Chapter 621: Admitting defeat is the solution (1/2)
Chapter 621: Admitting defeat is the solution
Han Yunxi successfully passed!
Long Feiye and Gu Beiyue had both been so worried that they should be celebrating, but both of them were paying attention to Pill King instead. Nobody with designs on Han Yunxi could escape their eyes. Pill King was too busy feeling delighted himself to realize he had earned a grudge from two of Cloud Realm Continent’s fiercest men. The little novice didn’t even get to speak up before he declared, “Why aren’t you opening the door and letting them pass yet?”
Pill King had long made inquiries into Han Yunxi and knew her poison arts and identification skills were astounding, but her medical skills only average at best. All she could do was treat common ailments and small wounds. Thus, the second trial not only involved medical skills, but medical knowledge as well. She would have no choice but to give up this time! Meanwhile, Gu Beiyue was only a trifling fifth rank Divine Doctor, so Pill King didn’t treat him seriously at all.
He stroked his beard repeatedly to suppress the joy in his heart. He never thought he’d find such a capable, competent disciple. In fact, he was already deciding which tasks to assign Han Yunxi after she stayed with him for good. Giving her a show of strength to start would be best, to suppress that stubbornness of hers. Then he could thoroughly test her identification skills and ask her where she’d learned them. Of course, the most important thing was to pass on all his knowledge to her hands and keep her here for the rest of her life to protect the medicine cottage and develop medicines.
The little novice quickly opened the door behind him. Han Yunxi was filled with nothing but thoughts of getting that Muscle Growing Ointment as fast as she can to fix Gu Beiyue’s leg. She ignored PIll King and walked right through, with Long Feiye and Gu Beiyue following in her wake. Once again, a narrow lane greeted them. With the experience from before, the trio walked forward without reservations, only to reach an open stone door at the end.
What’s going on?
“Could it be that we did the first trial so well that they’re giving us a free pass this time?” Han Yunxi joked.
“It must be a trap!” Gu Beiyue was cautious. Long Feiye simply strode forward directly and stepped over the threshold first. Since they’d come so far, there was nothing to fear anymore. Even if there were mountains of swords and seas of flame, they’d stride forward all the same! If their opponents dared to open the door, then they had the courage to step through as well!
Han Yunxi liked to get to the point as well, so she pushed Gu Beiyue’s wheelchair to follow him inside. But as soon as she did, the stone door shut behind her, cutting off their retreat.
“Perhaps this is when the second trial really beings, esteemed wangfei,” Gu Beiyue remarked. As soon as he finished, he burst into a severe coughing fit that made it hard for him to catch breath.
Shocked, Han Yunix cried, “Are you choking?!”
Gu Beiyue couldn’t talk, but he quickly waved his hands no. Han Yunxi handed him some water and prepared to pat his back when Long Feiye beat her to it. But he’d hardly patted the back when Han Yunxi began to cough violently as well. Although she wasn’t as bad as Gu Beiyue, she too couldn’t stop and had to gasp for breath.
Plenty of people died from just uncontrollable coughing.
Long Feiye grew alarmed. He forgot about Gu Beiyue and quickly picked up Han Yunxi to sit on the side, carefully patting her back and helping her channel qi to her heart while constantly giving her water to drink. He was nothing short of busy. Unfortunately, she coughed the water out before she could even swallow it, and even the patting didn’t help matters. In mere moments, both she and Gu Beiyue had turned into invalids. Even Long Feiye was afflicted by the coughing, though not as severely as the duo. His throat kept feeling itchy, the uncomfortable sensation enough to make him cough on occasion. What was this? He waited for Han Yunxi to recover somewhat before asking, “Is it poison?”
“Not sure, cough cough….it doesn’t seem like it. This has to be the second test! Too crafty!” Han Yunxi coughed until her chest hurt before she managed to stop herself. She gave the water back t Long Feiye and said, “Doctor Gu’s body is weaker and can’t take this much abuse. You have to take care of him, or else we would have come for nothing.”
If Gu Beiyue died from coughing, then what would be the point even if they got Muscle Growing Ointment?
Long Feiye first made sure that Han Yunxi was alright before going to circulate Gu Beiyue’s qi and feeding him water. Meanwhile, Han Yunxi checked his pulse. He had the worst coughing fit of the lot, so the abnormalities should be most present in his pulse. By now, Gu Beiyue was even having trouble breathing and couldn’t bother with anything else. Each cough wracked his body with pain and made his head throb. It was impossible for him to stop and drink any water. He had close brushes with death in the past, but never as close as this. He felt so uncomfortable that he couldn’t even think straight. Even though he tried his best to calm himself down and take his own pulse, it was impossible under the circumstances.
Since he couldn’t drink any water, Han Yunxi could only take out the atomizer she used to fight the poison mosquito swarms and fill it with clean water instead, then spray the contents into Gu Beiyue’s throat to ease his coughs. Still, that did nothing. Gu Beiyue kept his coughing fit without any signs of stopping. In the end, Han Yunxi took out her acupuncture needles and started to treat him with them instead. But even that had no effect, and the coughing kept getting worse.
Although the coughs weren’t continuous, going on like this would make Gu Beiyue asphyxiate for sure. Even the normal cool-headed Han Yunxi began to feel afraid. “Long Feiye,” she asked anxiously. “What do we do?”
Long Feiye knew even less than her. But he remained calm and took Gu Beiyue’s hand before channeling true qi from his body into the doctor’s. True qi was cultivated from a mixture of one’s vitality (essential energy) and inner energy gained from cultivation training. It was one of the fundamental ingredients to preserving life. Long Feiye had plenty of true qi himself, which gave him an excellent constitution in combination with his added cultivation skills. Gu Beiyue seemed to get a new lease on life from the infusion of his true qi. He finally had enough strength to suppress the coughs and adjust his breathing.
Seeing this, Han Yunxi happily fed him some water, which moistened his throat and made him feel much more comfortable.
“Is it better now?” she asked urgently. Long Feiye simply stared at Gu Beiyue with the same cold, expressionless gaze.
But while she had no idea what the transfer of true qi meant, Gu Beiyue was all too clear! He looked at Han Yunxi, then at Long Feiye, and felt his heart flip flop in his chest with all sorts of mixed emotions.
“Doctor Gu, hurry and check your pulse. See what kind of illness we’ve contracted,” Han Yunxi pressed.
But Gu Beiyue’s vision only turned black before he lost consciousness completely.