Unparalleled medical and martial arts skills, saving the CEO's fiancée at the start.

Ye Chen's mind went blank for a moment, as if he had been hit on the head with a stone shard dug out of an ancient tomb.

He stared wide-eyed at the young woman before him, who had just tried to slit his throat with a knife but was now taking off her veil, revealing a stunningly beautiful and aloof appearance.

The woman in black said her name was Ayiguli, that she came from the Western Regions, and that Su Youdao was her adoptive father.

Ye Chen, the sixteenth-generation disciple of Medicine King Valley, believed he had seen many strange and unusual things in the world, but the absurdity of tonight's incident was definitely in the top three.

Ye Chen sat on the ground, not even bothering to brush the dust off his clothes, his voice full of doubt: "Beautiful lady, are you really my martial uncle's adopted daughter? My martial uncle was... How old are you? You look like you're only in your early twenties. Twenty years ago you were only..."

"You don't need to worry about my age." Aygul glanced at the wound on her left shoulder, then walked to the middle of the ridge, bent down to pick up the short knife that had fallen to the ground, and put it back into the scabbard at her waist.

The entire set of movements was as smooth as flowing water, and there was no sign of a shoulder injury: "My adoptive father was with me before he passed away. I was an orphan he found in the Western Regions. He raised me and taught me swordsmanship and lightness skills. However, I never went down the mountain, and no one in the martial arts world knew of my existence."

Ye Chen listened with some skepticism, but seeing her exquisite swordsmanship and lightness skill just now, he did feel a strange sense of familiarity with this routine.

The martial arts of Medicine King Valley are never passed on to outsiders. Apart from the disciples in the valley, only someone like her martial uncle Su Youdao can teach her.

Although her swordsmanship was sharp and ruthless, her footwork was somewhat similar to the Ghost Shadow Footwork. The light and elusive feeling when she changed direction was a characteristic of the Medicine King Valley's movement techniques.

"You just said you were entrusted to retrieve the token. Who entrusted you?" Ye Chen stood up from the ground, dusted himself off, and his nonchalant expression mostly disappeared.

Now that the other party has revealed her identity, the most important thing to do is to find out her real purpose for coming here tonight.

Aygul didn't answer immediately. Instead, she took out a small item wrapped in black cloth from her inner pocket and tossed it to Ye Chen.

Ye Chen reached out and caught it. When he opened it, he saw that it was a jade pendant about half the size of his palm, almost exactly the same as the jade pendant of his martial uncle in his arms, except that there was a tiny "Ancient" character engraved in the corner on the back.

"This is a keepsake left to me by my adoptive father." Aygul's voice lowered, but every word clearly reached Ye Chen's ears.

"My adoptive father told me to go down the mountain at the right time and find the successor of Medicine King Valley. I have been searching for many years and learned that you came to the provincial capital, so I followed you all the way here. I originally wanted to find you directly, but I was not sure about your strength, so I chose to test you first."

Aygul never expected that Ye Chen's Breaking Palm technique had reached this level; even her swordsmanship could only match Ye Chen's.

Aygul never expected that Ye Chen would actually obtain her adoptive father's Medicine King Valley token.

Ye Chen looked at the character "Ancient" on the jade pendant, then at the aloof and cold woman in front of him, and was overwhelmed with mixed feelings.

His martial uncle, Su Youdao, disappeared in the provincial capital twenty years ago, and everyone in the martial arts world thought he was dead.

According to Aygul, Su Youdao did not die in the provincial capital, but instead wandered to the Western Regions.

My martial uncle found an orphan there, raised her, taught her martial arts, and eventually passed on all his skills to her before passing away a few years ago.

"How exactly did my uncle die? What happened twenty years ago? Why didn't he return to Medicine King Valley? Why didn't he look for my master?" Ye Chen walked quickly to Ayiguli, his voice urgent, as if he wanted to pour out all the questions he had had for the past twenty years.

Aygul gently covered the wound on her left shoulder, took a few steps back, and a hint of vigilance and instinctive resistance flashed in her eyes.

But when she saw Ye Chen's anxious, almost frantic appearance, she slowly relaxed and whispered, "My adoptive father said that he was seriously injured in the provincial capital and only survived by being forcibly kept alive with medicine. He lay in a dilapidated temple for more than a month, thinking that he was going to die. Later, he was rescued by a passing merchant from the Western Regions. The merchant took him back to the Western Regions and treated him with local herbs for more than half a year before he slowly regained his mobility. But he refused to go back to Medicine King Valley. He said he was ashamed to see your master again."

"Shameless? My master searched for him for twenty years, how can he say he's shameless?"

Aygul's voice was even lower, each word sounding as if it were soaked in frost: "My adoptive father felt that he was responsible for Jiang Yuanshan's death. He underestimated the power of the Qingyun Chamber of Commerce and dragged Jiang Yuanshan into that vortex. After Jiang Yuanshan's death, he lived in self-blame and pain, feeling that he had let down his best brother and your master's trust."

Ye Chen fell silent.

He recalled what Wu Qingyuan had said: "Your uncle's eyes were red when he said this. I've known him for so long, and this is the first time I've ever seen him shed tears."

Twenty years later, Ayiguli recounted the exact same scene, only this time, Su Youdao was not drunk; he soberly carried this pain into the yellow earth.

"What about that jade pendant? Did my uncle tell you the real secret of that jade pendant?" Ye Chen asked in a low voice.

Aygul nodded, shifting her gaze from Ye Chen's face to the distant mountains and the faint outline of the city visible under the moonlight. "My adoptive father said that the jade pendant is the key to unlocking something deep within Dragon Hidden Mountain. The rubbing was divided into three parts, one of which is hidden in this mountain. Only the jade pendant can open the hiding place, but he left before he could tell me exactly where it was hidden. He only told me those eight words: 'Dragon hidden in the city, jade appearing in the sky.' He told me to find you and bring you this sentence, saying that you have a way to decipher it."

Ye Chen's heart skipped a beat.

Uncle Su Youdao clearly calculated the timing and foresaw that he would meet Ayiguli sooner or later.

"I came to Dragon Hidden Mountain tonight to find the answer to this mystery." Ye Chen turned around and looked at the Dragon Suppressing Pagoda standing quietly under the moonlight at the end of the mountain ridge.

The ancients believed that the right time and place were essential for storing things, and Ye Chen thought that since he was already there, he might as well go up and take a look.

"Your injury..." She glanced at Ye Chen's right hand.

"It's just a minor injury." Ye Chen grinned, took out a small porcelain bottle from his pocket, poured some medicine powder into his right palm, rubbed it a few times with practiced ease, and then handed the bottle to Ayiguli.

"The Breaking Palm is different from the Blood Fiend Palm. It doesn't injure tendons and bones, but the force of that palm strike has affected your Jianjing acupoint. If it's not treated, you won't be able to use your arm for three days. This is a medicine powder to promote blood circulation. Apply it externally, once in the morning and once in the evening. Sprinkle it around the Jianjing acupoint and gently massage until it feels warm."

Aygul took the porcelain bottle, her fingers paused slightly, and without saying thank you, she simply nodded gently.

She put the porcelain bottle into her bosom and turned to walk towards Dragon Head Peak.

After taking two steps, she turned back to look at Ye Chen again. Her voice was as cold as ever, but the edges of her tone had softened considerably: "Keep up. You have a fatal bad habit in your gait. I'll help you correct it when you walk."

Ye Chen paused for a moment, then laughed and strode after her: "Niece, I don't know if your temper is like your adoptive father's when he was young, but it's really like your aunt Su Qinghan, my master."

"Who is your niece?" Aygul's pace quickened noticeably.

"In terms of seniority, my uncle's adopted daughter is indeed my junior sister," Ye Chen corrected seriously.

Ye Chen continued, "Moreover, my master is your adoptive father's senior sister, according to the rules of Medicine King Valley..."

"Shut up."

"Okay."