48: Chapter 48 The Human Body (Part 1)

The next day, the rain ceased and the sky cleared.

Flying Fish City seemed to wake from a soul-stirring dream, yet the streets and alleys were permeated with a restlessness even more surreal than the dream itself.

At 'Yuelai Teahouse' in the east of the city, there wasn't a single empty seat as soon as the sky began to brighten.

"—That punch! You guys didn't see it! The White Dragon Gang's leader, Bai Tianxiao—he's a half-step Dragon Elephant! He was blasted down from mid-air by Jiang Hanzhou with a single punch. The sound of bones snapping could be heard clearly from dozens of yards away!"

In the center of the teahouse, a burly man with a bruised face stood on a bench, spittle flying as he gestured wildly.

This was the same man who had luckily been further from the riverbank last night and was only slapped by a wave. At this moment, he was the focus of the entire teahouse, his face flushed red as if all of last night's terror had been converted into his current excitement.

"Nonsense!" a tall, thin patron in the corner sneered. "What kind of figure is a half-step Dragon Elephant? Could he be knocked down by a single punch? I think the water has muddled your head!"

"Bullshit!" The burly man glared. "I saw it with my own eyes! That Jiang Hanzhou trod on floating wood, crossing the void, and shattered Bai Tianxiao's Evil Flood Dragon Protective Aura with one punch! Blood spilled across the sky! Those of you who didn't go to Old Stork Bay simply cannot imagine the scene!"

"Old Wang is right!" a middle-aged boatman at another table chimed in, his voice trembling. "I was on the shore too. That Jiang Hanzhou... he's simply not human. Over two hundred elites of the White Dragon Gang and the Eight Great Vajras—more than half were roared to death by him twice! Corpses littered the river, and blood stained the three rivers!"

A collective gasp of cold air immediately filled the teahouse.

"Roaring two hundred people to death with two shouts? This... this must be something made up by a storyteller, right?"

"Made up?" The boatman sneered. "Go to Old Stork Bay and see for yourself. Broken planks are still floating on the river, and the water is dark red! People from the Patrol Inspection Division went to fish out the bodies before dawn. It's said they recovered over a hundred, most with blood leaking from their seven orifices and their internal organs shattered!"

The teahouse fell into a brief, deathly silence, leaving only the light clinking of tea bowls.

"Then... just who is this Jiang Hanzhou?" someone asked in a low voice. "I've never heard of such a person before."

"Yeah, the name Li Feiyu also popped up out of nowhere..."

"Li Feiyu is Jiang Hanzhou!" The burly man cut in, lowering his voice to sound more mysterious. "I heard from a few Jianghu people near the riverbank that Jiang Hanzhou said it himself—'I am not called Li Feiyu, my name is Jiang Hanzhou'!"

"Jiang Hanzhou... that name sounds a bit familiar..." An old patron stroked his beard, frowning in thought.

Suddenly, a young man in plain clothes who had been silent at the neighboring table looked up. His voice wasn't loud, but it instantly silenced the entire teahouse:

"Jiang Hanzhou... he seems to be from the Canglang Water Dock."

"What?!"

"Canglang Water Dock? That Water Dock full of pharmacists and doctors?"

"That's impossible! Aren't the people of Canglang Water Dock all scholars who dispense medicine and treat the sick? How could there be such a god of slaughter?"

The young man in plain clothes set down his tea bowl with a complex expression. "My cousin is a laborer at the Canglang Water Dock pier. I've heard him mention it a few times. There's a young pharmacist in the Medicinal Cuisine Hall named Jiang Hanzhou. He only promoted to Second-Grade Pharmacist a few months ago. He's usually taciturn and has good medical skills, especially in the way of medicinal food supplements. He is quite highly regarded by Steward Qu."

An uproar broke out within the teahouse.

"A pharmacist? A Second-Grade Pharmacist? You've got to be joking!"

"A pharmacist could slaughter the White Dragon Gang until not a single piece was left? And kill the half-step Dragon Elephant, Bai Tianxiao?"

"But... the name matches!"

"Could it be someone with the same name?"

"Same name?" The young man shook his head. "My cousin said that Pharmacist Jiang has indeed been going out frequently lately, saying he was going to practice medicine and gather herbs among the common folk. Moreover... after last night, word has already spread within Canglang Water Dock. That Jiang Hanzhou from the Medicinal Cuisine Hall hasn't appeared since dinner last night, and his room is empty."

The teahouse completely erupted into chaos.

The news was like cold water dropped into boiling oil. Starting from 'Yuelai Teahouse', it swept through every street and alley, restaurant and gambling house, pier and warehouse in Flying Fish City with incredible speed.

Canglang Water Dock, Medicinal Cuisine Hall.

The courtyard, which usually smelled of herbs and was orderly, was today shrouded in an atmosphere where indescribable restlessness and eerie silence intertwined.

In the dispensing room, the drying yard, the decoction room... all the apprentices, male and female alike, had no heart for their work. They gathered in small groups, whispering with glowing eyes, discussing excitedly.

"Is it really Senior Brother Jiang? My god! I even helped him move medicinal materials the day before yesterday!"

"Senior Brother Jiang is usually so gentle and doesn't even speak loudly. How could he be... be the one who slaughtered through the White Dragon Gang in a single night..."

"You can't judge a book by its cover! Think about it, wasn't Senior Brother Jiang exceptionally strong? That time in the warehouse with the three-hundred-pound medicinal grinder, he moved it all by himself!"

"Right, right, right! And that other time when a mad stray dog in the back mountain attacked someone, Senior Brother Jiang just picked up a stone and knocked it unconscious from over a yard away! We laughed and said he was lucky back then..."

"Thinking about it now, that wasn't luck at all! That was martial arts!"

The young apprentices grew more excited as they spoke, their faces flushed with a sense of shared glory.

A few bold ones even began to mimic the battle scenes they had heard about from last night, gesturing with their fists and feet while making 'hei-ha' sounds, drawing bursts of laughter and even more heated discussion.

"Senior Brother Jiang must have possessed peerless martial arts for a long time, he was just keeping a low profile!"

"Maybe he's a young master from some Martial Forest family who met with disaster and hid his identity here to recover from his injuries!"

"Exactly! That's how it's written in the storybooks! A heavily injured expert is saved by a kind pharmacist, hides in the marketplace, silently recovers, and then one day, the dragon returns to the sea and the tiger roars in the mountain forest!"

Once the imagination of youth took flight, it could no longer be reined in.

In their minds, they had already composed a series of bizarre and soul-stirring Jianghu legends for that taciturn and medically skilled Senior Brother Jiang.

It was as if the gentle Senior Brother who was still guiding them in identifying herbs yesterday had, in the blink of an eye, become one of those tragic heroes from the storybooks who bore a blood feud, endured for years, and finally took revenge with the force of thunder.

In stark contrast to the apprentices' excitement were the pharmacists who actually held ranks.

Most of them were older and more experienced, and at this moment, they all remained silent.

Some organized medicinal materials alone, their movements much slower than usual; some stared blankly at prescriptions, their eyes wandering; some gathered in corners in groups of two or three, exchanging uncertain and shocked looks, not daring to discuss loudly.

Shock, regret, lingering fear, and even a faint trace of dread intertwined in their hearts.

They were shocked that the colleague they saw every day was actually such a terrifying star of slaughter.

They regretted that they hadn't noticed a thing in the past, missing out on a potentially existing Opportunity.

They felt lingering fear over whether they had unintentionally offended him in the past.

They were terrified of that hidden depth of character and ruthlessness.

To be able to hide such world-shaking martial power under the appearance of an ordinary pharmacist for several months—the depth of his Heart-Nature made one shudder just thinking about it.

Under the corridor, Pharmacist Qu Fengchun stood with his hands behind his back, watching the restless apprentices and the silent, suppressed pharmacists in the courtyard, remaining speechless for a long time.

Sunlight filtered through the eaves, casting mottled shadows on his graying hair and lean face.

He recalled the day of the assessment for new pharmacists at the Medicinal Cuisine Hall a few months ago.

That youth had stood alone in the corner of the registration area, wearing a set of faded coarse cloth clothes, his figure slightly thin, but his back was ramrod straight.

The assessment documents he handed in were written in neat handwriting, and his foundation in pharmacology was solid beyond what someone his age should have. Even rarer was his almost intuitive sensitivity to the pairing of medicinal properties.

During the interview, the youth didn't say much, answering only when asked. His eyes, however, were clear and calm, showing none of the cowardice or impetuousness common in young people.

At that time, he had felt that this was a good prospect, though there seemed to be a gloom hidden between his brows that far exceeded his age.

Later, this youth indeed did not disappoint him.

He was diligent, down-to-earth, and had extremely high Comprehension Ability. In just a few months, he had promoted from Third-Grade to Second-Grade and even improved 'Warm Sun Broth', a fine prescription that benefited the public.

He had truly believed that the future of the Medicinal Cuisine Hall might be entrusted to this young man's hands.

Who could have imagined...

Pharmacist Qu Fengchun slowly closed his eyes, took a deep breath of the familiar medicinal fragrance, and slowly exhaled.

He seemed to see again that wild figure in the rain that night, atop the river, treading waves and singing as his punch suppressed a Dragon Elephant, slowly overlapping with the handsome youth in his memory who focused on weighing medicinal materials before the medicine furnace.

"...After all, he is not a creature meant for a small pond."

He opened his eyes, looked at the drifting clouds on the horizon, and let out a very soft, very complex sigh.

In that sigh, there was emotion, regret, a realization that came too late, and a trace of... gratification that even he himself hadn't noticed.