Chapter 42 No Effort Required

  As he thought of this, Mo didn't ask and took out the paper from his pocket. The paper detailed the location of the patient, which was a place he knew well, having wandered around with Lao Wu in Ye City for several days before heading to Wuliang Mountain. It was located in the northern city, about twenty or thirty miles away.

  On the paper, there were only a few words about the patient's condition: "Twenty years old, bedridden for over a hundred days, with yellow pus and foul ulcers all over his body." It roughly meant that the patient was a man in his twenties who had been bedridden for half a year with severe ulcers all over his body. This disease was extremely difficult to treat, filthy and disgusting, and ordinary doctors were unwilling to take on the task. However, Mo Xun didn't think much of it and went there in big strides. The diseases Yu Linglong was looking for were naturally extremely difficult to cure, but since she had sent people to treat him, it meant that the disease had a possibility of being cured.

  At noon, Mo Wen arrived at the patient's residence in Beicheng. Following the map, he found the house, which was a family that specialized in rice processing and grinding. The house was not small, and on the wall outside the door, there were posted notices seeking medical help. The notices had been pasted up for several days, indicating that the owner had been searching for a doctor for some time. The description of the illness on the notice was roughly similar to what was recorded on the Yu Linglong paper, but with an additional item - a reward of 20 taels of white silver.

  At this time, buying a young woman only required three or four taels of silver, and twenty taels could almost buy seven young women, which was absolutely not a small amount for a family that made a living by grinding rice.

  After a brief moment of hesitation, Mo Xun walked to the door and raised his hand to knock on it. In fact, according to the Taoist etiquette, a Taoist was not supposed to knock on the door, but instead should chant the name of the infinite heavenly lord at the entrance.

  After a while, the gate was pulled open from inside by someone. The one who opened the door was a young woman, about twenty-seven or eight years old, wearing a red and green dress, with rice powder on her face, and her facial features were quite regular.

  "Boundless Heaven Venerable, has seen a good person." Without asking, he bowed his head and opened his mouth. Monks call laymen donors, while Taoists refer to them as good people.

  "What brings you to this humble path?" The young woman looked up and down at Mo Xiang.

  "I'm just a humble monk who has a rough understanding of medicine. I heard that someone in your esteemed household is ill, so I came to establish a good connection." Mo asked Dao said.

  "Please come in." The young woman stepped aside and raised her hand, inviting Mo Wen into the courtyard.

  The house is divided into two courtyards, the front courtyard is where people live, and the back courtyard is a mill for grinding rice. At this time, there was a sound of pounding coming from the mill, presumably someone was working in the mill.

  "My son lives in the east wing, Master Dao has asked you to follow me." The young woman turned around and walked towards the east.

  Mo Wen followed behind, slightly puzzled. The paper money and cloth all said that the sick person was a man in his twenties, but this woman was less than thirty years old, yet she called herself "mother", presumably a stepmother.

  The yard wasn't big, a young woman walked to the east wing and pushed open the door. As soon as the door opened, a strong foul smell suddenly rushed out, with a pungent odor that was irritating to the nose and throat.

  The young woman opened the door but did not enter. Instead, she covered her nose and stood beside the door. Mo asked looked at her for a moment, then stepped into the east wing.

  The east wing is divided into two rooms, a bedroom on the north side and a study on the south side. The desk in the study still has books on it. The bedroom on the north side has a door curtain hanging from it, making it impossible to see inside. The entire room is filled with a pungent stench of rot and a thick medicinal smell, it's clear that this family has been trying to cure the man suffering from a malignant boil.

  Mo didn't hesitate after entering the room, lifting the curtain to enter the northern house. Before coming here, he already knew that the patient had a malignant boil, so when he saw the young man lying on the bed, he wasn't surprised. The boils on this person's body were even milder than he had imagined, with the largest ones being only about the size of a fingernail. However, many places had already broken skin and were oozing pus, which was why the smell in the room was so unbearable.

  The young man lying in bed heard the voice, opened his eyes and looked at Mo Wen for a moment, then let out a sigh and closed his eyes again. Mo Wen was too young to be a doctor who understood medicine.

  The Taoist doctor also couldn't avoid looking, listening, asking and feeling the pulse. At first glance, without asking, he could see that this person was not suffering from a lung disease, but rather an external toxin invading internally, with the toxin still present only on the outside of the body and not yet invading the five internal organs.

  "I'll take your pulse for you." Mo Wen moved to the bedside.

  "This disease is contagious, don't come near." The young man hid his hands under the quilt.

  Mo Wen shook his head and sighed when he heard the words. Just by listening to this sentence, he knew that this person had been misdiagnosed by a mediocre doctor. He was poisoned, not infected with the plague.

  "How many days has he been ill?" Mo asked, turning around to ask a young woman standing outside the door.

  "It's been three months." The young woman replied.

  Don't ask, Wen Yan furrowed his brow, three months is too long, if you don't take the pulse, it's hard to determine how much the external poison has invaded internally.

  "What you have contracted is not a plague, but poisoning. Have you been to any unclean places before?" Mo asked, turning his head to ask the young man.

  "What is an unclean place?" The young man asked in a low voice.

  "Rotting wood is everywhere." Mo asked, "The foul abscess flows with yellow pus and greenish water. This poison should be of the fire nature of wood."

  "He usually only works at home and has never been to such an unclean place." The young man saw Mo's calm demeanor and couldn't help but look up to him.

  "Where have you been for the past three days before falling ill? Have you seen any strange poisonous insects?" Mo asked again. This man had a foul odor on him, which was different from the smell of rotting corpses he had smelled before, indicating that this person was poisoned by an animal toxin, and not by the evil gas of rotten wood.

  The young man's eyes glazed over as he recalled the past, and after a moment, he spoke up, "Those days I was just working at the mill, didn't go out, and didn't see any poisonous insects either."

  The young man finished speaking, Mo asked nodded and turned around to leave the house, closing the door behind him. He raised his hand slightly towards the young woman waiting outside, "Take me to the mill for a look."

  The latter hastily led the way forward, Mo asked to follow behind. He had only been studying the art of medicine in the mountains before and was not confident in his abilities, but now that he had come down from the mountain and used his skills to save someone, he discovered that he was far superior to those mediocre doctors. This evil boil that made the mediocre doctors helpless seemed easy to diagnose and even easier to cure in his eyes, as long as he could find the source of the toxin, he could immediately detoxify it.

  The mill was a large wooden house, with the grinding disc and sieve frame in the center, the eastern side had a mortar and pestle, the western side had a small wooden house for storing grain, and the northern side had a large pile of hay, at this time an old man with a flower-patterned jacket was treading on the mortar beside him.

  "This young doctor has come to take a look at your condition." The young woman explained Mo's intention to the old man.

  "The Taoist priest was compassionate and said, 'If it can save the child's life, I will not be short of silver or oil. If rice is needed, take it yourself.'" The old man immediately walked over and bowed his head in grief.

  "The elder can rest assured, I will definitely do my best." Mo didn't ask and nodded, then walked into the mill to search around. This large wooden house should have been built for many years. When it was first built, all the materials used were logs, but later on, due to mouse bites and insect damage, they were repaired with wooden boards. As a result, there must be gaps left behind. Moreover, at this time, winter has already arrived, even if there are poisonous insects, they should all be hibernating. Therefore, after searching for half an hour, he still found nothing.

  "Dig a fire pit and light the firewood." Mo Wen said to the old man. The old man, though unclear about what was going on, still went out to find farm tools to dig the pit. Mo Wen then turned to the young woman, "Go to the pharmacy and buy back two catties of realgar."

  The young woman nodded in agreement and turned away.

  The old man quickly dug out a three-step square fire pit in the center of the house, and then piled up firewood according to Mo's pointing and lit it.

  "What does this mean?" asked the old man, turning to Mo Wu who was standing by the fire pit.

  Don't ask about the previous overnight journey, it's inevitable to feel tired and sleepy. At this time, being roasted by the fire, the sleepiness is even heavier. Hearing the words, he forced himself to be spirited and replied, "This mill has been storing grain for many years, and it's inevitable that there will be insects and mice inhabiting it. The insects and mice will also attract poisonous snakes. If my guess is not wrong, your illness should be caused by external invasion of snake poison. Now that winter has arrived, the poisonous snakes are hibernating. We should set up a fire to warm up, and use realgar to smoke them out from their hiding places."

  "But I have never seen a venomous snake in this house," said the old man.

  Don't ask about what was said without a response. The mill appeared with mouse-catching snakes and bugs, which is reasonable. If there were no poisonous snakes, it would be unreasonable instead.

  Before long, the young woman bought back the realgar. Mo asked to take over the package of realgar and threw it into the fire pit. In an instant, white smoke filled the air, pungent and irritating to the nose.

  "This smoke is toxic, inhaling it will cause coughing, you two wait outside." Mo Xun waved his hand at the two of them.

  The two of them hastily turned around and went out of the house. The young woman stood outside the door, while the old man walked out of the gate to inform the villagers that the smoke was just for smoking insects, not a fire.

  Yu Linglong had previously imparted were all outline methods, after learning the medical principles, one could clearly distinguish and understand, far surpassing those doctors who only memorized prescriptions. No need to ask, at this moment, I am confident and certain that I can smoke out that hidden poisonous snake.

  Due to the heavy medication, after a moment, the mice scurried out of the dark and fled towards the door, frightening the young woman who screamed and ran away.

  After the mice ran away, it was the turn of the insects to suffer. These insects did not know how to escape and were all exterminated.

  After a while, Mo Wen finally waited for the real owner, a one-foot-long green-striped red snake came out of the small house where grain was stored. Due to the cold weather, it didn't move very fast and was killed by Mo Wen with a stick and taken out of the door.

  Green is wood, snakes belong to fire, and fire is red. This poisonous snake with red and green stripes should be the real thing without a doubt. However, this poisonous snake seems too ordinary, just an ordinary species. That young man was full of energy, how could he be injured by the venom of such an ordinary poisonous snake?

  With doubts in his heart, he waited for a short while longer, but no more snakes came out. The old man was worried that the sulfur smoke would spoil the rice, so after getting Mo's consent, he filled up the fire pit.

  The venom invaded from the outside in, to expel the poison, it must be from the inside out. The young man took the dried and crushed red flower snake and immediately had unstoppable diarrhea. Diarrhea was the expulsion of poison, and the expulsion of poison was a symptom. By late afternoon, the young man's abscesses had dissipated by more than half, and he asked to eat. Wanting to eat indicated that the toxicity was starting to resolve.

  Although the old man and his family, as well as the villagers, all praised him as a divine doctor with sacred hands, Mo Wen still felt that the poison had been cured too easily. Feeling uneasy, he rested for an hour before waking up to find that the young man's condition had not relapsed. Only then did he accept their thanks and leave the mill.

  At this time, night has already fallen...

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