Chapter 1705: Bai Rou's Injury

“Junior Sister Ling, I have some words for Junior Brother Li Yan!”

When he said this, Li Yan was stunned. This was clearly a tone asking Ling Yao to leave. Ling Yao only blinked her large eyes after hearing it and nodded without any dissatisfaction.

“Fine, you two chat! I have to go back to cultivate, or master will say I’m playing again!”

With that, she turned and left. Seeing this, Li Yan’s eyes flickered a few times, but he didn’t say anything. After Ling Yao was gone, the young man cupped his fists at Li Yan again.

“I am Zhao Ziming. My master gave you that jade slip technique. With your talent, it shouldn’t be a problem for you to practice it. However, there are some places in this technique that require attention, or you might take a wrong turn in your practice. Therefore, I must nag you for a bit. I hope you’ll forgive me!”

Zhao Ziming said to Li Yan. At this moment, Li Yan finally understood why this Zhao Ziming had followed them all the way. It turned out he was following Fairy Ning Ke’s orders to explain that technique to him. Thus, he had waited until he chose his cave residence before beginning. He had been guessing for nothing…

More than an hour later, Li Yan bowed deeply to Zhao Ziming.

“Thank you for your guidance, Senior Brother!”

The other man had explained things very thoroughly, so Li Yan was naturally grateful from the bottom of his heart. This time, Zhao Ziming only waved his hand and didn’t return the bow. Then, with a smile, he picked up the two wine gourds on the table.

“This wine is good, so I won’t stand on ceremony!”

With that, he rose and left, not staying a moment longer. He came like a breeze through the door and blew away like a wind through the window…

After the man was gone, Li Yan took out the jade slip again, immersed his Divine Sense into it, and watched it seriously once more. The technique Fairy Ning Ke had given was called “Withering.” Once hit by this move, a cultivator of the same level should have their life force extinguished within three breaths. It was incredibly overbearing, no less than the Law of Destruction. And this process was visible to the naked eye, just like everything withering, hence the name. This kind of technique could be said to be quite sinister. Li Yan felt it was almost similar to the viciousness of soul-cultivating techniques. According to Zhao Ziming’s introduction, even if the opponent could withstand the technique, as long as it hit and wasn’t completely defended against, the life force in their body would continue to weaken and their combat power would continue to decrease. This wasn’t as simple as having a few more holes or bleeding during a fight. Moreover, curing the damage caused by this technique was not easy. Because Withering did not produce death energy—death energy could be cured with good medicine—what was produced in the Withering attack was the aura of the Law of Life. That was actually still composed of Wood Spiritual Energy, and Wood Spiritual Energy that contained vibrant life force at that. However, these Wood Spiritual Energies contained life force but did not bring life force. The reason for this strange effect was that after it seeped into a living being, anywhere it flowed through the flesh and blood, it was as if there were a caterpillar covered in fine spikes walking over a ground covered in willow catkins. It would wrap and take away the original life force within the living being, and the speed of this caterpillar was not a crawl but a very swift movement through the whole body. This caused the opponent’s life force to vanish completely in a very short time. Therefore, when practicing this technique, these special Wood Spiritual Energies formed after practice would also pass through one’s own meridians and flesh. If there was no special technique to protect them, the practitioner might not even finish one cycle before they themselves quickly vanished from this world. And all this was exactly the main reason why Fairy Ning Ke had sent her disciple.

Li Yan also felt his brain buzzing and a cold chill running down his back after listening to Zhao Ziming’s introduction. If Zhao Ziming hadn’t pointed out the keys to the practice one by one, he truly might not have been able to practice it successfully on his own; the most likely outcome would have been direct self-destruction. That is to say, even if this jade slip were obtained by other wood-root cultivators, once they practiced it, ninety-nine percent would be seeking their own destruction. Li Yan continued to look at the jade slip while carefully recalling every word Zhao Ziming had said, meticulously pondering and thinking. Time flew by without Li Yan realizing it…

Until the restriction of the cave residence transmitted a burst of strong fluctuations, Li Yan finally woke up from his thoughts. He quickly scanned outside and realized that it was already dark. In the dim light, three people stood at the entrance. It was his master Dong Fuyi, along with his Second Martial Uncle and Martial Aunt Ning Ke.

‘Why did they come together?’

Li Yan didn’t know how long had passed. He quickly rose, opened the restriction, and respectfully welcomed the three in. Seeing Li Yan’s bewildered look, Dong Fuyi and the others unceremoniously sat at the head of the hall. Then, Dong Fuyi immediately spoke directly.

“Bring out Miss Bai. Let your Martial Uncle and Martial Aunt look at her injury first. They are both Tribulation Transcendence masters now. Matters I cannot solve might be solvable by them. If there’s a good result, there won’t be any need to think of other ways later—that would be a stroke of good fortune. Especially your Martial Aunt Ning Ke, who is a powerhouse of the Yi Wood Immortal Sect; her grasp of the Law of Life is far beyond what I can compare to!”

Li Yan was both surprised and delighted. He was surprised that the two elders before him were at the Tribulation Transcendence stage, not the Body Integration stage. These were the two highest-cultivation people Li Yan had ever met since he started cultivating. He hadn’t been without suspicion before. When his Second Martial Uncle gave him the Guardian Wing jade pendant, he said it might only be seen through by a Grand Ascension cultivator. But Li Yan himself could fight across a great realm. If his Second Martial Uncle’s refining methods were equal to those of a Tribulation Transcendence old monster, then he could certainly say something like it might only be broken by a Grand Ascension cultivator. And now the situation was just as his master said—there was also a Tribulation Transcendence powerhouse who had mastered the Law of Life. Bai Rou’s injury truly might be cured. Li Yan felt this was a piece of luck he couldn’t even have dreamed of. However, in his excitement, he overlooked a trace of loneliness in Dong Fuyi’s words. When Dong Fuyi reached the Body Integration stage, Ning Ke had only been a Void Refining cultivator. Now, he was still at the Body Integration stage, while the other had already reached Tribulation Transcendence and had found a successor without much delay. It could be said his luck had been quite poor. No wonder Martial Uncle Qianchong had chosen to go into seclusion immediately after returning to the sect; as the number one expert of the Ji Earth Immortal Sect back then, he surely wanted to catch up as soon as possible.

With a movement of his mind, Bai Rou, who seemed to be in a deep sleep, immediately floated in the air before them. In the next instant, two Divine Senses directly fell upon Bai Rou. Li Yan stood by nervously; he naturally hoped Bai Rou could wake up immediately. After a while, the Martial Uncle and Martial Aunt each pointed across the void. Two pillars of power—one black and one green—shot from left and right toward the crown of Bai Rou’s head…

After another fifteen minutes, Shi Ligui was the first to withdraw his Divine Sense and power. He immediately lowered his brows and closed his eyes to think, without stating the result immediately. Li Yan knew that although this Second Martial Uncle did not specialize in the Law of Life, Dong Fuyi had naturally introduced his own Martial Uncles in detail. Shi Ligui was a Great Earth-rank Alchemy Grandmaster. Don’t let his farmer-like appearance fool you; he often stayed in spirit gardens or went out to pick immortal herbs and obtain demonic beast materials. As for Fairy Ning Ke’s situation, Dong Fuyi had only briefly mentioned it, but being a powerhouse of the Yi Wood Immortal Sect, she should also be good at alchemy. Fairy Ning Ke still had her eyes closed, continuing to investigate Bai Rou’s condition. Li Yan could only stand there and wait. It was not until another fifteen minutes later that Shi Ligui finally opened his eyes. But seeing Fairy Ning Ke still probing, he did not speak immediately…

When Fairy Ning Ke withdrew her Divine Sense and power, she looked at Shi Ligui.

“Senior Brother!”

Shi Ligui then looked at Li Yan.

“The situation is much as Junior Brother Dong Fu said. That power has seeped into the consciousness sea. If it truly appeared when the consciousness sea was about to collapse back then, even I might not have been able to remove it with techniques; her consciousness sea would have been the first to fail due to the damage. Now that it has been stabilized with True Essence Pills, her life is indeed out of danger. But in my view, even a Hazy Moon Purity herb might not be enough to clear those powers. However, I can use pills to clear the surface layer of that power for her. This way, with the medicinal power of a Hazy Moon Purity herb, it might be possible to completely clear it. But this process is also very slow. One mistake and it will damage this girl’s consciousness sea again. Moreover, the clearing time is hard to say—it’s estimated to take at least forty years or more, and a Hazy Moon Purity herb is still needed afterward. Let’s hear what other way your Martial Aunt Ning Ke has?”

Having said this, Shi Ligui turned to look at Ning Ke.

“The situation is indeed very poor. This girl’s consciousness was synchronized and seeped through by other powers while it was violently fluctuating; we can see it as additional impurities. I can provide two methods: First, while ensuring she does not die, I can rebuild the consciousness sea for this girl; this can be seen as destruction followed by creation. However, the result of doing so is that all her memories will cease to exist. This includes her memories of the techniques she practiced—meaning she will have a body full of spiritual power, but both her techniques and arts will have to be re-practiced. The second method is what Senior Brother Shi said, which indeed requires a Hazy Moon Purity herb. And the conclusion reached by Senior Brother Shi and me is also quite similar. The medicinal effect of one Hazy Moon Purity herb cannot clear the impurities in the consciousness sea; at least one and a half are needed. But even one Hazy Moon Purity herb is hard to find—I haven’t heard of it appearing in markets for a long time. However, Senior Brother Shi mentioned his pills can clear the surface impurities first. And those impurities must be cleared now. If they are allowed to remain for another sixty years or so, they will continue to merge into the consciousness sea. Once they grow, clearing them will be even harder. And now is the perfect time to clear them, because her consciousness sea is already completely stable. Clearing these surface impurities now won’t cause greater problems in her consciousness sea. Besides Senior Brother Shi’s pills, I can also clear those surface impurities, and the speed will be very fast, because I use techniques. Since the techniques are performed by me personally, unlike pills where it is hard to master the scale during the clearing process, the effect will be better.”

Fairy Ning Ke’s voice was still ethereal and illusory, giving an unhurried feeling. However, in her words, she wasn’t polite at all. She simply stated she had means that were even higher than her senior brother’s. This was because they had already reached a stage where they didn’t need to hide anything from each other—one was one, two was two. These words once again brought joy to Li Yan. he hadn’t expected this Martial Aunt Ning Ke’s methods to be so high. They had reached the level of being able to rebuild someone’s consciousness sea. This only indicated that her Law of Life had reached an extremely terrifying level. Perhaps when this Martial Aunt Ning Ke reached the Grand Ascension stage, she could even rebuild a consciousness sea while preserving the person’s memory. However, all this was just Li Yan’s guess, and reaching Grand Ascension was a major threshold—not every Five Immortals Sect cultivator could succeed in breaking through.

“This disciple hopes Martial Aunt can act to remove the surface impurities of the consciousness sea first!”

While speaking, Li Yan performed a deep bow toward them. His words clearly indicated that he would not use the first method; such a Bai Rou would no longer be Bai Rou. If he met Shuang Qingqing in the future, how would he face her? The greatest hope of the Wood Flow Sect had saved her daughter, only for everything except her spiritual power to vanish completely. Shuang Qingqing’s hard work in teaching would basically be gone; she would surely be extremely dissatisfied.

“Junior Sister, regarding the Hazy Moon Purity herb, you should say it before treating Miss Bai! Otherwise my disciple will surely come and ask me afterward. I did promise him to help find this item once we reached the Immortal Spirit Realm.”

At this time, Dong Fuyi suddenly spoke up. Previously, after the three of them had talked about sect matters, he had taken the initiative to mention Bai Rou. Dong Fuyi had been away from the Immortal Spirit Realm for too long. After returning this time, although he and Li Yan had been asking about the Hazy Moon Purity herb all the way, they hadn’t found it, nor had they even heard a single bit of news about its whereabouts. Therefore, he still placed his hopes in returning to the sect. Previously, the two were surely not clear about Bai Rou’s injury without probing it, so he had hoped that if these two took action, it could be completely solved. Now that Bai Rou’s injury was still so thorny, the matter of the Hazy Moon Purity herb had to be brought up again. The three of them had already discussed this matter beforehand. The result was a mix of good and bad news, but it was currently the closest information to the Hazy Moon Purity herb.