Chapter 35
The main business of Lingshan Talisman Sect was subduing demons and eliminating monsters, so naturally, new disciples also had to be familiar with the strange beasts and monsters in the world.
The murals about those exotic beasts and monsters were carved inside the stone caves for seclusion in Lingshan.
Back then, before Master Tang Youshu passed away, he once took Xiao Xiao into seclusion together and activated the time reversal. At that time, Xiao Xiao saw the illustration of the Enlightenment Beast from the “Classic of Mountains and Seas” on the mural in the Lingshan stone cave.
This Enlightenment Beast had a huge body, shaped like a tiger but with nine heads.
This strange beast was said to be the divine beast guarding the heavenly gate of Mount Kunlun. The nine heads were of different sizes and all had human faces, making the villains who wanted to invade the sacred land of Kunlun tremble with fear.
The description of this beast in the “Classic of Mountains and Seas” was only a few sentences. However, the text on the stone wall emphasized that if one was bitten by it, then before long, tumors of different sizes would grow on the head, just like the Enlightenment Beast’s nine heads.
The most terrifying thing was that once the nine heads fully grew, the person bitten would frantically tear their own intestines and die miserably.
Thinking of this, Xiao Xiao asked again, “May I ask, old sir, why were you bitten by the Enlightenment Beast?”
That old man suddenly exposing his back of the head was not to sell misery or seek sympathy.
Seeing that among these people seeking medical treatment, only Xiao Xiao and Wei Jie were young, he deliberately exposed the back of his head with the thought that the young were easy to bully, actually wanting to scare away this little girl.
But unexpectedly, that person from the other group suddenly interjected, not only revealing his own secret of being bitten by the Enlightenment Beast but also sarcastically saying that seeking medical treatment was a waste of effort.
Thinking of this, he couldn’t help but look at that hook-nosed man with resentment.
However, the other party also had the advantage of numbers and didn’t look easy to deal with, so the old man still decided to deal with the little girl first.
After Xiao Xiao asked this, the old man sullenly put his hat back on and said gloomily, “Miss, I’ll only ask one question. Are you willing to give the opportunity to me or not?”
Xiao Xiao blinked and before she could say anything, Wei Jie in front of her said lazily, “The Enlightenment Beast of Mount Kunlun would never harm people for no reason. The bold one who dared to break into the heavenly gate alone, why would he need the sympathy of a little girl?”
Rather than saying this old man was ill, it was more like he had committed evil deeds!
That Enlightenment Beast was a spiritual creature and wouldn’t easily take the initiative to harm people. I just don’t know what this old man did to that Enlightenment Beast to end up like this.
Looking at his reputation and thinking about their hunting weapons, the hooks, everything was self-explanatory!
Hearing this, the old man knew that these two young people had no intention of yielding. It seemed that the two thugs who attacked them during the day were these two…
He gave a murderous look to the people beside him.
Since this young couple was so unreasonable, then don’t blame him for being rude!
He was determined to take the only diagnosis quota tonight!
Just as the old man was sending a glance, the two followers beside him suddenly threw out iron hooks connected by iron chains, attacking Xiao Xiao and Wei Jie.
Those iron hooks were generally used by hunters to hook animals like deer or elk, but they looked much larger than the hooks for catching deer.
This was of the same origin as the hooks that Xiao Xiao and Wei Jie found on the two stalking big men during the day.
It seemed that the people who kidnapped those buying lanterns during the day were instructed by this old man!
When the iron hooks attacked, it could be felt that the hooks were enhanced with spiritual power. And in the lantern light, Xiao Xiao found that those hooks seemed to be stained with abnormal-colored liquid, giving off a pungent smell.
Just as Wei Jie said, they were indeed all hunters!
If she guessed correctly, what they hunted were not ordinary mountain beasts, but some ancient strange beasts and fierce monsters, so those hooks were all soaked in lethal poison.
In this world, the emperors and nobles all needed the skin, flesh, and bones of rare and exotic beasts to strengthen their bodies and prolong their lives. So there were some special hunters who captured rare and exotic beasts for those nobles in need. Those iron hooks looked very old at a glance, and who knows how many rare and exotic beasts had died under these hooks.
At this moment, Xiao Xiao suddenly remembered that when her master described accompanying her benefactor Wei Jie to seek medical treatment in Luoyi two hundred years ago, he also mentioned the beast catchers in Luoyi City back then.
It was said that several beast catchers with unique abilities were strange people invited by Prince Can at a high price, specializing in capturing exotic beasts for Prince Can.
When Master Tang Youshu accompanied his master Wei Jie with a severed arm to Luoyi City to seek medical treatment, he happened to encounter the grand occasion of the beast catchers celebrating Prince Can’s birthday and presenting exotic beasts like the Enlightenment Beast and other exotic beasts parading to show off.
Thinking of this, Xiao Xiao realized – perhaps this old man and his followers were the beast catchers that her master encountered two hundred years ago who captured the exotic beasts!
Unfortunately, what they provoked this time was not a beast, but people!
Wei Jie casually waved his hand and formed a spirit shield to block their attack, while Xiao Xiao took out a water-transforming talisman from her bosom and casually waved it, summoning a stream of water.
The powerful impact force instantly washed those iron hooks back, happening to hook onto the shoulders of those two followers. The sharp hooks would immediately trigger the built-in spring when they touched something.
The gripping force that could crush animal bones was astonishing, instantly gripping the two men’s collarbones tightly.
Actually, this injury was nothing. At most, it would cause pain and bleeding.
But those hooks happened to be coated with lethal poison, which immediately took effect. In an instant, the two burly men had already rolled their eyes and died.
It’s just that Xiao Xiao noticed that when those two big men bled, red dust seemed to start spreading around them. At first, it was faint, but then it gradually became thicker…
That old man didn’t pay attention to these things at all. He never thought that two young people would have such abilities!
In shock and anger, he pointed at Wei Jie and Cui Xiao Xiao’s noses and shouted, “How dare you! You actually dare to kill people in Luoyi City! Is there no law anymore!”
Xiao Xiao felt that the old man was really shameless to call a thief to catch a thief. She said coldly, “It was you who instigated your subordinates to attack us first with poisonous hooks. Now the hooks have backfired. You brought this upon yourself!”
At this moment, that hook-nosed man beside them sneered again, “Mighty Hunter King of the East, it turns out that you also have times when you fall! I heard that you were overconfident and wanted to hunt the Enlightenment Beast of Yao Pool… What’s going on? You failed to steal a chicken and lost the rice, and you let the Enlightenment Beast bite you into this state. You actually can’t even beat these two young rookies… It’s really interesting, hahaha…”
That old man had actually recognized the identity of the hook-nosed man long ago, “Humph, I thought it was someone else! It turns out to be the Eagle Clan people from the North! I heard that Prince Can also invited your Eagle Clan to hunt in Yao Pool. How come I didn’t see any trace of your Eagle Clan people…”
The Mighty Hunter King of the East and the Eagle Clan of the North were two major beast-hunting families. In the same industry, it was inevitable to step on each other’s toes and not see eye to eye. Unexpectedly, today, they actually entered Nineteen Li together to seek medical treatment.
The Hunter King squinted his eyes, glanced at that man’s highly raised shoulders, paused, and then continued, “It’s not embarrassing for me to be injured! My disciple and I were about to capture that Enlightenment Beast. Suddenly, a group of masked people intercepted halfway, trying to snatch the unconscious Enlightenment Beast. Although I struggled to resist and injured one of them with my hook, the beast that was captured with great difficulty escaped when it woke up during the fight, and I was also bitten by it… If I don’t avenge this hatred, I swear I won’t be a human!”
As he spoke, that skinny old man suddenly leaped up and yanked off that hook-nosed man’s cloak.
As a result, that man’s bandaged shoulder was suddenly exposed, and there was actually a tightly gripping hook on it, looking exactly the same as the Hunter King’s weapon.
The Hunter King widened his eyes at this, his ferocious appearance fully revealed, “Well, the one who sneak-attacked me was indeed you! You Eagle Clan of the North are really despicable villains!”
This Eagle Clan was also quite capable, actually able to endure the lethal poison on the hooks. But he should also be unable to completely detoxify and couldn’t remove the hooks, so he ran here to seek medical treatment and ran into him.
Thinking of this, he no longer cared about Wei Jie and Cui Xiao Xiao, and brought his remaining men to fight with that Eagle Clan of the North.
Xiao Xiao widened her eyes. At this moment, the old man’s words were like a thunderclap, resounding in her mind!
According to that old man, he and the Eagle Clan of the North both failed to capture the Enlightenment Beast and were both injured, so they all ran to this alley filled with yin energy to seek medical treatment!
This was obviously very different from the original trajectory two hundred years ago! In the previous trajectory, these hunters had grandly paraded with exotic beasts in Luoyi City…
Where exactly did it go wrong again?
Because this beast-presenting segment had nothing to do with Wei Jie, Xiao Xiao didn’t pay much attention to it before, just giving it a quick glance.
Now, taking advantage of the fierce fight on the opposite side, Xiao Xiao went behind Wei Jie and secretly took out the secret manual from her bosom to read it again in the faint light of the lantern.
When she saw the part about presenting exotic beasts in Luoyi City, Xiao Xiao realized that in her master’s secret manual, it was mentioned that Prince Can received two exotic beasts at that time, which were clearly presented by the Mighty Hunter King of the East and the Eagle Clan of the North.
The exotic beast presented by the East was naturally the Enlightenment Beast from Mount Kunlun, and the one presented by the Eagle Clan was… the corpse-eating beast from the underworld!
With this, Xiao Xiao understood everything.
According to the original trajectory, Wei Jie was supposed to encounter the corpse-eating beast in the valley and barely seriously injure it with the help of Master Tang Youshu.
In the end, the corpse-eating beast escaped with serious injuries and happened to be captured by the Eagle Clan of the North and presented to Prince Can. With such an exotic beast, the Eagle Clan naturally had no time to mess with the Hunter King’s plan.
But now, because of Cui Xiao Xiao’s sudden appearance, she and Wei Jie joined forces to capture the corpse-eating beast early and return it to the Wei family.
The Eagle Clan of the North, having not caught any exotic beasts, set their sights on the Hunter King, trying to intercept and snatch it.
As a result, they disrupted the hunt on Mount Kunlun, causing the Hunter King to not only fail to capture the exotic beast but also both suffer serious injuries…
This was truly a chain reaction. In the end, these two groups of unlucky fellows whose fates had been changed all came to seek medical treatment and actually ran into Xiao Xiao, the one who caused the disruption, in an alley in Luoyi…
After understanding the causes and effects, Xiao Xiao was quite moved for a while. The entanglement of these fates, interlocking one after another, was also quite shocking to her.
When she cleared her throat and was about to persuade the two, they had already become red-eyed.
At this moment, the red smoke in the alley became even thicker, as if it was attracted by more thick smoke from people’s splashing blood, quickly filling the entire alley.
Those people were already in high spirits. After inhaling the red smoke, even their eyes seemed to turn red, and the force of their hands became even more frenzied. Amidst the screams of misery, corpses soon filled the alley.
And that old man and the hook-nosed man also stabbed each other with a sword and both died…
Those white lanterns falling on the ground were now stained deep red with blood. In the illumination of the candlelight, the cold alley seemed even more eerie.
At this time, the only living people left standing in the alley were Wei Jie and Cui Xiao Xiao. They both pressed the Fengchi acupoint on the side of their necks in unison, guarding their true spirit…
That red smoke seemed to be still unsatisfied, still lingering around the two of them. However, these two people seemed to have no discomfort and only stood still in their original spots, holding the lanterns.
After a standoff like this for a while, the door of a courtyard at the end of the alley creaked open, and a white-faced boy stood at the door. When he saw that the survivors were actually two people, he seemed a bit unwilling and said in a ethereal voice, “Those seeking medical treatment, please enter…”
After saying this, in just a moment, that boy disappeared.
Wei Jie held Xiao Xiao’s hand, carried the white lantern, stepped over the corpses one by one, and entered the courtyard.
This courtyard looked like it had been uninhabited for a long time, and weeds were everywhere. When they came to the door of the main hall, a short maid carrying tea turned her head to look at them and said coldly, “You came at the wrong time. Someone just died in the house. The master said, if you are sensible, offer a white envelope and leave!”
After saying that, the maid carried the tea and quickly entered the main hall.
Xiao Xiao and Wei Jie walked a bit slower. By the time they entered the main hall, the maid was nowhere to be seen. Instead, they saw that the main hall really had a “memorial” character hanging.
In the center of the main hall, there was a black lacquered coffin. At this time, the lid was tightly closed, looking a bit terrifying.
Wei Jie walked in, knocked hard on the coffin lid three times with his hand, and then said, “I’ve long heard that the ghost doctor’s medical skills are superb, so I specially came to seek medical treatment. Come out!”
At this moment, a strange laughter suddenly came from the coffin, “Interesting, interesting. It seems that those who come for medical treatment this year are a bit more interesting!”
As he spoke, the coffin lid automatically moved aside. A man with a full beard, wearing a loose and ill-fitting burial robe, crawled out of the coffin.
Xiao Xiao looked at this ghost doctor a bit speechlessly and couldn’t help asking Wei Jie in a low voice, “This ghost doctor has a big acting obsession?”
That old man had very sharp ears and actually heard Xiao Xiao’s muttering. He immediately asked in a sharp voice, “Hey, little girl, what are you saying?”
Xiao Xiao had experienced a night of absurd things and was a bit tired of it at this point. She looked at that old man’s excessively white and delicate skin, and said a bit helplessly, “In just a moment, you have played the roles of the boy who opened the door, the maid who served tea, and now the old man with a full beard… Isn’t that having a big acting obsession?”
Hearing this, the old man jumped up like a naughty child and still refused to admit it, “Nonsense, those two were clearly my son and daughter!”
Faced with such an unreasonable person, Xiao Xiao felt a bit powerless and leaned her head against a pillar beside her. Only after regaining some energy did she say, “Your white face can’t be concealed just by applying some rouge or wearing a fake beard. It’s quite late. Do you know how to treat illnesses or not? If not, I’m going to leave!”
Hearing these words, that man finally angrily tore off the gray beard on his face, revealing a youthful and immature face.
He rolled up his ill-fitting sleeves and stared at Xiao Xiao suspiciously, “People who entered this courtyard before were all in a state of turmoil. Why are you two so calm and collected, not showing any panic at all?”
Wei Jie looked down at him and said, “Are you talking about why we didn’t get poisoned by the toxic smoke in the alley and kill each other like those people?”
After saying this, he glanced at Xiao Xiao beside him. The two of them simultaneously dug out two small green balls from their nostrils.
It turned out that these were detoxifying leaves that Wei Jie brought out from the valley on Qilao Mountain. Back then, Wei Jie relied on these leaves to resist the snake venom.
When Xiao Xiao heard the night watchman’s words, she realized that the massacre back then might not have been Wei Jie’s intention.
She had gone through many experiences and reminded Wei Jie that there might be something in the alley that could make people lose their minds.
With her reminder, when they entered the alley, they rolled the leaves into balls and stuffed them into their nostrils, just in case.
So when the alley was filled with miasma and everyone became restless, the two of them were not affected by the poisonous gas.
But the other people in the alley were obviously deeply poisoned and eventually killed each other, all dying.
Xiao Xiao looked at the young man who had caused the deaths of so many people and still had the mood to act, so she frowned and asked, “As a doctor, if you select who to save, that’s fine. But before treating illnesses, why do you harm people first?”
That young ghost doctor was used to seeing flattering and fawning patients bowing and scraping. He didn’t expect that the two people who came today were so tough. Not only were they not anxious to seek medical treatment, but they even started interrogating him instead!
He couldn’t help but laugh wildly, “Nonsense, treating illnesses is very exhausting for me. How can such a precious opportunity be wasted on those short-lived ghosts? If they are not the victors who have emerged from the competition, how are they worthy of me diagnosing and treating them?”
It seemed that he selected patients by gathering those seeking medical treatment in an alley, like raising poisonous worms, letting them fight each other, and only leaving the final victor.
No wonder in the past two years, on the day when the ghost gate opened, there would be several corpses of those seeking medical treatment appearing at the entrance of the vegetable market. It seemed to be the handiwork of this ghost doctor.
As for the previous trajectory where Wei Jie stood in a pile of corpses, it should also be due to this ghost doctor’s trick.
After understanding this point, Xiao Xiao only felt extreme disgust for this so-called divine doctor in front of her.
At this moment, the ghost doctor’s eyes rolled between the two of them, and he spoke again to sow discord, “Only one living person can leave my courtyard, but there are two of you. Why don’t you decide for yourselves who lives and who dies?”
But Xiao Xiao just smiled, “But I don’t want you to treat my illness anymore. Our life and death have nothing to do with you.”
But that ghost doctor wouldn’t accept it. He said angrily, “Once you enter my courtyard, whether to treat the illness or not is not up to you! If I let you leave without treating your illness, won’t it ruin my reputation? No, today, you have to be treated even if you don’t want to!”
After saying this, he suddenly reached out with lightning speed and yanked off the bandage on Xiao Xiao’s arm.
Xiao Xiao’s wound, which had been unable to heal for a long time, was torn open again by this ghost doctor, and blood gushed out.
The ghost doctor stared at the charred burns around Xiao Xiao’s wound with some excitement, his eyes widening, “This… is an injury from heavenly punishment! You actually managed to escape unscathed from heavenly punishment? You’re really not simple!”
When he approached, ready to get closer, Xiao Xiao’s long fingers moved slightly, and she immediately drew the treasure sword “Defying the Heavens” from her waist and steadily pressed it against the ghost doctor’s neck.
This ancient treasure sword emerged from the ground, and the gems embedded in the sword body absorbed the energy of heavenly punishment. The sword light was scorching hot, slaying gods when encountering gods and slaying demons when encountering demons!
How could that ghost doctor withstand it? He was forced to retreat continuously by the sword qi.
Xiao Xiao noticed that the ghost doctor’s side face was reflected on the sword body, and it was actually half a… ferocious skull ghost face.
Looking at the ghost doctor now, the half of his face that was forced by the sword qi rapidly withered and aged, becoming unrecognizable.
Xiao Xiao knew that her guess was indeed correct. This so-called divine doctor… was actually possessed by a demon.
Coerced by the sword light of “Defying the Heavens,” he had already crawled on the ground, no longer showing the arrogance of manipulating people’s life and death just now. He only kept crying and shouting, “Chivalrous lady, spare me! I won’t dare to do it again…”
It turned out that this so-called divine doctor was originally just a quack. He lost his mother at a young age and was determined to inherit his father’s profession and become a famous doctor of the generation.
Unfortunately, he was dull-witted and obstinately trying to show off. At the age of fifteen, when his father was not paying attention, he secretly saw patients and unintentionally prescribed the wrong medicine, causing the death of the patient.
As a result, his father took the blame for him and was exiled to the frontier. On the way, he fell seriously ill and died.
His sister, who relied on him, had to marry an old man in his sixties as a concubine in order to make a living, but was eventually forced to death by the principal wife.
He had no one to rely on and became a beggar, bullied and cursed by others. He unintentionally entered a cave and encountered a possessing demon. Unable to withstand the demon’s temptation, he made a life-and-death contract, exchanging his remaining sixty years of life for the demon’s hands that could bring people back to life and determine their life and death.
And his body was fixed at the age of fourteen, and his body also became the residence of the demon. Once the demon left his body, he would immediately age and die.
It’s just that the so-called medical treatment by the demon was just using the method of secretly replacing, using his sixty years of life to extend the lives of those patients.
And the complete cure of the illness was nothing more than transferring the illness to the young man’s own body.
Relying on the demon possessing his body, he was not afraid of having more illnesses and pains.
And when he saw those patients thanking him with tears, praising him as a divine doctor, it brought great satisfaction to his inferior and distorted heart.
It’s just that the physical body had limited capacity. If he couldn’t bear too many illnesses and pains, that demon would threaten to leave him and find a new host.
He panicked and could only think of ways to prolong his life.
Since his own life was not enough to extend the lives of the patients, he would use other people’s lives to fill it… It’s just that his body was too weak to see too many patients.
So he put on the guise of only seeing one patient a year and tricked those who came to seek medical treatment into the alley, then used the maddening poisonous fog to make them kill each other.
When the ghost alley was flooded with blood, the demon in his body also received enough nourishment and could let him demonstrate the divine power of bringing people back to life again, receiving the grateful tears and praise of others…
And at other times, he hid in the old house in Nineteen Li like a rat that couldn’t see the sunlight, playing the roles of his deceased father and sister alone, as if they were still a happy family of three…
He didn’t expect that today’s clinic opening would be so unsmooth! He was threatened with a demon-subduing divine sword by a little girl.
But what was most unbearable for this ghost doctor was not that he was coerced by the treasure sword, but that Cui Xiao Xiao actually didn’t let him diagnose and treat illnesses.
