Book 14: Chapter 81
Wildfire
Liu Shan Men had been busy in their own office since last night, and they were still busy tonight. The majority of the constables had yet to leave the courtyard where Vermillion Hall was located as they running back and forth between two rooms.
“Hurry, hurry! We’re out of ice, too! Bring all of them in!”
“This is the last bucket of ice! There’s no ice left in the icehouse. This is the bucket we put in just hours ago.”
Zha Pi booted the constable away. “Then go get another one! A life is on the line here! Knock on every wealthy household’s doors and demand some. If they refuse, tell them we’ll be looking into their taxes three times a day! Get going!”
The constable obediently headed off, while Zha Pi entered another room.
“Everything done here, Doctor?”
“It is, Sir. Once his fever comes down, he will be all right.”
Zha Pi flicked up a thumb. “Good stuff. See the doctor out. I will have someone send payment over once I report to the higher ups.”
“No problems. No problems. How about providing free consultations for Liu Shan Men?”
“I admire you! The doctor doesn’t need payment!” Before the doctor could protest, Zha Pi shoved forced two small silver ingots into the doctor’s hands, pushed him out and then entered another room.
Bai Yeshuang wasn’t satisfied with the way Zha Pi ordered the constables around, but it was a fact that he now held the same rank as her, so she couldn’t tell him off.
“Leave it to him. He might not be helpful as a combatant or strategist, but he most certainly is quick on his feet. He can take care of it,” stated Shen Yiren.
“Uhm.” Bai Yeshuang nodded and then cast her gaze to the two rooms. “They…”
Tense, Shen Yiren explained, “Xiao Han got hurt, but he’ll be better in a day or two. He’ll be fine as long as he rests.”
Shen Yiren happened to be at the office when Su Xiao and Tang Ye were brought back on stretchers. She let them in without a word and immediately went to work on nursing them. By the time she heard the detailed reports, it was already night time.
“Are Baihu Su’s injuries minor?”
“The opposite, actually. He took two blows from an internal discipline expert without preparation. Because he was struck so fast that he didn’t have a chance to dodge, there’s no way to determine what discipline it was. Second, it was a sneak attack. Fortunately, Xiao Han’s internal strength is excellent, or he wouldn’t have survived. As long as you don’t succumb to your internal injuries on the spot, there will be a way to heal you.”
Secrets were no longer secrets after Shen Yiren personally checked all of their injuries.
“The biggest problem is the second point that has shut off all fives of Xiao Han’s senses. Even if he can recover, it’s hard to say when he will wake up. Thankfully, someone expelled the damaging qi before it could cause further damage.”
“I did not realise he was in such critical condition. How about Brother Tang…?”
“Mm…” Shen Yiren led Bai Yeshuang into Tang Ye’s room.
All of the furniture had been moved out to make room for a large cylindrical wooden tub. Tang Ye, sitting in the tub with his eyes shut, resembled a ripe tomato. You didn’t even need to go close to feel the heat coming from within, not to mention the steam making the room resemble a hot spring on a mountain.
“Unplug it!” yelled Zha Pi.
A team immediately unplugged the base of the tub from two places to release the hot water inside outdoors. Following that, Tang Ye started grimacing.
“Pour water in and plug it up! Move it!”
Several young constables started plugging the tub, while the other dozen-odd started emptying buckets of well water into the tub. Once Tang Ye’s brows came apart a tad, Zha Pi ordered, “Hurry, ice! Fill it to half!”
Once ice was added, Tang Ye gradually relaxed more and more.
“Once the water is hot, you need to drain the tub, and the other group needs to refill it quick, fast and in a hurry,” instructed Zha Pi.
In less than fifteen minutes, the cold water became hot water you’d find in a hot spring. A while later, steam covered the entire room.
“All right, the water is about to boil! Go!”
The constables repeated the process again, except they didn’t add ice this time.
Zha Pi heaved a big breath. “We added water too slowly. Two groups have gone to fetch water. Have them come over as soon as they’re done. Everyone not busy can wait in the courtyard. The water needs to be replaced timely.”
It had become routine for Zha Pi since he’d been repeating himself for the last day more times than he could care to remember.
Ever since he was brought back, Tang Ye’s body temperature was bizarrely high, and it was different in that he was akin to iron that had been heated up, so nobody dared to touch his skin directly. Shen Yiren had to wrap him up in layers of cloth and dump him into the tub of water to cool him off. The problem was that the water would roil in no time at all, and Tang Ye would start groaning. In the end, they had no choice but to constantly change the water and add ice to provide him with relief.
They tried moving Tang Ye to the icehouse, only for him to melt the ice around. Since he needed to have a constant supply of ice, their only option was to move him back and then change the water as well as add ice at intervals.
Shen Yiren knew that Tang Ye wasn’t hurt but that he was evolving as a result of martial arts training. For whatever reason, the internal discipline he practiced had created a drastic change. His Yang Blood True Qi rampaged for some reason and gained a scorching hot property. Perhaps it wouldn’t be far-fetched to describe it as a flame beast waiting to break out of its shell and rampage. Nobody could say for sure whether that would upgrade his internal energy dramatically or reduce him to ashes, but he’d definitely perish before they could find out if they didn’t intervene.
Shen Yiren attempted to sooth Tang Ye’s flow of qi, only for its heat to be too much for her to bear for long periods. All they could do was buy him time.
Tang Ye pivoted between falling into a daze and showing aggression. Whenever he’d occasionally open his eyes, he’d scare the young constables onto their bottoms.
Shen Yiren was extremely familiar with the phenomenon since she got intimate with it when she had one foot in a coffin. She’d witnessed internal energy improving an unreasonable degree in a short period. She’d also witnessed true qi and characters going wild. She saw all of them in Huzhou; she saw Luo Ming exhibit all those things.