Facing the unscrupulous pharmacist's strong recommendation, Yan Shouyi remained unmoved.
This was a matter of male dignity, and he absolutely could not yield!
He looked at Long Feicheng and posed the ultimate question: "Is this the renowned physician you mentioned?"
Long Feicheng was embarrassed and replied, "How could I have known that my master always had me fetch that kind of medicine before..."
Yan Shouyi sighed, realizing he had come to the wrong place today.
The pharmacist, overhearing their conversation, seemed to guess their purpose. He cheerfully slung an arm around Long Feicheng's shoulder and chuckled,
"Little Long, your master and I are both wanderers of the jianghu. While your master is in the divination trade, I deal in the skin trade. But no matter which trade you're in, if you truly lack skill, who would dare to venture out?"
His implication was that they shouldn't look down upon his humble pharmacy or himself, the pharmacist.
Long Feicheng quickly offered the pharmacist a cigarette as a gesture of apology. He then explained, "Old Jin, we're not here to buy that kind of medicine today. Besides, I'm in my prime and don't need your wares for now. If I did, I'd definitely support your business enthusiastically!"
Old Jin grabbed a moldy toothpick from the pharmacy counter, picked at his stained teeth, and said,
"That depends on what medicine you're looking for. If even my Huichun Hall can't find the herbs you need, then the entire Rongcheng is probably out of luck!"
Yan Shouyi, with a "let's give it a try" mindset, listed some medicinal names: "Cornus officinalis, processed Achyranthes bidentata, processed Schisandra chinensis..."
The first few herbs were relatively easy to find, but the latter ones were increasingly rare. Long Feicheng had never even heard of them.
Old Jin listened intently, taking notes in a small book as if it were a serious matter.
After Yan Shouyi finished listing the ingredients, he asked, "Can you get these?"
"Hmph, what did you think I was? Just these?" Old Jin sneered dismissively. "I have them in my herb garden. Follow me, and I'll get them for you!"
He actually had them??
Yan Shouyi was quite surprised, as he hadn't held out much hope.
Seeing Old Jin's confident and dismissive demeanor, Yan Shouyi didn't doubt him. Old Jin asked the owner of the adjacent shoe store to mind his shop, and then led the two to his herb garden.
The herb garden was located at the foot of a nearby mountain. After about ten minutes of walking, they saw it from a distance. There was a small, dilapidated house within the garden, and dried herbs hung outside.
Judging by the size of the garden, Yan Shouyi found it hard to believe that the precious herbs he needed would be kept here.
Old Jin pushed open the fence of the herb garden and strode in, pointing to the small house. "It's inside. Follow me."
As they pushed open the door to the small house, dust rained down. Yan Shouyi and the others covered their noses. Long Feicheng couldn't help but quip, "Old Jin, how long has it been since anyone came here?"
"Heh heh, in this wilderness, even dogs wouldn't want to relieve themselves here. It's just the two of you."
The small house had no windows and was pitch-black inside. Old Jin rummaged around within, and after a moment, called out, "Found them! Come in quickly!"
Yan Shouyi vaguely felt something was amiss, but he was the first to enter.
To his surprise, as soon as he stepped into the house, his foot hit a trap. He was immediately bound by ropes at the legs and hung upside down from the rafters!
Old Jin, holding a rusty sickle, emerged from the darkness, his face grim as he looked at Yan Shouyi.
Long Feicheng turned pale with fright. He hadn't expected the pharmacist he frequented to be running a black shop.
What was going on now? Kidnapping? Extortion? Or was he just killing for pleasure??
Old Jin shouted at Long Feicheng, "Little Long, this has nothing to do with you. If you're smart, stay away and pretend you didn't see what happened today!"
How could Long Feicheng abandon Yan Shouyi like this? He was counting on learning skills from Yan Shouyi to get rich in the future.
He asked Yan Shouyi, "What's going on, Brother Yan? Do you and Old Jin have some kind of grudge?"
Yan Shouyi, suspended in the air, was also perplexed. He didn't know Old Jin at all, so where would any grudges come from?
All he knew was that the sickle in Old Jin's hand posed a great threat to him. If things went wrong, he might really lose his life today.
So, he silently took out a Taoist talisman from his satchel, ready to summon his Zanpakuto.
"Don't move! Don't think I don't see your little movements. Hand over what you have!"
Old Jin, with his sharp eyes, noticed Yan Shouyi's subtle actions and immediately threatened him with the sickle.
Yan Shouyi sighed and had no choice but to take out the talisman.
The moment Old Jin reached out to take the talisman, Long Feicheng suddenly rushed forward and slammed into Old Jin with his shoulder, knocking him to the ground!
Old Jin fell into a pair of bamboo baskets. Due to his excessive weight, he couldn't get up for a long time. Long Feicheng quickly picked up the fallen sickle and went to rescue Yan Shouyi.
Yan Shouyi also summoned his Zanpakuto, easily cutting the ropes that held him.
"Brother Yan, are you alright?" Long Feicheng asked, supporting Yan Shouyi.
"I'm fine. Seize that Old Jin!"
As Yan Shouyi got up, he saw that Old Jin had vanished from the corner of the small house. They quickly looked outside and saw Old Jin stumbling away, already quite far.
Long Feicheng couldn't help but curse, "Damn Old Jin, I trusted you so much, and you turned out to be so malicious! Don't run! I'll beat you black and blue!"
Despite Old Jin's plumpness, he ran quite fast. Moreover, he was very familiar with the surrounding terrain. He was about to disappear into a small grove.
Yan Shouyi chased him to the edge of the herb garden. He scooped a handful of yellow soil from the ground, placed it in his palm, and drew a spell on the soil with his other hand. With a shout of "Chi!", Old Jin suddenly stepped into empty air. "Ouch!" he cried, rolling down the hillside and tumbling several dozen meters before crashing headfirst into the herb garden fence, finally coming to a halt in a disheveled state.
Old Jin was now covered in bruises and wounds, his clothes and pants torn in countless places, looking like a beggar.
Long Feicheng quickly stepped forward, held the sickle to Old Jin's neck, and demanded, "Old Jin, give us an explanation!"
Old Jin winced in pain but still glared hatefully at Yan Shouyi: "You scoundrel from the Hanshang Sect, you stole our Qihuang Sect's medicinal formulas and still have the nerve to come to me to buy medicine! A mere parvenu making a racket!"
"What Hanshang Sect? What Qihuang Sect? What are you talking about?" Long Feicheng listened, completely bewildered, as if Old Jin were speaking a foreign language.
Yan Shouyi, however, understood some of it. He explained, "The Hanshang Sect and the Qihuang Sect are both ancient medical sects. The Hanshang Sect originated in the Song Dynasty, founded by many renowned physicians of that era. The Qihuang Sect can be traced back to the divine physicians of the ancient Yanhuang period. Their patriarch was Qibo, the great master who wrote 'Suwen,' the foundational work of traditional Chinese medicine."
Old Jin spat a mouthful of phlegm at Yan Shouyi: "You shameless fellow, you still have the audacity to utter our patriarch's name!"
Yan Shouyi, with quick reflexes, dodged Old Jin's "magic attack" and then said with an innocent expression, "But the problem is, I'm not from the Hanshang Sect!"
"How are you not from the Hanshang Sect? The herbs you just listed are clearly the formula for our Qihuang Sect's Tianyuan Juhun Pill. This formula was stolen by someone from your Hanshang Sect seventy years ago. Besides you, who else would know this formula?" Old Jin insisted that Yan Shouyi was from the Hanshang Sect.
Yan Shouyi shook his head, "I'm not sure where the formula came from, but I'm truly not from the Hanshang Sect. I'm not even considered a physician."
"Then what are you?"
"I..." Yan Shouyi replied, "I am a descendant of Lu Ban."
"A descendant of Lu Ban?!"
Old Jin, who had been furious, suddenly calmed down. He froze like an old turtle for a long time before recovering and stammering, "Which descendant of Lu Ban?"
"The one you know, the one you're thinking of right now."
"Heh heh... Heh heh heh! Alas, look at this misunderstanding. It's all a misunderstanding, a big misunderstanding!"
Old Jin's face was filled with embarrassment. He quickly explained, "If you're a descendant of Lu Ban, then everything makes sense. I was too rash just now. Please release me now, and we can talk properly..."
Old Jin couldn't help but talk properly, as the sickle was in Long Feicheng's hand and held to his throat.
He didn't know if the sickle was sharp, but the rust on it carried a magical attack called tetanus. If Long Feicheng accidentally cut his throat, the tetanus vaccine alone would cost Old Jin fifty yuan.
If Old Jin were wealthy, he wouldn't be wearing the same undershirt inside out and right side out.
Long Feicheng looked at Yan Shouyi, who nodded in agreement. Only then did Long Feicheng lower the sickle.
Old Jin sat on the ground with an honest and aggrieved expression, "Actually, my reaction just now was normal. Now, there are very few members of the Qihuang Sect left, and they are scattered all over the world. It was all the work of the Hanshang Sect that led to this. When we see people from the Hanshang Sect, we just want to hack at them... Cough cough, of course, this is a society governed by law, I'm just speaking casually..."
After pouring out his troubles, Old Jin then looked at Yan Shouyi with curiosity,
"You know, it's actually my first time seeing a living descendant of Lu Ban! Rumor has it that your lineage had died out long ago. I didn't expect that, like our Qihuang Sect, you were also biding your time in the common folk!"