Chapter Forty-One: Healing Wounds

Hearing Xu You speak so rudely, Zuo Wen felt his heart tighten. His hand went to the hilt of his sword as he fixed a hard stare on Li Yifeng’s hands.

A ghost-capturing spiritual officer, as the name implied, relied on a pair of hands as his greatest weapon.

Nothing could withstand them.

Li Yifeng’s gaunt face betrayed neither anger nor pleasure. Just as Zuo Wen thought he was about to strike, a faint smile suddenly touched his lips. In that shrill voice, he said, “Do you still remember the year on Crane-Mocking Mountain, when you first saw me and said the very same words?”

“Yes,” Xu You said with feeling. “I was far too hasty then, and I offended you terribly with my words, Daoist Brother... But who would have thought that after living together on the mountain for seven days and nights, talking about everything under heaven, I would become friends with you!”

A trace of warmth, almost impossible to see, flickered in Li Yifeng’s cold eyes. After a long silence, he said softly, “Wei Zhi, you should not concern yourself with the Zhan family’s affairs!”

Xu You sighed. “Daoist Brother, there are times when one has no choice...”

Li Yifeng shook his head. “I know your nature: you love valor and chivalry, and cannot bear to see injustice. In your early days in Yixing, you were always stirring up trouble everywhere. But with the Xu family behind you, as long as you did not make a disaster that would pierce the heavens, it was of little consequence. Yet times are no longer what they were. The Master has placed you in Qiantang; on the surface it looks like a transfer, but in truth it is protection. No matter how low-profile you are, it is not too much. How dare you rashly meddle in the affairs of the Celestial Master Sect?”

Xu You gave a wry smile. “If I were to say I only happened to be caught in it, and got dragged into the mire by others, would you believe me?”

“Whether I believe it or not is unimportant. What matters is that the Zhan family has already been taken by the Rector as prey in his grasp. Anyone who tries to stir things up will only displease the Rector. Wei Zhi, listen to me: you already have more trouble than you can handle. Do not go provoking people you ought not provoke!”

Xu You said, “When the arrow is on the bow, it must be loosed. I appreciate your kindness, Daoist Brother.”

Li Yifeng fell silent again. At last he said, “This is no place to speak. In one quarter of an hour, come to the pavilion atop Three Coin Mountain to see me.”

After Li Yifeng left, Xu You and Zuo Wen each ate a bowl of noodle soup, both praising the cook’s skill. Noodle soup was also called water-pulled noodles, or broad flat noodles; in plain terms, it was just noodles. Meng Yuanlao, who had lived more than twenty years in Bianliang, in his Dream of Splendid Eastern Capital, recalled the prosperity of old capital life and mentioned more than ten famous kinds of noodle soup sold in the markets of Northern Song Bianjing. The Yuan-dynasty Dream Record of the Capital Scenes likewise said that in Southern Song Lin’an’s markets there were as many as thirty or forty kinds. This showed that noodles, originating in the Eastern Han and taking shape in the Wei and Jin eras, had by the Song dynasty already developed considerably.

What Xu You had eaten, however, was still the most basic kind of noodle soup — to be exact, a plain bowl of Yangchun noodles. Simple in preparation, but excellent in taste.

He tipped the shopkeeper ten coins. Though not much, it still expressed his appreciation for the food, much like leaving encouragement for an author of an online novel in later times. Estimating the hour, Xu You found that about an hour had passed. After asking someone to point out the way to Three Coin Mountain, he and Zuo Wen made their way there at an unhurried pace.

Three Coin Mountain had its own tale. It was said that a scholar, traveling to the capital to seek out relatives, was struck by hunger and cold and reduced to utter destitution, until he finally collapsed before the gate of a farmhouse. After the owner rescued him, the master’s daughter cared for him with great attention, and before long affection secretly bloomed between them. Once the scholar recovered, the two pledged themselves to each other for life, agreeing that when he reached Jinling and settled down, he would return to fetch her for marriage.

The family was poor. Their entire fortune amounted to only three coins, which the daughter gave to the scholar. The scholar made his way to Jinling, where, talented and charming, he soon made a name for himself and caught the eye of the princess of the time, becoming her son-in-law. The farm girl waited twelve long years. At last she entered the capital to seek the scholar, only to be secretly murdered by that unfaithful and heartless man and cast into the river.

Stricken by guilt, the scholar could no longer sleep at night. He often dreamed of a female ghost crying, “Return my three coins!” After repeated terrors, he finally could endure it no longer and went back to the place where he had first met the farm girl. The farmhouse was gone; the land had become barren and desolate. He took out three taels of gold and laid them on the ground, saying, “In those days I borrowed three coins from you. Today I return them a thousandfold. Our debt is settled, and so is our resentment. Do not come again to haunt me!” With that, he turned to leave. Unexpectedly, the three taels of gold suddenly rose like a mountain and crushed him beneath it, so that he could never rise again for all eternity.

Thus, when Xu You left the western city gates and saw Three Coin Mountain, the little hill that no longer existed in later generations, it looked just like a golden ingot. Following the winding, rugged mountain path upward, he reached the pavilion at the summit, where Li Yifeng stood inside with his back to Xu You and said, “Could you have your friend keep watch around the area?”

Xu You trusted Li Yifeng completely. Given their relationship, there would be no danger. He nodded to Zuo Wen.

Zuo Wen hesitated a little, but still obeyed and went off. Yet he did not go far; his eyes remained fixed on the situation here at all times.

Li Yifeng extended his hand. Xu You smiled and placed his right wrist into the other man’s palm. Curling his fingers like a bow to press the pulse point, Li Yifeng listened for a moment, then frowned. “Strange. Truly strange!”

His master was Li Changfeng, the fifth-ranked Grand Rector of the Celestial Master Sect, and the finest physician among them. Otherwise, back then it would not have been he who personally treated Xu You’s body. Li Yifeng had also learned remarkable medical skill from his master. At a glance at Xu You’s complexion and gait, he knew Xu You was still recovering from grave injuries; he had not expected, however, that the condition within his body would be far more bizarre and complex than anticipated.

“Can you circulate your vital energy?”

Xu You shook his head. “Daoist Brother, my martial arts are already ruined...”

Li Yifeng’s brow furrowed even more deeply. “Who said so?”

“Wen Ruquan, the divine physician of Jinling. The newly appointed prefect of Yixing, Li Zhi, specially invited him to treat me.”

“Li Zhi does not wield that much personal influence. It must have been the Master who spoke on your behalf; otherwise Wen Ruquan would not have been so easy to invite.”

Xu You had already understood this long ago, but if Li Zhi had not held back the pressure from all sides, Wen Ruquan might not have been able to treat him with peace of mind. So this favor still had to be counted on Li Zhi’s account.

“Strange. Most strange indeed!”

Li Yifeng took Xu You’s other hand and placed it on the pulse in the same manner. In medical diagnosis, one normally used three fingers to feel the pulses at the left and right wrists, distinguishing the three positions with slow alternation. The left wrist was used to assess the heart, liver, and kidneys; the right wrist, the lungs, spleen, and kidneys. It was rare to see a method like Li Yifeng’s, in which both left and right wrists were gripped at once while five fingers shifted and undulated as they took the pulse.

“Circulate your vital energy...”

Xu You still remembered the bone-deep agony from the last time he had tried to move his vital energy. But since it was Li Yifeng asking, he said nothing more and let the profound art activate on its own.

The sun-lord’s primal yang returns to the crimson palace; the moon-lord’s primal yin returns to the dantian!

That familiar sensation, that familiar pain. His sea of energy convulsed in a burst of agony, and a cold darkness materialized from nowhere, slithering like a serpent through every meridian in his body. In almost an instant, Xu You was drenched in sweat.

Fortunately, this time he had been prepared. He did not faint on the spot.

Li Yifeng’s expression changed dramatically.