Li Qiuchen was an undocumented resident.
All the villagers of Songlin Village were undocumented. He had never seen government officials enter the mountains to levy taxes, which showed that the government didn't even know this village existed.
But if he wanted to earn a living in a big city, identification was essential.
Li Qiuchen had heard Boss Guan tell many stories about the outside world.
Several thousand years had passed since the founding of the Great Chu Dynasty, and its management of local prefectures, states, commanderies, and counties had reached a level that was quite mature, even somewhat stringent.
Homeless vagrants without household registration couldn't find work in the cities; if they weren't careful, they would be arrested and forced into corvée labor.
He hadn't held out much hope for this and had planned to slowly find a way to resolve his identity issue later. He hadn't expected to unexpectedly learn of such a method.
Back when he was in Songlin Village, Granduncle had excelled at using a secret technique that drove tree roots to bind living people.
But those tree roots actually had nothing to do with him—they were all the root systems of the old peach tree buried underground.
The old peach tree had used its massive root system developed over several hundred years to weave a net of heaven and earth spanning twenty li of mountain forests centered on Songlin Village.
If they hadn't used the waterways to escape, they would have had no chance whatsoever of escaping the old peach tree's demonic clutches.
Since the old peach tree could command its own roots, Li Qiuchen felt he should be able to do so as well.
He had seen this move more than once and more or less understood its principles.
So he found a suitable spot on the mountain and catalyzed the growth of a climbing ivy. During the past few days of waiting, it had silently crawled into the bandit stronghold and climbed onto the wall beside Jiao Potian's door.
By the time he came back to his senses, he found he had become like a vegetative person, his body covered in all sorts of roots and buds.
This was the side effect of using the Pharmacist's Blessing to manipulate vegetation—when body and mind were too deeply immersed, one was inevitably assimilated by the plants. Given another ten days or half a month, perhaps he truly would turn into a tree.
White Crane stood far off to the side, eyeing Li Qiuchen up and down with a suspicious gaze.
"I don't think you're a good person."
"Whether I'm a good person or not, are you only just seeing that now?"
"We did this together. We killed people together. If I'm not a good person, does that make you a good bird?"
After these past few days of waiting, Li Qiuchen had been immersed in catalyzing the climbing ivy and didn't feel bored. Instead, it was White Crane who couldn't sit still.
It wanted to charge straight in.
Li Qiuchen's assessment of this was—terrible but loved to play.
Why exchange blood for blood in a game that could be cleared without taking damage? Did it think it could just fool around recklessly because he could save it?
Song Laosan was quite moved by Jiao Potian's proposal. Without even eating—though there wasn't anything good to eat in this stronghold anyway—he left the stronghold and took his two sons straight to the scene of the crime.
Li Qiuchen didn't bother with the three of them.
These three were armed with blades, spears, and bows—clearly not easy to deal with.
Meanwhile, at the stronghold, before long Jiao Potian sent out a few more men. It looked like they were heading down the mountain to fetch a physician.
Li Qiuchen stood up, plucked the buds growing from his head, and whispered instructions to White Crane: "I'll find a way to slip inside. You provide support from outside. If things look bad, cover my escape."
"Gaa-gaa!"
White Crane's face was full of reluctance.
It wanted to fight.
Li Qiuchen had no choice but to take this stupid bird along with him.
The pair—one person and one bird—crossed mountains and forests, lying in ambush on the road the bandits would take down the mountain. Li Qiuchen wove himself a wicker basket and stuffed it with a mess of random medicinal herbs.
He sat by the roadside waiting for nearly half an hour before those bandits finally came riding over lazily on their horses. Who knew where they'd been wandering just now.
A team was truly hard to lead.
With the Chief bedridden, the hearts of those below had scattered.
A sharp-eyed bandit noticed Li Qiuchen sitting by the roadside and the white crane standing beside him, and his heart immediately tensed.
This getup clearly wasn't that of an ordinary person.
He exchanged a look with his companions, rode closer, coughed, and asked, "Whose kid are you? How did you run off into the mountains?"
Li Qiuchen gave them a wary look and said, "I'm following my master into the mountains to gather herbs. My master told me to wait here for him."
"Who is your master?"
"My master's name is Guan Damu. He's a wandering physician who specializes in treating people."
Oh?
The bandit's eyes lit up upon hearing this. Truly, what was sought in iron shoes could be found without effort.
The Chief had sent them down the mountain to fetch a physician but wasn't willing to pay. No one wanted to go. Originally, the few of them had even discussed whether to collectively run away and join another mountain stronghold.
They hadn't expected to run into a herb-gathering boy in the mountains.
You say his master is the physician, not him? What did that matter? Were the physicians down the mountain even reliable? Whether a patient lived or died depended entirely on whether Heaven favored them.
The brothers even had some unspeakable petty thoughts in their hearts.
If the Chief kicked the bucket, wouldn't everyone be able to divide the stronghold's wealth and return home to their mothers?
"Then do you know how to treat people?"
Li Qiuchen hesitated, then shook his head. "My master won't let me treat people. He says my skills aren't learned well enough. He only lets me prepare medicine according to prescriptions."
Hey? Isn't that convenient?
The few men exchanged glances, instantly developing a tacit understanding.
"Little physician, we have a patient right there. Why don't you go take a look?"
"No, I have to wait here for my master to return!"
Li Qiuchen refused firmly.
"When will your master return? It's getting dark soon. If he doesn't come back, are you going to sleep here? Why don't you come back with us first? It's close by, and your master can find his way there."
"No, no..."
"Saving a life... what comes after? Anyway, whether you're a mule or a horse, go take a look first. Your master won't blame you for it!"
After the men took turns persuading him, Li Qiuchen finally nodded in agreement.
Someone beside them couldn't resist reaching out to grab White Crane, who gave a fierce "gaa" that startled him badly.
"Don't touch it! This is the spiritual pet my master raised!"
Li Qiuchen quickly added, "We normally rely on it to gather herbs in the mountains. Don't hurt it!"
"Sure, sure, we'll listen to you. Let's go!"
The bandits cajoled and deceived the worldly-naïve little medicine boy, bringing him back to the stronghold.
"Chief! Chief! We've brought back a physician!"
Jiao Potian, lying in bed, had just dozed off when his underlings roused him. He opened his eyes groggily to see a child standing before him and was utterly baffled.
"The physician?"
"Yes, this is the physician's disciple!"
The underling turned back and called to Li Qiuchen: "Hurry over here and take a look at our Chief!"
Li Qiuchen didn't walk over. Standing in place, he frowned and said, "This isn't an illness. Has he run into an evil spirit?"
A divine physician!
Jiao Potian immediately sat up upon hearing this. "Divine physician, save me!"
"It's nothing serious. Don't be nervous."
Li Qiuchen waved his hand. "Running into evil spirits can't be cured with medicine. I'll boil you some calming medicinal soup. Drink it, sleep well, and once your spirit recovers, everything will be fine."
A divine physician! Truly a divine physician!
Jiao Potian trembled with excitement.
He had seen physicians before. Those physicians had been mystical and cryptic, talking about inner deficiency, outer deficiency, upper fire, lower fire, rattling on endlessly—he couldn't understand a word.
How could they compare to this little divine physician, who made everything perfectly clear in just two sentences?
Jiao Potian was very pleased, but his brothers below were somewhat disappointed.
Who would've thought that randomly picking up a child by the roadside would bring back someone with real skill?
But thinking about it, it made sense. Who would dare to enter these deep old forests without some real ability?
Li Qiuchen noticed the changes in those men's expressions, but on the surface, he continued pretending he knew nothing.
He went outside and instructed everyone to start a fire and boil a pot of hot water.
Li Qiuchen took out a handful of herbs from his wicker backpack and said to the man beside him, "This is called Calming Flower. After drinking it, you'll sleep soundly. However, all medicines are somewhat poisonous. Normally it should be mixed with other herbs to neutralize its toxicity, but I don't have any on hand..."
"It's fine. Our Chief has a strong body. He isn't afraid of poison!"
"What I mean is, do you have any grain or rice? Boil it together in the pot. It can neutralize some of the toxicity."
"Yes, yes, yes. We still have quite a bit of cornmeal here. Is cornmeal porridge okay?"
"That works."
With many hands collecting firewood, the flames burned high. In no time, a large pot of bubbling cornmeal porridge was ready.
Li Qiuchen ladled himself a bowl with a spoon. He tasted it, frowned, and said, "A bit bitter. I'll add some sugar."
He dug out the jar containing fruit jam, scooped out a large spoonful, and mixed it into the cornmeal porridge.
He tasted it again... Mm, this time the flavor was good.
Sour and sweet, fragrant and enticing—the neighbor's child would cry from craving it.
He fished out the boiled herbs from the cornmeal porridge and filled a bowl. Turning, he handed it to the man beside him and instructed seriously, "Send this to your Chief. Have him eat it while it's hot and then lie down to sleep. I'll burn some mugwort for you all to drive away the evil aura. That should take care of everything."
"Little divine physician, what should we do with the remaining porridge?"
"Pour it out."
"What a waste. Let's just divide it among ourselves."
"Sure."
This is you all asking to eat it yourselves.
Li Qiuchen walked to an open area, took out a strip of cloth to cover his head and face, grabbed a handful of dried herbs to ignite, and began wandering around muttering under his breath.
By the time the herbs in his hand finished burning, the entire stronghold was permeated with thick, medicinal smoke.
Some people began to sing; others began to dance.
White Crane spread its wings and flew into the air. One by one, its feathers transformed into streams of light that shot out. The bandits caught in hallucinations were harvested like crops, their lives reaped with effortless ease.
After several days of reconnaissance, Li Qiuchen had figured out the situation within the stronghold.
The real hardened bandits had perished in the mountains. Those left behind were the old, weak, sick, and disabled—utterly lacking in combat ability.
Only the outsider mountain guests were somewhat tricky, but the three of them had already left.
If not for this, he absolutely wouldn't have personally taken the risk to enter and poison them.
The facts were just as he had predicted. These bandits left guarding the stronghold were paper tigers. Without much effort at all, he wiped them out in one wave.
In the end, only the Chief, Jiao Potian, remained, struggling desperately in his sleep.