The Affairs of the Martial World - Vol 3: Chapter 6

On the bank of the Panjiang River, there was a water bay where the river flowed through; the river was narrowed, and the current was swift.

The entire bay looked like the mouth of a mountain tiger, so the locals called it Tiger Howl Bay.

On the banks of Tiger Howl Bay, there were many stones. Over countless years, the river had worn away their edges, making them flat and rounded. Countless stones, large and small, covered the entire riverbank. While pedestrians could walk on them fairly smoothly, horses could not; their hooves would get caught between the stones, causing them to stumble.

Lan Jingyan had been here before and knew that horses could not be ridden on the riverbank. From a distance, he dismounted by the roadside, tied the horse to a tree, and walked over.

The scene from when he first met Qian Yan rose to his mind…… 

At that time, it was also by the river, but not this winding river, rather the Lancang River. He went to execute a traitor within the sect, spending many days to poison this follower to death. After wandering in the mountains for several days, he was utterly exhausted.

Arriving at the banks of the Lancang River, just about to bathe in the water, he saw a small boat in the river with a woman standing at the bow, seemingly burden in endless thoughts.

Lan Jingyan leaped onto the small boat, and at first sight, he was instantly captivated by her unparalleled beauty. He knelt before her, asking her to share her troubles, assuring her that he could help alleviate her worries.

However, Qian Yan was unwilling to reveal her thoughts, but Lan Jingyan felt a deep urge to protect her.

This feeling had never faded with the passage of time.

He followed her to the Central Plains and killed many people who displeased her, yet she did not become happy because of it. In the end, if it weren’t for encountering Master Beidou, who subdued him and forced him to swear to leave the Central Plains immediately and never return for life, he would have almost poisoned everyone related to her.

The existence of Qian Yan seemed like a heart demon to him.

For more than twenty years since leaving the Central Plains, he had never forgotten her.

At this moment, Tiger Howl Bay, under the setting sun, had a unique charm; the shadows of the trees by the river cast on the ground resembled the teeth of a tiger.

A figure in white stood by the riverbank, the river breeze gently swaying their garments, giving off an ethereal aura.

Lan Jingyan couldn’t help but step closer, only to discover that this person was not Qian Yan.

The man in white heard someone approaching and turned around. Lan Jingyan couldn’t help but feel a jolt in his heart. Although this person was not Qian Yan and was a young man, his appearance was very similar to the young Qian Yan. He couldn’t help but think that this person must be Qian Yan’s son.

Lan Jingyan asked, “Who are you? Why didn’t the person who wrote to me come?”

The man said faintly, “I’m the one who wrote the letter. My surname is Xie, and my name is Xie Tingyu.”

Lan Jingyan felt indignant upon hearing this and questioned, “Then what was the purpose of you pretending to be someone else and writing to invite me here?”

Xie Tingyu slowly approached and said, “Qian Yan is my mother. Although she did not write the letter, what it says reflects her true intentions. The reason I invited you here is because of a secret from that year.”

He stepped a little closer, and Lan Jingyan recalled the days spent with Qian Yan upon hearing him claim to be her son.

In those days of facing each other morning and night, he had never offended her because he had regarded her as a being like a fairy, so there was no need to be foolishly delusional about whether this person was his son.

At this moment, hearing that what was written in the letter was her true thoughts, he became momentarily confused with emotions. When he heard Xie Tingyu mention the word ‘secret,’ he couldn’t help but ask, “What secret?”

Xie Tingyu walked towards him, and in a daze, he seemed to see the young Qian Yan crossing twenty years of time to approach him, still wearing that smile that made his heart flutter.

At that moment, Xie Tingyu had walked within three feet of him, suddenly lowering his voice and saying mysteriously, “It’s this secret in my hand.”

A sword suddenly thrust out from his hand, and the tip pierced into Lan Jingyan’s throat.

Before Lan Jingyan could notice Xie’s intent to kill, he had already been struck by the sword.

After successfully striking, Xie Tingyu drew the sword and stepped aside, afraid of getting blood splattered on his clothes.

Blood splattered from Lan Jingyan’s neck, blooming in the air like red flowers under the setting sun.

Although Xie Tingyu had stepped aside, a few drops of blood from Lan Jingyan still splattered onto his hand.

Lan Jingyan’s eyes widened in shock, not understanding why Xie suddenly attacked and killed him. He wanted to ask, but he could no longer make a sound. Then, everything went dark before he collapsed.

Xie Tingyu flicked the blood off his sword and then sheathed it.

His expression was hard to read as if all the things he had done were not his true intention.

He killed a renowned person in the martial world, yet he showed no signs of triumph; instead, he was filled with melancholy.

He turned to leave but felt a tingling sensation in his hand. Xie Tingyu opened the hand that held the sword, and a layer of green had already appeared in the palm, darkening slightly under the sunset, looking quite disgusting.

Xie Tingyu knew he had been poisoned. Thinking about the few drops of blood that had splattered on his hand, could it be that Lan’s blood also carried poison?

Xie Tingyu turned to look at the corpse of Lan Jingyan on the ground, recalling Lan’s identity as the sect leader of the Black Mist Sect. Various malicious legends surfaced in his mind; many who had died at the hands of the Black Mist Sect met with horrific ends. As the sect leader, the poison used by Lan Jingyan could be imagined to be even more potent.

Xie Tingyu made a quick decision, immediately walking out of Tiger Howl Bay and approaching the horse. Without untying the rope tied to the tree, he mounted the horse, drew his sword with his left hand, and cut the rope. Then, he swiftly rode away.

With such a forceful push, his vision started to darken; the poison from Lan Jingyan was truly vicious.

After riding for more than ten miles, Xie Tingyu could only think of one person in his heart: only the renowned Doctor Li Dongbi, known as the Sage of Medicine, could cure him. However, this person was now two or three hundred miles away in the Hundred Flower Valley, and he wondered if he could make it in time.

With a tight grip on the reins in his left hand, he suddenly felt a wave of dizziness in his head, and he collapsed onto the horse, losing consciousness.

When he woke up, Xie Tingyu felt he had been stripped bare and left to roast in the sun. His mouth was bitter, and he was desperately thirsty. He suddenly opened his eyes, only to realize he was lying in a room.

A little girl sitting nearby saw him wake up and immediately ran outside, shouting, “Dad! Dad! The person is awake, awake!”

Xie Tingyu tried hard to recall what had happened before and gradually remembered riding a horse to seek medical help, only to faint in the end. It seemed he had been rescued by someone. He just didn’t know who had saved him or where he was now.

Xie Tingyu saw that a blanket was covering him, so he wanted to lift it and sit up, but he couldn’t move his hands or feet, as if he were a useless person. Xie Tingyu felt heat all over his body, and the sweat on his forehead soaked into the pillow, creating a damp patch.

He thought, ‘Am I really going to become a useless person like this? It would be better to die.’ When he thought of death, he felt neither sadness nor excitement or joy; his heart seemed to be numb.

At that moment, a big man walked in from outside, dressed in rough clothing that resembled a hunter’s outfit. Seeing that Xie Tingyu had woken up, a smile appeared on his face as he said, “The poison you were under was truly severe; I was really afraid you might not make it.”

Xie Tingyu said hoarsely, “Water, water, water……”

The big man said, “You’ve been poisoned badly; I don’t know if drinking water will worsen the toxicity. Let me squeeze some herbal juice for you to drink.” After saying this, he walked out again.

Before long, the man returned with a bowl of herbal juice, and the girl fed him spoonful by spoonful until it was finished.

In times of suffering, seeing those who came to help was like watching a Bodhisattva alleviate pain and hardship.

The girl had dark skin, prominent ears, and a bulbous nose and was not particularly beautiful, but in Xie Tingyu’s eyes, she resembled an incarnation of a fairy, here to save him, a man full of sins.

The herbal juice was both bitter and astringent, extremely difficult to swallow, but Xie Tingyu still endured and drank it all. The girl saw that he had finished and smiled, indicating that he had done well.

The girl saw that his pillow was soaked with sweat, so she lifted his head and flipped the pillow over.

Through the conversation with the man dressed as a hunter, Xie Tingyu learned that after fainting on the horse, he had traveled more than thirty miles and later fell from the horse, just in time to be encountered and rescued by the hunter returning home.

This man was a widower named Duan Mucheng. After his wife died, he brought his daughter with him, and the father and daughter survived on this mountain by hunting.

He had a basic understanding of medicine and gathered some detoxifying herbs nearby, crushing the rhizome of the plant known as Seven-leaf One-branch Flower for him to take. However, this common detoxifying herb was unlikely to counteract the poison of Lan Jingyan.

Fortunately, Xie Tingyu had a strong constitution, and after taking the herbal medicine, he temporarily suppressed the toxicity, but it would not last long.

Xie Tingyu, though not afraid of death, sought life as it was human nature. He pleaded with the hunter to take him to Doctor Li Dongbi, for only he could save his life.

The big man looked troubled and said, “I have a young kid at home, and I really don’t feel at ease going out like this.”

Xie Tingyu said, “I have some silver in my bosom; you can take it to hire a big cart and bring the child along, can’t you? Any extra silver will be given to you.”

Duan Mucheng pulled a silver voucher from Xie’s bosom and was startled to see it was a one-hundred-tael voucher. As a hunter, he was used to seeing only a few pieces of silver; a hundred taels would be enough for him to live on for many years.

Xie Tingyu said, “You take this. After deducting the cost of the hired carriage, the rest is my gift to you.”

Duan Mucheng then went out, and after a long while, he returned, having found a carriage. The three of them got onto the large cart and set off on their journey through the night.

Throughout Yunnan Province, the roads were almost all rugged mountain paths, and the journey was bumpy. Along the way, Duan Mucheng collected some detoxifying herbs for Xie to take, but they had little effect; Xie Tingyu’s poison was worsening.

The next afternoon, they finally arrived at Hundred Flower Valley.

It was indeed a coincidence; if they had arrived a day later, Li Dongbi would have gone elsewhere to search and discern herbs. The book he authored, “Compendium of Materia Medica,” was nearing completion, and once this book was finished, it would undoubtedly make his name known throughout history. More importantly, it would promote the spirit of medicine, embodying the sage’s belief that healing one person is not as noble as healing the world, which was why Li Dongbi was revered as the Sage of Medicine.

Yunnan had a vast number of medicinal flowers and herbs, and the Hundred Flower Valley was particularly abundant, which was why Li had lingered here for so long.

Xie Tingyu knew Li was here because he had heard what passersby said on the way.

Li Dongbi had treated countless people; wherever he went, he was incredibly diligent in treating the locals. First, he had the heart of a healer, and second, he could gain experience from various treatments to include in his medical books.

When Li Dongbi saw Xie Tingyu, Xie was so deeply poisoned that he had fallen into a coma.

Li Dongbi opened his right hand, the palm already darkened, with a faintly eerie hue amidst the blackness.

Li Dongbi immediately deduced that this was not an ordinary poison but the compulsion poison of the Black Mist Sect.

The unusual poisons were a toxic substance that followed the flow of blood and gradually entered the heart, leading to death from poisoning.

This compulsion poison was actually a tiny insect brewing under Xie Tingyu’s skin. Eventually, the poisonous insect will enter the brain, driving the person to madness, but it does not cause immediate death.

The method of detoxification was to cut open the skin, wash away the poison with strong liquor, then apply an insect-repelling medicine, and finally stitch the skin back together while also taking a deworming pill internally. After nurturing for half a month, it will be fine.

The compulsion poison on Xie Tingyu had spread throughout his body, meaning that his entire skin would need to be cut open. For an ordinary doctor, this was almost impossible, but in Li Dongbi’s eyes, it was a mere trivial matter.

After healing, it was inevitable that many scars would remain on the body. This could not be avoided; even a master like the divine physician was not a deity and could not achieve perfection without leaving a trace. It was just a pity that Xie Tingyu, with his handsome appearance, now bore scars on his face.

But between beauty and life, especially for a man, life was undoubtedly more precious.

The next day, Xie Tingyu woke up. He took out some silver to give to Duan Mucheng and the coachman, and both expressed their gratitude profusely before leaving.

Xie Tingyu looked at the stitched areas on his face in the bronze mirror, feeling mixed emotions in his heart.

Fortunately, there was no shortage of various herbs in the Hundred Flower Valley, allowing for the preparation of detoxifying and nourishing medicines.

Under the careful nurturing of Li Dongbi, after more than ten days, Xie Tingyu recovered. Li Dongbi then left this place to continue searching for herbs to complete the “Compendium of Materia Medica.”

Xie Tingyu prepared to go to Xi’an to assassinate the last person. After that, regardless of whether he succeeded or failed, he would withdraw from the martial world and live an ordinary life.

This was his dream; he had long grown tired of this life filled with blood and gore.