EMPEROR OF ZHONG YUAN

Chapter 11 Lacking Goodness

Surrounded by the gut-wrenching stench of dead bodies, blood, excretion and rot, the mysterious, masked young lad choked on breath as he finally regained consciousness. He was slumped on a concrete pillar, his eyes in a daze, his face and lips pale and stained with dirt and blood; both his blood and his enemies’ blood.

Not far from the young man was the brutally slaughtered bodies of the disciples of the San Cai Sword Sect, their midnight blue clothes stained with blood and torn to reveal open, festering wounds caused by the young man’s sword.

Indeed, ruthless and unforgiving.

As the young man slowly came out of unconsciousness, the sounds of footsteps echoed in the silent dungeon as a sturdy figure came to view. The young man’s view was still hazy and unable to see clearly who it was. In order to kill those people who he had kill, he had pushed himself to the limit and had severely damaged his internal force.

At this point, in front of Hou Sheng Chen, the young man was vulnerable and couldn’t escape his rath. However, Hou Sheng Chen did not seem interested in punishing the young man. He even brought a bowl of medicine tonic and a bid bowl of egg noodles and left the tray by the young man’s side. When Hou Sheng Che was raising his hand, the young man felt a threat and wanted to attack which caused his internal force to fall into even more disarray. Pain immediately occupied his senses, and he didn’t focus on what Hou Sheng Chen did.

Hou Sheng Chen removed the young man’s mask and checked his temperature by placing two fingers on his forehead. As he had guessed, the young man had exhausted himself and was now running a high fever. Hou Sheng Chen then forcibly opened the young man’s mouth open by dislocating the lower jaw, and feed the young man soup and medicine.

All these matters occurred at the early morning of that day. Hours later, around early evening of the same day, Hou Sheng Chen came down again. This time, the young man was more aware and was seated with his legs crossed, meditating a sutra that would help him stabilize his chaotic and disfigured internal force. Hou Sheng Che recognized it as the “Eight Directions One Centre Sutra” which the disciples of the Medicine King used to calm their chaotic internal force and their minds.

The Medicine King was known for his extreme proficiency in both medicine and poison, thus also known in the martial arts world as the Great Herbal Deity. Seeing the young man do this, Hou Sheng Chen’s doubts and suspicions were finally cleared as he had figured out the young man’s identity.

Without his dark cloak to hide his head, and having seen the eyes without the mask in the way, Hou Sheng Chen had finally placed all the pieces in the puzzle and gotten the clear picture of the events that occurred last night.

“Young kid, you are finally awake. I thought I had left another dead body as I was cleaning up over here. You really left a mess of things when you fell unconscious.” The young man said nothing, just calmly and quietly chanting the sutra as Hou Sheng Chen set himself in front of the young lad.

Hou Sheng Chen continued comically, “Young kid, tell me. Where did your master find such a bothersome disciple like yourself? Causing such chaos in the martial world is not the way of the disciples of the Medicine King. If I didn’t know any better,” Had he not recognized the Eight Directions One Center sutra that the young man was chanting, “I would have assumed you were that Poison Master of Ji Yuan Sect’s disciple. I mean think about it. You are proficient in poison, although you are wearing Jin clothing you have a tiny tang of Liang accent when you speak and you practice the art of swords which is unheard of with Medicine Valley disciples. Others wouldn’t notice it, but I am very observant and I have met all kinds of people. It is impossible for me not to figure out your identity.”