Elder Longmei retracted his hand the moment he heard it was poisonous, stepping back twice.
“Little brat, how did you know this skull is toxic?” Elder Longmei asked.
“Didn’t you notice? This skull is black, while a normal person’s skull turns white after death,” Ye Qiu replied.
Elder Longmei took a closer look, and indeed, the skull resembled charcoal.
“Most Taoist priests are skilled in some medicine and pathology. Old man, you didn’t even notice the skull was poisoned?” Ye Qiu’s words carried a hint of mockery.
“Nonsense!” Elder Longmei said sternly, “I’m the grandmaster of Longhu Mountain—how could I not recognize poison?”
“I saw it long ago.”
“The reason I reached for it was to test your reaction, and the fact is, you’re observant, spotting the poison, which pleases me greatly.”
Elder Longmei continued, “In these wild mountains, you should be cautious about everything. Shuisheng, you ought to learn from Ye Qiu on this.”
“Mm,” Shuisheng nodded.
Ye Qiu rolled his eyes, inwardly cursing Elder Longmei for his shamelessness.
“Dr. Ye, I stepped on it earlier—will I get poisoned?” Shuisheng asked, his face pale.
“No worries, you’re not poisoned,” Ye Qiu said, picking up a stick from the ground and using it to brush aside the leaves around the skull.
Soon, a full skeleton came into view.
The entire skeleton was pitch black.
“Huh, what kind of poison could turn all the bones like this?” Ye Qiu squinted, puzzled, crouching to examine it closely.
“Dr. Ye, let’s go—this skeleton’s creepy,” Shuisheng, timid by nature, said fearfully.
Elder Longmei didn’t want to waste time either, eager to reach Dalong Mountain. “Little brat, it’s just a skeleton—what’s there to see? Let’s move!”
Yet Ye Qiu stayed put, still staring at the bones.
Three minutes later, Elder Longmei, growing impatient, snapped, “Little brat, you’ve been gawking at that skeleton forever—what’ve you figured out?”
“The deceased was male, aged roughly thirty to thirty-five, died about ninety years ago.”
“Cause of death: poisoning.”
“This poison’s new to me, likely from some ferocious beast.”
Ferocious beast?
Shuisheng’s neck shrank as he glanced around, terrified the beast Ye Qiu mentioned might be nearby.
Elder Longmei asked, “You’re saying this man was attacked by a venomous beast before he died?”
“Mm,” Ye Qiu nodded.
“Any idea what beast?” Elder Longmei pressed.
Ye Qiu shook his head, “No clue, but judging by the bite marks, it’s probably small.”
“Bite marks?”
Elder Longmei hurried over, squatting to see the skeleton covered top to bottom in tiny, dense bite marks.
They were fine, like rat teeth.
Ye Qiu explained, “Human bones are protected by flesh and skin, yet this beast left such deep marks on the bone—its teeth must be razor-sharp.”
“Sharp teeth, small size, highly toxic—what beast could it be?” Elder Longmei mused.
“I know,” Shuisheng piped up.
Ye Qiu and Elder Longmei turned to him simultaneously.
“What do you know?” Elder Longmei asked, wide-eyed.
“Uncle Master, the beast you’re describing—it’s a dog,” Shuisheng said. “There are big dogs, medium dogs, small dogs—obviously, a small one killed this guy.”
“I heard once that the smaller the dog, the sharper its teeth and the nastier its temper.”
“Didn’t you just say he died of poison? Dogs have poison too—rabies…”
“Shut your trap!” Elder Longmei’s forehead veins bulged as he glared at Shuisheng, barking, “Should’ve never brought you out—embarrassing me like this.”
“Uncle Master, did I get it wrong?” Shuisheng asked, genuinely confused.
Wrong or not, don’t you have any self-awareness?
Elder Longmei was too furious to speak.
Ye Qiu chuckled, “Shuisheng, you’re clever—read more books when you can.”
“Uh…” Shuisheng scratched his head, sheepish. “Books give me headaches and fevers.”
Headaches, sure—plenty of kids feel that way, Ye Qiu thought.
Fevers, though…
He glanced at Shuisheng, thinking, Can’t you come up with a better excuse?
But Elder Longmei sighed beside him, “He’s not lying about that. He really does get headaches and fevers from reading.”
“As a kid, I thought he was faking, so once I forced him to read for half an hour.”
“Turned out he spiked a fever to forty-one degrees—nearly died, scared the hell out of me.”
“Took him to a doctor later, who said it’s a rare, incurable condition.”
“This kid—no knack for martial arts, can’t study—I’m at my wit’s end!”
Ye Qiu was taken aback—Shuisheng wasn’t kidding. He comforted Elder Longmei, “Don’t worry, Shuisheng’s a born sage—he’ll make something of himself.”
“Little brat, why do I feel like you’re mocking me?”
“I am mocking you.”
Elder Longmei: “…”
“Shuisheng, I’m a doctor—when we’ve got time, I’ll treat you,” Ye Qiu said, then warned them, “The Ten Thousand Great Mountains are strange. I’ve got a hunch we’ll face more danger—stay sharp.”
The trio resumed descending.
Elder Longmei, badly injured, leaned on Shuisheng over rough terrain, so a mere five hundred meters took over twenty minutes.
At the base, the scenery shifted to a flat grassy clearing with a pond in the center.
They approached the pond.
It was small, forty or fifty square meters, clear enough to see the stones at the bottom.
“Such pristine mountains and waters!” Ye Qiu said, noting Elder Longmei’s sweat. “Let’s rest, eat, recharge, then move on.”
“Fine,” Elder Longmei agreed, sitting on the grass.
“Meow~”
A cat’s cry sounded.
Shuisheng turned to see a fluffy black cat perched on a nearby rock.
It was tiny, bowl-sized, covered in thick fur like a Garfield, looking lazy and a bit dopey.
“So cute,” Shuisheng said, stepping over to pet its head. But just then, the black cat opened its mouth, revealing two sharp fangs…
