Snow filled the skies like flower petals. A slender silhouette struggled along the roads of the imperial palace outside of the flying fish pavilion at the same time the orange prince and the emperor began their never-before-seen big bitch-fight.
"Big Brother Ming… hang in there."
Su Xiao was carrying Ming Feizhen who weighed much more than him. His kitten-like body looked like it was going to be crushed under his weight at any moment, yet he walked on with determination, continuing to put one foot in front of the other through the snow as he headed towards the imperial medical office.
Su Xiao kept mumbling: "Let's go and see the doctor, the best doctor… You'll be alright."
Su Xiao wasn't aware of what was happening on the imperial platform where the emperor originally was, nor did he care. He was just an ordinary participant in the imperial martial arts tournament. If he won, great, if he lost, so be it. Su Xiao didn't mind winning or losing too much. But he never expected Ming Feizhen to lose, and to lose so tragically.
Su Xiao saw Ming Feizhen get sent flying with a palm strike with his own eyes. That person's strength was like that of a titan. A single palm strike sent someone as tall as Ming Feizhen flying in a straight line through the air and crashing into the palace wall like a cannonball.
Ming Feizhen's body was curled up like a prawn appearing as though all his joints were broken.
Su Xiao's heart almost stopped beating. When he saw the scene, he ignored everything, tossed the imperial martial arts tournament into the back of his mind and brought Ming Feizhen out of the flying fish pavilion.
Su Xiao was sniffling with his handsome white nose.
"I… I'm not crying. There's nothing to cry about. They were lying. I don't believe them."
Su Xiao's Big Brother Ming was now unable to stand up after being wounded with that heavy palm strike. According to the palm style experts at the venue's observations, they remarked that the power of his palm strikes were ferocious, and his skills were also a rare-find and miraculous. Ming Feizhen got struck in seventeen places and his meridians got hit as well. Plus, he took a hit to the chest. He wasn't going to make it past tonight even if he was fortunate.
It's not that Su Xiao never asked anyone, but the people he asked all gave the same response. All ten of the ten people he asked said that there was no saving him.
Su Xiao said to himself: "That means that all ten of them were wrong!" He carried Ming Feizhen in his arms and trudged to the imperial medical office with great difficulty.
It was fortunate that Su Xiao had practiced martial arts from a young age so he possessed a strong physique, otherwise someone as tall as Ming Feizhen would've crushed him. But even so, he was fatigued and covered in sweat nonetheless. Besides the smell of herbs and the sort being more prominent there, the imperial medical office was also different to all the other places in the palace. Having worked in the imperial city recently, Su Xiao was somewhat familiar with some of the rules.
Su Xiao looked into the courtyard and shouted: "May I ask if there is anyone there? I have an injured person with me! I have an injured person with me!"
After a while of shouting, he saw the door creak open. An elder looking around sixty stepped out from inside. He was skinny, had a small nose, small eyes and was relatively comical-looking. He had an old medical book in his hand. He wore Western glasses and looked like an educated elderly.
He scanned Su Xiao for a long time before finally saying: "What are you shouting for? What are you bringing a patient here to me for? This place is the medicine warehouse. The doctors at the imperial medical office are the ones in charge of treating patients. Where are you from lass? I was just about to enter the herb garden to harvest this year's new ripe shiny snow-whites. It becomes usable upon meeting with snow. I cannot be late."
"I-Is this not the imperial medical office?" Su Xiao was more anxious than he already was now. He had walked for so long, so how could this place not be the imperial medical office? Big Brother Ming won't last. Noticing that the elder was holding what looked like a medical book as well as having heard him mention going to the herb garden to get herbs, and the mention of high-grade herbs, he came to a conclusion. If he doesn't understand medicine, how could he collect herbs?
And so Su Xiao asked with a ray of hope: "May I ask who you are…?"
The elder closed the door behind him and headed to the herb garden. Only after taking a few steps did he answer: "My surname is Dai, I am an academician at the imperial medical office, and work part-time as an envoy for the medicine warehouse…… You can call me Imperial Doctor Dai. What's the matter? Do you have a problem?"
I knew he was a doctor! Su Xiao wore his joy on his face: "Yes, yes, yes. Imperial Doctor Dai, my brother has been injured. Please take a look at him."
Imperial Doctor Dai stopped in his tracks but kept silent. He looked at Su Xiao and then at Ming Feizhen. He sighed: "Sigh, you're still young and yet you're babbling nonsense. What a pity that an unparalleled beauty's brain is dysfunctional."
Once he was done speaking, he continued walking toward the herb garden.
Su Xiao chased after him like an ant that stepped onto a hot pot and asked: "Wh-What did you say? What is a pity?"
"You asked me to take a look at him, yes or no? I've taken a look already."
"But you have not even checked his pulse……"
"Check his pulse? Heh." Imperial Doctor Dai chuckled apathetically as if he was mocking him: "Why do I need to check his pulse? I can just use my ears to listen and eyes to see. That is adequate."
"What do you mean doctor? I don't understand! Please hurry and help me……"
"Relax, relax. Why are you so impatient? Let me explain to you. I was born with exceptional hearing. I can hear one's pulse within a ten-foot range." The doctor shook his head and continued: "Judging from this person's physique and pulse, he's full of vigour, and in fact healthier than anyone, young and free of ailments, and could possibly live over a hundred years old. If he looks after himself, he would still be full of vigour after turning one-hundred. As a matter of fact, he might be just as physically healthy as when he was young too. But, I presume he likes fighting and got into a fight with someone."
Su Xiao nodded as he listened. His anger crept up in his chest as well. As he was frantically nodding, he said: "Yes, that's right. Big Brother Ming was beaten up by someone."
"That's strange. The person that wounded him possesses incredible strength you wouldn't often find. And what was he thinking to let himself get hit with one, two, three, four… eh, seventeen palm strikes? Does he think he's a deity? He's got injuries at seventeen meridian points, and even let himself get hit with a palm strike to his RN17 meridian point on his chest. As a matter of fact, it's completely obliterated. He's just a vegetable that's barely breathing right now, and yet you're taking him to see a doctor? If you're not brain-dead, why would you take a dead person to the medical office?"
Su Xiao's heart froze up at what the doctor told him: "C-Could you please at least check his pulse?"
"Lass, stop wasting your time and effort. My ability to read a pulse is superior to everyone else."
Su Xiao angrily exclaimed: "I'm not a girl!"
Imperial Doctor Dai sighed again: "And yet you claim to not be brain-dead. Sigh, what a pity."
"Please take a look at him, hey! Don't go! Please take a look at him."
The doctor waved his hand: "Don't waste my time." He headed off to the herb garden and closed the fence behind him. Su Xiao carried Ming Feizhen who was stuck outside the fence and watched the doctor vanish into the distance.
Su Xiao clenched his teeth, and grabbed his sabre-handle in reverse. The ancient cold sabre struck, making four slashes, thereby reducing the fence to pieces.
As a scholar, Imperial Doctor Dai had never seen anyone dare to swing a sabre in the palace, so he couldn't help but panic: "Wh-What are you doing?"
Su Xiao looked at his fearful look and got even angrier. He kicked upwards, sending Imperial Doctor Dai into the air.
"Check his pulse!"
His angry voice carried a tinge of sobs: "Otherwise… otherwise… I… I… just check his pulse!"
"Hey lass, he's clearly already… alright, alright, alright. I'll take a look. Let me up."
Imperial Doctor Dai stood up from the mud and patted the dirt off him. He then grumbled: "I was just peacefully sitting at home and yet I still managed to run into a……" He didn't dare to finish his sentence because he was afraid Su Xiao would hit him again.
Su Xiao placed Ming Feizhen on a bench. Imperial Doctor Dai picked up Ming Feizhen's hand to check his pulse and find anything different. His pulse was still like a dead person. Well, he was a dead person.
Suddenly, a group of people dressed in all-black, completely unlike clothing in the palace, charged through the door. When Imperial Doctor Dai noticed their murderous aura, he hid behind Ming Feizhen.
Their leader said in a deep voice: "Liu Shan Men's Su Xiao, is Ming Feizhen here?"
"That's right. I'm Su Xiao. Big Brother Ming is here too."
"His majesty, the orange prince has orders. No participants from the imperial martial arts tournament are to leave the flying fish pavilion on their own accord. Come back there with me now."
"The orange prince's orders? It's not his highness's orders then. And who are you?" Su Xiao frowned: "I don't even know you."
"From now on, there will only be the orange prince's orders. There will be no more orders from the emperor." The man chuckled coldly and continued: "And my surname is Zhong, my first name is Yi. Remember it."
As soon as he finished speaking, Zhong Yi charged inside. When he came in, it was like a gust of wind entered. Su Xiao's martial arts skills and Zhong Yi's skills are worlds apart. Su Xiao didn't even see what Zhong Yi did. All he felt was a hot sensation on his neck before passing out without being able to react in time.
After seeing Su Xiao's appearance clearly, he grabbed Su Xiao around his slender waist and pulled him in. He noticed how his hips, long legs, and beautiful face surpassed every other woman he had seen before. Wait, no. It's a guy. A guy?!
Zhong Yi couldn't resist the need to check with his hand. He pinched Su Xiao's behind, and Su Xiao's butt clearly satisfied him enough to put a joyous smile to his face.
"What a beauty. How about serving his majesty and letting me have a go? That sounds great to me, hahahaha."
He continued laughing. Just as he was about to grab another body part on Su Xiao's body with his hands, he suddenly heard a voice from inside the herb garden.
"You don't have to go that far if it's just a death-wish that you have."
It soft was a soft voice. Very, very soft. However, Zhong Yi's arms, legs, and the rest of his body began to stiffen up, immobilising him entirely.
The corpse named "Ming Feizhen" had spoken out. Not only had he spoken, he had slowly began to move.
Ming Feizhen slowly stood up from the bench and spoke. His words were like a magic spell. Once picked up by the ear, his limbs felt weak and wouldn't listen to his commands.
"I was forced to keep my eyes shut to suppress my murderous intent in order to avoid hurting those around me. But some damned people who deserve to die had to come here. Would you consider this a coincidence?"
He opened his eyes, and his eyeballs looked completely blood-red. There was very little white visible. Whatever his eyes looked at became virtually blood-red in his eyes. It was like his eyes were balls of red-glass.
Humans shouldn't have eyes like that. Nobody in the history of mankind has had such terrifying eyes before.
Those that got caught in those blood-red demon eyes became immobilised.
Nobody. Nobody could see how he moved.
But by the time they returned to their senses, Su Xiao was no longer in Zhong Yi's arms.
They followed the man's movements within their minds with terror until his voice itself pierced the terror, inducing even more terror
The owner of those terrifying eyes calmly asked: "Who hit the kid just now?"