One side involves a dragon vein capable of transformation, and the other involves the catastrophic opium, both shrouded in mystery. Mo Li really wished he could, like the monsters proficient in magic in the storybooks, use a doppelganger technique to deal with both matters overnight.
Unfortunately, there were no monsters in the world, and the dragon vein didn’t know magic either.
The dragon vein had to move by itself. If it wasn’t in its own home or the home of another dragon vein that was close enough to be indistinguishable from itself, it couldn’t even transform into a dragon.
—The dragon form was the gathering of mountain spirits and was not a physical entity. In places where the spiritual energy was uncontrollable, it had to obediently remain as a fish or a fat mouse.
This place was still eight hundred miles away from Feihe Mountain, in the heartland of Jiangnan. It required passing through Yuzhou, entering Jingzhou, the territory of King Ning of Chu, and then traveling for another four or five days by carriage and horse.
It sounded unreachable, but to Mo Li, it was roughly a day’s and a night’s journey at full speed with lightness skill. So, far… cough, not too far.
However, the dragon vein saving someone happened decades ago. Although Feihe Mountain was the primary suspect, it was still a mystery whether it did the deed. Opium, on the other hand, was an urgent matter that needed immediate attention, and its significance was clear.
What concerned Mo Li was the intersection between these two matters.
The swordsman.
The dragon vein happened to save a woman who later gave birth to a child with a troubled fate. This child eventually ended up in Piaoping Pavilion and learned martial arts. The person who saved the swordsman from the “pit of fire” was the master of Piaoping Pavilion, who was also the culprit behind controlling others with opium.
So, the swordsman’s experience alone encompassed two legends: the birth aided by a mountain spirit and the reappearance of the lost sacred medicine from the southern border.
Coupled with his top-notch martial skills… it really seemed like a storybook protagonist.
All that’s missing was a sudden enlightenment, turning his early life of being used for money and missions into a later life of wandering the Jianghu, seeing through worldly affairs, and seeking refuge in Buddhism to atone for his sins.
Mo Li thought of Master Yuan Zhi with a peculiar expression.
—See, even the high monk is already present.
Unfortunately, the old monk’s scolding didn’t awaken the assassin.
Storybooks were storybooks after all, and it wasn’t that easy to lay down the butcher’s knife.
“…That swordsman’s body is very special. He received that spiritual energy in his mother’s womb, and it has long fused with his bones and blood. Using the popular storybook term, this is true innate energy! Not only has it kept the swordsman alive until today, but it also made his martial arts practice twice as effective with half the effort. Compared to Ning Changyuan’s congenital meridian cleared by Elder Qin, it’s not much different, almost a miraculous creation.” Mo Li suppressed his whimsical thoughts about the storybook protagonist and continued explaining to Meng Qi, “I studied under the miraculous doctor Qin Lao for over ten years and dared not claim to have such skills. That dragon vein must be knowledgeable in medicine; even if not a practicing doctor, his understanding of meridians and organs surpasses mine.”
Meng Qi’s nerves tightened.
What a joke, the same kind, and a peer to Mo Li?
Look at this praise!
Listen to the words that almost express a desire to meet the other person immediately!
The dragon vein of Taijing Capital couldn’t hold back and hurriedly seized a flaw, saying, “So, this dragon vein has been able to transform for a long time, perhaps older than you and me?”
“Well, possibly,” Mo Li nodded in agreement.
He had studied medicine for over ten years and could only claim a modest success, not daring to boast of curing all diseases.
Even Qin Lu, who traveled all over the world and had seen much, did not dare say he understood all ailments and their causes.
Medical skills require time to accumulate, and a person’s life is ultimately limited.
“Then that would be a senior.”
“Yes,” Mo Li was excited, thinking he might learn a thing or two.
Meng Qi quietly breathed a sigh of relief. It’s good if they’re old, just not young.
He then casually added, “Such a method of saving people with spiritual energy also requires a stroke of luck, right? For instance, the fetus must not die in the womb, and the child must have vitality and be fully formed?”
Mo Li fell into deep thought upon hearing this.
At this moment, the members of Fengxing Pavilion had dispersed, busy searching for clues about opium.
Apart from the swordsman, Meng Qi generously handed the other two captives to Qiu Jing.
A gentle breeze blew, causing the bamboo forest to sway like waves.
The two of them used secret voice transmission to speak, staring at the swordsman until his neck felt prickly.
“Doctor, there’s something I don’t understand.”
“Brother Meng, please speak.”
Meng Qi looked worried and, after pondering for a moment, said, “Such miraculous creation and divine intervention, after the dragon vein saved the person, didn’t it go back to check on the child? Wouldn’t it be curious about the case it encountered by chance? Wouldn’t it want to know if the child was born safely? How the child’s health was, and if it could grow up strong?”
“This… should have been checked.”
As the saying goes, “sending Buddha to the west,” a healer would not leave their patient halfway.
Mo Li knew what Meng Qi implied.
The misfortunes encountered by the swordsman in his childhood meant that the dragon vein never appeared again.
Mo Li frowned and said, “Based on the scars on this person’s body, it must have been after he was seven or eight years old. The child had been born for seven years; the dragon vein should have long left, or perhaps the family moved away…”
“A common doctor indeed wouldn’t inquire about a patient from seven years ago. I think the dragon vein should be different,” Meng Qi interrupted. “Not that I doubt the dragon vein, but putting myself in its shoes, if I saved someone in this way, I would surely check on them occasionally over the years. It’s like nurturing a ginseng plant with spiritual energy; you’d hope it grows well, and if it doesn’t, you’d move it. For a child, if their family was in dire straits, I wouldn’t care, but if they were really starving, I’d sneak some food to them at night. How could I be completely unaware of their whereabouts?”
Mo Li was stunned.
Yes, if the white fox insisted on living with its biological parents on the next mountain, he would still check on it every so often.
“This… left too hastily, the dragon vein didn’t know? Couldn’t find it afterward?”
“If it was a newly transformed dragon vein, maybe. But if it was an old senior, familiar with worldly affairs, truly searching would not be fruitless. Doctor, you just said this person lived miserably from seven to thirteen or fourteen, for six or seven years. The dragon vein also sent spiritual energy into this person. Could it really not find him?”
Mo Li’s face changed drastically, and he asked tremblingly, “Are you saying that the master of Piaoping Pavilion—”
Is a dragon vein?
This speculation was too shocking.
Meng Qi’s original intention was only to temper Mo Li’s eagerness to meet his kindred spirit. Mo Li hadn’t even met the dragon vein but already felt a deep affinity, which made the Fat Mouse feel bitter.
However, as the conversation progressed, Meng Qi was also astonished. He had no intention of slandering the dragon vein. He also wanted to meet a fellow kind, but he valued Mo Li more and now found himself in a predicament.
“No, that’s not what I meant,” Meng Qi said, rubbing his forehead awkwardly. “There’s another possibility: the dragon vein really didn’t go looking for the swordsman. Maybe it saved many people, and the swordsman didn’t stand out in its mind. Or it believed in destiny, saved the child when encountered, and left after seeing the child born. Buddha said everything is predestined, not to be forced; maybe that’s its temperament!”
Mo Li’s face relaxed a little upon hearing this.
He hesitantly asked, “Do you think if we tell the swordsman that his true benefactor is the high-ranking medical expert who saved his mother and ensured his birth, and he clearly knows the master of Piaoping Pavilion is doing evil, would he be willing to reveal some secrets of Piaoping Pavilion if we pretend to know that senior?”
“I’m afraid not.”
“Why?”
“The incident of his mother nearly miscarrying and being helped by spiritual energy happened too long ago. He was a fetus at that time, and if his parents didn’t tell him, he might not know. Secondly, the abuse and beatings he suffered are his personal experiences. Comparing the two, even if he knows the truth, he might only recognize the latter kindness.”
“But without the spiritual energy, he wouldn’t have even been born…”
“Doctor, to some people, not being born sometimes means not suffering in this world,” Meng Qi rarely interrupted Mo Li.
Mo Li didn’t speak for a while.
The world is full of mediocrity, and many events are misled by mediocrity, even turning good deeds into bad ones.
Meng Qi turned and sternly questioned the swordsman, “Do you know that your mother almost failed to give birth to you?”
Then, Meng Qi repeated Mo Li’s suggestion, but the development that followed differed from Meng Qi’s prediction. The swordsman’s eyes suddenly widened, and he began to scrutinize them, half-doubting.
Meng Qi paused.
Mo Li initially didn’t understand, but seeing Meng Qi’s mixed expression of shock and anger, he suddenly felt a chill.
—The swordsman’s reaction was off.
He should be skeptical or mocking, thinking this was nonsense.
Or, as Meng Qi said, being born into this suffering world wasn’t a blessing, and from the perspective of a radical assassin, how could it be considered a favor?
However, the swordsman kept scrutinizing them, looking as if he knew the inside story! The swordsman knew someone had saved his mother and might have met or heard of this person later, so now he doubted Meng Qi’s claim of knowing that person.
Meng Qi, wanting to make up for unintentionally defaming his kind, ended up hitting the mark, deepening the other side’s suspicion.
This might make Mo Li dislike the other party, but Meng Qi wouldn’t be happy about it either.
A dragon vein was his kind. After traversing mountains and rivers, he had been searching for his kind.
Meng Qi composed himself, quickly adjusted his expression, and said with a light laugh, “What? You don’t believe I know that elusive senior with no reputation in the Jianghu?”
The swordsman became more hesitant.
The more uncertain he was, the more confident Meng Qi felt.
The swordsman was not familiar with that dragon vein! The master of Piaoping Pavilion was not the transformed dragon vein! Because the swordsman couldn’t expose Meng Qi’s lie.
“That senior does not need me to repay the favor,” the swordsman said hoarsely. “He is not a person of the Jianghu! Though Fengxing Pavilion claims to know everything, in reality, there is much they don’t know. You can forget about tricking me into talking with mere words.”
“Then would he be happy to see you make a living by killing?”
Mo Li blurted out, and Meng Qi couldn’t stop him in time.
Sure enough, the swordsman revealed a cold smile and shook his head, “The senior does not concern himself with worldly matters and does not meet outsiders. The changes in the world, the rise and fall of families, have nothing to do with him. How would a few lives matter to him?”
“Your words are contradictory. If he saved a woman, he has compassion. You live in this world for decades because of him. Now that you have killed countless people, how do you know he does not regret it?”
The swordsman’s face looked ugly. He wanted to retort but got stuck because he didn’t understand the senior well.
Mo Li shook his head at Meng Qi, indicating that tricking him through this approach wouldn’t work. The swordsman didn’t know more about the inner details.
“Brother Meng, let’s set off overnight. Although opium has a strong smell and can’t be used to secretly drug someone, we can’t take it lightly.”
“Doctor, are you worried that Piaoping Pavilion will take further actions? Scoundrels like Tu Tou Gui disappearing for ten days half a month, no one cares. They are good candidates to be kidnapped, drugged, and controlled, but the dignitaries of Qi Dynasty and the forces of Jiangnan and Former Chu shouldn’t be like that.”
“No… If someone claims it to be the sacred medicine of the southern border, boasting it as an elixir for immortality, no matter how foul opium smells, someone would willingly consume it.” Mo Li had no confidence in those seeking immortality and wealth, given that they even consumed mercury.
Meng Qi suddenly realized and then thought of something, quickly using secret voice transmission to ask, “Since opium has pain-relieving effects, could someone present it as medicine to Emperor Yongchen?”
The current emperor of Qi Dynasty was critically ill, hanging on by a thread each day.
Any effective medicine would be sought by the Second Prince, Third Prince, Sixth Prince, and Chief Steward Chen, just to keep Lu Huan alive.
Mo Li’s face changed drastically.
As the saying goes, desperate times call for desperate measures, and concern leads to chaos. The more people hoped for Lu Huan to live, the more dangerous he became.
Author’s Note:
Lu Huan: ???
Author: This is the danger of being a heartthrob, Your Highness. Oh, I mean, Your Majesty now.
