Eastern Heaven Dou City.
The Ye Clan.
The Nine Heart Begonia lineage had few members, and its residence was nowhere near as lavish as those of the great nobles.
After presenting Xue Qinghe's visiting card, Lin Yuan did not wait long.
A maid led him into the inner hall.
A woman in her forties sat in the seat of honor.
She wore a long blue-and-white dress and had a gentle expression.
The current clan leader of Nine Heart Begonia.
Ye Lingqiu.
"Young Master Lin."
Ye Lingqiu glanced at the visiting card on the table.
"His Highness the Crown Prince personally recommended you. What business do you have with our Ye Clan?"
Lin Yuan did not beat around the bush.
He turned his palm over.
A jade bottle landed on the table.
The stopper came out.
A dark gold pill rolled out.
A faint medicinal fragrance quickly spread.
Ye Lingqiu's previously calm expression changed the instant she saw the pill.
Only slightly.
But it did not escape Lin Yuan's eyes.
"I hear Nine Heart Begonia's healing abilities are unrivaled across the continent."
Lin Yuan pushed the pill toward her.
"I have someone who needs saving."
"I would like to ask Clan Leader Ye to help, using this pill in conjunction with your abilities."
Ye Lingqiu did not touch it.
She even shifted her gaze away from the pill.
"I'm sorry."
"I'm afraid I cannot oblige."
The answer came too quickly.
She had not asked about the injuries.
She had not asked about the patient.
She had not even asked about payment.
Lin Yuan smiled.
"Clan Leader Ye."
"I haven't said who needs saving yet."
Ye Lingqiu's expression remained unchanged.
"Even Nine Heart Begonia cannot save everyone."
"Is that so?"
Lin Yuan reached out and picked up the pill between his fingers.
"Or is it-"
"That you don't dare touch this?"
Ye Lingqiu's gaze abruptly sharpened.
The room fell silent.
Lin Yuan did not probe any further.
"It seems I guessed right."
Ye Lingqiu's eyes had already grown a little colder.
"What do you mean by this, Young Master Lin?"
"Nothing in particular."
Lin Yuan placed the pill back on the table.
"I only wanted to confirm something."
"Why the Ye Clan forbids all its members from taking medicine from the Hall of Relief."
Ye Lingqiu's pupils contracted slightly.
Lin Yuan looked at her.
"Clan Leader Ye."
"You know there's something wrong with this, don't you?"
This time.
Ye Lingqiu did not answer immediately.
Only after a moment did she slowly speak.
"Since you came on His Highness the Crown Prince's recommendation, Young Master Lin, you should not use something like this to test our Ye Clan."
"I only wanted to find out how much you knew."
Lin Yuan leaned back in his chair.
"From the looks of it."
"Not much."
Ye Lingqiu's expression darkened.
"What do you know?"
Lin Yuan tapped a finger lightly against the tabletop.
Once.
Twice.
"This pill really can heal injuries."
"And it really can extend life."
"Taken in small amounts, it can even restore vitality to someone whose blood and vitality were failing."
"That's why those nobles scramble for it."
Ye Lingqiu said nothing.
But her gaze was growing increasingly grave.
"But they don't know."
Lin Yuan raised his eyes.
"This stuff is refined from human lives."
Ye Lingqiu's expression changed drastically.
"What do you mean?"
"Exactly what I said."
Lin Yuan pointed at the pill.
"Human blood essence."
"The flesh and blood of living people."
"Along with some things even more troublesome than Evil Soul Masters."
"All refined into the pill in front of you."
Ye Lingqiu shot to her feet.
"Are you certain?!"
"Certain."
There was no fluctuation in Lin Yuan's tone.
"I've seen their pill-refining base with my own eyes."
"And I've seen the people they abducted to use as medicinal ingredients."
Ye Lingqiu stared at the dark gold pill.
Her expression had turned utterly grim.
She had long known something was wrong with it.
The first time she encountered the Hall of Relief's pills, she had noticed that the vitality within them was unusually abundant.
Abnormally abundant.
It did not seem like medicinal ingredients.
It seemed more like some kind of life force being forcibly stuffed into a human body.
That was why she had immediately issued an order.
No one in the Ye Clan was to touch them.
But she had never imagined-
That the source of this life force was living people.
"The Hall of Relief..."
Ye Lingqiu's voice grew heavy.
"Who exactly are they?"
Lin Yuan said evenly:
"In public, they're called the Hall of Relief."
"In secret-"
"The Medicine King Holy Church."
As those words fell.
Ye Lingqiu's brows knitted tightly.
Clearly, this was her first time hearing that name.
Lin Yuan continued:
"They worship the so-called Medicine King."
"They believe life should continue indefinitely."
"Disease must disappear."
"Aging must disappear."
"And death should disappear too."
"It sounds wonderful."
Lin Yuan looked at the pill on the table.
"But the result isn't immortality."
"It's monsters."
Ye Lingqiu abruptly raised her head.
"Monsters?"
"Taken in small amounts, these pills really can extend a person's life."
"But with every pill they take."
"More of that stuff accumulates inside them."
"Once that accumulation passes a certain threshold..."
Lin Yuan paused for an instant.
"They stop being human."
"Their flesh grows wildly."
"Their bodies mutate."
"Their regenerative abilities grow stronger and stronger."
"But their consciousness disappears little by little."
"Until only instinct and slaughter remain."
The color instantly drained from Ye Lingqiu's face.
"Are you saying..."
"That everyone who takes the Hall of Relief's pills over a long period will eventually turn into something like that?"
"Not necessarily every one of them."
Lin Yuan said evenly:
"But the more they take, the closer they get to that day."
Ye Lingqiu stared fixedly at the pill on the table.
She had originally thought this stuff merely overdrew the body's reserves.
Or left behind some lingering affliction that was difficult to cure.
That was why she had forbidden her clan members from taking it.
But if what Lin Yuan said was true...
Then those nobles in Heaven Dou City who already treated the Hall of Relief's pills as miraculous, lifesaving medicine-
Were nothing less than a pack of monsters buried within the city.
"Have they gone mad?"
Ye Lingqiu could not help saying,
"They're selling something like this on a massive scale?"
"Of course they haven't gone mad."
Lin Yuan sneered.
"This is exactly what they want."
"The more people take the medicine."
"The more people depend on the Hall of Relief."
"Naturally, the more people will speak up for them."
Ye Lingqiu fell silent.
Because she knew.
What Lin Yuan said was true.
Now, in all of Heaven Dou City, who dared say a single bad word about the Hall of Relief?
Those old nobles would be the first to turn hostile.
Because what the Hall of Relief gave them was not medicine.
It was life.
Lin Yuan continued:
"And refining these medicines requires large numbers of living people."
"Where do those living people come from?"
Ye Lingqiu suddenly had an extremely bad premonition.
The next moment.
Lin Yuan gave her the answer.
"The nobles of Heaven Dou."
Ye Lingqiu's gaze trembled.
"Refugees."
"Death-row prisoners."
"Slaves."
"Commoners without household registration."
"Over the years, people have been continuously sending living people into the Hall of Relief."
Lin Yuan's voice grew colder and colder.
"Prince Xue Xing is one of them."
Ye Lingqiu's expression changed completely.
"Xue Xing?"
"That's right."
"He trades people."
"For medicine."
"For more years of life."
"And Xue Ye-"
Lin Yuan paused.
"Knows some of it."
"But has kept pretending he knows nothing."
The room fell utterly silent.
Ye Lingqiu slowly sat down.
Even her fingertips were tightening slightly.
A prince was selling his own subjects.
The emperor knew, yet tacitly allowed it.
And the most powerful people in Heaven Dou City were still scrambling to consume pills refined from these people's lives.
This was no longer just a problem with the Hall of Relief.
The entire privileged class of Heaven Dou was rotten.
Lin Yuan looked at her.
"Clan Leader Ye."
"Now you should understand why I came to see you today."
Ye Lingqiu raised her head.
"Does His Highness the Crown Prince know about this?"
"He does."
Lin Yuan concealed nothing.
"And he will act very soon."
Ye Lingqiu's pupils contracted slightly.
"Against whom?"
Lin Yuan looked at her and spoke one word at a time.
"Those who must be dealt with."
"The Hall of Relief."
"The Medicine King Holy Church."
"Those who transport people and medicine for them and conceal evidence of their crimes."
"And those who already know the truth, yet still choose to help them."
Ye Lingqiu's expression shifted.
Lin Yuan continued:
"Heaven Dou City is about to descend into chaos."
"His Highness the Crown Prince will also settle accounts with these people."
"So I didn't come today to ask whether the Ye Clan knew."
"But to ask something else."
He put the dark-gold pill back into the jade vial.
Then he looked at Ye Lingqiu.
"The Nine Heart Begonia hasn't touched the Hall of Relief's medicine."
"That's good."
"At least it shows that the Ye Clan is still clean."
"So now-"
Lin Yuan leaned forward slightly.
His gaze met Ye Lingqiu's directly.
"Clan Leader Ye."
"What do you intend to do?"