After walking a long way from the mountain region, Xu Su could still hear the voices discussing how to settle Fatty Wang and Zhang Chan's dispute. However, Xu Su decided not to concern himself about the matter anymore.
Whenever he thought of Little Acusso's dumbstruck expression, he could not help but laugh out loud. His small excursion outside the valley had indeed lifted his spirits, and he was no longer as depressed as before.
He ventured out of the forest and walked straight ahead. A small creek appeared at the end of the path.
Xu Su inclined his head upwards and looked at the fiery hot sun before lowering his head to avoid the glare and to drink some water from the creek. He felt that taking a bath right now would not be a bad idea.
As he bent downwards, with both of his hands entering the cool creek water, a voice filled with pain suddenly sounded out and reached his ears.
Xu Su was surprised. To think that there would be people in such a remote region.
Following the sound of the voice, Xu Su wandered upstream and found a person wearing a disciple's robe lying on the ground, his body convulsing while his limbs flailed about.
The moment Xu Su saw the person, he knew that the disciple was suffering from an acute illness, and if he didn't help now then the disciple's life would be at risk.
Xu Su rushed over and took out a wooden box from his robes. From the wooden box, he drew out silver needles that seemed to reflect light as he pierced them into the acupoints on the disciple's back.
After he was done with the acupoints on the disciple's back, he turned the body of the disciple around and began to work with the acupoints located on his chest.
When he turned the disciple's body over, however, Xu Su sucked in a deep breath. He was shocked beyond measure. This person… this person, who was flailing about just now, was none other than the Senior Disciple Lie that participated in the battle earlier!
Stunned, Xu Su could only gaze at the facial features of Senior Disciple Lie.
The current Senior Disciple Lie did not have the air of a peerless expert at all. There was no heroic demeanor to be seen anywhere, only a cold face full of pain and suffering as his features contorted together and white foam leaked from his mouth. It was obvious that Senior Disciple Lie was suffering from too much pain to bear, and he was almost to the point of being unconscious.
Xu Su regained his calm as he muttered to himself. Akin to flowing water, Xu Su's hands begin to prick the acupoints on Senior Disciple Lie's body continuously with over a dozen needles. When he finished piercing the final needle, Xu Su wiped the beads of sweat that had formed on his forehead and released a breath. The usage of the silver needles and the strength needed to pierce each acupoint exhausted a huge amount of energy from him.
After Senior Disciple Lie's body was riddled with silver needles, he finally woke up and regained consciousness.
"You are…" Senior Disciple Lie tried to say something, but he didn't have enough strength and couldn't say more than a few words.
"I'm from Green Eye Valley. Save your breath and slowly recover your strength. I can only inform you that your illness is very strange. In my estimation, only my teacher, Physician Wu, would be able to save you. But unfortunately, he is currently away from the mountain." Xu Su took the pulse of Senior Disciple Lie as he furrowed his brows in thought.
"The… Medici.. ne.. is..." Senior Disciple Lie's face paled as his lips shivered, lifting his arms to gesture at something, but he was unsuccessful.
"You have medicine to cure the illness on your body?" Xu Su roughly understood his meaning, and he questioned Senior Disciple Lie.
"Ye….s" Senior Disciple Lie saw that Xu Su understood his meaning, relaxed his features, and nodded his head.
Xu Su was no longer polite as he searched Senior Disciple Lie's body for the antidote. He found many useless items, and amongst them, there was a small white jade bottle which he took out. This bottle was made of expensive material and was also tightly sealed. He guessed that this was what Senior Disciple Lie was looking for.
As he took the bottle and glanced at Senior Disciple Lie, his guess turned out correct. Senior Disciple Lie's expression was full of joy as he frantically blinked his eyes.
Xu Su unsealed the bottle, and contrary to his expectations, there was no fragrance of herbal components drifting out, but rather an extremely pungent odor.
The moment Xu Su smelled the odor, his expression turned nasty, and he cautiously took a pink pill out from the bottle. This pill was extremely beautiful to behold, yet it was actually emitting such a pungent smell.
"Is this a medicinal pill?" Xu Su regained his calm face.
Senior Disciple Lie was still unable to speak, but he blinked his eyes to convey to Xu Su that this was the right pill.
"This Essence Extraction Pill was created from orchids, crab tailed flower, hundred year-old egg of blue ant, as well as 23 other rarely seen ingredients. After the pill is concocted, it takes on a pinkish hue and emits a pungent smell. Ingesting it could unlock all of the potentials of the human body, consuming one's lifeforce in exchange. Am I right?"
Xu Su coldly glanced at Senior Disciple Lie as he listed the pill's descriptions word by word with an unmistakable tone in his voice.
The moment Senior Disciple Lie heard Xu Su's words, his face paled as if devoid of blood, and a frantic expression appeared on his face.
"If you ingest this medicine, you would need to repeatedly ingest it after a certain period of time in addition to suffering an excruciating amount of pain. If you refuse to take it, then in the best case scenario you would be paralyzed, and in the worst case scenario you could lose your life! From the moment you ingested this pill, fate has already decreed that you would be dead in less than 10 years as the pill forcefully unleashes your potential at the expense of burning your life force," Xu Su said without stopping.
"Don't you try to lie to me that this is not the Essence Extraction Pill." Xu Su said.
After hearing what Xu Su had said, an expression of hopelessness appeared on Senior Disciple Lie's face while an indescribable shock appeared in his eyes.
"Are you shocked because this particular medicine is very rare, and yet I know what it is?" Xu Su could tell what Senior Disciple Lie was thinking.
"The answer is simple. I, too, have eaten a pill like this."
Xu Su's words broke the tension as he continued to shock Senior Disciple Lie. After a while, Senior Disciple Lie had an expression of disbelief.
"The way I ate the pill was very different from how you ate it. I only ate a single pill, but I separated the pill into 10 portions, which I slowly ingested over a long period of time. The small amount of drug I consumed was not able to do any harm to my body. Because this particular pill's appearance and the smell it emitted was too obvious, I had a very strong impression of this pill, so I easily recognized yours. I had always thought that other than me, there wouldn't be anyone else who would dare to ingest this type of pill, but who would have thought, my fellow disciple had consumed the pill as well."
After saying this, Xu Su's gaze contained a hint of admiration as well as pity for Senior Disciple Lie.
Unwilling to see the pitiful gaze fixed on him, Senior Disciple Lie closed his eyes. However, his heartbeat was erratic and his mind was in chaos.
"You should have consumed these pills for a few years already. If you refrain from consuming it now, I could beseech Physician Wu to concoct an antidote for you. Although the antidote won't recover the life force you lost, it should still be able to grant you 20 to 30 years worth of life. Unfortunately, your martial skills will be lost forever. If you continue ingesting this pill, I can deduce from the backlash that happened earlier that you only have, at most, 5 to 6 years worth of your life left, but obviously, your martial arts will only continue to get better and better, even stronger than the might you displayed today. Since you dared to eat such a pill, this tells me that you are a person with an iron will. Since only you can decide your own fate, do you want to throw this medicine away or keep relying on it?"