Chapter 432 — A Healer's Heart
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 1 of 4
Shen Mu took up his brush and wrote down the spirit medicines and poisons he required. The prefect of Zijing City came to pay his respects, and Xue Hu'er blocked his way: "The young master is not receiving visitors these days. " The prefect had no choice but to withdraw.
Si Yunxiang, meanwhile, was busy contacting the Si family, having them notify their brethren in the cult, ordering that word be carried to the Emperor with all speed, and asking the cult's elders to carefully select adepts well versed in the Five Ghosts Transportation Art and send them here as quickly as might be.
Shen Mu handed her the prescription. Si Yunxiang looked it over and saw that the various ingredients upon it numbered in the hundreds, many of which she had never seen nor even heard of. "I fear these spirit medicines will be very hard to find," she said.
"We shall have to search the apothecaries of every city thoroughly before we can gather them all. It will cost us no small amount of time. " Shen Mu let out a breath of turbid air and smiled. "The reason I granted the Baixi Deity these few days was to seek out spirit medicines, and also to await the arrival of the cult's masters and the Emperor. Otherwise, why would I have let him deliberate so long?
" Si Yunxiang sighed. "To be your enemy, one must take care not to choke to death even while eating. I have already notified the Holy Cult.
As for the Five Ghosts Transportation Art, apart from a few elders, it is Miaoshou Hall that has the greatest mastery of it. " "Miaoshou Hall? " Shen Mu was taken aback, and his face took on a questioning look.
"Nimble hands, empty pockets - naturally they are thieves.
" Si Yunxiang laughed.
"Miaoshou Hall is mostly thieves. In years past they often went to rob the great houses, carrying off the treasures of wealthy families, but it was all petty business. Later the Emperor conscripted them into the army to transport the enemy's grain and fodder, and many of them won merit; their official posts are not small at all. " "So that is how it is.
" Shen Mu understood, and praised them: "Every trade produces its champion.
Even a thief can rise in office and grow rich. This must be told to Grandpa Cripple.
" Yet worry stirred in his heart again: the Lame Elder and the others were blocking the gods of the High Heavens in the Divine Severance Mountains, and he did not know how the fighting went. "With Grandpa Alchemist there, there should be no great trouble.
" Even so, he could not help but worry.
The Alchemist could save the dying and heal the wounded, but that place, after all, was a battlefield of gods and demons; if a man were struck dead outright, even the Alchemist had no medicine for him. Si Yunxiang went to have the cult's disciples prepare the ingredients, while Shen Mu wrote out the pill formula for his own treatment and sent Xue Hu'er to buy medicines from the city's apothecaries, so that he might properly nurse himself back to health. After all, the toll the Soul Boat took upon his life was no small matter; if it could be replenished, then of course he must do his utmost to make it whole.
Two or three days passed, and Shen Mu felt much better. He brought Jiao Wangshen and the flood dragons to the Fragrant Well courtyard again and asked, "Senior Brother Baixi, do you need me to treat your wounds? " "No need! " The Baixi Deity said warily, "One skilled in healing is naturally skilled in poison.
If I take your medicine, I fear I shall die without even knowing how. " Shen Mu glanced at his wounds. The wounds on his body no longer bled, but many bones were broken, a most pitiful sight.
"If your leg is not treated further, it will be ruined, and you will walk on one leg alone.
In another two days, that ruined leg will have to be sawn off. And the injury in the ruined leg will spread, corroding the healthy parts, and your body will rot away piece by piece.