Now, Jiang Fei didn’t just possess the supreme Qinggong technique, the Wudang Cloud Ladder; his internal energy had also directly increased by ten years. What’s more, this decade of power was cultivated using a top-tier inner strength manual like the Northern Profound Divine Art. Naturally, as he moved now, he was as swift as lightning and as quick as a gentle breeze.
After the decisive battle on the mountaintop just moments ago, the countless martial artists below, who couldn’t scale the cliffs, had more or less received the news and knew the outcome.
After all, the commotion Jiang Fei and Yagyū Munenori had stirred up was just too great—the clone slashes, the snowflakes, the longsword, the giant dragon. It was hard for the people down below not to know.
Seeing Jiang Fei drift gracefully down, many wanted to go and greet him. Unfortunately, Jiang Fei’s Qinggong was too formidable. Even carrying a woman like Ye Yuanyuan, he appeared ethereal as an immortal. With a few leaps and shifts, he quickly vanished into the swirling snow, and the crowd could no longer make out his figure.
“Your wound is still bleeding? What should we do?” After they had distanced themselves from the crowd, Jiang Fei slowed down and set Ye Yuanyuan down. The two maintained a moderate pace as they headed down the mountain. Ye Yuanyuan had noticed Jiang Fei’s injury from the start, but the time and place hadn’t been right earlier, so she had held back from asking.
Now that they had left the summit and Jiang Fei had won the match, she started to worry.
“It’s nothing, just a minor scratch,” Jiang Fei said with a dismissive smile.
“This is still a minor scratch?” Ye Yuanyuan’s already oversized eyes—so big they’d make anyone with small eyes want to bang their head against a wall—widened further. Frowning, she pulled out her phone and said, “I’ll contact a hospital for you and have someone come pick you up right away.”
Jiang Fei was speechless but amused. He wasn’t stupid, though; he could naturally tell that Ye Yuanyuan was just concerned about him. He said, “Hey, have you forgotten what I do for a living? I’m the president of the Traditional Chinese Medicine Association, the accepted number one TCM holy hand in China. If I got injured and needed to find a doctor, wouldn’t that be a huge joke?”
Ye Yuanyuan was taken aback.
Right. The man beside her was a TCM holy hand, the guy known as the “Acupuncture King” of Chinese medicine. His medical skills were miraculous. Wasn’t the very beginning of their acquaintance because Jiang Fei’s exceptional medical skills led to her ‘inviting’ him to treat her grandfather? Love blinds, she supposed; she had momentarily forgotten.
“But doctors can’t treat themselves. Your wound is this deep. Can you really handle it yourself with TCM?” Ye Yuanyuan asked, still looking worriedly at Jiang Fei’s abdomen.
Munenori’s sword strike was indeed no light matter. Even though Jiang Fei had done his utmost to avoid being cut in two, the wound was still long and deep. If it were an ordinary person suffering such a severe injury, they would have long since collapsed. It was only because of Jiang Fei’s freakish physical fitness and his inner energy that he could hold on.
Jiang Fei didn’t reply verbally. Instead, he silently exchanged for two types of medicine from the system’s pill store.
One was a plaster for external application; the other was a pill for internal consumption. These were, naturally, the Mount Heng Sect’s legendary healing remedies from The Smiling, Proud Wanderer—the “Heavenly Fragrance Mending Paste” and the “White Cloud Bear Gall Pill.” These two, used together, were exceptionally effective healing medicines.
To be honest, no matter how superb Jiang Fei’s medical skills were, even if his level had risen to nine, he couldn’t heal this kind of external wound instantly. After all, no matter how miraculous acupuncture and herbal medicine were, they were better suited for treating internal injuries.
For treating external wounds, especially sword and blade injuries, neither Chinese nor Western medicine could achieve a rapid cure. Only miraculous medicines like these were effective.
Having exchanged for these two healing remedies, Jiang Fei stopped walking. He decided to halt first and staunch the bleeding.
Seeing Jiang Fei take pills of unknown effect, but which emitted a clear fragrance upon smelling and were clearly extraordinary, and then prepare to apply the plaster externally, Ye Yuanyuan wasn’t particularly surprised. It wasn’t strange for this TCM holy hand to carry some healing medicine on him.
“Let me help you.” Ye Yuanyuan reached out, ready to assist.
Jiang Fei waved his hand and said with a smile, “Better not. Do you even know how to apply medicine?”
This woman carried violent tendencies within her; she didn’t possess a single gentle bone in her body. She was a young lady who only knew how to hit people. How could she possibly do a nurse’s job?
Seeing the disdain in Jiang Fei’s eyes, Ye Yuanyuan was absolutely furious. According to her temperament, under these circumstances, she would have immediately turned and left. She couldn’t be bothered anyway. But this time, she surprisingly held back for the first time. Glaring at Jiang Fei, she forcibly snatched the plaster from his hand and said coldly, “Don’t move! Lift your shirt!”
Jiang Fei feigned reluctance: “Is this really appropriate?”
Ye Yuanyuan glared: “You bastard, you’ve looked at my chest God knows how many times, touched it God knows how many times. You’ve taken all the advantage you can. And now you’re playing coy with me?”
Hearing this, Jiang Fei immediately dared not speak and decisively lifted his shirt.
This female hooligan! Who touched her chest? This was slander!
Was that touching her chest to take advantage of her? It was treating her ailment for breast enhancement, alright!
Of course, Jiang Fei could only think such things; he wouldn’t dare say them out loud. Watching Ye Yuanyuan solemnly hold the plaster bottle, carefully and gently preparing to apply it to his wound as if she were going into battle, a strange feeling suddenly arose in Jiang Fei’s heart.
Ever since this woman’s chest had grown, it seemed her entire temperament had started to change a little, hadn’t it?
She seemed to have gained a bit of femininity, capable of doing things a woman should do. Maybe she could still be a little gentle, Jiang Fei silently thought to himself.
And then…
“Ahhh!” The young sword god, who had just dominated the mountaintop, routing the contemporary Japanese sword saint and forcing him to concede defeat, suddenly let out an utterly undignified, wailing scream.
He grabbed Ye Yuanyuan’s hand, making her stop, and asked in frustration, cold sweat streaming down his face, “Are you trying to treat my wound, or are you trying to take the opportunity to murder me!”
Ye Yuanyuan was clearly startled by Jiang Fei’s scream as well. The usually proud and aloof girl now looked up nervously, somewhat weakly asking, “Does it… really hurt that much?”
“What do you think! Can’t you see my wound is bleeding more heavily now? Are you cleaning the wound, or are you adding insult to injury…” Jiang Fei said angrily. But seeing Ye Yuanyuan’s aggrieved expression, he had no choice but to shut up. He sighed helplessly and took the plaster, saying, “Alright, I’ll do it myself.”
If this woman had a gentle bone in her body, that would be a miracle!
Believing this violent girl could be gentle was about as likely as believing a pig could climb a tree.
He briefly cleaned the wound with snow water, then applied the Heavenly Fragrance Mending Paste. Combined with the effects of the White Cloud Bear Gall Pill he had taken, Jiang Fei immediately felt the wound on his abdomen starting to heal. A peculiar energy radiated from the wound, and the bleeding stopped.
The place where Jiang Fei and Ye Yuanyuan had stopped to treat the wound was on a deserted mountain path not far from the Elephant Washing Pool.
And in the Elephant Washing Pool, the two Heavenly Net operatives who had instigated Yagyū Munenori’s journey across the sea to challenge Jiang Fei were precisely lying in ambush here. They hadn’t dared go up to Golden Summit earlier, afraid that their Western faces would stand out too much among the crowd of Eastern martial artists and they’d be recognized. So, although they were very concerned about the battle and whether Jiang Fei had died, they hadn’t risked going up.
“Jiang Fei… won!” The handsome foreigner hung up the phone, muttering in disbelief.
This was information from their lookout, who had just relayed the news from the front of the summit. They knew the outcome as soon as the battle ended.
“How is that possible! Didn’t you say that Japanese number one, the contemporary sword saint, was unmatched in the world, and that even the few special assassins in our organization couldn’t assassinate him? How could this Jiang Fei have defeated him?!” the other tall man demanded angrily.
“How the hell should I know!” The handsome man, his face dark with gloom, suddenly exploded, glaring fiercely at the tall man like an enraged lion.
He was the primary person in charge of this operation. The mission had already cost a huge price. If he ultimately couldn’t complete the task and kill Jiang Fei, he would lose his chance to redeem himself. Even if he didn’t die at Jiang Fei’s hands, he would absolutely be unable to report back successfully to the organization, and the outcome would certainly be death.
So, more than anyone, he had hoped Jiang Fei would die in this duel.
Hearing the news of Jiang Fei’s victory now, his rage was greater than anyone’s.
The tall man was momentarily stunned by the outburst but quickly understood the handsome man’s mood. He asked with a cold sneer, “So, what do we do now? Those assassins you’ve got lying in wait, should we still let them proceed?”
A mad gleam suddenly burst forth in the handsome man’s eyes. He said ferociously, “Of course we proceed! We must proceed!”
“Moths flying into the flame, seeking their own death?” the tall man sneered.
“No! Even though Jiang Fei won today, it wasn’t easy. Yagyū Munenori’s strength is unfathomable; he’s definitely not easy to defeat! Defeating Yagyū Munenori would have come at a cost!” the handsome man said.
“You mean…”
“Right now, Jiang Fei is certainly injured! And coincidentally, he came down the mountain first with that Ye family woman, not with the other Chinese martial arts masters, not with the Lion King of the Seven Kills Group! This… is a godsend opportunity!” As the handsome man spoke, his eyes gleamed with a strange light, filled with desire, as if he could already see Jiang Fei dead.
…
Jiang Fei had finished applying the plaster. Feeling that his wound had more or less healed, he took Ye Yuanyuan’s hand and started down the mountain again.
After walking about half a kilometer, Jiang Fei stopped once more.
Gazing at the undulating cliffs in the distance, Jiang Fei shook his head and muttered to himself in amusement, “Just a couple of small fry. Looks like I was making a mountain out of a molehill. Dealing with these shrimp soldiers and crab generals, I didn’t even need to heal up first…”
