The iron gate slowly closed behind me with a dull crash. I stood at the entrance to the long street, my gaze sweeping over the stalls on both sides. Green smoke rose from medicine furnaces, talisman paper swayed lightly in the wind, and the packed crowd's clamor, mingled with a fishy stench, rushed toward me.
Afu was still muttering about the Poison Amulet when Ye Qingwan shut him up with a single sentence. She said nothing more, merely pressing her fingertips lightly against the Treasure Pouch, where the bloodstained token taken from the secret passage was hidden. I sensed a faint ripple—almost at the same instant, the City Lord Token resonated with it. Weak, yet undeniably real.
"Go," I said.
We followed the stream of people, led by the Crimson Flame Mercenary Group's vice-captain through narrow alleyways. The curtain at Hundred Herbs Residence on the street corner was still half drawn, but the groans within were more urgent than before. A mercenary lay on a wooden bed with half a broken spear lodged in his abdomen. His flesh had turned black, and the edges of the wound had already begun to fester.
The old physician crouched beside him and shook his head. "The Wolf Lizard King's fangs are poisonous. The toxin corrodes the tendons and bones. He won't live through the night."
Several people nearby whispered among themselves. "Even the City Lord's Manor physicians can't treat this kind of wound. What can this tiny rundown clinic do?"
I said nothing and walked straight to the bedside. Afu tried to speak, but I stopped him with a look. I reached out and took the injured man's pulse. The moment my fingertips touched his skin, I sensed a current of icy yin energy moving through his meridians. This was no ordinary demon