Chapter 41

The Third Prince snapped up with a "bang," his expression furious and distorted. But before he could even utter a single word, he pitched forward with another "bang."

Rage had clouded his mind, making him momentarily forget about his injured right leg and throwing his entire weight onto it. Thus, as expected, the unexpected occurred. Seeing his head about to collide with a sharp stone, the people around him hurriedly reached out to grab him, and even the First Prince was alarmed.

With the martial arts foundation he possessed, the Third Prince managed to use his arms for leverage at the crucial moment, twisting and rolling sideways.

The few individuals rushing toward him could not dodge in time and stepped on his left leg several times. The First Prince was even tripped and almost fell.

Struck by agonizing pain, the Third Prince's face was so twisted that he could no longer make a sound. He trembled all over, leaned back with his eyes closed, and the veins on his body bulged like crawling dragons. The deities of the heavens seemed to appear before his eyes, and his weakly outstretched hands did not know which foot they were supposed to clutch.

"Little Three!" The First Prince, having been steadied and supported, called for people to hurry and carry the Third Prince back to his original spot.

"His condition has worsened. It's still not too late for an amputation," Xue Jin'an said, wiping the blood from his sabre. "Do not conceal your illness from the physician."

The Fourth Prince, who had been hiding nearby with the Eighth Prince and listening to the whole exchange, finally could not hold it in. "Is this a matter of concealing an illness? If you weren't concealed from, you would have already sliced the Third Brother in half at the waist!"

Xue Jin'an corrected him, "It is an amputation, not a waist-slicing."

The Fourth Prince gestured wildly in disbelief, his voice cracking, "You call removing everything below the waist an amputation? What kind of limb is that? The lower limbs? Even the King of Heaven himself would call this waist-slicing!"

Xue Jin'an pondered for a moment, deciding that what he said made sense, and humbly accepted the instruction. "Lexicon updated."

"Third Brother, your illness requires a waist-slicing. Rest assured, my hand is very steady; I will not make a mistake." Xue Jin'an rigorously re-announced the treatment plan with its updated surgical name and approached with his sabre, expressionless.

At that precise moment, the Fifth Prince was also carried over.

His face was pale, his lips purple, and even his breathing was weak and feeble. He had originally kept his eyes closed, letting the eunuchs carry him along, but upon hearing Xue Jin'an's words, he struggled to lift his eyelids, a smile tugging at the corners of his lips. "Let me see who the King of Hell Seventh Brother is going to take away this time."

He just knew that coming over would guarantee a good show.

The Fifth Prince's demand was to save his life. When Xue Jin'an had kicked him unconscious, he had calculated the timing for administering the medicine. Facts proved that his timing was extremely precise; almost the exact second the medicine was swallowed down his throat, the Fifth Prince reopened his eyes, giving the eunuch who fed him a fright.

The eunuch, Fu Chunshan, was the person Consort Rong had arranged to replace Xiao Dongzi's position. However, the Fifth Prince had kept the doors and windows of Minghua Palace tightly shut day after day, not stepping outside, and even had his meals left at the doorstep, let alone calling anyone to serve him. Today was his first time following by the Fifth Prince's side, and he was still groping for his master's temperament.

Yet, judging from his observations throughout the day, the Fifth Prince was not an easy master to get along with. To sum it up, he was "bold, sharp-tongued, petty, sarcastic, and fond of stirring up trouble." If he treated the imperial princes like this, it was hard to say how cruel he could be to the lowly servants beneath him.

That Xiao Dongzi actually betrayed Consort Rong for such a Fifth Prince was truly baffling. Fu Chunshan inwardly muttered to himself.

Seeing the Fifth Prince wake up, Fu Chunshan had already prepared himself for the prince to go mad as before, slap him across the face, award him palace beatings, or perhaps even order him to be beaten to death on the spot. He had braced himself for such an outcome.

Unexpectedly, however, the Fifth Prince simply quietly instructed him to step forward and prop him up into a sitting position. Noticing the absence of the Seventh Prince, he then opened his mouth to inquire about the whereabouts of the others in a weak and feeble voice.

Upon learning that the Seventh Prince had headed toward the scene of the incident, the Fifth Prince directly ordered Fu Chunshan to prop him up and carry him over.

Fu Chunshan was surprised that he would care about the other princes. He thought to himself that he was simply too narrow-minded; with a dirty mind, everything he looked at appeared dirty. The Fifth Prince usually possessed a youth's willful streak—well, perhaps a bit too willful—but those were merely methods to attract the Consort's attention. In reality, his intentions were not bad, and he was capable of consideration for others.

Thinking this, Fu Chunshan's expression imperceptibly softened as he advised, "Your Highness, this slave knows you are concerned for the safety of the other princes, but your body is currently weak and requires bed rest..."

Before he could finish his sentence, the Fifth Prince cut him off with a sidelong glance. "What kind of improper thoughts are you entertaining?"

"Don't dawdle." If I miss the spectacle I wish to see, this Highness will kill you!

The latter half of the sentence remained unspoken by the Fifth Prince, but it was written all over his face. Fu Chunshan had no choice but to read it.

Even if Fu Chunshan was Consort Rong's man, he was ultimately just a servant, completely powerless to interfere in a master's affairs. He could only check the Fifth Prince's pulse for a moment, confirming that his heartbeat was slowly growing stronger and that no mishaps would occur, before silently propping up this restless master and bringing him to the scene of the incident.

The scene was more tragic than he had imagined. The incident had occurred for so long, yet the imperial physicians had not even arrived. Fu Chunshan felt an inexplicable sense of unease and asked the eunuchs about the condition of the injured Third Prince. But they refused to utter a single word in response, merely pointing toward the Third Prince's location.

Thus, upon stepping in, the first thing he heard was the Seventh Prince declaring his intent to slice the Third Prince at the waist.

Even though Fu Chunshan was well aware that one must humble oneself in the palace and avoid prying into too many secrets, he still inevitably cast a sidelong glance at the Seventh Prince.

Speaking of which, the Fifth Prince seemed to have a rather good relationship with the Seventh Prince. Previously, nothing was amiss with the Seventh Prince, but ever since he acquainted himself with the Fifth Prince, his reputation had gradually undergone a demonic transformation. For instance, the people in the Imperial Kitchen turned pale at the mere mention of the Seventh Prince. Um...

Fu Chunshan immediately withdrew his gaze, staring at his nose and letting his heart remain untroubled, standing properly in place. He feared that if he kept staring, he would not be able to help silently mourning for the Seventh Prince.

Xue Jin'an, holding his sabre, was blocked by a human wall of four people. In truth, his original nature did not particularly care about the Third Prince's condition, but since he had accepted the invitation for treatment, Xue Jin'an would execute it to the best of his ability until the itinerary was canceled.

Looking at the formation of the human wall before him, his mind matched it to the basketball 41 zone defense tactic. Xue Jin'an had never played basketball, but he understood a bit about it; after all, in any novel labeled with a campus tag, a basketball tournament was practically a mandatory plot point.

Xue Jin'an glanced at their empty space overhead, weighed the sabre in his hand, and swiftly calculated the exact force needed to throw the blade so it would land squarely in the basketball hoop (the Third Prince's waist).

The First Prince, who had issued the command, only felt a headache coming on. Xue Jin'an's savagery made him completely forget to care about why the Fifth Prince looked so frail.

The First Prince had no idea what to do with this Little Seven, who wielded a butcher's knife and was single-mindedly bent on hacking Little Three. Shouldn't Little Seven be at odds with Little Four? What was going on with Little Three now? He had never heard of any deep, irreconcilable hatred between the two.

However, given Little Three's character, offending people wasn't exactly rare...

Unable to grasp the crux of the matter, the First Prince could only offer dry persuasion. "Little Seven, put down the knife first. We can talk things over properly."

The Fifth Prince, loving nothing more than a lively scene, poured oil on the fire from the side. " Eldest Brother, Seventh Brother won't harm Third Brother. He merely wishes to cure him. What fault does he have?" He only wanted to slash every single prince once, that was all.

"The physician has yet to arrive, which presumably means some major event occurred outside. I see Third Brother's injuries are not light; we truly cannot delay any longer. In case of excessive blood loss... he really won't be saved." The Fifth Prince was skilled at persuasion, grasping the key point in an instant.

The First Prince looked at the incomparably miserable Third Prince before him and actually hesitated for a fraction of a second.

"Eldest Brother, excessive blood loss is death, but a waist-slicing is death too!" the Fourth Prince could not help shouting.

The Fifth Prince remained unruffled. "Since death is certain either way, why not take a gamble? What if Seventh Brother genuinely cures him?"

Those words possessed a damned logic to them, plunging the First Prince into a bizarre silence.

The Third Prince, whose consciousness was dim, limbs weak, and unable to speak: "..." A waist-slicing is a brutal torture; Eldest Brother, wake up!

Fortunately, a familiar voice finally shattered the deadlock with the words, "The imperial physicians have arrived!"

Good! When he woke up, he would definitely reward this person handsomely! The Third Prince, struggling to hold on, finally let his mind relax and blissfully fainted away.

"How boring." The Fifth Prince glanced at the Eighth Prince, who had ended the game with a single sentence, closed his eyes with dwindling interest, and let himself lose consciousness, collapsing against Fu Chunshan.

Fortunately, two imperial physicians arrived, perfectly dividing the spoils between them, one for each.

"Little Seven, the physicians are here. Both Little Three and Little Five are saved, so you aren't needed here anymore. Go back to treating the horses." The First Prince hurriedly dismissed him, adding, "Right, Little Seven, healing is no child's play. Drastic measures should be used sparingly on humans."

The implication was: You quack, you'd better go torment animals instead.

Xue Jin'an felt his words were incorrect and offered some popular science. "Waist-slicing is a normal therapeutic method. Severing the necrotic parts and preserving the intact ones... over eighty percent of injuries and illnesses on the border survive through this method."

"...You'd better change it back to amputation. Waist-slicing sounds truly inauspicious." The First Prince felt his own waist ache just listening to it. He sized up Xue Jin'an, plastered on his trademark fake smile, and probed him for information. "What you say isn't entirely wrong, but who taught you this?"

After asking Physician Chang whether he could reveal his name, Xue Jin'an told him.

From then on, the inscrutable "divine physician" named "Physician Chang" spread far and wide among the imperial princes, growing increasingly prominent with Xue Jin'an's repeated maneuvers.

Upon waking this time and learning of such a person's existence, the Third Prince first turned the Imperial Hospital upside down, then searched every medical clinic and pharmacy in the capital, yet failed to find anyone matching the description.

He could only nurse his resentment and let it go, etching it into his memory for a lifetime.

Far away in the Northwest Garrison, Physician Chang was discussing the character Dragon-Swank-Heaven with General Helian when his nose suddenly tickled. He sneezed three consecutive times, almost shaking his frail little frame right off the chair.

General Helian poked the brazier with fire tongs to make the coals burn more thoroughly, raising the temperature inside the entire tent slightly before speaking. "Your constitution is too weak; you've actually caught a chill. Starting tomorrow, you will follow me to the drill grounds for training."

Physician Chang, who did not feel the slightest bit chilled: "..."

Physician Chang attempted a rescue. "I am merely a physician; your training intensity is truly too high. Besides, Dragon-Swank-Heaven only just asked for my name. As the saying goes, 'If someone sneezes, someone is thinking of them'; perhaps he is the one muttering my name."

"What would a ghost want when muttering your name? Have you ever thought about it?" Helian Cheng glanced at him, his tone lingering and eerie. "Perhaps he wishes to take you away, or perhaps..."

"..." Physician Chang felt a chill run down his spine and decided to overturn his previous conjecture, adopting an upright and righteous expression. "This is no ghost. How could there be ghosts in this world? Have you, in all your decades of living, ever seen one? This is bound to be a hysteric delusion of yours. You desired a fine disciple capable of inheriting the Northwest Army far too much, and because you spoke of it so often to me, I involuntarily made associations. That explains why no one else besides us can see, hear, or perceive Dragon-Swank-Heaven."