Chapter 205 — A Tree Full of Yellow Pears

Shen Mu sorted out his medicinal materials and compounded the medicines. He kept Old Master Huo's arm and the Lame Elder's leg nourished with medicine, then went to the storehouse of the Imperial Academy and bought some Southern Wilds gu powder.

This gu powder was called Vermilion Countenance Gu, and it consisted of worms so unimaginably tiny that a single one placed before the eyes could not be seen by the naked eye — only the Heaven's Eye could perceive them.

Once dried in the sun, the worms turned to powder, and upon meeting blood they came back to life.

He asked Old Master Huo and the Lame Elder each for a little fresh blood, and dissolved the gu powder in it. Nourished by the blood, those unimaginably tiny worms revived, so that the two cups of blood seemed to possess lives of their own.

Old Master Huo and the Lame Elder peered into the cups. Both had extraordinary eyesight, and could naturally make out the worms in the blood. In the two cups the gu worms numbered in the tens of thousands, densely packed — a truly frightening sight.

The Lame Elder said with a placating smile, "Shen'er, you mean to use these worms to treat our hand and leg? What kind of worm is this? Is it harmful?"

Of all the villagers, if one spoke of the fierce and the terrifying, of those who could scare a little girl to tears, the Butcher could rank only second. First place went to the Alchemist, who loved to keep flowers, plants, and little insects.

The Alchemist's face was frightening, and his insects still more so. The Lame Elder, accustomed as he was to stealing, had rifled through every room in the village — even Shen Mu's candied hawthorns had been wheedled out of him several times over — yet he would not touch a single thing in the Alchemist's room.

Shen Mu had studied medicine under the Alchemist and knew a good deal about such insects. Seeing the worms in the two cups, the Lame Elder could not help feeling uneasy, as though some ill-meaning rascal were out to do him harm.

"Rest easy, Grandpa Lame. The Vermilion Countenance Gu is one of the gu arts of the Five Miao of the Southern Wilds. It does little harm to the body."

Shen Mu infused the two cups of blood into the vessels of Old Master Huo's arm and the Lame Elder's leg respectively, planting the Vermilion Countenance Gu within them. "The reason this gu is called Vermilion Countenance Gu is that certain sects in the Southern Wilds have their women use it to preserve their looks, to keep eternal youth — so that even in death they remain as lifelike as if living."

"Lifelike even in death..." The Lame Elder shuddered, certain the Vermilion Countenance Gu was nothing good.

Shen Mu laid his leg and Old Master Huo's arm in the medicinal cauldron, in which he had already refined a full cauldron of medicinal broth. "These gu worms can devour the dead blood in the blood, the dead skin upon the skin, the torn mucous membranes and muscle fibers in the flesh, the shattered bone within the bones, the dead marrow in the marrow. That is why those who take the Vermilion Countenance Gu keep the appearance of their youth until the very moment they die of old age. Grandpa Alchemist said he once had several fair confidantes who kept this gu in their bodies; they still looked sixteen or seventeen, and were very firm. Grandpa Alchemist said he liked firm girls very much..."

The youth lifted his head, musing. "What does 'firm girls' mean?"

The Lame Elder said, "You are still young. Do not think about such messy things. Can I use it?"

Shen Mu took out a seed from among the imperial palace's spirit medicines, lifted a brick in the main hall, and revealed soil beneath it like jade. "Of course you can. But this gu has one drawback: if the gu worms grow hungry, they will eat healthy flesh and blood. So those who take the worms must feed them fresh blood every day. And as time passes, more and more Vermilion Countenance Gu accumulate within the body, and the fresh blood they must be fed each day grows greater and greater."

He opened the Taotie Bag and took out some water from Jade Dragon Lake, pouring it on. "Grandpa Alchemist said that in the land of the Five Miao there are often ravishing women who seduce strong young men. After the pleasure, the man is left with nothing but a husk, having died a romantic's death, every drop of his essence and blood drained dry — for those women had gathered all his blood to feed their Vermilion Countenance Gu."

The Lame Elder shuddered.

After Shen Mu watered it, the mound of soil swelled, and a tender sprout pushed up out of the earth, growing taller and taller, rising at a speed visible to the naked eye.

The youth circulated the Profound Body Three Cinnabar Art, walking ceaselessly around the little sapling in the main hall, unleashing the Creation Earth-Origin Art from the Great Nurturing Dark Demon Scripture. With a hand seal that shifted unpredictably, he pressed it toward the little sapling; his palm and his leaping fingers had scarcely touched the sapling's leaves before they sprang away again.

When the sapling's branches and leaves were touched by his palm or his fingers, they gave off a ding-dong sound, like the notes of a zither — a lovely melody rising through the main hall.

Shen Mu's steps wove in confusion as he used the Creation Earth-Origin Art to hasten the little tree. When it had grown to the height of a man and more, it began to put forth buds, tender green leaves one after another.

Then flower buds emerged one after another, and the flowers opened — a whole tree of snow-white pear blossoms.

"The Vermilion Countenance Gu has a poor reputation. When I went to the Academy storehouse to buy this just now, the Director there even asked me what I meant to use it for. That Director said that some of the wives and daughters of the princes and ministers in the capital are fond of this thing, and certain noble consorts in the palace as well. So the Imperial Medical Office improved the worms, so that these Vermilion Countenance Gu can no longer reproduce on their own."

Shen Mu's feet did not stop, nor did his hands; his hand seals shifted like Guanyin plucking at her fingers, and each pluck gave out a dong, like a pebble dropping into a still lake.

The pear blossoms on the tree withered, and a whole tree of green pears grew — dainty things, only the size of a finger.

But under the shifting of his hand seals, the green pears gradually swelled.

"Physician You also made an Insect-Expelling Pill to kill the gu worms. When the Vermilion Countenance Gu endangers the body, one can take the Insect-Expelling Pill to slay the gu and expel it from the body."

Shen Mu shifted the Creation Art and pressed on with ripening the green pears; the pears on the tree had already grown to the size of a fist. "Just now I had the Director of the storehouse fetch me one Insect-Expelling Pill, and I examined it. This Insect-Expelling Pill uses only ordinary medicinal materials, yet it sells for an exorbitant price — a single one costs more than Imperial Preceptor Jingping earns in a month. That Director said Physician You became the richest of all the imperial physicians by means of this miraculous pill, rolling in wealth!"

The Lame Elder's eyes lit up. "Physician You? Rolling in wealth?"

The pears on the tree turned yellow, giving off a fruity fragrance.

Shen Mu picked several and tossed them to Old Master Huo and the Lame Elder. The two elders each tasted one, their mouths full of fragrance, and could not help exclaiming in praise.

"What sorcery is this, little miracle doctor, conjuring up these pears?" said Old Master Huo.

Shen Mu flushed. "Do not tease me, Grandpa Huo. This is the Creation Earth-Origin Art from the Great Nurturing Dark Demon Scripture that Granny passed down to me."

"The Creation Earth-Origin Art?"