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

When the car arrived at the foot of Yaowang Valley, it was already the morning of the second day.

The rain lessened, becoming as fine as mist sifted down from the sky.

Ye Chen carried Mei Changjin for a while, and then Song Tiezhu and Han Song took turns carrying him, finally getting him up into the valley.

Su Qinghan had already received the news and was waiting at the mountain gate with Da Huang.

Seeing Mei Changjin being carried up the mountain, she only glanced at Ye Chen, asked nothing, and turned to walk inside: "Put the person in the east wing, boil water, prepare medicine, go and dig up that half of the old black vine on the back mountain, making sure the roots are intact, and then go to the cellar to get the Yangyuan wine that I sealed three months ago."

Ye Chen responded and turned to go to the back mountain.

Jiang Ruoxi wanted to go with him, but Su Qinghan said, "You stay and help out; I need someone more attentive."

Jiang Ruoxi then stayed.

Together with Su Qinghan, she cut open Mei Changjin's clothes and used warm water to gently wipe away the mud and scabs on his body.

Mei Changjin was so thin he was unrecognizable; his ribs were clearly visible, and the wound on his ankle had turned into a ring of blackish-purple rotting flesh.

Su Qinghan pressed that spot with her hand, her expression was calm, but her brows furrowed slightly.

She took out a tiny silver knife, heated it over a fire, and while cleaning the wound, said to Jiang Ruoxi, "This injury has been delayed for too many years. If it weren't for the foundation of Medicine King Valley within him, and the suppression of decay by the coldness of the blue flame, this leg would have been gone long ago. Are you afraid of seeing blood?"

Jiang Ruoxi shook her head, simply handing her the clean gauze and medicine bowl with steady movements.

Ye Chen returned with the black vines, his hands covered in mud.

He washed the vine roots clean, mashed them into a paste as Su Qinghan instructed, mixed them with Yangyuan wine, and then simmered them over a low flame.

The aroma of medicine wafted from the east wing all the way into the courtyard. Even Big Yellow squatted at the door and wouldn't move, its tail gently brushing against the threshold.

Su Qinghan applied medicine to Mei Changjin and sealed his acupoints before letting Ye Chen go in.

Mei Changjin was half asleep, half awake, calling out a name intermittently: Hanyan.

Jiang Ruoxi turned her head away and forcefully blinked back the tears welling up in her eyes.

Su Qinghan placed his hand on Mei Changjin's wrist and said after a moment, "His body is exhausted, but his roots are still there. He can get out of bed after three months of proper care. If he wants to engage in martial arts, it will take at least half a year. He understands that himself."

Ye Chen said, "There's no rush to make him use force. The reason we came back is to keep him alive first. If he's alive, then Blackwater's twenty years of planning will have been in vain."

Su Qinghan glanced at him and suddenly said, "Wen Jiuhong won't give you three months, he won't even give you three more. Wuyi Ferry, the old sugar factory, Longyin Mountain, he's been pushing you step by step from the shadows into the light. Haven't you realized it yet? He wants you to have nowhere to hide and to face him head-on. And when you face him head-on, he has a knife in his hand, and you have attachments. No matter how you look at it, you won't gain any advantage."

Ye Chen didn't speak.

He knew his master was right.

Wen Jiuhong was neither as brave and ruthless as Wei Qing, nor as quick to seek revenge as Qin Wuyi.

He's like a very long game of chess, calculating far ahead for every move.

Ye Chen's only chance of winning is to see through the game's secrets before Wen Jiuhong does.

But what's the trump card?

Longxin Ancient Cave?

The Heavenly Physician's Creation Secret?

Or are they old items belonging to Jiang Ruoxi's mother?

Or perhaps, all Wen Jiuhong wanted from beginning to end was Ye Chen himself.

Jiang Ruoxi came out from the inner room and saw Ye Chen standing under the corridor in a daze. She walked over and handed him a bowl of hot tea.

Ye Chen took the hand and said, "Aren't you tired? Look, you have blisters on your hands."

Jiang Ruoxi said, "I'm not tired. The hemostasis method your master taught me is even more practical than the one Guli taught me."

Ye Chen smiled and gently touched her face: "After this is over, you might as well become my master's godmother, and you can take over all the medicinal herb business in Medicine King Valley from now on."

Jiang Ruoxi rolled her eyes at him: "What time is it? Stop being so sarcastic."

But the corners of his mouth did twitch slightly upwards.

A faint sunset glow rose over the mountains, bathing the entire medicinal herb field and rows of old houses in a warm orange hue.

Ye Chen walked alone to the highest slope behind the valley and looked north.

That's the direction of Jiangcheng and the provincial capital, and also the direction from which Wen Jiuhong most likely came.

He knew that it wouldn't be long before that man, as still as a deep pool, would set off on this mountain road with his shadow and his knife.

He couldn't leave the battlefield to Medicine King Valley, and he couldn't let Su Qinghan and Jiang Ruoxi sink into this pool with him.

He had to go down the mountain before Wen Jiuhong came up and set up the battlefield in the place he had chosen.

But he also knew that Jiang Ruoxi wouldn't agree to let him go alone.

This woman has built her company to where it is today thanks to her incredibly stubborn nature.

Ye Chen glanced back and saw Jiang Ruoxi and Ayiguli drying gauze in the yard.

The wind blew her half-dry hair, revealing her perfectly clean forehead.

Ye Chen suddenly felt that being able to look at her like this was an incredible stroke of luck.

Ye Chen turned around and walked back to her. He said seriously, "Ruoxi, tomorrow you will come with me to move my uncle to that warm cave in the back mountain. Master said that the earth energy there is the strongest and can help him get rid of the cold poison. Then you will come down the mountain with me."

Jiang Ruoxi looked up: "Ye Chen, what are we going to do?"

Ye Chen said, "Wife, let's go see someone together, someone who might be able to help us deal with Wen Jiuhong."

Jiang Ruoxi didn't ask who it was, but simply nodded and replied, "Okay, let's go together."

That night, Ye Chen went to see his master, Su Qinghan.

The two talked in the medicine hut until very late.

The medicine hut was filled with the bitter smell of herbs. Master Su Qinghan was using a small scale to prepare the medicine, pinching it bit by bit, with great concentration.

Ye Chen recounted the story of Wu Ying's nighttime infiltration of the old sugar factory: "I always felt that Wu Ying wasn't Wen Jiuhong's weapon. Every time he appeared, it was as if he deliberately left an opening, only to turn things upside down. Mei Changjin said there were some old knife marks on the wall, not recently made. If Wu Ying could have gotten in there a long time ago, why didn't he kill him to cover it up? Why didn't he report it? If Wen Jiuhong really wanted to kill me, he had too many opportunities. It's more like he used me as bait, fishing for the path my father didn't finish walking."

Su Qinghan paused, then looked up at him: "Good disciple, you guessed it?"

Ye Chen said, "Master, I guessed it, but I don't dare to believe it, so I'm going to go down the mountain to ask someone. You once said that my father had a brother who risked his life for him and had been hiding in the south ever since. If I remember correctly, that person is in a small county town downstream of Wuyi Ferry."

"Then take the initiative to search and bravely move forward!"

"But Master, I don't know much about him. I'll need you to provide more information."

Su Qinghan stared at Ye Chen for a long time before taking a deep breath and slowly saying, "His name is Shen Shanhe. Your father used to call him Shanhe Old Ghost. When you see him, don't call him by the wrong name. Also, bring enough incense and candles from the foot of the mountain. He is like your father; he is afraid of seeing people cry."

Ye Chen nodded, feeling as if a tiny lamp in his heart had been lit by the wind.