Badly injured!
That was the conclusion Ji Yuan reached the moment he touched the fox. Many of its wounds were deep enough to expose bone, a horrifying sight, and fox blood was still pouring out nonstop. Don't know whether an artery had been severed.
How the hell am I supposed to save wounds like this? I'm not a veterinarian!
Ji Yuan was frantic with worry. Carrying the fox, he wound through one deserted alley after another toward the nearest clinic, while Spiritual Qi flowed from his body into several of the red fox's meridians in the form of True Qi, sustaining its life.
Only the fox's back was relatively intact. It seemed to have deliberately protected something on its back. Ji Yuan parted its fox fur and took it out, only to discover a scroll, though he could not tell whether it was writing or a painting.
But he had no time to inspect it now. Saving the fox came first!
Beyond the mouth of the alley lay the street. He could already smell faint traces of medicinal herbs; the clinic was there.
Jiren Hall was a renowned clinic and apothecary in Ning'an County. Medicine and drugs were one and the same business there, and Doctor Tong was the owner.
At that moment, Doctor Tong was filling prescriptions for a customer in Jiren Hall. With practiced ease, he grabbed a pinch here and a handful there from the drawers, weighed them on the Small Scale over the counter, then placed them into Yellow Paper packets. A prescription was finished in less than half a minute.
"Keep it safe. Your nourishing decoction—remember to soak it in cold water for half an hour first, then bring it to a boil over high heat before simmering it over low heat. Reduce four bowls of water to one bowl of water! Take it once in the morning and once at night!"
"Alright, alright, thank you, Doctor Tong! Thank you, Doctor Tong!"
The man at the counter accepted the herbs with repeated thanks and was just about to turn his head when a light breeze suddenly swept through the hall. Ji Yuan seemed to appear in Jiren Hall in an instant.
"Oh, Mother!"
Ji Yuan's bloodstained sleeves and the red fox in his arms gave the customers and apprentices in the hall a fright, but he had no time to pay them any heed.
"Doctor Tong, please take a look! Can this fox still be saved?"
The strange tale of Red Fox Bowing to a Person to beg for help had not yet traveled here from the other end of the market street, but what stood before them was strange enough already.
Doctor Tong looked at Ji Yuan in astonishment, then looked at the blood-drenched fox in his arms.
"Er, this... Tong has never treated livestock before, much less a wild beast..."
"Doctor Tong, as the saying goes, a healer's heart is benevolent. A fox's life is still a life. Please, you must give it a try!"
Ji Yuan could not cup his hands in salute to Doctor Tong at the moment, but his words were earnest enough.
"Then... then this old man will try. Sir, please follow me into the inner hall. You two stay outside to mind the shop and fill prescriptions. Don't make any mistakes!"
"Oh, Master..."
"Master, I want to see too..."
"Hmph. Get to work!"
Doctor Tong snorted at the two apprentices and led Ji Yuan into Jiren Hall's inner hall. The two apprentices' hearts itched with curiosity, but they did not dare disobey and could only remain in the front hall, staring helplessly.
The inner hall was the examination room. Its furnishings were simple: a bed, chairs, and a desk with the Four Treasures of the Study.
Doctor Tong took a piece of coarse white cloth and laid it over the desk.
"Come, put the fox here!"
Ji Yuan hastily and carefully set the red fox from his arms onto it. The movement made the half-conscious red fox shudder.
Doctor Tong said nothing more and began carefully examining the fox's injuries. He peeled back the torn flesh to inspect it closely, checked the fox's eyes, and felt beneath its neck to see whether a pulse remained.
"This fox is not even an arm's length long. It has lost an immense amount of blood and qi, yet its pulse is unexpectedly strong. Strange indeed—how can it have such a pulse when its blood and qi are deficient?"
As Doctor Tong muttered to himself, he gently felt over the fox's entire body. After finishing the examination, he fetched his medical tools and said to Ji Yuan.
"The fox has many wounds. The bruises from clubs and blunt weapons are manageable, but the serious injuries were mostly caused by sharp teeth tearing and biting. Sir, Tong will use Ten Ash Powder together with Trauma Medicine to stop the bleeding, then Five Flavor Disinfectant Drink to clear heat and remove toxins. Afterward, it will need meat to replenish itself. As for whether it can survive, that can only be left to Heaven!"
"Alright, Doctor Tong, please save it!"
"Mm. Help me hold it down!"
There were not many customers outside Jiren Hall. The two apprentices, who had been somewhat absentminded, suddenly heard intense fox cries from the inner hall—"Wuwuwu... Awoo!"—and both trembled.
At times, the sound resembled sobbing; at others, the roar of some unknown beast. It was especially chilling to hear.
About half an hour later, Doctor Tong and Ji Yuan emerged from the inner hall together. The fox in Ji Yuan's arms was wrapped all over in white bandages, with blood faintly seeping through them.
Doctor Tong personally went to the medicine cabinet to gather herbs. In no time at all, he had assembled the prescription and handed it to Ji Yuan.
"Prepare it using the method I just described, but the medicinal decoction is bitter. How you get it to drink it is beyond Tong's control!"
"Many thanks for your trouble, Doctor Tong! I, Ji Yuan, am deeply grateful! May I ask how much the consultation and medicine cost?"
Doctor Tong returned to the counter and waved a hand wearily.
"No consultation fee. The medicine costs Thirty Coins; give them to my apprentice!"
Unable to cup his hands in salute while holding the red fox, Ji Yuan merely nodded to Doctor Tong, then took copper coins from his purse.
"Little Master, keep them safe."
"Doctor Tong, Ji takes his leave!"
After saying that, Ji Yuan covered the red fox in his arms with his wide right sleeve, stepped out of Jiren Hall, then flashed into the alley in a few movements and hurried back toward Ju'an Pavilion.
Inside Jiren Hall, Doctor Tong finally let out a long breath, sweat pouring from him.
"Master, what's wrong?"
"Yes, Master. Was that sound inside just now made by the fox? It was terrifying!"
Doctor Tong slowly caught his breath and sat down in the chairs behind the counter.
"You think I wasn't afraid? That was no ordinary fox. It had practically become a spirit!! Hiss... hoo..."
On the way back, Ji Yuan chose routes with as few people as possible. He spread out his Lightness Skill, moving swiftly while reducing the jolting.
Meanwhile, Spiritual Qi continued to enter the red fox's body in small but uninterrupted amounts.
Doctor Tong's confusion about the fox's tenacious vitality stemmed partly from the fox's own strong constitution, but the input of Spiritual Qi accounted for the other half.
Before they reached home, the fragrance of jujube blossoms was already drifting from afar. The red fox in Ji Yuan's arms also opened its eyes as it caught the scent, feeling greatly at ease.
Pushing open the courtyard gate and entering the pavilion, Ji Yuan swept his sleeve across the already nearly spotless stone table, then took a bedsheet from inside the room, folded it, and spread it over the stone table.
Ji Yuan gently placed the red fox atop it and spoke in an even tone.
"Compared to indoors, perhaps you would prefer it here, and it is also more suitable here!"
As he said this, while the red fox was still somewhat puzzled, Ji Yuan's right hand hidden within his wide sleeve had already formed the Seal of Holding.
From the sky above Ju'an Pavilion down into the courtyard, a gentle breeze gradually gathered, bringing the red fox an incomparable sense of comfort.
Then the red fox suddenly realized by instinct that the wind contained Heaven and Earth Spiritual Energy. Every breath it took here was more than a hundred times better than its muddled groping cultivation in the mountains.
The jujube tree branches in the courtyard swayed lightly, and greenish-yellow jujube blossoms occasionally drifted down.
Watching the bandage-wrapped fox breathe steadily as it began to draw in and exhale Spiritual Qi, Ji Yuan finally breathed a sigh of relief.
It shouldn't die now, right?
Recalling the inadvertent glimpse he had caught in the clinic's inner hall earlier, Ji Yuan smiled again.
Fox spirit, fox spirit—who would have thought it was a male one!
With the fox's treatment temporarily settled, Ji Yuan finally had a little free time. He took out the small scroll from his robes, wanting to see what Lord Lu had asked the fox to deliver.
The paper scroll was stained with some fox blood. As he slowly unrolled it, vigorous calligraphy with iron strokes and silver hooks appeared before him.
Fine writing! No, this is...
Though the calligraphy scroll was small, its hundred-odd characters displayed countless forms, like a wandering dragon, graceful as a startled swan. There was killing intent and sharpness, yet also lofty mountains and flowing waters...
In Ji Yuan's eyes, now that he cultivated both Dao and martial arts, these were not words at all, but sword techniques drifting and moving in a haze!
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