Facing this aloof and cold uninvited guest, Cui Changchang had not yet snapped out of his daze.
Just a moment ago in this room, there were clearly only he and that female cultivator surnamed Yi. How could another person suddenly appear out of nowhere? It was as if she had materialized out of thin air.
Looking at the black-clad woman’s demeanor, although she claimed she wanted him to “feel her pulse,” she remained comfortably in place, her hands tucked into her sleeves, completely motionless. She did not look like someone seeking a consultation, rather, she seemed to be here to provoke trouble.
Upon closer observation, Cui Changchang noticed the expression on Miss Yi’s face, suggesting the two of them knew each other. Could it be… this black-clad woman was also a fellow cultivator?
Thinking up to this point, Cui Changchang felt a surge of excitement again. Quietly maintaining a smiling facade, he asked, “Is this honored guest also here to seek medical consultation?”
“Naturally,” Feng Hanyu let out a soft laugh. “I just wonder if you, an old man claiming sixty years of medical experience, have blurry eyes or deaf ears yet. If your eyes blur and your hands shake while practicing medicine, accidentally leaving needles and threads inside a patient’s bowels, what is that patient supposed to do?”
A servant serving tea nearby could not help but speak up upon hearing this. “Our Doctor Cui has practiced medicine for so many years. Even if his medical skills aren’t number one in the world, they can bring back the dying and flesh out bones, curing ailments as soon as the medicine is taken! How can you casually speculate and slander him?!”
“Bring back the dying, flesh out bones?” The corners of Feng Hanyu’s mouth curled slightly. Coming from her mouth, these words sounded exceptionally disdainful.
The servant wanted to say more, but Cui Changchang waved his hand, ordering him to dismiss himself.
Cui Changchang’s smile remained as gentle as ever. “Does the young lady not believe what I say? Why not take a look here?” He pointed his finger, and on the wall hung a row of framed large characters, bearing inscriptions like “Divine Medical Skill,” “Brilliant Touch Restores Spring,” “Eternal Model of Medicine,” and so on.
“Our Red Dust Medical Clinic has a history of several hundred years in this country,” Cui Changchang said. “It is no exaggeration to say that it is only in my generation that it has flourished. Did the young lady see the people queuing outside?”
“Every time the moon is full, the Yin energy is at its peak, which is the perfect time for women to nourish and maintain their countenances. Therefore, on this day, I specially receive young ladies who have the means, using the secret recipe passed down through a hundred generations of my family, which I have improved, to enable them to maintain their youth and beauty.”
“The women of this country regard youth as beauty, but humans eat whole grains, how can they not get sick and grow old? Only the patients who come to the Red Dust Medical Clinic can retain eternal youth. If you do not believe it, I am the best proof.”
“To achieve such a level, while I won’t claim to resurrect the dead, curing sickness upon taking the medicine and granting every request is more than enough.”
Cui Changchang held his head high and chest out as he said this, clearly very confident in his medical skills and appearance.
Just as Feng Hanyu was about to argue further, Yi Qinglan suddenly spoke up, “Alright, I came today to see the doctor properly. What are you causing a fuss for again?”
Feng Hanyu was momentarily stunned by her sudden retort. Taking advantage of the moment Feng Hanyu remained silent, Yi Qinglan had already swept the box containing the elixir into her sleeve. “Thank you for your trouble in diagnosing and treating me, Doctor Cui. Your request is not difficult. I will definitely fulfill it.”
“You are too polite, young lady,” Cui Changchang looked extremely delighted, exactly like a passionate researcher who had achieved immense satisfaction. “With the young lady’s promise, the new recipe I am working on developing will surely be just around the corner.” He then turned to the other woman with a face full of smiles, “Does this young lady also have a need to maintain her countenance? Do you require me to feel your pulse and examine you?”
Feng Hanyu ignored him completely, only frowning slightly at Yi Qinglan. “What do you want that thing for? You aren’t a child anymore, how can you trust a total stranger so easily?”
Yi Qinglan appeared very calm. “Evil fire has invaded my body, and ordinary doctors find it very difficult to treat. Only Doctor Cui kindly helped me, and even generously gave me the medicine made from his secret recipe. With such sincerity and generosity, how can I not believe him? Even if this medicine doesn’t work, what’s the harm in trying?”
Perplexed, Feng Hanyu only said faintly, “Do you like being a medicine jar for others to test their medicine on? Then suit yourself.”
After bidding farewell to Cui Changchang, the two arrived at the medical clinic’s main hall. Yi Qinglan saw Lu’e sitting to one side, undergoing an examination by a doctor.
Seeing her come out, Lu’e waved to her excitedly, “How was it, how was it? Doctor Cui’s medical skills are superb, he doesn’t easily see ordinary patients. Is your injury any better?”
“Much better,” Yi Qinglan nodded to her. But Lu’e had already turned her head away, excitedly asking the doctor something else, not even hearing Yi Qinglan bidding her goodbye.
“Forget it.” Yi Qinglan waved her hand at her back, smiling helplessly.
Leaving the main gate of the medical clinic, Yi Qinglan and Feng Hanyu walked side by side on the street.
“You there, have you thrown enough of a tantrum?” Feng Hanyu opened her mouth to speak.
“Me? What tantrum do I have to throw?” Yi Qinglan looked straight at the road ahead. “Ultimately, we’ve only met a few times. Eldest Miss Feng travels across the four quarters, leaving no trace behind, coming and going as she pleases anywhere. How could a plain and ordinary passerby like me know your whereabouts?”
“Humph,” Feng Hanyu chuckled. “Not seeing you for a few days, you’ve actually learned to manipulate me with your words.”
“I wouldn’t dare, I wouldn’t dare,” a smile couldn’t help but appear on Yi Qinglan’s face. “You are so formidable that you don’t even look upon the ancestral secret recipe of a divine physician. How would I dare manipulate you? I only fear you might look down on my shallow knowledge.”
“When did I ever look down on you?” Feng Hanyu said. “That doctor is a mere mortal, how can he examine a cultivator? Don’t take his medicine either.”
“If I don’t take medicine, how will the illness get better?”
“If you don’t take his medicine, will your illness really not get better?” Feng Hanyu smiled. “We haven’t met for just a few days, and you’ve already forgotten about me?”
“You? Don’t tell me you know how to treat illnesses?” Yi Qinglan asked in wonder.
“Of course not,” Feng Hanyu denied flatly. “It’s just that you’ve forgotten that I travel far and wide, and my knowledge is somewhat greater than that of a so-called eternally young mortal. I told you before that the xu fire (ruin fire) is causing trouble inside your body, which is not a common ailment. Did it never cross your mind that I could help you? You surely wouldn’t rather trust a mortal full of nonsense than trust me?”
“Eldest Miss Feng, you truly are all powerful. But when you left last time, you never mentioned that you were going to help me, did you?”
Feng Hanyu was temporarily at a loss for words and could only say, “Fine, leaving without saying goodbye last time was my fault. Shall I offer my apologies to you? Will that do?”
Yi Qinglan smiled, “Fair enough, fair enough.”
“The spiritual energy and the ruin fire are intertwined within your body, and you must have already shown signs of losing control over your spiritual power,” Feng Hanyu said. “If there is no timely intervention, it will become very severe.”
“Oh? To what extent will it be severe?” Yi Qinglan joked, “Don’t tell me you’re going to say that the last person you saw beset by ruin fire has already…” She made a throat slitting gesture as she spoke.
“You!” Feng Hanyu’s expression changed abruptly.
Seeing her brow tightly furrowed, Yi Qinglan knew in her heart that this joke had gone a bit too far, so she said honestly, “Don’t take it to heart, I just said it casually.”
The tension on Feng Hanyu’s face did not ease up in the slightest; instead, a hint of loneliness was added to it. Seeing her bad expression, Yi Qinglan asked tentatively, “What, that person… was very important to you?”
Looking at this face that was so similar to Gu Xianghe’s acting willfully and making a scene before her, Feng Hanyu sighed, “Ruin fire is a spiritual entity born of heaven and earth. Its temperament is extremely stubborn, just like a mischievous and cunning child who will not stop until it achieves its goal. If you are entangled by it, no matter what spells you practice or what realm you have reached, if you leave it unaddressed, your Dantian will slowly be occupied by it, until finally you lose all your magic power, becoming no different from a crippled person.”
“Is it truly that severe?”
“Truly.”
No wonder she said that medicine was useless, Yi Qinglan pondered. Even if it were useful, before I could finish taking it, I would probably be trapped to death by the ruin fire. She then smiled, “Speaking of which, did you come to this place specifically to treat my illness?”
“You really are…” very good at putting feathers in your own cap. Even as Feng Hanyu thought this, her tone inevitably carried a hint of concession. “I didn’t teach you the method to remove the ruin fire last time, but coming to this place was not specifically for you.”
“Then for what reason?”
Feng Hanyu asked in return, “This place is extremely far from Nanzhou City. Why did you come to this place?”
“Me?” Yi Qinglan recalled the scene of that day. “I was originally going to return to the Jingyun Sect with my Junior Sisters. Unexpectedly, we were ambushed by a mountain demon midway. He used some unknown formation to transport me thousands of miles away to the Mudiao Kingdom, landing me in a dungeon. It was only by good luck that I escaped with my life.”
“A mountain demon?” Feng Hanyu narrowed her eyes. “So to speak, you have already faced it head-on?”
“Correct,” Yi Qinglan said. “Its… appearance is very peculiar. Its face is covered with countless masks, and its actions are erratic, bizarre, and unpredictable. I have thought about it back and forth for a long time, and I still cannot figure out why it wanted to send me to this place.”
Feng Hanyu furrowed her brows in deep thought. Regarding the underhanded plots the mountain demon was secretly brewing, she already had a inkling of a guess in her heart. It was just unverified and still required further exploration and evidence to support it.
“Actually, what I am most worried about right now is not the mountain demon, but my two Junior Sisters,” a look of worry was added to Yi Qinglan’s face. “They were traveling with me. Now that I have been imprisoned once, could the mountain demon have laid its hands on them too? Currently, my spiritual power frequently goes out of control, and this place has neither immortal sects nor message transmitting artifacts and outposts. It really makes one terribly worried.”
Feng Hanyu shook her head and said, “Your Junior Sisters are also practitioners. Since you could defuse the crisis and flee, they naturally can also counter the moves to extricate themselves from danger. Why worry excessively?”
“My two Junior Sisters lack experience in the world, and the mountain demon is incomparably cunning. How can I not worry?”
“Life and death are fated,” Feng Hanyu disagreed. “Besides, if your Junior Sisters have also come to this place, it might not necessarily be a bad thing.”
“Why?”
“From what I know, the mountain demon has already come to this place in person.” Feng Hanyu let out a soft, cold laugh. “If your Junior Sisters came along, wouldn’t it be the perfect opportunity to wipe out this pack of troublemaking demons in one fell swoop?”