Chapter 1612: “Madly in Love with Medicine (2)”
Within the room, a hunchbacked figure was huddled over as he squatted beside a medicine stove. The entire room’s four walls were completely blackened, the colour looking like the result of them having been scorched and burnt by fire.
A little old man held a palm shaped fan in his hand as he squatted solemnly by the medicine stove, fanning the palm shaped fan in his hand seriously, with a vigor that attempted to make the flames burn more intensely. In his other hand, was a crumpled piece of paper held in his grip. He would for a moment gaze at the piece of paper awhile and then switch to watch the flames in the medicine stove for awhile after, his gaze highly focused, to the extent that when Tian Ze came charging in with a roar, the little old man’s face that usually did not show shock suddenly flashed with a sliver of fright where he very nearly threw the piece of paper he held in his hand right into the medicine stove.
“You little scoundrel! What are you hollering about! ?” The little old man then carefully held the treasure he had managed to get his hands on after much effort in his hands, his eyes glaring in contempt at Tian Ze who had come charging in. It was not known from when his white grey beard had been smudged with ash and people who did not know any better would have thought it was some beggar who had sprouted out of nowhere. Who would have thought that this very decrepit old man here would be the Headmaster of the Cloudy Brook Academy! ?
Tian Ze was suddenly feeling a little short of breath from the little old man’s shout and he instinctively shrank his head into his shoulders, unable to laugh or cry as he stared at the absolutely hilarious look his own Master was sporting at that very moment.
“It was wrong of me and I should not have shouted, but Master, haven’t we come to an agreement? We can only carry out the cultivation of medicine only on the academy’s rest day every month? Tell me, if you burn up this place one more time and let the disciples see it, wouldn’t it kick up another bout of ruckus?” Tian Ze was really at his wits end here. This Master of his was really the most unconventional and eccentric Master under the Heavens. As the Headmaster of the Cloudy Brook Academy, he didn’t bother with anything but only knew how to dump everything onto this poor unfortunate disciple of his.
If he was merely just dumping all his duties on him, it would still not be that bad, but the little old man had absolutely zero talent for Medicine and he had to be so madly intrigued and infatuated towards cultivating elixirs and trying to learn all sorts of medical skills. Many a time, he would inadvertently dredge up a whole mess of various kinds of herbs, bringing with him some sort of medical prescription that he had swindled out from any one of the teachers from the Medical faculty and then hide himself here to secretly attempt to cultivate.
If it was merely cultivating medicine, then it was just a little medical cultivation being carried out here. But this Master of his did not possess the capability to successfully cultivate any kind of medicine but was more than able to burn down the place. Tian Ze had already lost count on the number of times his Master had destroyed this place with fire and he really did not want to recall the number of times he had been forced to ingest all those insane and maniacal “poison” his Master termed as medicine!
Tian Ze could still remember when there was one time he was merely suffering from a slight cold and he would just need to take a little medicine before it would go away in a day or two. But his Master had then appeared before him laughing as he took out a lump of some unidentified substance he had concocted and insisted that it was medicine that he had just managed to cultivate, that was best for treating a cold with miraculous effects. He had then forced Tian Ze to swallow it.
The effect had indeed been miraculous!
It had caused Tian Ze’s slight cold to deteriorate so badly that he sustained internal injuries where he had vomited blood for three days straight. All the teachers from the Medical faculty had to be driven into a fluster before they managed to save this little life of his.
Ever since then, Tian Ze knew that his very own Master was not cultivating medicine, but concocting lethal poison!
A person who had absolutely no talent in Medicine but just insisted on picking it up, wasn’t that just torturing himself?
“Hmph! Who are you calling Master! Address me as Lord! You’re really becoming more and more unfilial! You dare to actually doubt your Master’s skills in Medicine! ? Are you already tired of living! ?” Being grumbled at by his disciple, the little old man became so angry his eyes glared and his beard bristled in indignation, almost wanting to stuff that disciple of his right into the medicine stove to have him incinerated.