The doctor risen up from his seat and wiped off the sweats dripping on his forehead before turning back to face the father-daughter who had been waiting on the side for a long time.
"How is her condition, doctor?" Ye Cheng asked.
"Lady Yingya's symptoms had greatly alleviated but unfortunately, I don't think that the disease will be cured anytime soon." The doctor shook his head as if disappointed with the result.
"You don't have to worry about that doctor. As long as she is alive, I'm beyond grateful." Although Ye Cheng said that, everyone else in the room could easily tell the apparent disappointment in his voice.
After ascertaining that Qing Yingya was sleeping, they moved to the living room again and Yu Hao reached for a pouch and offered it to the doctor.
"Here's the payment for this time, doctor. I really thank you." Yu Hao bowed his head.
"Oh, chief! Please raise your head up!" The doctor looked panic and insisted Yu Hao to raise his head up.
After that, the doctor took the pouch and inserted it to his pocket. They exchanged a few more words before the doctor bid farewell to Yu Hao and then to Yu Mei and exited the house.
When the doctor had left the house, he heard a voice calling him from behind and stopped.
"Wait, doctor!" Yu Mei said while hastily chased after the doctor.
"Hmm?" The doctor raised one of his eyebrows, revealing the eyes beneath his eyelid.
"Did you have any more business with me, miss?" The doctor asked.
"Can I ask you a question?"
The doctor nodded silently and cued her to continue.
"Doctor." Her lips moved. "Do you know anything about smell coming from the forest?"
"Hoh?" The doctor exclaimed, seemingly surprised. "Why did you ask me about this question, miss? Surely miss Yu didn't think I was the one behind it, right?"
Yu Mei had prepared an answer to this question a long time ago but for some reason, she couldn't hold her composure as her legs started to tremble but she gritted through it and forced her body to obey her command.
"No. Not at all." She shook her head. "I was just wondering if the doctor know something about what caused the smell."
"Hmm..." He rubbed his chin and explained calmly, "Regarding that matter, I don't really know about what causing them but I recalled smelling something bad somewhere around the south when I picking herbs..."
'South?' Yu Mei repeated. 'But isn't Li Kong found the altar on the east?'
Without her knowing, her eyebrows started to burrow, creating a valley on the center of her face.
"At that time, I thought it was the smell coming from animal carcasses so I didn't pay it any mind but now the miss mentioned about it, I couldn't help but to be curious too."
All of a sudden, he opened his mouth and strike his own palm as if an "Aha!" moment had occurred on his mind.
"Could it be the smell wasn't just carcasses but something else?" The doctor asked.
Yu Mei was taken aback from the doctor's question and struggling to found an answers as her hand started flying around in the air and her eyes couldn't stop moving.
"Hahaha." The doctor laughed, prompting Yu Mei to stop. "I was just kidding, miss Yu. I'm sure you were just worried because you're the daughter of the village chief, am I right?" The doctor winked at her.
"If there's anything else, then please excuse me." The doctor bid farewell once again to Yu Mei and disappeared into the distance.
Standing still, Yu Mei unknowingly pinched her chin and her gaze dropped down to the ground as she recalled the interactions she had with the doctor.
After going through her memories, Yu Mei felt like she had gone through a long day and the urge to sleep started to knocking at her door as she yawned.
She rubbed her eyes. 'I feel so sleepy.' She then redirected her gaze at the forest and thought, 'I wonder what Li Kong was doing.'
On the other hand, deep inside the forest, the youth had nearing his limit of patience.
Every single shot Li Kong had shoot until now never even grazed a single hair on the deer's body.
One time, he tried to aim for his head but because of a bunny suddenly hopped on his foot at the wrong time, his arrow missed its mark by a huge margin.
Another time, he aimed at the deer and even waiting for an absurdly long amount of time before he decided to released his grip on his bow but before he could released the arrow, the deer was scared by another sound coming from the bushes and ran away.
Li Kong stood there speechlessly and from the bush rustles, a pure white rabbit leaped out from the bushes and let its red eyes roamed free before ultimately settling at a human figure, the figure's face was black.
The rabbit tilted his head at the human before an arrow missed it by a small margin.
Sensing the impending danger, the rabbit immediately made a turn and ran for his dear life.
"You cursed rabbit, I'll kill you!" Li Kong screamed furiously.
After some love from Ye Cheng, Li Kong had stopped chasing after the rabbit and regained his composure.
The pair tracked down the deer based on the footprint it left on the ground and found the deer resting on the ground, its head sticking out as if wary of the surrounding.
From the conceal of thick bushes and tree, Li Kong's eyes flashed through the peek of sunlight and recalled everything his uncle since beginning repeated to the point he was starting to get sick hearing it.
'A hunter must be calm.' A deep voice reverberated in his mind.
Li Kong took a deep breath and closed his eyes and got rid of the unnecessary noises on his head.
'A hunter must be perceptive of his surrounding.'
Li Kong focused his eyes and ears to observed his surrounding.
Finding nothing unusual, Li Kong performed a stance and raised up his bow. He withdrew an arrow from the quiver on his back and placed it on top of the bowstring. After that, he pulled the bowstring slowly and aimed for the deer.
He held the stance for a moment and continued to observe every single detail about the deer then he released the arrow.
The arrow accelerated forward and cut through the air, leaving behind a whistle on its trail and pierced through the deer's hide and penetrated deeply into its flesh.
The deer screamed in pain and frantically tried to ran away and galloped its legs but Li Kong wasn't going to let him escaped again.
Immediately after releasing the arrow, Li Kong had repositioned himself somewhere else and immediately pulled his bowstring.
A deep voice echoed in his mind at this moment. 'A hunter must think like they prey.'
Li Kong's senses was working to its highest extent and the world appeared to slow down and colors faded from everything as everything turned into blurry lines.
In the slowed world, the deer was working its feet and sprinted through his front side.
'Got you.' Li Kong smiled and released the arrow.
The world turned back normal and the arrow whistled through the air straight forward and as the deer tried to run, the arrow planted itself deep within its neck and the impact made him to lose balance and tripped.
The deer desperately tried to work its legs again but no matter how hard it tried, its energy was leaving its body at an alarming speed and in its final moment, it saw a sole human figure staring straight into its eyes.
The human pulled off something and released it soon after and in an instant, the deer slept for eternity.
Looking down on the still deer in front of him, Li Kong jumped up high in the air.
"Finally!" Hours had passed since the first time he had tasked by his uncle to hunted down this deer.
Li Kong never felt more happy than this moment when he finally done the task and even kneeled down to pray to heaven for the blessing they bestowed to him as he held his hand wide in the air as if trying to embrace something
"Not bad for beginner." Ye Cheng commented.
Li Kong turned back and faced with Ye Cheng's smiling face.
"Uncle, hurry and do your job already! I'm so tired I want to instantly go home!" After saying that, Li Kong dropped himself to the ground and lied his back on the ground.
Ye Cheng snorted before brandishing his cutting knife and skillfully gutted the deer and tied its legs together before packing it with leather clothes and carrying it.
"Let's go." Ye Cheng said.
"Alright." Li Kong sprung up from his laying position straight into standing.
"Why you carried the deer, uncle?" Li Kong asked curiously. 'Usually he ordered me to carry it.'
"Oh?" Ye Cheng glanced upon him and smirked. "So you want to carry it?"
Realizing his mistake, Li Kong covered up his mouth and shaking his head so fast he left an afterimages behind.
"If so then stop talking." Ye Cheng sneered and started walking.
Li Kong hurriedly followed Ye Cheng while still covering his mouth and only opened it afterward when they arrived at the village's entrance.
"Our training was over now. You can scram." Ye Cheng said.
Li Kong continued to stare at Ye Cheng for a while, it starting to irritated Ye Cheng.
"What do you want more? Speak."
Li Kong hesitated for a second but seeing his uncle's sharp gaze, he dared not waited any longer and opened his mouth.
"Do you know something about the smell coming from the forest, uncle?"
For a brief moment, Li Kong saw something flashed through his uncle's complexion.
'That thing again...' Li Kong pondered at what it could but his thought was interrupted by his uncle's loud voice.
"You're talking about that again? I already said I know nothing yesterday. Now, shoo shoo. Go somewhere else." Ye Cheng pushed him away before departing without a word.
Li Kong observed his uncle back until all of a sudden, he realized what time is it right now.
"Damn it. I completely forgot about the meeting." Li Kong facepalmed himself.
Li Kong dared not to waste any single second anymore.
He used Wind Steps to quickly got back home before going to the place of the meeting.
...
"Ah! How am I going to face him now when I was this late?" Yu Mei hit her head lightly for a few times.
After her mother appointment with the doctor, Yu Mei went to sleep not long after but she didn't think she was going to be asleep for that long.
Yu Mei could already imagined what teasing would Li Kong came up in her mind and couldn't help but covered her face.
'Huft, huft... Calm down, Yu Mei. Think about the many times Li Kong teased you.' Yu Mei tried to recall all of them but unsuccessful.
Why? Because there were too many of them!
After realizing the sheer amount of teasing she went through her entire life, she felt her skin thickened by several folds and she braved her way through the giant tree but Li Kong was nowhere to be found.
She checked everywhere and even looked at the bottom of the protruding roots but Li Kong was nowhere that was before suddenly a loud voice was heard calling her name behind.
Yu Mei turned her head to the source of the voice and found Li Kong blitzing through the grassy field with unprecedented speed.
It didn't took Li Kong more than ten seconds to arrived in front of Yu Mei albeit completely wasted as he was lying powerlessly with his hand on top of his moving chest.
"Hah... Sorry... Did you waited for a long time?" Li Kong said while breathing raggedly.
Yu Mei looked at him worriedly and said, "Don't worry about it for now."
Yu Mei noticed his breath was getting steadier and shortly after, she saw him sitting while clutching his heart.
"Damn, I almost thought my heart would pop off earlier."
"So why are you this late?" Yu Mei asked.
Li Kong opened a pouch of water and drank all of its content before setting it aside on the ground.
"The training with uncle Ye went longer than expected." Li Kong then explained everything that had happened to Yu Mei and Yu Mei listened to it with great curiosity.
After Li Kong had done sharing his story, a light voice suddenly entered both of their ears.
"Now that Li Kong had recovered. Let's talk about what we had found." The bead levitated between them before landing on Li Kong's palm.
The both of them looked at each other and nodded.
"Let's start first with me." Li Kong said. "Now where do I start from?"