Seeking Medicine at Sword Lake Palace

"Dear brother!" Jiang Mingzhe's figure flickered repeatedly, and in the blink of an eye, he arrived beneath the tree.

Duan Yu spoke with a painful expression and in a strained voice, "Elder brother, this younger brother ju—just now dreamed of taking a stroll with the Fairy Sister, when suddenly an extremely ugly woman ran past while laughing loudly. The stench of her feet almost su—suffocated me, and upon waking up, I found it hard to catch my breath. I suppose some venomous insect must have ta—taken advantage of my sleep to bite me..."

In just a short moment, his originally handsome face was already red and terribly swollen. Clusters of blisters bulged at the tip of his nose and the corners of his mouth, and his skin had turned a faint greenish-black.

"Damned venomous insect!"

Jiang Mingzhe twitched the corner of his mouth, too ashamed to admit that he had been so absorbed in practicing his martial arts that he had forgotten Duan Yu was sleeping nearby, and simply let that non-existent venomous insect take the blame.

He offered a mouthful of comfort, saying, "Never mind, never mind! Just wait here, your elder brother will save you right now!"

Beside the small stone wall lay Jiang Mingzhe's bamboo back-basket, which he had untied when the two of them became sworn brothers.

Inside the basket were all sorts of medicines extorted from the Mount Shennong Sect. Jiang Mingzhe rummaged through the contents and produced a porcelain bottle, upon which was painted a lifelike centipede.

Si Kongxuan had instructed that this medicine used water buffalo horn as its principal ingredient, pinellia and rhizoma arisaematis as its ministers, accompanied by gastrodia, saposhnikovia, coptis, and more than a dozen other assistant ingredients, all mixed with licorice-infused honey and rolled into pills. It was specifically targeted for centipede venom, and for ordinary bites, a single pill would take effect.

Jiang Mingzhe knew that the centipede venom in his own body was extremely potent, so he poured out a good half bottle in a rush and shoved it straight into Duan Yu's mouth. "Don't worry, this medicine specializes in treating centipede venom. Once you eat it, you'll be fine."

Duan Yu did not dare to delay and swallowed it with difficulty, his eyes full of admiration. "Elder brother is truly well-read, seeing at a glance that it was a centipede that bit me..."

Jiang Mingzhe gave an awkward smile, inwardly reflecting: *I was so entirely focused on cultivating venom arts that I neglected to study the skill of detoxification. If it weren't for the fact that I happened to extort the Mount Shennong Sect this time, wouldn't Duan Yu have died by my hand?*

The medicines of the Mount Shennong Sect were indeed remarkable. Not long after Duan Yu took them, the dark Qi on his face began to dissipate, and his breathing grew smoother, though the redness and swelling on his face, as well as the blisters around his mouth and nose, temporarily refused to fade.

After another moment, Duan Yu suddenly let out a sorrowful cry, clutching his stomach as he sprang to his feet and cried, "Elder brother, I—I need to relieve myself!"

Then came a rumbly-rumble, rumbly-rumble—a loud intestinal roaring, resembling muffled thunder and battle drums.

Jiang Mingzhe thought to himself that water buffalo horn and coptis were both intensely cooling substances, and the raw pinellia used to fight poison with poison was an even more severe irritant to the stomach and intestines. Moreover, the dosage he had given him was greater by more than a dozen times, so having diarrhea was only natural.

He immediately said, "It's fine. Having diarrhea is just detoxifying your body. Go quickly, and find a place downwind!"

Duan Yu nodded repeatedly, casually picked up a few palm-sized leaves, and bolted away.

Before long, *bang! smack! rattle-bang swish-splash...* A succession of sounds echoed through the valley, resembling a battle.

***

It was currently early morning.

By noon, battles of this kind had been fought twelve times.

Duan Yu had lost a full circle in weight, and if the Mirror Lake hadn't been right beside them, he likely would have suffered from severe dehydration long ago.

Logically speaking, after so many bouts of purging, any lingering poison should have been cleared out long ago. However, the redness and swelling on Duan Yu's face had instead grown even more severe, and the blisters showed signs of spreading. Even his hands were covered in patches of red swelling, and from time to time he would stealthily scratch his backside with a look of utter agony on his face.

Realizing that the situation was not right, Jiang Mingzhe frowned and said, "This is wrong. How could it be getting increasingly worse? No, your condition cannot be delayed any longer. Your brother will carry you to find a doctor right now."

Duan Yu smiled bitterly with a feeble breath, "Elder brother, in these wild mountains and desolate ridges, where on earth is there a doctor?"

Jiang Mingzhe was full of confidence. "Didn't the Mount Shennong Sect attack Mount Wuliang? Aren't these ready-made doctors right here? And not just one, but a whole sect. I'll have them give you a consultation; I refuse to believe they can't cure you."

Duan Yu was startled, then waved his hands repeatedly. "Elder brother, absolutely not! You don't know how ruthless those people are..."

Jiang Mingzhe pressed down on his hand. "Younger brother doesn't know, but actually your elder brother ran into them a few days ago and falsely claimed to be an emissary of the Duan family of Tiannan, the peerless divine swordsman Dragon Overlord, which scared them into presenting me with this basket of herbs."

Hearing this, Duan Yu was left between laughter and tears, muttering, "The reputation of the Duan family of Tiannan is actually this useful?"

Jiang Mingzhe amusedly replied, "The Southern Sword technique of the Duan family of Tiannan is one of the supreme martial arts under heaven, and they are also the imperial family of Dali, with countless grandmasters of Tianlong Temple backing them up. Elsewhere I dare not say, but around Dali, which other sect or noble family can compare to them?"

Duan Yu mumbled a couple of times in his throat.

He had half a mind to reveal his identity as the Prince of Dali to Jiang Mingzhe, but thinking of how he had borne the banner of the Duan family of Tiannan only to be chased off a cliff by a lowly henchman of the Mount Shennong Sect, he felt too ashamed to speak of it.

Observing his expression and roughly guessing his thoughts, Jiang Mingzhe did not expose him. He simply stepped forward, hoisted Duan Yu onto his back, picked up the back-basket, and re-entered the cavern.

Duan Yu anxiously said, "Elder brother, we haven't retrieved the treasured sword on the western peak yet."

Jiang Mingzhe firmly stated, "A treasured sword won't fly away. On the other hand, if your illness isn't treated promptly and something unfortunate happens, what good would that do? Ten thousand treasured swords cannot compare to my brother's life!"

Being a man of deep sentiment, Duan Yu trembled all over upon hearing these words from Jiang Mingzhe, tears of gratitude streaming down his face.

Filled with secret guilt, he thought to himself: *My elder brother treats me like this, yet for the sake of the Fairy Sister, I used honeyed words to trick him into learning another sect's martial arts. Ah, Duan Yu, forgetting righteousness for the sake of beauty is hardly the conduct of a fine man!*

Little did he know what Jiang Mingzhe was actually thinking: *Finding a divine sword of the Xiaoyao Sect is such a fun thing to do; A-Zi would surely love it. Since I have such an obedient younger sister, what's the point of bringing along a little brother?*

***

Employing the Rippling Microsteps, he rapidly passed through several stone chambers, running upward along the stone ladders embedded in the rock wall. Before long, he emerged from the cliffside cave, channeled his internal energy, leaped forward with all his might, and landed atop the mountain cliff.

Duan Yu looked around to get his bearings, pointed out the direction of the Jade Lake Palace, and Jiang Mingzhe resumed his journey using the Rippling Microsteps.

Although he was carrying a person on his back and the terrain underfoot was rugged and uneven, his speed remained extremely fast. Compared to his stumbling and clumsy state when fleeing earlier, it was truly a difference of heaven and earth.

On Jiang Mingzhe's back, Duan Yu felt the wind whistling by his ears and the scenery flashing rapidly backward, leaving him utterly astonished.

He thought to himself: *When my elder brother climbed down the cliff earlier, he even had to step on my head to get down, which shows he certainly didn't know any lightness kung fu. The two of us studied the Rippling Microsteps together, and up to now I can't even take three or five steps, yet elder brother is already able to use it freely. His talent for martial arts is truly astonishing.*

Little did he know that the Rippling Microsteps also required internal energy to be effectively executed. For someone like him without any foundational base, as long as he was merely pondering the footwork like he did the previous night—taking a step and thinking, stepping back and pausing—giving his blood vessels a breathing space, there were no particular obstructions. But the moment one tried to execute it in one continuous breath, the meridians inside the body were bound to fall into chaos.

As for why Jiang Mingzhe was able to master it so quickly, the reasons were twofold: first, his comprehension and memory were exceptionally high; and second, the *Heavenly Constellations Transcending Tribulations Scripture* he practiced still belonged to the lineage of the Xiaoyao Sect, which could be said to connect seamlessly with the Rippling Microsteps.

However, if it were anyone else, seeing themselves learn slowly while their companion learned quickly, they would inevitably feel jealous and find it hard to be as broad-minded as Duan Yu, whose heart was filled only with sincere admiration and pride.

He even blindly spun his own fantasies: *My elder brother's talent is so astonishing; learning the Northern Dark Divine Art will surely be a breeze for him. When the time comes to avenge the Fairy Sister, upon learning of it she will definitely be overjoyed and cannot help but praise me: 'Hey, Duan Yu, though your martial arts are poor, your eye for people is truly good!' Then I will smoothly reply: 'That's right, otherwise how could I have fallen in love with you?' Hehehe...*

"Hehehehe..."

Hearing a burst of foolish laughter coming from behind him, Jiang Mingzhe was startled, thinking that the toxicity in Duan Yu's body had flared up.

He hurriedly turned his head to look, only to see that on Duan Yu's extremely swollen face, a infatuated smile was rippling. His gaze was vacant and his expression dazed, clearly having let his thoughts wander off who knows where.

Jiang Mingzhe let out a breath of relief and continued on his way. Before long, he reached the back mountain of the main peak of Mount Wuliang, right above the cliffs of the Jade Lake.

He saw a large crowd of people gathered on the open ground ahead. Among them was Si Kongxuan, the leader of the Mount Shennong Sect, who was bowing and scraping like a valet as he stood off to one side. Before him stood a group of people dressed in green cloaks.

Pointing far off toward the large stone wall beside the waterfall, Si Kongxuan spoke with vivid emotion, "Honored Holy Envoys, last night that stone wall most certainly manifested the presence of an immortal. I am not the only one present who witnessed it with my own eyes; if the Holy Envoys do not believe me, you may ask anyone here and it will be the exact same story."

No sooner had his voice trailed off than a voice shouted from the northwest corner, "Leader Si, I have searched so bitterly for you! Hurry, hurry and come save my brother!"