Medicine Master Disciple’s Cultivation Notes

Chapter 20: The Little Medicine Boy Knows a Bit of Medical Arts

Li Qiuchen was an undocumented person.

All the villagers in Songlin Village were undocumented. Since childhood, he'd never seen government officials enter the mountains to collect taxes, indicating the government didn't even know this village existed but to make a living in big cities, identity documents were a must-have.

Li Qiuchen had heard Boss Guan narrate many stories about the outside world.

Since the founding of the Great Chu Dynasty thousands of years ago, its management of local prefectures and counties had reached quite a mature, even somewhat harsh degree.

Refugees without household registration not only couldn't find work in the city, if they weren't careful they'd be arrested for corvée labor.

He originally had no hope for this, planning to slowly find ways to solve his identity problem in the future. He didn't expect to accidentally learn of such a connection.

Back when he was in Songlin Village, Grand Uncle was skilled at using a secret technique of driving tree roots to entangle living people but those tree roots actually had nothing to do with him. They were all the old peach tree's root system buried underground.

The old peach tree used its massive root system developed and grown over these hundreds of years to weave a dragnet within the mountain forests spanning twenty li around Songlin Village as the center.

If not for escaping through the waterway, they fundamentally would have had no chance at that time to escape the old peach tree's clutches.

Since the old peach tree could drive its own roots, Li Qiuchen felt he should also be able to.He'd seen this move more than once and could roughly understand the principle.

So he found a suitable location on the mountain and a Boston ivy. During these waiting days, it had silently crept into the stronghold and attached itself to the wall by Xiao Tian's door.

When he came back to his senses, he discovered he'd become like a vegetative person. His body was already covered with various roots and shoots.

This was the side effect of using the Medicine Master's blessing to manipulate plants and trees. Investing body and mind too deeply into it, one inevitably would be assimilated by plants and trees. In another ten days to half a month, perhaps he'd really become a tree.

The white crane stood to the side from afar, using a suspicious gaze to size up Li Qiuchen from top to bottom.

I don't think you're a good person.

Am I a good person? You're only seeing this clearly now?

We did the deed together. We killed people together. If I'm not a good person, are you a good bird?

After waiting these days, Li Qiuchen had been immersed in the Boston ivy and didn't feel bored. On the contrary, the white crane couldn't sit still.

It wanted to directly kill its way in.

Li Qiuchen evaluated this as: both weak and loves to play.

A game that could be cleared without damage, why insist on trading blood for blood? You think because I can save you once, you can just recklessly do whatever?

Song Laosan was very moved by Xiao Tian's proposal. Without even eating (although there really wasn't anything good to eat in this stronghold anyway), he left the stronghold, bringing his two sons together, heading straight for the crime scene.

Li Qiuchen didn't bother with those three.

These three had both blades and spears, bows and arrows. At a glance they were very difficult to deal with but on the stronghold side, not long after, Xiao Tian sent out several more people. From the looks of it, they should be going down the mountain to invite a doctor.

Li Qiuchen stood up, plucked off the shoots growing from his head, and instructed the white crane in a low voice, "I'll find a way to mix in. You stay outside for support. If you discover the situation is wrong, cover my escape."

"Ga ga!"

The white crane's face was written all over with unwillingness.

It wanted to fight.

Li Qiuchen had no choice but to bring this stupid bird along on the road.

One person and one bird crossed mountains and forests, ambushing on the path those bandits would take down the mountain. Li Qiuchen wove himself a willow basket and stuffed it with quite a bit of miscellaneous medicinal herbs.

Sitting by the roadside and waiting for half an hour, those several bandits finally rode horses slowly coming over. Who knew where they'd just been wandering?

Teams really were hard to lead.

With the big boss bedridden, the people below had scattered hearts.

A sharp-eyed bandit noticed Li Qiuchen sitting by the roadside and the white crane standing beside him. His heart immediately tensed up.

This appearance clearly wasn't an ordinary person.

He exchanged glances with his companions, rode horses closer, coughed, and asked, "Whose child are you? How did you run into the mountains?"

Li Qiuchen looked at them warily, but said with his mouth, "I came into the mountains with my master to gather medicine. Master told me to wait for him here."

"What kind of person is your master?"

"My master is called Guan Damu. He's a traveling doctor who specializes in treating people's illnesses."

Oh?

Hearing this, the bandit's eyes lit up. This was truly wearing out iron shoes with no place to find, obtaining it costs no effort at all.

The big boss told them to go down the mountain to invite a doctor but refused to give money. No one was willing to go. Originally, these several people were still discussing whether to collectively run away and join other mountain tops.

Unexpectedly, they encountered a medicine-gathering boy in the mountains.

You say his master is a doctor, he isn't? What does it matter? Are doctors down the mountain that reliable? Whether cured or killed depends entirely on whether heaven gives face.

A few brothers even had some unspeakable ulterior thoughts in their hearts.

If the big boss died, could everyone divide up the wealth on the mountain, each return to their own home, each find their own mother?

"Then can you treat people's illnesses?"

Li Qiuchen hesitated, then shook his head, "My master won't let me treat people's illnesses. He says I haven't learned my skills well. He only lets me prepare medicine according to prescriptions."

Oh my? Isn't this coincidental?

Several people exchanged glances and immediately formed a tacit understanding.

"Little doctor, we have a sick person there. Go take a look, won't you?"

"No, I have to wait here for my master to come back!"

Li Qiuchen adamantly refused.

"When will your master come back? Look, the sky is about to darken. If he doesn't come back, are you going to stay the night here? Why not go back with us first? It's close by. Your master will find his way there."

"No, no..."

"Saving a life... what was it again? Anyway, whether you're a mule or a horse, go take a look first. Your master won't blame you if he knows!"

After several rounds of persuasion from several people, Li Qiuchen finally nodded in agreement.

Someone beside couldn't help but reach out to grab the white crane. The white crane's "ga" sound scared him badly.

"Don't touch it! This is my master's spirit pet!"

Li Qiuchen quickly said, "We rely on it to gather medicine in the mountains. Don't hurt it!"

"Alright, alright, alright. We'll listen to you. Let's go!"

The bandits coaxed and deceived, coercing the unworldly little medicine boy back to the stronghold.

"Big Boss! Big Boss! The doctor's been brought back!"

Xiao Tian lying in bed had just dozed off when his subordinates called him up. Opening his eyes in a daze, he saw a child standing before him. He was completely confused.

"Doctor?"

"Right, this is the doctor's disciple!"

The subordinate turned to call Li Qiuchen, "You quickly come over and examine our big boss!"

Li Qiuchen didn't walk over. Standing in place, he frowned, "This isn't illness. He's offended evil spirits, right?"

Divine doctor!

Hearing this, Xiao Tian immediately sat up, "Divine doctor, save me!"

"It's not a big deal. Don't be nervous."

Li Qiuchen waved his hand, "Encountering evil, medicine can't cure it. I'll boil you some calming medicinal soup. After drinking it, sleep well. When your spirit recovers, everything will be fine."

Divine doctor! Truly a divine doctor!

Xiao Tian was so excited his whole body trembled.

Before, he'd seen doctors. Those doctors one by one were all mystical, talking about internal deficiency and external deficiency, upper heat and lower heat, chattering on and on. Fundamentally couldn't understand what they meant.

Unlike this little divine doctor, two sentences made everything crystal clear.

Xiao Tian was very happy. His subordinate brothers were a bit disappointed.

Who would have thought randomly picking up a kid by the roadside, they'd pick up one with real skills?

But thinking about it, that made sense. Without some real skills, who would dare drill into this old mountain forest?

Li Qiuchen noticed those several people's facial expressions change, but on the surface he still pretended not to know anything.

Coming outside, he instructed everyone to build a stove and make a fire, boiling a pot of hot water.

Li Qiuchen took out a handful of medicinal herbs from the willow basket and said to the person beside him, "This is called Peaceful Spirit Flower. After drinking it, you sleep soundly. But medicine is three parts poison. Normally it should be matched with other medicines to neutralize its toxicity. I don't have that here..."

"No problem. Our big boss has a good body. He's not afraid of poison!"

"What I mean is, do you have rice or grain or something? Put it in the pot and cook it together. It can neutralize some toxicity."

"Yes, yes, yes. We still have quite a bit of cornmeal left. Will cornmeal porridge work?"

"It will."

Many hands make light work. Before long, a large pot of bubbling cornmeal porridge was ready.

Li Qiuchen took a spoon and ladled himself a bowl. Tasting it, he frowned, "A bit bitter. I'll add some sugar."

He rummaged out the jar containing fruit jam and dug out a big spoonful of jam to mix into the cornmeal porridge.

Tasting again... mm, this time the flavor was good.

Sweet and sour, fragrant aroma. Even the neighbor's kids were crying with envy.

Fishing out the medicinal herbs boiled soft in the cornmeal porridge and filling a bowl, Li Qiuchen turned and handed it to the person beside him, earnestly instructing, "Take this to your big boss. Have him eat it while it's hot, then lie down and sleep. I'll burn some mugwort for you all to dispel evil qi. Should be no problem."

"Little divine doctor, what about the remaining cornmeal porridge?"

"Pour it out."

"That would be such a waste. Let's divide it among ourselves."

"That works too."

You're the ones who want to eat it.

Li Qiuchen walked to an open area, took out a piece of scrap cloth to cover his head and face, grabbed a handful of dried medicinal herbs and lit them. Muttering in his mouth, he wandered around everywhere.

By the time the medicinal herbs in his hand finished burning, the entire stronghold was already enveloped in smoke thick with medicinal smell.

Some people began singing. Some people began dancing.

The white crane spread its wings and flew into the air. Feathers one after another transformed into flowing light and shot out. The bandits trapped in hallucinations were like crops, their lives easily harvested.

After these days of reconnaissance, Li Qiuchen had already figured out the stronghold's true situation.

The real fierce bandits had all been lost in the mountains. What remained were all old, weak, sick, and disabled with no combat effectiveness whatsoever.

Only those outside mountain guests were relatively troublesome. But those three had already left.

If not for this, he absolutely wouldn't personally take risks and run in to poison them.

Facts were also as he expected. These bandits staying behind in the stronghold were outwardly strong but inwardly weak. With almost no effort, he'd wiped them all out in one wave.

Finally, only the big boss Xiao Tian remained, still desperately struggling in his dreams.