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

That frame-up was exposed by Yang Hu in public.

However, the barbarian army outside the city would not stop for even a moment because of the infighting inside the city.

On this day, the barbarian attacks came wave after wave, each more fierce than the last. The sounds of battle echoed from the city walls.

In the afternoon, a commander named Chen, who was in charge of defending the city, was hurriedly carried down from the city wall.

That was a fierce general under General Chen, whom Yang Hu had previously saved from the brink of death by piercing his heart. He was usually exceptionally brave on the city walls, having killed countless barbarians. At this moment, he had an arrow in his left shoulder, which his comrades had already pulled out, but the flesh around the wound was turning a horrifying bluish-black at a visible speed.

"Medical Officer Yang! Captain Chen has been struck by a poisoned arrow from the barbarians!"

Yang Hu's heart sank, and he quickly stepped forward.

He took Captain Chen's pulse and examined the wound. The wound was bluish-black, and the swelling was spreading inch by inch. The left arm, where the arrow had struck, was numb and devoid of feeling. Captain Chen's eyes were bloodshot, his forehead was burning hot, and he began to ramble incoherently.

"It's arrow poison," Yang Hu said decisively. "The barbarians poisoned the arrowhead. Although the arrow has been removed, the poison is still in the flesh and blood, and it's traveling along the blood vessels towards the heart. If the poison isn't removed soon, it will attack the heart, and even a god couldn't save it."

The military doctors standing by were already at a loss.

"We've removed the arrow and applied wound medicine, but it's still the same." An old doctor shook his head repeatedly. "This is poisoning; who can do anything about it? We can only leave it to fate."

"Leave it to fate?" Yang Hu's eyes turned cold. "It's because you don't know how to remove the poison!"

Ordinary methods of removing the arrow and applying medicine are of no use to this poisoned arrow wound. Although the arrow has been removed, the poison from the arrowhead has already remained in the flesh and blood, accumulating deeper and deeper.

When struck by a poisoned arrow, the fatal part is not the arrow itself, but the poison that remains in the wound and travels through the bloodstream to the heart. To save one's life, the poison must be forced out of the flesh, bit by bit, until it is completely expelled.

There is no room for hesitation.

"Hold him down!" Yang Hu ordered sharply, taking out a small knife soaked in strong liquor. "Prepare the strong liquor, a clean cloth, and my antidote herbs!"

Qin Ying, disguised as a medicine boy, had already deftly handed over strong liquor, clean cloths, and antidote herbs, and then stepped forward to help restrain the struggling Captain Chen. Over the past few days, she, the "medicine boy," had become Yang Hu's most capable assistant in his rescue efforts.

He first used a rope to tightly tie a line around the upper part of Captain Chen's left arm, cutting off the path of the poisonous blood as it traveled upwards to the heart. This step was to stop the poison rushing towards the heart, creating a glimmer of hope for the subsequent removal of the poison.

Immediately, he raised his knife and slashed decisively along the dark blue arrowhead.

This cut is meant to widen the wound and release the stagnant toxins that have remained deep inside.

A stream of dark purple, poisonous blood gushed out from the cut. The blood was shiny black and had a pungent, fishy smell—a clear sign that the arrow poison had entered the bloodstream.

While squeezing around the wound with his fingers to drain the toxic blood trapped in the flesh, Yang Hu continuously rinsed the open wound with strong liquor, washing away the remaining toxins deep inside. Captain Chen trembled violently from the pain, his teeth clenching so tightly they cracked, but Yang Hu's hand remained as steady as a rock, without the slightest tremor.

This process of draining the poisoned blood and washing away the stagnant toxins looked more ruthless than killing someone, leaving the accompanying physician speechless with astonishment. But Yang Hu knew in his heart that if he hesitated even a second, the poison would penetrate deeper into his heart.

He stopped when the gushing blood gradually turned from dark purple to bright red. He then applied the heat-clearing, detoxifying, and tissue-regenerating herbs, carefully bandaged the wound with a cloth soaked in the herbal juice, and gave Captain Chen a bowl of warm, detoxifying soup.

"Apply the antidote herbs to the outside to draw out the poison, and drink the antidote soup to attack the inside," Yang Hu said in a deep voice, standing beside Captain Chen. "Only by attacking from both inside and outside can we completely force out this arrow poison."

Time passed, little by little.

The arrow poison, which had initially been targeting his heart, was gradually forced back under this treatment involving widening the wound, draining the poison, and administering both internal and external medications. Captain Chen's bloodshot eyes gradually regained their clarity, and his burning forehead slowly cooled down. His numb left arm regained a semblance of sensation.

A life that was about to be taken by arrow poison was once again pulled back from the brink of death by Yang Hu.

Those military doctors who had previously said "leave it to fate" were all dumbfounded when they saw the blackish-purple poisonous blood forced out and the Captain Chen who had escaped death.

They practiced medicine their whole lives, only knowing how to remove arrows and apply medicine. Who would have thought that this person, who was hit by a poisoned arrow and was about to die from the poison, could actually be saved by widening the wound and draining the poison?

"Where did Physician Yang learn all these skills?" The old doctor who had previously said "Leave it to fate" stood there, stunned, his hand pausing as he ground medicine.

Yang Hu did not answer. He had no way of explaining this method of expanding detoxification and attacking from both inside and outside to the people of this era. He only knew that this method could save lives.

And the one who was saved was a fierce general who could fight on the city walls.

At this critical juncture of defending the isolated city, rescuing such a talented general is like adding a strong pillar to the already precarious defenses. With one more valiant general wielding a sword on the city walls, there is a greater chance of holding this pass. Here, medicine is not merely about saving lives; it truly holds the life and death of this isolated city in its hands.

Captain Chen slowly regained consciousness, looked at Yang Hu who was guarding him, and weakly but solemnly clasped his hands in a fist salute.

"I will remember Physician Yang's life-saving grace."

"Keep it healed," Yang Hu said calmly. "I'll save your arm. Once it's healed, go back up to the city wall and chop down a few more barbarians for me."

After finishing his preparations, Yang Hu's gaze fell on the poisoned arrow that had been pulled out.

The method of poisoning the arrowheads was both even and deep, far beyond the crude methods of ordinary barbarians.

The meticulous poisoning technique suggests that someone had specifically instructed the barbarians.

Yang Hu gripped the arrow, his fingertips sinking as a chill ran through him.

The barbarians are fierce, but they are not skilled in such insidious poisoning techniques. Looking across the entire border, there is no one else who can teach the barbarians this kind of poisoning and also continuously supply military medicine and weapons into their camp, except for that hand hidden deep within the central command tent, which is in league with foreign powers.

The fiercer the barbarians outside the city were, the more it highlighted how grave the crime of colluding with the enemy was.

Yang Hu clenched his fist and looked up at the sky shrouded in smoke.

The people he saved and the people he wanted to arrest were originally at opposite ends of the same line.

The barbarians' poisoned arrows killed the brothers on the city walls; the medicine and weapons that hand fed to the barbarians were precisely the kind of deadly poisoned arrows they produced. The fighting outside the city and the covert struggle inside were always on the same front.

Yang Hu slung his medicine chest over his shoulder, took one last look at the poisoned arrowhead, and carefully put it away. This arrowhead, along with the fake account book from the northern front and the familiar seal, was yet another piece of evidence of that hand's collusion with the enemy.

He held the page up to the light, and the ink showing through the back of the paper was crooked and twisted, like a worm that had crawled halfway through.

His hands were meant to not only snatch the lives of his brothers defending the city from the barbarians' poisoned arrows, but also to follow the evidence and root out the black hand that had fattened the barbarians and brought suffering to the border, from the deepest shell of the central command tent.