Chapter 3: Four Point Seal!
"It's nothing short of a miracle; Xiao Ming's pulse is stronger than I've felt it in months!" Doctor Zhang's old face was bright with exuberance. "She still has a slight fever, but as long as she takes her medicine on time, that should also soon be fine. The heavens still have eyes, Xiao Yi truly has good fortune."
"Older brother Mo has spoken incorrectly; it's Yun'er whom the gods have smiled upon."
Chen Ming Yun smiled as Chen Haung Yi stroked her hair then she turned to old Doctor Zhang who was packing up to leave.
"Uncle Zhang, that gongzi who came with you earlier, I've never seen him before. Who is he?"
Although not overly so, the rules in this Sky Dragon Continent were a bit old fashioned and unrelated males were not allowed to enter the bedroom of an unmarried female so the person who looked like Chen Ming Feng that came earlier left before Ming Yun had the chance to look at him properly.
"Could it be that Xiao Ming is interested in that gongzi? Ming Ming isn't little anymore." Old Doctor Zhang smiled cheekily and teased. Chen Ming Yun made her cheeks turn red and pouted.
"Uncle, don't tease me, I'm only curious as to who he is."
Doctor Zhang laughed seeing her loveable expression. This old man, Zhang Mo, had been the Chen family doctor ever since Chen Huang Yi was a little boy so he had seen Chen Ming Yun grow up and took care of her since she was young which is why she called him 'Uncle'.
"Alright, alright, I won't tease Xiao Ming any further. Uncle is sorry." Doctor Zhang chuckled and poked her forehead adoringly.
"Then I'll forgive Uncle. Hurry and tell me who he is."
"His name is Liu Wan Yu, the nephew of my younger brother's wife who came to study under me as an apprentice. He only arrived in the capital a few days ago, and since Xiao Ming was sick I didn't bring him over before this."
"Liu Wan Yu." Chen Ming Yun repeated the name.
She had an idea, it was a ridiculous and almost desperate idea and her rationality was telling her not to entertain it, but she couldn't help herself from hoping. If she had transmigrated, what was stopping that brat Chen Ming Feng who was always one step ahead of her in everything from doing the same?
"Uncle, can I meet Yu Gege?"
"Maybe when you're better." Chen Huang Yi interrupted before Doctor Zhang could reply and he stroked Ming Yun's cheek. "Right now, you should try to get some rest."
"But I'm not sleepy."
"Yun'er, be a good girl." Chen Huang Yi chided gently and stroked her head. "I have to go see you mother and let her know you're fine or she'll keep worrying. Wang Ma, take care of Yun'er."
"Of course, General." A middle aged serving woman with a kindly face bowed her head in acknowledgment to Chen Huang Yi's instruction.
"Older brother Mo, I'll trouble you to look at the Madame."
"There's no need for Xiao Yi to be so polite. I haven't seen you in so long since you were stationed at the border, not coming home all year long. You've gotten taller?"
Chen Huang Yi laughed as Doctor Zhang patted him on the back.
"I'm already going to be forty this year, where would I be growing taller at this age?"
"Then should I prescribe you something? You'll be home for a few days now that you've come back, yes? You should take the time with Xiao Mei and give me a little nephew to hold ah. I've been nurturing her stomach well these few years and I don't believe Xiao Ming has taken all the vigor out of you."
Chen Huang Yi stumbled and almost fell over when he heard Doctor Zhang's words.
"What, are your bones weak too? Don't worry, don't worry, I've been putting your money and resources to good use and practicing my alchemy well; I'll make you a high level medicine to fix everything."
Chen Ming Yun and the maids in the room all stifled their laughter best they could as the two men slowly left, and once they were gone, the young maids could no longer stop themselves and broke into giggles.
"Doctor Zhang is teasing the General again."
"The General is usually so astute, but when it comes to Doctor Zhang he can hardly say anything. Haha~"
"Mm, mm. It's only when Doctor Zhang is around one could see such a cute side of the General."
"You smelly yatou, what are you doing laughing at the General?"
With her fists propped on her round hips, Wang Ma scolded the young maids, but there was a hint of smile on her mouth corner, showing that she wasn't truly angry.
"Sorry, Wang Ma."
Putting on a show of remorse, the maids who were scolded lowered their heads in guilt, but on the side, they were still jabbing and poking at each other with their elbows.
These little girls..., Wang Ma sighed.
These five maids had been specially trained by her and the madam to take care of the fragile miss from a young age and although they were very good when it came to their work and would never slack off on their duties, they were still young so it was inevitable that they were mischievous at times, but they were growing up. They needed to learn propriety.
"Alright, that's enough dawdling around. Hong Lian and Lu Liu, prepare the bath, Lan Hu and Bai Yu, help the Miss change her clothes and Zi Feng, go ask the kitchen to prepare some soup."
"Understood, Wang Ma"
"Okay."
"Right away."
"Yes."
"Yes, Mama."
Under Wang Ma's instructions, Chen Ming Yun went along with the four maids and allowed herself to be stripped bare before she was carried down into a tub of warm water full of a sweet, herbal scent that washed away the smell of blood and sweat that clung to her.
She was bathed thoroughly and dressed with much care then placed back under the warm cover of fresh sheets after Wang Ma changed them, and when Zi Feng returned from the kitchen, she sat up against the soft pillows and opened her mouth to accept the food that was fed to her.
This was what the real 'Chen Ming Yun' was used to. Her weak body didn't allow her to do much by herself so most things had to be done for her and although Ming Yun wasn't used to being so 'closely attended to', she also didn't have any scruples with it, plus it wasn't as though she could do anything about it. Although the soul had changed, the ailing body was still the same, so she calmly accepted their attendance up until her head started to nod.
Seeing that she was sleepy, Lan Hu whom was feeding her put down the spoon and wiped Chen Ming Yun's mouth before Lu Liu came forward to readjust the pillows so she could lie down. The gauze canopy around the bed was let down and the incense burner was lit before they all quietly withdrew from the room.
"Lu Liu and Hong Lian will stay vigil tonight and in the morning, Zi Feng and Lan Hu will take over." Wang Ma instructed the group of maids quietly outside the door.
"Wang Ma, please let me stay vigil tonight." Wang Ma looked over at Bai Yu who had spoken out. The young girl's eyes were red from holding back tears and she was tightly clutching her skirt with both hands until her knuckles turned white. "Please, I want to stay by Young Miss's side tonight."
"Xiao Bai, you know you have cooking duty in the morning--"
"Please Wang Ma, I don't want to leave her alone."
Seeing that Bai Yu was on the verge of an emotional break down, Wang Ma felt her heart ache and she sighed. These girls had grown up right alongside the young miss and they were more like a group of sisters than master and servant, Wang Ma knew that Bai Yu was both worried and upset.
"Very well, Hong Lian, you and Bai Yu will keep watch tonight and in the morning, Lu Liu and Lan Hu will take over."
The girls all gave their affirmation to Wang Ma's instructions before Lu Liu, Lan Hu and Zi Feng left the courtyard with Wang Ma, leaving Bai Yu and Hong Lian to stay vigil at the door.
"Yu jie, you take first watch and I'll take over tonight into tomorrow morning; that way you'll be able to get some sleep before cooking duty."
"Mmm." Nodding, Bai Yu took a book from the bookshelf across the room which held a white tasseled bookmark then she took up post at the stool just outside the bedroom door and settled in quietly for the night ahead.
********
The moment the two doors had closed, the eyes of the person on the bed opened, shining brightly unlike someone who had just been asleep. How could she possibly sleep now? Although Chen Ming Yun was confident that she was in a safe place, that didn't change the fact that she had just transmigrated-- something so bizarre-- and the body she now inhabited was afflicted by some obscure illness that left her vulnerable in more ways than she felt comfortable with.
The fact that her soul had indeed crossed time and space to another plain was a bit baffling to Chen Ming Yun, but it was not impossible for her to accept it and she had no thoughts of trying to find ways to go back to the twenty fifth century, there was no longer anything there for her. Her goal now was living this new life of hers in a quiet and peaceful way; and to ensure that she could do so for a long time, she first needed to find out what illness it was that had plagued this General's Young Miss to death that not even the best medical experts on this continent couldn't fix or even identify.
After a short examination, Chen Ming Yun found that she still had a very sharp outward spirit perception and she was able to cover the entirety of the General's estate, but like the time when she was on the white bridge in the world of mist, the force of her soul power was being constrained, making her feel as though she was trapped in a box, but she found it interesting, because it wasn't that her soul power had disappeared, meaning she would be unable to use it in this world, but just that it could not currently be fully utilized for whatever reason.
Sitting up, Ming Yun checked her own pulse and frowned at the weak yet erratic beating she felt there that confirmed an earlier suspicion of hers then she pulled apart the lapels of her outer and inner robes and raised her dudou, exposing her stomach and chest.
While she was bathing, she had noticed that there were several small moles on this body that were shaped like 'tomoe swirls'. There was one on her chest, just above her diaphragm, another just above her navel and from the memories of the original soul, she knew that there were two more, one behind each of her ears.
These moles had been on General Young Miss's body ever since she was a baby, and as the only marks on her jade white skin they were seen as her birth marks, but Chen Ming Yun who was also versed in treating occult illnesses thought differently. She thought that it was highly possible that the original soul had been cursed; these four vermillion tomoe swirls were the characteristics of a four point seal.
At a glance, all four point seals looked the same with four tomoe swirl like marks at the abdomen, diaphragm and mastoids, but they have different levels.
A low level four point seal would be able to keep a wandering spirit attached to an inanimate object for a set period of time while an intermediate one could completely seal a person with E level spirit ability. A high leveled seal would be able to detain a spirit user at B level and advanced ones could go as far as sealing the power of an S level for several hours.
Seeing that it was able to detain the force of her A level soul power this seal could be an advanced one, but since her spirit perception was still able to slip through then it was definitely only a high level one, which was impressive in its own right, but Chen Ming Yun would not have been called the Godly Doctor if she couldn't even break a four point seal.
Four point seals were some of the most crude but common seals seen in the the twenty fifth century, but they were mostly used in the underground, the black market and secret government organizations, all of which Ming Yun had a lot of contact with.
These seals ran energy paths through the subject they were attached to from one point to the next and then the seal utilized the life force of its subject to maintain itself, so in that way a person would truly be cursed for a lifetime if it was never broken. This was why the original 'Chen Ming Yun' became ill since the seal was literally sucking her life away.
Regardless of the level, if someone tried to break a four point seal without sufficient knowledge or insight on how to identify the energy paths of the seal and how it was set up, the person subject to it could die from a single misstep and it was for this reason that shamans and witches and the like who were versed in occult arts had put down the work of breaking four point curses decades ago. If they were to mess up while breaking the seal on the high level member of some huge underground society, their lives would be over.
However, currently Chen Ming Yun could not use her soul force because of said seal and she didn't know anything about this world. The original was a pampered young miss who had lived her life in the confines of her courtyard and hardly knew much about even the very kingdom she lived in beyond the gossip of her handmaids about events in the capital so her memories didn't serve any help at all. She was walking blind.
Before she could set about looking for a way to break this seal in this different world, Ming Yun knew that she would first need to amass some knowledge. The human body was the same in any world and she was very confident in her medical skills even without her soul power, however she would have to see if the medical materials in this world were ones she was familiar with or if she would have to learn from scratch.
But, what she couldn't understand was why would there be this kind of seal placed on this body in the first place. The 'moles' had been there since the original was a baby which meant that the seal had been placed since then, but who did it and why was a mystery and the people of the General's residence probably didn't know about it seeing as they had been running helter-skelter all across the continent in search of medical help for almost twelve years after she first showed signs of being ill at three years old.
In the end, Ming Yun decided not to worry about it. However this seal came to be and whatever secret laid within this body didn't matter to her. As long as no one came looking for trouble with her, she wouldn't care. After the kind of hectic life she had lived in the twenty fifth century, she just wanted to take it easy in this world.
It wasn't completely dark outside yet and at the moment Chen Ming Yun wasn't sleepy, however, Ming Yun had mastered the art of falling asleep instantly whenever she wanted between shifts and waking up just as quick to get back to work. After fixing her clothes, she slipped under the still warm sheets and the moment that her head touched the pillow she fell asleep.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone