Chapter 624
Fu Shaoping kicked away the stone bench in the backyard, and the wine gourd slammed onto the bluestone slab with a clang. "I've had enough! Yesterday, three crazy people broke into the store again, eating pills like they were eating food!"
The cinnabar pen that Nangong Wan was holding broke with a snap, and a red dot like a blood drop appeared on the account book: "Thirty-seven spirit stones."
Lin Xiaoqi was tying the dried "Seven Star Vine" into bundles. Hearing this, he suddenly poked his head out from the pile of herbs and said, "Master, you want to open a clinic? Then I can..."
"Bullshit!" The ice chips on Fu Shaoping's beard fell off, "You are such a half-baked person that you can't even recite the entire Yellow Emperor's Classic of Internal Medicine." Before he finished speaking, three books as thick as bricks were thrown into Xiaoqi's arms. The gold-embossed characters on the cover of the book "Tai Su Mai Jue" were dazzling in the morning sun.
Nangong Wan's sleeves fluttered, and nine bronze lampstands suddenly floated into a formation, with light and shadow interweaving into a miniature three-dimensional picture of the market town: "There is a three-meter open space on the east street, adjacent to Baicao Hall." She tapped her jade finger lightly, and scarlet seal characters appeared in the void - [Avoid: making noise and fighting] [Avoid: practicing medicine to help the world].
Zhao Han stood in the corridor holding the freshly ground "Snow Toad Powder". The shadows of everyone were reflected in the glass bowl, stretched out by the light and shadow.
"Snapped!"
What Fu Shaoping slapped on the table was not a purse, but a half-broken bronze token, with a chilling air seeping out of the cracks: "The 'Xuanming Token' I dug up in the Arctic Territory back then is enough to exchange for ten shops."
Nangong Wan suddenly pressed the token, and frost flowers instantly climbed onto her slender fingers: "No. This thing will suppress the cold poison in your dantian." She shook open the scroll like a magic trick, and the densely packed spirit stones poured out like stars: "I have saved them over the years."
Suddenly, there was a muffled sound in the backyard, and three tiles on the roof of the alchemy room were blown away by the air wave. Fu Shaoping wiped his face and said, "Did you see that? Just refining the elixir makes such a noise. If there is a medical clinic..."
"A triple restriction can be set up." Nangong Wan's fingertips passed through the void, and golden lines outlined a three-dimensional structure: the consultation area on the first floor was paved with "pulse-diagnosing stones" that could measure spiritual roots, the acupuncture room on the second floor had eight hundred "Ice Soul Needles" hanging in it, and the first aid area specially marked out in the backyard had a striking fire-avoidance array engraved on the ground.
Lin Xiaoqi suddenly found that his master was rubbing his left knee - that was the root of the disease caused by a palm strike from the elder of the Ten Thousand Poison Sect when he tried to save a physical cultivator he had never met before 20 years ago. The young man picked up the "Thousand Gold Prescriptions" which was taller than him and said: "I will recite the first volume tonight!"
Zhao Han silently moved the "Nine-turn Soul-Restoring Pill" from the depths of the warehouse to the front cabinet, and the glass bottle made a clear sound when it collided with each other.
When Fu Shaoping nailed the three large characters "Jishitang" with iron and silver hooks next to the plaque of "Lingdan Pavilion", Nangong Wan was tying a string of seven-colored medicinal jade wind chimes to the lintel. Each piece of jade was engraved with a disease: crimson jade for fire poison, black jade for cold injury, and emerald jade for miasma.
"Open tomorrow." As she turned around, her moon-white sleeves swept across the freshly brewed "plague-preventing soup." The aroma startled two eavesdropping paper cranes from under the eaves.
The night watchman in the market saw that the Lingdan Pavilion was brightly lit all night: Fu Shaoping was testing the newly refined "bone-setting and muscle-growing ointment", Nangong Wan was revising the "Record of Difficult and Miscellaneous Diseases" to page 78, Lin Xiaoqi was sleeping with his head full of silver needles for acupuncture points, and Zhao Han sorted out the 300 antidotes for poisonous herbs and put fluorescent labels on them.
At three quarters past midnight, a dark figure on the second floor of Baicao Hall pushed open the window, and a piece of "Heartbreaking Grass" shining with green light was thrown towards the newly hung plaque - but it was burned into green smoke by the sudden appearance of the elixir fire three feet away.
"Get out of the way!" The noise of Fu Shaoping kicking the door open startled all the sparrows in the street. He carried a three-meter-long signboard of "Ten-fold tonic soup" on his shoulder. Nangong Wan raised his hand lightly, and hundreds of rice papers fluttered like white butterflies, each of which read: [From now on, I will provide free medical treatment for three days].
When Lin Xiaoqi was bandaging the first patient, a spirit deer with a broken horn, with red eyes, she did not notice that her master had secretly mixed the most precious "Dragon's Blood" into the ointment.
There was a "knock knock" sound on the bluestone road. As the old monk with the dragon-shaped wooden staff stepped over the threshold, the vein-diagnosis stone suddenly burst into purple light. The compass needle in Nangong Wanguang's sleeve spun wildly: "Daoyou, there is demonic energy mixed in your spiritual veins."
Fu Shaoping ripped open the old man's front, and saw spider-web-like black lines on his chest: "Good fellow! Did you take the Soul Devouring Pill as a candy pill?"
The crimson jade in the medicinal jade wind chime in the corridor suddenly exploded, and Lin Xiaoqi frantically brought the Ice Soul Needle Box. The old monk suddenly jumped up, and a three-inch bone spur popped out from the top of the wooden staff -
"Wow!"
The snow toad powder Zhao Han threw condensed into an ice curtain in the air, and the golden thread on Nangong Wan's fingertips instantly entangled the opponent's seven orifices. Fu Shaoping picked up the pestle and smashed it on his head. The shadow of the "Shennong Herbal Classic" that appeared on the pestle head pressed the black line back three inches under the skin.
The girl wearing golden cloud shoes rushed into the emergency area holding the white fox, and the fire avoidance formation diagram automatically lit up: "Master, please save my pet!" The fox's right claw was as black as charcoal, and it was clearly hit by the Xuanyin thunder and fire.
Just as Lin Xiaoqi was about to touch the "Thousand Gold Prescriptions", Fu Shaoping had already pried open the fox's mouth and poured a whole bottle of dragon blood into it: "Save your life first, then remove the poison!" Nangong Wan's Ice Soul Needles formed a Big Dipper formation and hung in the fox's belly. The sound waves emitted by the needle tails made the medicine cabinet buzz.
The girl suddenly knelt down and presented the brocade box: "This is a family heirloom."
"Jishidiang does not accept kickbacks." Zhao Han handed over the ointment with a cold face. The freshly prepared ointment in the glass bowl glowed blue like star sand.
When the lightning protection array on the roof of the alchemy room caught the seventh heavenly fire, five soaked physical cultivators rushed in. The sturdy man in the lead had frost on his left arm and smoke on his right arm: "We were tricked by the cold and flame duo!"
Fu Shaoping kicked open the screen in the emergency area: "Xiao Qi! The third chapter of "Tai Su Mai Jue"!" As soon as the young man's silver needle touched the strong man's Quchi acupoint, the whole needle was instantly covered with frost. Nangong Wan suddenly cut his wrist, and the blood bead drew a spell in the void to connect the eight hundred ice needles into a meridian model.
"Got it!" Fu Shaoping slapped the Xuanming Order on the patient's Danzhong acupoint. The cold air overflowing from the cracks collided with the hot poison, and the medicinal fragrance in the room condensed into a rainbow.
Lin Xiaoqi was lying in the pile of herbs, with three acupuncture needles stuck in his head. Zhao Han silently put the "Nine-turn Resurrection Pill" back into the depths of the warehouse - no one needed it today.
Nangong Wan suddenly pressed Fu Shaoping's left knee. The new patient saw his grinning face and said, "Master..."
"This is an old injury!" He threw out three plasters, "Go back and apply them to Zusanli at noon every day. Remember to boil the medicine with rootless water!"
The newly replaced crimson jade wind chimes under the eaves suddenly rang softly. Fu Shaoping looked at the lanterns of Baicaotang emerging in the rain and sneered: "Tell the neighbors next door—"
“The free clinic will continue tomorrow.” Nangong Wan embroidered the night sky with golden thread on her fingertips, and the fluorescent labels of three hundred antidotes for poisonous herbs formed a galaxy in the darkness.
The wind chimes on the eaves of the Lingdan Pavilion suddenly started to move without any wind, and the seven-colored medicinal jades collided with each other, making a rapid and crisp sound. Zhao Han, who was grinding snow toad powder, paused, and a swaying figure appeared in the glass bowl.
The bundle of firewood on the woodcutter's shoulder was dripping with black blood, and a honeycomb-like dent was etched on the bluestone slab. Lin Xiaoqi sniffed and stepped forward, but was suddenly stopped by Nangong Wan's wide sleeves. "What kind of medicine did you pick?" The golden thread on her fingertips silently wrapped around the other's wrist, and nine bronze lamps cast interlaced light and shadows under the beam.
The woodcutter's left pupil was blue-gray, but his right eye was frighteningly bright: "A mandrill. A mandrill caught me." Before he finished speaking, Fu Shaoping's Xuanming Order was already against the back of his neck. The cold air seeping out of the cracks in the token came into contact with the woodcutter's skin, making a "hissing" sound like the quenching of an iron.
"You're pretending very well." Fu Shaoping sneered and suddenly pulled open the woodcutter's collar. His right chest was rising and falling normally, but his left chest was as still as a tree. The glass bowl Zhao Han was holding was clearly reflected, and the still left lung lobe was covered with golden threads, like a cicada pupa wrapped in a spider web.
The bundle of firewood suddenly exploded, and seventy-two soul-sealing nails shot out in all directions like a rainstorm. Nangong Wanyue's white sleeves fluttered, and the bronze lamp array hanging in the air suddenly fell down, melting all the poisonous nails into smelly green smoke. Lin Xiaoqi took the opportunity to throw out the ice soul needle, but the silver needle bounced back "ding ding" as if it hit an iron wall.
"It's the soul-hosting technique of the sword cultivator!" Fu Shaoping kicked over the medicine cabinet, and the pages of the "Thousand Gold Prescriptions" hidden in the secret compartment turned automatically. He dipped the dragon's blood and drew a blood symbol on the woodcutter's forehead, and the golden threads suddenly twisted like live snakes. Nangong Wan bit his fingertips and used blood as ink to write the silk-drawing spell of "Tai Su Pulse Jue" in the void. Eight hundred ice soul needles floated into the air, and the sound waves from the needle tails shook the beams of the house and made them fall to dust.
The woodcutter, or rather the body that was possessed, suddenly let out two screams. An old voice squeezed out from his throat: "A sword cultivator from the Arctic Realm borrowed a corpse to escape disaster." A young voice came from his abdomen: "Save me. I am the herbalist."
Fu Shaoping slapped the Xuanming Order fiercely, and the cold air followed the golden thread straight to the spirit platform. A translucent sword shadow appeared on the woodcutter's head, and the real woodcutter's soul was almost broken by the golden thread. Lin Xiaoqi suddenly grabbed the bamboo plate for drying medicine and sprinkled the Seven Star Vine ash on the sword shadow. The grass ash with the smell of sunlight touched the golden thread and immediately burned.
When the three-watch gong sounded, the woodcutter finally opened his clear eyes. The white silk that flew out of Nangong Wanguang's sleeves wrapped around the sword cultivator's soul, and the cinnabar talisman on the silk was as bright as lava. Fu Shaoping pressed the fragment of the Xuanming Order on the patient's Baihui acupoint, and the cold air that seeped out of the cracks froze the gold thread into ice crystals, which fell to the ground.
"Jishitang won't save the damned." Fu Shaoping picked up the sword cultivator's soul and threw it into the alchemy furnace. The fire "boomed" and shot up more than ten feet high. Lin Xiaoqi was busy feeding the real woodcutter with plague-repelling soup, and didn't notice that his master secretly added a spoonful of snow toad powder into the furnace - that was a sinister thing that was specifically used to ruin people's lives.
The newly replaced black jade wind chime under the eaves suddenly rang, and Nangong Wan squinted his eyes as he looked towards Baicaotang. Zhao Han silently moved the "Nine Turns Resurrection Pill" to the most conspicuous place on the counter, and the glass bottle reflected the green light that flashed through the cracks of the door and window opposite. Fu Shaoping kicked the door open and slapped a piece of yellow paper on the most conspicuous notice board in the market.
The ink on the paper was dripping, and the pen tip was as sharp as a knife——[Lingdan Pavilion Recruitment], Nangong Wan glanced at it, waved his wide sleeves, and added a line of small cinnabar characters at the end——
【Note: Those with difficult and complicated diseases will be given priority for admission. 】
The moment the door panel was kicked away, Fu Shaoping didn't even raise his head, and swung his hand and three silver needles flew into the air!
“Ding! Ding! Ding!”
The silver needle was actually blocked by a rusty hatchet. Standing at the door was a ragged young man, his left eye covered with a black cloth, but his right eye was surprisingly bright.
"My name is Ah Qi." He said in a hoarse voice, "I heard that this place accepts people with stories?"
Fu Shaoping narrowed his eyes: "Your story?"
The young man was silent for a moment, then he opened his shirt - a half-broken sword was embedded in his chest, the blade emitting a strange purple-blue color.
"I was hit by the 'Bone Erosion Sword' of the Ten Thousand Poison Sect three years ago." He grinned, "I can't die, but I can't pull it out either."
Nangong Wan's fingertips flashed with a golden thread, which wrapped around the hilt of the sword. He frowned slightly and said, "The sword is sucking your vitality."
Ah Qi nodded: "So I want to study medicine, either to cure myself, or..." He paused, "to take a few enemies with me before I die."
Fu Shaoping laughed loudly and threw him a hoe: "Go to the backyard and dig three pounds of 'heartbreak grass'. If you don't dig it all, you won't have dinner tonight!"
Lin Xiaoqi poked his head out: "Master, isn't the heartbreak grass highly poisonous?"
"That's why I let him dig." Fu Shaoping sneered, "If you're afraid of poison, what's the point of studying medicine!"
In the evening, the door was kicked open again.
This time it was a girl, dressed in red with seven bells hanging around her waist that jingled with every step she took.
"My name is Lingyin." She smiled, "Come and sign up."
Zhao Han frowned: "You smell like a poisonous insect."
Lingyin did not deny it and raised her hand to lift up her sleeves. Her fair arms were covered with dense golden lines, which were slowly wriggling like a living thing.
"Golden silkworm Gu, planted since childhood." She said softly, "According to the rules of our village, those who cannot raise their own natal Gu will be thrown into the Ten Thousand Gu Cave."
Nangong Wan tapped his fingertips lightly, and the golden thread outlined the Gu pattern in the air: "Do you want to remove the Gu?"
Lingyin shook her head: "I want to learn the art of controlling poisonous insects, healing people, and also..." A hint of coldness flashed in her eyes, "killing people."
Fu Shaoping threw a packet of medicine powder to her and said, "Feed the 'heart-eating ants' in the backyard. You'll be unlucky if you get bitten!"
Lingyin raised her eyebrows: "What if I wasn't bitten?"
"Then you cook tonight." Fu Shaoping grinned, "I'm fed up with Xiaoqi's coke porridge!"
Lin Xiaoqi: “…”
At midnight, the door was kicked open for the third time.
No one this time.
There was only a walking skeleton, its frame as white as jade, and blue flames dancing in its eye sockets.
Nangong Wan waved his sleeves, and the bronze lamp array lit up, illuminating a faint shadow behind the skeleton - it was actually a living person whose soul had been taken away!
"I... forgot who I am." The skeleton spoke in a hollow voice, "I only remember looking for someone named Fu Shaoping."
Fu Shaoping narrowed his eyes: "What do you want to see me for?"
The skeleton was silent for a long time, then suddenly raised his hand, and a broken jade pendant emerged between his finger bones - it was the token that Fu Shaoping gave to his best friend twenty years ago!
"...Lao Mo?" Fu Shaoping's voice suddenly sank.
The skeleton nodded, then shook his head. "I am dead, but not completely dead. Someone took my soul and stuffed it into these bones."
Nangong Wan's fingertips were entangled with golden threads, and he suddenly shouted: "Back off! There is a 'soul-stealing curse' on his bones!"
Before he finished his words, the skeleton suddenly jumped up and stabbed Fu Shaoping's throat with five fingers like knives!
"boom!"
Zhao Han's colored glass bowl smashed down in time, and the snow toad powder splashed all over the skeleton, and black smoke suddenly rose from the skeleton. Lin Xiaoqi threw the silver needle in a hurry, but the skeleton grabbed it and threw it back!
At the critical moment, Lingyin's poisonous insect and Ah Qi's hatchet attacked at the same time -
The poisonous insects drilled into the bone gaps and gnawed at the curse patterns frantically; the hatchet chopped at the cervical vertebrae, sparks flying everywhere!
Fu Shaoping took the opportunity to slap the skull on top of its head, causing the cold air from Xuanming to burst out, forcing a black shadow out of the skeleton!
The black shadow let out a shrill scream and was instantly burned to ashes by Nangong Wan's cinnabar talisman.
The skeleton fell apart with a loud crash, leaving only the jade pendant that jingled on the ground.
Fu Shaoping picked up the jade pendant and was silent for a long time. Suddenly he said, "Add one more place tonight." (End of this chapter)