Mountain and River Festival

Chapter 19 This is not a side issue
Back in his own courtyard in the trading company, Lu Xingzhou sat quietly by the window in a daze.

When I thought about my subsequent practice in the Alchemy Department, my mind began to flood with thoughts.

Most people in the world make elixirs not for the purpose of curing diseases and saving lives... Almost every alchemist makes elixirs with the purpose of making elixirs that will allow them to quickly break through, or even become immortal.

Although the elixir that can make one become immortal only exists in legends, everyone in the world firmly believes in its existence.

Therefore, alchemists didn't prioritize self-cultivation, relying on pill-drinking to improve. Most alchemists spent their days refining pills, and their cultivation was fueled by pill-drinking, resulting in poor combat effectiveness and often requiring the protection of retainers.

On the surface, Lu Xingzhou has also been taking pills all the time, but he is different from other alchemists. He does not use this method to improve himself, but only to cure diseases.

He studied alchemy hard in order to cure his own illness, but he was not very interested in alchemy itself.

If you don’t take good care of your body, don’t expect to practice well.

In his early years, he was a truly frail military advisor, confined to a wheelchair, coughing constantly and looking sickly and pale. After so many years of long-term treatment and cultivation, he is now finally handsome with rosy lips and white teeth. His old illness is now only a minor one, and will soon be completely cured.

Although his cultivation was not high, it was very solid, achieved through hard work, bit by bit. Even when he used external objects, it was through the spirit gathering formations set up by spirit stones, absorbing the spiritual energy of heaven and earth, not relying on pills.

So Lu Xingzhou really had never refined the realm-breaking pill.

He had refined countless Qi-refining pills to increase his cultivation, but they all went into Anuo's stomach. They became Anuo's food.

However, this premise is fine for practicing at the lower third level, but once you want to enter the middle third level, this broken leg will be the biggest obstacle in front of you. If you can't achieve the intersection of heaven and earth, you will never be able to break through to the sixth level.

The Yama Palace had accumulated a wealth of resources over the years, including high-level cultivation methods, so it was inevitable that they didn't have medicine to treat his leg. However, Yuan Muyu was willing to provide him with herbs, teach him various skills, and let him choose his cultivation method, but he refused to treat his leg.

"Xingzhou, you are my military advisor. I don't need you to go out and kill people. Cultivation is not that important..."

"No matter what I do, no matter how high my spiritual practice is, I am first and foremost a human being... As a human being, I want to stand up."

"...I asked them to look for it, but they couldn't find the herbs they needed."

"Isn't it because they say that Lu Xingzhou is cunning and treacherous? It's okay that he's disabled and his cultivation is low now, but once he overcomes his shortcomings, he'll be uncontrollable?"

"I didn't think so."

“But you did.”

"..."

"Sister, what am I in your eyes?"

"Your life belongs to me, that's all."

"I'm eighteen years old. I'm an adult."

"so what?"

"I want to be able to stand by your side...with dignity."

"Do you know what you're talking about?"

"know."

"Then I'll give you a clear answer. If you keep saying this, you can leave. This also happens to relieve your doubts. I didn't mean to use your legs to trap you by my side, because whether you are here or not is not that important."

"In that case... this is my token, I will hand it over immediately. For the rest of your life... take care, Lord Yan."

"you!"

What was her expression at that time?
I've already turned around, and there's no point in not being able to see anymore...

It doesn't matter whether the conversation has come to this point or not. The fact is that she refuses to help treat her leg, and no one can keep waiting like this.

Time flies, and after years of separation, she didn't ask anyone to look for her. It must have made no difference to her whether Lu Xingzhou was there or not.

After all, life would be the same for everyone without the other... Besides, her strength was something Lu Xingzhou had never seen before in his life.

The so-called military advisor... shame on me, it's not as important as I imagined. As long as Yuan Muyu is there, Yama Palace is enough to terrify everyone; the others are just icing on the cake.

"Master, Master, what are you thinking about?" An Nuo's voice came. Lu Xingzhou turned his head to look. The little girl was shaking her chubby hands, swaying in front of him: "You've been in a daze since returning from the Medicine Bureau. Are you thinking about Sister Yu?"

"No." Lu Xingzhou frowned. "I was wondering how Liu Qingcang would deal with me. He'd probably go find the city lord. Xu Bingkun wants to deal with Shen Tang, and Liu Qingcang wants to deal with me. The two sides are so fierce and volatile. I, sir, and I will take off our robes..."

Ah Nuo didn't expose him, and said with a smile: "But the city lord can't deal with Sister Shen Tang openly. What's the point of sending someone to assassinate her? It's not enough for Sister Qingli to practice swordsmanship."

"A city lord can deal with people from many angles... Unless Shen Tang dares to connect with the royal family now, it will be difficult for him to take on the lord of a city."

"Didn't she say she would dare to do it after she cleaned up the internal affairs?"

"That's just a premise. The most she can do now is to start making tentative contact. How can she be so naive if she doesn't understand the reason behind the family's annihilation?"

"Since the city lord knows everything, can she hide it from the court?" "This matter is very mysterious now. Xu Bingkun must be confused as well. He doesn't know which side wants her dead and which side wants to protect her. If he reports it rashly, what if the other side wants to protect her? Wouldn't that mean Xu Bingkun would be asking for his own death? He wouldn't dare to do that."

"Why not just spread the news that the remnants of the Tianxing Sword Sect are here to attract the enemy?"

"Then he, the city lord from the Tianxing Sword Sect, will be taken off as a protective umbrella. Not only will he not dare to spread rumors, but he will help to conceal it."

Ah Nuo: “…”

Shen Tang's laughter came from outside the door: "Mr. Lu is indeed as clear as a mirror. Xu Bingkun really doesn't dare to tell anyone."

Lu Xingzhou knew she was coming and said calmly, "Didn't we say that we were all well, so why are you here, Miss Shen?"

"First of all, congratulations to you on passing the Seventh-Rank Alchemist certification." Shen Tang walked into the house and said with a smile, "Secondly, I came to give you something."

As he spoke, he handed over something wrapped in a handkerchief. Lu Xingzhou took it curiously, put it to his nose and sniffed it, his expression slightly changed: "Five Elements Grass..."

Shen Tang smiled and said, "I just went to the Medicine Bureau to discuss some follow-up matters regarding the sword talisman, and I heard Director Chen praising you highly. When Director Chen heard that I was staying at your place, he mentioned that you had made a recipe for a cure for your illness. I took the liberty of asking about the general ingredients, as I thought you might need this."

Lu Xingzhou was silent.

Wuyun Grass is indeed an important main ingredient for refining the Resurrection Pill.

The main ingredients needed for a seventh-grade elixir were considered high-end in Xiazhou and difficult to find in ordinary stores. Lu Xingzhou's conditioning hadn't reached this stage before, so he didn't deliberately look for them.

I never thought that an outsider would care about this...

Shen Tang asked, "Will it be useful to you, sir?"

Lu Xingzhou came back to his senses and whispered, "Thank you...Miss Shen for your concern."

"It's not a big deal, because the Medicine Bureau has a collection of them. I just bought them directly." Shen Tang smiled softly: "If you ask Director Chen, you can buy them yourself."

Lu Xingzhou pursed his lips and said nothing.

What is rare is not whether the things are easy to find, but that there are people who listen to your needs and want to find them for you.

Even if it was just a piece of dogtail grass, this feeling was rare... Especially when the memories just now spread, it was like a heavy hammer, smashing the picture into pieces.

"Don't worry, sir. Even in the ordinary village, if I make some dumplings, I will give a bowl to the neighbors." Shen Tang turned the wheelchair and left. "It won't affect your well-being, sir. We will live our own lives."

Lu Xingzhou didn't say anything, not even a word of thanks, and silently watched Shen Tang go away.

After a long while, he suddenly said to An Nuo, "Search the memory of the remaining soul in the Ten Thousand Souls Banner to see what's going on with the evil spirit and whether it's related to the City Lord."

Ah Nuo blinked, "You clearly didn't want to get involved before, and didn't want to cause any trouble when someone from the Huo family was about to arrive."

Lu Xingzhou looked down at the handkerchief in his hand. It exuded a delicate fragrance, perhaps from medicine or something else...

After a long while, he whispered back, "This is not a side issue."

Anuo sighed and turned away.

Although she said it, she knew better than anyone how much this incident had affected her master.

Ah Nuo is also very grateful...Sister Shen Tang is really nice...

Lu Xingzhou thought quietly for a while, then he wheeled himself out and found Dugu Qingli. "Miss Qingli, could you please help me with something?"

Dugu Qingli was sitting cross-legged in his own courtyard practicing martial arts. Upon hearing this, he opened his eyes and said calmly, "I am neither your subordinate nor your friend."

"What if it's related to Miss Shen Tang?"

"Shen Tang just came to see you. Why didn't you tell her directly about the relevant matters? Why did you come to me?"

"She's not very convenient." Lu Xingzhou handed over a few prescriptions. "Please, young lady, sneak into the Danxia Mountain Alchemy Workshop tonight and give these prescriptions to the alchemy apprentices. You can give them to any of them, but make sure they are not discovered by the Danxia Gang guards. Only young lady has the ability to be so invisible. I'm afraid Shen Tang and the others in the Tianxing Sword Sect are not so capable."

Dugu Qingli took the recipe and asked in confusion, "Is there someone refining pills in the alchemy workshop late at night?"

"If nothing unexpected happens, there will be a party tonight, and it will be very lively."

Dugu Qingli frowned slightly, as if thinking hard: "What does this have to do with Shen Tang?"

"Shen's Trading Company and the Danxia Gang have a feud. That night, Liu Qingcang also came to attack, but was stopped by Sheng Yuanyao. He will definitely collude with the City Lord to cause trouble again... Therefore, dealing with the Danxia Gang will also cut off the City Lord's arm and make Miss Shen feel a little more at ease."

Little White Hair wasn't stupid: "...The Danxia Gang is your own enemy, you don't have to say that this is for Shen Tang."

Lu Xingzhou was silent for a moment, then slowly said, "You can think so."

Only he knew that if it was just for himself, he would have had other ideas and didn't want to be so impatient. Now he wanted to do something... just for the thought wrapped in the handkerchief.

(End of this chapter)