From the day Catherine officially became an apprentice, people coming for treatment noticed a new signboard engraved with "Butterfly House" at the courtyard entrance. A little girl now followed beside Physician Lin.
When asked, Lin Yang would always reply indifferently, "She is my new apprentice, Catherine."
When others asked if he was still taking apprentices, Lin Yang would say,
"For now, it's enough."
This made Catherine secretly breathe a sigh of relief, while causing some others to beat their chests in frustration.
After that, a little tail constantly followed behind Lin Yang.
Lin Yang never taught with grand principles. He simply had Catherine watch and learn by his side.
How to debride external wounds, how to treat insect bites, how to set fractures, how to diagnose internal injuries.
Once she reached a certain level, Lin Yang would let her handle things herself.
The first time she sutured a wound, Catherine's hands trembled badly and she could barely hold the needle steady.
Lin Yang simply stood to the side watching without saying a word.
In the end, Catherine did not disappoint him. Although the sutures were somewhat immature, the fact that she dared to do it was already progress.
In the following period, Lin Yang handed all simple cases over to Catherine. This gave him more time to cultivate and develop new medicines.
The clotting powder and antidote he created were very popular among mercenaries and received excellent reviews.
Although the price was a bit high, sometimes a single pack of clotting powder could save a life.
In this way, Butterfly House finally had its own source of income instead of relying solely on Lin Yang's own money.
As Butterfly House's reputation grew, many mercenaries and ordinary people came to seek treatment. Unintentionally, this also offended other medicine halls and medical clinics.
Trouble soon arrived, and it came in the form of two two-ring great soul masters.
Facing soul masters, ordinary people usually felt fear and dread.
If Lin Yang were an ordinary person, he might have accepted his fate. Unfortunately… he was not.
After those two soul masters stepped into Butterfly House, no one ever saw them come out again.
The only change was that Catherine's lessons now included one additional full-body teacher and one human skeleton model.
That same night, the steward of Huichun Medicine Hall—the same middle-aged woman who had tried to recruit Lin Yang—received a "return gift."
A peeled-off human face, a heart, and one gold soul coin.
When the middle-aged woman woke up and saw these horrifying items on her bedside, she immediately wet herself.
The face and heart were Lin Yang's warning!
The gold soul coin was Lin Yang's reminder: It's just a job. There's no need to risk your life!
This middle-aged woman was merely a steward, a pawn pushed forward.
Not killing her was because Lin Yang didn't want unnecessary complications.
In Heaven Dou City, strength was important, but rules were equally important.
The middle-aged woman clearly understood Lin Yang's warning. Her expression changed several times before she finally sighed helplessly.
She was just an ordinary person. The other party was obviously not a simple physician. The two of them were not on the same level at all.
"Forget it. They're just commoners. How much money can they make? Our main targets are still the hunting soul groups and those soul masters."
"Understood."
...
Inside Butterfly House, Catherine was hanging up washed bedsheets. The air carried the fresh scent of soapberries.
At that moment, a black shadow swept overhead, growing larger until it completely covered her body.
"Letter! Letter!"
A slightly shrill cry descended from the sky. Immediately after, a large bird with a body length of half a meter flapped its wings and landed steadily on a nearby rack.
Its entire body was covered in smoke-gray feathers. It tilted its head, its sharp beak opening and closing, actually speaking human language. It looked quite mystical.
This was a soul beast called Wind Falcon, which was quite common.
It had no special offensive power, but its only advantage was speed.
Heaven Dou City was nearly two thousand kilometers away from Shrek Academy, far beyond the range of ordinary messaging methods.
For convenience of contact, Lin Yang had used his blood to modify two Wind Falcons: one named Ah Da, the other Ah Er.
After receiving his blood, not only did their speed and endurance improve greatly, they also gained a stealth-type blood Demon technique.
They were simply perfect messengers.
It only took them eight hours to fly from Shrek Academy to Heaven Dou City.
Ah Da was responsible for communication between Lin Yang and Xiao Wu, while Ah Er handled communication with Grandma Suxi.
Catherine had long grown used to Ah Da's special nature. She didn't even raise her head.
"I know, I know. You're so loud my ears are going to go deaf."
Ah Da shook its feathers in dissatisfaction.
Catherine removed the letter from its back, then took out a specially made jerky, waved it in front of Ah Da, and tossed it over.
"Ah Da, catch!"
Ah Da pounced and caught the jerky in its beak, devouring it in two or three bites. After eating, it even smacked its lips.
Its feathers, which had been slightly drooping from the long flight, instantly perked up.
"Catherine, delicious!"
Catherine smiled and reached out to vigorously stroke its head a couple of times before letting Ah Da leave.
She then took the letter into the room and knocked on the laboratory door.
"Teacher, there's a letter for you."
Soon, Lin Yang came out from the laboratory, took the thick envelope, and smiled. "Go ahead with your tasks."
Catherine tactfully withdrew and closed the door behind her.
Lin Yang sat by the window, opened the envelope, and found a thick stack of neatly folded letter paper inside.
He unfolded the letter. The handwriting was crooked, like a group of little chicks had walked across the page.
But that didn't stop Xiao Wu from filling every inch with the little things that happened each day:
"Today I beat up Ma Hongjun again. Oscar actually laughed secretly beside him, so I beat him up too."
The corner of Lin Yang's mouth twitched.
"That big stupid bear is too hateful. It was just one sneak attack. So petty."
"Today I fought two matches at the Great Soul Arena and won both. In the second match, that Soul Venerable tried to sneak attack me, so I kicked his head off. When I came back, I found a small crack in my left leg bone, but it's a minor issue. Don't worry."
Next page.
"That lecherous Oscar actually confessed to me. It was hilarious. I told him he was sick, and he said he had lovesickness. I almost threw up yesterday's dinner."
Lin Yang's eyebrow twitched. He continued reading.
"But don't worry. I immediately beat him up and gave him two black eyes. He probably won't dare talk to me for half a month, hehe!"
"The dean said I was too heavy-handed and fined me five gold soul coins. What an old miser!"
Further on, it was mostly these trivial matters.
Yet it was precisely these trivial things that Lin Yang read with great seriousness.
After finishing the letter, Lin Yang carefully put it away, thought for a moment, then picked up his pen to reply.
Halfway through writing, Lin Yang suddenly remembered.
The Nuoding City Academy should be on break these two days. That meant Tang Hao would soon discover that the soul bone was missing?