Fang Shuwen paid no heed to the clamor outside.
Pushing the door open, he turned into the room on the left.
The room was small, furnished with only a table and a couch-bed, upon which lay a woman.
She was Lu Guiyan, the Young Chief Escort of Lu'an Escort Agency.
Lu Guiyan was quite handsome, but her face was currently tinged with an unhealthy greenish hue.
"She is indeed poisoned."
Fang Shuwen walked up to her, lifted the blanket, and took a look. The wound was on her upper arm and had already been bandaged.
From beneath the fine cloth wafted a faint, foul stench, and the blood seeping through was black and sticky.
He checked her pulse; it was so weak it was almost imperceptible.
Fang Shuwen shook his head gently. "The person is on the brink of death, yet he's still worrying about taking the blame. Either completely stupid, or downright malicious."
He first reached out and untied the bandages around her wound. The poisoned blood had mixed together; letting it drain freely was far better than keeping it covered.
He then helped Lu Guiyan into a sitting position, channeled his true qi with one palm, and pressed it slowly against her back.
As the internal force entered her body, Lu Guiyan shuddered slightly.
The Yijin Jing inherently possessed poison-purging capabilities. While one could hardly claim it granted immunity to every poison under the sun, it was by no means ordinary.
Compared to the mismatched medicinal herbs Mo Beidou had bought, using internal skill to purge the toxin was far more reliable.
Moreover, the poison Lu Guiyan had contracted was noticeably inferior to the Qi-Severing Powder Li Nanchen had inflicted upon Zhujige Pavilion. That Qi-Severing Powder had lain dormant within the body, so subtle that Fang Shuwen could not even detect a trace of it back then.
Yet with the poison currently in Lu Guiyan, he quickly investigated and understood its nature.
Using his internal force, he drove the toxins into a single stream, sending them right back out the way they had entered.
One could clearly see streams of black blood trickling out from the wound on Lu Guiyan's arm.
After about the time it took to drink a cup of tea, the blood flowing out was no longer black, but bright red.
Only then did Fang Shuwen slowly withdraw his palm.
He glanced beside the couch-bed and noticed a small knife, likely prepared earlier to tend to her wound.
However, without dispelling the poison first, treating the wound would have been futile. Now, Fang Shuwen picked it up and cleanly sliced away the decaying flesh from her wound.
This naturally caused no small amount of pain. Lu Guiyan groaned softly and actually opened her eyes.
She first looked around the room, and finally her gaze settled on Fang Shuwen. A flicker of surprise and vigilance surfaced in her eyes. "You are?"
Fang Shuwen looked up, met her eyes, and then lowered his head to continue his work. "Fang Shuwen, from Four Seas Martial Hall."
"You are Escort Leader Mo's junior brother?"
It was not that Mo Beidou had mentioned him, but rather that Mo Beidou was the Eldest Senior Brother of Four Seas Martial Hall, and given Fang Shuwen's age, he was bound to be his junior brother.
Fang Shuwen nodded and knitted his brows slightly. "Don't move around. If the necrotic flesh isn't removed, it will fester and cause high fever. One slip-up, and you'll truly lose your life."
In plain terms, the wound would become inflamed and trigger a severe fever.
Lu Guiyan was no ordinary woman; she naturally understood this logic, so she endured the pain and let Fang Shuwen proceed as needed.
After a good while, feeling that the wound was properly cleaned, Fang Shuwen took out a bottle of golden sore medicine from his robes.
This medicine could staunch bleeding, promote tissue regeneration, and reduce inflammation, making it the premier choice for blade and sword wounds.
The bottle in Fang Shuwen's hand had been scavenged from Zhou Qingmei's Heart-of-the-Lake Cottage, carried along for emergencies.
He had not expected it would come in handy here.
He applied the golden sore medicine to her wound and found clean linen to bandage it anew.
During this process, Lu Guiyan felt that all the discomfort previously caused by the poison had vanished.
Now, only weakness and the stinging pain from the cut remained.
She looked at Fang Shuwen with some astonishment. "The poison in my body...?"
"Expelled," Fang Shuwen replied nonchalantly. "No need to thank me. I only stepped in for my eldest senior brother's sake."
Lu Guiyan felt a mild shock in her heart.
Others might not know, but she understood all too well that her poison was by no means easy to deal with. If it were, she could have expelled it with her own internal force; why would she have fallen to such a desperate state?
Something she herself could not achieve had been resolved so effortlessly by this young man before her... Just what kind of prowess did he possess?
Since when had Four Seas Martial Hall harbored such unfathomable depths?
Overwhelmed with amazement, she dared not show any slight and hurriedly sat up on the couch. "No matter what, you saved my life, sir. I, Lu Guiyan, am endlessly grateful."
"Save your flattery. Just don't make my senior brother pay with his life, and that will be enough," Fang Shuwen sneered.
Lu Guiyan paused upon hearing this, instantly realizing that Fang Shuwen had likely faced obstructions before coming in to treat her.
She let out a soft exhale and rose from the couch.
Fang Shuwen glanced at her. "Can you manage?"
"I can!"
Lu Guiyan stood up, sensing the circulation of true qi within her body. It was completely unobstructed now. As her internal force circulated, her weak frame gradually regained some strength. After taking a couple of paces, she felt even better than when she had been lying in bed.
A great weight lifted from her chest, and she held Fang Shuwen in even higher regard.
Stepping to the entrance, she pushed open the door.
In the courtyard, Sun Qian was still locked in a confrontation with Mo Beidou, the tension already on the verge of erupting into violence.
Mo Beidou had simply blocked the doorway, refusing to let Sun Qian cross the threshold by even half a step.
Now that the door had swung open, Mo Beidou turned his head instinctively and was instantly overjoyed. "Young Chief Escort, you're all right?"
"I took a stroll before the Gates of Hell. If your junior brother hadn't possessed such profound martial mastery to snatch me back, I would probably have finished drinking Meng Po's soup by now."
Mo Beidou burst into hearty laughter upon hearing this. "That is also because you are blessed with great fortune and longevity, Young Chief Escort! Otherwise, how could I have run into my junior brother in Guangning City?"
At that, he turned toward Sun Qian. "What do you have to say now?"
A strange glint flickered across Sun Qian's eyes before he showed an expression of pleasant surprise. "Wonderful! As long as the Young Chief Escort is safe and sound, that is better than anything else. What I did earlier was only because care brings confusion... Old Mo, don't hold it against me."
"I could let it slide, but my junior brother cannot suffer such grievance!" Mo Beidou snorted. "He came full of goodwill to save a life, only to be obstructed by you at every turn. Shouldn't you apologize to him?"
"Yes, yes, of course."
Sun Qian nodded repeatedly. Just as Fang Shuwen stepped out of the room, Sun Qian promptly bowed all the way to the ground. "It was Sun who failed to recognize Mount Tai and underestimated this brother. Please forgive me, sir."
Fang Shuwen cast him a sidelong glance, ignoring him entirely, and looked toward Mo Beidou instead. "Eldest Senior Brother, can you finally tell me what this is all about now?"
Mo Beidou scratched his head, glanced at Lu Guiyan, and, seeing her nod, finally began to explain:
"Our trip was meant to ensure the safety of two client escorts, but for some reason, we were suddenly ambushed by the Fierce Tiger Gang.
"Those bastards were extremely underhanded, striking without warning and catching us off guard.
"The Young Chief Escort took a poisoned dart in the chaos, which forced us to flee into Guangning City to find shelter... You know the rest of what followed."
Fang Shuwen nodded, casting a glance at the two people in the courtyard who looked completely out of place. Presumably, those two were the client escorts Mo Beidou had mentioned.
Suddenly, Lu Guiyan spoke up: "Brother Fang, since you are Escort Leader Mo's junior brother, I make bold to present an impertinent request.
"Seeing your extraordinary skills, would you be willing to temporarily join us and assist in completing this escort mission?
"Once the matter is accomplished, Lu'an Escort Agency will certainly reward you handsomely!"
[Ding! New guard mission detected!]
Chapter 50