NOVEL ONLINE FREE Chapter 160: Chapter 160
After bathing, Xia Zhi returned to his upstairs room, completed his daily tasks, and quietly went to bed with the sound of rain.
Before him were countless dream bubbles of various colors.
Xia Zhi moved through this beautiful scenery, randomly chose a dream bubble, and reached out to touch it.
A strange attractive force came over him.
The scene before Xia Zhi's eyes blurred, and he appeared in a stranger's dream.
This seemed to be a small valley.
Green trees, birdsong, a wooden house.
Xia Zhi looked around, suddenly hearing violent coughing from inside the house, breaking the quiet.
"Master..."
"Baizhu."
Baizhu?
Xia Zhi was startled hearing this name, looking toward the wooden house.
Had he "coincidentally" entered Baizhu's dream?
Xia Zhi thought for a moment, activated [Hat of Secrecy]'s stealth state, and walked toward the wooden house.
The door was ajar.
Xia Zhi pushed open the door, walked inside, and found people in a room filled with medicinal smells.
A withered middle-aged man with white hair leaned against the headboard, a white snake coiled around his arm.
A green-haired young man with a worried expression stood by the bed, holding a bowl of warm medicine.
Xia Zhi recognized this young man as Baizhu in his youth.
He wasn't wearing glasses yet, and his demeanor wasn't as gentle and mature as now, but he still had the same silver progress bar as in reality, also at [9%].
Clearly, Baizhu was this dream's owner.
Xia Zhi looked again at Baizhu's master lying in bed.
Plagued by countless illnesses and poisons, his vitality long exhausted, he was now only forcefully hanging onto life, but couldn't last much longer.
He was about to die.
Yet his expression was very peaceful, without any fear of death, only some regret and confusion in his eyes.
"Baizhu, cough cough, let me tell you a story. This story was told to me by my master before his death, cough cough, and now, it's my turn to tell it to you."
"Master..."
The white snake coiled on his arm, seeing his unending coughs, hesitated before its round pupils suddenly brightened.
Then his vertical pupils also brightened, and his coughing ceased.
Xia Zhi knew he had used up his last breath of life. Though his condition seemed to improve, it was only a temporary final radiance.
He was about to die.
"Once there was a plague tormenting all living things. A healer made a great vow to eliminate all suffering in the world."
"But even with a kind heart and wonderful skills, mortals could not resist natural disasters."
"After years of practicing medicine, even those closest to him fell ill, about to bid farewell to the healer."
"Legend said that in the deep mountains of Chenyu Valley lived a Medicine Lord who could cure all diseases."
"The healer went to the mountain alone but only found a white snake, exhausted and weak."
"The white snake said to the healer."
"[Sign a contract, share life with me.]"
"[I will teach you the secret method of saving people.]"
"[But never forget, this method will eventually harm oneself.]"
"From then on, the healer used supernatural means to reverse life and death, bringing miracles."
"But farewells still came unexpectedly, only now it was the healer, drained of vitality, who bid the world goodbye."
"Finally, the healer passed the contract to his last patient, his most favored disciple. That disciple decided to use this life to save more lives."
"One generation thus, generation after generation the same."
He looked at Baizhu and sighed lightly.
"Since inheriting the contract, I've never doubted the path chosen by our ancestral masters, nor the path I'm about to take."
"Until I tried to use this method to save a junior's loved one, and she begged me not to harm my vitality further, saying this was a evil method like drinking poison to quench thirst, saying it was a poisonous art against heaven's principles."
"Saying she wouldn't trade one loved one's sacrifice for another loved one's life."
"Only then did I realize, how was the pain in my heart when my master passed any different from the family by the sickbed?"
"Weren't all these lives dying early because of this contract also worth saving?"
"Is this contract medicine or poison to us?"
"I no longer have time to find the answer."
He reached out and firmly grasped Baizhu's hand.
"Baizhu, I entrust this question, along with Changsheng, to you."
"I only hope you can find the prescription to solve this dilemma..."
Baizhu's expression was grieved as he nodded seriously.
"I understand, Master."
A smile appeared on his face.
Then his hand grasping Baizhu fell limply.
"Mas...ter...!"
The scene before him began to distort.
This meant the dream's owner was about to wake up.
This dream would dissipate with it.
Xia Zhi quietly watched Baizhu, suddenly raising his hand to cast a light spell.
[Detect Evil].
This was the spell he had once used on Cloud Retainer. More accurately, it should be called [Detect Good and Evil], but its original purpose was to detect whether someone was evil.
This spell had no destructive power but would show different colored auras based on the target's sins or merits.
Sins showed blood-red light, merits showed golden light. The brighter the light, the deeper the sin or greater the merit.
Xia Zhi cast [Detect Evil] on Baizhu.
In the last moment before the dream dissipated, he saw a dazzling golden light shine from Baizhu.
This level of brightness seemed not far from Cloud Retainer's.
The scene before him blurred again, and Xia Zhi returned to the ocean of dream bubbles.
He recalled the golden light that had shone from Baizhu, his expression somewhat strange.
The young Baizhu in the dream looked quite healthy, yet now he was in almost the same terrible condition as his master, plagued by countless illnesses and poisons. Who knows how many lives he had saved using [Secret Life Exchange Method] over these years to accumulate such deep merit.
The physicians of their lineage were all good people who helped the world.
Xia Zhi couldn't help but sigh.
Good people should be rewarded.
Don't worry, you won't die.
--
Bubu Pharmacy.
Baizhu suddenly awoke from his dream.
Changsheng coiled by his pillow, asking: "What's wrong?"
Baizhu rubbed his forehead, saying softly: "Nothing, I just had a dream."
He looked at the incense burner on the table. The incense had burned out, though some fragrance still lingered in the air.
Changsheng asked: "What did you dream about?"
Baizhu was silent for a moment, then said: "I dreamed of Master, dreamed of him entrusting you to me..."
Hearing this, Changsheng also fell silent.
This dream was heavy, because Baizhu's current physical condition was very close to his master's condition then. The dream seemed to foretell he would follow his master's path.
"Baizhu..."
"It's alright, Changsheng, I've made the immortality medicine."
"That's not true immortality medicine... it will only maintain your body in the crevice between life and death, extending your life a little longer."
"At least there's hope... The night is long, let's sleep..."
Baizhu lay back down and closed his eyes.
He suddenly remembered that at the moment of waking, there seemed to be a bright golden light shining from him.
Things that happen in dreams are indeed strange.
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