Chapter 567: Those Are Your Words—I Didn't Force You!

What else could they do? This man was not one for unnecessary words. Whatever he said had to be done his way.

Li Wuhua immediately called people over and set them to work.

Before long, the kitchen had been cleared. Hai Ruyue, still wrapped in a quilt atop the bed board, was carried inside.

A wealthy household's kitchen did not have just one stove, but an entire row of them. The man walked along the stoves, looked them over, then pointed to three large pots and ordered them filled with water and heated.

His assistants immediately obeyed. Once steam began rolling from the hot water, he told them to control the fires and maintain the temperature. Then he had Hai Ruyue, bed board and all, lifted onto the stove and laid crosswise above the three steaming pots.

“Give her water.”

The man ordered Li Wuhua to pour plenty of warm water into the unconscious Hai Ruyue.

Li Wuhua had never heard of, much less seen, a method of treatment like this. Even so, he steeled himself and obediently did exactly as instructed, not daring to question a word.

At intervals, the man would pull one of Hai Ruyue's hands out from beneath the quilt, hold it for a moment to feel her temperature, and check her pulse.

When the quilt had grown damp from the steam and the face of the woman wrapped inside had flushed rosy and begun to sweat, Hai Ruyue's eyelids stirred. She seemed unable to bear the heat any longer. Her eyes opened, and she woke from unconsciousness, though her gaze remained dim.

Li Wuhua immediately stepped forward, concern filling his eyes.

Once, he had only wanted to play with this woman. Fate had toyed with them, and in the end they had become a family. The fascination with her body, the urge to toy with her and indulge his desires upon her, had vanished. What replaced it was familial affection he could no longer sever.

Hai Ruyue looked at him and asked weakly, “Where is this? I'm so hot.”

“Bear with it,” Li Wuhua hurriedly said. “They're neutralizing the poison. It'll be over soon. Just bear with it a little longer.”

“Neutralizing the poison?” Hai Ruyue's emotions seemed to surge. Her voice rose. “The child—how is the child?”

Li Wuhua's eyes reddened. Before he could answer, the man reached over, pinched open Hai Ruyue's mouth, and placed a dark green pill inside.

“Don't let her talk. Use your spiritual power to help her refine the medicine.”

“Good! Yes!” Li Wuhua answered repeatedly.

“He is...” Hai Ruyue thought the man before her looked somewhat familiar, but she was too weak to remember where she had seen him.

“Don't talk, don't talk.” Li Wuhua now treated the physician's every word like an imperial decree. He stopped her again and began circulating spiritual power to help her refine the pill's medicinal effect.

Once the medicine began taking effect, Hai Ruyue's face twisted with suffering. A tormented sound escaped her. “Wuhua, I feel awful.”

“Sir, what's happening to her?” Li Wuhua immediately turned toward the man.

Instead of answering, the man said, “You can remove the quilt now.”

The damp, heat-soaked quilt was immediately pulled away. The man continued, “Take off her clothes. All of them. Strip her completely.”

“Ah! This...” Li Wuhua stared blankly.

The man ignored his reaction. He turned, brought his bamboo basket over, and took out several bottles and jars. Then he opened a rolled leather case, revealing rows of silver needles and similar instruments in all shapes and sizes. He removed them all into a small silver basin, poured in clean water, sprinkled in an unknown medicinal powder, and left the instruments soaking.

Li Wuhua finally gritted his teeth. He drove all the male assistants out of the kitchen and replaced them with several maidservants, while assigning people to guard the outside so no one could enter.

In the end, even the sick and weakened Hai Ruyue felt ashamed. How could she not? She was stripped completely naked and laid before an unfamiliar man, without even the strength to resist. All she could do was close her eyes.

Fortunately, the pain caused by the medicine in her abdomen left her little energy to think about anything else.

The maidservants assisting inside all flushed red, though privately they had to admit that the Grand Princess truly had a beautiful figure, every bit as attractive as the woman herself.

The man stood before Hai Ruyue and examined her from head to toe. There was nothing unusual in his gaze. Though his expression was focused, his eyes were no different from how one might look at a dead pig or a corpse.

Li Wuhua, on the other hand, looked thoroughly uncomfortable.

What made it even harder for him was that the man reached out and touched several parts of Hai Ruyue's body, testing their temperature.

Afterward, he handed Li Wuhua a silver basin filled with medicinal liquid. “Her body isn't clean, and neither is this kitchen. Wipe down the surface of her body with this.”

Li Wuhua kept his face taut and obeyed.

Once Hai Ruyue had been turned over and wiped clean from front to back, the man took a medicine jar in one hand and a silver needle in the other. He dipped the needle into powder from the jar, then began inserting needles into Hai Ruyue's acupoints with astonishing speed, driving the medicinal powder into the points along with them.

After finishing the front, he worked on the back. Finally, he had Hai Ruyue lie facedown on the bed board and inserted a tiny hollow needle into the tip of every finger and every toe.

“Next, I'm going to implant medicinal pellets into her bone marrow to restore and strengthen her body's ability to produce blood. It may be quite painful. Don't let her move.”

Li Wuhua had gradually adjusted by now. He could also see that the man had no intention whatsoever of violating his woman. From the treatment just performed, it was obvious that stripping her naked had genuinely been necessary for convenience.

“Yes!” Li Wuhua answered.

This time, a somewhat larger hollow needle appeared in the man's hand. He placed his other hand on Hai Ruyue's back and felt from the cervical vertebrae downward along her spine. Then, without warning, his hand rose and the needle fell, piercing directly into the bone at the back of her neck.

“Mm...” Hai Ruyue groaned in pain. Her weakened body struggled involuntarily.

Li Wuhua, already prepared, immediately used spiritual power to hold her down.

A tiny red medicinal pellet was dropped into the hollow needle. The man circulated qi and directly drove the pellet into Hai Ruyue's cervical vertebra.

He withdrew the needle, pierced again, implanted another red pellet, and continued this way down Hai Ruyue's spine. Only after more than a dozen punctures and more than a dozen implanted pellets did he stop.

By the time he finished, the man was breathing heavily. Perhaps because of the heat beside the stoves, sweat covered him.

Li Wuhua was somewhat surprised. He discovered that the man's cultivation was very weak. He seemed capable of only simple methods of qi refinement and circulation.

Hai Ruyue had already fainted from the pain.

The man instructed them to turn her over again and cover her with the quilt, leaving only her hands and feet with their inserted needles exposed. He also reminded them to maintain the fires and water temperature.

Then he waited nearby. From time to time, he checked the hollow needles in Hai Ruyue's fingers and toes, twisting each of them several times. He repeated the process again and again.

About half an hour later, a drop of blood began to emerge from one of the needles in her fingertips. Gradually, droplets seeped from every hollow needle.

The man held a medicinal solution he had mixed and occasionally caught the dripping blood, stirring it in a vessel and observing how it reacted with the medicine.

It was not until noon, when he judged that the blood's reaction to the medicine had reached the proper state, that he removed all the needles from Hai Ruyue's fingers and toes. While placing them together with the other used instruments into a silver basin to wash them in medicinal liquid, he said, “There should be no major problem now. From here on, she only needs to recover. Restoring qi and nourishing blood should hardly be difficult for Myriad Caves Heavenly Mansion.”

“She should be able to get out of bed in three days. Her blood and vitality have been badly depleted, so weakness is unavoidable. Take care of her properly throughout this month. Keep her from cold water and anything else that might chill her.”

That was it?

Li Wuhua stared in disbelief. He immediately took Hai Ruyue's pulse and examined her. Faintly, he could feel vitality slowly returning to her body. Compared with the previous decline that nothing they tried could stop, the difference was like Heaven and Earth.

Overjoyed, he cupped his hands in a deep bow. “Sir's great kindness leaves this old man with no way to repay you. If Sir has any command, please say it. Even if this old man must have his liver and brains smeared across the ground, I—”

The man cut him off. “No need. My master said he has always had others owe him; he never owes anyone else. He took away her son, so saving her life settles the account. Neither side owes the other anything. Whether she lives or dies in the future will no longer concern us.”

Li Wuhua froze, then cautiously asked, “Ghost Doctor is your master?”

The man gave a quiet sound of acknowledgment. He packed away his things and slung the bamboo basket onto his back. “I have disturbed you. Farewell.”

“Ah!” Li Wuhua was shocked and hurriedly grabbed him. “Sir, what about my son?”

The man said, “I already told you. Saving her life settles what was owed. Your son followed my master. From now on, he belongs to my master.”

Li Wuhua immediately realized the man had misunderstood. “No, no, Sir. I mean my son—our newborn. He's still in swaddling clothes, and he has the same poison. I beg Sir to lend him a hand as well.”

The man frowned. “You mean after she was poisoned, you still allowed her close to an infant? Foolish!”

The information made public outside had mentioned only Hai Ruyue's poisoning, not the child. Outsiders generally knew nothing about him.

“Sir, we fell into a villain's scheme. At the time, we truly didn't know, and that was how we made such a terrible mistake.” Li Wuhua pleaded, “Please save my son.”

Now that he had finally seen hope, how could he possibly let go? It was as though he had seized the final straw that could save a life.

The man replied without emotion, “I've said it already. After saving her life, we owe you nothing. Let go. Or are you planning to detain me by force and compel me?”

“I would never dare!” In desperation, Li Wuhua dropped to his knees with a thud.

His cultivation was far higher than the man's, yet before him he had become weaker than a grandson before his grandfather. Old tears streamed down his face.

“Sir, this old man gained a son only in his later years. How can you ask me to watch my little boy suffer like this until he dies? I beg Sir to show mercy and save my son. So long as Sir agrees, whatever command you give in the future, this old man will brave ten thousand deaths without hesitation!”

The man looked down at him in silence for a while, seemingly considering.

At last he said calmly, “Those are your words. I didn't force you.”

Li Wuhua nodded again and again, thumping his chest. “Every word comes from the bottom of my heart. There is not a single falsehood. If I ever break my word, may Heaven strike me down and Earth destroy me!”

“No need for Heaven and Earth to do it,” the man said. “If you break your word, I'll find someone to collect what you owe and make your oath come true. Remove the person from the stove. Bring your son here.”

“Thank you, Sir!”

Li Wuhua knocked his head against the floor three times, then scrambled up, wiped away his tears, and called people in to cover Hai Ruyue properly and carry her out.

Outside in the courtyard, a group of Myriad Caves Heavenly Mansion's senior figures were waiting in a place normally used by servants coming and going.

They had already questioned the assistants who had been driven out earlier and heard that Hai Ruyue needed to be stripped naked for treatment. Though it sounded absurd, none of them could say much. With matters having reached this point, there were some things they simply could not afford to fuss over.

Situ Yao and Niu Youdao stood together, occasionally glancing toward the chimney still smoking above the kitchen and exchanging a few idle words. Neither knew how much longer the treatment would take.

Just then, the door opened.

Hai Ruyue was carried out again on the bed board. Li Wuhua hurried after her and shouted anxiously to his disciple, “The child! Quickly, bring the child!”

Situ Yao and the others glanced at Hai Ruyue being carried away and immediately stepped forward to ask, “How is she?”

[End of Chapter 567]