Chapter 146: The White Turtle

That Third Uncle explained the situation...
His elder brother had gone to Peacock Valley today, and just as he stepped into the entrance of the valley, he fell from the hillside...
"Take off his clothes," Yixiang said.
The clothes were quickly stripped off.
This man's injuries were shocking to behold.
His leg was swollen as large as a water bucket, the skin taut and shiny, and his waist was also swollen, as if a pool of pus was trapped inside, tightly sealed by a large pouch, and judging by the look of it, it was expanding rapidly.
Lin Xiaosu felt a jolt in his heart. He had never seen such an injury before. To be precise, this shouldn't be called an injury, but poison.
A very bizarre and ferocious poison.
How to cure it?
If he were to treat it, he would probably only be able to try using his Rejuvenation True Qi.
Then what about her? How would she cure it?
Yixiang let out a sharp cry: "Xiaowu!"
Following her cry, there was movement in the courtyard. Lin Xiaosu looked through the crack of the door and saw a turtle leisurely crawling out.
This turtle was the size of a rice bowl, pristine white all over, and extremely unusual.
"Hurry up, Xiaowu!" Yixiang said.
As the voice fell, the snow-white turtle suddenly broke into a run. Once it started running, its speed was unimaginably fast.
Lin Xiaosu's heart leaped...
Have you ever seen a turtle run faster than a dog?
In the tortoise and the hare race, if this turtle were to enter, even if the hare didn't rest, the winner would probably still be the turtle...
In just an instant, the turtle arrived at the scene.
The next moment, it leaped onto the stretcher.
Yes, leaped!
Then, its head shot out, and it bit down fiercely on Second Uncle's nose.
A miracle occurred.
Wisps of black Qi from Second Uncle's body crawled upward along his skin, and the snow-white turtle's color slowly deepened. By biting Second Uncle's nose, it seemed to be drawing all the toxins from Second Uncle's body into its own...
Seeing this miraculous sight, all the men in the Miao village were overjoyed.
As for Lin Xiaosu, the astonishment in his heart was beyond words.
In his sea of consciousness, descriptions of an otherworldly creature surfaced...
No, not one, but two...
A snow-white kitten, a snow-white turtle.
The innate skills of a cat's bloodline, which this kitten had failed to learn, yet it excelled in skills a cat should never possess.
The slowness inherent in a turtle's bloodline, which this turtle subverted, mastering skills a turtle could never possibly have.
This...
Second Uncle on the stretcher suddenly began to writhe all over, a violent and intense writhing...
"Hold him down, don't let him move! His bones are injured and he mustn't move..." Yixiang shouted.
Three or four men reached out together to restrain Second Uncle.
However, with too many people came clumsy hands. Second Uncle gave a sudden violent twist, and the stool underneath him tipped over. Second Uncle was on the verge of falling off, and if he fell, the bone injury would be displaced, creating a huge problem.
At that exact moment, a hand flashed across the air and firmly grabbed the stretcher.
Another hand pressed down from above, holding firmly onto Second Uncle's shoulder.
Yixiang raised her gaze and saw a person she had just met, Lin Xiaosu.
Lin Xiaosu had intervened and subdued Second Uncle.
He stared at the white turtle's mouth, and his expression turned quite peculiar.
Because this scene was a bit too bizarre.
What others saw was perhaps merely a wisp of black Qi flowing from Second Uncle's nostrils into the turtle's mouth, but he could clearly see that this black current was no Qi at all. It was unmistakably countless tiny black insects, microscopic in size.
This was the poison Second Uncle had contracted.
A nest of tiny insects had entered his body.
This was Yixiang's unique method of treating poison: no needles, no medicine, simply deploying a small turtle to bite the patient's nose and suck out these venomous insects.
Second Uncle's body was defusing and de-swelling at a speed visible to the naked eye.
The turtle was turning from snow-white to pitch-black at a speed visible to the naked eye.
A middle-aged woman tightly grasped Yixiang's hand, staring fixedly at the man on the stretcher...
Finally, Yixiang smiled: "He's going to be fine!"
As her voice faded, the turtle released its bite, rolled off the stretcher, landed on the ground, and wobbled back toward the courtyard. It had arrived with the speed of a dog, but it left looking as though it were drunk...
This scene was somewhat comical, yet somewhat bizarre and uncanny.
Yixiang opened the medicine basket strapped to her back, which contained newly picked herbs: small yellow flowers, small red flowers, and several peculiar medicinal herbs twisted like snakes. Lin Xiaosu didn't recognize a single one of them.
Taking out several herbs, she revealed a wooden box inside. Yixiang placed the washed herbs into the wooden box, took a pestle to mash them into a paste, and applied this paste onto Second Uncle's fractured ribs. Second Uncle's eyes fluttered open.
"I... what happened to me?" Second Uncle looked around, momentarily disoriented and unable to tell directions.
"You were poisoned and injured, the Holy Maiden saved you!" The middle-aged woman dropped to her knees with a thud: "Thank you, Holy Maiden, our family already owes you two lives."
"Second Aunt, please don't be like this. I've said it many times, I am just Yixiang, whom everyone watched grow up, not the Holy Maiden!" Yixiang hurriedly helped her up.
Second Uncle's poison had been completely neutralized.
However, the fall that fractured his ribs could not be healed overnight; he would have to stay in bed and recuperate quietly.
Still, he would eventually recover.
Several men carefully lifted Second Uncle and carried him home.
Yixiang leaned against the doorway, watching them leave.
When everyone had walked far away, her gaze shifted to Lin Xiaosu: "Thank you for just now."
She was referring to the fact that Lin Xiaosu had stepped in to steady Second Uncle, preventing his injuries from worsening.
Lin Xiaosu smiled gently: "It was just a trivial matter, what is there to thank?"
"Did you say earlier that you came here for sightseeing?"
"That's right, to experience the customs of the Miao village!" Lin Xiaosu said: "Now that I'm at your doorstep, aren't you going to invite me in for a sit-down?"
Yixiang raised her gaze, scanned her surroundings, hesitated briefly, and said: "Come in!"
Lin Xiaosu was keenly sensitive to that single glance.
If he could place a bet, he would bet that she was looking for her mother.
He had just received another piece of advice from the tea-picking village girl...
Yes, ever since entering the Miao territory, the amount of advice he had received was truly plentiful.
And it all seemed to be well-intentioned...
This village girl had advised him that it was best not to enter Yixiang's courtyard.
Because her mother detested Han people the most, and Han people entering the courtyard ran the risk of having their legs broken.
But Lin Xiaosu was simply too stubborn to listen to advice.
He violated almost every single well-intentioned piece of advice.
At first glance, this courtyard looked unremarkable, but the moment one stepped inside, its extraordinary nature could be felt.
What greeted the nose was a strange fragrance.
Not the fragrance of flowers, nor of cosmetics, and certainly not the scent of a maiden, but a fragrance originating from wood.
What wooden materials?
They were everywhere.
The main gate was wooden, the house was wooden, and in the courtyard stood a grapevine shading a table and several chairs. To an ordinary person's eyes, it appeared crude and simple.
However, Lin Xiaosu's vision was extraordinary, and he discerned two points. First, a sense of age; if his guess was correct, this old house and all these fragrant wooden artifacts must have a history of over a century. Second? The wood was exceptionally special; even after a hundred years, there wasn't the slightest trace of moth or rat damage, and it could even continue to emit a fragrance.
Immediately afterward, he noticed an even more unbelievable phenomenon.
That was the complete absence of mosquitoes, flies, and ants in this courtyard. Under the Heavenly Eyes of Wisdom, he clearly saw several mosquitoes swerving away ten meters out, stubbornly refusing to take even half a step into the courtyard.
It was summer right now, and poisonous insects and beasts abounded in the mountains.
Yet in this courtyard, there were none!
Was this the capability of a legendary witchcraft deity?
Poisonous insects and savage beasts in the mountains were merely servants to her; when she wanted to use them, they were more obedient than anything, and when she didn't want them, these servants kept a wide berth?
The room door creaked softly as Yixiang walked out holding a teapot.
Sunlight filtered through the large tree above, casting projections onto her face, revealing a countenance of infinite aesthetic beauty.
Yixiang seemed to have concentrated the essence of maidens from both inside and outside the mountains.
Her skin was so tender it seemed it would break at a puff of breath.
Yet her face bore the natural blush possessed only by village maidens of the wild.
Two flushes of sunset-like red rested on her fair and tender cheeks. What was it called? Peerlessly gorgeous.
Her lips were bright red and full.
Her eyebrows were as delicate and distant as mountain ranges.
Her entire person was like an exquisite camellia quietly blooming deep within the mountains, and the kind freshly kissed by morning dew...
"Elder Brother, this is tea from the mountains, roasted by myself, it doesn't look very nice," Yixiang smiled softly.
"You roasted it yourself?"
"Mmm!"
She sat down, and beside the teapot, emerald-green tea water poured out.
If Blue Demon had been by his side at this moment, she would probably have immediately warned him never to drink the tea.
This place was the domain of the Gu-using Miao.
The most mysterious and terrifying aspect of the Gu-using Miao was the practice of descending Gu worms.
Here, drinking tea was practically a taboo.
Especially when facing the direct descendant of a former witchcraft deity...
However, Lin Xiaosu directly picked up the teacup and took a large gulp: "Good tea!"
Yixiang smiled faintly: "Have you ever heard of the legends of the Miao people?"
"I've heard quite a few!" Lin Xiaosu said: "Some say that once you enter a Miao village, you must never drink tea or consume food."
"Yet you went ahead and drank the tea anyway."
Lin Xiaosu laughed: "Those people are afraid of being afflicted with love Gu, but am I afraid? With a beauty as stunning as you, if you harbor that kind of intention, it is precisely what I desire."
Yixiang burst into laughter, her captivating eyes darting: "Elder Brother, you don't look like a good person..."
Truth be told, once a joke was cracked, the atmosphere became somewhat more relaxed.
Lin Xiaosu pointed to the large tree: "What kind of tree is this?"
"Were you frightened?" Yixiang asked.
"I really was startled at first glance; looking up, the whole tree was full of snakes..."
This tree was called the "Snake Tree." Originally, it was a tree seed that entered a snake's body, absorbed the snake's nutrients, and burst through its skin to grow...
"Cordyceps sinensis?"
"More or less the same principle..." Yixiang explained...
This tree had been transplanted by her father from deep within the mountains back then.
Why plant such a somewhat frightening tree in the courtyard?
Because the tree had tremendous utility.
When the tree bloomed, the scent it emitted would attract surrounding snakes. When the flowering season arrived, the tree truly was covered entirely in snakes.
The venom of poisonous snakes combined with the flowers to produce fruits possessing detoxifying properties.
The fruit formed from the venom of a specific poisonous snake could counteract the poison of that very type of snake.
With this tree around, there was no need to worry about poisonous snake bites anywhere in the Miao territory.
Lin Xiaosu gently stroked the table in front of him: "The wood used for this table must also be extraordinary, I haven't seen any trace of insect infestation at all."
Yixiang smiled: "These tables and chairs are even older. My father said they were passed down from our ancestors, and the wood used is now extinct. It's called 'Bird Spirit Wood,' and its greatest function is repelling insects. As long as a table like this is placed here, no mosquitoes or pests will ever enter."
Lin Xiaosu was astonished: "Miraculous wood that is already extinct, and it's an heirloom from your ancestors as well. It might not be entirely appropriate for me to stay here... How about... we go and sit in that bamboo building over there? It's new at least."
He pointed to the bamboo building ahead.
That bamboo building was new, and the bamboo stalks were still fresh and green.