Chapter 506 – Return – Extra 5: Ancient Times — Wu Xian and Leng Qingqiu (19)
The first time Wu Xian saw Leng Qingqiu was on a sunny afternoon. The elders of the Demon Sect had driven him out of the sect and ordered him to travel around and inspect the various branch sects.
As he passed through a mountain village, he caught sight of a white-robed figure treating the villagers for free.
The young man in white was elegant and ethereal, with a face as flawless as jade. Standing among the villagers, whose faces were gaunt and emaciated, he looked like an immortal who had descended to the mortal world.
An old man brought a child before the young man in white and knelt down to thank him. The other man hurriedly helped them up and revealed the faintest hint of a smile.
Wu Xian was captivated for a moment.
In that instant, it was as if ice and snow had melted and all living things had awakened.
By the time he came back to his senses, the man had already gone inside to rest.
Wu Xian was devoted to cultivating his martial arts and had never been one to indulge in women’s beauty. His subordinates had initially worried that he would never have an heir. Eventually, they decided that it wouldn’t matter even if the future Madam of the Sect was a man.
At the very least, just find someone to be the Sect Leader’s spouse and have them manage the sect’s affairs.
The sect was an absolute mess. Their monthly stipends were often not paid on time, and the person responsible for distributing them frequently bullied them, relying on his status as a distant relative of the Left Elder to throw his weight around.
They had truly had enough of it.
For once, Wu Xian had taken an interest in someone. He dismissed the subordinates accompanying him, changed into a set of ragged clothes, smeared dirt all over himself, and even sealed his acupoints so that no one could detect that he possessed any martial arts ability.
Once his disguise was complete, Wu Xian pretended to be a refugee who had fled to the village. He collapsed outside the home of a family not far from where Leng Qingqiu lived.
The family was completely stunned. They had opened their door early in the morning, intending to head out and work in the fields, only to find a grown man lying outside their home with an ashen complexion.
Frightened, they quickly carried him to Leng Qingqiu’s home and knocked on the door.
“Divine Physician, Divine Physician, are you awake?”
The old farmer called out several times. Before long, the wooden door creaked open, and an exceptionally handsome man appeared in the doorway.
“Elder, what is the matter?”
Leng Qingqiu was not only cold and aloof in appearance, but his voice was equally icy. Fortunately, the villagers had already learned that this was simply the Divine Physician’s temperament, so they thought nothing of it.
The old farmer explained, “A young man collapsed outside my home early this morning. He isn’t from our village, and he looks to be in very bad shape, so we brought him here.”
As he spoke, the old farmer stepped aside, revealing his son standing behind him, supporting the “unconscious” Wu Xian.
Leng Qingqiu glanced at him and said, “Bring him inside.”
The old farmer and his son carried him into the house. Rubbing his hands together, the old farmer said, “It’s getting late, Divine Physician. We should probably head back to the fields and get to work?”
Leng Qingqiu hummed in acknowledgment.
The father and son hurried away. There was still plenty of work to be done in the fields. Bringing this man here had already delayed them, and if they wasted any more time, their entire family would have nothing to eat.
Leng Qingqiu took out a packet of medicine and placed it beneath Wu Xian’s wrist before pressing his jade-like finger against his pulse.
Strange.
He furrowed his brows slightly and lifted Wu Xian’s eyelids to examine them. They appeared normal, but his pulse was extremely abnormal. As for exactly what was wrong, even he couldn’t say.
Just then, Wu Xian let out a groan and “painfully” woke up. Seeing someone sitting in front of him, he immediately became guarded.
“Who are you?”
Leng Qingqiu acted as though he hadn’t noticed Wu Xian’s wariness and simply replied calmly, “I’m just a physician from the countryside.”
“How are you feeling? How did you sustain your injuries?”
Leng Qingqiu was very interested in studying unfamiliar symptoms. He had grown up in Butterfly Valley, where he had studied medicine from a young age. This was his first time leaving the valley, and he had come out to gain experience. As the saying went, traveling ten thousand miles is better than reading ten thousand books.
If one never left the valley, one would never realize how vast the world was. Many difficult and unusual illnesses were not recorded in medical texts.
And now, he had encountered one.
“Excruciating abdominal pain, weakness throughout my body, and frequent shortness of breath…” Wu Xian answered, mixing truth with lies.
As he listened, Leng Qingqiu examined the various parts of Wu Xian’s body that he had mentioned. Some of the symptoms matched, while others didn’t.
There were only two possible explanations for this: either his medical knowledge was insufficient, or this man was lying.
To determine whether Wu Xian was telling the truth, he suddenly pressed down on an acupoint near Wu Xian’s dantian.
Wu Xian nearly cried out in pain, but fortunately, he managed to hold it back. Only beads of sweat the size of beans appeared on his forehead.
Seeing his reaction, Leng Qingqiu immediately realized that he had misjudged him. Given this reaction, it seemed unlikely that the man was lying.
“I apologize. I was too presumptuous just now. Please forgive me.”
Leng Qingqiu was quite straightforward about admitting his mistake.
Wu Xian couldn’t let him discover that he knew martial arts and understood acupoints, so he could only pretend to be confused.
“Doctor, what are you talking about?”
“Nothing. If you don’t mind, you can stay here and recover.”
“This… Wouldn’t that be too much trouble for you, Doctor?”
“Not at all. To be honest, I’ve never encountered an illness like yours before. I’d like to study it and see if there is a way to treat it. As for your abdominal pain, I’ll prepare some medicine for you later. It should at least help relieve the pain.”
As soon as he finished speaking, Leng Qingqiu had already set down his brush. A prescription was now written out on the paper.
Leng Qingqiu’s invitation was exactly what Wu Xian had hoped for. He was secretly delighted, but he didn’t let it show on his face. Instead, he continued to put on a weak and sickly appearance.
“Then I’ll trouble you, Doctor.”
During this period of “recuperation,” Wu Xian also learned about Leng Qingqiu’s identity. Leng Qingqiu was the young master of Butterfly Valley, which was known as the Valley of Divine Physicians. He had left the valley this time to gain experience, broaden his horizons, and see more of the world.
After spending time together, Wu Xian found that Leng Qingqiu was quite different from what his reputation suggested.
Although Leng Qingqiu appeared cold on the outside, he was incredibly soft-hearted and kind—so kind that he was almost too easy to deceive.
Several times, Wu Xian saw him staying up all night by lamplight to study his “illness.” Each time, Wu Xian wanted to tell him that he wasn’t actually sick.
But then he would think about how angry Qingqiu might become if he discovered that Wu Xian had deceived him.
And so, Wu Xian was left in a state of inner conflict.
During the time Leng Qingqiu spent with Wu Xian, he was also captivated by Wu Xian’s talent and breadth of knowledge. Through their conversations, he learned far more than he could have by experiencing things himself, and Wu Xian’s ability to look at matters from different perspectives had broadened his horizons.
He knew his own personality well. Whenever he became absorbed in studying medicinal properties, he paid no attention to day or night. Wu Xian’s stay here didn’t seem like an attempt to recover from an illness at all. Instead, it seemed as though he had come to take care of Leng Qingqiu.
From his food and clothing to his daily needs, from grinding medicine beneath the lamplight to adding clothes and blankets when it grew cold, Wu Xian took care of him with such meticulousness that he was no less attentive than the maids of Butterfly Valley.
What troubled Leng Qingqiu even more was that their frequent physical contact often made his face flush and his heart race.
Although it was said that a physician couldn’t diagnose himself, he had still checked his own pulse. His body was perfectly healthy.
Then why did his face flush and his heart race whenever he was around Wu Xian?
One day, Wu Xian warmed a pot of wine and sat beneath a tree, playing chess and drinking with Leng Qingqiu.
Under the moonlight, Leng Qingqiu was breathtakingly beautiful. Sitting across from such a beauty, Wu Xian found his thoughts wandering, and his attention was hardly focused on the chessboard.
Leng Qingqiu placed down a piece, surrounding Wu Xian’s black stones. Seeing that he had won, a faint smile blossomed at the corners of his lips.
Wu Xian was captivated once again.
He reached out to pick up his wine cup, only to find that Leng Qingqiu had the same intention. Their hands touched, and Leng Qingqiu immediately pulled his hand back as though he had been burned. A faint blush spread across his jade-like face.
His heart pounded like thunder.
It was that feeling again.
“Qingqiu, your face is really red.”
“I’m a little drunk, so the alcohol has gone to my head.” Leng Qingqiu hurriedly tried to explain himself, but his eyes kept darting around.
Wu Xian knew Leng Qingqiu well by now. He was clearly lying. Leng Qingqiu only made this little gesture whenever his words didn’t match what he truly felt.
But Wu Xian didn’t expose him. Instead, he played along.
“Why don’t I help you back to your room to rest?”
Wu Xian stepped forward to support him, but Leng Qingqiu took a step back, avoiding his touch. He also didn’t dare look into Wu Xian’s bright, star-like eyes.
“I’m not so drunk that I can’t walk yet. I can go by myself.”
“Qingqiu, why are you being so formal with me?”
Wu Xian was a stubborn man. The more someone told him not to do something, the more determined he became to do it.
Besides, after spending all this time together, he had become certain of his own feelings. He could also tell that Leng Qingqiu wasn’t completely indifferent to him. He simply wanted to deepen their relationship as quickly as possible so that Leng Qingqiu would be willing to return with him to the Demon Sect.
He forcibly supported Leng Qingqiu, and this time, Leng Qingqiu didn’t resist, his mind already thrown into complete turmoil.
The atmosphere between them grew increasingly subtle as they drew closer and closer.
Just as Wu Xian was about to take things a step further, a chorus of cries suddenly came from outside the courtyard, shattering the delicate atmosphere.
“Please, Divine Physician, save my son!”
“Please, Divine Physician, save my wife…”
“Divine Physician, my parents…!”
Leng Qingqiu broke free from Wu Xian’s hold, opened the courtyard gate, and walked outside. He saw a group of villagers kneeling on the ground, each carrying or supporting family members who had fallen ill.
“Get up quickly. What happened? Just tell me.”
Saving lives and healing the sick was a physician’s duty. However, Butterfly Valley did not treat just anyone. But these villagers were kind-hearted people, and since Leng Qingqiu was traveling outside the valley under an assumed identity, he didn’t need to follow those rules.
The villagers hurriedly moved aside so that Leng Qingqiu could examine the patients.
But the moment he took a closer look, his expression changed.
They weren’t simply sick.
They had contracted an epidemic.
“Epidemic” wasn’t the name of a specific disease, but a general term for infectious outbreaks. What the villagers had contracted this time was a new type of epidemic that Leng Qingqiu had never encountered before.
“First, seal off the village. This epidemic is contagious, so no one is allowed to wander around.”
Leng Qingqiu gave his orders, but some villagers who hadn’t fallen ill immediately objected.
“What? It’s contagious? I’m not sick! Am I supposed to stay here and wait to be infected and die?”
“My family and I aren’t sick either. Why should we stay in the village and die with everyone else?”
“Exactly, exactly…”
The more people there were, the louder the arguments became. Soon, the entire place descended into chaos, and the noise gave Leng Qingqiu a splitting headache.
Wu Xian couldn’t stand seeing Leng Qingqiu being pressured and opposed by the villagers. He struck a large stone beside him and shattered it to pieces.
The entire scene instantly fell silent.
“Does anyone else want to cause trouble?”
The moment the aura of the Demon Sect’s leader was released, the villagers became as timid as quails, not daring to utter another word.
“I’ll do everything I can to treat you, but you must cooperate as well.”
There was no point saying more. Leng Qingqiu had Wu Xian move the sick villagers into the courtyard, and he began another round of experimenting with different medicines.
Before Leng Qingqiu could develop a cure, some villagers secretly fled the village.
No one knew exactly how the epidemic spread so quickly, but by the time Leng Qingqiu found out, it had already spread on a massive scale. The authorities ordered several villages to be sealed off.
The villages were filled with cries of despair. The people tormented by the epidemic were suffering so terribly that they would rather die, while thick black smoke from the burning bodies rose day and night without end.
Leng Qingqiu and Wu Xian were also trapped inside the city and forbidden to leave. Eventually, all the physicians sent in by the authorities died. With no other options left, the authorities issued an order to burn the village.
The flames soared into the sky. Seeing that they were about to be burned alive, Wu Xian could no longer worry about exposing his identity. He ordered members of the Demon Sect to enter and evacuate all the villagers who had not contracted the epidemic, while he himself quickly took Leng Qingqiu and escaped.
Leng Qingqiu felt deceived.
Wu Xian was actually from the Demon Sect—and not just any member, but its leader. He had even pretended to be injured to deceive him.
However, there were more important matters to deal with first, so Leng Qingqiu temporarily put his anger aside. He worked day and night to develop a treatment.
Finally, before the epidemic could spread any further and before the city was burned down, he successfully developed a prescription and made it available to the public, saving the lives of an entire city in time.
When the people learned that the Divine Physician who had developed the prescription came from Butterfly Valley, they voluntarily knelt down and offered their thanks.
The major crisis had finally been resolved.
Now it was time to deal with their personal matters.
No matter how much Wu Xian apologized or tried to make amends, Leng Qingqiu remained unmoved. He even began considering returning to Butterfly Valley ahead of schedule just to avoid him.
“The Demon Sect has committed countless evil deeds. If you were just an ordinary person, perhaps I could overlook it. But you are the leader of the Demon Sect. Your identity goes against Butterfly Valley’s rules—we do not treat those who have committed great evil, nor do we associate with them. Let us part ways here.”
“I haven’t! I’ve never killed anyone. My subordinates only do honest business!” Wu Xian argued. But the Demon Sect’s notorious reputation was well known, and there was no way he could clear its name with just a few words.
Leng Qingqiu picked up his bundle and set off.
How could Wu Xian possibly let his wife leave?
He hurried after him. Before leaving, he still couldn’t stop thinking about what Leng Qingqiu had said about the Demon Sect’s reputation for committing all kinds of evil deeds. He immediately ordered his subordinates to investigate who had been acting in his name and tarnishing the reputation of his Qingqiu to the point that his beloved was about to run away.
“Why are you following me?”
Leng Qingqiu turned around and glared angrily at the man following him like a persistent nuisance.
Wu Xian smiled. “It just so happens that I’m going the same way. I hope the Divine Physician will take pity on me and allow me to travel this road as well.”
“You… Hmph—”
Leng Qingqiu was so frustrated that he was speechless. It wasn’t as though he owned the road. What did Wu Xian mean by asking for his “mercy”?
Although Leng Qingqiu kept saying that they should have nothing more to do with each other, seeing Wu Xian following him without leaving his side somehow filled his heart with a faint sweetness.
As the sun sank toward the horizon, the two walked one in front of the other. The setting sun stretched their shadows across the ground, and gradually, the two shadows overlapped…