The assassin approached Long Xiao, his right hand reaching for the twin pistols in his grip. The assassin swiveled his guns, firing two shots in the direction Long Xiao was heading.
The bullets struck the tree trunk, chipping off bark. The assassin instinctively retreated, evading Long Xiao's attack.
With a bang, the assassin's back was hit by Long Xiao, sending him flying uncontrollably into the woods.
"An Ye, we can't get a clear shot," one of the hidden assassins yelled towards the assassin Long Xiao had just struck.
"Shoot, shoot quickly, just spray him with bullets!"
A series of popping sounds erupted as a barrage of bullets was fired at the afterimages of Long Xiao's rapid movements.
Suddenly, Long Xiao flicked his wrist, throwing out over a dozen soybeans. These soybeans all suspended in mid-air, a bizarre sight.
An Ye stared at the soybeans, bewildered. How had so many soybeans suddenly appeared in the air?
Just as An Ye sensed danger and before he could dodge, the dozen soybeans suddenly moved, faster than bullets.
The assassins who had been surrounding Long Xiao didn't even have time to scream before a bloody hole appeared in each of their foreheads.
An Ye, however, did not die. His hands were pierced by the soybeans, and his pistol clattered to the ground.
Fear, boundless fear, consumed An Ye's mind. He had never encountered such a formidable opponent.
Long Xiao stopped and observed, then slowly walked towards An Ye.
Only now did An Ye understand why Long Xiao had walked into the woods, knowing there was an ambush.
He had arranged a hunting team to lie in wait for their prey, but in the face of absolute power, no matter how he planned, he was destined to become the prey.
"Do you want to continue living?" Long Xiao stopped in front of An Ye, crouched down, and asked.
An Ye looked up at Long Xiao in surprise and replied, "Of course I do. No one wants to die."
"The chance to live requires you to fight for it."
"Do you want to know who the employer is?" An Ye asked.
Long Xiao nodded. "Yes, that's my first question. You need to answer three of my questions to live."
An Ye sighed and shook his head. "It seems I won't survive. I can't even answer your first question."
"Can you tell me why you can't answer it?"
An Ye nodded. "I am an assassin from Hanshan Temple. My mission was arranged by my master, and only he knows the employer."
"Who is your master?" Long Xiao asked.
An Ye shook his head. "My master has shown me immense kindness; I cannot betray him."
"Your master has many disciples. You disciples are merely tools his master keeps and nurtures. The reason he treats you so well is because tools need regular maintenance, otherwise they become difficult to use."
An Ye looked at Long Xiao thoughtfully, then let out a long sigh. "You are right. If there is a next life, perhaps we could be friends."
"Why 'next life' and not 'this life'?" Long Xiao asked again.
A smile appeared on An Ye's melancholic face. "My life is about to end, so it can only be next..."
Before An Ye could finish speaking, black blood trickled from the corner of his mouth. His head lolled to the side, and he breathed no more.
Long Xiao grabbed An Ye's wrist and peered inside him, discovering that his internal organs had turned completely black, beyond saving.
During his conversation with An Ye, he hadn't even noticed that the assassin had taken poison. It seemed Hanshan Temple harbored hidden dragons and crouching tigers, with extremely skilled poison masters. This poison was colorless and odorless, yet incredibly malicious, with an agonizingly fast onset, leaving no time for treatment.
Long Xiao stood up and looked at the bodies of the assassins scattered throughout the woods. If anyone saw them and called the police, it could cause considerable trouble for them.
Long Xiao took out his phone and dialed Brother Hu from Xicheng.
"Brother Long, what do you need me to do?"
"A'Hu, I need you to clean up again. I'll send you the location."
"It's no trouble, Brother Long. It's my honor to do your bidding."
After ending the call, Long Xiao sent Brother Hu of Xicheng his location and turned to leave the woods, strolling leisurely towards the park entrance.
Long Xiao had Zhang Eryong take him directly back to the Lin family. Only Aunt Ling was home. Zhang Eryong and Aunt Ling were chatting in the living room, so Long Xiao retreated to his own room.
The assassin's death by poison today left Long Xiao feeling uneasy. His medical skills had advanced by leaps and bounds recently, and he felt confident he could cure any illness.
The assassin's death had been so sudden. If one of his own loved ones were poisoned, and he couldn't save them in time, he would regret it for the rest of his life.
After much thought, Long Xiao lay down on his bed and opened several books related to poisons from the "Dragon Sutra" medical tome.
A vast amount of knowledge related to poisons entered Long Xiao's memory. He began to study this knowledge, and in just over an hour, he had a detailed understanding of various poisons.
In reality, creating and detoxifying from poisons wasn't that difficult. As long as you used the correct method, there was no poison in the world that couldn't be cured.
According to the "Dragon Sutra" medical tome, any item in the world could be turned into poison if the method was right.
Only by fully understanding the principles of poison creation could one quickly create an antidote using readily available materials.
After grasping the principles of creating antidotes, Long Xiao began researching an antidote that could cure most poisons. After repeated contemplation and thought, he finally devised a reasonable prescription.
In the past, when Long Xiao detoxified, he relied on "Beidou Detoxification" from the "Tiangang Divine Needles."
Although this acupuncture technique could cure most poisons, it required him to personally administer it. If a large number of people were poisoned, he would be overwhelmed.
Only medicine could provide large-scale detoxification, so Long Xiao decided to refine a batch of detoxification pills and carry them with him for emergencies.
He arrived at Xinglin Traditional Chinese Medicine Hall a little after three in the afternoon. The queue of patients waiting to see a doctor already extended outside the entrance. Long Xiao estimated there were over eighty people.
With so many people, Mi Tianfu and Mingyue definitely wouldn't be able to see them all before six o'clock.
Long Xiao went to the consultation room to help. The speed of seeing patients and dispensing medicine greatly increased. The three of them worked until past six o'clock before they finished treating all the waiting patients.
"I'm exhausted, Master. Shouldn't we go for a big meal to reward me?" Mingyue said, rubbing her sore neck.
Long Xiao glanced at the medicine storage room and said, "Let's not eat yet. I need to refine some detoxification pills."
Hearing that Long Xiao wanted to refine medicine again, Mi Tianfu complained, "Brother Long Xiao, can we eat first and then refine medicine?"
Long Xiao shook his head. "No, after I finish refining the medicine, I still need to go home to be with my wife."
With the help of Mi Tianfu and Mingyue, Long Xiao refined over three hundred detoxification pills in one go before they went to a nearby small restaurant to eat.
The owner of the small restaurant was named Che Chunrong. He was a stout Shandong man with a full beard, but he was very kind.
Because Long Xiao and his three companions were frequent visitors, Che Chunrong was quite familiar with them.
"Divine Doctor Mi, Mr. Long, eating so late?" Che Chunrong greeted them with a smile upon seeing them.
"There were too many patients, you know. It couldn't be helped. A doctor's heart is like a parent's; we can't abandon patients to come eat," Mi Tianfu explained with a smile.