Chapter 1

It was said that Medicine Immortal Valley was like spring all year round, with scenery inside the valley as beautiful as a fairyland, making people linger and forget to return.

Unfortunately, the area around the valley was shrouded in thick fog year-round. Without guidance, ordinary people would only wander in circles in the mountains as if hitting an invisible wall. Even those with some real skill would mostly be blocked by the deeper miasma.

The reason was simple – it was just for peace and quiet.

In a spacious and bright courtyard, green vines covered the beams, with new tender shoots almost reaching inside the house. But the owner of the courtyard let them grow freely.

Three winnowing baskets were placed on the open ground in front of the hall, each filled with herbs, taking advantage of the bright sun for drying.

It was the height of midsummer, with stuffy heat hard to dispel. Not only were people sweating profusely and feeling drowsy, but the three dogs in the courtyard had also retreated to the shadows early, panting with their tongues out and snoring.

A tall young woman walked out from the inner hall. She had a beautiful face, with a gentle and moist aura around her. There was always a faint smile at the corners of her mouth, giving people a sense of closeness just by looking at her.

The woman arranged a few herbs in her hand on the winnowing basket, then skillfully flipped over the layer underneath. Only then did she take out a handkerchief from her bosom and wipe the mud from her fingertips methodically.

Suddenly, a cheerful female voice came from afar, breaking the rare silence in the valley, “Elder Sister, everything is ready. When shall we leave the valley?”

Qu Yan put away the mud-stained handkerchief and looked up towards the source of the voice. The newcomer was her junior sister Liang Jiqian.

Liang Jiqian did not enter the courtyard, only stopping at the door to look at her senior sister. This was because the three dogs that had been snoring earlier were now all awake, watching the newcomer’s movements cautiously. The smallest one even bared its teeth threateningly, as if it would bite her fiercely if she took another step forward.

Liang Jiqian glanced at the fluffy little dog helplessly and took another step back, her tone hiding a bit of resentment, “Ah Huang, if you keep being so fierce, you won’t get any leftover bones from the kitchen next time.”

She spoke sincerely, not caring whether the dog in front of her could understand human speech.

Qu Yan swept her gaze over the confrontation between the person and the dog, a trace of amusement flashing across her face. Then she walked straight towards the door, interrupting their exchange.

“Let’s go. The sooner we leave, the sooner we can return.”

The two walked out of the hall one after another. Outside the courtyard was a scene of vibrant spring, with wisps of medicinal and floral fragrances intertwining in the air, refreshing to the soul, truly like a fairyland on earth.

The disciples on duty in the valley now saw the two and bowed their heads in greeting.

Liang Jiqian’s trip out of the valley today was for the routine inspection of the medicine halls. When Medicine Immortal was young, she had traveled the four seas. Unable to bear the suffering in the world, she established charitable medicine halls in thirteen cities, providing free medical consultations on the first and fifteenth of every month. Occasionally, rare and difficult cases would be recorded and eventually handed over to Medicine Immortal Valley.

There was even a saying in the world that the greatest achievement in medical studies was not in the Imperial Medical Institute, but in Medicine Immortal Valley.

At that time, such a statement became more and more exaggerated, making Medicine Immortal Valley famous in the jianghu while also attracting secret visits from court officials.

Qu Yan was still young then. She only knew that after her master talked with those outsiders late into the night, she set up miasma outside the valley and gradually withdrew from the jianghu, no longer concerning herself with worldly affairs.

Now, the one truly in charge of Medicine Immortal Valley was Medicine Immortal’s first disciple, Qu Yan.

There were two paths out of the valley. Qu Yan deliberately chose the narrow and remote dirt road. This road led close to the village behind the mountain after exiting. The people responsible for gathering herbs in the valley would occasionally go to the village to collect medicines, using this path.

Liang Jiqian looked at Qu Yan’s unhurried steps beside her, her eyes inevitably showing some confusion. When they met in the front hall this morning, Liang Jiqian said she was going out of the valley. To her surprise, her senior sister pondered for a moment, then nodded and said she had the same intention, coincidentally going out together.

Qu Yan had rarely left the valley in the past two years. Liang Jiqian thought she had urgent business, but now it didn’t seem so.

“Senior Sister, you rarely leave the valley. What is the purpose of this trip?”

Qu Yan’s footsteps did not stop. Hearing the question, she only said softly, “To find a person with destiny.”

She spoke neither hurriedly nor slowly, her tone not sounding like it was for any serious matter.

Liang Jiqian’s feet paused, not knowing how to respond. She could only press her lips together and not speak again. If her senior sister didn’t want to talk about something, it wasn’t appropriate for her to ask further.

Qu Yan’s trip was indeed to find a ‘person with destiny’. She had thoroughly researched the Hundred Poisons Manual left by her master. That manual was a copied version, with many formulas incomplete, and only a few clearly recorded.

She had secluded herself for five months, developing several new medicines based on the incomplete formulas. However, she hadn’t tried them on living people yet and didn’t know their effects.

Her purpose for leaving the valley today was to find a test subject.

“It’s getting late, so I’ll head into the city first,” Liang Jiqian paused, then added, “I hope Senior Sister finds your person with destiny soon.”

After parting with Liang Jiqian, Qu Yan headed towards the village. This path was not only close to the village but also near the Wasteland Market. The so-called Wasteland Market was a slave market where buyers could take people back just by paying money, and the life and death of the slaves were entirely at the discretion of the buyers afterward.

Test subjects were different from ordinary people. They needed to be physically strong and free of other complicated diseases.

Thinking about the effects of those few new medicines, Qu Yan quickened her steps. The Wasteland Market was at the village entrance, with slaves for sale every day. She went around from the valley entrance to the foot of the back mountain, planning to take a shortcut to try her luck.

At the foot of the back mountain was a cliff. The path on the cliff was steep and desolate. In previous years, many villagers had lost their lives here while hunting and gathering herbs. After the news spread, few people ventured into this area.

Qu Yan stepped on the waist-high weeds, with rustling sounds constantly coming from the grass. However, she remained calm, not minding the noise at all. Several grass snakes hidden in the weeds gradually approached the woman’s figure, then slithered away a few feet away.

Poisonous insects and snakes existed here year-round, but the people from the valley had their own methods to avoid their harassment.

Just as she was passing not far from that cliff, Qu Yan’s footsteps suddenly paused. She then turned and walked a few steps to the right, sniffing lightly. The faint smell of blood became clearer.

There were herds of deer at the foot of the cliff. This blood smell was quite fresh. Perhaps it was an unfortunate deer that had just been hunted by wolves. If lucky, she might even be able to pick up a deer antler to use as medicine.

Her original intention to leave was forcibly turned back. Following the source of the blood smell, as the distance grew closer, the blood smell in the air became more intense, yet there were no signs of animal hunting left around.

Qu Yan felt a hint of strangeness in her heart, and the faint smile that usually hung on her lips also flattened.

Until she walked to the foot of that cliff, it was a steep slope. The slope was originally covered with scattered rocks and weeds, but now a trail had been forcibly pressed out, as if something had rolled down from above.

Qu Yan raised her head and squinted at the height of this slope, then swept her gaze along the trail. When she saw that blood-soaked figure whose appearance couldn’t be clearly seen, her expression rarely showed alarm.

The person was lying on their side in the wild grass, with the grass beneath already soaked through with fresh blood, showing large patches of dark red. The black blood-stained clothes had long been torn to shreds by the rocks, and the exposed skin was also covered with blood and mud. The disheveled hair was plastered all over the face, looking no different from a dead person.

Qu Yan walked to the figure and crouched down. Her long, slender white fingers reached out, gently brushing aside the hair of that figure of unknown life or death, revealing a face covered with fresh blood and mud, looking terribly frightening.

She placed her fingertips under the person’s nose. When she felt that faint breath, Qu Yan rarely raised an eyebrow. She had thought this person couldn’t survive and wanted to be a good person by burying them on the spot, which would count as a meritorious deed. But unexpectedly, this person was so tenacious of life.

Saving lives and helping the wounded was the duty of a doctor. Even though she didn’t think of herself as particularly kind-hearted, with the mindset of ‘since I’m here already’, Qu Yan looked up at the top of the slope, her expression thoughtful. The Wasteland Market was just three li away from here, extremely close.

Since she was here already, she might as well bring someone back.

Qu Yan only pondered for a moment before looking down at the person on the ground again, softly murmuring, “Meeting me can be considered fate.”

After confirming that this person had no fatal external injuries, she carefully picked them up. Although they were wearing quite a bit, they didn’t feel heavy when carried. Qu Yan glanced back at the blood-soaked grass, then turned and left the place.

Still on that small path in the valley, the disciples who were chatting and laughing saw their senior sister, who had just left not long ago, returning in a hurry, carrying a blood-soaked and dirty figure in her arms. They all put down what they were doing and gathered around with concerned expressions.

“Senior Sister, what happened? Do you need our help?”

Qu Yan looked at her little junior sister trying to reach out to take over, then at her small and immature frame. She just shook her head and walked towards the medicine hall in front. In just a few steps, she carried the person in her arms into the courtyard.

The three free-roaming dogs smelled the blood and all gathered around barking, each bark louder than the last. Qu Yan frowned, and the little junior sister who had followed understood immediately, closing the door and keeping the dogs outside.

“Is it someone who came from the foot of the mountain seeking medical help? How did they get injured so severely?”

Ren Ling looked at that face covered in blood and mud, which looked like a monster, her tone unconsciously showing some fear. After the senior sister placed the person on the soft couch, she conscientiously brought out the medicine box.

“No,” Qu Yan said.

Ignoring her little junior sister’s surprised expression, she only instructed, “Go fetch some hot water.”

After Ren Ling left, Qu Yan looked at the person’s tattered clothes, her brows furrowing slightly for a moment, then she deftly reached out and untied their waist sash. It was the height of summer, and if external wounds were not cleaned promptly, they could easily cause high fever, which would be a hundred times more troublesome than now.

The outer garments were easy to remove, but the undergarments had already stuck to the wounds. Forcibly pulling them off would only cause more damage to the injured areas. Qu Yan took out scissors and carefully cut along the edges of the undergarments with skilled and gentle movements.

During her actions, she felt a hard object like a tag. Qu Yan casually pulled it out. The tag was made of iron, completely black, with an unpleasant smell of bloody rust. She only looked at it for two glances, saw that the pattern on it was scratched, and simply put it aside. Saving the person was the urgent matter at hand.

When the last layer of clothing was cut open, Qu Yan’s movements paused for a rare moment when she saw the flat chest of the person on the couch, then her touch became even gentler.

Although his attire didn’t distinguish between male and female, and his face was too dirty to make out his features, Qu Yan had assumed all along that he was a woman. She even thought he might be a slave who had escaped from the Wasteland Market and fallen down the cliff out of desperation.

After all, in this world, most men rarely left their homes, let alone come to such a remote and wild place. It was her preconceived notion that had led her to misidentify his gender.

Qu Yan had practiced medicine for many years. Whether male or female bodies, in her eyes now they were just flesh. After completely cutting away the excess clothing on his body, she looked at this body that could be described as a bloody mess and slowly furrowed her brows.

“Senior Sister, the water is here!”

Qu Yan’s thoughts were interrupted by Ren Ling’s commotion. She got up and pulled open the screen beside the soft couch, blocking her little junior sister’s gaze towards the couch. Then she took the basin of hot water from her hands and nodded to indicate she should leave.

The senior sister was used to treating patients alone. Ren Ling didn’t think much of it and obediently closed the door and left.

The man on the soft couch was thin but not as frail as ordinary men. He seemed to be someone who had practiced martial arts for years, but there was hardly a spot on his body that wasn’t injured. Apart from fresh abrasions, his skin had a shocking number of old wounds. At a glance, she could distinguish two knife scars and several whip marks and needle torture marks.

Qu Yan’s fingertips stopped at his waist and abdomen, pinching the last piece of cloth stuck to his flesh.

Fresh blood trickled down his skin. Even someone who had fainted would feel this kind of pain, but he seemed unaware, only the slight rise and fall of his chest proving he was still alive.

After treating the abrasions on his body and the bone fracture in his right arm, Qu Yan looked at the most miserable part of the man’s waist and abdomen. The wound was about an inch long, with signs of festering around it. The blood was slightly blackened, appearing to be an old wound that hadn’t healed for a long time and had been torn open again when falling down the mountain.

Reddish-brown medicinal powder was sprinkled on the horrifying wound. As long as there was still poison in the wound, this medicine would cause an extremely intense burning sensation. When Qu Yan had tested the medicine before, she had only cut a small wound on her hand and sprinkled some common poison, and it had hurt so much she had to grit her teeth.

But he only furrowed his brows, with no other reaction. Qu Yan examined his reaction, a trace of interest flashing in her eyes.

“You can certainly endure pain.”