Chapter 284 - Ye Mulian

“Err… I…” Hesitantly, Xiao Chen’s eyes wandered to Ye Lingfeng, remembering the Governor’s falter just moments ago. This must be the matter that he had been tentative to broach.

The silent awkwardness was broken by the sound of a deep breath from Ye Lingfeng. He spoke sullenly, “It’s our daughter, Mulian. She was also infected just over a month ago…”

“Over a month ago?” Xiao Chen frowned, dreading the worst. The scholar he had just rescued outside the city looked bad enough and he had only contracted the infection just a few days ago. Xiao Chen remembered Gui Xian suddenly and longed for his help, especially if the girl wanted to survive.

“Please, Master Xiao,” Lady Jiang (Ye Lingfeng’s wife) wailed woefully, “Please save my daughter!”

Ye Lingfeng looked equally anguished himself. As father to his daughter, it took every shred of fiber within him to hold himself back from plea for Xiao Chen’s help to cure his daughter, but his dignity got the best of him, reminding him that his guests were from the Five Continents and as host, he should offer them the treatment of his hospitality before any requests can follow. “Please, my wife. Master Xiao has only just arrived. He should have a rest before…”

But Xiao Chen raised a hand to stop him. “No matter. Your daughter’s life is at stake and there should be no delay.” He threw a look at Zhiluan. “Enough with the food, Leopard Cat Spirit. Let’s go.”

“You can go and dip yourself into these muddied waters for all you care! There’s no way I’m in this!” Zhiluan flapped its wings, settling down on Xiao Chen’s shoulder reluctantly.

“Very well then,” Ye Lingfeng muttered uncertainly, “I’ll thank you so much, Master Xiao and you too, esteemed Immortal Lingzhi.”

“Please. It’s my pleasure,” Xiao Chen replied and he said to Huangfu Xin’er, “I’ll be right back, Xin’er. It shouldn’t take long.”

They shuffled out of the hall and noticed another elderly man approaching. Xiao Chen sensed that the cyan-robed old man possessed powers of the Core Forming Realm. But he seemed to have great authority in the house that even the Three Friends of Winter greeted him courteously when he came near.

Xiao Chen stopped and stared at the four-leafed herb symbol on the sleeve of the ancient man’s garb. “I see, n Tier-Four Elixir King,” Xiao Chen mused.

“If I may, Lord Governor, where are you off to?”

The old man spoke gruffly to Governor Ye, if not disrespectful. Ye Lingfeng faltered, loss for words to reply with a bothered look on his face. The Elixir King from South Continent was here on his invitation to help cure his daughter with a promise of a payment of millions of Spirit Stones but he could not bring himself to admit that he had enlisted Xiao Chen’s help to look at his daughter instead.

“You’ve been such great help, Master Gongsun. How is my daughter now?”

“The Young Lady is fine,” the master healer replied thinly.

“I see. Thank you for all your troubles, Master Gongsun,” Ye Lingfeng muttered, with the best smile he could put up. But the old man cast a sharp stare at Xiao Chen. “I am Gongsun Tai. A pleasure to make your acquaintance, Young Master…?”

“Xiao Chen,” Xiao Chen replied benignly. The Elixir King had clearly noticed that he possessed healing magic of his own.

“You’ve worked great lengths to help the Young Lady,” Elder Plum quipped, hoping to diffuse the palpable iciness hanging over them. “This is Master Xiao, a guest from the Five Continents who knows some healing magic…”

Gongsun Tai cut him off abruptly. “I see. I was also thinking of getting some help. An assistant would do just fine,” the ancient healer pointed out coldly.

His antagonistic sentiment was hardly unexpected; no healers would want others to intrude upon their work before it was finished. It was tantamount to a great insult and disrespect.

Healers were professions commonly held in the highest regard across the Violet Manor. Conjurers and cultivators could achieve accomplishments through sheer hard work and limited talent. But the same could not be said for healers, who required extraordinary potential lest they become only as useful as glass hammers. This made healers extremely valuable, more so than conjurers and cultivators that a mere Tier-Four healer could easily demand greater reverence than a cultivator of the Nascent Soul Realm.

But Ye Lingfeng would never dare submit Xiao Chen to the inglorious treatment of serving as an assistant. Just as he was at loss for any solution, Zhiluan sneered suddenly. “What a topsy turvy it is that a mere Tier Four healer would dare utter such haughty nonsense before me! Would that you knew, that in the past, even Tier Six Elixir Saints have to bow their heads to me whenever they see me!”

That only served to aggravate the tension in the narrow corridor. Fuming, Gongsun Tai shot an angry glare at Zhiluan, who immediately cowered behind Xiao Chen’s back.

Xiao Chen smiled. “My apologies, Master Gongsun.” He bowed. “This wretched leopard cat spirit knows nothing about manners. Please do not mind his indelicacies.”

“HUMPH!” Gongsun Tai snorted indignantly and snapped, “Come!” He turned and led everyone ahead, albeit resentfully.

The Three Friends walked with him and did their best to flatter and cajole the old healer, hoping to please him but to no avail, Gongsun Tai had scarcely even looked at them.

Zhiluan perched on Xiao Chen’s shoulder and huffed scornfully, “I was merely speaking the truth! A mere Tier-Four healer! Wait till he reaches higher, I bet his nose will touch the sky!”

Xiao Chen chuckled. It was amusing for him to see a Tier-Four healer enduring the contempt and derision from the leopard cat spirit.

But Gongsun Tai missed no word from the leopard cat spirit, to say the least. His face looked darker by the second as he thought lividly, “Let’s see how capable you are, mongrel pup!”

They snaked through several courtyards and corridors before they finally arrived at a little cottage that looked out to a small parterre filled with blooming plum blossoms. Two maids were watching the entrance, their faces obscured by masks. Seeing the Governor’s arrival with some guests, they immediately prepared some masks for everyone and distributed them.

Gongsun Tai extracted a mask from his own pocket and put on a pair of gloves knitted of threads of gold before he allowed himself in.

Elders Bamboo and Pine waited outside, while the rest entered the compound with masks. As they grew closer to the cottage, they heard the intermittent spurts of coughs coming from inside. With his Divine Sense, Xiao Chen could see a sickly young girl lying on a bed of silken sheets, covered in a thin blanket.

“Is that you… Father? I’m fine… Please don’t come in, Father…”

Her husky voice rang sickly sweet, although she stopped sporadically to draw short and quick breaths. Her condition was worsening. “WHAT IS HAPPENING, MASTER GONGSUN!?” Ye Lingfeng thundered.

Looking terribly ugly, Gongsun Tai pushed past the doors with everyone else in tow. Lady Jiang’s eyes immediately reddened at the sight of her bedridden daughter and rushed forward but Xiao Chen held her back, “Please, Lady Jiang. Please calm down.”

He walked to the bed and reached for the abed girl’s slender wrist. His two fingers touched her tender skin to check her pulse, but she instinctively drew her hand back, gasping hoarsely, “Please… Sir.. Please don’t touch me…”

“There’s no need to worry, Young Lady,” Xiao Chen replied, “I know a little about healing.” He was not in the least afraid of being infected.

Gongsun Tai remained at a corner, watching gleefully as he thought, “Your days are numbered, Boy. This infernal infection is so contagious that I myself had to check her pulse through a screen. What a fool you are to touch her.”

The frown on Xiao Chen’s face grew deeper. Noticing this, Gongsun Tai jeered sardonically, “What is it, young one? Have you found anything?”

Xiao Chen said nothing. The infection of the dark matter had invaded her internal organs, nerve and meridian points, including that of her brain. There was hardly anything he could do for her, unless he could get any help from Gui Xian.

The palpable silence in the room that seemed to be substantiated by Xiao Chen’s grim reticence did little to mitigate Ye Lingfeng’s dread which was broken only by Lady Jiang’s stifled sobs.

“Master Xiao, is there really no…” His voice broke.

Zhiluan uttered as-a-matter-of-factly, “It’s too late. In Buddhist medicine, the three samadhis—the three main organs: the heart, the liver, and the bladder—are most vital to the human body. With all three of them infected, she’s beyond help now!”

“Wh-what!” Ye Lingfeng and his wife spun to look at the leopard cat spirit, before they almost reeled in vertigo of sadness at the distressing revelation.

Xiao Chen glowered at Zhiluan. “Have some decency!” He got up and approached the Governor of the Burg. “I’m afraid I might need some time. The infection has had plenty of time to grow in the Young Lady.”

Gongsun Tai almost snorted. “Apparently, a mouth that works better than his hands.”

“Can you tell me how did the Young Lady contract this disease?”

Ye Lingfeng began his tale with a long and heavy sigh. As it turned out, Ye Mulian was skilled in healing since a very young age. Out of sympathy for the infected, she had tried to help them. Still, in spite of her caution, her long hours of working with the infected had seen her afflicted herself.

Ye Mulian smiled weakly at her father, exhaling feebly. “Hush… Father, Mother. I’ll be fine…”

But the frown on Xiao Chen’s face loosened not one bit. “She has at most a month left. Would that Gui Xian was here; he would be able to cure her in just three days.”

“Oh dear…”

He would have cared not a fig if it was a man who was on the brink of death. But Ye Mulian was a young and gorgeous lass in the prime of her life. He would feel terribly sorry if she would have to die so pitifully.

“Governor Ye. I’ll need your help procuring these herbs…”

Xiao Chen gave the Governor a list of rare herbs. Ye Mulian’s life was on a knife’s edge now and her best chance now lay with Xiao Chen’s notes from Gui Xian’s Elixir King Scripture. With hope, the prescription from the Scripture would be able to rescue her yet.

Sniveling at his corner, Gongsun Tai listened intently to the names of the herbs that Xiao Chen recited. “What in the world? Does he really intend to cure the girl with these plants?”

Two servant girls returned not more than an hour later with the herbs. Xiao Chen took the packages of medicinal shrubs from them and went to Ye Mulian’s bedside. He tapped on several points of her body, sending jolts of magic into her to help stabilize her condition. “I’m going to brew the medicine,” he instructed Zhiluan gravely, “Stay here and keep watch. Alert me at once if there are any changes to her.”

The rest might possess powerful magic, but they were still ordinary humans nonetheless. Zhiluan was the only one who would be able to first notice anything wrong with Ye Mulian, since it was a leopard cat spirit who had survived for millennia, and he would have to alter the dosage of the medicine if the girl’s condition worsens.

“Go ahead then.” Zhiluan waved its paws dismissively. “But let it be on record that I’m only here to keep watch. I’m not to be blamed if she dies suddenly.”

“Silence!” Xiao Chen hissed and rushed out with his packs of plants.

Gongsun Tai watched Xiao Chen leaving with suspicious glares. He was curious about how Xiao Chen would brew his medicine, but he understood full well the untold rule of anonymity of healers when they worked. A healer must brew his medicine alone and away from prying eyes. As a Tier Four Elixir King, there was no way he could pry upon a junior which he considered inferior, lest his reputation would suffer.