The person behind him looked as though he had stepped straight out of Pharmacist Lin's portrait from that day. His features were exactly the same, but what he said left Su Mu bewildered—and let him recognize who stood before him.
It was the same herb farmer he had met in Qingshui Town several days ago. Their first encounter could be traced back to the woods behind the Black Mountain Rebel Army.
Back then, to avoid unnecessary trouble, Su Mu had denied his identity when they met in Qingshui Town. He had also gotten a close look at the herb farmer, and he was certain he hadn't been mistaken. The farmer's face had seemed perfectly ordinary; at least, Su Mu hadn't been able to spot a single flaw.
If even Su Mu, whose eyesight far surpassed that of ordinary people, couldn't see through it up close, then ordinary people had no chance of noticing anything amiss.
The Art of Disguise?
"What a masterful Art of Disguise!"
Su Mu exclaimed inwardly, another question stirring in his heart. After only one brief encounter with him while masked, how had Pharmacist Lin recognized him at a glance?
The world was vast indeed, with no shortage of marvels. Pharmacist Lin was a remarkable man.
Noticing Su Mu's eyes flicker, Pharmacist Lin realized he had recognized him. After a moment's thought, he immediately called out.
"Xiao Yue, Xiao Yue."
Light footsteps came in response.
"Xiao Yue, go invite the patients outside into the clinic, then hang up the wooden sign. Tell them your master is unwell and the clinic will be closed for the day."
"Little friend, come with me."
The physician gave his instructions. The Young Physician acknowledged them and was about to leave, but confusion showed on her little face. She murmured, "Little friend?" She hadn't even introduced the young man to her master, and he surely had never met her master before. So why did the two of them seem to have known each other for ages?
She paused and turned back.
"Master, this young man is—"
"Yes, I know. My little friend and I have met a few times."
That only confused the Young Physician more. On the day her master had returned, he had clearly said they hadn't met. Why was he changing his story now? Still, she decided to take care of her master's instructions first and find a chance to ask him later.
The Young Physician hurried ahead to the study. As Su Mu followed the Old Physician past it, he caught a glimpse of her bent over her desk, brush in hand, writing the words "Closed Today" on a wooden sign.
Su Mu was slightly taken aback. The characters on the sign were graceful, yet their strokes showed a seasoned hand. He had assumed Pharmacist Lin had written them, but it turned out to be the Young Physician.
"Xiao Yue isn't very interested in medicine, but she's good at calligraphy and painting."
They entered the sickroom, and Pharmacist Lin had Su Mu lie down. "Little friend, I need to examine the Gu Poison in your body with my own eyes first."
Pharmacist Lin unfurled a roll of silver needles. The gentle air about him changed at once, and every movement revealed the bearing of a physician. Su Mu was delighted, and his hopes of being cured grew stronger.
Pharmacist Lin appeared to work unhurriedly, but his movements were precise and swift, clean and economical. A single needle was enough to show the depth of his medical skill.
Su Mu was impressed. If Pharmacist Lin had been the one to treat him back then instead of the Young Physician, then even with another half a month—or longer—he might not have managed to learn the basics by observation.
Could the Young Physician... have been deliberately slowing down her movements?
The thought surfaced in Su Mu's mind, but he reconsidered. Probably not. Most likely, he had simply gotten lucky—like a blind cat stumbling upon a dead rat.
Soon, Su Mu noticed that the physician was needling slightly different points from the ones the Young Physician had used over those past few days. The changes were subtle, involving only a few acupuncture points, yet they made his chest suddenly feel heavy and tight.
Su Mu knew the sensation well, but before, it had only appeared after the Young Physician pressed on him first. Today, Pharmacist Lin had skipped that step entirely and brought it on directly with the silver needles.
"Medicine is just like martial arts: both are boundless paths... Perhaps what I learned over those few days was only the tiniest scrap of the tiniest scrap!"
The young man sighed inwardly. He wasn't discouraged; instead, his eyes shone with a growing interest in medicine.
"Little friend, sit up. I'll force out some of the poisoned blood first."
"All right."
Su Mu did as instructed. Soon, poisoned blood streamed into a stone basin, and another silver needle was ruined. Xiao Yue had already told the physician that the Gu Poison in Su Mu's body could corrode silver needles, but seeing it with his own eyes still left him visibly shaken.
"Such a fierce poison... I've never seen anything like it in my life."
The physician took the poisoned blood. "I'll examine your body as well."
After taking Su Mu's pulse, the physician furrowed his brow, and a trace of shock showed on his face. He had just felt Su Mu's bone age: about fourteen or fifteen.
From the day Su Mu had dared to charge alone into the battle between the two armies, the physician had already guessed something about his martial prowess.
An Eighth Rank Bone Forging Realm at fourteen or fifteen!
The physician was stunned. Just days earlier, he had said that he had never met such a prodigy. Now he had. The only pity was that Su Mu's monstrous talent lay in martial arts.
"Little friend, do you know when you were poisoned?"
"About two years ago."
If he had been poisoned two years ago, why had he waited until now?
The strange circumstances only deepened the physician's suspicions. He had a vague feeling that the boy Su Mu was keeping plenty of secrets. But in this world, everyone had secrets of their own, so the physician didn't press him further.
"I heard Xiao Yue mention that whenever it rains, you feel as though insects are gnawing at you from inside, and your hands and feet turn cold. Is that right?"
"Exactly."
With that, Su Mu took out the last antidote pill he had. "A wandering traveler I met gave this to me. Whenever the poison flares up, I take one."
"Hmm? Would you let me have a look?"
"Of course."
Su Mu handed it over. The physician gently pinched the pill and held it beneath his nose, closing his eyes as he inhaled. "Blood ginseng... angelica... white peony root..."
Su Mu hadn't thought much of it when the first ingredient was named. But by the time the physician had identified seven or eight, he was astonished. The herbs matched those the village physician, Physician Xiao, had identified back then.
After smelling it carefully, the physician's brow furrowed further. He hesitated, then asked, "Little friend, may I take a little and test it?"
"Please do, Physician."
In front of Su Mu, the physician scraped off a small piece of the pill with his fingernail and placed it in a dish. He ground it into powder, dipped a finger into it, and put it in his mouth. A moment later, he stared straight at Su Mu.
"Could you think back over the past two years? Was there anything else unusual?"
"Physician, is something wrong with the pill?"
The physician quickly shook his head. "There's nothing wrong with it. It's made entirely of nourishing herbs, and they're of excellent quality—all close to fifty years old."
"If these nourishing herbs can ease a Gu Poison flare-up... then the Gu Poison in your body may be even more troublesome than we imagined."
Su Mu was startled. Physician Xiao in the village had said the herbs were twenty or thirty years old, but Pharmacist Lin here said fifty. Su Mu trusted the latter more.
"The wandering traveler may have meant well... but he did the wrong thing. These pills aren't medicine to ease your symptoms. They may even be nourishing the Gu Worm in your body, helping it grow stronger little by little."
"And the fact that the Gu Poison eases after you take a pill is only an illusion. Perhaps the Gu Worm simply gets enough nourishment and briefly falls dormant."
Su Mu's heart shuddered. It was as if the clouds had parted and the sun had broken through!
He had already suspected something when he learned that the antidote was made entirely of nourishing ingredients. Now, after hearing the physician's explanation, the truth dawned on him, and a theory formed in his mind.
The death-row prisoners who had been rescued back then had been divided into four groups: A, B, C, and D. The A and B groups had been taken away first by a group of richly dressed people. Looking back now, with Su Mu's current perspective, those people had all been Ranked Martial Artists—and their ranks had certainly been high!
Group C had been taken after A and B, and only then came their group of D prisoners.
"My original guess was wrong... Not every death-row prisoner was qualified to be trained as a death soldier."
"The four groups were assigned different fates as soon as their natural physiques were assessed... Perhaps the D group, the ones with the worst physiques, had been Abandoned Children from the very beginning. The person in charge hadn't met with an accident; he had simply followed the plan."
"Normally, I should be dead by now. That was what they wanted. What would happen after I died... What exactly were those people planning? And what kind of Gu Worm was inside me?"
The physician waited quietly. In his eyes, Su Mu might have been a peerless martial arts prodigy, but he was still only fourteen or fifteen. It would naturally take time for him to come to terms with what he had learned.
The fact that Su Mu could think so calmly already surprised him. Such composure was extraordinary in its own right!
After a long while, Su Mu spoke in a low voice.
"Anything unusual... Give me a moment to think, Physician."
Silence settled over the study. The physician began studying the poisoned blood. He took a little of the black blood in a stone dish and added herbs to test the poison.
After a long while, Su Mu came back to himself and shook his head. He thought carefully, but couldn't recall anything else unusual.
"That's all right. If nothing comes to mind right away, it doesn't matter. Everything in the world has its opposite, and that's where the way to cure Gu Poison lies. But that's also what makes it troublesome. We'll need to keep testing medicines until we find a cure. It'll take quite some time. If you remember anything, come tell me at the clinic. It'll be crucial to treating the poison."
"All right."
Hearing that it would take quite some time, Su Mu furrowed his brow, but there was nothing else to do for now.
At dusk, Su Mu interrupted the physician's medicine testing.
"May I ask if you can replicate that pill?"
The physician frowned, then understood what Su Mu had in mind. He didn't approve of the idea, but after a moment's thought, he nodded.
"Replicating the pill shouldn't be difficult. I'm seventy or eighty percent sure I can do it, but..."
Before you continue