The inscription reads, "Respectfully submitted by your disciple, Zi Ye."
Looking at the address on the envelope, Huo Zhanbai frowned slightly: That damned woman repeatedly told him to open the brocade pouch when he arrived in Yangzhou, just so he could deliver this letter to his master immediately? How strange... Could this letter be more important than delivering medicine to Mo'er?
After hesitating for a while, he finally made up his mind: Well, since that damned woman gave such a serious instruction, there must be a reason. If I don't deliver this letter, something terrible might happen.
“I’ll go first,” he said to Xia Qianyu. “I’ll come back to have a drink with you guys after things in Lin’an are settled.”
Before Xia Qianyu could answer, he let out a whoosh and leaped out of the building with the snow hawk.
The Ancient Magnolia Temple is located in the western suburbs. It was built during the Tang Dynasty to house the Buddha's relics and was named after a magnolia tree in the temple that was over 500 years old. However, after the wars and chaos of the previous dynasty, the ancient magnolia tree and the pagoda were destroyed in the flames of war, and the place has fallen into ruin and no longer has any monks living there.
Huo Zhanbai stood in the dilapidated courtyard overgrown with weeds, somewhat surprised.
Could it be that Xue Ziye's master, the miraculous healer Liao Qingran who disappeared from the martial arts world many years ago, is actually living in seclusion here?
The air after the start of spring was still chilly. He walked around but saw no sign of human habitation in the temple. Just as he was hesitating, he suddenly heard a snow hawk fly back from behind the courtyard and let out a cry. He looked in the direction of the sound and was suddenly startled!
—Outside the courtyard wall, the charred ancient magnolia tree was visible, and its branches were actually covered with buds!
Who can bring a withered tree back to life?
His heart skipped a beat, and his gaze skipped over the wall—not far from the ancient tree, there stood a delicate and tidy little building, from which wisps of smoke were rising.
Is it there? He couldn't contain his excitement and went over to knock on the door.
"I told you to go to town to buy some diapers for Abao, why did it take you so long?" A woman's complaining voice immediately came from inside. She came out to open the door, "Did you sneak off to one of those places again? You rascal, you'll see—"
The sound stopped abruptly after the door was opened.
The woman holding her young child looked at the white-clad man who had come to visit outside the door with a surprised expression: "Who is the young master looking for? My husband has gone out."
"I've come to see the Miraculous Healer Guanyin," Huo Zhanbai replied respectfully, bowing as a disciple. Although Xue Ziye's master looked to be no more than thirty years old, dressed in plain clothes with a jade hairpin, and handsome and refined, only four or five years older than him, he dared not show the slightest disrespect.
“There is no Guanyin here.” The woman’s face fell, and she said coldly, immediately trying to close the door. “The Buddhist hall has been destroyed, and all the gods have perished. Young master, you have come to the wrong place.”
"Senior Liao," Huo Zhanbai quickly stretched out his arm to hold the door open, "it was your disciple who asked me to deliver a message to you."
The woman in plain clothes was slightly taken aback, and a purple jade hairpin, along with a letter, was handed to her.
She paused, then finally loosened her grip, opened the door, and murmured, "Oh, eight years... So it's finally here?"
She ushered Huo Zhanbai inside, picked up the hairpin, examined it for a moment, and nodded slightly: "Not bad, this is what I left for Zi Ye when I left Medicine Master Valley. Now she's finally willing to use this token?"
She turned her head to look at Huo Zhanbai: "Are you from Medicine Master Valley? How is Zi Ye's health these days?"
Huo Zhanbai hesitated for a moment, but finally decided to tell the truth: "It's not good. I'm getting colder and colder."
“Sigh…it’s my fault as your master,” Liao Qingran lowered her head and gently patted the sleeping child in her arms. “Zi Ye is only eighteen years old, and I left Medicine Master Valley to her—but I also promised Zi Ye that if she encounters any insurmountable difficulties, I will do my best to help her once.”
"Once?" Huo Zhanbai asked, somewhat surprised.
Liao Qingran laughed: "Of course, just once—I don't want her to have the excuse of 'I can't cure her anyway, but my master is here' to slack off." She picked up the hairpin and smiled wryly: "But that girl has always been smart and competitive. She hasn't used this token in eight years. I thought her medical skills were now unparalleled and there were no more problems—but I didn't expect that she would still have to use this hairpin?"
Huo Zhanbai listened from the side and felt his heart skip a beat.
What does that mean? Xue Ziye sent him to Yangzhou with the hairpin to see Liao Qingran, could it be because...?
Liao Qingran handed the child to the maid behind her, opened the letter, and murmured, "Could it be that silly girl is still clinging to hope after eight years, insisting that I help her resurrect the person under the ice? I told her from the start that it was impossible—ah? This…"
She was looking at the letter when she suddenly stopped and looked up at Huo Zhanbai with lightning speed.
"Senior, what's wrong?" Huo Zhanbai was also feeling uneasy.
Liao Qingran turned and walked into the hall: "Come in and sit down before we talk."
The Seven-Leaf Ganoderma at the bottom of the Sacred Lake of the Moon Palace, the Azure Phoenix Flower of the White Cloud Palace of Bicheng Mountain in the East Sea, the Dragon Tongue on the cliff of Junshan Mountain in Dongting Lake, the Snow Poppy of West Kunlun... As if those rare and precious herbs were poured out of the brocade pouch, Huo Zhanbai's face paled a little more.
"What...what's going on?!" He finally couldn't help but exclaim in shock and jumped up.
Isn't this what Xue Ziye took to refine medicine? How come it's all still intact?
“Zi Ye failed to refine the true antidote,” Liao Qingran said calmly, placing the letter on the table and looking at the man whose expression had changed drastically. “Seventh Young Master Huo, the original prescription of the five medicinal ingredients she wrote for you was actually fake.”
"Is it... fake?" Huo Zhanbai was stunned for a moment.
“Yes.” Liao Qingran pointed to the things on the table. “These herbs are all rare and unique, with extremely strong medicinal properties. They are also incompatible and cannot be combined into one prescription. Back then, Zi Ye couldn’t resist your desperate pleas and was afraid that you would despair, so he deliberately prescribed this ‘impossible’ prescription.”
Huo Zhanbai froze, his hand gripping the sword gradually trembling.
"Zi Ye described Mo'er's illness in detail in her letter; it is indeed rare. She exhausted all her efforts this time, but only managed to refine one medicine, which can extend Mo'er's life by three months." Liao Qingran nodded slightly and sighed, "Seventh Young Master Huo, please don't blame your disciple—"
"Impossible!" Huo Zhanbai stared intently at the medicine on the table, then suddenly shouted, "Impossible! I... I spent eight years..."
He could no longer contain his rage: "You mean she lied to me? She... she lied to me?!"
Liao Qingran sighed: "Zi Ye is just too soft-hearted—she should have told you from the beginning that Mo'er has a terminal illness."
"Impossible! She couldn't have lied to me... I'll go back and ask her right away." Huo Zhanbai's face was pale as he frantically rummaged through the rare treasures on the table. "Look, the Dragon Blood Pearl is gone! The medicine should have been refined by now!"
“Young Master Huo,” Liao Qingran sighed, “you don’t need to go back to see your apprentice, because—”
She turned to the side, gazing at the ancient magnolia tree outside the courtyard that had miraculously come back to life, and said, word by word:
"From today onwards, I will be in charge of Xu Mo's illness."
Huo Zhanbai was stunned, his heart filled with mixed feelings of joy and sorrow.
“Don’t blame Zi Ye, she has already poured her heart and soul into it,” Liao Qingran turned to look at him, picked up the purple jade hairpin, and sighed, “Do you know? This was the only token I gave her—I thought she would use this to ask me to help revive the body under the ice… She has always been too fixated on the past.”