Lu Zheng returned home at the third quarter of the Hai hour. By then, most of the street crowds had dispersed, but the flower lanterns still glowed brightly, dispelling the cold night breeze and heralding the coming spring.
Glancing next door, he saw the Liu household had already extinguished their lights for the night. He slipped back to the modern world to check messages, washed up, then returned to the ancient era to sleep.
Moonlight flowed like water, the moment as fleeting as a dream.
Peach blossom shadows danced, a beauty standing before him.
“Lu Lang~”
Lu Zheng blinked, finding himself suddenly in Shen Ying’s boudoir.
“Lu Lang, it’s the Lantern Festival. I’ve prepared wine and lit red candles. Would you honour me with your company for a chat?”
Shen Ying’s voice carried a hint of grievance; Lu Zheng hadn’t visited her in half a month.
Lu Zheng gave an awkward smile. Due to the matter with the Southern Border sorcerer, he had stayed indoors for ten days.
Now that ten days had passed, he guessed the sorcerer had either been caught by the Anomaly Suppression Division or had fled to another region.
So…
Lu Zheng replied decisively, “My apologies for keeping you waiting, my lady. I’m on my way.”
…
The next morning, just as Lu Zheng rose, a county office officer arrived, requesting his presence to meet Lord Duan from Yizhou’s Anomaly Suppression Division.
At the county office, in the rear hall.
“Lord Duan!”
“Young Master Lu!”
Duan Changzai, dressed in black as always, was sipping tea in the hall.
Lu Zheng took a seat, smiling. “Lord Duan, are you in charge of Tonglin County?”
Duan Changzai laughed heartily. “By chance, I was investigating nearby yesterday. This morning, upon entering the city, Constable Liu told me about the incident, so I invited you for a chat.”
Lu Zheng’s eyes flickered. “Investigating?”
Duan Changzai nodded. “You should know about it. It was Daoist Yuanjing who reported to the Anomaly Suppression Division, information you helped uncover.”
Lu Zheng nodded solemnly. “Indeed, we learned it from two minor demons.”
Pausing, he hesitated. “Has the Division not caught him yet?”
Duan Changzai shook his head. “He blends in perfectly with ordinary folk in appearance and behaviour. Unless he reveals his aura or acts, it’s hard to find him unless we meet face-to-face.
We’ve searched demon lairs around nearby counties and found a few that had contact with him.
But he’s skilled in the Painted Skin Technique, never showing his true face. He’s cunning.”
“Painted Skin Technique…”
Duan Changzai nodded, his expression grim. “We examined those human skins. They belonged to citizens who went missing in the Great Jing borderlands over the past two months.”
Lu Zheng grimaced.
Duan Changzai waved, and several portraits appeared on the table.
“I’ve had Constable Liu distribute these portraits for investigation in the county. Take a look, Young Master Lu. If you encounter them, act immediately.”
“Hiss—”
Duan Changzai’s words were bold, but Lu Zheng didn’t dare comply.
Act immediately, only to be taken out?
Noticing Lu Zheng’s hesitation, Duan Changzai reassured him. “Don’t worry. These Southern Border sorcerers are like rats in the fields. Their spells seem strange, but most are flashy without substance. With your dual cultivation of Dao and martial arts, you’re no weaker than him.”
Lu Zheng thought of the “White Bamboo Curse” he had learned, suspecting the sorcerer’s spells might indeed be as Duan described.
However, the forces dominating the Southern Border, blocking the Central Plains’ advance and halting even the Great Jing Dynasty, wouldn’t have core strength as weak as Duan suggested.
A sorcerer sneaking into Great Jing was unlikely a high-ranking figure but certainly not a low-level pawn either. Someone who could negotiate with century-old demons and make promises likely had at least a century of cultivation.
Lu Zheng took the portraits, flipping through them. Four faces, two men and two women, all utterly unremarkable, the kind you’d forget after seeing on the street. This showed the sorcerer’s experience.
With matters settled, Duan Changzai stood, and they walked to the county office entrance. Two officers waited, each with a horse. One was empty; the other carried the middle-aged man from last night, the one who used the Beast Creation Technique to abduct children.
Lu Zheng glanced at him. The man flinched, shrinking back and averting his gaze.
Duan Changzai mounted his horse, nodded to the county office staff, bowed to Lu Zheng, then took the reins of the other horse and rode off.
…
Watching Duan Changzai leave, Lu Zheng sighed and headed slowly toward Renxin Hall.
Along the way, he scanned his surroundings. After seeing those portraits, every unfamiliar face now seemed like the Southern Border sorcerer.
Hopeless…
Just as he reached the door and turned to enter, a man hurried from the side, carrying an elderly man who looked dazed on his back.
Lu Zheng raised an eyebrow, paused, and stepped aside.
“Thank you, sir!” The man nodded repeatedly, bowing as he passed, carrying the old man into the clinic.
Lu Zheng’s eyes narrowed, watching the man’s back for a moment before moving.
The next moment, a woman hurried past, brushing by Lu Zheng, stirring a light breeze.
As Lu Zheng turned to enter, they lightly bumped into each other.
The woman glanced back, meeting Lu Zheng’s eyes.
Her appearance was plain, with crow’s feet at her eyes and noticeable nasolabial folds. Though her features were decent, years of labour had aged her face.
Perhaps embarrassed by Lu Zheng’s stare, she gave a shy smile, looked away, and entered Renxin Hall.
Lu Zheng exhaled slowly, blinked, and followed.
Inside Renxin Hall, Lu Zheng noticed few patients today.
It made sense. Tonglin County wasn’t a major hub, with only a few tens of thousands of people. Most locals endured minor ailments, so the clinic rarely saw many patients.
The man was at the entrance, helping the old man sit, wiping drool from his mouth with his sleeve.
Lu Zheng nodded. A filial son.
The woman sat quietly behind the man, glancing around, watching him and the old man while twisting a silk scarf in her hands, her fingers fidgeting, seeming… anxious?
Passing them, Lu Zheng noticed an elderly woman ahead of the man, her face full of sorrow. Dressed in tattered clothes, she held a dazed-looking boy with one hand and a bamboo basket with a dozen eggs and some wild greens in the other.
Lu Zheng glanced at the boy, instantly recognising him as a case of what modern medicine called Down syndrome, a genetic condition, untreatable. In the modern world, it was screened out prenatally and terminated.
In the Great Jing Dynasty…
Perhaps extracting the soul could bypass the body’s limitations?
…
“Lu Lang!”
Seeing Lu Zheng, Liu Qingyan’s face lit up, though she didn’t rise, continuing to take a patient’s pulse.
“You’re busy. I’ll help.”
Lu Zheng waved to Old Man Liu, washed his hands with soapberry at the corner basin, sat at another station, and beckoned to the patients. “Come over. I can see you here.”
Several patients, aware of Lu Zheng’s skill and with minor ailments, approached his desk.
But Lu Zheng noticed the man with the old man, the woman alone, and the elderly woman with the boy didn’t come.
Instead, a few patients ahead of them left the queue.
Lu Zheng looked away, calming himself not to be paranoid. With so many new faces, they couldn’t all be enemies. Perhaps they came for his reputation?
Meanwhile, his hands didn’t stop, already on a patient’s wrist.
After checking the pulse, Lu Zheng frowned, blinked, and looked at the plump, white hand. “Switch hands.”
The other hand was equally plump.
Taking the pulse again, Lu Zheng looked up, puzzled, at the chubby, thirty-something man who clearly lived well. He asked gently, “Feeling weak, eyes red, body hot, sleepless at night, no appetite?”
“Exactly! The doctor nailed it!”
The wealthy man nodded eagerly, astonished. “I just took my seventh concubine, loving her day and night. Am I overexerted?
But I’ve been careful, taking ginseng, deer antler, tiger penis, seafood, goji berries, never stopping.”
Countless sharp gazes turned his way, but the man was oblivious, anxiously watching Lu Zheng, fearing bad news.
Lu Zheng sighed, clenched his fist, took a deep breath, and smiled. “If you increase those tonics by thirty percent…”
“That’s enough?” The man was slightly surprised, thinking he’d overestimated his stamina.
Indeed, a man must treat himself well, take more tonics, and avoid regrets in old age.
Lu Zheng kept smiling. “You’ll be so over-tonified you’ll die. When your family holds the funeral, invite me. I’ll light incense for you.”
The man’s jaw dropped, his face turning green, while the clinic erupted in cheerful laughter.
“Over-tonified?”
“Reduce the tonics by seventy percent, exercise more, and limit intimacy to every other day!” Lu Zheng teased. “Aren’t you afraid of dying on your wife’s belly, letting another man sleep with your women and beat your kids?”
Even Liu Qingyan chuckled, and the clinic’s patients roared with laughter.
“Hahaha—”
After sending off the green-tinged wealthy man, Lu Zheng smoothly diagnosed and prescribed for the next few patients.
All minor ailments, easily handled.
When he finished with his patients, he noticed Liu Qingyan had reached the elderly woman with the boy.
