Bai Mo took a light breath.
Slowing his pace, he walked to the front of his shop and carefully examined the bloodstains.
The bloodstains had been trampled, leaving behind several distinct footprints.
'Looks like two people. One set of footprints is crooked and unsteady, clearly because he couldn't support his own weight.'
'He must be seriously injured, and the other one isn't much better off.'
Bai Mo assessed his own condition, then pulled a packet of medicinal powder from his sleeve.
It was the same kind he had used against the Li family's loyal servants.
Only then did he carefully creep toward the back door.
TAP! TAP! TAP!
The sound of the door knocker striking the door panel drifted over.
It was immediately followed by a weak, listless voice calling out.
"Shopkeeper Bai, please, have a heart... open the door... just open the door..."
Bai Mo froze for a moment. The voice sounded a little familiar. He quickened his pace slightly and saw two figures lying on their backs before his door.
One of them was barely propped up, clutching the door knocker and rapping it against the wood.
"Huh? It's you two!"
Bai Mo walked closer, thoroughly surprised.
The two men before him were the very same young masters who had previously come to his shop to complain that the smoke from his Alchemy was disturbing the peace.
But now, the two of them looked far more wretched.
Their black outer robes were tattered, revealing the fine undergarments beneath.
The fabric was damp and sticky, soaked with their own blood seeping out from their wounds.
"Huh!" Young Master Wei started when he saw Bai Mo.
"Shopkeeper Bai, why are you coming back from outside?"
"At this hour..."
Bai Mo cleared his throat.
"I went out to visit a friend tonight and am only just now returning."
"But..." Young Master Wei added, "Shopkeeper Bai, your eyes are bloodshot. They look quite frightening."
Bai Mo was taken aback. He quickly rubbed his eyes and sure enough, felt a throbbing, burning pain.
It was a side effect of taking the Qi Blood Pill, which had thrown his qi and blood out of balance.
"I'm a medicine apprentice. It's not strange to develop some side effects from testing medicine."
Young Master Wei looked doubtful. He could also smell a faint scent of smoke on Bai Mo.
Just as Young Master Wei was about to question him further, he felt a faint tug on the corner of his robe.
He looked down and saw Young Master Wang looking up at him, his voice raspy.
"Help... save me..."
Young Master Wei jolted and quickly pleaded:
"Shopkeeper Bai, please help! He's not going to make it!"
Hearing this, Bai Mo quickly took out his key, went inside the shop to retrieve some Condensed Dew Pills, and gave them to the two men to take.
The Condensed Dew Pill was specifically for injuries like theirs. Everyone who used it praised it, and it had rave reviews among his regular customers.
After taking the Pill, the two young masters were finally able to catch their breath.
Young Master Wang, in particular, felt as if his life, which had been hanging by a thread, was now secure. He wouldn't be dying anytime soon.
Bai Mo found the situation strange, so he just let them rest by the back door.
"You two don't seem like the type who can't even afford a Healing Elixir. How did you end up in such a sorry state?"
At the mention of this, Young Master Wei grew upset.
"Something happened at the Li Mansion tonight. Weren't you there, Shopkeeper Bai? You should know."
Bai Mo shook his head. "I was visiting a friend tonight. I don't know anything."
'I can't just talk about this casually. Heaven knows if the Li family has a sole heir who escaped.'
'Besides, it might attract the prying eyes of those with ulterior motives.'
Young Master Wei ignored Bai Mo's denial and continued as if he hadn't spoken.
"We watched the Li family Patriarch get beaten to death, his personal Soft Armor stripped right off his body, before we followed the crowds into the Li Mansion."
"Heavens bear witness, all we wanted were some account books and ledgers!"
He said, aggrieved and indignant, "No one was fighting over that stuff! We were calmly gathering them, and no one even paid us any mind."
He recounted his and Young Master Wang's actions that night.
The two of them had collected a sack full of items and were about to leave.
Unexpectedly, a group of Li family clan elders, seeing their family destroyed and knowing they had no way out, started killing anyone they saw.
Terrified, the two of them hid in a room across the street.
"We were hiding just fine, but then the door was suddenly burst open."
"A brawny man in black, pursued by two disciples from the law enforcement team, burst in. We were caught in the crossfire, and it was a miserable disaster."
"After that, some scoundrels robbed us..."
Bai Mo's eyes widened as he listened.
'If I'm not mistaken, the person being chased must have been Lanshan.'
'I never thought someone else would get caught up because of him. I wonder how he's doing now.'
Bai Mo cleared his throat.
"You two are very conspicuous lying here. The law enforcement team won't be resting tonight. If you're alright, you should head back as soon as possible."
"My humble shop doesn't normally offer credit, but given your special circumstances and this being a matter of life and death, I won't haggle over it."
Seeing Young Master Wei nodding repeatedly, Bai Mo stepped inside. Just as he was closing the door, he added:
"Oh, and, uh... remember to send the money for the Pills tomorrow."
"A bottle of Condensed Dew Pills costs two and a half Spirit Stones."
BANG!
The door shut completely, but Young Master Wei could still be heard making promises from outside.
"Don't worry! My family will send money tomorrow, I'll definitely come back to pay..."
Bai Mo slid the bolt on the door, ignoring the two men outside. He quickly poured himself a bowl of water and gulped it down.
He then selected some medicinal herbs, chewed them into a pulp, and forced himself to swallow, the rough texture scraping his throat painfully.
Only then did he collapse onto his bed.
He felt like his body was about to reach its limit.
The herbs he ate were ones whose medicinal properties clashed with the Qi Blood Pill, chosen specifically to disperse its power more quickly.
After lying stiffly for a quarter of an hour, Bai Mo felt the searing heat in his body begin to recede.
In its place came a tidal wave of weakness rising from his limbs and a sharp, agonizing pain erupting from his very bones and muscles.
His flesh trembled as numerous aftereffects began to wrack his entire body.
Bai Mo lay with his eyes wide open, his body shivering uncontrollably, as he silently waited for the side effects to pass.
Meanwhile, outside the door, Young Master Wei pressed his ear against the wood for a moment, but heard no sound from within.
"Shopkeeper Bai definitely went to the Li Mansion tonight, believe it or not," he said.
Young Master Wang weakly rolled his eyes at him.
"I wonder if he got anything out of it tonight?"
As he spoke, Young Master Wei suddenly sighed.
"We really screwed up this time. We were already unimportant in our families, and now there's no one to speak up for us."
"Why bother?"
Young Master Wang suddenly opened his mouth and forced out a few words.
"To curry... favor..."
As soon as the words left his lips, the breath he had painstakingly gathered dissipated, and he couldn't speak again despite several attempts.
But Young Master Wei understood what he meant.
"Our situations are pretty much the same."
"Our only choice is to try and impress those clan uncles. A few gifts should do it, but what should we give?"
They couldn't afford anything too valuable, and their uncles wouldn't be impressed by trivial sums of money anyway.
"We need to find some rare curiosity that will really amaze them."
Young Master Wei muttered to himself while Young Master Wang listened with rapt attention.
"A pity about those account books. We could have used them to look into the Li family's business connections..."
They lingered for nearly an hour before the sound of voices prompted them to scramble to their feet and help each other limp back to their residences.
Meanwhile, Bai Mo, drenched in sweat and tossed by waves of discomfort, had finally fallen asleep.
...
The next day, Bai Mo was awakened by a noisy clamor.
He was still groggy when he heard someone knock on his window.
Crying out in pain, Bai Mo struggled to climb out of bed.
His bones and muscles ached terribly, much like how a sedentary person would feel after suddenly running several miles.
He gritted his teeth against the pain and opened the window to see a familiar face outside.
"Brother Bai!"
It was his neighbor who sold Talismans, his face beaming with joy.
Bai Mo was taken aback. "What's the happy occasion?"
"Ah, I pulled some strings and worked it out! Looks like we'll get to stay good neighbors!"
Bai Mo was happy for him, but then asked curiously:
"What was all that noise just now?"
"Ha, that's what I was just telling everyone," the young man said.
"The Li family in the city is finished. The surviving clan members have been moved out of Immortal Arrival City, and all their wealth and ancestral property were seized by the law enforcement team. Not a single person spoke up for them..."
Bai Mo listened, a bit lost in thought.
Only a single night had passed, and the Li family, once a major presence in the city, was now gone without a trace, leaving behind only a bit of gossip.