Meanwhile...

The moment Tony and the two sisters stepped out of the administration hall, Elder Jing reached into her drawer and pulled out a small golden orb.

She held it in her palm, pressed two fingers against its surface, and sent a message.

The reply came almost instantly.

"Good job, Elder. The reward will be delivered to your room by tonight."

Elder Jing exhaled slowly and typed back. "I only hope for the Imperial family’s favor on my Jing family."

"The Imperial family always takes care of its subjects. We expect only loyalty in return." The response carried a small icon beside the sender’s name— an Imperial crown.

Elder Jing straightened in her chair. "Thank you, my prince." She paused, then added... "Please deal with the black suitcase as soon as possible. He even threatened to harm my granddaughter, Han Jing."

The crown icon appeared again without delay.

"Don’t worry, Elder. He is a small insect with no real talent. In one month he will be a public joke with nothing to his name. I will deal with him personally."

Elder Jing set the orb down on her desk, folded her hands, and allowed herself a small, satisfied breath.

***

On the snowy path...

"Why would I be nervous?" Tony said, his eyes fixed on the tower like structure at the base of the mountain. "I only pity the patients who are going to die in my hands down there."

Julie laughed before she could stop herself. "Brother-in-law, you’re thinking too much. Nobody will even come for treatment after hearing your name— they’ll all run away in fear."

"I only hope so." Tony studied the building as they drew closer. It was nothing like the stone-and-timber structures scattered across the rest of the academy.

Glass, steel, clean lines, modern lighting— it looked like someone had lifted a world-class hospital and dropped it at the foot of a snow mountain.

"By the way, this place actually looks decent. I didn’t expect a modern hospital out here." Tony said.

"It’s not a simple modern building," Lily said, a note of pride in her voice. "The Healing Tower is the biggest source of wealth in all of Nine Lotus Academy. People travel from every corner of the world and spend generational fortunes just for a single visit."

"What’s so special about it?" Tony asked. "Even the Clark family has a Rank Five doctor on retainer. He can treat cancer, AIDS— most things that would finish off an ordinary hospital."

"The Healing Tower has Rank Six doctors," Lily said. "And one Rank Seven— Peak Master Natasha. She can reduce an elderly person’s biological age by ten years and extend their natural lifespan. That’s why nobody dares to raise their voice against her, not even the Academy Master. He calls her Madam every time they speak."

Tony went quiet for a moment. Rank Five was already considered mythic in most circles. Rank Six was the kind of thing people built legends around. But a Rank Seven doctor operating out of a mountain academy— that he genuinely hadn’t expected.

"Brother-in-law, don’t offend Peak Master Natasha," Julie said, in a tone that was less a suggestion and more a warning. "She has a very short temper. Cross her line and she won’t let it go."

"I probably won’t even meet her," Tony said, waving a hand. "The moment they hear my name and watch me try to do anything medical, they’ll transfer me somewhere else within a week. I give it three days."

Lily glanced at him sideways. "Husband, the Healing Tower has two divisions. The first handles modern medicine. The second practices traditional techniques— Indian Ayurveda, Chinese needle therapy, pressure methods.

In the worst case, they’ll assign you to gathering medicinal herbs from the mountain slopes." She paused. "If that happens, just hire some capable servants and have them do the collection. You can use your room to cultivate in peace."

"You don’t need to worry about your husband," Tony said lightly.

Lily didn’t respond to that. She turned her attention to the outer gate as they approached.

A long queue of patients stretched nearly half a mile from the entrance. Everyone in the line understood exactly where they were and how fortunate they were to be there at all.

Most of them had their faces partially covered. Their clothes, posture, and the quiet confidence- all shows that everyone here were wealthy.

’With this many high-paying clients, no wonder this place runs like a money machine,’ Tony thought, scanning the line.

A servant woman stood at the outer gate. The moment she spotted the disciple token in Lily’s hand, her eyes moved— not to Lily, but past her.

"Is this Tony Clark...?!" she asked directly.

Lily and Julie both stiffened slightly. It was an odd way to greet a new disciple— skipping past Lady Frost entirely to ask after Tony by name.

Tony wasn’t surprised at all. He had expected complications from the moment he stepped off the jet. The Healing Tower assignment hadn’t been an accident, which meant someone had prepared the next move as well.

"The Peak Master, Natasha, has asked that the person named Tony Clark report to her personally upon arrival," the servant said, her eyes flickering briefly toward Tony as if confirming something she’d been told to look for.

Around them, several patients in the long queue had already noticed. Heads turned. Whispers started moving down the line— the names Tony Clark and Lily Frost passing between people in low, careful tones.

"Where is the Peak Master now?" Lily asked, her sigh barely audible.

"Take the lift to the thirteenth floor. Turn left. The room with green curtains."

Lily nodded once and walked forward without another word. Tony and Julie followed.

The interior of the Healing Tower was clean, bright, and humming with quiet activity. Nurses moved through the central corridor with purpose, rank-one and rank-two doctors conferred in low voices near doorways, and apprentices tried very hard to look busy while watching the three newcomers from the corners of their eyes.

Recognition spread fast.

"I heard he was assigned here as a helping nurse," one of the rank-two doctors murmured to the person beside him.

"That’s impossible."

"I heard he has no talent in the martial path either. Do you think he came for treatment instead? There’s no way someone like Tony Clark ends up as a nurse here."

The whispers followed them all the way to the lift.

The thirteenth floor was quieter. Fewer people, wider corridors, the kind of silence that comes with seniority. They found the room with green curtains after only a few steps.

All three of them slowed without deciding to.

Through the gap in the curtains, Peak Master Natasha stood beside a treatment bed, entirely absorbed in her work. A young patient lay still under anesthesia, dozens of small silver needles placed with precise spacing across the skin.

Natasha’s hands moved with grace as she had done this ten thousand times and never once stopped paying attention.

Her assisting doctor stood on the opposite side of the bed, carefully maintaining the balance of the needles— focused, steady, not looking up.

Tony’s eyes moved to the assistant’s face.

’Whhhhatttt...!!!’

Tony was utterly shocked, almost felt like his mind would explode after seeing that scene.

Not because of the patient with needles. But he was terrified to see the assisting doctor, who stood beside the peak master Natasha and was working hard to balance the needles.

"How can she be here?" Tony muttered as he took a closer look at the face of that assisting doctor. Memories stirred all over.