Su Xiaoxue was very surprised. It was something that was one of a kind. Anything with that kind of label on it had to be very precious.
“What does this herb do?” she asked.
“Oh, it does a lot,” Wang Yao said. “It can balance the internal organs and rid the body of any malignant Qi. Prolonged ingestion may render one full of vigor and always youthful.”
“Is it that good?” Su Xiaoxue was even more surprised when she heard what it was capable of.
“Isn’t being full of vigor and always youthful like being immortal?”
“I’m not actually all that sure just how miraculous its effects are,” Wang Yao said. “The herb is not fully grown yet. It’s only a sprout at present.”
“How long will it take to grow?” Su Xiaoxue asked.
“Beats me. According to what I know, this thing should take 30 years to grow to about 98 feet tall. Only then will it be suitable to serve as medicine.”
“30 years?” Su Xiaoxue was shocked. “Will it really take that long before it can be used?”
Most people did not have decades to spare. While it was said that prolonged ingestion allowed one to remain full of vigor and always youthful, the notion of prolonged ingestion seemed utterly impossible in this case.
“This is my first time planting this herb,” Wang Yao said with a chuckle.
“I sure look forward to it.” Su Xiaoxue said as she eyed that Kang Wood, which was about a foot tall.
In Tianjin, thousands of miles away…
Miao Chengtang looked terrible. Moments ago, he had been cursed yet again.
“Damn it!”
He was able to confirm that someone from the village had been sent to keep an eye on him. He knew they were nearby. Furthermore, that person was adept at using curses. They had managed to bug him without him detecting it.
“Who is doing this? Is it an elder from the village?” Miao Chengtang took a deep breath.
He had chronic, excruciating pain in his stomach. Things were different from the last time he had been bugged. The current symptoms were intense abdominal pain, diarrhea, and a bloody stool. He regurgitated everything he ate and spat out blood. Be it his stool or the spew, he saw black worms the size of a string. They looked disgusting and horrifying.
“It seems like I’ll need to make another trip.”
The only person he had told about the situation was Xu Xinyuan.
“What?” Xu Xinyuan was shocked. “You got bugged again?”
“Yeah, and it’s different this time. People from the village are probably still here in Tianjin. If I’m not mistaken, they’re close to where I live now.” Miao Chengtang did not panic like he had the last time he was cursed. He was considerably calmer this time.
“Would you be able to tell them apart if you saw them?” Xu Xinyuan asked.
“If they are close enough, it won’t be a problem,” Miao Chengtang replied.
When he was in the village, he did not notice the difference between people from the village and the ones in the outside world. After spending some time in Tianjin, he discovered that it was very easy to tell people from the village apart from people in the city. He only needed to take one look to tell the difference. The difference was as glaring as dropping a drop of blood into a bowl of water.
“Alright, I’ll arrange for someone to pick you up,” Xu Xinyuan said. “Head to Qi Province immediately and look for Wang Yao.”
“Well, umm… I’m not sure if he’ll help me out this time.” Miao Chengtang was concerned about that option. When he last visited the doctor, he had been given the cold shoulder. The doctor seemed unwilling to get too involved with him.
“Maybe he knows just how terrifying the people from the Valley of Thousands of Medicines are and doesn’t want to get himself in danger because of me,” Miao Chengtang said.
“One way or another, he’s your only hope now,” Xu Xinyuan said. “You have to make the trip. You must go.”
“Yeah, alright,” Miao Chengtang replied. “I’ll make the trip. Thank you.”
“Don’t mention it,” Xu Xinyuan said.
Xu Xinyuan was surprised that someone held such an intense grudge toward Miao Chengtang. He had greatly underestimated just how far those people from that place were willing to go when they felt betrayed. After failing to take care of their problem the first time, they had immediately made another attempt. They showed no mercy toward the person they considered a traitor. Despite being more than 6,000 miles away, those people immediately sent someone to again deal with the person they decided needed to be disposed of. Xu Xinyuan was utterly surprised by just how brutal those people were.
“These assholes are difficult.”
Miao Chengtang was not all that important in Xu Xinyuan’s eyes. At the very least, Miao Chengtang had not been able to do much. He had only provided news that needed to be further verified. However, given how much he had invested in covering for Miao Chengtang, giving him up now meant that everything he did for Miao Chengtang would have been for nothing. That was like someone purchasing a luxurious car and later discovering that the car had a series of problems and was not much of a source of enjoyment. The overarching issue was whether to fix those problems or just give up the car altogether. Most people in this predicament would have probably chosen to repair the car and make the most out of it. Then again, if someone was from a rich family, it was probably been a different story. Xu Xinyuan was not a rich person. The money he had spent on the man was not his own. It was the Guo Clan’s money that he had been spending. As such, he needed to ensure that the money was well spent.
He had already invested a lot in Miao Chengtang, which meant that he had to keep making investments just to keep that man alive. That would not change unless the cost of keeping Miao Chengtang alive was simply too great, far greater than the returns the man was able to generate. In that case, the man would have outlived his usefulness and no longer be worth using and helping. Xu Xinyuan would have to give up on Miao Chengtang if things came to that. As for now, things were not quite that bad yet.
The car Xu Xinyuan sent arrived at Miao Chengtang’s place to pick him up. He left soon after.
“Follow that car up there.”
Another car followed behind the one Miao Chengtang was in.
The cars drove out of Tianjin and went onto the highway.
“There’s someone following us,” the driver said.
“It’ doesn’t matter,” Miao Chengtang said. “There is no need to speed. Just let the car follow us.”
They stopped at a rest area not long after they departed. He was unable to help it. The condition with his stomach was so unbearable that he needed to relieve himself somewhere. The diarrhea was very explosive. He had not eaten anything for the past few days, yet he continued to throw up and have diarrhea all the same. It was so bad that even drinking water gave him that reaction.
After he emerged from the bathroom, he was hardly able to stand. He struggled to keep himself upright by holding onto the door handle.
If this continued, he was bound to drop dead in one of the bathrooms along the way. His body would have eventually been discovered by one of the janitors on duty.
I have to live through this! I have to!
He continued to encourage himself.
That car behind continued to follow them.
“Fa-faster.”
“What about the car behind us?” the driver asked.
“Don’t bother,” Miao Chengtang said. He cared for his life more than anything else. As for the people in that car behind them, he deemed them to be a secondary concern.
He had to live to do what he had to do.
The car he rode in accelerated and sped along the highway. That car behind them managed to follow all the same.
“Where are they going?”
“From the looks of it, probably Qi Province.”
“Qi Province?”
The car arrived in Lianshan County that night. Miao Chengtang and the driver stayed the night in a hotel that was close in town.
It was now the middle of the night.
Miao Chengtang suddenly sat up and rushed to the toilet.
He continued to throw up and have diarrhea. The toilet bowl was filled with something red. It was covered with blood.
Huh, huh…
He struggled to move to his bed and slumped down on it. It was as if he was a fish stranded on the sand of a beach and about to die.
Huff, huff…
He was struggling to breathe. Since he was already robbed of most of his strength, it made breathing that much more laborious.
He was practically lingering on the last breath of his life.
He looked at the time.
Dawn was still six hours away. Those six hours were going to be hellish for him.
The sun rose, all the same, the next morning.
A car was seen driving into a secluded village in the mountains at 7 a.m. It stopped right outside a clinic at the southern end of the village.
“Please, do me a favor and check if the clinic is open,” Miao Chengtang said as he remained slumped in the car. He was expending more energy than he was taking in, so he dared not move unnecessarily. Even moving in the slightest evoked terrible abdominal pains. He felt as if he could easily lose control of all bowel movements.
“It’s not open yet,” the driver replied soon after getting down and checking the place out.
“Well, we’ll just wait here for a bit. Keep an eye out. Tell me immediately once the place is open.”
“Will do,” the driver replied.
He glanced at the man in the back seat through the rearview mirror. He was horrifyingly ashen and seemed to have lost almost all signs of life.
How come this looks more serious than the last time?
It was the same man the driver had picked up before the New Year’s festivities. He was doing it because it had been lucrative. He almost regretted making the trip in the first place. He had been worried about the passenger dying in his car. The driver made another trip for the same reason—money. This time, he was even more worried because the man looked even more ill and closer to death than he had been before.
You have to make it through! Please, please, please don’t die in my car! He prayed feverishly deep down as he waited.
…
