The Problem with the Medicine

Duan Rong had guessed correctly. This secret manual had indeed been copied out by Xiao Baijiao herself.

A few months earlier, after Zhao Mu's Five Tigers Herd Sheep Saber had reached the first level of entry-level inner breath, he had gone to Xiao Zongting to collect the secret manual for the second level.

The rules of Yuan Shun Escort Agency stipulated that whether one was an apprentice or a Trainee Escort, one could only be taught the secret manual for the next level after mastering the current one.

Only on the day one became an official escort would one be taught the complete Five Tigers Herd Sheep Saber secret manual.

When Zhao Mu had come to collect his manual, the copies of the second-level secret manual transcribed several years ago had unexpectedly all been given out.

So Xiao Zongting had Xiao Baijiao copy another batch.

The one in Duan Rong's hands was one of that batch.

Duan Rong's gaze was slightly intoxicated as he inhaled the fragrance on the secret manual. Xiao Baijiao's fair, tender face flashed through his mind from time to time, and a surge of heat rose in his lower abdomen again.

But just then, Duan Rong suddenly recalled something.

He flipped the secret manual to the third page and, sure enough, felt out a silver needle from the crease in the book.

"Read Artifact Spirit!"

With a thought from Duan Rong, a set of data immediately appeared before his eyes.

Artifact: White Hair Silver Needle

Artifact Spirit Rank: First Rank

Devouring Requirement: Host Mental Strength Level 1 (Met)

Devouring Effect: Plum Blossom Needle Technique Mastery

"It really was this silver needle!"

Duan Rong had intended to devour the artifact spirit of this silver needle when he had tucked it away, but one thing after another had come up afterward, and he had forgotten about it.

Now, he could use the aftereffects of devouring the needle's artifact spirit to dull his mind a little, so he would not keep letting his imagination run wild.

"Devour Artifact Spirit!"

Duan Rong silently cried out in his heart, and at once, a foreign sensation arose in his mind.

His drifting thoughts immediately became like jammed gears, unable to turn...

Duan Rong lay sprawled on the bed and quickly fell asleep. Just before entering dreamland, he smiled and muttered, "This Devour Artifact Spirit ability can actually help with sleep. This thing is much better than sleeping pills... use... too much..."

Before Duan Rong could finish speaking, he had already fallen into a deep sleep.

In his dream, Duan Rong saw a young boy holding a cloth doll.

The doll had neither eyes nor mouth, but its body was covered in red dots. The boy held a silver needle and pricked the red dots on the doll's body one by one.

Time flowed past like running water, murmuring onward.

The boy's hands grew from small to large. His fingers were slender and long, clearly a pair of nimble hands.

Those hands still held the silver needle, but the cloth doll had vanished...

Before the boy stood a wooden dummy, its entire body covered in red circles the size of little fingernails.

The boy used the silver needle to tap the red circles on the wooden dummy's body, muttering, "Canopy, Purple Palace, Jade Hall, Chest Center..."

Calluses gradually formed on the boy's hands, and the silver needle in his hand began pricking one person after another...

The figures of those being pricked flashed past before the boy's eyes like scenes glimpsed from a galloping horse...

Gradually, Duan Rong could no longer see clearly...

Duan Rong's attention slowly shifted away from the ever-changing figures before the boy and focused on the silver needle in his hand...

The silver needle stabbed again and again at the shifting figures. As the figures changed faster and faster, the hand and needle also moved faster and faster...

They were so fast that afterimages appeared. Gradually, Duan Rong made them out—the afterimages had formed a plum blossom...

"Plum Blossom Needle Technique!"

Based on his previous experience, Duan Rong would wake up once the artifact spirit had been fully digested and absorbed...

Because when he digested an artifact spirit, Duan Rong was in deep sleep...

And in deep sleep, the body's exhaustion could be quickly dispelled...

Thus, Duan Rong basically only slept two hours a day.

But this time, after digesting and absorbing the artifact spirit, he did not wake up.

The dream continued, becoming increasingly sensual...

The courtesans he had painted appeared before him one after another, swaying their waists...

Their bodies and faces kept changing as well...

Gradually, even Xiao Baijiao, Zhu Xiaoqi, and Hu Huanhuan appeared...

They smiled at Duan Rong with bold, seductive expressions...

Duan Rong...

A night of spring dreams left no trace!

Roosters crowed far and near. Yuan Shun Escort Agency was already filled with clamor, yet Duan Rong still lay on his bed...

It was not until the first ray of sunlight shone through the carved window covered in thin cloth and landed on Duan Rong's face that the piercing light made him open his eyes.

The moment Duan Rong opened his eyes, he felt as though his head were splitting apart. Only after several breaths did the pain slowly fade.

Then Duan Rong felt something sticky beneath his buttocks. He reached down and touched it, only to find his hand covered in cold, wet slime.

Duan Rong lifted the blanket and looked. Beneath him was a large wet patch, as though he had wet the bed...

Duan Rong's face heated up. Struggling to his feet, he dazedly stripped off the bedsheet, got dressed, picked up the wooden basin in the corner, and headed out the door toward the well.

Next door to Duan Rong lived an Inner Courtyard apprentice bookkeeper in his twenties, tall and thin, with a sharp, clever look about him.

Duan Rong was scrubbing the bedsheet by the well when the man happened to come out of the dormitory, preparing to go to the Inner Courtyard accounting office for Roll Call.

"Morning, Brother Rong. Washing your sheets?"

The man merely tossed out the remark before walking past Duan Rong.

"Ah..." Duan Rong answered vaguely, lowering his head. His face instantly reddened like a monkey's backside...

Duan Rong hung the washed bedsheet on the hemp rope strung between two cypress trees in the courtyard.

He watched the bedsheet sway lightly in the wind under the sunlight, his eyes narrowing as he muttered, "Could it be that medicine... has a problem?"

Whether the medicine had a problem or not, he had already taken it, so there was no use thinking about it now.

Duan Rong felt groggy and hungry, so he left the escort agency and ate breakfast by the street, making a point of eating several extra eggs.

Only then did he return to the Martial Arts Field and begin his stance training.

Once he began holding his stance, heat steamed from his body, and his mind instead became clearer.

Duan Rong remained in that stance until nearly the end of the afternoon.

During that time, he only went to the dining hall for lunch. The rest of the time, he trained his stance in the Martial Arts Field.

Duan Rong dispersed his inner force. The white vapor he exhaled shot diagonally forward like an arrow for nearly a zhang before gradually thinning and dispersing.

It had already been two days, yet the medicine's power within him remained potent. Even after training until now, his body had not felt the slightest sense of depletion.

Moreover, that frantic, pounding sensation in his heart from yesterday seemed to be gone as well.

"Perhaps it wasn't the medicine's problem?"

Hesitation showed in Duan Rong's eyes.

A fifteen- or sixteen-year-old youth was at the height of puberty. Having dealt with those courtesans for so long, it was inevitable for his heart to race like a monkey and his thoughts to gallop like a horse.

"Maybe it's just a normal physiological reaction..."

Seeing that it was nearly time for the afternoon shift, Duan Rong did not dare delay any longer. He returned to the dormitory, washed away his foul sweat, then turned himself into a walking display rack and headed for Flower Shadow House.

When Duan Rong reached the Old Locust Tree diagonally across from Flower Shadow House, he paused slightly. A line had already formed there, and there were exactly ten people.

It seemed they also knew he could only paint ten portraits in an hour, so there was no point in lining up in greater numbers.

Among the people in line were not only courtesans from Flower Shadow House, but also several who were clearly patrons. There were even two dressed as Servant Boys, standing at the very end of the line.

Duan Rong was slightly taken aback, his gaze sweeping over the two Servant Boys...

Logically speaking, Servant Boys were not part of his customer base. After all, his paintings cost ten taels of silver apiece.