Chapter 23: The Blessing of a God
Chapter 23: The Blessing of a God
At Old Doctor Song's home.
Sighs, wails, and quiet sobs draped the entire room in a shroud of gloom.
The old village chief was clearly still alive, yet he looked as though he had already passed.
Old Doctor Song swept away the herbal poultice covering Song Tiancheng's wound, preparing to change the dressing.
But beneath the herbs, the skin around the wound still bore a stubborn, dark purple discoloration that refused to fade.
Old Doctor Song's brow furrowed deeply. He quickly applied fresh herbs, then checked Song Tiancheng's eyes and took his pulse.
The old woman and her family immediately turned to him with anxious, hopeful eyes.
"Doctor Song, how is he? Can Old Song — can Father — pull through?"
Faced with their desperate gazes, Old Doctor Song opened his mouth, then hesitated, and finally offered only a gentle, roundabout answer.
"We can only leave it to fate. If fortune smiles upon him, the Village Chief should be able to make it through."
To their ears, those words were no different from bad news.
The old woman burst into louder wails, and even her son — a grown, sturdy man — couldn't stop his eyes from reddening.
The mood in the room sank even further.
On the bed, a child who was resting there due to his own snakebite couldn't help but whisper to the woman beside him.
"Auntie He, is Grandpa Village Chief not going to make it because of the snake venom? If he doesn't make it... does that mean we'll never see him again?"
The woman's heart was heavy. She gently patted the child's head to comfort him.
"He'll be fine. The Village Chief will pull through."
Yet both Old Doctor Song's expression and the faces of Song Tiancheng's family made it plain: the situation was far from hopeful.
And it was at that very moment that a lithe black cat came darting in, a small paper parcel clenched in its jaws.
The child on the bed spotted it first, his eyes lighting up in an instant.
"Oh! It's Lord Xuanqing's cat! Why has it come here?"
Those words drew the attention of everyone else in the room, who had not yet noticed Xuanmo's entrance.
The old woman, her eyes red and swimming with tears, caught sight of the black cat and seemed to realize something. Her tears came even harder as she cried out into the empty air, her voice cracked with grief.
"The demon beast has come — Lord Xuanqing, have you come too? Lord Xuanqing, please, please bless my Old Man! Let him survive this venom! From this day forward, our Song family will offer incense to you every single day!"
In moments of despair, people instinctively place their hopes in the hands of the divine.
Song Family Village was fortunate. The god they believed in was neither a hollow fiction nor some wicked specter.
He was a god who truly watched over them.
Though it was a little awkward — the old woman's heartfelt words were destined to fall on empty air.
For after Song Xuanqing had handed the pills to Xuanmo, he had not followed along. He had gone off to attend to other matters.
Xuanmo, mindful of Song Xuanqing's instructions, paid no attention to the others. With clear purpose, she trotted straight to Old Doctor Song's feet and tugged at the hem of his trousers.
Old Doctor Song's brow twitched. He crouched down in puzzled surprise, just about to ask what she wanted.
Xuanmo pushed the paper parcel from her mouth directly into his hand.
Then, without a backward glance, she turned and ran back out.
Old Doctor Song stared at the tiny parcel resting in his palm — no bigger than an infant's hand — utterly stunned.
He had actually noticed the parcel from the start, but hadn't paid it much mind, assuming the black cat was simply carrying it around to play with.
Yet the cat had deliberately sought him out and placed it in his hands?
What could this mean?
Puzzled, Old Doctor Song carefully unwrapped the parcel.
Three round, white pills rolled into his palm, releasing a refreshing medicinal fragrance.
The words written on the paper came into view as well.
[Life Continuation Pill: Revives the dead and restores flesh to bare bone. A single pill can pull a life back from the very brink of death, and may also be used to purge poison and sustain life.
Note: The child is frail, and lingering poison left uncleansed may cause complications later. These pills may be used for him as well.]
Three pills in total — the intent was unmistakable.
One was for Village Chief Song Tiancheng, to sustain his life. The other two were left to Old Doctor Song's discretion, though Song Xuanqing had already offered a quiet hint.
With three Life Continuation Pills in one hand and the note bearing those few brief lines in the other, Old Doctor Song stood there in a complete daze.
He wondered if perhaps he hadn't slept well the night before, and at his age, was now seeing things.
Life Continuation Pills!
From the name alone, Old Doctor Song knew how extraordinarily precious these were.
Never mind a severe poisoning — even someone missing limbs, half-dead and barely clinging to life, could be brought back.
He had practiced medicine his entire life and had never once heard of such a supreme-grade pill.
And even if he had, such a precious medicine was clearly not something that poor, common folk like them had any right to use.
Yet now... he held three of them in his hand!
The black cat represented Song Xuanqing — how could Old Doctor Song not understand what this meant?
The three pills the cat had delivered were plainly Song Xuanqing's doing.
True, to poor and humble folk like them, such pills were rare and priceless beyond measure. But to a divine being like Lord Xuanqing, they surely amounted to nothing at all.
Even so, this made it abundantly clear: Lord Xuanqing had been watching over them all along, guarding their very lives.
Old Doctor Song couldn't help but wonder — what had they ever done to deserve such divine favor? What had made Lord Xuanqing manifest again and again, time after time, to protect them?
In this world, the lives of common people were cheap and not their own to command. To seek some spiritual anchor, people always turned to the gods of legend.
But no one had ever heard of a god they worshipped and offered incense to actually manifesting so many times to shelter them like this.
Inside the room, the others had watched Old Doctor Song freeze after taking the parcel from the cat, and couldn't help but grow puzzled.
"Doctor Song? What is it? What's wrong?"
At those words, Old Doctor Song snapped back to his senses.
With no time to dwell on it further, he quickly rose and went to Village Chief Song Tiancheng's side.
He carefully took out one of the snow-white pills, pried open Song Tiancheng's jaw, and placed it inside.
The swift, decisive motion left everyone watching in stunned silence. Someone asked in confusion.
"Doctor Song, what are you doing?"
Old Doctor Song ignored them. After Song Tiancheng swallowed the pill, he stayed close by his side, checking his wound and pulse every short while.
Finally, fifteen minutes later.
Song Tiancheng's breathing steadied, and his pulse began to stabilize.
Old Doctor Song lifted the herbal dressing from the wound. Aside from the two small puncture marks left by the bite, the surrounding skin had returned to its normal color. Only then did he let out a long, complete breath of relief.
"It's all right. The Village Chief's venom has been purged and his pulse is stable. Once he wakes, I'll brew a few more medicinal herbs for him to take, and he'll be ready to go home."
This sudden reversal of fortune left everyone in the room thunderstruck.
The old woman still had tears and snot streaking her face. She stared in disbelief. "Doctor Song, is that true? My Old Man is really all right?"
Hadn't Old Doctor Song been looking utterly grim just fifteen minutes ago, telling them to leave it to fate?
And now, fifteen minutes later, Song Tiancheng was fine?
Leave it to fate... and fate had suddenly turned this generous?
The good news had come so abruptly that none of them could quite process it.
The room was filled with bewildered, uncertain faces. Old Doctor Song had no intention of hiding anything. His expression was solemn as he spoke.
"You all saw the demon beast come in just now, didn't you? Do you know why it came?"
"It came to deliver life-saving medicine!"
"Inside the parcel it carried in its mouth were three Life Continuation Pills. I gave the Village Chief one pill, and just like that, he recovered!"
"This is the blessing Lord Xuanqing has bestowed upon us!"
Those words were like a stone cast into still water, sending ripples spreading in every direction.
So Song Tiancheng's return from the brink of death had come because Lord Xuanqing had manifested once more — and granted him this blessing!
The Life Continuation Pills — the name alone spoke of their worth, to say nothing of the effect they had all witnessed with their own eyes.
Bitten by a venomous snake, life hanging by a thread — and a single pill had cured him completely.
Such life-saving medicine, and Lord Xuanqing had given it to them without a moment's hesitation, all to save a life.
The god they believed in had rescued them, time and time again, in one crisis after another.
Even though their lives were as insignificant as blades of grass, and they had nothing to offer.
Song Tiancheng's family's eyes turned red all at once.
The old woman was so overcome with emotion that tears streamed down her face. She turned toward the direction of Xuanqing Temple and dropped to her knees right then and there, kowtowing deeply.
"Lord Xuanqing, you are so merciful and compassionate! Your grace is something our family will never dare forget! From this day forward, as long as our Song family draws breath, we will offer incense to you every single day!"
Later, when Song Tiancheng woke and learned what had happened, he naturally agreed wholeheartedly — he even wanted to have a new idol sculpted for Song Xuanqing, who had saved his life.
But his pockets were empty, and so he could only hold that wish in his heart for the time being.