âHere to see the doctor, eh?â Jia Zizai touched his chin and took a look at Miao Zhengnan.
âAnd you?â
âOh, Iâm here to pay a visit to the patient,â Miao Zhengnan said with a smirk.
âIs that so?â Jia Zizai took a good look at him.
âGet out of here at once. Donât even think about kicking up a fuss here.â He sounded very nonchalant when he spoke, but Miao Zhengnanâs expression instantly changed.
Miao Zhengnan sensed that the other man was anything but ordinary. He also felt a very different aura coming from the man.
Most importantly, that man seemed dangerous.
âHe-he.â Miao Zhengnan simply chuckled.
âWell, whatâs that supposed to mean?â Jia Zizai asked with a grin.
Miao Zhengnan smirked and looked Jia Zizai up and down to size him up.
âRight, get out of the way.â Jia Zizai quickly moved to drag Miao Zhengnan away from the clinic.
âDonât touch him!â Miao Chengtang, who was nearby, immediately shouted. His warning was too late. Jia Zizai had already touched Miao Zhengnan. He had simply been too fast with his actions.
Miao Zhengnan staggered as he was dragged by the other man.
âGood. Very good.â Miao Zhengnan was hardly flustered. He simply smirked at the man dragging him.
In his eyes, Jia Zizai was already a dead man.
âHe has poison all over his body!â Miao Chengtang shouted.
âPoison? What kind of poison?â Jia Zizai asked. He was a bit surprised to learn that.
âSyphilis perhaps?â Jia Zizai asked with a funny look.
What the hell?
Miao Zhengnan almost choked after hearing that. Although he had hardly spent any time outside of the village, or even the house, he knew what that term meant.
âDamn it!â
He glared at the man.
âWhatâs happening?â
Wang Yao walked out of his clinic and found people gathered around his clinic.
âZizai?â
âMaster, this guy is standing in the middle of the road and acting like he owns the place,â Jia Zizai said. âIt seems heâs out for trouble. Umm... He seems to have syphilis too.â
Jia Zizai had clearly heard Miao Chengtangâs warning about that man having poison on him. He deemed that to be good news. He had already been tempered by some special methods concocted by Wang Yao concocted. It made him practically immune to all forms of poisons. He had even tested his immunity with poisonous insects. The results verified his condition. He now knew that he was immune to just about any poison found in the world. Of course, going to extremes like ingesting arsenic was still out of the question. Since someone like Miao Zhengnan was in town, he deemed it worth trying.
âIs that so?â Wang Yao eyed Miao Zhengnan.
âSo, are you also from the Valley of Thousands of Medicines?â
âIndeed, and I take it that youâre the one who saved Miao Chengtang twice,â Miao Zhengnan replied.
âI am,â Wang Yao said. âWhat are you doing here?â
âI was just curious,â Miao Zhengnan said. âI wanted to see the person capable enough to cure poisons from our village. I didnât expect to find someone so young.â
âDid you see the man?â Wang Yao asked.
âI did.â
âDonât ever show up here again. Iâm not talking about just you. Iâm talking about everyone from your place, or else!â Wang Yao pressed his hands into the air.
Miao Zhengnan immediately fell to his knees with a loud thump. His body was heavily shaking. His neck and face veins were bulging from his arduous effort to resist the force. He felt as if he had an entire mountain on his shoulders. It pressed on him so hard that he was unable to move even a muscle, despite having given his all to resist.
âHow did you do that?â Miao Zhengnan was thoroughly shocked.
âAre you even human?â
Wang Yao had only pressed into the air in front of him. He had not actually pressed his hand against the other man.
Wang Yao walked up to Miao Zhengnan and jabbed at some points on him.
âRemember what I said today.â He walked toward the driver, who was too frightened to even flinch.
âThe same goes for you.â He opened the door of the car and jabbed at several points on the driver.
âWhatâs even the point of coming all the way out here?â
âZizai, send the guests away!â
âYes, Master,â Jia Zizai said.
âAlright, remember not to show up here ever again,â Jia Zizai said in an exasperated tone. âIâd keep that in mind if I were you.â
His emotions were now well-tempered and controlled. If it had been the Jia Zizai from the past, he would have immediately resorted to violence.
No opponents were better than dead opponents. That was the rule he used to religiously believe.
Miao Zhengnan left frustrated and angered. He was also rather exasperated and had the urge to lash out, but he held it in. This was not the place to do so, especially since there were surveillance cameras nearby. Furthermore, he was incapable of even doing it in the first place. Wang Yao had pinned him down by just pressing at the air. He wondered if his village chief was even capable of a mystical technique like that.
He wondered how someone so young was capable of such feats.
âAre we going to just head back, Uncle?â
âWeâll wait for a bit longer. We canât just let Miao Chengtang go home alive. And, that guy who dragged me around was also poisoned. Since that other man saved Miao Chengtang, the poison wonât be a problem for him.â
Hmmph!
As he spoke, Miao Zhengnan cradled his stomach.
A sharp pain struck his abdominal area seemingly out of nowhere. He felt as if his intestines had been twisted. He soon felt as if someone had a firm grip on his heart and was squeezing it hard.
The pain was intense.
It instantly hit him, causing his face to ashen. He soon broke out in a sweat.
What the hell!?
He knew right away that it was the work of that young doctor.
âWhat the hell is happening? He just jabbed me at some random places and this is the reaction from that? Is this temporary or permanent?â
The car screeched to a halt without warning. It stopped in the middle of the road. It was fortunate that the road they were on was a dirt road in a village. If it had been on a busy street, doing so would have caused a chain of accidents.
âWhatâs going on?â
The driver was pale and cradling his stomach.
âMy stomach suddenly hurts!â
His face was pale. He bent over as he cradled his stomach. From the looks of it, the pain was really intense.
A car approached them from behind and hooted its horn at them.
The driver wanted the car to move out of away. The driverâs pain was so intense that he dared not move a muscle. Even a minor flinch meant he would break out into a cold sweat.
âWhat the hell?â The driver of the other car pressed on the horn hard, but the car in front of him was not moving at all. The driver was fuming. He got out of the car and approached the vehicle blocking the road. He found the driver to ashen and slumped over the steering wheel.
âIâd be damned. Are you alright?â
âIt hurts,â the driver said.
âWell, would you like me to call an ambulance for you?â
âPlease.â
That driver nodded and checked the back seat in reflex. There was a screen in the way, but he was able to tell more or less what was happening back there. The man in the back seat was not looking good either.
âWhat the hell is going on here? Are you people going on a trip getting sick together?â
Miao Zhengnan, who was in the back seat, shoved two pills into his mouth. They were treasured medicine from their village. The pills were some mystical medicine concocted by Miao Xihe, the chief, using all manner of herbs, including some legendary ones. The pills were capable of curing poisons and curses, staunching bleeding, killing off pain, and many other things.
The pills proved to be truly effective. The pain was gone soon enough.
âThis is useful.â
âCome, take this.â
âIâm all better now,â the young man who was at the wheel said.
âWhat do you mean all better?â Miao Zhengnan was stunned.
âYeah, Iâm all better.â
He wondered if the pain that he had suffered actually went away on its own instead of being the work of the pills.
âLetâs go then.â
âWill the pain come back if we just leave like this?â
They were on a dirt road in a village. Having such attacks was fine where they were. If the attacks struck them while they were on the streets, it could potentially kill them. The chances of some severe accidents happening, the car crashing, and both of them dying were high.
âSh*t!â Miao Zhengnan thought for a while.
âWell, pull over. Weâll wait and see,â he said.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om
âWill do.â
The young driver pulled the car to the side of the road. The two sat in the car and waited.
Bang, bang, bang. After the driver of the car behind them saw the car moving to the side of the road, the driver knocked on their window.
âAre you guys OK?â
âWeâre fine now. Thanks.â
âItâs a good thing you are.â That man seemed kind-hearted.
âA word of advice. You better go get checked out at the hospital if youâre not feeling alright. Itâd be bad if something small becomes something serious.â
âSure.â
That man went back to his car and drove off. After the other man drove off, the two men from the Valley of Thousands of Medicines remained in their car waiting to see if the pain would hit them again.
Back at Wang Yaoâs clinic in the village...
âWho was that guy?â he asked.
âThat was Miao Zhengnan, an expert at bug curses from our village,â Miao Chengtang said. âHe hardly goes out. Heâs here now because of me. Iâm truly sorry for causing you so much trouble.â
It was not the usual kind of small trouble. It had severe implications. Outsiders knew a little about it, but Miao Chengtang knew all too well what happened to people targeted by those from that village.
...