A divine healer, a general, a young marquis! Who can rival them!

After the gang of hooligans were driven away, Yang's Medical Clinic was quiet for a few days.

Yang Hu dared not let his guard down. His words, "Don't just send hooligans," were both a provocation and a test. He was certain that the other hand, having suffered a setback, would not give up easily and would only make a more insidious and ruthless move next.

Sure enough, trouble came a few days later. But this time, it came without warning.

One day, a patient with an emergency arrived in the south of the city.

He was a strong, middle-aged man, carried in by his family on a door plank. He had a boil on the back of his neck, which they initially mistook for a common boil, squeezing it a couple of times and not paying much attention to it. However, within two or three days, the boil had sunken and turned black at the top, hardened at the base, and spread in patches of red swelling around it. He began to develop a high fever, became delirious, and occasionally babbled incoherently. When he was brought in, half of his neck was swollen and shiny, his lips were purplish-black, and he was breathing more gasping for air than inhaling.

Yang Hu stepped forward, first examining the appearance and color of the boil, then feeling the pulse, which was rapid and forceful. He examined the patient's tongue, finding it to be bright red with a dry, yellow coating. He then touched the forehead, finding it alarmingly hot.

When he saw the items in pairs, his heart sank.

This is a case of boils spreading to the diaphragm; the toxins cannot escape externally and instead attack internally, seeping into the blood and affecting the heart. If left untreated, the person will die. In ancient times, doctors were often helpless in this situation, forced to watch the patient succumb to the poison and die.

"It's a boil that has penetrated deep into the body." Yang Hu made a quick decision. "We need to use a large dose of medicine to clear heat and detoxify, cool the blood and reduce swelling, to pull out and suppress this poison that has invaded the blood."

He picked up his pen and quickly wrote out a prescription. Honeysuckle, forsythia, violet, and dandelion were all essential herbs for clearing heat and detoxifying, and the dosage was extremely high.

"Su Qing, get the medicine as soon as possible, according to the prescription!"

Su Qing took the prescription and turned to go to the medicine cabinet. But a short while later, she returned, her face pale.

"Master, we don't have enough medicine." Her voice was strained. "We just sold a large batch of honeysuckle, forsythia, and violet from our warehouse the other day. We don't even have enough left for one dose."

"Then let's get it from another pharmacy!"

Su Qing bit her lip: "I've already asked the shop assistant. But all the major pharmacies in the city are out of stock of these heat-clearing and detoxifying herbs."

Yang Hu's pupils suddenly contracted.

Everything is out of stock.

In all his years of practicing medicine, he had never seen anything so strange. Honeysuckle and forsythia were common, everyday heat-clearing herbs; how could they have sold out overnight?

Unless, someone deliberately wiped them all out.

He asked Su Qing carefully: Is the shortage of these herbs a recent occurrence, or were there signs of it earlier? Su Qing thought for a while and her expression became serious: It turns out that for more than a month, the price of these herbs for clearing heat and reducing swelling in the city has been rising and the supply has been getting tighter, but it has never been as tight as it has been in the last two days, to the point that there is not a drop left.

A thought flashed through his mind like lightning.

Healing medicine.

That hand secretly hoarding wound medicine and hemostatic/tissue-regenerating drugs—wasn't it precisely these kinds of medicines for clearing heat, detoxifying, reducing swelling, and healing wounds? The army suffered the most wounded, and these medicines were essential for survival. That hand, in order to feed the barbarians beyond the Great Wall, plundered these medicines batch by batch, stockpiling them in the warehouse west of the city. Ordinary people used them in small quantities and didn't notice. But when they encountered someone like him, desperately needing large doses of heat-clearing and detoxifying medicine to save their life, they were immediately at a loss.

And now, the disastrous consequences of this plundering have struck him in such a way. Or perhaps, it was that hand using the interruption of medication as a pretext to strangle him.

"What a ruthless move." A cold glint flashed in Yang Hu's eyes. "Without making a sound, he just wants me to watch the patient die in front of me and ruin my reputation."

The patient on the bed had already begun to convulse. He had no time to think.

"Master, what should we do?" Su Qing asked anxiously.

Yang Hu, however, had already calmed down. His opponent had his lifeline in his grasp, but he was determined to carve out a way out from that very weakness.

"Willow Leaf!" he called out.

Willow leaves entered in response.

"These herbs grow wild on the hillsides, field ridges, and wetlands outside the city," Yang Hu said, drawing pictures of the herbs on a piece of paper. "Dandelions and violets are in full bloom right now, everywhere you look. Take two clever men and, following this picture, immediately go out of the city to collect as many as possible. Be sure to return before dark!"

Liu Ye was a hunter by trade, and her skills in recognizing herbs, finding her way around, and traversing mountains were unmatched by anyone in the city. She took the map, glanced at it, and nodded.

"I recognize all of these; there are plenty of them in the mountains. Leave it to me."

She turned around, and with her people, she left like the wind.

Yang Hu then turned to Su Qing: "Jichuntang is outside the city. Do you know any herbalists or medicinal gardens there?"

Su Qing slapped her forehead: "Yes! There's an old herbalist ten miles west of the city who supplies us with fresh herbs year-round. He might have some!"

"Go right now!"

The two groups of people went their separate ways. Yang Hu stayed by the patient's bedside, never leaving his side. He first took out silver needles and pricked several acupoints on the patient's Shaoshang and Shangyang points to release the heat and toxins from the blood; then, with a small knife disinfected with strong liquor, he gently made an incision at the top of the boil to let the stagnant pus drain out. After doing all this, he used the last of his medicine in the storeroom to brew a strong decoction, then pried open the patient's jaw and slowly poured it down his throat.

The medicine was weak, barely enough to keep him alive. The rest depended entirely on whether Liu Ye and Su Qing's group could bring back the life-saving medicine before the poison took hold.

The patient's high fever came in waves, and he nearly passed out several times. Yang Hu stayed by his bedside, using acupuncture and bloodletting to pull him back from his stupor time and time again, his forehead never dry with sweat.

Su Qing assisted from the side, watching her master race against time, her heart pounding in her chest. For the first time, she truly understood that on the path of medicine, sometimes it's not just about medical skills, but also about the courage and composure to survive in dire straits.

As dusk fell, Liu Ye returned, covered in dust, her basket overflowing with freshly picked herbs, still smelling of earth, the dandelion stems and leaves glistening with dew from the field ridges. Shortly after, the assistant Su Qing had sent to the west of the city also returned with the old herbalist's batch of herbs.

The medicine is ready.

Yang Hu personally supervised the decoction preparation, and a large dose of heat-clearing and detoxifying soup was poured down his throat. He stayed up all night to watch over him.

By daybreak, the patient's high fever had gradually subsided, and he had become more lucid. The grotesque boil on the back of his neck had also subsided in its redness and swelling.

The man was miraculously pulled back from the brink of death by the afternoon of the following day. He was able to open his eyes, eat some rice porridge, and recognize his family members who were watching over him by his bedside.

Su Qing breathed a long sigh of relief. Looking at her master's bloodshot eyes, she felt both heartache and admiration.

"Master, they cut off our medicine, yet you still managed to save their lives."

"They did manage to save him." Yang Hu, however, showed no sign of relief. Gazing out the window with a deep look in his eyes, he said, "But this time, I've realized something."

That hand could silently sweep away all the heat-clearing and detoxifying medicines in the entire city. Such wealth and ability were definitely not something an ordinary unscrupulous merchant could accomplish.

The fact that they could so secretly seize control of a city's medicinal herb supply meant that the underlying reasons were deeper and more powerful than he had imagined.

This is no merchant. This is clearly a colossal beast lurking in the shadows, its breath barely audible, entrenched between this city and that border, devouring grain, medicine, and lives.

And he had already stepped on its tail, step by step.