Chapter 628: Sharing in their secrets (1/2)
Chapter 628: Sharing in their secrets
Pill King said before that anyone who passed the three trials successfully could go and take the medicine they wanted. Now should be the time for Han Yunxi’s group to get their due. Even so, the female examiner hadn’t explained a thing, leaving their hearts uncertain. After passing through the door, all they saw was another dim passageway. Besides the Yao (药), or “Medicine” character etched into the stone wall, there were no other pointers. All they could do was keep walking forward.
It was only after they vanished into the darkness that Pill King showed himself again. He was glad that nothing had happened to them, or else he’d regret it for a lifetime.
“What do you think it’s like in there?” Pill King asked quietly.
Because no one had ever passed the three trials before, this door had never been opened. Even as the master of the medical cottage, Pill King had no idea what was behind it. The Medicine Requesting Cave might belong to the medical cottage, but it was a special and unique existence all its own.
“If you don’t know, how am I supposed to know?” the female examiner was curious too. She had been sent here in her youth to study medicine after successfully passing an exam to stay. Then she was fortunate enough to enter the service of guarding the Medicine Requesting Cave when she grew up. Despite this, she knew even less about the cave than Pill King. All she did was watch over the third trial.
“Shall we go take a look?” Pill King suggested.
The examiner immediately burst into laughter. “Old Pill King, you’re joking. You know the rules of the Medicine Requesting Cave. Please, spare me!”
The female examiner had already broken the rules by colluding with Pill King to cause trouble for Han Yunxi’s group. If she kept going like this, she could hardly imagine the consequences. She was about to leave when she stopped to toss back a grin. “Old Pill King, Han Yunxi did accept you as her master in public. You shouldn’t lose such a good disciple.”
Although she didn’t want to admit it, the woman still admired Han Yunxi for her identification skills. The three trials of the Medicine Requesting Cave were actually arranged in order of decreasing difficulty. If experts in the field really considered the tests, they would discover that the first trial was far more difficult than the second or the third. If Han Yunxi hadn’t passed the first test, even Gu Beiyue’s medical skills and Long Feiye’s inner energy reserves would have been for naught. The ancestor of the medical cottage had set out these three trials to put medical skills at the forefront. If the tester could pass that, then they’d truly have the right to enter the cave.
Pill King heard the mockery in the female examiner’s words, but he didn’t have time to fret. Right now his heart was filled with nothing but melancholy! How was he supposed to face Han Yunxi’s group after they got their Muscle Growing Ointment? If he told her he was willing to teach her all he knew without forcing her to stay, would she pretend that none of today ever happened?
Pill King didn’t dare to barge inside. He remained where he was to wait, feeling nothing but worry and regret!
At the same time, Han Yunxi’s group was still walking. Unlike the short passageways before, this one was long and leisurely. It was currently springtime, so the temperatures inside the cave were lower than outdoors. But despite this, it grew warmer the deeper they walked, as if a hot breeze were blowing against their faces.
“Is there a fire burning down there?” Long Feiye was still on guard.
“If that was the case, we would have caught sight of it by now instead of everything being so dark,” Gu Beiyue said. Judging by the level of heat, flames or sparks would have been evident at this point.
“If it’s not fire, could it be some sort of generator?” Han Yunxi asked curiously.
“Generator?” Gu Beiyue echoed. Meanwhile, Long Feiye had long grown used to Han Yunxi’s foreign non sequiturs.
“Like an object designed to generate heat,” Han Yunxi explained. Aside from fire, there were plenty of other objects that generated heat in the modern world. The only equivalent she could think of in ancient times was natural heat from the ground. Things like steam and hot springs were one source, but Han Yunxi only feared that they’d run into lava instead!
They had already passed through the three trials. The Medicine Requesting Cave wouldn’t have decided to cause them more trouble without warning now, right?
“It’s hard to tell without a clear flame in sight. The world is wide and full of mysteries,” Gu Beiyue remarked.
That reminded Han Yunxi that Cloud Realm Continent was an impossible place to explain with science. Any more analyzation would be useless, so she decided to wait until they saw for themselves. The road stretched on, and in the silence that followed she was first to speak up again.
“Doctor Gu, your medical skills aren’t just fifth rank, right?” She’d wanted to ask as soon as she saw him treat Halfday Cough.
“This one has never gone to the medical academy for further testing and is unsure of my current level. But it should be no more than sixth rank,” Doctor Gu said modestly.
“Doctor Gu, does the medical academy head know you’re this modest?” Han Yunxi teased. Even Academy Head Gu was helpless against the cough, yet Gu Beiyue had recited the prescription for its treatment right off the top of his head. That had to make him at least seventh rank.