Fields of Gold

At this time, the injured old man had just woken up. He was lying on the ground and just happened to see the scene of the white-clothed Su Ran descending from the sky. He was shocked, thinking that he had seen an immortal. 

‘Oh my! They all say that there are immortals in the deep mountain. I actually met one!’ Xu Ziyi’s eyes were wide open, and his mouth formed an ‘O’ shape. 

Su Ran landed lightly on the ground, and when he noticed his line of sight, he looked at him indifferently. With this glance, he not only frowned, but he also stepped forward and stared at the old man’s wrinkled face for a long time. 

Xu Ziyi swallowed his saliva nervously. When he made eye contact with the questioning eyes of the ‘immortal in white’, he couldn’t help but sigh, ‘Immortals are indeed immortals. All of my disguises are useless in the other party’s keen eyes.’    

Just as this thought crossed his mind, something flashed past his eyes and he felt a sudden pain on his face. The words ‘sure enough’ appeared within Xu Ziyi’s mind. 

“Wow! It’s the legendary human skin mask!!” A voice that was as crisp as an oriole coming out of a valley sounded above his head, and then a face as delicate as a fairy’s appeared in front of him. Wow! It was indeed true that the immortals and fairies in the mountains lived together harmoniously ah! 

Yu Xiaocao was both surprised and curious in her heart. She took the mask that was as thin as a cicada’s wings in Su Ran’s hands. The texture of the lines on the skin was very apparent, and even the long, white beard seemed to have grown out naturally from the mask. No wonder that she didn’t notice anything despite examining his injuries for so long. 

“Sir Su, how did you know that his face was fake?” Yu Xiaocao examined the mask over and over again, but still didn’t see any flaws. 

Before Su Ran could reply, Zhu Junyang had interjected, “Even for twins, everyone’s face shape, facial bones and facial muscles can’t be exactly the same. No matter how delicately-made the masks are, it’s still hard to perfectly fit the skin. However, this mask can be regarded as the product of a master craftsman. If I hadn’t noticed that the skin on his body was different from his face when I was applying medicine on him earlier, I would have really been fooled!” 

“So you also noticed that there was something wrong with him ah!” Yu Xiaocao curiously tried to put the mask on her own face. 

Zhu Junyang didn’t want the lass to have close contact with something that another man had worn, so he hastily scared her, “In order to be delicate and realistic, many human skin masks are peeled off directly from the faces of living people, and then processed…” 

“Whoa—sh*t!” Yu Xiaocao was disgusted by his description. She immediately threw the mask in her hands away, as if it was a hot potato. Su Ran caught it with his empty hand. 

“Skinning people alive! This guy is definitely a bad guy. Didn’t all the good medicine that I just gave him ended up being fed to a dog?” Yu Xiaocao wiped her hands, which just held the mask, on the back of Zhu Junyang’s black clothes. If there was water nearby, she would certainly rush over to wash her hands until a layer of skin fell off! 

“Hey! Before the court convicts someone, he must be brought to trial first! You guys are just making up an unjust and fake case!” Xu Ziyi propped himself up with one hand and slowly sat up from the ground while he covered his injured ribs with his other hand. 

He checked his own pulse and felt as if there was something repairing him. He found that his internal injury, which was quite serious, seemed to be 30% healed. Then he looked at the wound on his arm. The small scratches had already formed scabs and the bigger wounds had already stopped bleeding… 

Xu Ziyi had a somewhat eccentric personality, but after hearing their conversation just now, there was no way that he hadn’t realized that he was just imagining things. How could there be immortals and fairies? They were just experts with deceptive looks. Ahem, of course, the so-called experts that he mentioned also included the young maiden with an innocent expression. 

But, according to her words, were his injuries healed by her medicine? Also, although the technique wasn’t very professional, the broken bone on his leg had indeed been straightened and secured with two wooden sticks. However, he wouldn’t complain too much about her technique. He was mostly curious about what kind of medicine the young girl used. It was actually even more effective than the medicine made personally by his grandfather, who was the master of Medicine King Valley. 

Xu Ziyi hadn’t expected that during the brief moment he was in a daze, he would be accused of the evil crime of ‘skinning people alive’. What a joke! He was the dignified heir of Medicine King Valley who was known respectfully as ‘Divine Physician’ in the jianghu and a genius in making medicine and medical studies. There was no way that he was going to accept this false accusation. 

“There’s solid evidence here, so what more can you say?” Yu Xiaocao pointed at the mask in Su Ran’s hands with a look of disgust. She didn’t want to touch it at all. The apparent look in her eyes made it seem like he was a heinous person, which made Xu Ziyi so angry that he was about to spit out blood.   

Xu Ziyi gently rubbed his chest, which felt painfully stuffy. Just as he was about to say something, he felt a sudden surge in his chest and spitted out a mouthful of fishy liquid, leaving dark red marks on the ground. The stuffy feeling in his chest had disappeared and his whole body had relaxed much more. However, he pointed at the blood that he spit out in a frivolous manner and accusingly complained to the innocent-looking girl, “Look! I spat out blood because of you. How are you going to compensate me?” 

Yu Xiaocao curled up his lips, tsked, and said, “Are you trying to fool a child? That’s clearly the extravasated blood from your internal injury. This proves that the medicine that I just gave you has worked! As a doctor, you don’t even understand this. Are you a ‘quack’?” 

The young master of Medicine King Valley, who was ranked within the top three in terms of medical skills, was actually called a ‘quack’ by a young girl. Xu Ziyi didn’t know whether he should be angry or amused! 

“Young lass, when I started studying medicine, you were still drinking milk in your mother’s arms!” He took in a deep breath and became even more convinced that the medicine that he took when he was unconscious was a sacred product of medicine. He couldn’t help but ask, “Lass, what medicine did you give me earlier? Do you have anymore? Can you show me?” 

“Why should I tell a bad guy like you? You still haven’t honestly explained the matter of the human skin mask!” Like an angry kitten, Yu Xiaocao glared at the handsome young man with her big almond-shaped eyes. ‘This annoying guy, who’s still drinking milk in her mother’s arms? You’re not much older than this maiden, okay?’ 

If Xu Ziyi knew her inner thoughts, he would definitely be amused and annoyed. He didn’t know whether it was a good thing or a bad thing to have a baby face. He was almost thirty years old, yet he still looked like a beardless young man who was too immature to handle important matters. Hence, when he went out to see patients, he had to wear a mask and pretend to be mysterious. He hadn’t expected that this mask would cause such trouble for him! 

“Does a human skin mask have to be made with human skin? Can you have some common sense?” Xu Ziyi glared at the handsome man in black, who had an indifferent expression on his face and was acting as if nothing had happened. His troubles were all caused by this guy’s slanderous words! 

Yu Xiaocao had a ‘stop making excuses’ expression on her face as she said, “If it’s not made with human skin, then why is it called ‘human skin mask’? Say it! Do you guys also make human skin lanterns…and so on!” Yu Xiaocao got goosebumps from her own words. She couldn’t help but rub her own arms and move closer to Zhu Junyang. 

“Little lass, aren’t your imaginations too wild? This isn’t some ghost story, so why would I need a human skin lantern?” Xu Ziyi was dumbfounded. It was true that ‘a tiger who went down the mountains would be bullied by dogs’. As the respectable ‘Divine Physician’, who wouldn’t give him some face in the jianghu? Now he was being questioned unreasonably again and again by a young girl. Who did he offend ah? 

Yu Xiaocao blinked her big eyes several times and said with rich imaginations, “Who knows what you’re going to do with a human skin lantern? Evil organizations like yours do all sorts of bad things. You people purposely do things that are ridiculous and harmful to others!” 

“I’m being wronged ah! What great injustice ah! How come I didn’t know that Medicine King Valley had turned into an evil sect that specializes in doing bad things?” Xu Ziyi felt like a scholar who had met a soldier——they couldn’t communicate with each other. 

“Medicine King Valley? You’re really backed by a jianghu sect?” With a ‘you’ve been caught by me’ expression on her face, Yu Xiaocao excitedly said, “Is Medicine King Valley the kind of sect that specializes in making all kinds of poisonous and malicious drugs? For example, the ‘Bone Dispersion Powder’ that can turn people into a puddle of dead water when exposed to one’s skin, or the ‘Aging in a Flick of the Fingers’ that makes people grow old instantly. Another example is the colorless and tasteless ‘Seven-step Heartbreak Powder’, which can kill people in seven steps. There’s also the ‘Crazy Laughter’ that causes people to laugh until they die…” 

Hearing the young girl’s nonsensical words, Zhu Junyang and Su Ran looked at her with a gaze full of helplessness, shock, and powerlessness. 

Xu Ziyi, on the other hand, looked very excited and acted crazy with her, “The ‘Bone Dispersion Powder’ you mentioned sounds very vicious. Quickly tell me, what happened? Did you see someone using the ‘Bone Dispersion Powder’? Also, that ‘Aging in a Flick of the Fingers’, is there an antidote for it? If there is, can you give me one so that I don’t have to cover my face with a mask everyday…” 

“Don’t act funny with me! Stop trying to change the topic!! Right now, we’re interrogating you about this human skin mask. Why are you talking about all these irrelevant things?!” As soon as Yu Xiaocao heard the word ‘mask’, she immediately continued to interrogate him in a serious manner, “Say it! Which pitiful old man’s face did you peel off to get this human skin mask?” 

Xu Ziyi rolled his eyes at the sky. Who was the one who changed the topic? After drawing out his curiosity, the lass shifted back to the topic of ‘human skin masks’. This caused his curious heart to be suspended in midair, which felt very uncomfortable. 

“This mask was made from the silk of the silkworms raised in Medicine King Valley. It’s breathable and realistic. The beard on the mask is from a goat’s beard. It can’t be said that there are no such things as peeling off human skins to make masks in the jianghu, but our Medicine King Valley has always been proud and confident in our status. We won’t do such cruel things…aiya! It’s useless to tell you, noble young masters and maiden, the matters of the jianghu! I don’t care if you guys believe me or not!” Xu Ziyi expressed his helplessness and had a ‘go-for-broke’ expression on his face.