Shen Yanlin, with his sleeping mask still dangling off his eyes, stared at the collapsed Jing Wen with his mouth opened wide enough to swallow a whole egg.

“What in heavens happened to you? This poison is enough to kill twenty grown men in a moment! Even if my mother were here, she would still struggle to treat you!”

Shen Yanlin angrily muttered while hitting the acupuncture points on Jing Wen’s wrist with his five frail fingers to slow the spread of the poison.

After Consort Li had visited his clinic, those frequenting it had finally risen above zero. Although Shen Yanlin typically shoos these curious customers away, he could not bear to let the seriously ill patients leave without treating them. After coming in contact with a number of near-death patients, Shen Yanlin was no longer as shaken as when he was when he had first operated on Jing Wen. But even so, he was still somewhat shaken when treating Jing Wen.

Shen Yanlin had come from Lingnan where the poison arrow tree was produced and had seen his mother dealing the victims of its poison numerous times. But even the widely recognised medical sage could only save half of the victims, who were all at least Heart Purification cultivators capable of suppressing the poison. Ordinary people, or even some weaker cultivators affected by poison arrow tree would have died long before they could be brought to the clinic.

Bringing Jing Wen to a table, Shen Yanlin stared at the wound at Jing Wen’s waist. Immediately, Shen Yanlin’s pale lips began to quiver, and he could not stop muttering. As he noticed the poison continue to spread even with the acupuncture, Shen Yanlin’s voice trembled more and more as he grew more anxious.

“This past month, each time you visited me was to seek some form of treatment. The surgery was fine - I was only a bit inexperienced, but I was still confident enough to succeed in at least preserving your life. But that girl you brought in forced me to use those needles… and now you want me to treat the poison arrow tree… this will be a little difficult.”

“Hmm? This is so, so strange. There is another force wreaking havoc already in your body, damaging your internal organs. Moreover, this force is something even more mother hasn’t encountered yet - how can that be? It must be some obscure or forgotten form of martial arts. It seems like an attack only a Qi Manifestation cultivator or someone approaching that state can launch! Jing Wen… do you really not want your life anymore, fighting with a supreme expert.”

Wait a moment! Where is this ancient and inexhaustible essence coming from? How can it instantly destroy the Qi I sent into your body? By what means can I treat you now when I can’t even examine your condition!”

Shen Yanlin was so shocked that his entire body was leaning against the table Jing Wen was on. Looking at Jing Wen, who was straddling the fine line between life and death, Shen Yanlin wondered, “The first two forces are something from today, but the third essence has been mingling within your body for nearly a week now. What in the heavens are you doing!”

Gradually, Shen Yanlin calmed down. He licked his dry lips and closely closed his eyes as he pondered over the problems he had found. When Jing Wen’s conditions worsened, Shen Yanlin would take out some expensive medicine and force it into Jing Wen’s body, before continuing to prudently probe the situation on his body.

When Shen Yanlin re-opened his eyes, the confusion within it hadn’t faded a bit. Rather, all the calmness had gone.

According to his judgement, if only two of the three forces were present within Jing Wen’s body, with his physique having been tempered by Qi Manifestation, it should not be life-threatening. But the ancient power had constantly exhausted Jing Wen’s body, allowing that unknown force to enter it without much resistance. Typically, it should still have been destroyed by the essence within Jing Wen’s body natural, but in order to suppress the poison arrow tree, all the Qi in his body had been exhausted.

Shen Yanlin is indeed worthy of being considered the sole child of the medical saintess. He did not know that Jing Wen had been obsessing over that piece of paper, the talisman Yang Heng had used, or the later assassination attempt against Jing Wen’s life. Yet he had still managed to almost infer what Jing Wen had been doing the past week through his injuries alone!

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But the reality was… the three forces was like a triangle that prevented any form of treatment individually. What use was knowing how it was caused then?

“Does fate want you dead, Jing Wen? Even I cannot plan out a way to guarantee someone’s death than this method… Compared to this, that strange illness that girl had is no more than a sidedish (小菜一碟).”

Staring at Jing Wen absent-mindedly, Shen Yanlin continued to mutter in a trembling voice, “Especially that ancient force! I can tell that it’s extremely beneficial to you, but it’s more dangerous than the other two combined! What kind of person can possess this force?”

“It can’t be the four sacred mountains - they are petty to the extremely. The people from the Zijin Sect? Impossible - those bastards only care about appearing aloof and maintaining their power over Jianghu. Those perverted bastards from Ximo Sect? No, that’s even more unlikely - they’re even more selfish than the four sacred mountains. I’m wondering if Consort Li is in possession of such strange power. But the two of you are openly hostile… how can she accept the risk that she will aid the enemy?”

“What in heavens in going on?” Shen Yanlin thought for a long time and still could not reach the answer. He painfully scratched his head, his fingers travelling back and forth among his hair like a farmer ploughing the black fields after the snow had melted, nurturing the land.

But no matter how beneficial that power could be, Shen Yanlin was certain that, in these conditions, Jing Wen would have along died before he could reap the benefits. The already exhausted Qi within his body was steadily decreasing as the poison raged on, while the bleeding caused by the second force was stripping Jing Wen of his last breaths. Even if a ‘shen’ state immortal came to cure Jing Wen, the chance of success would still be incredibly low.

To save Jing Wen in this situation was to defy the heavens, tearing the pages off the book of the dead from Yanwang’s hands. This was a matter of immortal elixirs or heavenly herbs - only then, could the dying Jing Wen have a glimmer at survival.

But where could one find such wondrous medicine? The imperial treasury did not have it. The four sacred mountains did not have it. Even the whole of Jianghu did not have it. Only Hua Quanfu - if the rumours were true - possessed an elixir of immortality.

Shen Yanlin glared at Jing Wen’s increasingly pale face for a long moment. Then, with slow and deliberate actions, he removed one of the floorboards of the clinic and retrieved a wooden box. The box was made of some unknown material that made it completely black - absorbing all light. Holding the box in his hand, Shen Yanlin’s arm began to tremble, as though the thing inside it was equal to the weight of a mountain.

However, this thing was even more precious than a mountain. If Shen Yanlin presented it to the Emperor, it was very likely that an entire province would be given to him as his own fiefdom. It is said that a nation’s territory is priceless, but the thing inside the box was even more valuable.

The thing inside the box was called Earth Refining Flower. From its name alone, it is also possible to see the value of such a herb. Only something bearing the word ‘heaven’ in its name could be more precious than the Earth Refining Flower.

“Mother has spent over twenty years searching for this flower that could exist only after absorbing the essence of the heavens and earth for one thousand years. In fact, mother had left this time because she wanted to search for another, leaving this one with me to save my life….”

“Okay, it might not be as grand as the immortal of elixir, but it can extend a person’s life by twenty years and help them break into the next realm. If it weren’t for the fact that you played with me for so long, I won’t even consider using it.”

Shen Yanlin had already used countless extravagant herbs to treat Jing Wen, so he definitely was not hesitating because he was a stingy person. But this single herb was truly invaluable - even if all the entire shop was sold, it could not exchange for a single peddle of the Earth Refining Flower.

The mental struggle within Shen Yanlin’s head continued for a long time. Then, without notice, the thin and pale child, looking at Jing Wen, sighed bitterly and said, “Mother shouldn’t be too angry if I used the herb on you… right? She had always liked you more than me, to the degree that I wonder who is her real son. Anyways, she will definitely bring back another after returning home.”

Of course, the likelihood of finding another heavenly herb was impossibly rare - those words spoken was just to convince himself. Shen Yanlin unlocked the box, and carefully retrieved the Earth Refining Flower with a melancholy face.

The Earth Refining Flower looked a bit like dandelions, with a similarly ordinary fragrance. There was no heavenly phenomenon to celebrate its’ appearance; no moon during daytime, rumbling earth or falling stars. It looked so ordinary, like any flower one could see by the roadside.

“It’s pretty smart that you reached out to me instead of the imperial physicians. Those old froggies, if they had such a herb, would have consumed it without hesitation. Humph, who would be as kind as me to use it for healing you?”

Shen Yanlin crushed the herb and placed it in Jing Wen’s face, aiding its movement down Jing Wen’s esophagus by bringing some water to his lips. He complained the whole time with a sad, pitiful look on his face.

Seeing Jing Wen’s pale face gradually become rosy, Shen Yanlin looked at him blankly, before sighing. “I don’t know how to comment on your luck. Ever since his death, you’ve encountered misfortune after misfortune - even losing your vision and cultivation. But opportunities keep presenting themselves to you; first, that ancient essence, then my herb, and maybe even that elixir the capital is so excited about.”

“Tsk, tsk, tsk. To fully absorb the herb, you need someone in the ‘xian’ state. Consort Li’s maid should be coming soon - I will send you away then to be treated by her. Once you wake up, you’ll see the most desired woman in the world… how envious.”