Seconds later, Ning Tao took the ledger of bamboo slips and opened it.

On the ledger was written, “A snake spirit, a natural snake woman, and an old demon. She suffers from Nine Remote Sever Pulse; her demon bone is necrotic; She has three months to live. There are no evil deeds or good deeds in her life. So, she owns zero points of both merits of good intention and sins of evil intention. Her life will run its own course. There will be no prescription helping her.”

Ning Tao’s heart sank. “Because she has neither merits of good intention nor sins of evil intention, the ledger refuses to give her a prescription. It’s mercenary!” he cursed in the heart.

The Sky Clinic had its laws, and it existed to obtain merits of good intention and sins of evil intention. If a person didn’t have what it wanted, it was not going to start the treatment mechanism. If the good-evil tripod was compared to an engine, the merits of good intention and sins of evil intention were the fuel to start the engine. How could it start without fuel?

People often complained that the world lacked humanity, but this diagnosis made Ning Tao feel that the ways of Heaven seemed to be indifferent. It would rather save a wicked man like Jiang Yilong, but refused to save Qing Zhui, a snake demon that was neither bad nor good. The reason was simple—she had no the thing that the clinic wanted.

“Doctor Ning, what are you looking at?” Qing Zhui asked curiously, looking longingly at Ning Tao.

Ning Tao paused for a second before answering, “This is a further diagnosis. What you suffer from is Nine Remote Sever Pulse, and your demon bone is necrotic. You only have three months to live.”

Qing Zhui’s face instantly darkened. Based on her reaction, Ning Tao knew that she was clearly aware of her condition.

Ning Tao also felt frustrated. He had just promised to cure Qing Zhui, because he thought that he could cure her illness easily through the Sky Clinic, but didn’t expect that she had nothing to pay. If he failed to fulfill his promise, Bai Jing would take revenge on Ding Ye and hurt his family, and he did not want to see that in any case. What was more, he must get Bai Jing’s white snake slough, which was a matter of life and death. In other words, he had no way out.

“Doctor Ning, tell me the truth, can you cure me?” Qing Zhui asked after a brief silence.

Ning Tao didn’t seem to hear what Qing Zhui asked him. His brain was racing to find a solution to the problem. He thought of treating Qing Zhui with his special spiritual power that had healing effects, but this idea was soon overturned by him. Qing Zhui was not an ordinary person, but a demon. She had spiritual power herself. If spiritual power was useful for her illness, then even if her illness had not cured, her condition would not have gotten worse. He also thought of using the Sacred Needles to acupuncture her, but the treatment was also based on spiritual power, so it might not work either. Finally, he thought of the Primary Elixir, but this was the medium of the Sky Clinic to treat patients. For Qing Zhui, the use of the Primary Elixir could activate the medium, but she could not activate the good-evil tripod because she had no fee to pay the treatment. Therefore, this method did not work either…

“Doctor Ning?” Qing Zhui’s voice was full of sadness. “Is that why you asked my sister out? Don’t you want her to know that I only have three months left?”

At this moment, a tripod suddenly came into Ning Tao’s mind. Feeling excited, he asked, “Can your demon bone be taken out?”

“What?” Qing Zhui had a kind of surprised look on her face. “Do you want to take my demon bone out?”

Ning Tao nodded and said, “I’m going to have an operation to take out your demon bone…”

But before he finished his sentence, Qing Zhui interrupted him and snapped excitedly, “Do you know what you’re talking about?”

“To have an operation to take out your demon bone,” Ning Tao repeated.

“That would hasten my death! For us, demon bone is the original bone!”

“I just diagnosed that your demon bone isn’t really involved in your body operation,” Ning Tao explained. “At least it is not involved in the operation of your body now. Its biggest effect is on your cultivation, so my operation will not be too risky.”

“My demon bone is not only used for practice, but also…” There was a pause before Qing Zhui continued, “It’s the bone of my second form. I’d die faster without it.”

“You misunderstood me. I don’t mean to remove your demon bone forever, but to take it out, fix it, and put it back in,” Ning Tao explained.

Suddenly Qing Zhui froze on the spot.

“I’ll call your sister in, and ask her advice.” Then Ning Tao turned and opened the door.

Bai Jing came in and asked, “How’s it going?”

Ning Tao cut to the chase and said, “Your sister is in a terrible condition. I need an operation to take her demon bone out…”

Before Ning Tao could finish, Bai Jing bellowed, “Don’t you dare!”

Ning Tao spread his hands, motioned for her to calm down, and continued, “Can you hear me out?”

“If you don’t give me a reasonable explanation, I’ll kill you!” Bai Jing cried, her voice freezing.

Ning Tao’s face and eyes changed sharply. One moment ago, he was a warm and gentle doctor, but now he was a different man. There was no expression in his face or eyes, as if any life deserved no pity or sympathy for him. He looked like Death!

“You…” Bai Jing unconsciously took a step back. She had no idea Ning Tao had such a horrible side. She couldn’t feel how powerful Ning Tao was, but his imposing manner and eyes made her fear from the bottom of her heart!

Ning Tao said coldly, “Are you threatening me? Don’t you want your sister alive?”

Bai Jing’s lips quivered and she wanted to say something, but she could not.

Qing Zhui in bed looked at Ning Tao with strange eyes.

Ning Tao added, “I’m not going to remove her demon bone, I’m going to cure it and put it back in.”

“Does… does that work?” Bai Jing finally spoke up and her tone had changed.

“With current medical technology, doctors can even replace a heart, let alone a demon bone,” Ning Tao said. “I was a medical student before I became a practitioner, and for me it’s just a minor operation. It’s the only way to cure your sister. You decide whether you want to have the operation or not.”

Bai Jing’s eyes turned to Qing Zhui. “Qing Zhui…”

Qing Zhui chimed in, “Bai Jing, I know my situation very well. Born with this disease, I never had a happy time. I believe Doctor Ning. I only have three months to live and I don’t want to miss the chance. Let him operate on me.”

Bai Jing walked up to Qing Zhui and uttered, “Qing Zhui, you know what demon bone means to us. If he touches your demon bone, you’ll have to…”

“Bai Jing, I know perfectly well what it means. I’ve made up my mind,” Qing Zhui interrupted Bai Jing again with a resolute look in her eyes.

Bai Jing gave a sigh, turned to look at Ning Tao, and said, “All right, I’ll leave my sister to you. You must cure her. She has been living a hard life. If you can cure her and make her happy, it will be worth it.”

“No problem. Please go out. You can’t come in without my permission,” stated Ning Tao.

Bai Jing took another look at Qing Zhui, then turned and walked out the room before closing the door again.

Ning Tao moved the chair made of Phoebe zhennan against the doorknob.

A rare smile appeared on Qing Zhui’s lips and she said, “You don’t have to do that. She won’t come in when she has promised.”

“Better be careful,” Ning Tao said. “I’m afraid that when you scream out of the pain, she’ll rush in and affect my surgery.”

“I’m not afraid of pain. I put up with pain that is beyond your imagination every day. I’m used to it.” Qing Zhui’s voice was tinged with sadness.

“Rest assured, you won’t feel any pain after the operation,” soothed Ning Tao.

Qing Zhui nodded softly. She had not known Ning Tao for a long time, but somehow she had come to trust him.

“Lie on your stomach. I’ll put you to sleep with a silver needle, and then start the operation,” Ning Tao said.

Qing Zhui rolled over and lay prone on the bed. Her cyan gauze dress was slightly see-through below lamplight, forming a kind of hazy beauty.

Ning Tao took the Sacred Needles out of his small medicine chest.

Qing Zhui turned to ask, “For the operation… do I need to take my clothes off?”

Her question made Ning Tao nervous. “Er, not now.”

“Okay.” Qing Zhui then turned her head and closed her eyes.

His answer meant that she would have to take off her clothes later, but she reacted so blandly that she didn’t seem to care.

Ning Tao had calmed down. He approached Qing Zhui, and then put a Sacred Needle into the back of her head. Then a trace of black and white spiritual power entered her head, soothing her brain like a hot spring, and stimulating cortical cells in charge of sleep…

Two minutes later, Qing Zhui fell into a coma. Her innate aura diminished so rapidly that it was soon reduced to the bare minimum needed to sustain life.

Instead of immediately operating on her, Ning Tao left the big bed made of Phoebe zhennan, went to a wall, bit his finger and drew a blood lock on the wall.

A few seconds later, Ning Tao had returned to the Sky Clinic.

Within the Sky Clinic, the black and white air still winded each other, and the good-evil tripod still closed eyes and ignored Ning Tao.

Ning Tao went to a shelf, took a look at the tripod, and said, “You refuse to treat the patient who doesn’t have what you want. What’s the difference between you and a doctor with no medical ethics? Remember, one day I’m gonna let you know I’m your master. You must do what I tell you!”

The good-evil tripod made no response.

It might be a top magic tool, part of the mechanism of ways of Heaven, or something else.

What was the truth?

No one knew, but Ning Tao believed he would find out someday.

When he reached the shelf, he picked up the rotten broken tripod and walked to the stone wall with the blood lock.

The rotten broken tripod was the main tool that he thought of to treat Qing Zhui. It could even repair the broken magic tool, not to mention a snake bone.

With the rotten broken tripod in hand, Ning Tao rummaged through the closet to find a few things he needed—an extremely sharp surgical knife, stitches and thread to close the wound, as well as the spare sterilizing alcohol and cotton balls, hemostatic gauze and other medical supplies that he brought back to the clinic.

Then, he opened the corresponding blood lock and went back to Qing Zhui’s room.