Chapter 98: Is This the Clear Pulse Pill?

At that, Ye Fei and Chen Yu both turned their heads, their eyes drifting to the front of the apothecary.

Outside the shop stood an elderly man with hair as white as frost and a white Tang-style robe draped over his frame. He carried a deep, dense aura, his back straight and his posture firm, so he seemed vigorous to the bone, yet he walked with a limp, as if some old disease gnawed at him.

“Grandfather, why are you here?” The girl inside saw him and came smiling, taking his arm in both hands. “Didn’t you say you weren’t coming today?”

“If I don’t come, your customers will be driven off in irritation,” the old man said with a chuckle. He then turned to Ye Fei and Chen Yu and nodded. “Gentlemen, have you come to have medicine prepared?”

“Yes.”

Ye Fei nodded, though his gaze kept returning to the old man’s limping leg.

He was startled.

He could clearly sense that on that leg there remained the faintest trace of qi.

Since he had cultivated the Nine-Dragons Divine Art to its second stage, his sensitivity to the qi in Heaven and Earth had sharpened. It was good news, in truth. Yet a lingering trace of qi on a mere leg—he had never once heard of such a thing.

“All right. Come with me.”

The white-haired old man smiled and nodded. Limping as he did, he still strode with astonishing decisiveness, moving quickly to where the young girl had been standing.

“Grandfather, walk more slowly.”

The girl hurried forward and offered to steady him.

The old man ignored his granddaughter and pulled paper and ink brush from the drawer. “Now then, youngster, tell this old man what herbs you need. If you have a prescription, just tell me the formula.”

Ye Fei nodded, then said carefully, “The herbs I need are all ordinary ones, but the quantities must be exactly as I say. Not a grain off.”

“No problem, right?”

“Of course.”

“Speak, and I’ll see to it.”

The old man took an old pair of reading spectacles from the drawer and, with unhurried steps, went to the cabinets where the raw herbs were stored. He reached for a small scale weight used for apothecary measures, one worn and marked by years.

In general, one who uses such a tiny balance weight is usually a seasoned traditional healer. Real confidence stirred in Ye Fei, and he repeated the ingredients he had just told the girl.

At first the old man listened attentively.

But as the list went on, his expression grew stranger and stranger. Toward the end, his whole body shook, the weight slipped from his hand and struck the floor. He stared at Ye Fei with an unbelieving look.

“What is it, Grandfather?” the girl cried, hurrying up in alarm. “Grandfather, what happened?”

“This prescription... this prescription—” the old man kept saying, hands trembling, breath ragged, as though he had heard something impossible.

Ye Fei and Chen Yu exchanged glances, both perplexed.

What now?
Is there something wrong with the formula?

Impossible.

Could he have forgotten something?

“Huh—huh—huh—”

The old man’s breathing only grew louder, labored, as if he might expel it all at once.

“Grandfather, don’t scare me!”

The girl, frightened, stepped closer and patted his back lightly with her hand, trying to help him settle the breath and calm down.

But the wheezing did not stop. It grew more desperate. Even his complexion turned markedly pale.

“Grandfather...!”

“Grandfather, what is it?”

The girl was so flustered she could scarcely keep still, stamping her feet helplessly, not knowing how to face this scene.

The old man clutched his chest; his face twitched, that once upright back bending as he half-sat in a nearby chair, his eyes already heavy with strain.

“This is bad.”

Ye Fei saw it at once. If the old man did not recover this breath, he would almost certainly die right here.

And then, he would have to answer for it.

“Out of the way!”

He let out a sharp command. “This is cardiorespiratory failure. If you keep moving him around like this, he’ll likely never make it through this breath.”

Seeing the danger, Ye Fei pushed the girl aside in one step, laid one hand on the old man’s shoulder, then took the other hand and gripped his pulse. He channeled his inner qi into him and then struck along the old man’s spine with a hard sweep.

After several seconds—

The old man inhaled in one deep, forceful gasp. He had come through it, as if from the edge of death.

Ye Fei withdrew his hands and supported him, helping him lean against the wall.

“Many, many thanks!”

“Thank you, my lord, for saving my life!”

As soon as the old man regained his senses, he kept thanking Ye Fei again and again. In his eyes was complete reverence, as if this youth before him were an elder far older and far more accomplished than himself.

Watching this, the girl frowned. She knew exactly the kind of man her grandfather was: not even grand officials could force him into such deference.

Why, then?

“Grandfather, what is this?” she asked in surprise. “Why did seeing what this man wants would bring on such a heart attack?”

“Could it be that the batch of medicines is meant to harm someone?”

“Be quiet!”

The old man snapped at once, glancing at Ye Fei, his tone grave. “Please forgive me, honored sir. My granddaughter is inexperienced and cannot understand your alchemical prescription, so she speaks foolishly.”

“Grandfather...” The girl stared at him, shocked. She had never seen him truly angry before. Why had he suddenly turned into this?

“Oh?” Ye Fei was taken aback by the old man’s words. He laughed lightly. “You can read my pill formula? I never handed you one.”

“No, no, no,” the old man said respectfully. “I discerned it from the very herbs you requested.”

He inclined his head. “If I have not erred, you are taking these ingredients for the forge-lamp furnace to refine a drug called the Clear-Pulse Pill, are you not?”

“Clear-Pulse Pill?”

The girl at his side froze. What on earth was that—what was it supposed to be? Why did it sound so grand?

The word “pill” was one her grandfather had mentioned to her more than once.

But when Ye Fei heard it, his expression shifted. A faint blade of killing intent flashed through his eyes. He narrowed them and asked, expressionless, “Where did you learn that?”

“Such a formula,” he said, bowing his head, “should have been known to no one.”