NOVPUBTime was urgent, and Zhang Menglong directly took a private jet with Elder Zhou to Yanjing. At Yanjing airport, a military jeep was already waiting for them.
In the car was a middle-aged man who looked to be in his forties to fifties, radiating an iron-like aura. Zhang Menglong could tell he was from the military even without him wearing a uniform.
"Elder Zhou, you've arrived!"
"How's your father doing now?" Elder Zhou asked. "Oh, let me introduce you, this is General Qin's son and Qin Feng's father, Qin Shouzheng."
"Shouzheng, this is Menglong, you know of him."
"Hello, Uncle Qin," Zhang Menglong had seen this man many times on television, but this was the first time he met him in reality, and his demeanor was even more distinguished than the image on TV commanding thousands of troops.
"Hello, I've heard Qin Feng mention you," Qin Shouzheng said to Zhang Menglong with a slight bow, "Thank you for the gift you gave my father; our Qin family owes you one."
Uncle Qin, please don't do this," Zhang Menglong quickly supported Qin Shouzheng, "Qin Feng and I are friends, and his grandfather is like my grandfather. It was a simple matter of lending a hand, if you act this way, it's too formal."
"Alright, you two don't need to exchange pleasantries here, let's go see Old Qin!" Elder Zhou urged.
"You're right," Qin Shouzheng quickly ushered the two of them into the car.
"Father was stable last night, but this morning, his white blood cell count dropped again, and it took several hours of resuscitation to barely maintain him, but the doctors say if it happens again, they might not manage."
Qin Shouzheng's tone was filled with helplessness. In fact, General Qin had lived much longer than expected, stealing quite a bit of time from the heavens, but it was truly lamentable for an old soldier who had dedicated his life to the military to suffer and leave the world due to illness.
"Isn't there any other way?"
"There is!" Qin Shouzheng said. "But with the current level of medical science, whether it's traditional Chinese or Western medicine, they can only just barely keep my father alive. If we want to cure him, we might need some other methods."
"What methods?"
"The ancient art of alchemy!" Qin Shouzheng said. "Thousands of years ago, it was a very magical era, where even things like elixirs of immortality appeared. Although immortality is a myth, they were indeed miraculous medicines, but most of the pill recipes and methods of concoction have disappeared. However, Longxia..."
Qin Shouzheng glanced at Zhang Menglong, seeming to hesitate to continue.
"General Qin, you want to talk about the Longxia Special Operations Squad, right? I know about them; you don't need to keep things from me, I understand all about the second world!"
"You indeed know more than I thought," Qin Shouzheng said with a smile.
"There's nothing surprising," Zhang Menglong replied, "if your family had been passing down traditions for thousands of years, it would be quite difficult not to know certain things."
"That's the case. In the warehouse of the Longxia Special Operations Squad, there are some ancient pill recipes. Some were found in ancient ruins, and some were obtained from emperors of ancient times. We have found a recipe that seems to have the potential to cure leukemia."
"Oh?" Zhang Menglong raised an eyebrow. "As far as I know, leukemia should be caused by a genetic mutation. Although there is some connection to external factors, it essentially occurs at the deepest genetic level."
"Yes," Qin Shouzheng nodded, "this pill recipe is designed to stabilize genes and solve some genetic diseases."
"In the records, because alchemy and medicine-making were prevalent at that time, some unorthodox individuals created pill recipes that altered human genetics, turning people into monsters to enhance their physical abilities. And this recipe was intended to cure the damage caused by those substances."
"So you're saying that if we can produce the medicine from this pill recipe, we can cure Elder Qin?"
"Theoretically, that is correct," Qin Shouzheng nodded, "but neither modern medicine nor science has managed to reproduce this substance. That's why it has been left gathering dust in the warehouse, and only true alchemists and pharmacists can produce this medicine."
"Longxia should have such talented individuals, right?"
"Yes, indeed, Longxia has descendants and inheritors of some alchemists and pharmacists. I've made a request to the higher-ups, and they are now by father's side."
"That's the best," Elder Zhou found some solace, "Let's hope they can be successful!"
...
The Qin family lived in an ancient courtyard house in Yanjing, and the neighborhood was almost exclusively inhabited by founding figures of the country—you might even stumble upon a child covered in mud playing outside who could have a frighteningly high-status parent.
Elder Qin's room was located in the innermost part of the courtyard, and there were at least four or five doctors in white coats, each known for their skillful hands, but they seemed somewhat at a loss when it came to the old man's condition.
Qin Fengye was there, and the middle-aged woman next to him must be her mother. Qin Feng's demeanor was distinctly less jubilant than a few days ago when she had made billions of US dollars.
"Old Qin!" Zhang Menglong called out.
"Menglong, how come you're here?" Qin Feng was surprised to see Zhang Menglong there.
"I just happened to hear Mr. Zhou mention your family elder's condition, so I came over to see if there's anything I could do to help," Zhang Menglong said. "How is he now?"
Qin Feng shook his head, "The elder is still in a coma. People from Longxia are inside trying to concoct medicine. It's been over a dozen hours since last night."
"Creak!" With a grating sound of a door opening, two old men with white beards, looking somewhat ethereal, came out from the inside.
"Elder Bai, Elder Sun, how did it go? Did you succeed?" Qin Shouzheng and the others hurriedly gathered around.
"Alas," the two shook their heads, "If our master were here, we might still have a chance to try, but our skills are truly not sufficient, and the potency of the medicinal herbs is also lacking. We have really tried our best."
The faces of the Qin family members went pale at this moment, which was almost like a death sentence for the elder.
The daughters and granddaughters of Elder Qin could hardly hold back on the spot.
"Could I take a look at the pill recipe?"
Zhang Menglong's voice was jarringly out of place.
"Who are you?"
"This pill recipe is extremely precious. How could you expect to see it just because you want to?" The elder with the surname Bai immediately showed a displeased expression.
"Minister Qin, how can you bring someone in casually on such an important matter?"
"I brought him!" Mr. Zhou spoke up directly for Zhang Menglong.
As soon as the two saw Mr. Zhou, they immediately hesitated to speak. Although both were Ancient Martial Artists, in front of someone like Mr. Zhou, they dared not be presumptuous.
"I'll go inside and have a look," Zhang Menglong walked into the room, which was still radiating warmth. It must be the heat transformed from inner strength during the medicinal concoction process.
Although Zhang Menglong hadn't witnessed the entire process, just looking at the clump of blackish residue, he could tell that the two men's concocting methods were extremely crude.
"What a waste of medicine," Zhang Menglong shook his head. These medicines, although trivial to him, were certainly rare in the secular world.
"Mr. Zhou, I want to save people, but they won't show me the pill recipe, so there's nothing I can do."
"Gentlemen, this pill recipe..."
"There's no harm in showing it to you!" Pressured by Mr. Zhou, the elder named Bai reluctantly handed over the yellowed scroll of animal skin. "What do you, a mere kid, understand?"
"Hehehe," Zhang Menglong just sneered. Saving a life was important, so he didn't bother to argue with them.
"All potent drugs." Zhang Menglong took out his phone, "Hong Yi, are the people here?"
"Mr. Zhang, they are already waiting outside the courtyard."
"Uncle Qin, I have a friend outside who was stopped by the guards; could you please let him in?"
Although Qin Shouzheng didn't understand what Zhang Menglong was up to, he still nodded.
Soon, a delivery guy from Nifeng Express ran in carrying a box.
"Who is Zhang Menglong?"
"Fuck! What is this?" Zhang Menglong cursed on the phone.
"Mr. Zhang, you said to keep it low-key."
"Alright, alright, I'm busy now," Zhang Menglong hung up the phone, having never been so speechless in his life!
Zhang Menglong opened the box and casually pulled out a plant with red leaves.
"This... this is a potent medicinal herb that went extinct over 1200 years ago; how did you..." The two alchemists from Longxia couldn't remain calm upon seeing what was in Zhang Menglong's hands.
In their body of knowledge, there was an impression of such a plant, reportedly very precious. Its sap was extremely potent, a component used in concocting high-level medicines.
"What's there to be amazed about," Zhang Menglong quirked his lips, "It's not anything precious. My family's medicine garden has plenty of them!"
