Chapter Eighty-Eight: The Young Lu Yue

Whether he had gone hungry for too long, or simply treasured his life too much, the mistress of the cult had devoured her tripe with such gusto that grease shone all over her mouth, utterly absorbed in the feast.

Perhaps because the portion was generous and filling, and because it was truly gratifying, she even wanted to take the initiative to upgrade her meal.

Xu Boqing, however, merely wished to see for himself the marvelous skill she had spoken of; he had no intention of spending any further thought on her.

After politely declining her request for an upgraded meal, he tidied up and left the council hall.

By then, there was not a soul left in Xi Yu Valley. The other buildings, too, looked as if they had been ransacked, in utter disarray. Not even the snakes, scorpions, and insects crawling up the steps had anyone to bother them.

He paid it little mind.

All the roads leading out of Xi Yu Valley were already blocked by men from the Western Bureau and the local authorities. The people of the Five Poisons Sect had lost their internal force; going out would only be walking into a trap.

Xu Boqing was not certain whether those in the hall earlier had been the sect's full strength. To guard against any fish slipping through the net, he casually activated his Heavenly Eye and swept his gaze around.

Soon, he seemed to spot something and, with a slight furrow of the brow, walked toward a side hall named the Sun-Moon Hall.

Before he even arrived, a stench of blood and rot drifted out to meet him.

Only when he drew closer did he see that the grounds around the Sun-Moon Hall had been turned into a medicinal garden. Within it grew not only vividly colored poisonous herbs, but also the corpses of animals and humans. Some of the poisonous plants had even sprouted directly from those remains.

The foul reek came from there.

Xu Boqing frowned as he scanned the area, then suddenly focused. In that medicinal garden, he had discovered a living person.

A boy of barely a dozen years lay there like a corpse, his body swollen, covered in the marks of insect gnawing.

On closer inspection, a newly sprouted poisonous shoot had even grown from his mouth, and fine white roots as thin as hair had burrowed out through some of his pores.

At a glance, he was no different from the other "fertilizer" in the garden, save that his body had not yet decayed.

Yet Xu Boqing could feel a faint thread of life within him.

This person... was actually not dead?

With a slight frown, he reached out from afar toward the boy in the garden, drawing him out with internal force and laying him on the ground.

Under the gaze of the Heavenly Eye, the boy was already on the verge of death, his breath faint as a thread.

Inside his body, his organs and meridians had been rooted through by fine tendrils like wandering silk threads, and one could even see several medicinal seeds in his belly that had only just begun to sprout and take root.

It was a horrifying sight.

In the past, he had only heard of people using corpses as fertilizer to grow medicinal herbs; now he had seen them using the living.

For all his experience and composure, even Xu Boqing could not help but furrow his brow at the boy's misery.

He could only marvel inwardly at how hard this child’s fate had been.

After a moment's thought, Xu Boqing let out a sigh, crouched down beside him, and tapped a few points on the boy's body. Once the acupoints were sealed, he used his internal force to heal him.

The external wounds from the insect bites were easy enough to treat, but those thin, threadlike roots had already taken hold in his organs and meridians, making them extremely difficult to deal with.

He had intended to forcefully pull them out with internal force, but before even a few roots had been torn free, the boy's face twisted in pain, and a trace of dark blood seeped from the corner of his mouth.

These roots had already taken hold within him. If they were forcibly ripped away, he feared the boy would die from it.

Xu Boqing understood a little more.

With a sigh, he used his internal force to protect the boy's heart meridian, sorted through his body to suppress the growth of the roots, then tapped the crown of his head.

The boy's whole body trembled, and slowly, his eyes opened.

When he saw the person before him, he staggered upright from the ground and fell to his knees, bowing so low that his forehead touched the earth as he cried out, "Thank you for saving my life, benefactor! Thank you for saving my life, benefactor! Thank you for saving my life, benefactor!"

Even as blood seeped from his battered forehead, he kept on thanking him again and again.

"You needn't be so formal."

Xu Boqing lifted him with a surge of force and, with a slight frown, asked, "Are you a disciple of the Five Poisons Sect? And why were you thrown into this medicinal garden to serve as fertilizer?"

"I am not a disciple of the sect..."

The boy explained, "I am merely a medicine slave within the sect. Because I failed to tend the medicinal garden properly and angered an elder, I was punished with the Hundred Poisons Devouring the Body penalty.

"I lost consciousness during the punishment and fell into a state of feigned death, and so they took me for fertilizer and threw me into the garden."

Xu Boqing shook his head at the words, thinking the destruction of the Five Poisons Sect truly had not been undeserved.

"What is your name?"

"Your humble servant is called Lu Yue. I bow in gratitude to you, benefactor."

As he spoke, the boy once more prostrated himself in a deep kowtow.

"There is no need for so much ceremony. Your condition—you ought to be able to feel it yourself to some extent."

Xu Boqing explained, "I have only temporarily protected your heart meridian and suppressed the growth of those roots. It is not a complete cure."

He paused, then went on, "This method may save your life for the moment, but it is no long-term solution. In the end, it can only let you live a few more days."

Lu Yue's kowtowing froze.

Then, as if he had come to terms with something, he forced out a smile and said, "Being able to live a few more days is still better than nothing..."

"Mm."

Xu Boqing nodded lightly. Having lost the interest to chat further, he said, "The members of the Five Poisons Sect have already had their internal force dispersed by me. From this day on, there is no more Five Poisons Sect in this world.

"You may leave Xi Yu Valley and find another place to start over. If you meet anyone from the authorities on the way out, tell them that it was Lord Xu who ordered you to leave the valley."

With that, he turned and walked into the Sun-Moon Hall.

Lu Yue stared for a moment, then, tears in his eyes, bowed once more in gratitude. "Thank you for saving my life, benefactor."

Seeing that his benefactor had already gone far, he forced himself up and staggered toward the exit.

Along the way, as he looked at the desolate, unpeopled Xi Yu Valley and thought of all the torments he had suffered within the Five Poisons Sect, his heart was both sour and thankful.

Perhaps because he was distracted, and perhaps because his body was far too weak, when he reached the next flight of steps and was not paying attention, he suddenly tripped over a bundle that had been thrown there by someone unknown. Crying out in pain, he fell heavily to the ground.

The bundle beneath his feet was kicked aside; its mouth opened, and out rolled a small incense burner, spinning all the way until it happened to stop beside his hand.

It was a little incense burner, only about six inches high, a dull green in color, its material seeming half jade, half bronze. Around its body was a serpent carving coiled about the vessel, head raised, while on top was carved a scorpion.

The serpent was carved with its mouth open and fangs bared.

The scorpion, too, was posed with raised pincers and a lifted tail.

Faint threads of red seemed to glow within the two carvings, giving them a startling lifelike quality, as if they were locked in combat over some unseen thing.

The Divine Summoning Burner?

Lu Yue froze. The pain was instantly forgotten as he scrambled up from the ground.

He grabbed the little incense burner and held it before his eyes for a closer look, then brought it beneath his nose and sniffed. When he caught the faint, lingering fragrance within, his heart tightened further, and he knew at once that fortune had smiled on him and that he had found a treasure.

He hurriedly turned back and rummaged through the bundle again, finding several martial manuals such as the Toad Poison Art, the Linked-String Corpse Rot Poison, the Green Serpent Poison Palm, and the Ice Silkworm Poison Palm, along with a stack of silver notes.

This...

His expression changed slightly as he stuffed the incense burner back into the bundle, intending to leave as though he knew nothing.

But just as he was about to go, it seemed he remembered something else. Conflict crossed his face as he stood rooted in place, then gritted his teeth, grabbed the bundle, and ran back the way he had come.