Chapter 11: Strange Illness

 

In the Qin Empire, the men and women here are valiant. Because of that, there are also females who join the imperial army to protect the border from invaders.

 

Zou Jie separates from the caravan after entering the border town gate, and the people are bustling. He also notices many people carrying a sword on their back or waist, maybe because this is a border town and the rules are not strict.

 

The town and city had a regulation about civilians carrying a sword. Except if you are for a martial alliance or an escort agency. There are also itinerant martial artists, but most of the time, law enforcement ignores them. Because they don’t want to die for confiscation of the sword, and itinerant martial artists don’t care about the law.

 

Along the way, he notices several fights that have been stopped by the town's law enforcement.

 

However, in one of those fights, a man loses a hand. While the other is already dead.

 

“My hand!” The man tries to stop the bleeding arm.

 

The crowds gathered to watch, but there was nothing they could do.

 

Some of the crowds recognize the hand-bleeding man, Gu Yi, who works for an escort agency in the town.

 

“Husband!” A slightly chubby woman comes running. While being followed by her daughter.

 

“Dad!” The girl cried.

 

Gu Yi held his bleeding left hand; he had been careless. He is trying to stop the itinerant martial artist from disturbing his wife and daughter. When he thought he had already won and wanted to leave, the itinerant martial artist sneak attacked him from behind.

 

Although he manages to kill the itinerant martial artist, he loses a hand.

 

While his body is getting weaker from blood loss. A young man came out of the crowd.

 

“I am a physician.” Zou Jie first stopped the bleeding using acupuncture and brought him to the side of the street.

 

“Physician how?” Gu Yi asked weakly.

 

“You will survive, but with your left hand.”

 

“Don’t worry, I understand.” Once the limbs are severed, there is no way to reattach them to the body again. At least it was Gu Yi's left hand and not the right hand for holding a sword.

 

 

“I have a way to reattach your hand, but there might be a failure.” Zou Jie gazed at the left hand that had been cut; since the sword is sharp, the cut is clean.

 

“Really how?” Gu Yi, although he doesn’t completely believe the physician, As long as there is hope, he wants to try it.

 

“This is not a good place to do it; where is your home?”

 

“Let me show you the way.” Gu Yi tries to stand up, but his body is weak.

 

“Let me support you; just let your wife show the way.” Zou Jie easily supports Gu Yi to walk.

 

The Gu Yi wife is startled but quickly shows the way.

 

-

 

Gu Yi is sleeping on the bed. On a stool, there are various surgical tools that Zou Jie made. After cleaning the wound and stopping the bleeding, He aligned the bone and began to suture the cut left hand to the arm.

 

The next morning, the surgery was complicated, and it took him more than 18 hours to finish.

 

Gu Yi's wife and daughter had already fallen asleep outside the room because of exhaustion. Fortunately, Zou Jie had strong endurance because of his second-class martial artist body and qi.

 

Zou Jie wants to leave and stay at the inn. Gu Yi's wife insists he stay in one of the rooms to rest.

 

Zou Jie in another room is too tired to know when to sleep. Doing the surgery until the morning makes him exhausted.

 

While he is sleeping, a group of people come to see Gu Yi.

 

The people from the escort agency came yesterday, but Gu Yi's wife prevented them from entering the room and said there were already physicians inside. Because they were waiting for too long, they decided to come back tomorrow.

 

Seeing Gu Yi's condition, all of them sigh in relief.

 

“I heard his hand had been cut."

 

Gu Yi's wife explains what happened, and all of them are surprised. A physician who can reattach a severed hand has never heard before.

 

“Do you think he was a divine physician?” According to legend, there is a divine physician who can heal any injury or sickness. However, no one had ever seen one.

 

"Impossible, according to Gu Yi's wife, it was a young man.”

 

“Maybe he is a divine physician disciple.”

 

“It’s possible.”

 

“Keep this secret.” One of the men spoke. If it is true, many people will disturb their comrade benefactor. Someone like a divine physician doesn’t like to be disturbed and likes to roam free.

 

-

 

Zou Jie gradually opens his eyes, and the first thing he does after waking up is open the system visual panel. To his surprise, the karma point that he got from reattaching a hand was more than a hundred.

 

[Karma system]

[Karma point: 517]

[Bad Karma Punishment: (0/10)]

 

-

 

[Medical skill:]

[Devine physician knowledge: 500]

 

-

 

[Martial artist:]

[5 years of Qi: 500]

[First-class martial arts manual: 1000]

 

-

 

Zou Jie's first plan is to purchase the first-class martial arts manual to get stronger, after contemplating whether it's better if he purchases the divine physician's knowledge to help Gu Yi's injury.

 

Although he doesn’t have a family in his past or this life, seeing the mother and daughter crying makes him soft and want to help.

 

“Purchase the divine physician's knowledge.”

 

Zou Jie closes his eyes, and various information is transmitted into his brain at the same time his body is changing.

 

A few hours later, he opened his eyes. As a divine physician, as long as people are still breathing, he can save them. Except if their lifespan has already ended. His body can also heal from any injury. That means if the enemy doesn’t kill him, he will survive.

 

After checking Gu Yi's condition, he left to find an inn. Although they insisted that he stay again, Zou Jie refused. Tonight, he is planning to go out and have fun. He needs to relax his mind.

 

-

 

Qin Empire Palace

 

A few months ago, the Qin emperor suddenly caught a strange illness, causing swelling under the skin and loss of the ability to sense touch and pain.

 

In this world, people still don’t know and have no cure for leprosy, which is caused by slow-growing bacteria.

 

However, there is a problem: the empire can’t function without an emperor, and the empire doesn’t have a crown prince to be in charge in the absence of an emperor.

 

The Qin Empire, to prevent chaos, kept this a secret from civilians and other empires. Nevertheless, it’s only a matter of time before people will know what’s going on.

 

The people from the palace are waiting for the Qin emperor to announce the crown prince. But it’s been delayed until now. The reason the Qin emperor didn’t announce the crown prince was that the eldest prince was incompetent. The rest is even worse, except for the 11th prince.

 

However, the 11th prince's mother concubine, Xu, was born into a peasant family.

 

Inside a majestic room, a middle-aged man is lying on the bed, surrounded by a palace maid and eunuch.

 

“Your majesty, we are waiting for your decision.” An elderly eunuch said

 

“What does the physician say?” The Qin emperor ignored the eunuch's inquiry and asked

 

“They don’t know what's wrong with your high body.”

 

“Useless!” The Qin emperor yell.

 

“Your majesty, please calm down.” All the people in the room knelt.

 

“Everyone go out and call the chancellor!”

 

“Yes, Your Majesty.” The people in the room leave the room.

 

After a while, a middle-aged man with white hair and a beard enters the room.

 

“How is your investigation?’

 

“We still don’t know what’s wrong with Your Majesty's body; should we contact the martial alliance?” Few families and sects in the alliance specialize in poison and medicine.

 

“No, my illness will be exposed.” The Qin emperor is still hopeful that the imperial physician can find a cure.

 

“Your majesty, there is no other way, and I advise you to choose a crown prince.”

 

“Who do you think is suitable?”

 

“Your majesty, this loyal official doesn’t know.”

 

“Chancellor Li, I permit you to speak your mind.”

 

Chancellor Li hesitated and spoke. “Your Majesty, I will choose the 11th prince, but he doesn’t have support from the official in court.

 

“What will happen if I make the 11th prince the crown prince?”

 

“There will be a civil war if anything happens to your majesty.”

 

“You can leave.”

 

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

 

The Qin Emperor gazes at the ceiling, and no one knows what he is thinking.

 

-

 

At night, the town's red-light district is bustling with people.

 

Inside a room, Zou Jie is waiting for someone, and soon a middle-aged woman enters the room.

 

The middle-aged woman is feeling embarrassed. Because of her age, she had stopped serving any customers and worked in the kitchen.

 

“Why do you ask me to serve you? I am already old." The middle-aged woman looks shy. His customer is a young man.

 

"No, in my eyes, you are beautiful.” Zou Jie carried her to the bed and took off her clothes.

 

A few of the middle-aged woman friends secretly listened outside the door and blushed while listening to the sound inside the room.