Chapter 9

What Qu Yan said was not false, but the scope was a bit large. The Xuquan Mountain range stretched for a hundred miles without interruption. The Medicine Immortal Valley was hidden in the heart of three mountain peaks within it. Even if someone knew the location of the Medicine Immortal Valley, it would take some time to truly find it.

Qi Ying did not speak again, still nodding before falling into silence. Fortunately, Qu Yan was already used to it. She crouched down on her own, her fingertips lightly scratching the belly of the black dog that was sprawled out carelessly.

He watched for a while, seeing that the sky was getting darker and darker, and finally spoke softly, “…Can I go back to that room from before?”

Qu Yan’s fingertips paused, and when she looked up, there was some surprise in her eyes. “Of course you can.” She was also not accustomed to living with others, and bringing him back yesterday was purely out of necessity.

The side room that had been uninhabited for a long time was thoroughly cleaned, the bloodstained bedding was replaced, and from now on, it would welcome a new resident.

Although they lived under the same roof, the number of times the two met was very fixed. Every morning and evening, Qu Yan would bring a bowl of medicinal soup into the side room, check the man’s pulse, change his bandages, and most importantly, observe whether the strange fragrance of the Ten-Day Scatter appeared on the man’s body.

On the eighth day after Qi Ying woke up, that strange fragrance appeared on his body again. It was like a very faint and elegant floral scent, floating faintly in the room. Unless one was extremely familiar with this scent, it would be impossible to detect.

The total word count of this book is: 514,453 words. Qu Yan closed her eyes, confirming the source of this scent again, and finally opened her eyes slowly, with an inscrutable expression in her eyes.

In these eight days, Qu Yan had already removed six types of poisons from his body, from the violent poison of aconite grass to minor poisons that caused no pain or itching in humans. She had once suspected that aconite grass was the medicinal root that had fused with the Ten-Day Scatter, as both were potent medicines that caused a rise in body temperature and unbearable pain when they took effect.

But now it seemed that the speculations from the past few days were all inaccurate. That strange fragrance had not disappeared, and the intertwined and symbiotic poison was not aconite grass, but hidden deeper, not yet discovered by her.

Qi Ying was wearing that plain blue garment, his long hair also tied up high with a plain blue hair ribbon. Compared to the woman’s solemn expression, he appeared much calmer, as if the poisoned person was not him.

Qu Yan’s three fingers pressed on the man’s wrist, feeling the pulse beating under her fingertips. It felt no different from a normal person’s, but she still showed no intention of letting go.

Time slowly passed. Qi Ying suddenly looked up towards the doorway. At the same moment, a series of knocking sounds came from the adjacent main bedroom. He looked at the doorway, then at the woman in front of him, and seeing that she had no intention of responding, he lowered his gaze to the ground again.

This was the longest time Qu Yan had taken to check his pulse. She sat at the table with her eyes closed, her lips pressed into a straight line, carefully feeling the changes in the man’s pulse. Since there was still undiscovered poison in his body, it couldn’t be without any reaction. It was just hidden too deep, and she had been looking in the wrong direction before, never noticing those anomalies.

Time slowly passed, and finally.

Qu Yan’s fingertips moved, and she suddenly opened her eyes, a trace of joy flashing in them. She had felt that unusual pulse beat. Without any hesitation, she turned and took out a silver needle from her acupuncture bag, and the next moment, she pricked the man’s little finger.

A slightly blackened drop of blood was squeezed out. Qi Ying looked at his little finger, his brow furrowing slightly for once, but the woman in front of him suddenly relaxed her brow, a smile blooming on her lips.

“So that’s how it is, I had forgotten…”

Qi Ying’s pitch-black eyes looked at her. He rarely showed any emotion in front of the woman, but now seeing her smile so happily, he couldn’t help but ask, “Forgotten what?”

Forgotten the biggest rule in their profession, that they were just sharpened knives, and any love or affection was not allowed for them.

Qu Yan played with the silver needle in her hand, and hearing this, she looked up at Qi Ying. She smiled with her eyes curved, staring steadily at the man before her. He still showed no expression, but those black eyes betrayed his curiosity.

She was still smiling, but the smile gradually became somewhat playful, and her eyes looking at Qi Ying also added some indescribable emotion.

“Do you have someone you love?”

This sudden question made Qi Ying freeze on the spot. It took him a moment to realize that these words were actually directed at him.

“No.”

Qi Ying’s ears inexplicably felt hot. He lowered his eyes and quickly uttered two words, intending to withdraw his hand, but unexpectedly, she pressed it down with her hand. Qu Yan leisurely took out a handkerchief, and after wiping the blood from his fingertip, she took out a small jar from her bosom.

A man’s skin was indeed much more delicate, even a brief pressure would leave red marks. Qu Yan applied the cool ointment to the man’s wrist, her tone revealing no particular emotion.

“It’s the Forget Dust Pill.”

Seeing Qi Ying’s puzzled gaze, Qu Yan slowly began to explain, “It is said that those who take this drug will suffer unbearable pain if they develop feelings of love, so the drug maker named it Forget Dust, with the purpose of making the user forget worldly love and become a supreme sage.”

Qi Ying looked at his little finger, where there was still a small blood spot. That’s where Qu Yan had pricked just now. He couldn’t remember when he had taken this drug, let alone know that it had such an effect.

He suddenly recalled the question Qu Yan had asked him earlier, and his heart became extremely complex.

He had no one he loved, let alone being in love.

Qu Yan suddenly let out a light snort, her expression carrying a hint of mockery, “Unfortunately, it’s all fake. There may be thousands of strange poisons in the world, but those that can truly control human emotions are few and far between. This thing is nothing but an inferior product.”

The Forget Dust Pill couldn’t control human emotions, but the pain it caused was real. The principle behind it was very simple: once the heart meridian of the person who took the drug showed abnormalities, it would trigger the Forget Dust Pill to take effect in the body.

After hearing this explanation, Qi Ying’s brows also furrowed, “What counts as an abnormality in the heart meridian?”

“For example, when lovers are deeply in love, or…” Qu Yan’s lips curved in an ambiguous smile. She looked at the silent man before her, her fingertip tapping once on the wooden table. “When the Ten-Day Scatter takes effect.”

The man was silent for a moment, then raised those ink-like eyes, “So what took effect in my body that day wasn’t the Ten-Day Scatter, but this thing?”

“You could explain it that way, but it’s not accurate. You’ve taken the Forget Dust Pill for too long, I’m afraid it’s long been entangled with the Ten-Day Scatter, and it’s unclear which one is taking effect.”

When he first experienced the effects of the Ten-Day Scatter, the Forget Dust Pill must have taken effect along with it. This thing was hidden too deep in his body, from his pulse it seemed almost no different from a normal person, making it very difficult to find. She looked at the man who showed no expression but had reddened ears, not knowing what he was thinking inside, and offered some words of comfort.

“Don’t worry, since I said I’d detoxify you, I’ll make sure you’re no longer controlled by it. Just trust me and follow my instructions.”

This was also Qu Yan’s first encounter with such a situation. Although she looked down on the Forget Dust Pill for not living up to its name, her mockery aside, the curiosity she held in her heart was stronger than anyone’s. What exactly was the principle behind this? Would it be possible to fuse with other drugs? If the cause could be thoroughly researched, those drugs she had developed based on incomplete formulas might yield several new ones.

But time was pressing, and all these had to be postponed. The most important thing at present was to obtain the antidote for Forget Dust within three days. Fortunately, she had studied hundreds of strange poisons over the years, and Forget Dust was naturally among them, so the antidote was not a difficult matter.

Qu Yan set aside her thoughts and looked again at the man sitting opposite her.

After these days of interaction, Qu Yan had figured out his habits. He almost never spoke actively, was accustomed to obeying orders, never went out to the courtyard to bask in the sun, only willing to shrink in the dark corners of the room. Whenever he maintained silence, he was always so quiet that people would forget his presence.

“Let’s change your bandages.”

After Qu Yan spoke, she stood up. By the time she came back with the medicine box, the man was already sitting by the bed. She suppressed the smile in her eyes and walked over with her usual expression.

Qi Ying hesitated for a moment, then lowered his eyes and undid his robe, only revealing the clean white undergarment. The next moment, the woman’s hand rolled it up.

Half of his slender, fair waist was exposed to the air. Qu Yan had no mood to appreciate the beauty, only focusing on the bloody and fierce wound. She sprinkled the medicine on the wound with more force than usual, and her tone was also heavier than before.

“Don’t mess around anymore. You’re just delaying the healing, and in the end, you’re the one who suffers.”

Qi Ying understood what she meant, so his waist stiffened, and he softly agreed, “Alright.”

His right hand was inconvenient to move, and these days it had been Qu Yan helping him change the bandages. Although she had never done anything inappropriate, every time he undressed in front of her, it always felt very strange.

In the past, even with injuries much more severe than this, he had never been so delicate as to need others to take care of him. So yesterday, Qi Ying changed the bandages himself. With his right hand inconvenient, he used his teeth to bite. He had done this plenty of times before.

When Qu Yan entered the room, she didn’t ask anything, just sniffed that faint smell of blood. With that unchanging slight smile on her lips, she took out a new medicine he had never seen before, only saying that the wound on his waist and abdomen was almost healed, and today they could change the medicine.

She ignored Qi Ying’s momentary stiffness and directly started to unwrap the white cloth around his waist. When she saw that the wound that had just barely started to heal had torn open again by half, the smile on her lips disappeared. She despised those who didn’t follow medical advice, but she indeed hadn’t told Qi Ying not to change the bandages himself, so this couldn’t be considered his fault.

When she looked up again, Qu Yan’s expression was no different from usual. She even softly instructed that before his left hand was better, she would be the one to change the bandages.

Qi Ying came back from his thoughts. After the woman’s figure left, he got up again and shrank back into the dark corner. He didn’t like lying on the bed, it gave him a feeling of being on the brink of death. Only dead people would lie so comfortably and carefreely.

When he was the only one left in the room, Qi Ying quietly lowered his head and sniffed his own clothes, but no matter how he sniffed, he couldn’t smell the strange fragrance that Qu Yan had mentioned.

Two meal boxes were quietly placed at the door of the main bedroom. Qu Yan looked at the dim sky, picked up one of the boxes and brought it to Qi Ying. Ever since she accidentally discovered that he liked to eat meat, Qu Yan had specifically instructed the kitchen to prepare a medicinal diet with meat every other day. He was always very obliging, eating all the meat without leaving any.

After doing all this, Qu Yan didn’t return to her bedroom to rest, but instead walked towards the front hall in the valley.

Most of the disciples in the valley were young, at an age when they loved to play. They liked to keep all sorts of random medicines in the miscellaneous room of the front hall. A couple of years ago, she had even found several packages of aphrodisiacs commonly used in brothels.

Qu Yan was too lazy to manage it, but when Liang Jiqian found out about this matter, she was angry for several days, insisting on finding out which disciple had hidden the aphrodisiacs to make an example of them as a warning to others.

In Liang Jiqian’s words at the time, their Medicine Immortal Valley was dedicated to saving lives, and what they studied in the valley were all top-quality medicines. How could such lowbrow aphrodisiacs be circulated among the disciples? If something really happened, it would be too late.

Qu Yan looked at Liang Jiqian’s serious face, inconspicuously glanced at the potent aphrodisiac poison on her own table, and then slightly nodded to show agreement.