Mo Sigui blew a smoke ring, displeased. “You’re no fun at all.”

“You’re truly an excellent doctor,” An Jiu complied smoothly.

Mo Sigui rolled his eyes. “I’ll start treating Aunt tonight. That little thing is too slippery. Even if I exhaust myself, I can’t catch it when it’s awake. In about five or six days, it’ll lose consciousness. Of course, Aunt will lose consciousness too.”

As he spoke, he gestured for An Jiu’s hand.

An Jiu had no choice but to offer her wrist.

Mo Sigui felt her pulse for a moment, then frowned and squeezed her shoulder. “Is your spiritual power blocked?”

“Mm,” An Jiu nodded.

Mo Sigui tapped her head with his pipe, exasperated. “Do you even take me seriously at all? How could you not tell me about something this important!”

“I feel it inside. My wounds are healing faster,” An Jiu said.

With part of her spiritual power blocked, the chances of her body being impacted by her spiritual power were reduced. Combined with the pills made from Gu Jinghong’s heart blood, her meridian injuries had recovered 70% in just a few hours – a blessing in disguise.

“Do you know why some people go mad? Some are because their brain meridians are blocked. This method can’t be used often. I’ll remove the needles in two days,” Mo Sigui couldn’t help tapping her again. “If it were that useful, don’t you think I would have thought of it?”

Ash from the pipe fell, and An Jiu rubbed her nose, changing the subject. “What are you doing?”

“Planting flowers,” Mo Sigui climbed down from Xiao Yue, stretching his waist with a sigh. “So tiring!”

An Jiu squinted. “Is it really that tiring?”

It was the two tigers who were tired – one carrying him, one digging holes energetically. But looking at Da Jiu, it seemed quite excited. While they were talking, it had already dug over ten zhang away. Unfortunately, after digging, it didn’t wait for Mo Sigui to throw in seeds and cover them.

“So stupid,” An Jiu commented.

Mo Sigui cheerfully told her, “You don’t know, but with this tracking powder, the tiger will somewhat resemble the person being tracked. So you see, Da Jiu and Xiao Yue have completely different personalities.”

“I won’t take such childish retaliation to heart,” An Jiu said coolly.

Mo Sigui opened the pouch of flower seeds. “These seeds are so small. It’s tiring to plant them one by one! Come help me.”

“No!” An Jiu flatly refused.

“You’re efficient. If you don’t help, I won’t finish planting until next year!” Mo Sigui said with a pitiful face.

An Jiu lifted her chin haughtily but held out her hand to take the seeds.

Mo Sigui immediately beamed like spring flowers in full bloom. “Quick, quick! Da Jiu has already dug over there.” He grabbed a few seeds. “I’ll fill in this side.”

“Okay,” An Jiu strode over.

Seeing An Jiu approach with the seeds, Da Jiu got even more excited and dug holes more vigorously.

As the sun set and stars appeared in the night sky, the human and tiger had planted around half the island before Mo Sigui came panting with Xiao Yue. “You’re so fast.”

An Jiu was always very serious and persistent in her tasks. She kept her head down, dropping seeds into holes while curiously asking, “How did you get Da Jiu to obediently dig holes?”

“Oh, it has a habit of hiding things. I just told it these seeds are all its, but it can only eat one per day,” Mo Sigui said.

An Jiu looked at Da Jiu, still digging foolishly. “It can understand that?”

“Tigers naturally can’t understand human speech. But I have my ways of making it understand my meaning,” Mo Sigui said.

“What if it comes to dig up the seeds to eat tomorrow? Won’t it all be for nothing?” An Jiu didn’t believe a tiger could resist. It might dig them all up and eat them tonight.

Mo Sigui looked at Da Jiu’s busy figure and leaned in to whisper, “These seeds sprout overnight if planted near water. Only the flower center and seeds are poisonous; the whole plant is non-toxic. Da Jiu won’t eat them, haha.”

“You’re so despicable,” An Jiu scorned him. “Deceiving even a tiger.”

“Not at all,” Mo Sigui flicked open his fan. “This is wisdom.”

“Tch,” An Jiu tossed the whole bag of seeds into his arms. “I’m going back to practice. You can plant them yourself!”

“Hey! It’s not like you to quit halfway!” Mo Sigui called out.

An Jiu raised her middle finger behind her back as she strode away.

“What does that mean…” Mo Sigui raised his middle finger, looking at it and muttering, “It can’t be anything good!”

He put the pipe back in his mouth, lit it, and continued planting.

For defense, the sooner the better. The seeds Chu Dingjiang gave him were most poisonous in the seed itself. A single plant wasn’t very toxic – even if someone mistakenly ate it, it wouldn’t be fatal in the short term. But this flower had a special property: when growing near water, the flower’s pistil would release a poisonous gas that made people dizzy and hallucinate, causing death in their sleep. If large patches of flowers gathered together, the toxicity became even more terrifying.

It had a beautiful name – Dream Flower.

Another feature of this flower was that the poisonous gas stayed close to the flowers and didn’t drift around. Even if a few wisps were blown away by the wind, they would quickly lose their toxicity.

Chu Dingjiang’s planning was indeed thorough.

Smoke curled from Mo Sigui’s lips as he gazed at the vast water surface, lost in thought. Although using Dream Flowers for defense was good, their poison wasn’t without a cure. It could stop ordinary people but might not stop Ning Yanli.

Mo Sigui didn’t know if that woman truly loved medicine and pharmacy as he did, but her obsession with being “number one” seemed unstoppable, like running headlong into a wall without turning back.

As the stars moved and the moon set in the west, Mo Sigui finished planting around the island and collapsed asleep on Xiao Yue’s back.

When Da Jiu started digging holes, it had been itching to sneak back and eat a few seeds. But after working all night, I was exhausted.

The two tigers dragged Mo Sigui back to his room and slept heavily for an entire day.

In the evening, Da Jiu energetically ran to the riverbank. Looking around, it saw only tender green sprouts with no trace of the distinctive scent of poison. It felt utterly deceived.

Licking its lips in disappointment, it suddenly caught another exciting scent – An Jiu.

Da Jiu happily bounded on its four chubby paws towards the big tree where An Jiu was.

An Jiu jumped down from the tree and took out three Dream Flower seeds from her pocket. Da Jiu’s eyes lit up at the sight.

Because of these three Dream Flower seeds, the human and tiger formed a friendship beyond the tracking powder.

An Jiu noticed what looked like boats on the water surface in the night. She sent out her spiritual power to investigate and felt something familiar.

As the boat drew near, An Jiu saw two people sitting in it: Li Qingzhi and Sui Yunzhu.

Sui Yunzhu smiled as she moored the boat.

Li Qingzhi eagerly jumped onto the dock. “Fourteen!”

“You’re here!” An Jiu went to greet them.

Da Jiu lay under the tree, eyes half-closed, happily savoring the taste of the Dream Flower seeds. It ignored the strangers, allowing them to come ashore unhindered.

“Yes, Master Chu told us about this place,” Li Qingzhi said, noticing Da Jiu. “Is that Divine Doctor Mo’s tiger? Why does it only grow fat but not tall?”

“A tiger raised on poison naturally differs,” Sui Yunzhu asked An Jiu, “Should we first pay our respects to Divine Doctor Mo?”

“No need, he’s sleeping,” An Jiu led them to choose their lodgings and asked Mei Yanran to prepare two extra portions for dinner.

Dinner on the island was late. Mo Sigui woke from his nap refreshed, smelling food with delight. “Stewed chicken soup!”

Mo Sigui walked into the dining room and was startled to see two familiar faces.

Sui Yunzhu pulled the eating Li Qingzhi to bow. “Divine Doctor Mo.”

“Why are you here?” Mo Sigui’s face darkened. “Chu Dingjiang dared to ignore my words!”

The atmosphere in the room instantly became tense. Sheng Changying gently set down her bowl, wondering how to smooth things over.

Zhu Pianzhan acted as if nothing had happened, busily putting food in his bowl. “Eat quickly, you look so thin.”

Lou Xiaowu wandered in with a dazed expression. Mei Yanran put a bowl in her hands, and she sat down to eat wherever not even picking up dishes. Mei Yanran took care of her like a daughter.

An Jiu was teasing Da Jiu with a chicken leg.

Sui Yunzhu coughed awkwardly a few times and turned to An Jiu. “Should we…”

“You two are like Da Jiu, forgetting to eat when you see something interesting,” An Jiu said without turning her head. “Eat quickly.”

Sui Yunzhu stopped looking at Mo Sigui and smiled at Mei Yanran. “Madam’s cooking is truly delicious. I haven’t eaten such good food in many years.”

Li Qingzhi picked up his bowl and agreed, “That’s right, that’s right.”

The atmosphere in the room instantly returned to normal.

After eating, Lou Xiaowu “floated” out again. Ever since seeing An Jiu’s bullet diagram, she had been completely immersed in the world of firearms. The principle wasn’t difficult to explain, and with Lou Xiaowu’s talent, understanding wasn’t a problem. But things that seemed simple in theory were extremely difficult to make. Even the tiniest deviation could lead to failure.

An Jiu knew clearly that even if Lou Xiaowu succeeded in developing firearms, they would be rare items. Without modern precision industrial production, guns couldn’t be mass-produced. But she didn’t stop Lou Xiaowu.

In this world, perhaps firearms couldn’t be invincible, but holding a gun gave An Jiu inner peace and tranquility, like a Christian holding a crucifix.

Mo Sigui had been in a sullen mood, but before he could vent his anger and drive people away, he fell into another predicament.

After sleeping soundly, he found himself suffering from even more severe insomnia.

Soon, he discovered the benefits of having Sui Yunzhu and Li Qingzhi around. Sui Yunzhu loved planting flowers, grass, and vegetables and even knew a bit about herbs, able to grow many medicinal plants. Li Qingzhi was strong and could do the work of five or six people. Both were elites trained by Konghejun, working quickly and well. Mo Sigui found them handy, and his young apprentice was relegated to tending the fire and assisting Mei Yanran.

Thus, he reluctantly accepted the two.

Life on the island was peaceful and harmonious. Everyone’s faces were relaxed and content. An Jiu even started planting pear trees.

Six days passed in a flash. Mei Yanran had been in a coma for half an hour.

Mo Sigui had long prepared everything, just waiting to remove the Gu.

In Chinese folklore and traditional medicine, “gu” (蛊) refers to a type of poisonous or magical substance often associated with malevolent practices. It is usually depicted as a type of insect or creature that is used in dark rituals or to harm others. The concept of “gu” involves various myths and legends where it is used for curses, control, or other supernatural effects. In a broader sense, it symbolizes a hidden, dangerous force or influence.