“H-how do you know?” Miao Chengtang was shocked. “Did someone tell you?”


  Then again, Miao Chengtang felt something was amiss. The news about him going there was known only by Xu Xinyuan, who had told Miao Chengtang to not drop his name if he could avoid it. That meant the young doctor before Miao Chengtang didn’t actually know that he was coming. It would have been absurd for the doctor to even know of his predicament in detail. He instantly knew that the doctor was able to tell because the doctor was that good. Still, being able to tell that he was bugged just by taking a single look was something that only a handful of people were capable of, even back in the village.

  It seemed as if the doctor could treat him after all.

  “Do I need someone to tell me that?” Wang Yao asked.

  “Please, save me!” Miao Chengtang pleaded as if he were about to cry.

  He saw hope. He felt like someone who was about to drown but had suddenly discovered a straw to grab onto. He immediately fell to his knees. At that moment, he wanted nothing more than to live, even if it meant he had to beg.

  “I’ll save you. But first, tell me the truth.”


  “I just moved to Tianjin not long ago,” Miao Chengtang said. His current predicament meant that he needed to tell the truth.

  “I am really from southern Yunnan.”


  “Southern Yunnan? The Valley of Thousands of Medicine?” Wang Yao immediately blurted Miao Chengtang’s hometown.

  “Ho-how did you know that?” Miao Chengtang was surprised to hear that.

  “So, that’s where you’re from then,” Wang Yao said. “You are someone from the Valley of Thousands of Medicine. Did Guo Zhenghe send you?” When he heard that the other man was from southern Yunnan, he instantly recalled that place, as well as the son of the Guo family who was working in He County.

  “I’m indeed from the valley, but I don’t know anyone named Guo Zhenghe,” Miao Qingyuan replied. “A man named Xu Xinyuan sent me here.”


  “Xu Xinyuan, is that the guy who was here last time?”


  “He said that he had come and you cured him.”


  “Go on,” Wang Yao said.

  Cough! Cough! At that moment, Miao Chengtang’s body went out of control as he coughed.

  Wang Yao waved in the air. Miao Chengtang’s body bobbed around for a bit. He felt that the urge to cough had been mystically put down. The stench of blood in his mouth was suppressed as well.

  “Hell, this……” Miao Chengtang was too frightened to know what was going on.

  “Alright, keep talking.”


  “Sure, sure……”


  There were no injections or medicines. He wondered what that wave had been. He wondered if Wang Yao was someone versed in the fighting arts, just like Miao Xihe.

  Miao Chengtang recalled many things in that instant. He quickly stated the information that had to do with him. He modified some details and hid some others altogether. He wasn’t dumb enough to spill everything to Wang Yao, a man who was practically a stranger.

  Hmm.

  Wang Yao nodded after hearing all that. While Miao Chengtang might not have been telling everything as it was, Wang Yao had learned what he needed to know.

  After seeing how Wang Yao remain quiet for quite a while, Miao Chengtang anxiously said, “Please, save me.”


  “Save you?” Wang Yao looked up at Miao Chengtang. “Have you killed someone?”


  Miao Chengtang pointed at the sky and said, “Never. I swear to the heavens. I have never killed a single soul. All those people were killed by Miao Tianchuan. I had nothing to do with that. I want to kill Miao Xihe, but I don’t have what it takes to kill him!” He was telling the truth. He had never killed anyone, not even a single person. He was an accomplice at most.

  “I can save you, but tell me about the Blood Orchid,” Wang Yao said.

  “How do you know about the Blood Orchid?” Miao Chengtang was dumbfounded. He never expected Wang Yao to know about something that was a highly guarded secret in the village he was from.

  “I know of a lot of things other than the Blood Orchid, including what you’ve just told me,” Wang Yao said calmly. “I take it that you’re hiding something from me, aren’t you?”


  Miao Chengtang’s face became pale when Wang Yao said that. He was ashen. Sweat trickled down his brow. He never expected to find such a young doctor in a remote village in the north. It was shocking that the doctor knew so much about an equally remote village thousands of miles away in southern Yunnan.

  He wondered why the doctor knew that much.

  The reason Wang Yao knew as much as he did was that Jia Zizai had some friends from southern Yunnan. They had informed Jia Zizai about such things. They had all been in that special business, so they had ways of finding out about things undetected. Jia Zizai knew that Wang Yao was particularly keen on news regarding the Valley of Thousands of Medicine, so he told his friends over there to keep an eye out. They gathered everything there was to know by any means necessary and informed him of everything. Professionals always had a way of acquiring information. Those people had even acquired some firsthand information known only to the police, as well as some yet-to-be verified intelligence.

  “Alright, sure, but what I know is limited. The Blood Orchid is some rare medicine in Miaojiang. It was recently discovered by Miao Xihe and used for experiments in the village.”


  “Experiments?”


  “Legend has it that the Blood Orchid is capable of lengthening one’s life and making one immune to all diseases.”


  “Well, that mystical, eh?”


  “Mystical indeed. I heard from Miao Tianchuan that when he escaped from the valley over a dozen years ago, he was actually poisoned. He went back to the village eventually, thinking of dying at his birthplace. At that time, he chanced upon the Blood Orchid. The poisons in his body have no longer threatened him since then. Not only did he survive, but he also ended up being enhanced in certain ways.”


  “Alright, we can begin treatment. My treatments don’t come cheap.”


  “I know. I’ve brought money.” It was something that Xu Xinyuan specifically told Miao Chengtang to be mindful of before he left Tianjin.

  “Very well.”


  Wang Yao got a bowl of medicinal soup and half a leaf of sedge.

  After drinking it, Miao Chengtang felt his stomach rolling and his chest burning.

  “Alright, you can go home now,” Wang Yao said as he waved his hand.

  “Is that all?”


  “That’s all.”


  “Well, umm, this……” He stood dumbfounded.

  “What’s the meaning of this? One bowl of bitter stuff and done? Are you telling me the curse is gone just like that?” Miao Chengtang felt rather angry. He began to doubt if Wang Yao had been pulling all those stunts before just to make him talk.

  “Enough talk. Pay up.”


  “$50,000 for just a bowl of meds?” Miao Chengtang was stunned when he heard the price.

  “This is robbery in broad daylight!” He knew the medicines were expensive, but he never expected it to be that expensive. He wondered if the sacred medicines of Miaojiang were that expensive.

  “So, are you regretting it then?” Wang Yao asked in a cold tone.

  “I’m regretting it.”


  Wang Yao stayed silent for a bit.

  “If you want to forgo treatment, I can make you puke all that medicine you just took,” Wang Yao said.

  However, at that moment, the sedge in the medicine began to work.

  Heave…… Ho…… Heave…… Ho……

  Miao Chengtang took deep breaths and recalled what Xu Xinyuan told him. It was time to pay up.

  “Alright, I’ll pay.” He eventually paid the fee.

  The $50,00 wasn’t a small sum to him.

  He gritted his teeth and said, “Thanks!”


  “Try not to get mad. It’s bad for your liver,” Wang Yao advised.

  Miao Chengtang felt himself shaking all over in anger. He turned around and left.