“Deng deng deng”!
Under the night sky, the urgent sound of horse hooves echoed on the stone-paved road of the small town.
Zhang Zongnian was riding a Wooden Horse left behind by the Heiyi Wei, holding Lin Xue in one arm as he dashed madly through the deserted streets.
Soon, he arrived at the door of a medical hall called “Bai Cao Tang,” which faced the street.
This medical hall was a two-story wooden building—the first floor was the storefront, and the second was the owner’s living quarters.
Zhang Zongnian, burning with anxiety, leaped off the Wooden Horse with Lin Xue in his arms, holding her close as he pounded hard on the door with his left hand.
“Pa pa pa!” “Pa pa pa!”
The door shook violently under his blows, nearly splitting apart.
After a while, a window on the second floor opened.
An old man of about seventy or eighty years, draped in clothes, stuck out his head, face full of anger as he demanded, “Who is it? Knocking like this in the middle of the night?!”
Zhang Zongnian looked up at the old man.
With the help of the moonlight, the old man recognized his face and exclaimed in surprise, “Zongnian? What brings you here?”
He saw Zhang Zongnian’s severed arm, bloodstained all over, and a woman in his arms.
The old man’s eyes widened, and he blurted out in shock, “Good heavens, what happened to you?”
Zhang Zongnian nervously glanced around, then whispered urgently, “Senior Brother, hurry and save this young lady—she’s not going to make it much longer!”
The old man withdrew, closing the window.
Very soon, the door opened, and the old man poked his head out, his face now full of anxiety as he asked, “What happened? How did you get so badly hurt? Who is this woman?”
Cradling Lin Xue in his arms, Zhang Zongnian strode quickly inside, saying, “Let’s talk inside.”
He navigated skillfully to a patient’s sickroom and gently placed Lin Xue onto the bed.
Then he pulled up her sleeve in one go and said to the old man following behind, “Senior Brother, her Corpse Poison is about to reach her brain—please, you must save her!”
The old man stepped forward and saw that Lin Xue’s veins had turned black, spider-webbing across her entire arm and even spreading to her neck. His eyes rounded in shock.
“How did it get this bad?”
Zhang Zongnian pleaded anxiously, “She ended up like this to save me. Senior Brother, your medical skills are unmatched—please, you have to save her!”
He gazed at the old man, his eyes full of earnest entreaty.
Without another word, the old man stretched out his hand, and several slender, green Spirit Needles several inches long appeared out of thin air.
He stuck these Spirit Needles into Lin Xue’s arm, neck, and wrist.
The emerald needles instantly began to turn black, and the rapid spread of the Corpse Poison slowed drastically.
Then the old man pulled a small knife from his sleeve and made several incisions on Lin Xue’s arm, letting the blackened blood flow into a Sea Bowl.
He stared at Lin Xue’s blood, dazed for a moment, then leaned in to sniff it, a strange expression appearing on his face.
Turning to Zhang Zongnian, he asked, “This is the scent of Demon blood. Is she a Demon?”
Zhang Zongnian nodded.
The old man looked amazed. He looked at Lin Xue’s alluring, lovely face, then at Zhang Zongnian, and suddenly his mind filled with all sorts of tangled tales between young cultivators and Zhujing Yaojing.
He became solemn and said earnestly,
“Zongnian, you’re still young. Don’t be beguiled by Evil Little Demons and go astray! Don’t end up like our Master, who had such a bright future, only to fall for a Fox Spirit, be drained dry by her seduction, and remain stuck at the mid-stage of Qi Refinement all his life—dispirited and dying in obscurity.”
Flushing red, Zhang Zongnian protested, “Senior Brother, what are you talking about? I wasn’t beguiled by any Evil Little Demon—Miss Lin Xue isn’t like that at all.”
He briefly recounted all that had happened that night, from entering Li Family Hollow to killing Yang Yuxiang.
The old man listened in silence.
When Zhang Zongnian finished, the old man was silent for a while before sighing, “That Yang Family really are bullying tyrants!”
He then asked, “Now that you’ve been wanted with a bounty on your head, what do you plan to do?”
Zhang Zongnian sighed, “I have to hurry back to Hengqiao Town to fetch my mother, then head to Jiangzhou to seek refuge with my uncle. No matter how overbearing the Yang Family is, their reach can only extend through Xichuan—they can’t stretch into Jiangzhou.”
The old man nodded, glanced at Lin Xue on the bed, and asked, “What about this Demon?”
Zhang Zongnian looked at Lin Xue, his eyes full of reluctant affection.
He said, “Miss Lin Xue and I only met by chance. Because of those Yang Family bastards, all this happened tonight.”
“I won’t have time to bid her farewell before I leave. When she wakes, Senior Brother, just let her go. Put her medical fee on my account; once things settle down, I’ll come back and pay you in full.”
The old man waved a hand and said, “From what you’ve said, this Miss Lin Xue is different from other Demons. As long as you weren’t beguiled by her, I can rest easy. As for the fee, what are we, counting coppers between fellow disciples?”
He had already drained a whole Sea Bowl of blood from Lin Xue, and the black on her arm had faded, the blood turning a bit redder.
The Spirit Needles had all turned black. The old man pulled them out and tossed them into a wooden box, then produced a few new green needles from nowhere and stuck them in the same places to continue drawing out the Corpse Poison.
He took out a few medicinal pills, crushed them, and applied the powder to Lin Xue’s wounds.
The threadlike black color on Lin Xue’s arm gradually faded.
The old man let out a long breath and said, “Alright, the poison is basically under control. But to completely cleanse it, I’ll need a few herbs, and my store’s just run out. However, Jishan Tang in the County City should have them. I’ll go buy some there first thing in the morning and apply them for her—she should be fine after that.”
Seeing Lin Xue’s condition stabilize, Zhang Zongnian finally relaxed.
He gazed at Lin Xue’s peaceful sleeping face, looking carefully, as if to imprint her image into his memory.
After this farewell, he would likely never see her again in this life.
He wanted to look a few more times and keep her as a beautiful memory.
He watched for a long while before finally turning and saying to the old man, “Senior Brother, I’ll entrust Miss Lin Xue to you. I’ll take my leave now.”
The old man exclaimed in surprise, “You’re so badly hurt. How can you leave without treatment? And your arm—aren’t you going to reattach it? If you delay, it’ll be too late.”
Zhang Zongnian shook his head and said, “I have to hurry and fetch my mother. If I delay, it might be too late. Whether my arm is reattached or not doesn’t matter. Even if it is, I still won’t be able to wield a sword—still a cripple. I’ll treat my wounds in Jiangzhou.”
The Yang Family had already issued a wanted bounty on him, and Yang Yuxiang had gone to Stone Plate Town to notify the local Hengqiao Zhen Zhusuo.
Hengqiao Town was the farthest from the County City, and its post was now deserted. If he hurried back, he might still be able to take his mother and escape.
The old man grabbed his left hand and said, “Zongnian, you can’t go back.”
Zhang Zongnian looked at him, confused.
The old man said, “Since the Yang Family has put a bounty on you citywide, how could there not be anyone guarding your house?”
“All the Demon Slaying Division Officer’s household details are in their files—they know exactly where you live and how many people are in your family. Your house is probably surrounded already, just waiting for you to walk into their trap.”
“What’s more, you’re gravely wounded. You feel lively now only because this young lady fed you a Sevenfold Resurrection Pill to keep your life hanging by a thread. Your life is being propped up by that pill—once its effect wears off, you’re done for.”
“Your body is already spent and exhausted—you can’t run anymore! If you try, you might die on the road!”
As he spoke, the old man took out a medicine bottle, poured out a Great Return Pill, and said, “Take this Great Return Pill first! Then fetch that Century-old Ginseng from the counter and make yourself some ginseng soup.”
Zhang Zongnian tried to speak, but the old man silenced him with a raised hand.
He continued, “Tonight, don’t go anywhere. Stay here and take care of Miss Lin. I’ll do the legwork for you and check on your house in Hengqiao Town.”
“The Demon-Slaying Bureau people don’t know me. If there’s no one guarding your house, I’ll bring your mother out. If it’s guarded, we’ll think of another way—rushing back won’t help.”
“Just stay here and recover.”
Zhang Zongnian opened his mouth, then finally sighed and said, “Thank you, Senior Brother.”
The old man waved his hand and said, “No need for thanks between us. Now, get your severed arm out—let me attach it for you. Don’t you know my skill? It won’t take long.”
Hearing this, Zhang Zongnian took his severed arm from his makeshift, roughly-stitched Storage Pouch.
The old man cleaned the wounds on both ends, fit them together, and produced a Silver Needle with thread, saying, “Bear with it!”
With that, he stitched Zhang Zongnian’s arm back on with flying speed.
As he sewed, he said, “Once it’s reattached, even if you can’t wield a sword, at least you’ll be whole again.”
Zhang Zongnian clenched his teeth and bore the pain, big beads of sweat rolling down his forehead.
After half a cup of tea’s time, the door of Bai Cao Tang creaked open.
The old man stepped out, took a paper-cut Drunken Donkey from his Storage Pouch, gave it a shake, and it turned into a lifelike real donkey.
He closed the door, looked up at the moon, mounted the donkey, and “deng deng deng” rode off toward the edge of town.