Chapter 299
Chapter 299
Outside the isolation room.
Taoist Zuo Baiyu said.
“Shen Lang, I will treat the Third Prince, A Luohan. You must treat Princess A Luonana. Your Majesty, I will sign a military pledge. If I can cure the Third Prince, A Luohan, by tomorrow, please allow me to remain here and protect the royal family. If I fail, I will submit to being torn limb from limb by Your Majesty's blade.”
“You will truly do so?”
“I will sign the military pledge.”
And so, Zuo Baiyu bit the tip of his finger, drawing blood to write the pledge.
“If I cure Prince A Luohan tomorrow, it will prove that Shen Lang has no need to be here. I implore Your Majesty to eliminate him!”
After speaking, Taoist Zuo Baiyu, with a roused and valiant expression, entered the Third Prince A Luohan's room. Everyone looked at him with admiration. However, Shen Lang did not enter Princess A Luonana's isolation room. The Qiang King asked him.
“Shen Lang, did you not say you would treat the smallpox? Why do you not go in and treat Nana?”
“The day is late, and today is not an auspicious day. I will begin the treatment tomorrow.”
Hearing this, Zuo Baiyu laughed out loud.
“Your Majesty, did you hear that? This Shen Lang doesn't know how to treat smallpox in the first place. That is why he cannot even enter the princess's room. Just you wait. Early tomorrow morning, I will cure the Third Prince, A Luohan, for Your Majesty. I implore you to kill that bastard Shen Lang then.”
The Qiang King pointed at Shen Lang and said.
“I gave you a chance. If Zuo Baiyu cures A Luohan overnight, I will kill you tomorrow!”
After speaking, the Qiang King left. His concubine, Luo An, also looked at Shen Lang and said in a low voice.
“Shen Lang, you are a dead man tomorrow!”
Shen Lang did not reply to her, instead giving an order to his subordinate.
“Huang Feng, as a woman, you will be better suited to attend to her. Go into Princess A Luonana's room and look after her.”
“Yes!”
Shen Lang added in a low voice.
“It will be cold in the middle of the night, so do not forget to light the brazier!”
Then, Shen Lang mouthed a word silently, so that only Huang Feng could understand. Huang Feng replied quietly.
“Yes!”
* * *
The door to the Third Prince A Luohan's isolation room was shut tight. He had collapsed due to an anesthetic and would remain unconscious, sleeping as if in a stupor until the next day. Taoist Zuo Baiyu took out what he called a miracle drug, but was in fact a simple ointment, and applied it to the Third Prince's pustules. This was not smallpox in the first place, but a rash he had meticulously created. It was a mixture of juices from plants and venomous insects. With smallpox currently rampant throughout the Qiang Kingdom, this rash looked identical to it, making everyone who saw it believe it was smallpox. This was the secret of Zuo Baiyu's divine medicine.
As he applied the prepared ointment to the Third Prince's pustules, the sores covering A Luohan's face began to subside within a mere two shichen. By tomorrow morning, Zuo Baiyu would be the man who had performed the miracle of curing smallpox overnight. Then, no matter how much the Qiang King harbored resentment toward him, he would keep him by his side to preserve the lives of the royal family. As for Princess A Luonana's real case of smallpox, Zuo Baiyu could simply evade responsibility by claiming it would take time to create a new cure.
“Haha, Shen Lang, you're dead, you're dead! By tomorrow morning, I will have created the miracle of curing the Third Prince, A Luohan, and you, Shen Lang, will die without even a grave to be buried in.”
Zuo Baiyu found being in the isolation room stuffy and unpleasant, but he planned to stay and guard the prince until dawn, just in case any accidents occurred. Just then, he heard a woman's voice from outside. It was Luo An's trusted handmaiden.
“Master Zuo, Shen Lang has suddenly requested an audience with His Majesty in the middle of the night. I fear he's plotting something. Please go quickly.”
“Why didn't Luo An go?”
“His Majesty has just begun to favor my mistress... She cannot move at this moment!”
Zuo Baiyu seethed with inner rage. He checked on the Third Prince and saw that the pox on his face had almost completely receded, so there seemed to be no cause for worry. He then left the isolation room, speaking to the warriors guarding outside.
“Guard the Third Prince well. Do not allow anyone within ten chi of this room.”
“Yes!”
Dozens of warriors drew their swords and stood guard around the isolation room, leaving no openings. Taoist Zuo Baiyu hurried to the royal palace.
'Shen Lang, what trick are you trying to pull to harm me this time? It's useless. Don't even struggle. Tomorrow morning, when the Third Prince, A Luohan, is cured, I will become a divine being who has cured smallpox. Then, you are a dead man.'
However, not long after Zuo Baiyu left, a very thin tube was pushed into the isolation room, and from it, a continuous stream of carbon monoxide was released. Soon, the Third Prince, A Luohan, died in his sleep, unaware, as if in a deep stupor.
Huang Feng and Thirteen had learned many killing techniques from Shen Lang, and using carbon monoxide was one of them. This was a sealed isolation room, with no gaps between the wooden planks of the walls. Any gaps that existed were so minuscule that it was difficult to even insert the incredibly thin and narrow tube Shen Lang had made.
Princess A Luonana's case was real smallpox, so the pain and itching were so unbearable that she could not sleep. Only after drinking the anesthetic Shen Lang had brought did her consciousness grow hazy and she finally drifted off. Big Dummy held her hand the entire time, sitting there quietly. Even if he had seen what Huang Feng was doing, he would not have made a sound. All of Big Dummy's attention was on his wife. Even with her face covered in smallpox, she was still beautiful.
'I will definitely ask Little Dummy to cure you.'
The two isolation rooms were separated by a plank wall. Huang Feng found a slightly larger gap and used the brazier to heat that section. The wooden planks were made from recently cut trees and still retained moisture; heating them caused the wood to shrink, widening the gap. Then, Huang Feng sealed the brazier tightly. With insufficient oxygen, the charcoal would not burn completely, producing a large amount of carbon monoxide. The generated gas then flowed continuously into the room through the tube.
Once Huang Feng was certain that enough carbon monoxide had been pumped in to kill the Third Prince, A Luohan, she withdrew the tube. Afterward, she soaked the widened gap in the wood with water. The waterlogged wood expanded, sealing the gap once more. She then used a tool to press it flat. The entire process was flawless. Big Dummy didn't even turn his head from beginning to end.
* * *
Taoist Zuo Baiyu of the Hidden Yuan Society was triumphant, but also anxious. He was triumphant because Shen Lang would be dead by tomorrow, and anxious because he had a guilty conscience. Just as Shen Lang had predicted, the Qiang King had contracted a venereal disease after violating a peerlessly beautiful woman from the Western Regions during a raid. It wasn't a fatal illness, but it festered and itched, and the Qiang King soon became terrified. He knew nothing of medicine, but he believed that if it continued to fester, his life would be in danger, or he might become a eunuch. It was then that Zuo Baiyu appeared and saved his life and his happiness.
In truth, however, this was all arranged by the Hidden Yuan Society; even the Qiang King's illness was part of their plot. Zuo Baiyu had planned his approach step by step. First, he would cure the dirty disease afflicting the Qiang King's nether regions. Then, he would cure the two young princes' smallpox. Finally, he would use his last miracle drug to cure the Third Prince A Luohan's smallpox. And what was the next brilliant move? Infecting the Qiang King, A Luojiang, with smallpox. Not tomorrow, but the day after. As the Qiang King's physician, Taoist Zuo Baiyu treated his nether regions daily, making it easy to infect him with the herpes virus.
This was different from the pox or rash he had induced on the Third Prince, A Luohan. The prince's condition was merely applied to the surface of his skin and could be easily treated. In contrast, the herpes virus Zuo Baiyu used on the Qiang King was extremely virulent, a live virus extracted from a human body. The Hidden Yuan Society was a formidable organization that conducted advanced research in various fields.
Once the incubation period ended, the virus would spread throughout the body, causing countless herpes sores and pustules to erupt. They would burst forth with such a fearsome and violent intensity that it would surely be mistaken for the most severe case of smallpox. Moreover, it would require several days and nights of treatment to be cured. Zuo Baiyu had already announced that he had used up all his miracle drugs. In such a situation, if the Qiang King were to contract a severe case of "smallpox," what would be the outcome? To save his own life, the Qiang King would agree to any of Zuo Baiyu's demands, becoming a sword for the Hidden Yuan Society. The plot Zuo Baiyu and the Hidden Yuan Society had laid was a grand one indeed.
Luo An was indeed a spy sent by the Hidden Yuan Society, but she did not know the secret that the Qiang King was scheduled to contract a severe case of fake smallpox. Only Zuo Baiyu knew, and for such a secret, the fewer who knew, the better.
“Qiang King, I hope your fake smallpox erupts soon! Only then can I become your savior and demand everything I desire from you.”
But first, Shen Lang had to be killed. As long as that wretched man was alive, there was a high chance he would interfere with Zuo Baiyu's plans.
* * *
Shen Lang had been pondering one thing. The timing of A Luohan and A Luonana's smallpox outbreak was too coincidental. For it to happen just as Zuo Baiyu was about to be driven out... it seemed as if the disease had appeared solely to save him. But upon closer inspection, Shen Lang discovered the plot within.
Whether real or fake, the symptoms of smallpox—rashes and pustules—required prior infection to appear. Both had incubation periods. Zuo Baiyu hadn't even known when Shen Lang would come to harm him. Therefore, both A Luohan's fake smallpox and A Luonana's real smallpox must have been part of a plan Zuo Baiyu had set in motion long ago.
The most crucial point was this: Zuo Baiyu had already proven himself a divine physician by curing the two young princes' smallpox, so why did he need to perform the miracle of curing the Third Prince once more? Furthermore, why did he go so far as to infect A Luonana with real smallpox? And he had deliberately emphasized multiple times that this was his last miracle drug. At last, Shen Lang made a bold yet logical deduction.
Zuo Baiyu's ultimate target must be the Qiang King! Curing the king's unmentionable ailment was merely a stepping stone to gain his trust and proceed to the next stage. The venereal disease the Qiang King had contracted was painful but not fatal. Smallpox, on the other hand—especially a malignant case—had a one hundred percent mortality rate. When the time came, the Qiang King would contract a terrifying case of smallpox and look as if he could die at any moment. At that point, Zuo Baiyu would claim that only a certain organization possessed the ingredients for the miracle drug. To save his life, what would the Qiang King do? Naturally, he would have no choice but to accept the demands presented by the Hidden Yuan Society, no matter how unreasonable.
Of course, this was all just Shen Lang's speculation, but his reasoning was remarkably close to the truth. Shen Lang was, by nature, a staunch believer in conspiracy theories—enough to sniff out Zuo Baiyu's plot before it was even truly set in motion.