Chapter - 5213

Charlie cut Master Vail off. "Hold on," he said. "What exactly was the competition about?"

Master Vail spoke with arrogance in his voice. "We compared pulses," he replied. "In the first round, we had to determine the age of the patient. In the second round, we had to determine who could be the most accurate."

Charlie interrupted him before he could continue. "That's enough about the second round," he said. "I'm more interested in the first. How did you come up with the rules for guessing someone's age by their pulse?"

Master Vail's voice turned cold. "The rules were simple," he said. "We both took the patient's pulse, then wrote down what we believed to be their date of birth. After that, the patient showed us their ID card to see who came closest to their actual date of birth. It was that simple."

Charlie nodded in understanding. "Okay," he said. "What were the results of yesterday's competition?"

Master Vail spoke loudly and confidently. "Yesterday, I determined that the woman was born on August 8th, 1966," he said. "Dr. Simmons guessed that she was born on March 3rd, 1967. The date of birth on the woman's ID card was August 15th, 1966. I was only off by a week!"

Charlie furrowed his brow. "Are you saying that you're that good?" he asked skeptically. "You can guess someone's birthday within a week?"

Master Vail sneered. "You don't know what you're talking about," he said dismissively. "I'm a master at this."

Charlie smirked and extended his arm towards Master Vail. "Go on then, take my pulse," he challenged. "Guess my birthday. But be warned, if you're off by more than seven days, I'll slap you in the face."

Charlie's threat to slap him was too much for Master Vail. He felt an overwhelming urge to tear Charlie into pieces for the humiliation he had just endured. In all his years, he had never experienced such a disrespectful gesture. But Master Vail knew he had important matters to attend to in Aurous Hills. He couldn't let his anger get the best of him, not when he still had to go to the police station. Though he desperately wanted to act on his hatred, he knew he had to suppress it for the time being.

Charlie sneered as he looked at Master Vail's livid face and boiling body, "What's the matter? Can't handle giving me a simple pulse? You're just an old bastard who cheated and won yesterday!"

Charlie had initially suspected that Master Vail had set a trap for Dr. Simmons, but now that he had seen the old man display his eight-star warrior prowess, his suspicions had only grown stronger. An eight-star martial artist would devote most of their time to perfecting their martial arts skills. They wouldn't have the time or opportunity to become a top traditional doctor, even if they had the talent for it. Charlie knew this, and it only fueled his suspicions further.

In this world, there are many accomplished scientists who can win the Nobel Prize, art masters who can perfect a certain musical instrument or painting, and athletes who can train tirelessly to become world champions. But who has ever heard of a Nobel Prize winner who's also a world-class pianist and Olympic champion?

Human energy is finite. Master Vail's status as an eight-star martial artist means he doesn't have the time or energy to excel in other fields.

As Charlie continued his aggressive behavior, Master Vail couldn't help but feel a twinge of nervousness in his heart. Despite being a Taoist master, he knew that his focus had always been on martial arts. His secondary focus was on studying the refining of low-level Taoist elixirs, but he never delved too deeply into it. Despite not being a master of traditional medicine like Dr. Simmons, Master Vail wasn't completely ignorant of medical skills. The Taoist sect placed a strong emphasis on medical knowledge, so he was still more knowledgeable than most traditional doctors of lower levels. However, there was no denying that Dr. Simmons had a significant advantage over him.

When Master Vail fell in love with Dr. Simmons's clinic and wanted to take it over to establish himself in Aurous Hills, he devised a plan to dig a hole for the doctor. Knowing that he couldn't outdo Dr. Simmons, in medical expertise, he recruited a few people and challenged the doctor to a medical competition, hoping to discredit him. Master Vail had arranged all the female patients who came to see Dr. Simmons the day before. He knew that as long as the doctor agreed to the competition, he would inevitably lose, no matter who he chose as the benchmark. At the time, Master Vail was leading Dr. Simmons by the nose and using the witnesses on the scene to put pressure on him. He hadn't considered the consequences of his actions.

However, Charlie was not like Dr. Simmons.

Dr. Simmons might have thought everything was fine when he chose a few patients as the benchmark for the competition, but Charlie knew better. He sensed that something was amiss.

Charlie frowned when Master Vail remained silent. "Are you too scared to compete?" he taunted. "You're just a liar! If you don't leave now, I'll call the police and have you arrested!"

Master Vail gritted his teeth and finally spoke up. "Who says I don't dare?" he replied, his voice laced with anger. "It's just that you're working for Dr. Simmons, and you're all in cahoots. What's the point of me giving you the pulse? Even if I guess correctly, you'll just say that I didn't."

Charlie grinned and decided to reveal his identity. He produced his ID card, but kept his name and date of birth hidden. "Here's my ID card," he said nonchalantly, placing it face down on the table. "Give me a pulse, and as long as the date of birth you guess is the same as mine, and the error on the ID card is within seven days, I'll count you as the winner."

Master Vail's nerves were suddenly on edge. Determining someone's age wasn't as straight forward as it seemed. The day before, he had been worried that Dr. Simmons would be able to accurately guess their ages. So, he had made sure to prepare in advance by having fake IDs made with deliberately incorrect birthdays, just to be safe. This ensured that not only would he know the answer ahead of time, but it would also throw Dr. Simmons off if he tried to cross-reference their ages with their ID cards. Now that Charlie was unexpectedly challenging him, Master Vail couldn't risk making a careless move.

Master Vail spoke in a cold voice, "Hmph! What's an ID card? They can easily be faked. You could have altered the date of birth on your ID card to deceive me. For all I know, you could be the same age as me. How can I guess your age based on your ID card? You won't lose, right?"

Charlie was intrigued by Master Vail's response. "It seems like you don't care much for these kinds of tactics," he remarked. "How unfortunate! Does this mean you only won against Dr. Simmons because of these little tricks?"

Master Vail was quick to deny any wrongdoing. "Of course not!" he retorted. "I beat Dr. Simmons fair and square. I just have my doubts about you. You don't strike me as an honest person. I'm sure you're up to something."

Charlie nodded in understanding. "So, you're worried that Dr. Simmons and I are working together to cheat you," he surmised.

Master Vail nodded in agreement. "Exactly!"

"Alright then!" Charlie smiled mischievously and turned to Xyla. "Xyla, go ahead and bring in all the people I asked you to invite!"

"Alright, Xyla!" Charlie exclaimed. "Go bring in the ladies I asked for!"

Without delay, Xyla rushed out and soon returned with a dozen or so women of different ages. Some looked to be in their early twenties, while others appeared to be in their sixties or seventies. They stood in a neat row in front of Charlie and Master Vail.

Charlie turned to the dumbfounded Master Vail and grinned. "Alright, Master Vail," he said. "These ladies were all hired by me from the Aurous Hills labor market this morning. They're all casual workers who are here to help. Come and take their pulses to see if you can guess their ages correctly. Remember the rule I mentioned earlier: your error can't be greater than seven days.

Master Vail was flustered, but he tried to play it cool. "How do I know these people aren't your hired actors?" he sneered.

"I figured you might try to pull a fast one on me by claiming you're a master of gynecology and can only read women's pulses, so I asked Xyla to invite only women." Charlie put in.

Then Charlie smiled knowingly. "Of course, the most important issue here is accuracy," he said. "I had Xyla bring them all to the police station earlier today to get their birth certificates. The certificates were then stamped with the official seal of the police station to ensure their accuracy. If you still try to lie to me and claim these women are my actors, I'll have the police come in and act as witnesses!"

Charlie waved his hand dismissively. "Never mind, if you're not satisfied with this, I can call a friend who works at the notary office and we can invite the TV media to witness the event. We can even go out on the streets and randomly select people for you to guess their ages under their watchful eyes. If you can guess everyone's age within a seven-day difference, your reputation will soar. You'll not only promote traditional medicine, but you could even set a new Guinness World Record!"

Charlie smiled at Master Vail. "See, I have plenty of ways to make you famous."

Master Vail was struck with disbelief. He had never imagined that the young man in front of him would be so clever. This plan seemed to block all of his escape routes. Furthermore, he was a well-known figure in North America. If he were to lose face in front of the media, his reputation would be ruined.