The young woman had quietly informed the goatee man earlier that the sore was located in an extremely private area, causing discomfort and awkwardness when walking. Each step rubbed against the sore, causing pain.
This sore had tormented her for a long time. Upon learning that the goatee man had the skill to deal with it, the woman, ignoring any embarrassment, bit her lip and said, “Master Healer, I wonder if you have the time to help me treat it at my home?”
“Wait a minute, you’re asking the great healer to go to your house to treat a sore? What’s the meaning of that!?”
“Yeah, if you take the great healer away, what about those of us waiting in line for treatment?”
“I suggest you come back to see the master another time; don’t delay the rest of us!”
The crowd’s clamor made tears well up in the woman’s eyes. To avoid public anger, she decided to leave. Besides, even if Master the goatee man could treat her, she couldn’t possibly undress in front of so many people.
As the woman turned to leave, the goatee man waved at her. “Wait, I’ve thought of a way. You don’t need to undress; we can still remove the sore.”
The woman’s face brightened, and she hurriedly asked, “Master, really? What should I do?”
The goatee man crouched down, took a small porcelain bottle from his backpack, and handed it to the woman. “Find a nearby restroom, apply the liquid in this bottle to the sore, then come back to me.”
The woman quickly took the bottle and squeezed out of the crowd, searching for a restroom.
Five or six minutes later, she returned. the goatee man instructed her to sit on a stool, remove her right shoe, and reveal her ankle.
From his backpack, the goatee man retrieved a sharp surgical knife. With a gentle cut on the woman’s ankle, instead of blood, a mix of yellow and red pus oozed out.
The scene puzzled onlookers. They couldn’t comprehend why a perfectly healthy ankle would release such alarming pus.
After the pus flowed out, the goatee man asked the woman to wipe her ankle with tissue and then applied a bandage to the small incision.
“Does the spot where you had the sore still hurt?” The goatee man inquired.
The woman stood up from the stool, took a few steps, and exclaimed in surprise, “Not at all!”
“Master, I’m truly grateful!” With gratitude, the woman took out several hundred-dollar bills from her wallet and placed them in the small wooden box used for consultation fees.
The goatee man just smiled, stroking his beard, and nodded.
At this point, even Sakura, who had been most skeptical of the goatee man, was baffled. She couldn’t help asking Monica beside her, “Miss Monica, can you figure out what’s going on?”
Monica shook her head, indicating she couldn’t comprehend it either.
Western medicine focused on treating ailments directly, so the goatee man’s method of dealing with a sore elsewhere by cutting the ankle was beyond their understanding.
Leo’s gaze lingered on the goatee man’s backpack for a moment. Smirking, he nodded and said, “Looks quite intriguing.”
Sakura couldn’t resist asking, “Dr. Bloomer, do you understand what’s happening here?”
“Help! Murder!…”
Sakura’s words had just come out when a series of screams erupted from the outskirts of the crowd.
People quickly turned to look, witnessing a man covered in blood rushing towards them, screaming in agony as he ran.
Soon, everyone could see the man’s face clearly, and shock gripped their hearts. On the left side of the man’s face, a piece of skin seemed to have been brutally torn off, exposing his gums and teeth, creating a horrifying sight.
Chasing him from behind was another person, moving in a bizarre manner, with a twisted expression, bulging eyes, an open mouth filled with blood, and a wild beast-like roar: “I’m going to eat you!”
This scene terrified the onlookers, who began to scream and scatter in all directions.
Sakura, skilled in martial arts, didn’t hide or stand idly by. She charged forward, executing a low leg sweep, knocking the bloodied man to the ground.
As the man fell, still howling and struggling like a wild beast, Sakura, surprisingly, couldn’t easily control him despite recovering most of her strength in the lower abdomen.
While holding him down with her knees, Sakura delivered two sharp chops to the back of the man’s neck.
If he were an ordinary person, he would have surely passed out after Sakura’s two strikes. However, this man seemed to feel nothing, still howling and trying to break free from Sakura’s hold.
“Quick, use my rope to tie him up!” an elderly man, seemingly out of nowhere, produced a coil of hemp rope.
Several brave and helpful young people took the rope and, with Sakura’s coordination, bound the man securely.
Finally, the man, who seemed like a zombie, was subdued.
As for the man who had half of his facial skin bitten off, he had disappeared somewhere.
“Master, do you think this man is insane? Can you cure him?” A middle-aged woman from the crowd asked Goat Beard.
“Of course, I can cure him! He’s not insane; he’s possessed by an evil spirit!” Goat Beard, brimming with confidence, took a wolf-hair brush and yellow paper from the table, walking over while muttering, “One stroke moves the world, two strokes wield the ancestral sword, three strokes banish evil spirits and malevolent entities a thousand miles away!”
With each sentence, he would make a stroke on the yellow paper.
After three strokes, three symbols were drawn. He continued, “One turn conceals the heavens and the earth, two turns startle ghosts and gods, the sun and moon converge to move the universe, the Supreme Old Lord urgently issues a decree!”
“Go!”
After a clear shout, Goat Beard immediately pressed the talisman onto the man’s forehead.
The talisman suddenly ignited, and Goat Beard firmly slapped the ash onto the man’s forehead.
However, everything he did seemed to have no effect. The man continued to open his large mouth, howling even more terrifyingly than before.
Goat Beard’s face changed slightly. He wrote another talisman, altering the incantation, “The heavens are round, the earth is square, nine chapters of the law, I now inscribe, all ghosts shall bow!”
After reciting the incantation, he once again pressed the talisman onto the man’s forehead. Yet, it still had no effect.
The man, with his blood-stained mouth wide open, stared at Goat Beard with enlarged eyes, emitting a growl that was far from human.