After leaving the mountain region, Han Li could still hear the voices discussing how to settle Fatty Wang and Zhang Chang Gui’s dispute. Han Li decided not to concern himself about the matter.
Whenever he thought Little Abacus’s dumbstruck expression, he could not help but laugh out loud. His small excursion outside the valley had indeed lifted his spirits, and he was no longer as depressed as before.
He ventured out of the forest and walked straight ahead. A small creek appeared at the end of the path.
Han Li inclined his head upwards and looked at the fiery hot sun before lowering his head to avoid the glare and to drink some water from the creek. He felt that taking a bath right now would not be a bad idea.
As he bent downwards, with both of his hands entering the cool creek water, a voice filled with pain sounded out and reached his ears.
Han Li was surprised. To think that there would be people in such a remote region.
Following the sound of the voice, Han Li wandered upstream and found a person wearing a disciple’s robe lying on the ground, his body convulsing while his limbs flailed about.
The moment Han Li saw the person, he knew that the disciple was suffering from an acute illness and if he didn’t help now, there might be a danger of death.
Han Li rushed over and took out a wooden box from his robes. From the wooden box, he drew out silver needles that seemed to reflect the light as he pierced them into the acupoints on the disciple’s back.
After he was done with the acupoints on the disciple’s back, he turned the body of the disciple around and began to work with the acupoints located on his chest.
When the disciple’s body was turned, Han Li sucked in a breath. He was shocked beyond measure. This person… this person, who was flailing about earlier, was none other than the Senior Disciple Li that participated in the battle earlier!
Stunned, Han Li could only gaze at the facial features of Senior Disciple Li.
The current Senior Disciple Li did not have the air of a peerless expert at all. There was no heroic demeanor to be seen anywhere, only a cold face full of pain and suffering as his features contorted together and white foam leaked from his mouth. It was obvious that Senior Disciple Li from suffering from too much pain to bear, and he was almost to the point of being unconscious.
Han Li regained his calm as he muttered to himself. Akin to flowing water, the silver needle in Han Li’s hand begin to prick the acupoints on Senior Disciple Li body continuously over 10 times. At the final prick, Han Li wiped the sweat that had formed on his forehead and released a breath. The usage of the silver needle and strength needed to pierce each acupoint exhausted a huge amount of energy from him.
After Senior Disciple Li’s body was riddled with silver needles, he finally woke up and regained consciousness.
“You are…” Senior Disciple Li tried to say something, but he didn’t have enough strength, so he could not say more than a few words.
“I’m from the God Hand Valley. Save your breath and slowly recover your strength. I can only remind you that your illness is very strange. In my estimation, only my teacher Doctor Mo would be able to save you. But sadly, he is currently away from the mountain.” Han Li took the pulse of Senior Disciple Li as he furrowed his brows in thought.
“The… Medci..ne..is..at..” Senior Disciple Li’s face paled as his lips shivered, lifting his arms to gesture at something, but he was unsuccessful.
“You have medicine to cure the illness on your body?” Han Li roughly understood his meaning, and he questioned Senior Disciple Li.
“Ye….s” Senior Disciple Li saw that Han Li understood his meaning, relaxed his features and nodded his head.
Han Li was no longer polite as he searched Senior Disciple Li’s body for the antidote. He found many useless items, and amongst them, there was a small white jade bottle which he took out. This bottle was made of expensive material and was also tightly sealed. He guessed this was what Senior Disciple Li was looking for.
As he took the bottle and glanced at Senior Disciple Li, his guess turned out correct. Senior Disciple Li’s expression was full of joy as he frantically blinked his eyes.
Han Li unsealed the bottle, and contrary to his expectations, there was no fragrance of herbal components drifting out, but rather extremely pungent smell.
The moment Han Li smelled the pungent smell, his expression turned nasty as he cautiously took out a pink color pill out from the bottle. This pill was extremely beautiful to behold, yet the pungent smell that was emitted from the pill caused people to have difficulty breathing.
“Is this a medicinal pill?” Han Li regained his calm face.
Senior Disciple Li was still unable to speak, but he blinked his eyes to convey to Han Li that this was the right pill.
“This Essence Extraction Pill was created from orchids, crab tailed flower, hundred year-old egg of blue ant… as well as 23 other rarely seen ingredients. After the pill is concocted, it takes on a pinkish hue and emits a pungent smell. Ingesting it could unlock all of the potential of the human body, consuming the lifeforce in exchange. Am I right?”
Han Li coldly glanced at Senior Disciple Li as he listed the pill’s descriptions word by word with an unmistakable tone in his voice.
The moment Senior Disciple Li heard Han Li words, his face paled as if devoid of blood, and a frantic expression appeared on his face.
“If you ingest this medicine, you would need to repeatedly ingest it after a certain period of time in addition to suffering the excruciating pain. If you refuse to ingest the second pill after eating the first, in the best scenario, you would be paralyzed and in the worse scenario, you could even die! From the first time you ingested this pill, fate has already decreed that you would be dead in less than 10 years as the pill forcefully unleashes your potential at the expense of burning your life force,” Han Li said without stopping.
“Don’t you try to lie to me that this is not the Essence Extraction Pill.” Han Li said.
After hearing what Han Li had said, an expression of hopelessness appeared on Senior Disciple Li’s face while an indescribable shock appeared in his eyes.
“Are you shocked because this particular medicine is very rare, and yet I know what it is?” Han Li could tell what Senior Disciple Li was thinking.
“The answer is simple. I, too, have eaten a pill like this.”
Han Li’s words broke the tension as he continued to shock Senior Disciple Li. After a while, Senior Disciple Li had an expression of disbelief.
“The way I ate the pill was different from how you ate it. I only ate a total of 1 pill, but I separated the pill into 10 portions, which I slowly ingesting over a long period of time. The small amount of drug I consumed was not able to do any harm to my body. Because this particular pill and the smell it emitted was too obvious, I had a very strong impression of this pill, so I easily recognized yours. I had always thought that other than me, there would not be a second person to ingest this type of pill, but who would have thought, my fellow disciple had consumed the pill as well.”
After saying this, Han Li gaze contained a hint of admiration as well as pity for Senior Disciple Li.
Unwilling to see the pitiful gaze fixed on him, Senior Disciple Li closed his eyes. However, his heartbeat was erratic and his mind was in chaos.
“You should have consumed these pills for a few years already. If you refrain from consuming it now, I could beseech Doctor Mo to concoct an antidote for you. Although the medicine cannot recover the life force you lost, it should still be able to grant you 20-30 years worth of life. But sadly, your martial skills would be lost forever. If you continue ingesting this pill, I can deduce from the backlash that happened earlier that you would have at most 5-6 years worth of life left, but obviously, your martial arts would only get better and better, even stronger than the might you displayed today. Since you dared to eat such a pill, this tells me that you are a person with an iron will. Since only you can decide your own fate, do you want to throw away this medicine or keep relying on it?”
Senior Disciple Li’s eyelids lightly shuddered as he pondered intensely, trying to decide which was the better path for him.
After a short moment, his tightly closed eyes snapped open as he stared intently at the pill in Han Li’s hand with a feverish gaze.
Han Li did not say anything more and inserted the pill into Senior Disciple Li’s mouth. The white foam around his mouth did nothing to stop him from swallowing the pill, and after it was fully ingested, Han Li slowly retracted all of the silver needles from Senior Disciple Li’s body.
After the retrieval of all the silver needles, the Essence Extraction Pill began to take effect. Senior Disciple Li’s pale face started to take on a reddish hue. At this moment, his body started to convulse again and his limbs started to shiver as a low drone issued from his throat.
Senior Disciple Li did not want to be a laughing stock in front of Han Li, so he tried unsuccessfully to suppress his pain-filled voice.
The low drone involuntarily got louder and louder as the shivers got more intense. It was only after a long period of time that the droning began to slowly subside.
Finally, Senior Disciple Li recovered as his face returned to its normal, pale color, and his body stopped convulsing. This signaled that he successfully endured the last of the backlashes from consuming the Essence Extraction Pill.
Senior Disciple Li straightened his body, crossed his legs, and close his eyes in order to enter meditation, attempting to circulate his Qi to heal his injuries. Han Li found a clean, large rock nearby and sat down on it, watching Senior Disciple Li.
After the time it took to eat a meal, the Senior Disciple Li, who was in a state of meditation, abruptly wrenched open his eyes and drew his saber in a flash, placing the shining blade on Han Li’s neck.
“Give me a reason not to kill you!” Senior Disciple Li’s eyes were full of coldness and filled with killing intent.
“I just saved your life. Is that not a good enough reason?” Han Li stated calmly with no change to his expression except for the twitching of his brows. If one did not study Han Li’s face intently, they would not have seen it.
Senior Disciple Li’s face slightly softened, but his eyes were still filled with killing intent as he stared at Han Li.
“Before I made the decision to save you, I already guessed that you might kill me to protect your secret, but I didn’t think that your action would be so fast.” Han Li bitterly laughed as his face was filled with self-mockery.
“Ke! Despite knowing that saving you would bring calamity upon myself, I, a student of medical arts, couldn’t simply sit by and watch you die.” Han Li sighed.
As Senior Disciple Li heard his words, his face took on a somewhat embarrassed expression, and he shifted the saber from Han Li’s neck a little but did not fully remove the blade.
Han Li secretly let out a breath of relief, and he continued his speech more determinedly.
“You have no need to worry that I would divulge your secret. One look at my face and you would know that I’m not one to gossip, if you are still worried, I could swear a binding oath. You should be able to tell that I’m not skilled in martial arts, so if you discovered that I broke my vow, you could easily kill me,” Han Li calmly suggested.
“Okay, swear a binding oath then.” Senior Disciple Li said straightforwardly.
It was only now that Han Li relaxed. Before he saved Senior Disciple Li, he could infer that Senior Disciple Li was not one to forget a kindness, but he was not completely sure of his assessment. If he was wrong and Senior Disciple Li was a person that returned kindness with viciousness, he would only be able to defend himself with his secret life-saving method.
Knowing that he would not have to use it, Han Li stealthily retracted his hand from within his robes.
After Han Li swore a binding oath, Senior Disciple Li finally retracted the saber and returned it to its sheath.
Han Li slightly felt a slight trace of blood on his throat, caused by the keen edge of the saber. It was sticky to the touch, and as Han Li heartbeat returned to normal, he could feel cold sweat trickling down his back.
“What a close call! My evaluation prior to saving Senior Disciple Li was not comprehensive enough. I’m determined to learn from this mistake and to prevent my life from being in the control of someone else’s hands ever again.” He still had some fear lingering from this event.
“If there’s no guarantee of my safety, I will definitely not save others in the future.” Han Li decided immediately.
This was the first time Han Li had saved someone, but the experience left him with a bad taste in his mouth. This event only helped to reinforce that the world was full of unexpected turnouts, and the last vestige of kindness in him was slowly being discarded away. Even though he had not turned evil, he was far from being a saint.
“You have saved my life and agreed to keep the matter a secret. I, Li Feiyu, owe you a big favor henceforth. As long as I’m still alive, no matter what you need help with, you can look for me. As long as I am able to accomplish the task, I will definitely help you.” As he reclaimed the items that Han Li ransacked through, Senior Disciple Li stated his vow straightforwardly, using his own name as a guarantee after he fully recovered from the pill’s backlash.
“I fear that I currently have nothing to trouble you with, but you should already have plenty of troubles, no?” Han Li had a slight smile on his face as he faced Senior Disciple Li with another question.
“How did you know?” Li Feiyu was startled and slightly lost his composure.
“Anyone would have easily guessed. You are just a normal disciple under a Protector, yet with your skills, you have surpassed disciples of the Vice Sect Leaders, Division Heads, and Elders. How could they possibly let you live peacefully!?” Han Li’s response was like a needle drawing blood; with a single prick, he went straight to the heart of the matter.
Senior Disciple Li’s expression was gloomy and overcast as he agreed in silence.
“Your troubles are your own, I have no wish to interfere and cannot interfere even if I wanted to, but, for the excruciating backlash from consuming the Essence Extraction Pill, I could help you lessen the pain.”
“Is this true?” Li Feiyu suddenly snapped to attention as his previous gloomy expression was replaced with anticipation and excitement. He was giddy since the backlash of the Essence Extraction Pill was extremely torturous.
“Why would I lie to you when there is nothing beneficial for me to gain by doing so?” Han Li glanced at Senior Disciple Li. He had already concocted a remedy that would greatly lessen the pain felt by others, a medicine that he researched in his spare time for Zhang Tie. It was extremely effective, greatly cutting off the nerves ability from to feel pain.
“This is truly excellent! Excellent!” Li Feiyu clasped his hands as he looked at Han Li with wonder and excitement.
“Why are you looking at me with such an expression? I do not have the medicine on me right now. I need to return to God Hand Valley before I can concoct it for you.”
After Li Feiyu heard what Han Li said, he had a slightly embarrassed look on his face. He had just threatened to kill Han Li and now, he was requesting his help.
“Tomorrow at noon, wait for me at the entrance of the God Hand Valley. I will hand you the remedy in that location, but since Doctor Mo is currently away, I can’t allow anyone to simply enter the God Hand Valley,” Han Li explained.
“Very well, I shall be there on time. Thank you, my dear brother.” Scared that Han Li would change his mind, Li Feiyu quickly responded with his confirmation.
“My name is Han Li, the personal disciple of Doctor Mo. Your cultivation in martial arts is so high, you can just directly call me Junior Brother Han in the future.”
After Han Li heard the words “my dear brother” he couldn’t help but shiver and thus, quickly told Senior Disciple Li his name to prevent him from calling Han Li any more embarrassing titles.
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