Shouzhuo, born with a frail constitution, had finally found his way to the Divine Doctor.
"Your body's not in good shape," the Divine Doctor said, taking Shouzhuo's pulse. "You look strong on the outside but are quite weak on the inside. This is a congenital condition, and not something that can easily be fixed. You won't live long if you don't take care."
"I know," Shouzhuo replied. "But I'm not here for treatment. I'd like to ask about the 'Demon Doctor.' I heard you once compared medical skills with him?"
Shouzhuo cast a glance at the serious-looking Divine Doctor, who was still carefully checking his pulse.
"Young man, don't be impatient," the Divine Doctor said. "Although your condition is difficult to cure, there's still a way to manage it. I'll prescribe a formula for you; take it every day. It won't resolve your condition entirely, but it might buy you more time—at least you'll live a few days longer."
After thinking for a moment, he wrote down the prescription and handed it to Xiaofei standing nearby.
"Divine Doctor, are you really saying there's no hope for our young master's body?" Xiaofei asked in worry.
"His condition was determined at birth; it's not something I can easily change. But if you can find Kei the Divine Doctor, he might be able to help."
"Divine Doctor, I've been asking you this for a while now—where exactly is that 'Demon Doctor'? You still haven't answered."
"'Demon Doctor'? Never heard of one. I only know a gifted young man named Kei the Divine Doctor," the elder said. He knew of the rumors circulating outside, but he no longer believed them because he had met Kei personally. Kei was nothing like the unscrupulous traitor to humanity that rumor made him out to be.
"You think he could be that kind of person?" Shouzhuo asked.
"He certainly is not," the Divine Doctor said with confidence. "Kei may be young, but his medical skills are exceptional. More importantly, he has a healer's conscience—not in the sense that he's all kindness and tears for anyone who's wounded, but rather that he's willing to lend a hand if someone comes seeking help. He just does what feels natural. He asks nothing in return, simply following his own heart."
Ever since that night, the Divine Doctor had become one of Kei's biggest supporters. He would go on about how wonderful Kei was to anyone who would listen. If someone so much as uttered a single negative comment, the old man would argue back heatedly.
"All right, Divine Doctor, thank you for your help. We'll be on our way," Shouzhuo said, turning to leave in a hurry.
"Don't go yet! I still have more to tell you about Kei the Divine Doctor…"
Shouzhuo, seeing that he wasn't going to learn anything more useful here, took off immediately. His next destination was Tushan.
Meanwhile, Kei was traveling with only Husky 040 by his side. Husky's underlings had scattered during their earlier flight, claiming that moving in one large group made them too easy to track. Their plan was to spread out and slip away unnoticed.
Those not quick enough to escape had been caught by Grandpa Chicken's people. But since life there wasn't too bad, they decided to stay. Now they had no idea where Kei and Doggo had gone, leaving them feeling cut off.
"Boss, where are we headed now?" asked Husky (Doggo).
"I'm not sure," Kei admitted. "After all the random turns you took, I can't figure out exactly where we are. But we should probably keep heading north—when we run into a town or city, we'll ask for directions."
He looked around at the forest. Truth be told, Kei himself was lost. He had to hand it to Doggo: even Doggo rarely knew his own next step, so how could any pursuer?
Kei rode on Husky's back through the woods, until they came upon a small creek. They went over to get a drink of water, only to startle a nearby demon. At the sight of them, the creature darted into the stream in fright.
"Hey, don't be scared," Kei called from the bank. "We're not bad guys. We just want to get a drink and ask for directions. How do we get to the nearest city around here?"
The creek was crystal clear, but when Kei peered in, he saw no sign of that demon. Likely some innate ability to hide in water.
Eventually, a head emerged in the distance. "If you walk that way for one day, you'll reach it," the demon said, pointing.
Kei followed the direction of the demon's finger, then frowned. "Come on, we just came from there. There's no city that way."
"Believe whatever you want." The demon ducked underwater again and didn't come back up.
"Doggo, weren't we traveling from that direction earlier?" Kei asked.
"We should have been. But we changed course so many times I can only be certain about the last stretch. Earlier on, I'm not really sure."
"So, was that demon messing with us, or is there really a city over there?"
"I'm not sure," Doggo answered. "But I think that was a Water Leech demon, a race known for being kind. It's unlikely she was lying."
"All right then, let's head back and see."
Kei set off in the direction indicated by the water demon. Shortly after he left, Cuiyu Mingluan emerged from the creek. She wore a puzzled look: a human traveling with a demon? Weren't humans and demons supposed to be mortal enemies?
A day later.
"Boss, we were duped by that woman!" Doggo growled. "There's nothing out here but barren land—it's almost another country!"
"Let's go back!" Kei said.
"Yeah, let's go get our revenge! How dare she trick us like that!"
Turning right around, it took them just half a day to return to the creek. Spotting Cuiyu Mingluan again, Doggo barked furiously, "Hey you! You tricked us! Do you even know who I am? Do you know who my boss is? We could wipe you out anytime we want!"
"I believe it," replied Cuiyu Mingluan softly, eyes wide and innocent. "I'm just a weak woman and you two are powerful demons. Taking me down would be easy. But I don't know what I did to anger you."
"You told us the wrong way! We wasted an entire day and a half!"
"Wrong way? Not at all," Cuiyu Mingluan said, still looking woeful. "Maybe you got turned around yourselves. I pointed you in the correct direction."
She truly did look pitiful. No outsider would suspect any ill intent from her.
"Could be," Kei said. "So, how about you come along with us this time? Once you lead us to the city, I'll treat you to a meal."
"Sorry, I don't have time for that."
As Kei dismounted, ready to approach the creek in person, Cuiyu Mingluan tried to leap into the water again. Kei reached out a finger, touched the water's surface, and intoned, "Halt!"
In that instant, the surface of the creek solidified as though it were steel. Cuiyu Mingluan, unable to slip beneath, stumbled clumsily.
This move was taken from Jiro's secret point-striking techniques: with sufficient skill, he could momentarily "freeze" a whole ocean. Kei wasn't nearly that powerful yet, but locking down a small creek posed no problem.
"Got time to come with us now?" Kei asked calmly. "Because even if you don't, you have no choice."
Realizing she had encountered a true master, Cuiyu Mingluan tried to manipulate the water, only to find it utterly unresponsive—like it had died.
Kei and Doggo took her along as they continued their journey. As they traveled, they made small talk.
"You're a demon, aren't you? Why do you follow a human and call him 'Boss'?" Cuiyu Mingluan asked Doggo.
"You just don't get it," Doggo replied. "Our boss isn't an ordinary human. You must've heard of Grandpa Chicken, the great demon lord who rules the Seventy-Two Caves in the Northern Mountains?"
"Sure, Grandpa Chicken… So what?"
"If Grandpa Chicken meets our boss, he's all polite and deferential. In demon circles, do you know what they call our boss?"
"What?"
"They call him the 'Human Demon King.'"
Cuiyu Mingluan's eyes went wide. A "human" and a "demon king" were about as opposite as one could get.
"So you're telling me your boss is really powerful?"
"Very powerful—no, he's unbelievably powerful. Small fry demons like you could be squashed by his pinky. But he's got a good heart and doesn't kill needlessly. If you'd run into someone else, they might have done away with you already."
"Then I guess I'm lucky to have met you," she said.
"That's right. If not for us, other demons might not be able to pull you out of the water so easily in the first place," Doggo teased.
Cuiyu Mingluan partly gave up resisting out of curiosity toward Kei and Doggo, and partly because she really had no chance of beating them. If Kei could cut off her link to water with just one finger, how could she win?
"Well, if I hadn't tried to mess with you, you wouldn't have dragged me along," she said.
"We wouldn't have bothered if you hadn't lied about the path," Doggo retorted.
Suddenly, Kei said, "Stop."
Doggo skidded to a halt. Kei jumped off and headed into a nearby thicket.
"What's going on?" Cuiyu Mingluan asked in confusion.
"I'm guessing the boss found another injured demon. He's always like that," Doggo explained.
Sure enough, Kei soon called out, "Doggo, come check this out."
Doggo and Cuiyu Mingluan walked over—and froze in shock.
"That's…horrible," Doggo said with a shudder. "Who could do something like this? If you want to kill, at least make it quick. This is so brutal."
Before them lay a mangled corpse, too disfigured to identify. Blood had soaked the ground all around.
"It doesn't look like a normal killing," Kei murmured, carefully examining the wounds. "This is more like a dissection. Look here…and here. These marks weren't left by magic or from demon-on-demon fighting. There's no sign of a struggle. The victim was probably bound or otherwise restricted, then someone sliced into them bit by bit while they were still alive."
Kei's face turned grim as he pieced together the possible fate of the unfortunate demon.
"It's a fox demon," he said finally. Even though the telltale characteristics had been brutally destroyed, Kei's knowledge of fox demons allowed him to recognize the clues.
"To dissect someone alive…" Cuiyu Mingluan whispered, eyes turning pale with fear. "What kind of monster would do such a thing?"
"I'm not as concerned with who did it as I am with why—and why dump the body here?" Kei replied. "But never mind. Once we reach a city, I'll have someone pass word on to Grandpa Chicken and Tushan. This area belongs to Grandpa Chicken's domain, and the victim is a fox demon from Tushan. Neither side will ignore this."
"Doggo, dig a pit."
"On it!"
A husky's greatest talent was digging, and Doggo made short work of it. Kei carefully placed the fox demon's remains in the makeshift grave.
Cuiyu Mingluan watched them bury the corpse. "Shouldn't you keep the body for evidence?" she asked. "You could show it to Grandpa Chicken and Tushan."
"She's already suffered enough," Kei sighed. "No need to subject her remains to more indignities. At least now, she can rest in peace."
He placed a simple stone marker above the grave. After a moment of silence, the group set off again. Struck by Kei's compassion, Cuiyu Mingluan began to understand why Grandpa Chicken treated Kei with such respect.
"I never expected a human to be so considerate," Cuiyu Mingluan remarked. Her eyes shifted to a lively red as her demeanor grew more open and cheerful again.
"It was just something that needed doing. Let's hurry—if we push on, we can reach a city before nightfall."
Kei mounted Doggo again, with Cuiyu Mingluan seated side-saddle behind him, and the three resumed their journey. This time, because of the horrifying discovery along the way, Cuiyu Mingluan stopped playing tricks and guided them properly to the nearby demon city.
As soon as Kei entered, someone rushed up to him.
"Demon King, we finally found you! Quick, someone let Grandpa Chicken know he's here!"
Grandpa Chicken's network in the Northern Mountains was impressive—his subordinates were everywhere.
"Wait," Kei called to a bird demon about to take off. "There's something else you need to report to Grandpa Chicken."
"Yes, sir?" The bird demon tilted its head, listening closely.
"We found a corpse on our way here—a demon who was dissected while still alive, piece by piece. And it was a fox demon from Tushan."
The bird demon's feathers stood on end at once. Just imagining it was horrifying.
"Understood!" he squawked. "I'll find Grandpa Chicken before dawn and tell him every detail! You have my word!"
"Good. Hurry," Kei urged.
The bird demon flew off as fast as it could, determined to relay the message immediately.
"All right, that's done," Kei said. "Time to get on with our real business."
He glanced at Cuiyu Mingluan. "Thanks for guiding us. That settles our score."
Kei then opened up his simple medical booth in the city and prepared to tend to patients. He'd taken just a few steps when he turned back and saw Cuiyu Mingluan still standing there.
"It's late. Leaving the city now wouldn't be safe," she said. "I'll go tomorrow. Tonight, let me watch you work. I'm curious how you treat demon patients."
"Suit yourself," Kei replied. He certainly wasn't worried about anyone spying on his technique.
And so another companion joined Kei's small entourage for the evening.
(End of Chapter)
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