Great Calamity

At night, Lin Xiao lay on his bed, his left arm wrapped around the genealogy book while his right hand clenched the Pill Token tightly.

Situated in the remote northwestern borderlands, Spring Return Hall was, after all, the greatest medicine merchant in the northwest of the Great Yuan Kingdom, and its channels for news were exceptionally swift. Lin Xiao naturally knew that since the old ruler of Great Yuan had died suddenly five years ago, seven princes had each raised armies to contend for the realm. In five years, the land had rotted beyond all hope of recovery. Guihua City, being far from the frontier, had enjoyed several years of peace. But with the arrival of the Black Blade Bandits, that tranquil and comfortable life was clearly about to be shattered.

The Black Blade Bandits—fierce outlaws said to leave not half a living soul wherever they passed. Their leader, Black Blade, was an unparalleled master ranked ninth on the Black List of Great Yuan's martial world. In the places he had ravaged, Black Blade's brutality and savagery were enough to stop children from crying at night.

Lin Xiao could not help shuddering. The Black Blade Bandits had come this close already?

"Why doesn't Father consider moving Spring Return Hall somewhere else...?"

The thought had barely arisen when Lin Xiao gently shook his head.

"No. Guihua City is a major city, after all. There are three thousand government troops within the city, as well as two thousand retainers of the Wang Family. Its defenses cannot be called weak. Even if we moved, where could we move to?"

As he tightly gripped the Pill Token, a thread of incomparably cool breath seemed to seep from it, calming his heart.

"Chaotic times..."

The young Lin Xiao murmured with a sigh. He tucked the Pill Token into the inner pocket against his chest and was about to close his eyes to sleep when he suddenly heard rustling sounds from several dozen yards away. Lin Xiao's first reaction was that a thief had come, but what thief in Guihua City would dare cause trouble at Spring Return Hall? He casually grabbed a club by the window, rose lightly, and crept to the door. Peering through the crack, he immediately deflated.

His elder brother, Lin Yao, was clambering over the wall in utter disgrace with the help of two servants! Both brothers had practiced their family's martial arts since childhood, but Lin Yao had thrown all his cultivation away in the land of tenderness. The way he climbed a wall resembled a pregnant sow that had gotten drunk and was struggling to walk. Watching him scramble messily over the high wall, Lin Xiao sighed soundlessly, tossed aside the club, returned to bed, and closed his eyes.

Over the following days, everything remained peaceful. No word spread through the streets that the Black Blade Bandits had massacred a city over two hundred li away. It seemed that everything Lin Shan had told Lin Xiao had merely been a dream. Yet the hard Pill Token in the inner pocket over his chest reminded him that it was all real. Perhaps the news of that massacre had been suppressed by people with ulterior motives—Patriarch Wang, for instance, was quite skilled at such things. The City Lord of Guihua City presumably did not want rumors unsettling the populace either.

As time passed, Lin Xiao gradually relaxed. While working at Spring Return Hall, he consoled himself, "Perhaps the Black Blade Bandits won't be foolish enough to attack Guihua City."

"Young Master Xiao, this old gentleman wants a dose of Fetal Nourishing Spirit Paste. You handle it!" Hu Zhutie called loudly from the main hall, pointing at an elderly man seated before him.

Lin Xiao smiled faintly and nodded to Hu Zhutie before turning toward the dispensary to gather the ingredients for the Fetal Nourishing Spirit Paste.

Fetal Nourishing Spirit Paste was a unique spiritual medicine of Spring Return Hall, used to protect pregnancies and soothe the mind. It had been specially prepared for women born weak with unstable fetal energy. The materials it required were not especially precious, but the ingredients were numerous, and every one had to be added to the medicine at exactly the right moment. Lin Xiao, however, was the person in all of Spring Return Hall with the finest command of heat when decocting medicine. Even pharmacists who had worked for decades could not compare to him in this regard.

As Lin Shan put it, "That brat was born to play with fire!" Whenever he said this, Lin Shan's face held both pride and a touch of regret.

It was a rather baffling remark, and no one knew whether Lin Shan meant something more by it.

After selecting all the necessary ingredients, taking a clean medicine pot, and carefully adjusting the flame beneath a stove, Lin Xiao seemingly lazily placed some of the ingredients and clear water into the pot. He set it lightly atop the stove, then squatted blankly before it, his unfocused eyes watching the flames dance within.

Every flicker of fire was so joyful, so overflowing with vigorous life. A satisfied smile gradually rippled across Lin Xiao's face. He seemed to feel that his own body was leaping and cheering along with the flames in the stove. The true energy from ten years of cultivating the Evergreen Art slowly surged out from his dantian, regulating itself in rhythm with the dancing fire.

Whenever he brewed medicine for others, it was the best time for Lin Xiao to cultivate the Evergreen Art. Facing the flames seemed greatly beneficial to his true energy cultivation. It was something with no apparent reason, yet it was undeniably effective. Since discovering this strange phenomenon while brewing medicine for someone for the first time three years ago, his internal cultivation had advanced over those three years by fifty percent more than the total progress of the previous seven. He had cultivated internal energy for only ten years, yet the depth, experience, and purity of his strength did not pale beside those who had cultivated for twenty.

His fingers flashed over the medicine packets like butterflies weaving through flowers. Lin Xiao could clearly sense the temperature of the medicinal liquid in the pot and whether the medicinal potency within the herbs had been fully drawn out. Whenever the liquid reached the heat he required, he would gracefully add another portion of ingredients to the pot.

Gradually, a faint, cool, secluded medicinal fragrance drifted through the dispensary, soothing to the heart and refreshing to the mind. Every pharmacist and apprentice in the room deeply inhaled, looking at Lin Xiao with envy. They were all experienced hands and naturally knew that Lin Xiao's skill at brewing medicine had risen another level. The fragrance of the Fetal Nourishing Spirit Paste he brewed today was thirty percent richer and thirty percent clearer than before. Clearly, its medicinal effects were thirty percent more wondrous as well.

Thirty percent might have sounded small. Yet many pharmacists brewed decoctions for an entire lifetime without being able to improve the potency of a medicine by even ten percent, much less thirty.

"Young Master Xiao's talent is truly astonishing. What a pity, what a pity." Nearly everyone in the dispensary shook their heads at once, then swiftly lowered them, for Lin Yao had entered.

Wearing a pale silver brocade robe, a violet-gold belt around his waist, and his hair tightly bound into an upright braid with a strand of pearls, Lin Yao swaggered into the dispensary. He walked straight behind the distracted Lin Xiao and, without the slightest courtesy, brought his folding fan down heavily on Lin Xiao's head.

The pain jolted Lin Xiao awake from that wondrous state. The true energy in his body receded into his dantian like a tide. Because he had stopped his cultivation so abruptly, even a gentle art such as the Evergreen Art left his meridians faintly aching. Lin Xiao turned around furiously, but when he saw that it was Lin Yao, the anger on his face immediately became numbness. In a low voice, he asked, "Elder Brother, what is it?" As he spoke, he casually tossed the last ingredient, Clinging Grass, into the medicine pot.

"Open the medicine storehouse." Lin Yao stared coldly at Lin Xiao and said in a low voice, "Get me ten portions of Rabbit Blood Powder, and also... also..."

He glanced around in alarm, and his voice sank even lower. "And one Heavenly King Heart-Protecting Pill."

A sharp light flashed through Lin Xiao's eyes. Lowering his voice, he urgently said, "Rabbit Blood Powder is for treating women with unstoppable hemorrhaging, while the Heavenly King Heart-Protecting Pill is for saving someone from fainting or sudden death. Elder Brother, you!"

Lin Yao seized Lin Xiao by the throat. His handsome face was already covered in savage killing intent. "Open the medicine storehouse! Get the medicine, now!"

"What did you do?" Lin Xiao stared fixedly at Lin Yao and said darkly, "The Heavenly King Heart-Protecting Pill is for emergency rescue. If you take it over now, it won't save that person! Whatever happened, tell Father at once. If that person is not completely dead yet, if it was merely a heart spasm causing sudden death, perhaps Father can still use his marvelous hands to pull them back from death's gate!"

With a thump, Lin Yao dropped onto the floor. His face turned bluish as he stared blankly at Lin Xiao, crying, "I don't dare say it! The Zhang Family's young lady, the Zhang Family's young lady!"

It was as though a thunderbolt had struck Lin Xiao's head. He staggered back several steps and knocked the stove behind him to the ground. The medicine pot shattered with a crash, drawing everyone's gaze, but Lin Xiao only raised a trembling finger toward Lin Yao and whispered, "Elder Brother, you, you, you and the Wang Family's Second Young Master, you..."

Lin Yao's face was deathly pale, and his body shook violently. He stared blankly at Lin Xiao and wailed tearfully, "Second Brother, Elder Brother treated you badly before! This time, you must save my life! Sob... hurry and open the storehouse for the medicine, or else, or else..."

Lin Xiao had long known about Lin Yao's filthy affairs outside and the sort of people his crowd of fair-weather friends were. But he had never imagined Lin Yao and the others would truly commit such a shameless deed, one that threw ritual and morality into utter disorder. He had roughly guessed several crucial details, and precisely because he had guessed them, Lin Xiao felt as though the heavens were about to collapse.

Spring Return Hall was the greatest medicine merchant and clinic in several northwestern prefectures, while Lin Shan was the most renowned divine physician for hundreds of li around. Spring Return Hall had saved countless lives and possessed immense prestige among the people. But it was still merely a medicine merchant, a clinic, an organization that treated the sick. Lin Shan, Hua Wuniang, and the others all possessed considerable cultivation, yet Spring Return Hall as a whole had no great power.

And what were the Wang Family of Guihua City and the Zhang Family of Guiying City? They were the local tyrants of these northwestern prefectures. In every trade and every profitable venture, was there anything they had not dipped a hand into?

The Wang Family openly possessed two thousand retainers, and the Zhang Family had roughly the same. If the two families joined forces, adding their servants and hired hands, they could easily raise an army ten thousand strong!

And now, the Zhang Family's young lady, who had married into the Wang Family only days ago, actually needed Rabbit Blood Powder and a Heart-Protecting Pill to save her life!

The Wang Family's Second Young Master could not possibly suffer any consequences. Old Patriarch Wang would never let his own son take the blame. So who was best suited to carry this black pot? Was it not Lin Yao, that dissolute young master?

Perhaps the Wang Family would say nothing out of consideration for their family's generations-long relationship with Spring Return Hall, but what about the Zhang Family? The Zhang Family of Guiying City had no deep ties with Spring Return Hall! If their Patriarch acted in rage after something happened to his own young lady, no outsider would say a word! Killing Lin Yao alone would be one thing, but the true fear was that all of Spring Return Hall would be dragged into the grave with him!

In these chaotic times, countless people must have long coveted the medicine trade!

The Wang Family of Guihua City had, after all, risen from prosperous landowning stock. But the Zhang Family of Guiying City had emerged as a powerful clan only in recent decades, and there were rather unsavory rumors about their background. By committing such a deed, Lin Yao had led a hungry wolf before the great slab of fat that was Spring Return Hall!

Lin Xiao's expression changed rapidly. He glared fiercely at Lin Yao, ignoring the Fetal Nourishing Spirit Paste spilled across the floor. Then he sprang forward on both legs, racing toward the rear courtyard as fast as a gust of Qing Feng.

In a side room on the south side of the courtyard, Lin Shan was staring worriedly at an account book with Mr. Wei, the accountant with rat whiskers.

After a long while, Lin Shan suddenly gave a bitter smile. "Mr. Wei, you mean that every convoy transporting medicinal materials back to the city over the past three days has been lost?"

Mr. Wei stroked his rat whiskers, his whole face wrinkling into a ball. He smiled bitterly. "Master, it seems the Black Blade Bandits are outside the city. In chaotic times, for outlaws who stake their lives, is there anything more valuable than medicinal materials? With sufficient medicine, they have far greater confidence of preserving their lives on the battlefield."

"It is no matter." Lin Shan lightly flicked the long beard beneath his chin and narrowed his eyes. "Guihua City has high walls and deep moats. City Lord Jin is also an outstanding man of courage and strategy, with three thousand elite government troops stationed here. Even if the Black Blade Bandits number ten thousand, they will not be able to capture the city. Besides, there are the Wang Family's two thousand retainers and three thousand private troops they have secretly amassed. Even an army of thirty or fifty thousand could not take the city."

Letting out a soft breath, Lin Shan shook his head. "It is only a pity that this batch of medicine could not be used to treat the people, instead falling cheaply into the hands of those bandits with neither ruler nor father."

Mr. Wei gave a bitter laugh and lowered his voice. "Ordinary medicinal materials would be one thing, but among them, there are those..."

Lin Shan's face darkened. "That is no matter either. Someone will naturally seek the Black Blade Bandits for them later. The bandits may not even recognize those medicinal materials, so I trust they will not squander them carelessly." Nodding lightly, Lin Shan said calmly, "The workers in those convoys are presumably beyond saving. Even if they temporarily survived by joining the bandits, Spring Return Hall can no longer keep them. Treat them all as having died in service and provide generous compensation."

Mr. Wei nodded lightly and said with a soft smile, "Master is benevolent."

Mr. Wei lightly cupped his hands, carefully gathered the account books from the table, and prepared to leave.

Lin Shan smiled as well, but deep within his eyes remained a thick thread of worry. His mood was nowhere near as relaxed as he had made it seem when comforting Mr. Wei. Drooping his eyelids, Lin Shan pondered inwardly, Should I send Xiao'er away in advance? But where could I send him? Outside the city, there is more than just the Black Blade Bandits!

With a bang, Lin Xiao shoved open the side room's door, and the door panel nearly smashed into Mr. Wei's face as he was walking out.

Mr. Wei gave an "Aow!" and leaped three yards away with the account books in his arms. With a backhanded motion, he pulled an eighteen-inch brass judge's pen from beneath his armpit. His two rat whiskers stood straight up as he glared viciously at Lin Xiao, who had rushed through the door. The instant he saw it was Lin Xiao, Mr. Wei's fierce face became incomparably genial. He casually tucked the judge's pen behind his collar and said with a grin, "Second Young Master's cultivation has greatly improved! This Old Wei did not hear a single footstep as Second Young Master ran over. Heh heh, shameful, shameful!"

After nodding to Lin Xiao, Mr. Wei hugged the account books and walked out with his head swaying as he hummed a little tune, pulling the door shut behind him.

Lin Shan lifted a fist-sized purple clay teapot from the table and unhurriedly took a sip of clear tea before asking blandly, "Good son, why have you become so unsettled? What happened? Did the Black Blade Bandits breach the city? It should not be that fast, should it?"

"Father, it isn't your son. It is... it is Elder Brother!" Lin Xiao stood there blankly for a moment before recounting how Lin Yao had asked him for Rabbit Blood Powder and a Heavenly King Heart-Protecting Pill. He also analyzed, in a remarkably orderly fashion, what might have happened and how the Zhang Family might react in the future.

Crack! The purple clay teapot in Lin Shan's palm crumbled into powder. The tea and tea leaves within were evaporated by a ball of dim green flame emerging from his palm, turning into smoke that drifted away.

"Hiss..." Lin Xiao sucked in a breath. He knew Lin Shan's martial cultivation was extremely high, but he had never imagined a living person could produce fire from his palm.

Lin Shan froze for a moment, then turned to look at the egg-sized ball of dim green flame in his palm. He hurriedly dispersed the true essence gathered there, gave a dry cough, and said calmly, "Good son, mm, once you cultivate your Evergreen Art beyond the eleventh level, you will also possess your father's skill."

"Father, please hurry and save the Zhang Family's young lady." Lin Xiao swiftly calmed himself, temporarily setting aside the strange phenomenon in Lin Shan's palm as he urgently urged him.

"It is too late." Lin Shan said blandly, "Given the nature of your elder brother's crowd of fair-weather friends, no matter how unbearable a thing they did, it would not be surprising. And he has no quick wits for handling emergencies; whenever something major happens, he is certain to panic. After something happened to the Zhang Family's young lady, he delayed at least a quarter of an hour before remembering to return to the hall for medicine. On the way, he must have worried about my punishing him and dawdled for at least another quarter of an hour. Now so much more time has been wasted. Hmph!"

"Father, you mean...?" Lin Xiao's face turned white with a swish.

Lin Shan shook his head and helplessly closed his eyes.

Two tears slowly rolled down as Lin Shan sighed deeply. "Master, Master, this disciple will never be able to repay your great kindness in this lifetime. Yet when you departed, you instructed this disciple to treat Wuniang well. This disciple would never dare defy those words for all eternity. But, but..." Lin Shan abruptly opened his eyes. Two rays of green light flashed through them. Lin Shan, who had always seemed like an idle cloud and a wild crane, now bore cold killing intent and an overwhelming air of authority.

"Good son, do not worry. Though Spring Return Hall is not some great force, it is not something they can swallow merely because they wish to. Hmph, if not for... yet also... mm!"

Lin Xiao stood there with his head full of fog, watching Lin Shan slowly count on his fingers and calculate something.

After a long while, Lin Shan slowly nodded. "So be it. Though we are merely servants in status, we have rendered some small service over all these years. If I truly do something, once they emerge from seclusion this time, I trust they will not refuse to help me clean up the aftermath."

A flush suddenly appeared on Lin Shan's face. "When that time comes, there will be no need to live in such constant fear!"

Rising forcefully to his feet, Lin Shan said in a deep voice, "Good son, gather everyone at Spring Return Hall. Your father wishes to convene a meeting and discuss this matter. Though we need not fear the Zhang Family, we cannot do anything that bullies others and tarnishes our reputation for no reason."

Lin Xiao stared blankly at Lin Shan, deeply puzzled as to where Lin Shan had found such courage.

There were fewer than a hundred people at Spring Return Hall capable of fighting altogether. Could they possibly be a match for a local magnate like the Zhang Family?