Someone was screaming. 

The sound was disconcerting. Xiao Xue wrinkled her brows and tried to turn her head to ask the person to stop. The small action, that should have been easy, felt like a monumental feat once accomplished. Thankfully, the dreadful sound stopped. Just as Xiao Xue thought she would get a moment of silence, Xiao felt a choking sensation on her throat. Someone was strangling her! Xiao Xue tried to break free but there was something clamping down on her body, keeping her in place.

Instead of panicking, Xiao Xue labored to calm herself. The more she struggles the more the person, who’s bent on choking the life out of her, would exert pressure and the faster she would waste away. This is a vicious fact she learned the hard way from previous experience. Xiao Xue controlled her body’s natural response of rejection and strove hard to calm her senses. 

But as Xiao Xue recovered her bearing, boundless spiritual energy invaded her body. It wasn’t the same spiritual energy that soothed her pain. This time the spiritual energy was more intense and sharp. It circulated through her meridians breaking all obstructions. It flowed unhindered and unrestrained, flushing all the stagnant energy within her body, making it circulate faster. The feeling was akin to having torrential rain after a long drought. Wave after wave of deep-seated power rushed through her body filling the once empty meridians to almost full and bursting. 

Xiao Xue groaned in pain as beads of sweat rolled down her spine. Her head hurt like someone was pounding on it, trying to make it cave. A metallic aftertaste slowly rose up her throat as her breathing became more unstable.

The energy circulated faster, over and over. It gradually gathered the vapid and useless energy in the middle of her back. The pressure was so intense Xiao Xue found it harder to breathe. And when she thought she would burst from the compressed energy, a steady and solid palm hit the middle of her back.

Xiao Xue coughed out a mouthful of black blood and started to regain a sliver of consciousness. She heaved a few more times before managing to lift her aching head. 

“Ah Yu…” she whispered weakly.

Xie Yuan, who’s sitting across from her, was anxiously staring at her face. Once she saw his face, Xiao Xue’s worry about dying suddenly eased. Xie Yuan looked like he would commit murder in the next moment. Because he was sitting in front of her the blood that she spat out was now staining the front of his once pristine robes. Xiao Xue felt apologetic but after calling out to him her strength was back to nil. All she could do was look pitiful at him to convey her guilt and silently request for forgiveness.

Xie Yuan seemed to have figured out what she was trying to say and smiled solicitously. He did not care for the blood in his clothes at all! Seeing her awake and hearing her call out to him was what’s most important to him at the moment. Xie Yuan wanted to appease her but the treatment was not over. He needed to concentrate on his part to ensure its success. But now that Xiao Xue was conscious and appears to be aware of what’s happening around her, he felt more at ease as he toiled diligently.

The restless spiritual energy was gathered in the middle of her back three more times and three more times Xiao Xue coughed out a mouthful of black blood. The last time the energy penetrated her body it left a cooling and soothing effect, healing and numbing her pain. The effect helped relax her battered nerves and in no time, Xiao Xue fell into a restful slumber.

Xie Yuan caught Xiao Xue’s sleeping form and looked menacingly at the old man sitting behind her.

“Don’t glare at me like that, boy. She’s merely tired. She would wake up again and when she does she’d feel better.” The old man reproached irritably. 

The young lord has been glaring at him from the moment he arrived. He did not even greet him properly, only chided him for being missing when he was needed. From the battered look of his disciple and the group around the room, the young lord seems to be physically showing his temper and dissatisfaction.

Xi Yuan has always been impatient and his temper has always been foul. Yi Sheng often mentally praised Zhang Lao for being able to tolerate this type of behavior from his young master. If it was him, he would have thrown himself on an abyss somewhere just to escape this little demon.

“Clean her up and allow Yi Xin to properly bind her leg otherwise what we did would be useless,” Yi Sheng continued. “After she wakes up I would need to ask her a few questions before I could do more.”

The three women in the room immediately came forward to receive the young lady from Xie Yuan’s embrace. But to everyone’s amazement, Xie Yuan stood up with the young lady secured in his arms and steadily walked to the side room where a bath was prepared. He walked out moments later but not before handing specific instructions to the women.

Yi Sheng, who was more worldly and experienced, recovered quicker than the rest of the group. He unceremoniously said, “Young lord, this lady of yours is very good. If it were a regular cultivator they would have succumbed to that poison in less than a year. From the current level of her cultivation it’s surprising to see that not only did she survive the effects of the poison, she even managed to work her way around it. If we can fully detoxify her body and mend her dantian, the lady’s strength would soar to heights that are more than you or I could imagine!”

The corner of Xie Yuan’s lips twitched. He had the desire to commit murder when the old man called him ‘boy’ but since he followed it up with ‘this lady of yours’ Xie Yuan was willing, albeit grudgingly, to let the unpleasant remark pass.

The old man commonly known as the godly doctor, Yi Sheng, then turned to face his useless disciple. He rushed towards the younger man and his palm immediately connected to the back of Yi Xin’s head as he fiercely scolded, “Useless! You didn’t know she was poisoned? How can you not know? Have I not taught you anything?”

Yi Xin, who was hit, wanted to cry but couldn’t. He had no way to stop his master from beating him so he stood still and accepted his fate. It was better to get it over with sooner than later. But more than the beating, he was more distressed with the current situation. Yi Xin checked Xiao Xue for poison and has been closely monitoring her body from the first day. There was no sign or indication of poisoning. How could he know she was poisoned if there was no trace at all?!

Yi Sheng, who seemed to have expended his irritation and was now satisfied after beating his disciple, retracted his evil hands but continued to reprimand poor Yi Xin. “It is good that I decided to follow you here instead of waiting at Divine Martial Sect. Who knows what other stupid things you would have done otherwise!”

In truth, Yi Xin did not do anything wrong. The poison on Xiao Xue’s body had been there for several years and was now rooted to her flesh and bones. This particular type of poison is virtually traceless but very potent and deadly. If Yi Xin did not tell Yi Sheng of the effects of the medicinal bath on Xiao Xue, the types of herbs he used and the tonics and elixirs he brewed even Yi Sheng would not be able to realize that the young lady was indeed poisoned until it's too late.

The deadly poison is the sort that eats away at the body from the inside. The poison would first corrode the meridians and veins, making the use of spiritual energy almost impossible and the infected person’s cultivation would come to an abrupt halt. The cultivator’s stagnating spiritual energy reserve will then be grinded down and gradually fade. Once the cultivator loses the ability to circulate his spiritual energy, he would then be defenseless against the toxins and die a painful death.

Perhaps it was a blessing that the meridians of the young lady were once severed. This allowed the poison to be contained and not to flow heedlessly on her body. But once the broken meridians were mended the poison started acting up and for some inexplicable reason the young lady managed to suppress its effects.

Even a high level cultivator will not notice this particular poison on their system until it’s too late that’s what makes it so horrible. It’s basically impossible to know unless the person was aware of the circumstance of when and how he or she was poisoned. 

There’s a possibility that the young lady knows about the poison but Xie Yuan informed Yi Sheng that she has no recollection of the past, at least not before the year of her eighth spring. With this information, it’s safe to assume that the young lady felt something was wrong with her body and unconsciously guarded against it. This seemingly inconsequential detail is, in fact, a huge discovery.

When Yi Sheng praised Xiao Xue in front of Xie Yuan he was not just uttering beautiful words in order to please the young lord. Yi Sheng really feels the young lady is quite good. Consciously or not, the young lady managed to contain the poison on the parts of her body that were already considered broken, namely her lame leg and scarred face. The young lady also managed to bypass and suppress the poison’s potent effects and succeeded to continue her progress in cultivation without a hitch. 

If the young lady did not suffer life threatening injuries and was not given a combination of herbs that caused the poison to flare up, no one would know she was severely poisoned. And in the future, when she loses the ability to cultivate, those around her would just regard it as a natural consequence due to an old injury and no one would guess how she truly died.

It’s fortunate that Yi Sheng came to Infernal Rise Valley after he learned he was needed. Yi Xin would not have known how to deal with this specific poison. At most, Yi Xin would be able to temporarily staunch its effects but the methods he would have to use will probably cause small but irreversible damage.

As soon as he walked out of the room Yi Sheng sighed and wiped the sweat on his wrinkled forehead. He broke that already broken leg in order to properly reconnect it and allow it to heal as it should. He wanted to fix it before dealing with the poison that leaked from that area. It was a very simple process of straightening the leg. Yi Sheng was curious as to why Yi Xin did not perform such an easy procedure and thought it was nothing but a slight oversight. No one had the time to warn him about Xie Yuan’s possible reaction if he performed such unfeeling action.

Initially, Yi Sheng thought the young lord was helping the young lady out of gratitude. That his actions were no more than a form of reciprocation for service that was once rendered. But after Yi Sheng unfeelingly broke the young lady’s leg and she let out that terrible scream, Yi Sheng felt a vicious killing intent slam to his weathered body. If his cultivation level was not high enough to receive such an attack Yi Sheng would have been gravely injured. Yi Sheng was certain that if they were not in the middle of treating the young lady, Xie Yuan would have murdered him on the spot.

The method of forcing out the poison after that incident was a high-risk gamble but once initiated Yi Sheng could not withdraw or the repercussions would have been fatal. If he knew the young lady was important to the young lord, Yi Sheng would not have attempted this form of callous and painful treatment. It is fortunate that the young lady’s body held up during treatment and they managed to clear some of the poison from her system.

Yi Sheng does not know who or where the young lady came from but regardless of her connection to the young lord, he would help her detoxify the poison and fix her broken dantian. As a well-known doctor and a cultivator, it would be a great sin to watch a budding genius fade away. Yi Sheng wants to see how high the young lady could soar once her injuries are healed. As a matter of fact, he’s looking forward to it.

If Xie Yuan does not have his sight set on the young lady, Yi Sheng would have taken her as his second disciple. He’s certain that with her strong comprehension skills she would attain great achievements not only in cultivation but in medicine as well, perhaps even higher than his only disciple, Yi Xin. 

Of course, Yi Sheng could still ask the young lady if she wanted to learn from him but if Xie Yuan finds out that he’s trying to poach the young lady to be his apprentice, to travel and learn medicine with him… Yi Sheng shuddered and curtly shook his head, trying hard to get rid of his fancy thoughts.

“Master, is something wrong?” Yi Xin asked worriedly when he saw the old man’s body shiver. All of them in the room felt Xie Yuan’s attack earlier. He was afraid his Master was injured or overtaxed himself and was now in need of treatment as well.

Yi Sheng eyed his disciple and sighed heavily thinking of what he had lost. Yi Sheng would have to make do with the one he already has. It’s convenient and safer. Aside from being a little slow, Yi Xin was relatively all right. He’s better than most people his age anyway. 

But still unwilling to give up, Yi Sheng thought that perhaps he could give small pointers to the young lady when the young lord was not watching. Maybe he could send her some scrolls and manuals to read in the form of gifts… 

Yi Sheng was startled by his thoughts but was reluctant to stop them. He suddenly felt enlightened. The allure of having Xiao Xue as a second disciple was quite strong and the old man was powerless against it.

Yi Sheng was convinced that this course of action would be all right. It cannot be considered as poaching. It could be taken as building friendly relations with the young lord and the young lady. The young lord would definitely not prevent Yi Sheng from showering the young lady with gifts of friendship. So what if the gifts are mainly in line with medicine and alchemy, the young lord might even feel appreciative of his efforts for trying to please his little woman.

Once the idea took form, Yi Sheng rejoiced and slowly schemed to get Xiao Xue to slowly familiarize herself with medicine and get her to accept him as her ‘Master’. He hurried away thinking of where to start and how he should go about explaining the information in a way that it’s easy to digest and would not be too obvious to the young lord.

Yi Sheng contentedly strode away leaving his clueless disciple staring at his back. Yi Xin, who was left behind, did not know that his master had set his eyes on another apprentice that could potentially get them both killed.