Chapter 225: Chapter 154: Martial World
Qing Shisan unhurriedly drew out his pipe. Right in front of the furious Situ Yong, he gave it a tap against his rear, knocking the ash loose.
He didn’t light it, yet smoke emerged from the bowl.
Amidst the curling smoke, Qing Shisan spoke in a calm tone, "Mr. Situ, isn’t that a bit of a rash judgment?"
Situ Yong looked at Qing Shisan, who was puffing out clouds of smoke, and his outstretched neck suddenly retracted. Only then did he remember he was sitting in the main hall of the Zheng Family residence—a place that, in some people’s eyes, was a Dragon’s Pool and Tiger’s Den, as dangerous as the Imperial Palace itself.
"I have no desire to ask any further. I don’t care who is behind that screen, man or woman. I don’t want to know," Situ Yong said coldly, suppressing his rage. "The person in there has lost all signs of life and is overgrown with the aura of death. Their soul has departed, leaving a wrecked body behind. They’re clearly just hanging on by a single thread—not even an Immortal could save them! Such an obvious ’Death Vein’! Any doctor who isn’t a complete quack could tell that this person is in a Life and Death Struggle, no different from a corpse. You knew this, yet you still invited me to provide treatment. If word of this gets out someday that I was powerless to heal them, wouldn’t that just ruin my, Situ Yong’s, reputation? I may be called a ’Divine Doctor,’ but I’m no Immortal! I don’t have the power to defy Heaven and change fate!"
Qing Shisan’s brows furrowed.
"Healing sickness is for man, but changing fate is for Heaven!" Situ Yong let out a long sigh. "I’ve stated my rules long ago. This is absolutely not a sickness—it is ’fate.’ The word ’death’ has been carved onto his fate. Unless you can change his fate, then I’m afraid I am powerless! If you, the Zheng Family, want to shatter this ’Divine Doctor’ sign, then so be it! I, Situ Yong, will accept my defeat!"
Only then did Qing Shisan understand why Situ Yong had slammed his hand on the table in anger.
He thought Qing Shisan had deliberately found a dying man just to ruin his reputation as a Divine Doctor.
After paying Situ Yong extra and seeing him off, Qing Shisan muttered the words Situ Yong had said before leaving.
Zheng Erniang, who had been hiding behind the scenes, now came forward, fraught with worry, asking why Situ Yong had left without a word.
For over a month, Zheng Xiu’s condition had been getting worse and worse. He hadn’t left his room for a full month.
Master Zheng was already under suspicion for a strange crime and hadn’t been fully exonerated. If the Royal Family hadn’t been swamped with preparations for the ancestral worship ceremony—causing them to forget about Zheng Xiu’s periodic, token prison stays—his grave illness would surely have been exposed.
Zheng Xiu was the backbone of the Zheng Family. Even though he didn’t usually do any work, if he were to fall, the consequences would be unimaginable.
’Fate?’
Qing Shisan suddenly thought of someone.
Someone who didn’t show up often, but always popped up at the strangest times.
The Knife Seller, Sun Erming.
...
「Meanwhile.」
「On Celestial Yin Mountain.」
The moment a giant snake charged out like a small truck, Zheng Xiu understood.
No wonder there was a cave so suitable for a hermit on Celestial Yin Mountain.
Not only was there snake meat to eat and dry firewood, but it was also a world away from any conflict.
This was, fundamentally, a snake’s lair.
Ruchen had killed that little snake, and so what? Perhaps the big snake’s family was vast, with endless descendants, and it didn’t care about such minor details.
But no matter how good-tempered the big snake was, it couldn’t tolerate the Mighty Man and the Monk making themselves at home and cooking snake hotpot on its turf.
The giant white snake was as thick as the cave itself. The very cave that could comfortably fit the Mighty Man and the Monk happily making hotpot was the hole the white snake had crawled out of.
One could only imagine how colossal this Big White Snake truly was.
If he hadn’t seen it with his own eyes, Zheng Xiu could never have imagined that such an extraordinary creature could exist in the world.
The white snake opened its cavernous maw and swallowed everything in the cave.
Endless darkness washed over him. Zheng Xiu instantly felt himself submerged in a scalding liquid, a searing pain coursing through his entire body as if he were being burned alive.
Amidst a violent churning, the Monk screamed in the darkness.
Viscous walls of flesh pressed in on Zheng Xiu with terrifying force, making the bones all over his body creak.
They were inside the white snake’s stomach, enduring the crushing pressure of its digestive tract and the corrosion of its stomach acid.
In an instant, his clothes were corroded by the potent acid, along with the cloth ribbon tying the scroll.
"The painting!"
Bobbing in the scalding stomach acid, Zheng Xiu subconsciously reached out to grab the painting.
Suddenly, Zheng Xiu stared in shock at the unfurled scroll. It had strangely twisted upright and, in an acid strong enough to corrode flesh and cloth, remained completely unharmed.
Zheng Xiu suddenly stopped moving.
In his eyes, the landscape in the painting transformed into a person.
A woman of peerless beauty.
A beautiful woman whose features strongly resembled Feng Bei, but whose expression was completely different from the Feng Bei he knew.
The woman who looked like Feng Bei was smiling playfully at Zheng Xiu, and from her crescent-moon eyes, two lines of bloody tears slowly trickled down.
The next second, the "Feng Bei" from the painting actually reached out her arms and hugged Zheng Xiu tightly.
’This Feng Bei’s act is all wrong,’ Zheng Xiu knew the scroll was bizarre, and he could spot the fake in a single glance.
Yet, as "Feng Bei" embraced him tightly, Zheng Xiu’s vision went completely dark. The writhing walls of flesh disappeared, leaving only a vortex leading to an unknown destination.
A joyful whisper was all that remained in Zheng Xiu’s ears.
"Finally... I’ve found you."
"Mo."
...
"Friends, neighbors, brothers, sisters! Please, take pity on me! My father was beaten to death by the local gentry bully over a land dispute! His body is not yet cold, and I am penniless! I am selling myself to pay for his burial, just so his spirit can rest in peace in Heaven! Please, do a good deed!"
"My life is so tragic, so tragic! Selling myself to bury my whole family! My entire family of six died a violent death! I’ve even contracted consumption! It’s a bargain, practically a giveaway! Please, just buy me! WAAAAH!"
"Swords for sale! Swords for sale! An ancestral Longquan Treasure Sword, rustproof for a hundred years! It can slice a hair that blows past it and cut through iron as if it were mud! It won’t even get a drop of blood on it when you’re lopping off limbs! Only ten taels of silver, just ten taels! The perfect sword for murder and robbery!"
"Make way, make way! The Baili Escort Agency is coming through! Who dares block the way?! Don’t you recognize the golden banner of the Baili Escort Agency?!"
"Everyone, hurry and watch the show! There’s a fight on the next street! They say they’re fighting for the hundredth spot on the Weapon Manual!"
...
When Zheng Xiu opened his eyes again, his ears were filled with a cacophony of hawkers’ cries, sobs, sounds of fighting, cheering crowds, and women’s whimpers.
In a word: chaos.
"Where... is this?"
He clearly remembered: one minute ago, he and the Monk were making a numbingly spicy and fragrant snake hotpot in the Snake Cave on Celestial Yin Mountain; ten seconds ago, he was swallowed by the Big White Snake; one second ago, the scroll unfurled, and a beautiful woman resembling Feng Bei had forcefully pinned him in an embrace.
The next time he opened his eyes, he was here.
Now, Zheng Xiu stood dazed on a bustling street.
Not far away were two stalls. At one, a young man in hemp mourning clothes held a wooden sign that read, "Selling Self to Bury Father."
In front of the opposite stall lay a row of corpses covered in white linen. A gaunt young man coughed ceaselessly into a blood-stained rag, and before him, a sign written in blood read, "Selling Self to Bury Entire Family."
At first, many onlookers were pointing and whispering at the two stalls.
But soon, someone shouted that there was a fight over the Weapon Manual rankings on the next street, and the crowd of gawkers scattered to watch the new spectacle.
"Make way, make way, make way!"
The sound of urgent hoofbeats mixed with the rumble of carriage wheels came from behind him. Zheng Xiu turned to look.
Several carriages laden with goods barreled arrogantly through the market, startling the common folk into scattering. It was utter chaos.
A flag stood on the carriage, bearing the words "Baili Escort Agency" written in a majestic script.
Seated on the lead carriage was an extraordinarily handsome young man with sharp, sword-like brows and star-like eyes. He looked at Zheng Xiu, who hadn’t moved out of the way, and barked coldly, "Which blind Poor Scholar is this!"
As he spoke, he raised his horsewhip and lashed out at Zheng Xiu, who was standing dumbly in the middle of the street.
The instant the whip moved, it shook and tightened, tensing and relaxing, and actually produced a piercing sound like a crack of thunder.
Although Zheng Xiu was still in a daze, he knew when someone was being reckless and trying to hit him. He immediately reached out, preparing to grab the whip and pull the young man off his horse to teach him a lesson.
But as he reached out, a tremor ran through Zheng Xiu. He discovered his body was incredibly stiff. His eyes had reacted, and his mind had kept up, but his hand refused to obey his command.
"Insolence!"
A dashing figure leaped down from the second floor of a nearby tavern. With a crisp CLANG of a sword, a flash of white light shot past. The world blurred before Zheng Xiu’s eyes, and he found himself grabbed by the collar and pulled to the side.
The carriage halted.
The whip lay severed in several pieces.
The young man stared at the half-a-whip left in his hand, his expression unreadable.
"May I ask which expert dares to interfere in the Baili Escort Agency’s business?"
"Are you alright, little brother?" A middle-aged man with thick brows and large eyes, dressed in clean robes with a Jade Pendant at his waist, slowly sheathed the longsword on his back. He looked at the dazed Zheng Xiu and asked with concern.
Zheng Xiu stared at the kind-looking, broad-browed man before him and dazedly shook his head.
"Haha, good that you’re alright. You have to be careful in the Jianghu. You might not be so lucky next time and run into someone like me who loves to meddle in other people’s business."
The man patted Zheng Xiu’s shoulder meaningfully. Only then did he turn, clasp his hands behind his back, and laugh heartily at the grim-faced young man on the carriage.
"My name is Chu Chengfeng, and I do not hide it! I am the Third Young Master of Meihua Manor, ranked thirty-eighth on the Weapon Manual, known as ’The Lone Plum Blossom of the Azure Mountains, Searching for Heaven on Earth’."
The man who called himself Chu Chengfeng smiled and cupped his hands in a fist-and-palm salute toward the young man. After this gesture of politeness, a sharp glint flashed in his eyes. "I wonder, what business does your Baili Escort Agency have with my Meihua Manor?"
Zheng Xiu silently watched the "old-fashioned" scene before him, speechless for a moment.
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