"Several physicians have examined me before."
"But none of them could find a solution."
Lin Sheng smiled faintly.
"Every physician has their own methods."
"I'll conduct several examinations first."
"I won't promise anything until I understand the actual condition of your body."
Su Yang nodded.
"Understood."
Lin Sheng extended his hand.
"Give me your wrist."
Su Yang immediately placed his hand upon the table.
Lin Sheng's fingers rested lightly against his wrist.
The next instant...
A strand of extremely subtle energy entered Su Yang's body.
At the same time, Lin Sheng's Mental Perception followed it.
His perception rapidly travelled through Su Yang's meridians.
Muscles.
Bones.
Blood.
Meridians.
Acupoints.
Everything appeared with astonishing clarity.
Lin Sheng's expression remained unchanged.
But deep within his mind...
A trace of surprise emerged.
The nine Innate Acupoints within Su Yang's body weren't completely blocked.
Not even close.
Some were relatively clear.
Others were partially obstructed.
But the major acupoints were different.
The Qi Sea Acupoint.
The Youguan Acupoints.
Several important acupoints connected to the Ren Meridian.
And those connected to the Du Meridian.
All of them appeared to contain something.
It wasn't ordinary Qi.
It wasn't blood.
It wasn't an injury.
Instead...
It resembled a dense layer of invisible obstruction.
Lin Sheng frowned.
He withdrew his perception slightly.
Then scanned again.
The result remained unchanged.
He didn't immediately speak.
Instead, his Mental Perception moved through the nine acupoints once more.
One.
Two.
Three.
Four.
His expression gradually became more solemn.
The nine acupoints...
Were connected.
Not merely through the ordinary circulation of Qi.
They were arranged according to a specific pattern.
A formation.
Lin Sheng's pupils narrowed.
"Interesting."
Su Yang blinked.
"Physician Lin?"
"Nothing."
Lin Sheng smiled.
"Just confirming something."
He continued examining the body.
The more he observed...
The stranger the structure became.
The nine Innate Acupoints weren't independent.
Each appeared to correspond with another.
The Qi Sea formed one point.
The major acupoints along the Ren and Du Meridians formed several others.
The remaining acupoints completed the structure.
Together...
They formed a closed circulation system.
Lin Sheng's mind immediately began calculating.
Could it be...
He slowly narrowed his perception to a single acupoint.
The first.
Then he sent a tiny stream of energy into it.
The instant that energy entered...
It vanished.
At least...
That was what an ordinary martial artist would have perceived.
There was no resistance.
No accumulation.
No obvious movement.
The energy simply disappeared.
Lin Sheng's eyes flickered.
His perception followed the energy.
It hadn't disappeared.
It had dispersed.
Not randomly.
Evenly.
The tiny stream had been divided into nine separate portions before spreading across all nine Innate Acupoints simultaneously.
Lin Sheng's expression finally changed.
This wasn't a blocked physique.
This was something completely different.
He carefully repeated the experiment.
The same result occurred.
Again.
The same.
A faint smile slowly appeared in Lin Sheng's eyes.
"So that's it."
Su Yang looked confused.
"Physician Lin?"
Lin Sheng withdrew his hand.
"Your condition is somewhat different from what I expected."
Su Yang immediately became nervous.
"Is it worse?"
Lin Sheng shook his head.
"No."
"It's actually the opposite."
Su Yang stared at him.
Lin Sheng leaned back slightly.
"You don't have a trash physique."
Su Yang's eyes widened.
"Then..."
"Your acupoints aren't truly blocked."
The words caused Su Yang's breathing to stop for a moment.
For more than a decade, everyone had told him the same thing.
His acupoints were blocked.
His body couldn't properly circulate Internal Energy.
His path toward Internal Martial Arts was essentially cut off.
Even his own family had gradually accepted that reality.
But now...
This physician was telling him that wasn't the truth.
Lin Sheng continued.
"Your nine Innate Acupoints are connected in a very unusual manner."
"Energy entering one of them doesn't remain there."
"It is distributed across all nine."
Su Yang frowned.
"What does that mean?"
Lin Sheng didn't answer immediately.
Instead, he continued examining the structure in his mind.
He already understood the fundamental problem.
Su Yang possessed an extremely rare physique.
A Spirit Physique.
More precisely...
A physique whose natural circulation forced spiritual energy to distribute itself across all nine Innate Acupoints.
To an ordinary physician...
Such a body would appear defective.
Every attempt to circulate Internal Energy would produce the illusion that the energy simply disappeared.
Even Xuan Gang martial artists examining him would likely reach the same conclusion unless they possessed extremely refined perception.
They would see the energy entering one acupoint...
And then disappearing.
They wouldn't see the microscopic redistribution occurring across all nine.
Even Su Yang himself couldn't perceive it.
And that created another problem.
If Su Yang attempted to break through normally...
His body wouldn't allow him to fill one acupoint at a time.
All nine would require energy simultaneously.
That was precisely why his cultivation had stagnated.
The amount of Internal Energy available to an ordinary Acquired martial artist simply wasn't enough.
Lin Sheng's eyes narrowed.
But there was another possibility.
A much more astonishing possibility.
If Su Yang could obtain enough Spiritual Energy...
Enough to fill all nine acupoints simultaneously...
Then the result wouldn't merely be reaching the ordinary Innate Realm.
His foundation could potentially be astonishingly stable.
More importantly...
He might directly cross the entire Innate Realm in a single breakthrough.
From Acquired...
Straight to Peak Innate.
Of course...
That wasn't something ordinary martial artists could accomplish.
The amount of energy required would be enormous.
And the physical strain would be equally terrifying.
Attempting to force an entire realm's worth of transformation into the body at once could easily cause the meridians to rupture.
A weaker physique would explode outright.
But Su Yang's physique was different, at the very least he would need to reach Rank 2 in body strengthening which is marrow Cleansing.
His nine acupoints were already designed to function as one.
The foundation existed.
He merely lacked the energy required to activate it.
Lin Sheng quietly looked at the young man before him.
A genuine Spirit Physique.
And one that had remained hidden beneath the appearance of a cripple for more than a decade.
This was undoubtedly rare.
Su Yang's expression gradually became anxious.
"Physician Lin..."
"Can it be fixed?"
Lin Sheng smiled.
"Your condition can be treated."
Su Yang's eyes immediately brightened.
"But..."
Lin Sheng raised one finger.
"You'll need two things."
Su Yang immediately listened carefully.
"First..."
"You'll need an enormous amount of energy."
"Far more than an ordinary martial artist would require."
Su Yang's expression became solemn.
"And the second?"
Lin Sheng looked directly into his eyes.
"Your body must be strong enough to withstand the transformation."
"If you attempt to force the breakthrough before your body is ready..."
"Your meridians could rupture."
"You could become crippled."
He paused.
"And in the worst case..."
"You could die."
Su Yang's expression became serious.
Yet there wasn't fear in his eyes.
Instead...
There was determination.
"Then I'll prepare."
Lin Sheng's eyes flickered.
That answer was exactly what he had expected.
He slowly withdrew his hand.
"Good."
"Continue your External Martial training."
"Strengthen your body."
"Don't rush."
Su Yang nodded firmly.
"Understood."
Lin Sheng quietly observed him.
A Spirit Physique.
Nine interconnected Innate Acupoints.
A foundation capable of potentially reaching Peak Innate directly from the Acquired Realm...
This young man was becoming increasingly interesting.
More importantly...
Lin Sheng still hadn't seen everything.
He had only examined Su Yang's physical structure.
There were still countless questions surrounding the strange jade ring hanging around the boy's neck.
And Lin Sheng had no intention of ignoring it.
However...
He would wait.
If Su Yang truly possessed the fate of a Child of Luck...
Then forcing the answer would only be counterproductive.
Sometimes...
The best way to discover a secret...
Was simply to wait for the secret to reveal itself.
Lin Sheng stood.
"Your father should be waiting."
"Tell him I'll need to discuss your treatment with him."
Su Yang respectfully rose.
"Thank you, Physician Lin."
Lin Sheng smiled faintly.
"No need to thank me yet."
"We haven't begun treatment."
As Su Yang left the receiving courtyard, Lin Sheng's gaze remained upon his departing back.
His expression gradually became thoughtful.