Zhang Zongnian woke up.
He opened his eyes and found himself lying in a basement.
Dim light cast shadowy shapes all over the room.
The sealed space was filled with the scent of medicine and a faint, lingering odor of corpses.
He was a little confused: What happened to me? Where am I? How did I end up here?
Lost in a daze, he heard a hoarse voice at his ear: “Zongnian, tell your Senior Brother, who did this?”
He turned his head and saw Sun Daoyuan kneeling on the ground, cradling his wife’s head in his arms, his face withered and haggard, as if he had aged a great deal.
In an instant, Zhang Zongnian remembered—this was the basement beneath Senior Brother’s clinic.
It was right here that Miss Lin killed Senior Brother’s wife, who had been a zombie for many years.
He also recalled that before he passed out, he and Lin Xue were together, drinking the tea that Senior Brother had poured for them.
There had been drugs in the tea that Senior Brother gave them.
Zhang Zongnian sat up at once, anxiously saying, “Senior Brother, this isn’t Miss Lin’s fault! Please, don’t harm her!”
Sun Daoyuan asked coldly, “Are you saying that Qiutong was killed by that demon?”
Zhang Zongnian fell silent.
He looked around but did not see Lin Xue anywhere.
He didn’t know what had become of Lin Xue, where she was, whether she had been poisoned, whether she could still move, or if she too was under Senior Brother’s control.
He dared not admit that Sister-in-law was killed by Lin Xue.
He feared that Senior Brother, in a fit of madness, would hurt her.
Clenching his teeth, he said, “Senior Brother, Sister-in-law was killed by me… by accident, in a panic. If you must blame someone, blame me. Miss Lin had nothing to do with it, please don’t take it out on her.”
Sun Daoyuan said nothing.
After a moment, he gently set his wife’s head down, placing it back against her neck.
Then, he stood up and said, “I’m going to question that demon.”
He crawled toward the stairs.
Zhang Zongnian tried to get up and go out with him, but found his legs were still paralyzed.
Senior Brother must have only released part of the Residual Medicine Power in his body, allowing him to speak but not to move.
He called after Sun Daoyuan, “Senior Brother, Sister-in-law really was killed by me, please don’t hurt Miss Lin!”
……
Outside Bai Cao Tang.
A fat and a thin officer in black uniforms stood at the shop’s entrance, peering through the open door.
They were Demon Slaying Division Officers stationed at Stone Plate Town, on duty at the station today. When they saw the Gathering Signal in the sky, they rushed over.
After arriving at the location where the signal had been sent, they found the place deserted, with none of their colleagues from the Demon-Slaying Bureau in sight.
The two exchanged glances.
“What is this? Who fired the signal?”
The fat officer looked up at the signboard and said, “Isn’t this Dr. Sun’s clinic? Closed today?”
The thin officer said, “Since the signal came from here, it must have something to do with Dr. Sun. Should we go in and ask?”
The fat officer nodded in agreement, “Let’s go in and ask, then.”
They poked their heads in, glancing around, and entered the clinic.
On a wooden table inside, three cups of tea were laid out, steam still rising from them.
The fat officer leaned in to sniff, intoxicated, “Tsk tsk, this is top-grade Silver Needle Tea. Just an ounce is worth half a month’s wages.”
Looking at the three cups, barely touched, he sighed regretfully, “What a waste, what a waste.”
He tugged at the thin officer, “It’s still hot. Why don’t we try some?”
The thin officer snorted and said, “Forget it, I, Yue, would never drink someone else’s leftover tea.”
The fat officer continued to persuade him, “Yue, you don’t know, this tea has a special property—it can restore a man whose strength is lacking in certain areas, works wonders. Give it a try?”
The thin officer’s eyes lit up, “Really?”
The fat officer did his best to tempt him, “Guaranteed!”
The thin officer hesitated for a moment, then finally made up his mind, took the cup from the fat officer, and said,
“Alright, I’ll just see how fragrant this tea is, to make you, Li, willing to drink someone else’s leftovers. I’m definitely not doing it for that special effect, so don’t get the wrong idea.”
The fat officer smiled with narrowed eyes, “Of course not, we brothers know each other too well.”
The two clinked cups and downed the tea in one gulp.
The thin officer nodded in approval, “Hmm, it’s really fragrant.”
The fat officer pointed to the remaining cup, “Let’s split the last one, half each.”
The thin officer nodded, “Alright!”
The fat officer picked up the cup and was about to pour half into the thin officer’s cup when suddenly his legs gave way and he collapsed to the floor with a thud.
The thin officer, startled, asked, “What’s wrong, Li, how did you fall?”
No sooner had he spoken than he, too, felt weak all over and slumped onto a chair behind him, unable to stand.
Both of them were panic-stricken, exchanging terrified glances.
The thin officer wailed, “Li, you wretch, I told you we shouldn’t drink someone else’s tea, but you had to be greedy, and now look, we’ve both been poisoned!”
The fat officer lay on the ground, his face full of regret.
While they were in despair, suddenly a stooped figure entered the shop from the back door.
The fat officer saw a savior and cried out, “Dr. Sun, please save us! The two of us have been drugged!”
The thin officer hushed him at once, scolding, “Li, are you crazy? The tea came from his shop—maybe he’s the one who drugged us!”
The fat officer’s face changed dramatically, and he immediately shut his mouth, staring fearfully at Sun Daoyuan, not daring to say another word.
Sun Daoyuan seemed much older than before.
He stood before the table, noticed that Lin Xue was gone, but found these two inexplicably present Demon Slaying Division Officers in his shop, a flash of surprise in his eyes.
In a hoarse voice he asked, “Where is that demon?”
The two officers exchanged bewildered looks, both completely confused, “What demon?”
Sun Daoyuan saw that their expressions did not seem feigned and asked again, “Why are you here?”
The fat officer replied, “Someone fired the Gathering Signal of the Demon-Slaying Bureau here, so the two of us came to take a look.”
Sun Daoyuan was stunned.
The Gathering Signal of the Demon-Slaying Bureau?
He remembered the loud bang he heard when he took Zhang Zongnian down to the basement.
Someone from the Demon-Slaying Bureau had come to his clinic and fired a signal here, summoning nearby officers to gather.
But now, that person was gone, and the demon was gone as well.
He looked around and saw a black Spirit Needle on the ground, faint traces of battle near the door, and on the ground not far from the entrance, the corpse of a bee with a unique shape.
A Tracking Bee.
Suddenly, Sun Daoyuan realized that he must have been under surveillance for some time.
That demon must have somehow neutralized the drug he had put in the tea, purged the Corpse Poison, then had a brief fight with the person who had tracked her to the clinic, and finally led that person away.
Sun Daoyuan suddenly felt that everything he had done was a joke.
He felt as though all his efforts were meaningless.
He was suddenly overwhelmed with despair.
The thin officer forced bravado and said,
“Sun Daoyuan, I advise you to remove the drug’s effect from us right now. You are attacking Demon-Slaying Bureau officers—this is defying the Bureau! If you release us now, I’ll pretend nothing happened. Otherwise, the Bureau will make you pay! Don’t even think about keeping your pharmacy open!”
Sun Daoyuan seemed not to hear him at all.
He ignored the two officers behind him and turned to walk into the backyard.
The thin officer shouted after him, “Hey! Hey! Hey! Old Sun, don’t go! Let us go first! Don’t you want to keep your pharmacy open?”
Sun Daoyuan returned to the basement.
Zhang Zongnian looked at him nervously and asked, “Senior Brother, where is Miss Lin?”
Sun Daoyuan answered weakly, “Gone.”
Zhang Zongnian asked, “Where did she go?”
Sun Daoyuan did not answer.
A Spirit Needle appeared in his hand.
He stabbed the Spirit Needle into Zhang Zongnian’s arm, extracting the last of the Residual Medicine Power.
Zhang Zongnian found that he could move freely.
He rolled to his feet and looked at Sun Daoyuan, not knowing why he had suddenly been released.
Sun Daoyuan waved his hand and said only, “You should go too.”
Zhang Zongnian was stunned for a moment.
He couldn’t help but ask, “Go where?”
Sun Daoyuan ignored him and sat down beside his wife’s corpse, closing his eyes.
Zhang Zongnian wanted to offer some words of comfort, but seeing him like this, could only sigh, and climbed up the ladder.
He hurried through the courtyard and ran to the front hall.
Sure enough, the person he longed for was gone. Only the fat and thin Demon Slaying Division Officers remained—one lying on the ground, the other slumped in a chair.
The thin officer called out as he rushed in from the courtyard, “Hey, young man, what’s your relationship with Old Sun? Hurry up and get him to remove the effects of the drug from us!”
Zhang Zongnian asked in surprise, “Who are you? Where is Miss Lin?”
The two officers were utterly confused, “What young lady? What are you talking about?”
Seeing their bewilderment, Zhang Zongnian walked outside and looked around, hoping to catch a glimpse of that graceful figure.
But there was no sign of Miss Lin Xue anywhere.
Had she really left?
His heart suddenly felt empty, as if something was missing.
So be it.
All banquets in this world must come to an end.
He and Miss Lin were at best ordinary friends. Naturally, she could not remain by his side forever.
Zhang Zongnian took a Wooden Horse out from the Storage Pouch at his waist.
This Storage Pouch was Yang Yuxiang’s—given to him by Lin Xue.
At first, he felt it was far too valuable and was unwilling to accept it.
Lin Xue said to treat it as compensation from the Yang Family for Yang Yuhai ruining his Storage Pouch and severing his arm, and insisted on giving it to him.
Only then did he finally possess the extra-large Storage Pouch he had dreamed of for so many years.
Recalling Lin Xue’s beautiful figure, Zhang Zongnian wondered if he would ever see her again.
But then he remembered he now needed to save his mother, and today might well be the day he died—what chance would there be for “again” after that?
Zhang Zongnian looked up and let out a long sigh, infused spiritual energy into the Wooden Horse, and it transformed into a tall, majestic steed.
He mounted the horse and rode straight toward Hengqiao Town.