Volume One, Chapter 31: The Mastermind Behind the Scenes

After sending off Xia Liyan and his group, Ye Tian was speaking with Li Qingcheng and her brother when he saw Dr. Liu sprinting toward them, shouting, "You are not allowed to leave!"

Ye Tian frowned slightly. Was this guy ever going to stop? Was he looking for a beating?

However, just as Ye Tian clenched his fist, Dr. Liu threw himself to his knees with a thud, crying out, "Master! Please accept this disciple's kowtow!"

"What the hell..." Ye Tian and the Li siblings were stunned.

"Please take me as your disciple and teach me your miraculous medical arts that can bring the dead back to life!"

"Good grief..." Ye Tian was truly torn between laughter and frustration. He hadn't expected Dr. Liu to be so shameless; despite his age, he was kowtowing in public to beg for medical instruction.

"No, no, no, I can't accept that." Ye Tian had no time to take on an apprentice, so he quickly stepped aside and firmly rejected the unreasonable request. Dr. Liu refused to give up, crawling over to pester him further. Fortunately, the surrounding doctors and nurses still valued their dignity and dragged Dr. Liu away, finally resolving Ye Tian's trouble.

...

After this farce, the doctors on the entire floor were much more polite to Ye Tian. Some nurses, confident in their beauty, even cast flirtatious glances at him, hoping to get close to this young, gifted miracle doctor. Unfortunately, with Li Qingcheng by his side and Ye Tian having no interest in such distractions, their efforts were wasted.

After staying the night in the ward, Zheng Qiankun finally woke up the next morning. While feeding him a nutritious breakfast to replenish his energy and blood, Ye Tian brought up the matter of the glow-rot grass.

"So it was glow-rot grass. I was careless..." Zheng Qiankun’s expression darkened as he began to analyze. "Logically speaking, glow-rot grass is not a species of this realm, and it shouldn't appear in a place like Nanjiang. Whoever could obtain such a thing must have a significant background; they might even be my old enemies."

"Your enemies?" Ye Tian was curious. "Master, I always hear you mention being hunted by enemies, but I don't even know who they are. Can't you tell me?"

"Don't pry into that; it's not a good thing. For now, it is best if you sever ties with me to avoid being implicated. If something happens to me, you can at least inherit my legacy," Zheng Qiankun said, shaking his head, unwilling to say more.

"What are you talking about!" Ye Tian angrily set down the porridge bowl. "What does it mean to be 'implicated'? What is our relationship? You are my master! You have given me a new lease on life. Even if the enemy truly comes, how could I sit by and watch? If I just turned tail and ran, how would I be any different from an animal?"

These were Ye Tian's heartfelt words. Without Zheng Qiankun, where would he be today? On the day he was released from prison, he would have only been able to watch helplessly as that pair of scoundrels, Shen Yuwei and Su Botao, got together. He would never have been able to sign the papers so coolly and walk away, completely kicking that heartless, ungrateful woman to the curb. He might have returned home as a convict, only to be forced into a divorce by Shen Yuwei and humiliated to his face, forced to swallow his pride like a spineless coward. Without Zheng Qiankun passing on the Divine Emperor's Treasure Code, Ye Tian would be nothing.

"You, you are just too stubborn. I fear you will suffer great losses in the future..." Hearing his absolute tone, Zheng Qiankun could only smile bitterly. Yet, he felt a warmth in his heart; this final disciple of his was truly different from the little brutes he had taught in the past.

...

To investigate the truth behind the attempt on his master's life, Ye Tian had to return to the prison, so he asked Li Qingcheng and her brother to look after Zheng Qiankun. The Li family and Ye Tian were now bound by mutual interests, and they were the only people he trusted; even if someone wanted to harm his master, it could never be them. Thus, Ye Tian was at ease.

From her brother, Li Qingcheng had long known that Zheng Qiankun had an extraordinary background and a close relationship with Ye Tian. Naturally, she did not dare to be negligent, arranging guards at the hospital and even personally attending to him as if he were an elder of her own family.

Once free, Ye Tian returned to the prison to find the warden, Xia Liyan. According to Xia, everything in the prison was normal, and there had been no unusual incidents among the inmates or guards. The only suspicious occurrence was that a chef transferred from the Zhongzhou City Prison had suddenly resigned and left two days ago. Xia Liyan had someone investigate, but the feedback was that the chef had lost all contact, and even his family could not reach him. In short, the chef had mysteriously vanished.

A chef from Zhongzhou disappearing? The more Ye Tian thought about it, the more wrong it felt. This chef was clearly the problem. A mere prison cook with no official status and a low salary—why would they need to transfer one from another unit, especially across cities? A cook wouldn't uproot his life for a few thousand yuan. Nanjiang Prison could easily find a local cook; it wasn't a five-star hotel that required someone special. And now, he was missing. It was obvious there was something fishy going on. The attempt on Zheng Qiankun's life was highly likely related to this chef.

Ye Tian immediately had Xia Liyan retrieve the remaining food samples for inspection. It was easy to spot foreign objects in rice, so he focused on a bowl of multi-grain porridge. After sorting through it, he actually found a seed of the glow-rot grass!

At this point, it was confirmed that the poisoning was man-made. Looking at the seed, Xia Liyan’s expression grew grave. He had already checked; the chef’s transfer had been facilitated by a bigwig in the Zhongzhou judicial system. He had no authority to question it, and now that the chef was missing, it would be difficult for a subordinate unit to hold anyone accountable.

Ye Tian understood the difficulty and didn't expect him to investigate the bigwig, as the warden's rank was too low. Fortunately, Ye Tian had at least found some key clues, unlike before when he was completely in the dark. He instructed Xia Liyan to keep the news quiet; the poisoning must not leak out. To the outside world, they would simply say Zheng Qiankun had suffered from high blood pressure and recovered after two days of IV drips at the hospital.

Ye Tian also treated other inmates who had been "accidentally poisoned." This didn't take much effort, as the average person had little vital energy, and the glow-rot grass grew slowly, taking at least half a month to sprout. At this stage, it wasn't much of a threat, and the Divine Emperor’s Medical Canon offered several ways to neutralize it. Once the inmates took the medicine, Ye Tian returned to the hospital.

By then, Zheng Qiankun’s condition had improved significantly. When Ye Tian arrived, he was chatting with the Li siblings, appearing to be in good spirits.

"You two go out for a moment; I need to talk to Old Zheng." After dismissing the siblings, Ye Tian told him about the chef.

Zheng Qiankun pondered for a moment and immediately said, "Arrange for me to go back to prison quickly!"

"Why?" Ye Tian was puzzled.

Zheng Qiankun shared his analysis: the perpetrator used a large amount of glow-rot grass seeds, clearly aiming to deal with practitioners at the Qi-refining stage; it was likely his old rival. By tampering with everyone's porridge, the enemy probably didn't know who the target was—it was a wide net. Since the enemy was unsure, if he stayed away from the prison, it would easily reveal that he had been parasitized by the grass, confirming his identity as the target. Thus, he was actually more dangerous outside, and it would implicate Ye Tian. Conversely, if he returned to prison acting as if nothing had happened, the enemy might shift their focus and rule him out as a suspect.

"That makes sense." Ye Tian realized the logic and followed the plan. However, he had already treated the poisoned inmates in the prison; if too much time passed, the culprit would surely notice something was wrong. Before that happened, Ye Tian had to find a way to move his master to a safer place.