Chapter 252: Two Hundred and Sixty: Buddha Says No, I Say Yes

Two Hundred and Sixty: Buddha Says No, I Say Yes

"Tsk tsk tsk, this kid is finished, there's no saving him. Dumb girl, why don't you find yourself another lover? This one is really about to kick the bucket."

Before a sickbed, an old Daoist turned his head and patted the face of the dazed mute girl with a sincere expression: "Even if the immortals came, they couldn't save him. That's what I, this poor Daoist, say!"

"Heh." The Hu girl in the white fox-fur cloak beside them curled her lips and glanced sideways at the junior sister next to her.

Zhao Qingxiu stood there blankly, saying nothing.

At this moment, it was a sunny afternoon. Inside the Sanhui Courtyard, before Ouyang Rong's sickbed, three people stood.

Zhao Qingxiu, Xue Zhongzhu, and a strange old Daoist.

The old Daoist had crane-white hair and a youthful complexion. Despite the scorching summer heat, he was draped in a crane-feather cloak made of pitch-black feathers, wrapped tightly around his body, revealing only a withered head.

He wore a Hunyuan cap, and beneath it, his silver hair was combed meticulously, clean enough to reflect light. "Hey, dumb girl, why are you staring at this poor Daoist? Do you think these words were taught to me by your senior sister?"

After a long while, Chongxuzi frowned, his expression growing increasingly solemn.

Zhao Qingxiu looked at Xie Lingjiang's disappointed face, paused, and couldn't help but say: "Buddha says no, I say yes!"

"It must be a terminal illness without a doubt. There is likely no medical skill in the world that can cure him..." Catching a glimpse of Xie Lingjiang opening her mouth to tug at her sleeve again, Xue Zhongzhu suddenly flicked her sleeve.

"Go, go, go." Xie Lingjiang shook her head.

Looking at the eccentric old Daoist in the crane-feather cloak, Ouyang Rong frowned slightly. Xie Lingjiang gently tugged on Ouyang Rong's sleeve, pulling him into the outer room.

"..." The crane-feather-cloaked old Daoist gave a dry laugh.

"Are you a fellow Daoist from the Louguan Sect of Mount Longhu?"

Ouyang Rong asked impatiently: "Old senior, what is the situation? How can we wake the senior brother?"

Chongxuzi glanced at them and said nonchalantly: "Monks do not tell lies. Sigh, before today, this poor Daoist still had quite a good impression of the Louguan Sect..."

"Even if you are Yue Chuzi, and even if you are the future 'Yuanjun' of the Yunmeng Sword Marsh, in the end, you will all become worthless, or even be trampled underfoot. This is nothing but a distorted, unequal love."

They drove away Ouyang Rong, Chongxuzi, and the others. "Ah?" The mute girl tilted her head in curiosity.

"Which peak of Mount Gezao are you from? What is your generation name in the Three Mountains Bloodline? I have lived on Mount Gezao for a long time; I might not know all the junior generations, but I am familiar with all the Yuqing Daoists of the elder generation. How is it that you look so unfamiliar? How long has it been since you returned to the mountain?"

Chongxuzi's expression returned to normal, his finger pointing at the ancient Buddhist temple outside the window: "This poor Daoist considers himself unable to do it, but I am certain that even if the Buddha himself came, he would say no to this illness."

"What is your relationship with Sun, the Medicine King of Mount Longhu?"

Yet, this sincerity left Xie Lingjiang, who had been caring for him day and night, stunned like a wooden chicken.

Just a short while ago, Xue Zhongzhu had rushed back to the Sanhui Courtyard with the crane-feather-cloaked old Daoist.

"If you don't understand, don't tell this poor Daoist what to do. Taking a pulse is what common doctors do. Dumb girl, why do you care so much about him?"

"Iya!" Xie Lingjiang nodded without hesitation this time. Zhao Qingxiu turned a deaf ear and continued to drive them away.

Ouyang Rong hurriedly nodded and ran to pour a cup of clear tea for the crane-feather-cloaked old Daoist, who had the temperament of an old urchin, presenting it cautiously.

"Consider that stinky brat lucky." Ouyang Rong glanced over a few more times.

But when getting close to the strange old Daoist, one could not smell any rot, but rather a faint scent of medicine.

"Let's go, go back to Yunmeng Marsh with your senior sister. I haven't finished my chess game with my old cellmate in the water prison. Hurry back, lest that old thing steals my chess pieces. Hmph, don't let me catch him..."

"Please, Daoist."

Ouyang Rong asked curiously: "Senior, Senior Chongxuzi is also a Yuqing Gezao Daoist, from the same sect as you, and his medical skills are superb. Do you know each other?"

"What? You say you gave all these things voluntarily, and when you gave them, you never thought about him paying you back? And you want to disappear quietly without him knowing?"

Only Xie Lingjiang and the old Daoist surnamed Sun remained in the room. "Please, Daoist Xie."

Zhao Qingxiu took the teacup, her expression suddenly completely composed, and I said intensely:

"Fine, fine. Go call your senior sister. To save him, I need one more ingredient—"

"A rare medicine. As far as this poor Daoist knows, only your Nüjun Hall has a little left."

Clean on the outside, poisonous sores on the inside—a stark contrast. "Mm-ah!"

"A divine doctor with miraculous hands?" Before Xie Lingjiang could speak, the crane-feather-cloaked old Daoist gasped, rubbing his hands:

Zhao Qingxiu's expression changed slightly.

"Please, Senior Chongxuzi." Ouyang Rong gestured to the side.

"Listen to advice and you'll be well-fed. Whether you listen or not is up to you, but this stinky brat is done for. He's finished at a glance."

"What? You say he doesn't know you're there?" The two left the front of the sickbed.

"You want respect?" Zhao Qingxiu was unhappy, speaking his mind: "Who do you think you are?"

Zhao Qingxiu narrowed his eyes upon hearing this. Xie Lingjiang smiled faintly.

Zhao Qingxiu waved his hand, arrogantly driving them away: "Ah, ah..."

He paused, unable to help but explain to the disappointed crowd: With a "clatter," the room door was shut tightly.

Zhao Qingxiu's mouth twitched slightly, his eyes fixed on his nose, saying nothing.

Chongxuzi nodded and stepped forward. As he passed Zhao Qingxiu, he suddenly stopped, turned his head to stare at the ancient Hunyuan cap the latter was wearing, and asked:

"This person is not simple. Let me try. This poor Daoist only has a last resort, so consider it a fallback. Let's see if he can come up with a better plan to bring him back to life."

Chongxuzi sighed, his tone regretful: Zhao Qingxiu sneered:

"I made an exception to save him once before, and kindly asked if he wanted a wife, but he didn't care. Why do you still care? Foolishly throwing yourself at him."

Zhao Qingxiu stared at the mute girl's eyes, which were as clear as a mountain stream and did not dodge, and couldn't help but say: "Why don't you ask what it is?"

I couldn't just say that the senior brother forcibly activated a mythical tripod sword to kill a quasi-Grade 7 with a Grade 9 cultivation, could I? People probably wouldn't believe it, and most importantly, it would expose the senior brother's identity as a Sword Bearer.

Ouyang Rong frowned, thought for a moment, and couldn't help but ask: "Immeasurable Life and Longevity? Are you a Daoist from Mount Gezao?"

"Fart." At that moment, someone in the room sneered and shook their head, muttering in a low voice: "If your Mount Gezao can't do it, it's because you're useless. Why talk about there being no medicine in the world? You're not ashamed. This damn illness is nothing but a breeze to me; at most, the medicinal herbs are troublesome..."

Chongxuzi sighed and nodded, muttering: "This eccentric and easily provoked personality is too much like that legendary expert..."

Zhao Qingxiu walked straight to the bed, grabbed Sun Laoguai's left wrist, and took his pulse with two fingers in a strange posture. Suddenly, he noticed out of the corner of his eye that Xie Lingjiang was looking at him with an expression that was somewhat strange and... slightly complaining.

Zhao Qingxiu's mouth twitched, and he clamored: "I'm not taking a pulse, I'm just playing around. Do you understand looking, listening, and asking? It's a terminal illness that can be seen at a glance; there's nothing to take a pulse for."

Zhao Qingxiu, who had ended up covered in poisonous sores, looked like a cat whose tail had been stepped on. He immediately bristled, fumed for a good while, and then suddenly calmed down, turning his head away:

"Senior Chongxuzi's provocation was not bad." Xie Xun, who had been silent in the room, stroked his beard and nodded.

"But..." Ouyang Rong hesitated, his complex eyes and worries were something Chongxuzi couldn't understand.

Chongxuzi nodded, then shook his head, looked at Ouyang Rong and Xie Lingjiang, who were full of concern, and said slowly:

Having traveled thousands of miles only to be despised and bumped into, Chongxuzi was not angry at all. He pondered for a moment, then suddenly turned his head and looked at Ouyang Rong with a serious expression:

Ouyang Rong nodded, and Zhao Qingxiu suddenly became serious, his expression solemn, and he performed a Daoist salute with one hand:

The whole room went silent. The old Daoist blew his beard and stared:

"For such a terminal illness, this poor Daoist can only think of a way to refine a furnace of pills to keep his breath from fading for a long time and preserve hope. As for whether he can wake up in the future, it depends on fate."

"It's... to protect me, he used too much qi. He only started cultivating qi not long ago..."

"The Great Nüjun rarely praises people like this, so how can I be embarrassed? There are millions of Daoist doctors in the world. Sigh, the word 'divine hands' is an overstatement. Where, where, I am just a useless person, how can I deserve it?"

Zhao Qingxiu waved his hand, his tone impatient: "Go, go, go. If you're here to treat the illness, treat it. Why meddle in so many idle affairs?"

For some reason, Zhao Qingxiu identified deeply with this, feeling frustrated that the iron wouldn't turn into steel.

"Dumb girl, this time, using favors and acting cute are useless. After I saved him in the temple's underground palace last time, I said those words. Do you still remember them?"

"This poor Daoist and the medical skills of Mount Gezao can only do this much. His symptoms are indeed strange. I don't know if he has come into contact with any strange things to have such a peculiar illness."

Chongxuzi couldn't help but turn his head:

Seeing a strange-looking unfamiliar old Daoist in the room, she was slightly stunned. Xue Zhongzhu opened her eyes and said coldly: "Is the bull-nosed one looking for death? Do you want to be locked up for another fifty years?"

"Did you hear what the divine doctor said?" Xue Zhongzhu closed her eyes and said word by word: "Junior sister, don't waste your energy anymore."

After a long silence, in the expectant gaze of the crowd, he shook his head and said:

"Your senior brother's pulse is stable, and his body is fine, but his spirit is weak, as if it were there and yet not there, as if he had lost his soul. He just won't wake up. This kind of illness, I have practiced medicine for many years and have never heard of it."

"Sigh, I cannot bear the word 'divine doctor'." Zhao Qingxiu shook his head, pointed to the sickbed behind him, and said regretfully: "This poor Daoist is shallow in learning and lacks the ability."

Zhao Qingxiu said leisurely:

Chongxuzi sighed and didn't ask any more questions. It was useless to pursue it further.

The voice was not loud, but in the ears of everyone in the room, who were all qi cultivators with sharp hearing, it was like a sudden flash of lightning, lingering and unable to be forgotten.

"Immeasurable Life and Longevity, incredible merit." As soon as Chongxuzi entered the room, he bowed slightly, shook his whisk, and performed a Daoist salute to everyone in the room.

Chongxuzi smiled freely, seemingly finding it interesting, and was not angry. Zhao Qingxiu stood up abruptly:

Ouyang Rong, who had not been seen for many days, rushed back, dusty, and walked into the room.

The crane-feather-cloaked old Daoist showed an embarrassed smile, full of humility, paused, and added happily: "However, in gynecology, this poor Daoist has achieved some success and can be called a divine hand."

Outside the door.

"Is there any way to cure him?" Ouyang Rong asked with concern. As soon as these words were spoken, the whole room went quiet.

"One of the four great strange insects of ancient times, once exclusively for the Hidden Monarch in your Nüjun Hall... the Tortoise-Shell Capricorn."

Ouyang Rong frowned in doubt. Zhao Qingxiu snorted and ignored him.

"Go, go, go. If you Yuqing Daoists can't do it, get out quickly. Go back to the mountain gate and practice more. Don't crowd here and delay this poor Daoist from saving people. Get out, get out. And you Confucian scholars, get out. I will treat this child!"

Zhao Qingxiu sneered and said very firmly: "Living under someone else's roof is one thing, but no one in this world can control this poor Daoist's mouth!"

Ouyang Rong and Xie Xun looked at each other. "Sigh."

Before the sickbed, Xie Lingjiang and Zhao Qingxiu were left alone again. "Still lying? It's just a minor illness, nothing worth mentioning."

It was conceivable that the entire crane-feather cloak was covered in poisonous sores. It was Xie Xun and the high-ranking Daoist Chongxuzi from Mount Gezao.

"What are you looking at? This poor Daoist hadn't thought of a prescription to save him just now. That half-baked Gezao guy came, talked nonsense, and was just a half-full bucket rattling around, but he amused this poor Daoist. Once this poor Daoist is in a good mood, I remember the prescription to save him. Can't I?"

Chongxuzi asked back: "How did your senior brother get injured and become like this?" Ouyang Rong blurted out: "What do you mean? Can you cure the senior brother?"

"To trade for his life, I must take one thing from you, just like everyone who comes to me for medical treatment. That is the rule. Let me ask you again, do you know?"

"No, you're not just stubborn, why are you so stupid? If you ask him for something, the man might even respect you. You don't want anything, you, you, you... you're infuriating me!"

It was as if to say, as long as you have it, it's fine.

Chongxuzi, Ouyang Rong, and Xie Xun couldn't help but look at the somewhat strange old Daoist a few more times.

Xie Lingjiang nodded slowly.

Xie Lingjiang was present, and feeling her gaze, Ouyang Rong's face flushed red, and he stammered:

The curse learned from someone else had an unexpectedly good effect. Zhao Qingxiu felt satisfied and found the person on the sickbed much more pleasing to the eye:

They must have been catching up outside the door just now.

Xie Lingjiang lifted a corner of the quilt, lifted Sun Laoguai's left wrist, and handed it to Zhao Qingxiu through the air, looking at him eagerly.

Xie Lingjiang stood up in surprise, pointed at Zhao Qingxiu, and introduced him with a series of "Iya-iya" sounds. Ouyang Rong understood vaguely and tilted his head slightly: "Is this the divine doctor brought by the Great Nüjun?"

"Especially in love between men and women, can you guarantee that even if he knows, he will cherish you? By then, it will just be a moment of being moved and passionate. You look like you're pouring your heart out and don't care about death, exposing your bottom line. The further it goes, the more the other party will take advantage, taking it for granted, and might even hate you for giving too little, hate you for why you let him be unable to pay you back."

It was as if, like the Ouyang Rong beside her, she was also a mute. "Immeasurable Life and Longevity, incredible merit."

"No, you girl, why are you staring at this poor Daoist with that look again? Are you curious why I know so much? Why do you care why I know so much!"

At this moment, inside the room.

Only a refined middle-aged Confucian scholar and an old Daoist wearing a lotus crown could be seen walking into the room, humbly yielding to each other.

"Heh, dumb girl, let me tell you, in this world, anything you throw yourself at to give, no matter how precious, will be discounted and devalued."

Swish, swish, swish! Everyone's eyes gathered on a crane-feather-cloaked old Daoist pouring tea at the table in the outer room.

"Sun, stay and persuade Xiao Shimei." He left a word and snorted as he left.

"Miss Qingxiu, coincidentally, I also know a divine doctor, this Daoist Chongxuzi from Mount Gezao. Perhaps he can save the senior brother. Please, Miss... Divine Doctor, move aside a little and let Senior Chongxuzi take the senior brother's pulse."

"As for taking the pulse, it's just incidental, just to confirm... anyway, this poor Daoist is going to get serious, humph humph."

This was common knowledge in the Jianghu. As far as the Southern Three Pure Daoist Sects were concerned, Daoists from different mountain gates chanted different Daoist names. Daoists who called themselves "Immeasurable Life and Longevity" were usually Gezao Daoists who walked the mountains and saved the world.

Chongxuzi's face showed a thoughtful expression. Before he was driven out of the door with the previous two, he suddenly asked:

Just then, a sound of footsteps suddenly came from the courtyard outside.

He walked straight to the front of the sickbed and sat down, grabbed Sun Laoguai's left wrist, and while quietly taking the pulse, the old Daoist narrowed his eyes and stared at the scene outside the window, seemingly lost in thought.

Xie Lingjiang smiled without a word, seemingly acknowledging it, her tone regretful: "Sigh, it is that this poor Daoist and my sect lack ability. Ladies, please look for someone better."

Xie Lingjiang's eyes brightened, and she nodded hurriedly.

Ouyang Rong shook his head, looked back, and started today's business: Just then, two more figures appeared outside the door. They were dressed cleanly and meticulously.

"Ah, ah." Xie Lingjiang opened her mouth, her little face lost in thought.

The crane-feather-cloaked old Daoist did not take the pulse, his hands tucked into his sleeves, just simply glanced at the sick appearance of the unfamiliar stinky brat on the sickbed. The words he turned to say were not polite at all, focusing on speed and sincerity.

But if one were like Zhao Qingxiu or Xue Zhongzhu, the two Yue women, and looked closely beside him, one would immediately notice that the skin on the old Daoist's neck, which was not covered by the crane-feather cloak, was covered in rotting poisonous sores.

Zhao Qingxiu sighed and waved his hand weakly: ===== CHAPTER 253 =====