Death Sutra

Translator: Henyee Translations  Editor: Henyee Translations

If he really did have magical powers, the first thing Divine Doctor Sun would do would be to rejuvenate his hair until it was flourishing again. But now he could only carefully cultivate a small bun of hair, exhale impatiently, and complain that there were too many difficult diseases in the world.

Red Bat felt a bit embarra.s.sed and apologetically said, "Just forget it if you can"t cure me. I didn"t know much kung fu before anyway."

"Just forget it?" Doctor Sun scolded caustically, thinking that the patient was really unreasonable. "Then how could I keep my t.i.tle of "divine doctor"? How am I gonna wander through Jianghu in the future?"

He looked up and happened to see the Dragon King walk in. Doctor Sun sighed and wanted to spit in annoyance but stopped himself after thinking twice. "What bad luck. You always appear whenever I can"t cure the disease. Are you coming here again to ruin my reputation on purpose?"

"It"s gratifying to see that the divine doctor is as elegant as always." Gu Shenwei cupped his hands slightly to show his respect. This doctor was well known for his bad temper, but the last time he had seen him, in front of Waning Moon Hall disciples, the other side had chosen his words very carefully, not even daring to breathe heavily.

Doctor Sun also probably remembered that experience and sighed again. "What a rubbish "divine doctor" I am. I can"t even cure the most common diseases, and I"ve been exiled to this strange land like a stray dog."

Red Bat playfully stuck her tongue out at Shangguan Ru, not daring to say that her "illness" wasn"t common at all. She had been drugged by the most powerful Indra Fragrance in all of the Land of Fragrance.

Staring at the doctor, Gu Shenwei didn"t let his guard down. "How"s Lotus?"

Doctor Sun shivered. "Have the Tenth Gongzi tell you. I don"t want to talk about those women."

Shangguan Ru recounted his "history of humiliation".

Doctor Sun hadn"t actually been forced to join the Waning Moon Hall. At first, he was attracted by their numerous intriguing secret arts and pills. He did benefit a lot from their knowledge, but the Waning Moon Hall"s purpose in drawing him over was not just to save some people.

Gradually, he was tasked to modify certain pills to remove unnecessary ingredients or simplify their refining processes, which he was very good at and had done well in. But their next demands went too far.

He was asked to create some stronger and subtle poisons, which went against his dream of practicing medicine in order to help people. And the way in which the Waning Moon Hall experimented and tested their drugs was unacceptable to him.

Doctor Sun interrupted Shangguan Ru and explained, "They simply didn"t treat people like people. They would go to Southern Jade City and catch one or two beggars or wandering sabermen and then force me to watch the procedure from beginning to end. Alas, I still have nightmares of those days even now."

When the Khan invited all the famous doctors in the world, Doctor Sun had also received the invitation several times. But he didn"t answer the imperial edict, thinking that he wasn"t capable of curing a monarch. The order of the Master Commander Lotus, however, had forced him to obediently appear in the Royal Court.

How could a mundane doctor compete with the "immortals"? Between the compet.i.tion from the monks, Taoist priests, and the disciples of the Essence Pavilion, he quickly fell into disfavor with the Khan just like all the other famous doctors.

However, the Waning Moon Hall didn"t send him back to the Western Regions. Jade City was the territory of Golden Roc Castle and no matter how bold they were, they had to conceal their whereabouts when testing their poisons. But they didn"t have to worry about that at all in the Royal Court. The Khan had plenty of slaves and was willing to share some of them.

Doctor Sun had spent several dark months in the Royal Court. Lotus and the Dragon King"s arrival didn"t make his life better either. At that point, Waning Moon Hall gave him another difficult and cruel task which was to have a young girl tell him how to make a female Gu.

Shangguan Shaomin wasn"t properly kept safe, and Doctor Sun couldn"t make it as a result. The testing and trials of the poisons were all managed by the disciples of the Waning Moon Hall, which made a convenient excuse for him, but the second attempt at making the female Gu still had to be done by him.

After procrastinating for a few days, Doctor Sun ran away.

On the night of the Khan"s murder and the start of the scuffle between all the kings of the Royal Court, the disciples of Waning Moon Hall had all been sent out to carry out different missions, and this gap had finally given Doctor Sun a chance to escape.

This was Doctor Sun"s story. Shangguan Ru narrated it roughly and carefully avoided blaming Lotus. In the end, she even defended her by saying, "Lotus might not have known about these things. She hasn"t been in Jade City for a long time and the disciples of Waning Moon Hall might have acted on their own."

"What about Shangguan Shaomin?" Gu Shenwei asked. He had handed over the granddaughter of the Unique King to Lotus but that had almost caused her to become a trial run for Doctor Sun.

Shangguan Ru couldn"t explain this discrepancy. Fortunately for her, Doctor Sun opened his mouth. "I"ve been told that healing people is a good deed that counts towards the healer"s credit in the next world, but I"ve lost all my credit in the past two years."

Gu Shenwei wasn"t satisfied with the story, and continued to press for more with his questions. "The Waning Moon Hall didn"t use any drugs to control you?"

"Is the Dragon King referring to the Blood Coagulation Pill? I secretly created an antidote a long time ago. Well, that isn"t something very difficult for me. "

"And then? Where have you been hiding?"

"Where else can I hide? I have no family in the Royal Court and have killed more people than I"ve saved. So I could only go to Tenth Gongzi. Thank Heaven, she still remembered this lousy old man and I have also to thank you for injuring the Master Commander. The Waning Moon Hall was thrown into confusion for two days and they didn"t have any time to look for me."

The Dragon King had still been in a coma at that time. Shangguan Ru felt that it was not safe to hide Doctor Sun in her camp so she had secretly delivered him to the camp of the Court Attendants Army and then moved him twice more after that. They had finally came here last night."

"Is he what Wild Horse is trying to woo you for?" asked Gu Shenwei. This was not quite the situation he had expected. After being influenced by Han Fen, he had thought that Wild Horse"s purpose was to win over the Court Attendants Army.

""An innocent man gets into trouble because of his wealth." I wanted to forget about everything related to the Waning Moon Hall but some people think that poison is a treasure," Doctor Sun said as he grabbed his remaining small hair bun and then loosened his hand. Upon seeing that he had lost two more hair strands, he could not help but sigh.

Wild Horse sent someone to the Court Attendants Army to spy and gather information and accidentally discovered the traces of Doctor Sun. Shangguan Ru then moved him to another place. Wild Horse knew that the doctor"s protector was Shangguan Ru and therefore, met and showed goodwill to her.

"It seems that Wild Horse didn"t tell Waning Moon Hall about my whereabouts. A man really can"t ally with a woman. Oh, I"m not talking about you two." Doctor Sun hastily corrected himself.

Shangguan Fei now understood everything. He was firmly on the side of the Dragon King now, so he took a step forward and said, "So the divine doctor has become a noxious bug. You are really ungrateful, asking my sister to save your life while forcing her to keep it a secret from the Dragon King. Don"t you know that my sister… never keeps secrets from the Dragon King?"

Doctor Sun looked at the Dragon King with a rare look of embarra.s.sment. "It"s not that I"m paranoid. You are the Dragon King and a ruler, so I was afraid…"

"You are afraid that I"d be interested in the poison of Waning Moon Hall like Wild Horse."

Doctor Sun chuckled. That was exactly why he had not wanted to ask the Dragon King for help. "But Tenth Gongzi repeatedly a.s.sured me that you wouldn"t force me to do anything, and that you wouldn"t be interested in poison."

"She"s wrong. Of course I"m interested in the poison of Waning Moon Hall."

As soon as this remark was made, Doctor Sun and Shangguan Ru were shocked but Shangguan Fei nodded admiringly.

"When you were with Lotus, you clearly had a chance…" Shangguan Ru blushed.

Gu Shenwei interrupted her brusquely. "The Waning Moon Hall is good at using poison and so of course I"m interested in their poison. Doctor Sun, you are unwilling to kill but are you willing to save people?"

Doctor Sun let out a long breath. "No problem. I"m going to regain my lost credit. As long as the people who were poisoned by Waning Moon Hall are not dead, I can heal them."

Shangguan Fei curled his mouth contemptuously. "You can"t even cure Red Bat. What"s there to brag about?"

Doctor Sun"s sore point was touched and his face also turned red. "Different, it"s different. The poison in her…"

Red Bat immediately defended him, "I was actually drugged by the knockout drugs of the Land of Fragrance. The divine doctor hasn"t seen them before, but he said that he would figure out a way sooner or later."

"Of course there"s a way." Doctor Sun proudly smoothed his remaining spa.r.s.e hair. "The dao of poison is actually a branch of medicine. The methods used may vary, but the principle is the same. I"m sure that I can think of a way."

"Congratulations, Red Bat. When you have children and grandchildren, you might have your internal energy back again." Shangguan Fei had no ill feelings towards Doctor Sun but he had been heavily influenced by Old Man Mu these past days and had developed a habit of finding arguments and hurting others" feelings whenever he could.

The few of them argued back and forth, but Shangguan Ru didn"t speak up. She stared at the Dragon King, silently questioning why he had embarra.s.sed her in public.

Not to be outdone, Gu Shenwei stared right back. It might not matter to other people if Shangguan Ru kept a secret from them, but to him, it was a taboo. A small punishment could already be considered a special favor.

The two silently stared at each other.

Tired of explaining his skills to Shangguan Fei, Doctor Sun swung his hand angrily, suddenly walked up to the Dragon King, and reached out to grab his arm.

Gu Shenwei casually waved his hand and knocked Doctor Sun, who was not weak in martial arts, several steps away, nearly knocking down the simple tent in the process.

"You, you…" Astounded, Doctor Sun pointed at the Dragon King and almost forgot to get up.

Shangguan Fei pulled him up. "Old Sun, you"ve really have some nerves. Can the Dragon King be touched casually? You are lucky he didn"t kill you. Why don"t you show your grat.i.tude?"

Doctor Sun was confused for a moment as he did not understand who the strange name "Old Sun" was referring to.

Gu Shenwei expressed his apology first, "I was overreacting. Please do not mind, Doctor Sun. And if you feel a chill in your body, do not fight it. Just protect your heart meridian, and it will disappear soon enough."

Doctor Sun looked at the Dragon King in amazement and forgot all about his own embarra.s.sed appearance. "It doesn"t matter. The Dragon King should remain vigilant. I can"t sleep at all at the thought of Waning Moon Hall. In fact, I wanted to feel the pulse of the Dragon King. To tell you the truth, I"m a little surprised that you are still so alive and well."

The truth was that Gu Shenwei didn"t fully trusted Doctor Sun yet, but he still stuck out his left arm. "Please."

Doctor Sun tried to put his finger on the Dragon King"s wrist and gradually forgot about the threat of the Waning Moon Hall, but his brow quickly furrowed. After a while, he checked the pulse of the Dragon King"s right wrist and finally patted the other side"s chest several times.

"What the h.e.l.l? You are using your body as a battlefield, aren"t you?" At the mention of his illness, Doctor Sun"s old temper returned. "You used to only have two different internal energy: one yin, and the other yang. But now it"s a complete mess. Not only do you practice two completely different internal energy cultivation methods, but you also forcefully combined the two. Besides, you developed an evil Qi in your body and let it rampage in your body."

"Is it dangerous?" asked Shangguan Ru with concern, forgetting about her discontent for the time being.

"I don"t know." Doctor Sun spread out his hands. "The Dragon King is here to embarra.s.s me. I clearly remember that the last two times I saw you, your illness was tricky but still within my grasp. But now, I can"t make heads or tails of it at all."

Gu Shenwei didn"t care. He hadn"t expected Doctor Sun to heal his internal injury in the first place. "It"s good news to be unable to make a judgment," he said.

Doctor Sun shook his head. "Do not get excited yet. There"s something that I haven"t said yet…"

Long Fanyun who had been guarding outside came in, interrupting the divine doctor"s "bad news." "Someone"s coming."

Doctor Sun shivered and first looked Shangguan Ru in horror and then turned his eyes to the Dragon King.