Peach Blossom Debt Chapter 26

The innkeeper took hold of me as if he had grasped his last life-saving rations. His hands were trembling as he said, "Daoist, to be able to discern heaven and earth with a glance, you are truly a living deity! Now that I have your word that he wouldn't die, this servant can be sure that my head will stay attached to my neck—"

I moved forward step by step into the room toward the bedside.

The person on the bed opened his eyes out of the blue. His pitch-black eyes were unusually bright under this lighting, his gaze moved to this immortal lord, and his mouth opened, his words spoken very clearly.

"Li Siming, have you come to make me pay you with my life?"

Startled, I took a big step backwards. Ai, Jade Emperor, had Tian Shu reached enlightenment all of a sudden that he could recognise me with one look?

The innkeeper said, "Do not be alarmed, Daoist. This gentleman here has always been confused since he fell ill, no matter when or who he meets, he will blurt out these words. When that lord from before was with him and heard such calls from him, he turned away and smashed the table. Don't know how many tables that lord has smashed in our small inn already."

The innkeeper breathed out a long sigh of resignation. I also let out a breath. So it was the heat getting to his brain. According to his words, was Tianshu still feeling guilt from stabbing this immortal lord?

As I went up to the bed and sat down on one side of the bed, Mu Ruoyan's stark-clear eyes were fixed on me. I smiled amiably to him, took one of his wrists and put on an act of feeling for his pulse.

The two liangs of weight hardly gained when Tian Shu was cared for in Dongjun w.a.n.gfu had all been burned off. Before he was skin on bones, now he was so thin that even a layer of skin covering the bones can barely be seen. Two of my fingers pressed against his stick of a bone, my eyes half-closed, faking the air of an expert.

Heng Wen stood by the table where the small lamp burned, he coughed at the same time that the innkeeper issued a deep sigh.

"As expected, Daoist is a great man. Even your method of feeling pulse is unlike ordinary people." The innkeeper said in between sighs.

"This is my family's own method of feeling for pulse. In fact, this poor cleric is even better at feeling pulse with threads." I said in a relaxed manner.

Pulling back my hands, Mu Ruoyan who was lying down choked with five coughs, and a few lines of blood trickled from his mouth.

During my time in Dongjun w.a.n.g's manor, this immortal lord had become accustomed to waiting upon his pitiful self. My hands stretched out and wiped it for him with my sleeve. Mu Ruoyan closed his eyes, and continued to say, "Li Siming, why don't you say…what kind of ghost I will become this time."

"Benefactor, this poor cleric's dao name is Guang Yunzi. Rest a.s.sured, with poor cleric here, benefactor's illness will surely be gone with the wind."

Mu Ruoyan's shrivelled fingers gripped unto my sleeves, and he coughed again. "I've fatally harmed you, but you want me to keep my life and continue to suffer… that's fine.. this is my deserved retri…bution…"

Oh, seems like he can still register words.

Heng Wen beat out a yawn. "Daoist, you can slowly diagnose and treat, this lowly one will return first and sleep." Then he turned around and went out the door.

I s.h.i.+fted and tore away my gripped sleeves from Mu Ruoyan's hands, and stood up from the bed. The innkeeper anxiously asked, "Daoist, how is it?"

I shook my head while rubbing my beard. "Not too great, this gentleman has a chronic disease and an illness of the heart on top of it. Poor cleric needs to return and calm my thoughts, only early tomorrow morning will I have a way to treat him. Don't know if your establishment has some bird's nest? Make a bowl, let him drink that for now."

"When that n.o.ble lord arrived, he actually brought several catties of bird's nest with him, there are still some left."

The smart servants quickly left to cook it. The innkeeper respectfully sent this immortal lord back to the room. He ordered a new wooden barrel for bathing to be sent to us and also gifted us with two plates of dried fruits as midnight snacks.

I looked back when I exited Mu Ruoyan's chamber. Under the dusky light of the oil lamp, the person lying on the bed was as white as a candle and seemed as though he was made of paper.

As I walked out of there, he also said nothing more.

The guest room adjacent to mine, which should be Heng Wen's, had its door ajar. I glanced at it then told the innkeeper that the barrel and bathing water is to be delivered to this gentleman here, and to have his bedding and pillow changed to new ones as well. As that gentleman is someone n.o.ble and wealthy, all things for him must be new and very clean, and that he can afford the money for them.

The innkeeper, of course, said yes. After I had washed up, I snuffed out the oil lamp and lied on my bed, putting the copper bagua in the centre of my palms and took out my real body.

All the way here we always got two rooms, one for Guang Yunzi and the other for me and Heng Wen. He didn't come to take me out, I can only go looking for him myself.

Heng Wen's room also had its lamps out. I felt my way to the bed in the darkness and the one lying on the bed turned around as I approached.

"Finished the diagnosis?"

I managed out a smile. "Finished." I waved at him. "Scoot over to the inside, clear up some s.p.a.ce for me."

Heng Wen scoffed, then scooted a bit. I lied down in the empty s.p.a.ce he vacated, then pulled the corner of the blanket up to cover myself.

"Tian Shu's illness is quite serious, he seems to be hanging for dear life to me. Human world methods won't be able to cure him. Jade Emperor also forbid using G.o.dly powers to treat him. I wonder what spiritual remedy does daoist Guang Yunzi have?"

"I already looked at his condition, if he can't be cured then let him hang on."

Heng Wen laughed quietly. "Can you bear to? Didn't Tian Shu's rambling today all but make up for the sword you took to heart? You say you'll let him hang on, but don't you already have some plans in mind?"

I dare not answer back. Heng Wen's guessed me right, I do have a plan in mind.

Outside the window was an indistinct rustling in the wind. The murmured motion was something I was very familiar with, since it had accompanied us all along the way.

"Your plan, could it be that?" He asked quietly.

There was the sound of wind and rustling, and then, nothing else could be heard. One s.h.i.+chen later, I quietly opened the door, and sure enough, there was a neat thick bundle of Lingzhi mushroom laid by the doorsill. This species is called Jinluo Lingzhi, an extremely precious medicine of G.o.ds, it grows on the mortal world despite its name as a divine plant. I also have only seen it a couple of times up in heaven.

These Lingzhi mushrooms were sent to Heng Wen, and the one sending it is the fearless, affectionate, cut-sleeve fox admirer of Heng Wen.

Ever since Heng Wen and I departed from Shangchuan, the fox had been tailing us. The furball is rather resourceful, he could always find the inn we were staying at, and in the middle of the night, he would linger outside looking in and then leave a bundle of Jinluo Lingzhi.

Jinluo Lingzhi can remove impure Qi and nurture primordial essence. Perhaps the fox was worried that Heng Wen, dragged down by me to the material world, would be dirtied by worldly matters, and so sent these to him.

This immortal lord is a compa.s.sionate deity. The world is lamentably full of lovers, I simply regard his matter as pa.s.sing clouds. To add to that, every time Heng Wen received the Lingzhi he'd put it in his sleeves with a smile and act as if he didn't know it was the fox who sent them. As a result, the fox believed he was hiding well to this day. The same repeated day after day.

I took the Lingzhi mushroom and headed back to the bed with an ingratiating smile to Heng Wen. "Could you share one or two cuts of it with me?"

Heng Wen said languidly, "I just knew you're going to use that to cure Tian Shu. Just take them if you want, but let me say something more. Song Yao Yuanjun, you came down to the world to set up a trial, not to save others from suffering or hards.h.i.+ps. In a blink of an eye, you've turned the beaten mandarin duck into a heart-stirring beauty. You need to keep some propriety in mind."

I pocketed the Lingzhi mushroom and laid back down.

"Although there was conflict between me and Tian Shu Xingjun afterwards, he still saved me once before, after all. That debt to him will be returned all the same."