Jade Fox Wang Ying

A few days later.

Li Mo looked at the somewhat withered vegetation in the surrounding mountains. Most of it had taken on a blackish hue, so he slowed to a stop.

A great river surged past in the distance.

"Could this be Black Mountain Cliff?"

According to what he had learned earlier, beyond Black Mountain Cliff lay the Eighteen Mountains.

This was the address Jade Fox Wang Ying had left behind.

With that thought, Li Mo climbed a large tree and looked into the distance. Beyond the river, he saw a chain of mountains stretching endlessly onward. As far as the eye could see, there were towering peaks and ancient forests, without a trace of human habitation.

Fortunately, after being out for so many days, Li Mo had not encountered any savage beasts in the wilderness, much less mountain spirits or water monsters.

Li Mo smiled in relief, jumped down from the tree, and continued on his way.

Around noon.

Li Mo was just planning to find some wild vegetables to fill his stomach when he suddenly noticed a tea shack along a mountain path. Delighted, he hurried over.

Ever since he had finished the dried rations he carried, he had been living on wild fruits and grasses. It was the dead of winter now, and he was already so hungry his chest clung to his back.

The owners seemed to be a brother and sister, perhaps a husband and wife, both in their twenties. When Li Mo approached, the woman immediately greeted him with a smile.

"Customer, you must be tired. Have a bowl of tea first!"

Li Mo nodded.

"What do you have to eat?"

"Hehe, our little shop has everything: rice meat from Winding Water, ground-runners from Black Mountain, and even two potfuls of hangover soup simmered with balancing weights!"

Li Mo frowned.

Everything the woman said was underworld cant. He had only heard of it before. Having just entered the jianghu, he did not yet know how to answer, but Ding Jie had taught him a trick.

So Li Mo calmly took a pair of chopsticks from his bundle.

Seeing this, the woman smiled. "So you're one of our own brothers. I'll bring out the soy-braised beef from the kitchen, add some dried mountain jujubes, and sieve out two bowls of good wine. How does that sound?"

Li Mo was startled inwardly. Killing cattle in Muzhou was a grave crime.

But he had also heard that in some other wealthy prefectures of the Gan Kingdom, because a mechanism called the Wooden Ox and Flowing Horse had become widespread, the relevant restrictions had already been relaxed. Thus, he nodded without changing expression.

About half an incense stick later.

Li Mo was wolfing down his food when his body suddenly stiffened, and without warning, he collapsed.

It should be noted here that one hour equaled the burning time of four incense sticks.

Seeing this, the brother and sister from the tea shack approached with cold sneers.

The man headed straight for Li Mo's bundle, while the woman mocked, "What little thief crawled out from nowhere and dared come roaming through the Eighteen Mountains? Let me see how many pairs of eyes you've got!"

The woman lifted Li Mo's bamboo hat and immediately revealed a look of surprise.

"Oh? Still a virgin?"

"Haha!"

After opening Li Mo's money pouch, the man immediately burst into excited laughter.

The woman also came over. After casually rummaging through Li Mo's bundle, she noticed a letter. It was Zhang Dongliang's letter of recommendation for Li Mo.

"Disciple of Zhang Dongliang from Jimin Hall?"

The man froze upon hearing that.

"He's actually a doctor? Didn't we just commit a major taboo?"

"Not good!"

The woman reacted quickly, and her face instantly changed. Since he was a doctor, there was no reason he would be so easily drugged unconscious. There had to be a trick to this!

But it was already too late.

With a pfft, a sharp sword pierced through his chest.

The man slowly lowered his head and saw the bloodied blade protruding from his chest. Then he turned his head in disbelief toward Li Mo behind him before falling to the ground with a bang.

To make a living here, his martial arts were certainly not poor. But Li Mo had ambushed him, catching him completely off guard, and he had not been able to use them at all.

"Brother!"

After crying out, the woman saw Li Mo coming at her without mercy and quickly ran into the house, clearly intending to retrieve a weapon she could use properly.

But how could Li Mo let her succeed? He immediately chased after her.

For a time, the sounds of fighting rang out continuously from inside the house. Only after quite a while did they gradually cease.

After the battle ended, Li Mo caught his breath. He wiped down his sword and sheathed it, stepped over the woman's corpse, and headed toward the back kitchen.

Those two had actually intended to use knockout drugs against him. They were showing off their axe before Lu Ban's door.

As a Traveling Doctor, Li Mo was equally well versed in such methods. He simply had never considered using them to harm others, constrained as he was by medical ethics.

There was quite a bit of food in the back kitchen.

Yet when Li Mo lifted the lid of a pot, he saw a scene that made him want to vomit.

It was half of a woman's corpse!

Fury surged into Li Mo's heart, and he casually flung the pot lid aside.

He then found other food in the kitchen. Fortunately, he truly did find a braised ox head and plenty of braised beef. Otherwise, he would have wanted to slice those two into a thousand pieces. Once he had eaten and drunk his fill, he took the two fine swords from the house and prepared to leave, lest he invite unnecessary trouble.

But the moment he stepped outside, he could not help but freeze.

More than ten zhang away, on the small path, stood a breathtakingly beautiful married woman.

Her hair was piled in a sky-reaching bun. She wore a mist-and-water hundred-flower dress with a pink-and-white shawl draped over it, and a sword hung at her waist. With a seductive smile on her face, she stared straight at him.

"Little Brother Li Mo, long time no see."

Li Mo came to his senses upon hearing this.

"You're Jade Fox Wang Ying?"

He took a deep breath, looked around, and asked with an unfriendly expression, "This is your territory?"

"What do you mean, my territory? This is merely a tea shack near the Eighteen Mountains. There are no telling how many petty thieves in the Eighteen Mountains making this sort of living. I only left this address because it was convenient, knowing you would definitely come. That's why I've tirelessly come by every day to take a look."

Wang Ying wore a deeply aggrieved expression.

"Little Brother, you mustn't mistake our Pingshan Society for petty thieves like these."

Once the aggrieved tone passed, she gave a tinkling laugh, utterly unconcerned with Li Mo's hostility. Clearly, she knew he had seen the filthy things inside.

"Little Brother, you managed to kill the Zhang siblings all by yourself. Your strength is truly not weak. Would you be interested in joining our Pingshan Society?"

Li Mo took a deep breath and recalled Jade Fox's wanted notice.

"Then why did you kill someone back then?"

Wang Ying let out a soft laugh.

"Because he was clearly incapable, yet he insisted on redeeming me from that place. Back then, I thought that even if I were raised as a thin horse, I would accept it and live properly afterward. Who would have thought that after buying me back, he raised me as Beauty Paper instead? That sickening feeling every single day... do you understand it, Little Brother?"

Wang Ying's eyes were as silken as thread, her voice filled with resentment.

Li Mo was somewhat stunned.

As a Traveling Doctor, he had heard Zuo Shu mention so-called Beauty Paper: beautiful women treated and used as paper. He had thought it was merely an evil practice from ancient times when institutions were incomplete, or a backward custom in certain regions. He had never imagined it truly existed.

"And you, Little Brother? Why did you kill the seventeen people from those three households?"

Li Mo clenched his teeth hard.

"The girl I wanted to marry was driven into a corner by them when they came to seize her household inheritance. During last year's Summer Flood, when the Tan River overflowed, they sold her to the River God Temple as a living sacrifice."

Wang Ying gradually put away her seductive smile.

"Is that so? Then they truly deserved to die. But Little Brother, you really handled things cleanly. You even buried every last one of them, leaving no trace to investigate. Hehe, it's just a pity... a pity this concubine has already committed monstrous crimes beyond forgiveness. One less charge makes no difference. Even a general amnesty throughout the realm could not save this concubine."

Li Mo frowned.

"Wasn't the war with Lu Country over long ago? How could there be a general amnesty?"

"That was only the war between mortals."

Wang Ying's words left Li Mo stunned for a moment.

"Cultivators are still at war? Do you know how to test whether someone has spiritual roots and can become a cultivator?"

He immediately tried asking Wang Ying about cultivators. But Wang Ying remained tight-lipped, merely smiling without answering, her expression full of hidden meaning.

Li Mo sighed inwardly. He understood what she meant.

So be it.

This trip had not been in vain. At the very least, he had confirmed his target. Back in Hua'an Town, he had secretly asked around many times. Perhaps because his status had not been high enough, he had never managed to uncover anything. But Jade Fox Wang Ying definitely knew how to test spiritual roots and determine whether someone could become a cultivator.

There was plenty of time for this matter.

In the future, he could play it by ear. For now, he would stay by Jade Fox Wang Ying's side.

"Who are the people in the Pingshan Society, and what rules do you have?"

"Don't worry."

Wang Ying reassured him, "Little Brother, you are a doctor. Your medical skill is the most precious thing in the Eighteen Mountains. Once you reach Pingshan, you only need to treat illnesses and save people. No one will make things difficult for you. As for the mountain's chiefs, there are two in total, known as the Gao Brothers: Bloodface Lion Gao Po and Greenface Tiger Gao Zhen. Beneath them are thirteen troop chiefs, and below them are more than two hundred and seventy ground-runner petty thieves."

Ground-runners?

He recalled how Zhang Yan had recommended a dish called Black Mountain ground-runners to him earlier and immediately felt nauseated. Those two truly had died deservedly.

"What relationship does this shop have with the Pingshan Society?"

"None at all."

Wang Ying explained, "They are all affiliated fronts for the authorities. They usually exchange the heads of petty thieves for reward silver from the officials, while the various mountain strongholds buy outside supplies from them. You could say they eat from both the black and white roads."

"Then what will you do now that I killed them?"

Wang Ying's face was full of disdain.

"There are at least dozens of affiliated fronts like theirs throughout the Eighteen Mountains. Besides, the Zhang siblings had been overstepping their bounds lately. The chiefs suspected they wanted to provoke a conflict between Black Mountain and Pingshan and had long wanted to deal with them."

Li Mo now had a preliminary understanding of how the Eighteen Mountains operated.

After a brief moment of thought, Li Mo said, "All right. I can join the Pingshan Society. Please introduce me to the two chiefs. But I must state one thing beforehand: I am only a doctor. If you force me to commit evil, I can leave at any time."

"That's wonderful!"

Wang Ying promised, "Rest assured, our Pingshan Society has always followed the rules of the road. Come with me. The two chiefs might even directly appoint you as the Pingshan Society's fourteenth troop chief. Hehe."

About one hour later.

Li Mo followed Wang Ying along mountain paths until they arrived at a hidden mountain stronghold. It had a crude gate and stone walls. Inside, many caves, stone houses, and wooden houses could vaguely be seen, looking just like a small village.

"Troop Chief Wang is back!"

"Troop Chief Wang..."

The petty thieves guarding the gate greeted her warmly. A bald monk came over and looked at Li Mo.

"Wang Ying, who is this?"

Wang Ying smiled seductively. "This is Li Mo, a doctor from Hua'an Town and an old acquaintance of mine. He has only just arrived in the Eighteen Mountains. Send a few men to Black Mountain Cliff. This little brother killed the Zhang siblings. Bring back any useful supplies from their place. I'm taking this little brother to see the two chiefs."

Everyone was greatly shocked upon hearing that.

The Zhang siblings' martial arts were truly not weak.

When the monk heard that Li Mo was a doctor, delight appeared on his face. But upon hearing that Li Mo had killed the Zhang siblings alone, his expression changed as well. For someone so young to possess such martial skill was truly frightening.

He then nodded to Wang Ying without saying anything further.

Li Mo followed Wang Ying deeper into the stronghold.

There were actually quite a few women in the stronghold. They gathered together to mend clothes and wash things, without being harassed by the bandits.

It seemed this place was not as terrible as Li Mo had imagined.

"That man just now was Little Arhat Han Kui. He broke his vows and eloped with a young woman from an official family. But fate played a cruel trick on them. The woman unfortunately fell off a cliff on the way and died from the fall. He has been wanted ever since. But his martial arts are truly formidable. Aside from the two chiefs, I'm afraid no one on the mountain is his match."

Li Mo nodded.

Then he followed Wang Ying to a spacious cave, where he saw a burly man seated on a tiger skin. A huge blood-red birthmark covered his face, making him look somewhat ferocious. He was wolfing down meat.

Wang Ying explained why they had come.

"Oh?"

Bloodface Lion Gao Po immediately stood upon hearing this.

But when he saw Li Mo's somewhat youthful face beneath his bamboo hat, he seemed to have some doubts. It was not that he intended to refuse Li Mo entry into the mountain; he was considering whether to give him the position of fourteenth troop chief.

Wang Ying seemed to see Gao Po's hesitation.

"After the fight with the Lishan Gang a few days ago, isn't Big Brother Gao Zhen's injury still unhealed? Why not let Little Brother Li Mo go take a look?"

"Right!"

Gao Po immediately agreed.

His younger brother, Greenface Tiger Gao Zhen, had a huge blue-green birthmark on his cheek and was resting in another cave. Upon learning why Li Mo had come, he immediately sat up from his bed.

But like Gao Po, he hesitated somewhat upon seeing Li Mo's youthful face. This was also why every apprentice, after completing training, had to first study under senior brothers for half a year: to build up a reputation and earn the trust of the villagers.

Still, Gao Zhen ultimately gestured for Li Mo to come forward and treat him.

After examining several saber wounds on Gao Zhen's body, Li Mo said that as long as they found suitable herbs, he would recover quickly. But when he saw an inconspicuous dart wound on Gao Zhen's arm, his expression immediately turned grave.

He tried pressing the area around the wound.

"Can you feel anything?"

"No. I've just had no strength these past few days, and I haven't been able to lift this arm."

"Then that is rather troublesome."

Li Mo said solemnly, "If I'm not mistaken, the dart was definitely coated in Blood Decay. It is a common poison used by the military. The method of detoxification is not particularly difficult, but the poison in your body has already seeped into your marrow. Ordinary detoxification methods will certainly not work. You must use the fresh gallbladder of an adult living bear as the medicinal catalyst, paired with several common herbs, to cure the poison. Otherwise, this arm of yours will gradually rot away..."

Li Mo gave his diagnosis.