Great Immortal

"Does it still hurt?"

Lin Shou watched the swelling go down around An Yunli's ankle and asked her, but the girl was so frightened and embarrassed that she just sat there dazed. She was afraid Lin Shou would yell at her, and embarrassed because the man was touching her calf. Lin Shou finally shouted at her:

"I asked you a question! Does it hurt or not?"

"N-no! It doesn't hurt anymore!"

An Yunli shuddered at Lin Shou's shout, crouched down with her arms over her head, and curled up like a little cat. She kept murmuring:

"Don't be angry with me... Don't be angry with me..."

Lin Shou thought, It's so much fun teasing this girl.

"Tell me, where are you from? Where's your home?"

"N-no, I can't. My sister said I mustn't talk to strangers."

An Yunli covered her little mouth. Lin Shou thought, Why didn't you think of that earlier? You're only remembering now?

"I'm not a stranger. I know your sister. Is your sister Shopkeeper Xia from the Qingcheng Teahouse? You two came all the way from the Shu Region to the Capital City to treat your illness?"

An Yunli's eyes widened, as if to ask how he knew. Lin Shou knew his deduction was right.

Of course, that was all he could infer from what he knew so far.

As for the other clues—for instance, why An Yunli and Xia Ruzhen had different surnames, why a wealthy tea merchant family in the Shu Region had only one older sister bringing her younger sister all the way to the Capital City for treatment, and why they seemed so poor despite having been here for a while—Lin Shou had a few guesses, but he wasn't sure, so he didn't bring them up.

"Tell me why you climbed over the wall in the middle of the night and ran away from home."

Lin Shou looked An Yunli up and down. Her old, ill-fitting hemp clothes clearly weren't her own.

Even a dying camel was bigger than a horse. No matter how down on her luck she was, the daughter of a wealthy tea merchant in the Shu Region wouldn't normally have to wear hemp. She'd deliberately dressed in hemp and packed a bundle. She was clearly running away from home.

At the mention of it, Lin Shou seemed to have struck a nerve. An Yunli lowered her head and said:

"My sister's already put off so much to find a doctor for me. She secretly brought me here from home, and spent all our money finding a physician to treat me. I don't want to be a burden to her..."

The sisters seemed to have a pretty good relationship.

Lin Shou reached out, but An Yunli only shrank back in fright. He clicked his tongue, frowned, and firmly grabbed her wrist, pulling her toward him. "Listen to me!"

"Don't be angry with me... Don't be angry with me..."

An Yunli had become a broken record, frightened by Lin Shou.

Lin Shou held An Yunli's wrist in his mouth as he used the Treatise on Cold Damage and Miscellaneous Diseases to take her pulse. But her pulse...

After feeling around for a long time, Lin Shou's brows knitted tightly. One question kept circling in his mind: Where's her pulse?

Looking, listening, questioning, and feeling—feeling the pulse was a way to diagnose its condition.

Blood flowed through the vessels and circulated ceaselessly throughout the body, reflecting the state of the internal organs. When the organs or the blood and qi became diseased, the pulse would inevitably show it, presenting a pathological pulse.

As long as a living person's heart was beating and blood was flowing, they had a pulse.

So here was the question: where was An Yunli's pulse?

He couldn't feel it at all.

As far as he knew, every living person had a pulse. The only ones without one were those whose hearts had stopped beating and whose blood had stopped flowing...

The dead.

Lin Shou sucked in a sharp breath and looked at An Yunli. He apologized for what he was about to do, then pressed his head against her chest.

An Yunli's face went white in an instant, but she didn't dare move. She was terrified of Lin Shou, the great demon king.

Lin Shou listened carefully. At last, he heard a faint heartbeat in her chest and breathed a sigh of relief.

Her heartbeat was weak, but she should still be alive.

"Are you a physician?" An Yunli asked softly.

"No, but I know how to treat illnesses."

Lin Shou frowned as he pondered, turning over all the medical knowledge in his head to find an explanation for this strange illness that left him unable to feel a pulse. Then An Yunli said:

"It won't work. My sister said no physician can save me. A Great Immortal placed an evil curse on me, and only a Great Immortal can lift it."

"A Great Immortal?"

"I don't understand either. I overheard my sister talking to a physician she'd invited, and that's how I found out. Wait... You mustn't tell my sister!"

An Yunli realized she'd said too much.

"I promise I won't tell your sister, but you have to promise me you'll go straight back to the teahouse. No more running away from home. There are plenty of bad people out there. You wouldn't even make it past this street before someone kidnapped and sold you."

Lin Shou thought, If a silly girl like her went out to fend for herself, she'd be a little lamb dropped into a wolf pack. The world would chew her up and leave not a bone behind.

"Oh..."

An Yunli had spent most of her sickly life shut away indoors and knew little about the ways of the world. She'd only heard about such things in storybooks. The first person she'd met after coming out had been Lin Shou, the great demon king, and he'd left her with a psychological scar. She wouldn't dare think of running away again.

An Yunli sat beside Lin Shou, too frightened to sit still. She stood up awkwardly and said, "It's almost dawn. I have to go back, or my sister will notice."

Lin Shou grinned and didn't stop her. He watched An Yunli flee the Corpse-Stitching Shop like a startled fawn, then followed her outside.

Then he saw the girl standing by the wall, both little hands reaching for the top. She couldn't reach it and had no idea what to do. She couldn't climb back over.

"Just nod, and I'll help you get inside."

Lin Shou smiled as he spoke.

An Yunli was torn. She was afraid of Lin Shou, but she couldn't get back over the wall by herself.

"If you wait any longer, it'll be dawn. Your sister won't be able to find you, and then..."

Lin Shou wore the grin of a thoroughly wicked man. Under his intimidating presence, An Yunli finally nodded, though it clearly took all she had.

Lin Shou swept her up in his arms. With two quick steps, he easily leaped onto the wall while carrying her.

He had his more than two years of cultivation and the physique strengthened by the Strength Pill to thank for it. He had such control over his body and strength that even a heavy burden felt light.

He landed quietly in the teahouse's rear courtyard. Lin Shou still wouldn't put An Yunli down, even when she pushed at him.

"Please don't do this. Put me down, okay..."

Only then did Lin Shou grin and set An Yunli down. He watched her run off like a frightened rabbit and hurry back to her bedroom.

Tsk. Teasing this girl was pretty fun.

With a light step, Lin Shou vaulted over the wall and left the teahouse, returning to his Corpse-Stitching Shop.

Back at the shop, Lin Shou sat down to think.

His medical skills couldn't diagnose An Yunli's strange illness. According to her, a Great Immortal had placed an evil curse on her.

Something that cursed people... That was an unorthodox, sinister trick.

An Yunli didn't know much about it. Shopkeeper Xia, who had looked after her for years, seemed to know more.

Lin Shou had also seen An Yunli's physical condition. At this rate, she probably wouldn't live to see the start of next spring.

Tsk. Should he get involved?

Lin Shou thought An Yunli was an interesting girl. And unlike that troublesome woman Ning Luowei, who had a murder case hanging over her and was wanted by the imperial court, she was just a frail merchant's daughter.

Shopkeeper Xia from the teahouse was also a kind person who often looked after the elderly, the weak, and the sick. An Yunli was her beloved younger sister.

Lin Shou thought about how they'd often looked after him. He didn't mind lending a hand to this kind neighbor. Saving a life was a good deed.

He didn't have a clue about the Great Immortal yet, but Lin Shou picked up his brush and wrote down a few prescriptions. They wouldn't cure An Yunli's illness completely, but they could improve her condition.

At the very least, they could keep her alive and give her a few more years.

Tomorrow, he'd leave the prescriptions at the teahouse counter.

Whether they believed him or used them was up to their own fate.