“The police can handle him,” Wang Yao said. “I’ll take care of that.”

Afterward, he made a call. Before lone, someone arrived and took the man away.

“Tsk, tsk, what is happening here? A kangaroo court sentence?” a police officer asked in the police car, seeing that beat-up appearance of the man they had taken away.

“This guy was found breaking in and entering. What happened to him was self-defense from the victim.”

You call this self-defense!? That trespasser almost shouted his thoughts. He swallowed his words, recalling how terrifying those people were.

He had botched the operation. He now wished he had never taken the job in the first place.

In a quaint, silent manor in Haiqu…

“Sir, the plan is going well. That man was taken away by the police.”

“Good, well done.” Guo Zhenghe was standing in front of the window looking outside. He was able to see the sea in the distance. If he opened the window and listened closely, he would have even been able to hear the sounds of the waves hitting the shore.

At a local police station of Lianshan County…

“What? Stealing medicine? Southern Yunnan?” When he heard what that man said, the police officer looking into the case was stunned.

Southern Yunnan was the southernmost part of the country thousands of miles from where they were. The man in police custody had gone all the way to an obscure village in some remote corner of a faraway county just to steal medicine. The police officer thought the man was an absurd genius.

“How do you know about Dr. Wang?” another officer asked.

Wang Yao was very famous in their small county. Nearly every person who was sick was recommended by someone they knew to see that doctor. After visiting the clinic, they were always cured. People with weird illnesses that not even some large hospitals were able to do anything about had been cured in that remote clinic. Better yet, most of the time, the fees he charged were inexpensive. All of those good deeds made the doctor rather popular. Many people felt like they owed Wang Yao a favor, including this particular police officer.

When he heard that the break-in was to steal medicine, he immediately took the case seriously and asked for every minute detail.

“Please, I really know nothing,” the man in custody said. “I’ve never even met the person who hired me.”

“You came here without meeting your client?” the police officer asked.

“The client was paying good money, alright,” the man replied. “Hell, they even took care of the airplane tickets. It was a lucrative job, so I didn’t see any reason to say no!”

He still felt sore all over. He shuddered from the memory of having spent one whole night in that cottage up in the mountain. He had been worried that man was going to kill him. That other man’s cold, unfeeling aura was not something one saw on an ordinary person. That other man had definitely killed people before.

“You took the job just because you were paid,” the police officer said. “Weren’t you afraid of being made a scapegoat or something?”

“What scapegoat? How would it get so serious?” the man asked. “I was just told to check the place out, not to kill someone or burn the place down.”

After interrogating the man, the police officer was unable to get much useful information. There was one thing they were very sure of. Someone thousands of miles away in southern Yunnan was targeting Wang Yao, which intrigued the police officer.

“Is Dr. Wang so famous now that he is known elsewhere already?”

“It is possible that word traveled,” another officer said. “Furthermore, there was someone from that side seeking treatment from him. Now, someone over there found a guy we caught and sent him here. You heard it yourself, our guy was getting ready to hit the clinic at night, but he was caught before he got to do that.”

“Do you think that it was Dr. Wang’s prescriptions they were after?” an officer asked. “The medical industry is very lucrative, and Dr. Wang is just that good with his healing skills. The meds he issues might have something out of the ordinary in them.”

“Well, the possibility is there,” the other police officer replied. “It’s too bad we don’t have any other leads to follow.”

The preliminary stage of that case had been finished. The man’s crime was hardly considered a serious one, but it was one that served as a severe warning to him and others. There were places one should not venture into without good reasons.

Back in the mountain village …

“Master, I heard from my friends over there that the Valley of Thousands of Medicine is getting really rowdy lately,” Jia Zizai said.

While they were in the clinic, he was informing Wang Yao about the intelligence that he had gathered.

“The valley was exposed on the internet, and many people went there,” he said. “Most of the people ended up with eerie blackouts, spasms, diarrhea, and all sorts of messed up symptoms. Oh right, someone also died on their way there last night. The cause of death was a heart attack.”

“Someone died?” Wang Yao was surprised.

“Yep, someone died,” Jia Zizai said.

“The more messed up it gets, the more people are going to show up there,” he added.

“Well, it’s a kind of reverse psychology effect,” Wang Yao quipped.

“Oh right, my friends over there looked into it,” Jia Zizai said. “There was definitely someone behind this. Otherwise, such news would have long fallen into obscurity on the internet. Instead, it grew increasingly serious.”

“Do you think it’s the work of Secretary Guo?” Wang Yao asked.

“He’s the first one to come to mind,” Jia Zizai said. “He was in that place, and he clashed with people from the Valley of Thousands of Medicines head-on. The place he was in charge of got hit consecutively. He got cursed, and his sister got cursed. All of that definitely got to his nerves. He would have been a saint if he let it all slide. Worse still, his case this time was more serious. You said it yourself, Master, if he had shown up any later, he would have been dead. That sealed the deal. Those two are mortal enemies now. I’m thinking those people from the valley were onto something and decided to make a move against him.”

“Well, that is a high possibility,” Wang Yao said. “The people from the Valley of Thousands of Medicine are very bold. One way or another, the deaths of that many people had something to do with them. Now, they actually dared to make a move against the person in charge of the whole county. Those people are crazily fearless.”

“Yeah, he’s in charge of one whole county after all, and his clan is a big one with access to a lot of resources,” Jia Zizai said. “I sure as hell am not buying that the one in that valley doing all this isn’t aware that they will be going at each other until one of them ends up dead.”

“Have some tea,” Wang Yao said.

“Sure,” Jia Zizai replied.

“Master, that guy might have followed Guo Zhenghe here,” he added.

“Yeah, that it is possible,” Wang Yao said. “It probably won’t be the last time either. He was just a scout for those people.”

Such a fearsome place was not about to allow an outsider to take care of their poisons and curses that easily. It robbed them of the threat the posed and made their research and effort throughout the decades all be for nothing.

“Master, we best be prepared for it,” Jia Zizai said.

“Yeah.” Wang Yao nodded. He was not afraid of any of it himself, but he had his family and the village to consider.

Those people were capable of going to any length and cross any line.

“We’ll take turns patrolling the village starting today,” Jia Zizai said.

“Sure, I’ll tell Daxia and keep an eye out,” Wang Yao said.

The eagle from the southern mountain was quite perceptive and intelligent. He was capable of comprehending what Wang Yao said.

“It would be best to do so,” Jia Zizai said.

While the two men were still chatting in the clinic, someone came to the village.

“It’s this place,” the man said with a rather croaked voice.

The man did not enter the village through the usual route. He opted to go up the eastern mountain. He went to the peak to look down at the small village.

“Huh?”

The man seemed to have suddenly discovered something. He rushed out of the southern mountain like a madman, going through some hurdles before seeing the southern mountain.

“It can’t be!?” He was totally stunned by what he saw.

“How could the aura be this thick here?”

The man rubbed his eyes for quite a bit.

“There’s no mistaking it.”

He continued moving forward. He arrived at a spot where the two mountains connected.

Huff, hiss. He greedily breathed.

“The aura here is even thicker than back in the village down south.”

He took some pictures with his phone and immediately sent them to people in his village. Not long after, he made a phone call.

“Yes, Chief, I’m at the foot of the mountain. Correct, there are no huge mountains around. It is mostly hills. There is no mistaking it, definitely no mistaking it. I’m very sensitive to the aura, and this place is definitely the legendary paradise. Sure, sure.”

He went up and took a video. It was still March. Conventional logic had it that most trees in the north would not have even sprouted. Yet, the mountain was already green and teeming with life. It was as if it was a jungle down south instead.

Woof!

A loud bark suddenly was heard. It was so loud that it felt like the roar of a lion instead.

A huge dog appeared right before him.

Gosh, this dog is huge! That man was dumbfounded, but there was no fear seen on his face. He looked rather intrigued.

It’s definitely a product of the thick aura in the mountain! He took a picture with his phone.

The dog bared his teeth, preparing to attack.

“Oh please, just be a good dog and lie down!”