Xue Muhua feigns death and sets a poison trap

At Divine Physician Xue Muhua’s remote home, an apparent funeral draws XuanNan and his companions into a carefully prepared poison trap. The discovery that the coffin holds rocks and poisoned water rather than a body overturns the reported death, but the group cannot establish Xue’s motive before a sudden display of fireworks interrupts their departure.

Arrival at the House and Apparent Death

After a difficult journey, the party reaches Xue Muhua’s residence at dusk on the fourth day. The route has been slowed by rugged mountain paths and the need to help XuanTong and other injured travelers contend with frost poison. The house stands beside a river, with a large medicine garden in front—an arrival that should bring relief to those seeking Xue’s treatment.

Instead, XuanNan sees two large white lanterns at the door, funeral cloth, and a paper streamer used to summon the spirit of the dead. The lanterns announce that Xue Muhua has died at the age of fifty-five. An elderly servant confirms that the old master died the previous afternoon, claiming that he suddenly stopped breathing. XuanNan, who has come hoping for medical help, is struck by the news that the physician famed for curing others apparently could not save himself.

The servant says there is no one left in Xue’s family, but the scene does not quite agree with his account. Deng BaiChuan and GongYe Gan notice that his manner lacks the sorrow suggested by the supposed bereavement and by the cries they have heard from within the house. In the mourning hall, the furnishings are crude and carelessly arranged, while the memorial tablet bears forceful, learned handwriting that does not seem to be the servant’s. Clothes for women and children hang in the courtyard. These details suggest a household larger than the servant admits, and make the funeral less convincing the closer the visitors look.

The Empty House and the Coffin

XuanNan asks to stay overnight, explaining that the party has traveled from afar and that it is already late. The servant hesitates before agreeing, then leads them to the outer hall and says he will prepare food. He does not return with tea. The party waits for more than an hour; while XuanNan worries about XuanTong’s frost poison, Xu Zhu and GongYe Gan go into the inner rooms, ostensibly to find water and investigate the house.

The residence has five halls, but they find no one in them and cannot locate the servant in the kitchen. GongYe Gan concludes that something is amiss and proposes examining the coffin. Before lifting it, he wraps a shirt around his hands, then uses his internal energy to raise it. Its great weight suggests that it contains no corpse. The clues accumulated inside and outside the house have now shifted suspicion into a direct test: the funeral may be a device rather than a farewell.

Feng BoE begins to pry up the coffin lid with his blade, taking care because Xue is known as a physician and may be skilled with poison. Bao BuTong tests the danger without approaching the coffin himself. He tosses two chickens across the mourning hall; they reach the area beyond the coffin, then collapse and die. Their feathers soon fall away, demonstrating that the poison is potent enough to make the party hesitate to go near the container.

XuanNan looks inside by climbing to a crossbeam and peering into the coffin. It contains rocks and, among them, a large bowl of clear water. He identifies the water as the poison. The supposed body is absent, confirming that Xue’s death has been staged; the coffin is instead part of a trap. The visitors know that Xue has gone to considerable lengths to make the approach dangerous, but the evidence does not explain why.

Suspicion, Restraint, and Unanswered Motive

XuanNan wonders whether the trap reflects a grievance against the Murong family. Bao BuTong rejects that possibility: Murong Fu has never met Xue, and the party would not have come seeking help if Xue were their enemy. XuanNan admits that he has guessed wrongly and accepts responsibility for the suspicion. The exchange matters because the trap threatens to turn uncertainty into an accusation between groups already wary of one another; XuanNan’s response prevents conjecture from becoming a settled charge.

The party withdraws to the inner hall because poison fills the area around the coffin. Bao BuTong suggests burning the residence, but Deng BaiChuan opposes acting rashly, noting that Xue is regarded as a friend of Shaolin and that XuanNan is present. Their restraint does not mean the danger has passed. In the darkened house, they are hungry and thirsty, yet dare not drink its tea or water. Deng advises them not to eat or drink within three li of the residence, since the coffin may be only one part of Xue’s preparations.

Deng BaiChuan and GongYe Gan also consider the possibility that Xue’s hostility, if genuine, may have been directed at the Murong family for some earlier blood debt mistakenly laid at its door. The family’s reputation for “Returning you with your own move” has made it many enemies, they reason, so the trap’s intended target remains uncertain. This is a suspicion, not a resolved explanation: neither the absent servant nor the feigned death provides the party with Xue’s purpose.

Interrupted Departure

Unable to trust the food and drink in the house, XuanNan proposes seeking supplies from a nearby farmhouse. Deng agrees, adding that they should keep at least three li from Xue’s residence before eating or drinking. As the group gets up and moves toward the front door, bright fireworks appear to the west. A green flame spreads across the sky, followed by orange-yellow bursts that resemble flying stars.

The display arrives before the party has learned who set the trap or where Xue is. It interrupts their attempt to leave and redirects attention from the funeral and poisoned coffin toward an unexplained signal or spectacle. The episode therefore closes with its central deception established but its motive unresolved: Xue Muhua is not the dead man represented by the funeral, and his house is dangerous, yet the reason for his elaborate stratagem remains unknown.