When Su Li woke up, his limbs felt soft and powerless.
This long-lost feeling of grogginess made Su Li feel as though he had returned to a distant past, the days when he was kicked and whipped at will.
——He was covered in wounds, with scar upon scar, feverish to the point of stupor, hovering at death’s door every day.
Su Li struggled to sit up, instinctively preparing to look for water and food.
This was his survival instinct developed in his youth, because if he just lay still, only death awaited him.
Whether it was physical pain, or the ridicule and insults pouring into his ears, even if knives cut into his flesh or his fingers were stepped on, none of it could stop him from getting up.
No matter how hard or bitter it was, he still had to stay alive.
“Um.”
That dense, sharp pain pervading his limbs and bones made Su Li suspect he was lying in a bramble bush.
He used all his strength yet could not move an inch, and his hazy consciousness from the struggle finally began to gather.
What he saw was half a moon, not a half crescent, but missing its lower half, so the crescent had become an upright fang.
“……”
What was going on, where could one see such a moon?
Su Li shook his head, looked more carefully, and understood.
It was because there was a hole in the roof.
It was neither too big nor too small, just enough to show half the crescent.
Su Li continued looking around, and then he realized that only his head could move.
The room was empty, with no windows, so narrow that opening the door would bump into the bed he was lying on, and a smell of moxa permeated the surroundings.
Wait, what he was lying on did not seem to be a bed, but rather a large net bag, hung at both ends from the rafters, tightened so there was no room to sway.
His arms and legs were bound to wooden splints, and through that net bag, were fixed onto four short stools, so he could not move at all.
Su Li felt dazed, almost wondering if this was some new form of torture.
Fortunately, the door opened in time, and he recognized the person who came in.
“Doctor Mo?”
Mo Li had guessed Su Li would soon awaken. He carried a bowl of pitch-black medicine. Before he even approached, the bitterness stung Su Li’s eyes with tears.
Su Li felt stunned, unable to believe that someone like him, who would not cry out in pain even if a blade cut into his flesh, could be driven to tears by bitter medicine.
He no longer had the face to remain a killer!
Su Li’s expression was so obvious that Doctor Mo, for the sake of the patient’s mood, had to explain, “It had nothing to do with courage. It was only your instinctive reaction. Anyone would be like this.”
Su Li clearly did not believe it: why was the doctor perfectly fine and tearless when delivering the medicine?
Mo Li: “……”
If he truly brought medicine while crying like the swordsman imagined, wouldn’t it scare the patient to death?
Even the doctor was crying; that would mean there was no hope!
“Just like how you painstakingly practiced your blade skills, falling and crawling and being injured countless times. Now, even though you are gravely hurt, you can still endure. People call that willpower the hallmark of the brave, but you surely know that so-called bravery and willpower are nothing but habit.”
Willpower was trained. After getting hurt enough times, one learned to bear it.
Everyone was made of flesh and blood, after all.
Su Li immediately looked upon Mo Li with admiration. It turned out that being a doctor also required enduring all sorts of bitter medicines until one could carry a bowl of it to the patient’s bedside without batting an eye. It was truly “eating great bitterness,” which was no easy feat. What was more, Doctor Mo was not only skilled in medicine but also adept in martial arts. Thus Su Li imagined the hardships Mo Li must have endured, stacking them atop his own, and his gaze turned reverent.
Mo Li: “……”
Fine, the Dragon Vein of Qimao Mountain thought. Indeed, someone from Feihe Mountain was as gullible as that gray sparrow.
A doctor certainly got used to the bitter smell of medicine, but he did not need to finish drinking it all himself, only identify the herbs.
Furthermore, many physicians and traveling doctors in the world did not even brew the medicine themselves, much less pour it into the patient’s mouth. They only prescribed it. The bitterness was not theirs to taste.
In the end, as a Dragon Vein who had long believed himself to be a fish, he had “since childhood” been unwilling to shed tears. Tears were water, and crying a little reduced them. If there were none left, would he not have to jump into a vat of water to make up for it? He endured the bitterness, which earned him praise from Qin Lu as having talent. Over time, he found the smell of medicine close and familiar. Who said medicine was bitter? Medicine had a hundred flavors, each distinct, with big differences.
Mo Li shook his head and swiftly poured down the bowl of medicine.
Su Li felt so bitter he rolled his eyes, but he could not spit it out. A rush of life-filled internal energy surged in from his Baihui acupoint atop his head. Immediately, all his meridians felt like withered grass moistened by water, with dried streams flowing once again.
“Cough, cough, Doctor Mo is truly a divine physician.” Su Li said in astonishment.
“……It only worked because it was you. It wouldn’t have worked on someone else.”
First of all, this medicine could not be poured down; it had to be sipped slowly, mouthful by mouthful. Even so, one might still vomit it out. Medicine that was too bitter made it impossible to swallow, which was also a natural human response. Given the current circumstances, there was no way to slowly roll it into pills.
Secondly, in other people’s eyes, Su Li’s background seemed miserable, yet Su Li was born with “spiritual energy.”
Setting aside the Dragon Vein, perhaps only Su Li in the entire world possessed such recovery ability.
“Did you know how serious your injury was?” Mo Li’s expression showed displeasure.
If he had been even one step slower at that time—if he had not decisively acted, if he had not used that ultimate skill, or if he had not abandoned his fight with Lord Luo to simply grab Su Li and run—Su Li might have become a corpse by now.
Su Li thought of that trap, and his back broke out in a cold sweat. He looked down at how he was wrapped like a rice dumpling and silently thought that it should not have gone so far as to make him a fish stuffed into a net. This method was not just tying someone up; it surpassed tying them up. All that was missing was a pile of firewood under the net to roast him directly.
“From your back and limbs, we took out sixteen different hidden weapons,” Mo Li said with a grave expression. “Something as sharp and deeply embedded as a plum-blossom needle was not difficult for my eyes to handle. The real trouble was hidden weapons like iron caltrops and iron lotus flowers; they were nailed into you, and then pulled and dragged the wounds sideways during your fight with Lord Luo. Do you know what that looked like? Like a mountain hunter who had been bitten and clawed by wild beasts! There were even some hidden weapons shattered by the shock of your internal energy. Half of them were left lodged in your wounds.”
Blood flowed profusely, horrifying to behold, with leftover needle-sharp fragments everywhere inside the wounds.
This was the most difficult injury to handle—if one was careless, it would fester. No matter how high one’s martial arts or how strong one’s body, death would come if the King of Hell called.
Moreover, Su Li had already damaged his constitution too much in his youth and inherently suffered from weak blood and energy.
“Fortunately, the hidden weapons were not poisoned.”
Mo Li guessed that it was not out of mercy from Lord Luo but rather because Lord Luo was also on the high platform, so he had to consider the possibility of accidents.
From this, it could be seen that although the Sect Master of the Holy Lotus Sect seemed like a reckless madman on the outside, he was not truly so.
Mo Li had never encountered external wounds so troublesome. He wrapped his entire hand with internal energy, fished out a blade without a sharpened edge that had been boiled for some time in boiling water, and then spent a full hour using that knife to pick out all the splintered bone and debris. Without his extraordinary eyesight and the support of Dragon Vein spiritual energy, Su Li would have lost even nine lives.
“You had been unconscious for an entire day and night and are still running a fever, which means you might not see the sun after tomorrow,” Mo Li deliberately made it sound more serious.
In truth, the fact that Su Li had awakened meant he had successfully climbed back from death’s door.
“…Where is this?” Su Li asked weakly, feeling ashamed that he had fallen into the trap due to impulsiveness.
“It’s a small village, not far from Hua County. The villagers have already fled, so it’s an abandoned house.”
Mo Li thought that if he had not found this place in time, he might have had to risk going back to Hua County to steal a pot of boiling water.
One could certainly light fires in open fields, but treating someone’s injuries in the wilderness was too dangerous. Out of ten patients, only three might survive. It was best to find a clean empty house with as few things inside as possible, and the window did not need to be large, only ventilated.
Over these two days, they had been fortunate that it did not rain; otherwise, Mo Li would have had to figure out how to move Su Li.
Su Li’s expression showed conflict. He wanted to say something but hesitated.
Mo Li assumed he wanted to ask how long it would take to recover or how long he had to remain suspended in the net, but after hesitating for a while, Su Li finally spoke a different question.
“How did you execute that move? Was it blade technique?”
Su Li’s eyes gleamed. If he had not been tied up, he might have jumped up on the spot.
“Wait a minute, where is my blade?”
Su Li clearly remembered that before he lost consciousness, he had been gripping his blade tightly and had not let go.
“Outside,” Mo Li thought to himself that the blade was covered with blood and mud, so there was no way it could be placed indoors.
“A swordsman’s blade shouldn’t leave his side.” Su Li frowned.
Mo Li was silent for a moment before finally saying, “Only the blade remains. The scabbard got lost.”
“What?” Su Li’s attention was indeed diverted. Did he have to go find blacksmith Wang again?
With all the chaos and warfare, plus his serious injuries, crossing the river to Yuzhou would not be easy.
“How long do I still have to be… hung up?” Su Li asked urgently, feeling very frustrated since he could neither eat nor walk around.
“Another two hours,” Mo Li gave him an unexpected answer.
Su Li was stunned. If the bones had been broken, they only needed to be immobilized, and it would not heal quickly anyway. Doctor Mo must have had another reason.
Indeed, Mo Li explained, “If an ordinary person were hurt as gravely as you, they would be disabled for life. There were too many hidden weapons, and they damaged your tendons and bones.”
Bones could be reconnected; tendons were harder to repair.
If one was not an internal energy master, even a miracle doctor could not reattach severed tendons.
“Reattached tendons and bones would seldom be exactly the same as before. For something as important as your right arm, even a slight delay in exerting force would waste half your skill. Moreover, you injured not only one arm but also both legs and your left arm.”
Su Li said nothing. During the previous treatment, though he was unconscious, he still occasionally furrowed his brow from the pain. Now that he was awake and had some strength, he had not uttered a single cry of pain. Mo Li had never seen such a tough patient.
“For your kind of recovery power, it would take twelve hours for the reattached tendons, which is pretty quick,” Mo Li said calmly. His expression gave no hint of how much effort he had used to drag Su Li back from death’s door and allow the swordsman to keep running, jumping, and practicing his blade for the rest of his life.
Even though Su Li did not understand medicine, merely listening made him realize Mo Li probably had not slept at all during this day and night. Add that to his earlier efforts in Hua County to gather intelligence and defend the walls, and even a martial arts expert would be overwhelmed.
“It was my fault,” Su Li said hoarsely with difficulty. “If not for my injury, you wouldn’t have been delayed here. I remember you once said you discovered the Tianshou King’s identity, and the news must be sent quickly to the Fengxing Pavilion…”
Mo Li shook his head and said, “Don’t worry. Before you woke up, the people from Fengxing Pavilion had already found us.”
Indeed, nothing had happened in the past two days. The Tianshou King’s army had not left Hua County. Word had it that tension in the capital of Nanping Commandery grew more intense by the day. If the Tianshou King did not arrive soon, the Jingzhou Army would no longer be able to hold out.
The knife was revealed, yet it did not come down for a long time.
Mo Li had repeatedly made moves to suppress the rebel army’s morale, delaying this great battle again and again, causing the entire situation to gradually shift in a favorable direction. However, Nanping Commandery’s capital city was like mud that could not be propped up against a wall. It had originally faced an imminent crisis, and many people wished to stake everything on a life-and-death struggle. Now, after the morale had been struck thrice and diminished, everyone only thought about how to avoid battle and survive.
One could not simply strike these laggards with a single palm and send them flying.
Mo Li heard from Tiger Who Shook the Mountains that Pavilion Master Qiu was so anxious that half of her cheek had swollen.
Indeed, it was Tiger Who Shook the Mountains who led his people and found Mo Li. That fellow’s ability to track people was top-notch. He obtained information from the refugees fleeing Hua County, noticed that the Tianshou King’s army had stopped abnormally, and saw the knife marks on the city walls from afar. He immediately searched through the villages and towns within a radius of thirty li for any pharmacy or place that might store herbs.
Then he went straight to the mark and found them.
Tiger Who Shook the Mountains sensibly did not ask about the Tianshou King’s identity. He took the letter Mo Li wrote and personally returned to Jiangxia.
Now there were five people from Fengxing Pavilion in this small village. Although their martial skills were not high, they could take turns standing guard at the village entrance. The moment something went wrong, they would sound an alarm.
Mo Li was indeed very tired, yet he was still worried about the next move of the Holy Lotus Sect.
Mo Li did not know the true nature of the alliance between Zheng Tu and Lord Luo, nor did he possess Meng Qi’s ability to judge the situation accurately.
Staying in this village was not necessarily safe.
That move could only catch an opponent off guard. Once the opponent was prepared, it would not be as effective.
Because, in essence, that was not a blade technique but a method of using the blade’s wind to churn the airflow at high speed. Then the resulting vibration and collision produced invisible force, an inaudible sound that toppled a bunch of people in an instant, but in fact, it could not kill anyone.
Zheng Tu had courted death by insisting on confronting that blade head-on. Actually, if he had chosen to dodge, he would have been less injured.
But Zheng Tu was so arrogant. He wore a mask, appearing as the Tianshou King. How could he possibly avoid it?
Mo Li sighed inwardly, feeling that he had thoroughly learned some bad habits from Meng Qi—showing no hesitation when tricking others, and even kicking them while they were down.
“The mask broke, and the Tianshou King’s forehead and face were injured. It won’t be easy to treat, either.” Mo Li smiled unconsciously.
Did they really think everyone possessed the skills of a divine physician?
A hero might not care about appearance, yet Zheng Tu was born looking like a figure from a novel’s illustration—brave and extraordinary, inspiring admiration at first sight. So, likely he would not accept having a few more scars on his face.
Mo Li felt a sudden impulse and could not help but say to Su Li, “I just don’t have any spiritual medicine that promotes new flesh and blood. Otherwise, I would have been able to remove those old scars of yours. Most people can’t endure the itchy feeling of flesh regrowing, but I think you wouldn’t have had an issue.”
Su Li thought the words sounded familiar. It seemed Mo Li had said something like that the first time they met.
He shook his head vigorously and turned down the suggestion. Those scars had long since become a part of him. He had grown used to them, and besides, he was poor.
Mo Li felt it was such a pity—after all, there were few people who were injured so badly, fewer still who could be cured. Missing out on Su Li as a patient meant he probably would not find another like him.
“You still have one more dose of medicine to drink.”
After saying that, Mo Li turned and left.
The medicine pot and fire were in the yard outside this run-down house. Mo Li added water to the pot and then sat down cross-legged beside it.
He was very familiar with the steps to brew medicine—when to add herbs, when to add water—and Mo Li could pause his internal breath precisely at those moments to do it. He was not meditating to recover his inner power but to regain his energy.
He felt not only fatigue but also a difficulty in calming his mind.
His consciousness did not sink into his dantian to follow his internal breath through a grand circulation. Instead, it drifted aimlessly, as though it had floated countless li away.
——In Yizhou’s towering mountains, Meng Qi had gone to a dangerous pass and stronghold. What had he discovered, and when would he return?
At this very moment, was Meng Qi traversing mountains and rivers, staying awake all night just as Mo Li had?
The Tianshou King, the Holy Lotus Sect, the Fengxing Pavilion, the Qi Dynasty’s navy, the forces in Ning Prefecture, plus the Wu King of the former Chu who seemed to be waiting in the wings to reap benefits—one piece after another had been thrown onto the chessboard by countless hands, creating chaos everywhere.
Mo Li slightly lowered his head. Even during meditation and breathing, he could not ease the furrow between his brows.
The moon slowly sank, and the night was still.
Mo Li faintly sensed a familiar presence, but his consciousness felt too sluggish. His spiritual energy and internal power did not react at all. So when he opened his eyes, he felt an inexplicable warmth, as if all the recent uncertainty and troublesome matters were momentarily dispelled.
His chest felt heavy, as if a sand mouse lay upon it, bringing him peace.
“……”
Mo Li froze, reached out, and touched something.
He pulled out a soft, plump ball of glutinous rice, whose shiny black eyes were staring right at him.
This was——
Sneaking onto his heart while he was off guard?
Author’s note:
Off-screen
The sand mouse traversed mountains and rivers, traveling all night
Scene shifts, the chubby mouse made its triumphant entrance.
Sand mouse: A new year, new wordplay: [Not me, no rat]. This position was mine and no one else’s.
