Chapter 9: 008 江南五怪

The room was empty. He was certain Xiao Luo was not in there. From the adjacent medicinal herb room came the crackling sound of burning. Startled, he rushed over in a few frantic strides. Ignoring the raging flames that had already broken out, he burst into the herb room, shouting Xiao Luo's name, but the only answers to him were the sounds of the fire and the whistling wind outside.

"Xiao Luo! Xiao Luo!" He returned to the courtyard, calling out for her in desperation. He had never been this anxious for her before. Had she been taken away by those people?

"Senior Brother, I'm here! I'm here!" Huddled in the little medicinal狸 (raccoon dog) nest, Xiao Luo had answered Feng Yun countless times in her heart, but Feng Yun could not hear her inner voice; he continued to search and call for her as if driven mad.

Perhaps because the little medicinal狸 had been with Xiao Luo for a long time, it had developed some level of human-like intuition. Just as Feng Yun was about to head down the mountain to pursue them, the little medicinal狸 suddenly darted out of its nest.

"Who's there!" It was the sound of the little medicinal狸 that caused Feng Yun to snap his head around. Seeing the little creature squeaking incessantly, a thought struck him. He lowered his gaze slightly and saw Xiao Luo, unable to move, lying in the little medicinal狸's nest.

Seeing Xiao Luo covered in tears but otherwise unharmed, Feng Yun's heart, which had been in his throat, suddenly dropped, replaced by a sense of joy as if he had recovered something lost.

It turned out that not everyone had left him. There was still her; she was still here!

"Xiao Luo!" He lifted Xiao Luo out of the nest and reached out to unblock her acupoints. Thank heavens, she was unscathed.

"Senior Brother!" Having witnessed the exact moment her Master passed from life to death, Xiao Luo truly felt the impermanence of life and the chaos of this ancient era. She realized that in this ancient world, people could be killed at will. A deep sense of terror enveloped her; she clung tightly to Feng Yun and wept uncontrollably, her trembling body making it clear how terrified she was.

"Xiao Luo, it's alright, it's alright!" Feng Yun knew her acupoints must have been pressed by her Master, and he knew she had surely witnessed her Master's final moments. He patted her shoulder gently, comforting her in a soft voice.

Master was gone, and his kin had left him one by one. Yet, at this moment, holding her in his arms, he felt as if he were holding his only remaining relative.

A heavy rain suddenly began to fall from the sky, but the two were completely unaware, quietly embracing in the rain as if they would never see each other again if they let go.

The fire was extinguished by the rain, and their house had mostly burned down. The little medicinal狸 suddenly began to bark erratically in unease. Feng Yun's ears twitched; something unusual seemed to be approaching from the distance.

His heart tightened, and he whispered, "Xiao Luo, it seems someone is coming. We have to hide first!" Having said that, he took Xiao Luo's hand with one hand and picked up the already stiffened body of the Poisonous Hand Holy Physician with the other, quietly hiding to the side.

Sure enough, a short while later, five strangely dressed men and women appeared. When they saw the destruction before them and the bloodstains on the ground, they were all taken aback.

A man as thin as a monkey sighed deeply, "It seems we were a step too late. Senior Holy Physician has met with misfortune after all!"

Another man, short as a dwarf, toyed with a hammer in his hand and said indifferently, "Third Brother, his corpse isn't even here. How can you be certain he's dead? Perhaps he caught wind that the Five Monsters of Jiangnan were coming to demand the Crimson-Eyed Pill, so he simply burned his lair and went into hiding!"

"Second Brother is right. Who is this Poisonous Hand Holy Physician? If he were that easy to kill, he would have died long ago instead of hiding here for over a decade to enjoy a life of leisure!" The one who spoke next was a woman in black wearing heavy makeup. She appeared to be in her early thirties and was quite pretty, but her makeup was truly nothing to boast of. Combined with her black attire, she looked like a female demon of the dark night.