As the sun sank in the west, the bustle of Qingyun City gradually faded.
An old man with a head of white hair and the youthful face of a crane first straightened his clothes, then walked into Cloud Crane Medical Hall with a medicine basket on his back.
"Master, you're back!"
Hearing a commotion outside, Young Physician Xiao Yue hurried out. When she saw who it was, her watery eyes curved into crescent moons.
Pharmacist Lin smiled as he approached, but noticed his disciple peeking behind him several times. A flicker of disappointment crossed her face.
His puzzlement deepened when he entered the medical hall's study. The medical books on the shelves showed signs of having been recently handled, and several obscure medical texts lay on the desk. There was even one that dealt with Gu Poison.
"Xiao Yue, did anything happen at the medical hall this past month?"
"Master..."
Xiao Yue bit her lower lip and twisted her skirt between her fingers as she told him how she had used Silver Needle Meridian Seal to force the poison out of Su Mu, then asked him to make a trip to Qingshui Town.
"That young man you mentioned... I didn't run into him, but he was probably delayed on the road. He should be back in a few days."
Noticing the worry on Xiao Yue's face, Pharmacist Lin reassured her. Then his expression turned stern, and he changed the subject. "How reckless! Haven't I told you not to treat people on your own? Ordinary minor ailments are one thing, but you dared to treat someone with Gu Poison?"
His voice grew severe, and a wave of lingering fear rose in his heart.
When Xiao Yue had told him that the Gu Poison could corrode silver needles, he had shuddered all over. Even he had never seen such a vicious poison.
At the same time, Pharmacist Lin felt a measure of delight. He had never taught Xiao Yue much about medicine. After teaching her to read, he had simply let her browse the medical books, answering her questions when she asked.
Silver Needle Meridian Seal was one of Pharmacist Lin's family's inherited medical techniques. The fact that Xiao Yue could perform it on her own was a pleasant surprise.
"Xiao Yue, fetch the silver needles. Let's see you perform the treatment on me."
"All right, Master."
The young physician answered with a smile. She could hear the unmistakable delight in her master's voice.
With each needle, Pharmacist Lin gave a slight nod. By the time Xiao Yue had finished, the sternness had left his face entirely. Her Silver Needle Meridian Seal was a little rough, but she had made no mistakes.
Just then, Xiao Yue asked him a question.
"Master, do you think someone could steal the secrets of Silver Needle Meridian Seal just by watching?"
Pharmacist Lin paused for a moment, then replied without hesitation. "It's difficult. Any silver-needle technique begins with familiarity with the body's acupoints, meridians, and the like. Then there's the force and method used to insert the needles, the techniques for opening the meridians, and so on. None of that can be easily learned by watching. Even the slightest mistake is unacceptable. The form is easy to imitate, but the true meaning is hard to grasp."
"But nothing in this world is absolute. A freak with extraordinary insight might manage it... though I've never met anyone like that. If such a person truly exists, then meeting them would be fate."
"Tell me, Xiao Yue. After I taught you the silver-needle technique, how long was it before you felt confident enough to treat someone?"
Xiao Yue's eyes darted about. "A year... or maybe half a year?"
Half a year?
Now it was Pharmacist Lin's turn to be astonished. He knew the girl had some talent for medicine, but he had underestimated just how gifted she was.
The following day.
The wooden sign that had hung outside the medical hall for over a month came down. Cloud Crane Medical Hall reopened, and before long, patients streamed in from every direction.
But Pharmacist Lin soon noticed that every morning, at noon, and at dusk, the girl would carry a little bamboo stool to the bamboo gate, sit for a while, and stare down the busy street.
Meanwhile, after spending several days combing through the area around Qingshui Town, the young man began to feel the urge to leave.
"Before I head back, I should take stock of what I've got."
He hadn't found the physician during this time, but he had run into several bandits. Their fates were obvious: Su Mu had sent every one of them off to the afterlife, and their belongings had naturally become part of his own.
"There are five taels of silver in this purse."
"This one has three."
In the inn, Su Mu quickly counted through the money, frowning. "They're bandits, for crying out loud—and this fellow was a proper Qi Refining Martial Artist, yet he had only five taels on him. He was so poor he could barely rattle a coin. He'd have been better off getting a job at a marketplace."
He emptied the purses and counted everything up. The bandits he had dealt with over the past few days had a total of twenty-five taels of silver.
But those were just appetizers. The real prizes were the spoils from the black-armored brute and Zhao Xuan, the Black Tiger Gang's leader. With Zhou Shan dead, and Su Mu occupied with searching for Pharmacist Lin these past few days, he hadn't had time to check what he had taken.
Su Mu first took out the bundle from the black-armored brute. Judging by its shape, it looked like a book.
"Could it be that spear technique?"
So far, Su Mu had only practiced fist techniques and Movement Techniques. He was still missing a suitable weapon art. The black-armored brute's iron whistle staff had posed a tremendous threat that day, forcing Su Mu to use his double-bird combo.
He opened the bundle. Inside was a fine, hardbound book. Four bold characters, their strokes as sharp as blades, adorned the cover: Torrential Rain Spear Technique.
"It really is a spear technique!"
Su Mu's eyes lit up, and he immediately began leafing through it, his breathing quickening.
"Like a torrential downpour, unceasing and relentless... A martial art passed down in the southern frontier. The spear strikes like a raging storm. Ninth Rank martial art."
After quickly reading through it once, Su Mu felt a little disappointed. All the martial arts he had on hand were only Ninth Rank, and he had hoped this spear technique might be Eighth Rank.
"Still, it'll do. Torrential Rain Spear Technique is swift and fierce, its strikes flowing one after another as it seeks to suppress the enemy from the start. It suits me."
Su Mu decided to practice it. Once he got back, he could have a long spear made.
Besides the manual, the black-armored brute's bundle also contained a blueprint. Looking closely, Su Mu saw that it was a design for a weapon called the Torrential Rain Spear.
"What a shame. This Torrential Rain Spear was probably made to go with the technique."
Su Mu sighed. The blueprint had been soaked in blood, and less than three-tenths of its details remained. It could only serve as a rough reference.
After examining the black-armored brute's belongings, Su Mu quickly fetched two more bundles, both looted from Zhao Xuan's residence.
He was more interested in martial arts manuals than pills and the like. But even the black-armored brute, who had been much stronger, only had a Ninth Rank manual. Su Mu hadn't expected to find an Eighth Rank one.
He untied a bundle and casually pulled out a yellowed, old-fashioned thread-bound book.
The moment Su Mu saw the manual, his heart stirred. The one taken from Zhao Xuan's room looked much like the Tiger Subduing Fist manual and was unlike the other manuals.
"Adamantine Body? Could it be another martial art from Vajra Temple..."
Su Mu quickly leafed through the manual. With each page, his eyes grew brighter, a fervent look rising in them. Before long, he let out a breath and closed the book.
"This Adamantine Body is an improved version of the Ninth Rank martial art Golden Bell Shield. It tempers the body with force and hardens its vulnerable points until blades and spears can't pierce it... It's an Eighth Rank body-tempering martial art originating from Vajra Temple!"
An Eighth Rank martial art?!
Su Mu looked shocked and surprised. He had already given up hope, yet Zhao Xuan had handed him a wonderful surprise. He could tell Adamantine Body originated from Vajra Temple because the manual mentioned that martial arts like Tiger Subduing Fist and Golden Bell Shield could be used to build a foundation, making it easier to cultivate Adamantine Body.
"First Tiger Subduing Fist, then Adamantine Body... Could the Black Tiger Gang have some connection to Vajra Temple?"
As for why Zhao Xuan hadn't practiced Adamantine Body, Su Mu guessed it might have been too difficult. Just looking at the cultivation method, he would have thought it was a detailed guide to torture if it hadn't been written in a martial arts manual.
The cultivation method looked excruciating.
After that, Su Mu went through the rest of Zhao Xuan's belongings. There were five boxes of White Jade Savage Bone Paste for forging bones, five bottles of Blood Strengthening Pills to boost qi and blood alongside force cultivation, and a bottle of antidote.
But the thick stack of Silver Notes in assorted denominations added up to less than two hundred taels—just one hundred and fifty-three taels of silver. It was even less than Wu Heng had had, and fell short of Su Mu's expectations.
"The top man in Qingshui Town, leader of the Black Tiger Gang, and the only Eighth Rank Bone Forging Realm expert, yet he was this hard up... He must have spent most of his money on medicinal paste. Bone forging really burns through cash."
"But money isn't the important part. This soft armor would fetch a high price at the Black Market."
Su Mu had no idea what material the soft armor was made from. He had tried chopping it with a bandit's blade, but ordinary weapons could barely leave a mark on it, let alone pierce its defenses.
"No wonder Zhao Xuan was so confident he could take a full-force Tiger Subduing Fist at the perfected level head-on. This soft armor is probably worth as much as an Eighth Rank martial art... Zhao Xuan wasn't as broke as I thought."
Muttering to himself, the young man covered the close-fitting armor with his clothes, slung his pack over his shoulder, and hurried out of the inn.
"Time to head back."
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