Zhong already knew their identities from memories he had absorbed.
"So, what illness do you want me to help with." Zhong asked them.
"Uh, it's not an illness, so to speak." Han Rui felt their first impression got ruined by his son's manner and tried to salvage the situation, but his son stepped forward and bowed.
"I feel something wrong with my body. Can you help identify it." Han Shi asked, his tone full of interest, and of course a challenge hidden beneath it.
His father almost rushed to scold him, but he agreed with himself. They wished to see if the miracle doctor could perform a miracle as his name suggested.
"Ok." Zhong smiled, walked up to the boy, and pressed his hand on his head.
This boy's barber has some skill. As expected with the Han clan, famed for their blade skill, even a haircut is flawless.
Han Shi's head was smooth as a jade ball.
Zhong did his best to keep his calm and extended his divine sense inward.
And in just five breaths, he came back with a result.
"It's not an illness, as you said." Zhong spoke.
"Hah. You're not as good as I expected. I have aching around my body, but you can't even know it when my clan doctor can. Let's get back, Father." Han Shi showed signs of victory and mocked him.
He always believed the miracle doctor was just a baseless claim mortals stirred up.
Any good cultivator doctor could help all of them, but they focused on harder challenges.
It's not that he did not respect doctors like his father told him. He disrespected Zhong for wasting time healing weaklings and calling himself a miracle doctor.
"Tsk! No illness doesn't mean it isn't coming. Your tendons have sustained injury, and your muscles are a mess. You train hard but lack sleep, and worse, you lack the nutrients to keep training in the first place." Zhong scolded the bald, arrogant young master.
"Yes, I told you." Han Rui spoke to his son like a winning father in an argument.
Time and time again he tried to tell his son to rest, but the boy always had one counter he could not deny.
"I'm stronger than you were at my age with my way, so you shut up, old man." Han Shi turned back and shouted at his father, and Han Rui went quiet because it was true.
It took Han Rui thirty years to reach the 9th stage and sixty to break into Foundation Realm. At eighteen, Han Shi was already at 9th stage.
As worried as he was, the father did not want to hinder his son's growth with his own mind when he himself could not reach the same height his son did.
"Arrogant fool. If you keep this up, forget about Foundation Establishment. You will be lucky if you do not cripple yourself by thirty."
Zhong shouted, anger showing for the first time in front of Hui Lian.
"W-what. Crippled." Han Shi was confused. It was just minor muscle ache. A sign of his body growing.
It had ached for many years now, every day, with no sign of him getting weaker.
"Yes. Just because you are young does not mean you can trash your body like this every day. One day, probably soon, in a fight your muscles will break, your body will break down, and your heart will burst from all the exhaustion and malnourishment you keep tucking away beneath your facade. I know you are hungry and tired. Just admit it, or…"
Han Shi gulped. "Or...?" Because everything Zhong said was true.
He was tired and hungry and bruised, but he took it as a way to sharpen his resolve.
"Or continue. But when it happens, good luck trying to find me, because no one in this continent will be able to heal you." Zhong's words shocked Han Rui and Han Shi.
If the miracle doctor himself declared that, even a fool had to be conscious of his choices.
"Can you help me, sir." Han Shi asked.
"Of course I do. But you disrespected me and insulted me. Even my generosity has boundaries." Zhong sighed.
"Doctor Zhong, please help my son. As the Han clan's leader, I will do anything." Han Rui came with an offer in mind. Now he pleaded for mercy.
Even Han Shi dropped to his knees and kowtowed. "Sorry for my arrogance, esteemed doctor. I have eyes but could not see Mount Tai."
"Stand up. Learning from a mistake is enough. Let me help you." Zhong grabbed the boy and pulled him up, then pressed his palm on his head and cast a healing spell like he always did.
In an instant, all his pain was gone.
"Oh, my ancestor." Han Shi was confused, relieved, and surprised.
The pain that had been with him day and night was suddenly gone.
Zhong smiled, not only because he was proud of his work. He also erased all Han Shi's hard work in an instant.
His body needed rest and food to nurture it. Even as a cultivator, the rate he trained at was too much for only Qi and herbs to fix.
So, Zhong erased all the damage Han Shi had done to his muscles, which in return meant Han Shi would have to damage them again for them to strengthen.
He said it would cripple him in the future. He did not say it was not working.
"Remember to eat more food and sleep well. Not only will it not cripple you, but you will also grow much stronger." Zhong's words lit Han Shi's heart ablaze. The boy kowtowed repeatedly and now fully believed after feeling the miracle himself.
Zhong then looked at Han Rui, who was now nervous.
He gulped as he remembered what he had said.
"You are going to help me with anything, correct?" Zhong asked.
Han Rui, at early Foundation Establishment Realm, felt like a mountain of iron had dropped onto his chest.
He now began to regret offering such a thing to someone as esteemed as the miracle doctor, who had just made his stubborn son listen.
"Anything, sir. Han never goes back on our words." Han Rui bowed.
"Good. Then I am going to tell you the reason why I am here. And to add, I have not told the Luo about this." His words made all three listeners' hearts skip a beat.
The reason for his arrival, which even the Luo clan, the most powerful faction, did not know.
"I am here to kill my arch-nemesis!" Zhong declared.