Mountain and River Festival

Chapter 544 An Examination of the Causes of the Cursed Land

Jiang Yuan endured inhumane torture.

I knew there was only one cup of tea, but I never imagined I could keep getting more and drink it endlessly.

When everyone returned from the seabed, it was just dawn. The tea was refilled cup after cup, and by the time it was completely quiet inside, it was almost noon.

This is not like ordinary guard duty. Any normal person would react to the sounds of moaning and groaning inside, right?
Xiao Jiang could barely stand; dizzy and lightheaded, she squatted down, leaning against a pillar, and instinctively gripped the millstone. When she realized she was covered in it, she felt both ashamed and angry.

Fortunately, no outsiders came; otherwise, seeing her flushed face and alluring, watery eyes, they would probably know everything.

Finally, when she heard complete silence inside, Jiang Yuan leaned on a pillar to stand up and limped away.

Inside, Dugu Qingli lay limply on Lu Xingzhou's shoulder: "Has Jiang Yuan been outside the whole time...?"

Lu Xingzhou: "It seems so..."

Why didn't she run away?

"I don't know either... I thought the treatment would require a protector, so I asked her to help guard the area."

Neither of them expected the young guard to be this dedicated.

Dugu Qingli asked, "Does she like you?"

"No way?" Lu Xingzhou couldn't think of any romantic feelings developing between himself and Jiang Yuan. He admitted to having some lustful thoughts, after all, Jiang Yuan was very beautiful, but not much. As for Jiang Yuan's feelings for him, she had truly been taken advantage of, so it was more likely that she harbored resentment.

That said, this girl is really cute, and the more you get to know her, the more interesting she becomes.

After thinking deeply for a while, Dugu Qingli didn't think there was anything really going on between them, so she concluded: "She's stupid."

Lu Xingzhou seemed to have no choice but to accept this conclusion.

Xiao Jiang's most brilliant moment was when she acted to deceive Zang Wanchun. Her diplomatic skills, befitting a direct descendant of a sect, were truly convincing. This alone is definitely related to her status; she played herself perfectly. As for everything else, she was just a naive and ignorant person from an ivory tower.

Dugu Qingli murmured, "Let's not talk about her anymore, I want to sleep."

The little white-haired girl's rare display of adorable innocence softened Lu Xingzhou's heart, so he embraced her smooth and soft body: "Okay, together."

As a result, the communication jade talisman in the ring vibrated, and Lu Xingzhou answered it helplessly: "Old Ji?"

Ji Wenchuan's voice came through: "About what you made with me yesterday, I followed Situ all day and there was nothing wrong with it. Can you analyze it?"

"No need for analysis. I deliberately told her that I would flee towards the Yama Palace, and Hong Yin was able to block her on the road in advance. This is already an 80% certainty."

"This is not conclusive evidence. It could be a coincidence, or Hong Yin could have used other means to try and shake the central Ghost Emperor's power. It would be difficult unless you whisper sweet nothings in his ear and turn the King of Hell into a tyrant who kills indiscriminately."

"No rush, I have other plans... Hmm, how is Yan Jun's Qian Yuan?"

"I don't know. I found that Yama was injured as soon as I got back."

"Huh?" Lu Xingzhou was taken aback. "Who could have hurt her?"

"What are you saying? She vomited several liters of blood just because you got engaged. She's much more prone to getting hurt."

"...Go, go, go, I'll ask her."

"Are you concerned about her? Or is it just because there are plans to follow up?"

Lu Xingzhou fell silent; he didn't know either.

Regardless, the "phone call" had to be made. Lu Xingzhou hung up the call with Ji Wenchuan and quickly called Yuan Muyu.

Yuan Muyu's expression brightened as she looked at the information about Lu Xingzhou transmitted through the jade talisman: "Xingzhou?"

"I heard my sister got hurt. Who hit her?"

"It's all shrouded in mystery. Xingzhou, let me tell you, I roughly know what the Cursed Land is like. Your True Sun Fire might be there."

Lu Xingzhou was stunned. Mr. Ji's condition and the True Fire of the Sun should be two extremes. It should be said that the True Fire of the Sun can greatly restrain Mr. Ji. How come the Cursed Land is related to the True Fire of the Sun?
Dugu Qingli said from the side, "So, Mr. Ji was seriously injured when he descended upon our side? Was it my martial uncle who did it?"

Yuan Muyu was also stunned for a moment, her eyes curving into crescents.

Unexpectedly, this helped Lu Xingzhou again.

and many more.

Yuan Muyu suddenly felt a chill run down her spine: "Why has that white-haired guy's voice become so soft and sweet? What did you just do? Where are you now?!"

"Ahem." Lu Xingzhou immediately changed the subject: "After I finish what I'm doing here, shall I go check on your injury?"

"I asked Dugu Qingli!"

Dugu Qingli said, "Sister, please take good care of your injuries first. We will go to discuss the Cursed Land in a few days."

Yuan Muyu: "???"

What did you call me?
Lu Xingzhou quickly changed the subject, saying, "Thank you so much, sister. If you hadn't stopped Mr. Ji, we would have been in a lot of trouble."

Yuan Muyu stared at the jade talisman in her hand with her mouth slightly open. This time, she didn't feel much of a rage; instead, she felt it was utterly absurd.

Perhaps it was because they were prepared in advance; you should have known by how sweet and affectionate they looked while strolling under the moon at the Ice Prison Sect.

I just didn't expect it to happen so quickly...

Ye Tinglan, you've finally met your match.

After a long pause, Yuan Muyu suddenly chuckled self-deprecatingly and changed the subject: "The True Fire of the Sun seems to be extremely strong and yang, the nemesis of evil spirits. In reality, everything is relative; its excessive violence causes the environment to dry up, leading to desolation. Even spiritual energy might be evaporated by it, creating a dead land." Lu Xingzhou suddenly felt this made sense. Like the legendary story of Hou Yi shooting down the suns, wasn't it because there were too many and too strong suns that caused the earth to dry up…

"Why did you conclude that it was caused by the true fire of the sun, and not some other reason?"

"Its life passing away is not a process of growth and decay, but rather like being scorched. However, it is born from scorched earth itself, not from the true fire of the sun, so under normal circumstances, one cannot feel its yang and fire attributes, but rather its withered earth and wood attributes, making it difficult to determine its essence. If I had not broken through the Qian Yuan, I probably would not have been able to determine it either."

"You... have reached the Qian Yuan realm?"

"Ah."

Congratulations on your long-cherished wish coming true.

"This is not my long-cherished wish; you know what my long-cherished wish is."

"...Be careful to suppress your strength; the problem with the pursuers hasn't been solved yet."

"You care about me?"

"...Of course I care about my sister."

Yuan Muyu pursed her lips, somewhat disinterested, and finally said no more: "Let's leave it at that for now, I need to heal my injuries first."

After ending the call, Lu Xingzhou and Dugu Qingli, who was in his arms, looked at each other in bewilderment.

If Yuan Muyu hadn't mentioned it, there would have been no way to connect the Cursed Land with the True Fire of the Sun, let alone with Mr. Ji—they were completely contradictory.

Unexpectedly, it came to me without any effort.

"What do you think?" Dugu Qingli asked.

Lu Xingzhou said, "If the True Fire of the Sun is indeed in the Cursed Land, we should take advantage of Mr. Ji's injury at this moment and catch him off guard. But before that, we need to find out the specifics of his transplanted dantian, why Mr. Ji has the dantian transplantation attribute, and what his purpose is in doing this and what his cooperation with Maha is."

Dugu Qingli closed her eyes and mumbled, "The capable should do more work, so you can think about it slowly. I'm going to sleep..."

Lu Xingzhou chuckled and gently stroked her white hair.

A knock came at the door: "My lord, a young lady named Liu Yan'er requests an audience."

Lu Xingzhou looked at the little white-haired girl sleeping soundly in his arms, gently placed her on the bed, kissed her again, put on his clothes and went out.

Upon reaching the courtyard, Liu Yan'er knelt and kowtowed, saying, "Thank you, Lord Marquis, for disregarding past grievances and helping Yan'er avenge her great grudge."

He was accompanied by a middle-aged couple whose hands had been chopped off; they looked terrified and defeated.

The woman looks somewhat like Liu Yan'er and is probably the aunt who sold her, while the man is likely her husband.

It seems Liu Yan'er was extremely angry; she almost chopped someone up with a stick.

Strictly speaking, it wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that the downfall of Zang Wanchun was triggered by the couple's behavior towards their niece. Liu Yan'er's information played a crucial role in the destruction of Chunshan Pavilion. Zang Wanchun probably never imagined that the trouble was sown here.

The middle-aged woman continued to curse weakly, "You little slut, you'll die a horrible death!"

Liu Yan'er kicked her, shattering her jaw: "Whether I die a good death or not is another matter, but you are already dead."

Lu Xingzhou asked, "Why did you bring them here?"

Liu Yan'er said, "The reason they were able to hand me over to Zang Wanchun is because my uncle holds a high position in Chunshan Pavilion. He is a steward and knows a lot about Zang Wanchun's affairs. Now there are hardly any survivors among the high-ranking members of Chunshan Pavilion. I think the Marquis must have some questions for them."

Lu Xingzhou laughed: "You're getting smarter and smarter now."

"After learning from many mistakes, one should have gained some wisdom." Liu Yan'er said calmly, "Yan'er hopes to use this merit to return to her hometown and settle down, and seek the protection of the Xia King."

"Sure, could you also give Tangtang a letter from home? She'll take good care of you."

"Thank you, Lord Marquis."

Lu Xingzhou wrote a letter to Liu Yan'er on the spot. Liu Yan'er received the letter and, without further ado, took her leave.

Lu Xingzhou then turned to Liu Yan'er's uncle: "Tell me, how much do you know about Zang Wanchun's affairs?"

They dared to curse Liu Yan'er even when they were about to die, but they didn't even dare to breathe on Lu Xingzhou. The uncle replied tremblingly, "My name is Wang Zhong, and I am a steward of the External Injury Research Hall of Chunshan Pavilion."

"Trauma research?"

"Spring Mountain Pavilion is also a sect that focuses on elixirs, which is why Chen Yu went to the Dan Academy in the capital."

"Well, continue."

"The medical research at Chunshan Pavilion is very specialized. There is a branch that specializes in the study of external trauma anatomy, and the smaller one is one of them. We have studied things like kidney transplants and reattaching severed limbs, and we have successfully completed many cases."

Lu Xingzhou became interested: "This is great news. Even the Imperial Academy of Alchemy in the capital hasn't researched this far."

Medicine in this world, though called medicine, is more of an extension of alchemy, focusing on the preparation of elixirs and the use of medicine. In fact, many external injuries can indeed be healed directly with medicine without surgery. For example, if there is a problem with the kidneys, elixirs can solve it, so naturally no one researches things like kidney transplants.

Lu Xingzhou's limp is a very typical surgical case, but in addition to the idea of ​​bone replacement, other approaches also involve working on elixirs.

The Imperial Academy of Medicine does have a specialized field of surgery, but its research is not in-depth. The reason they started researching blood transfusions was because Gu Zhanting's illness couldn't be cured by traditional medicine, so they sought an alternative approach.

Lu Xingzhou was quite surprised to find that even in Chunshan Pavilion, this aspect was already so advanced.

“Originally, our research was only for medical science, but that doesn’t improve the sect’s strength, does it?” Wang Zhong said. “I don’t know when, but the sect leader had an idea to combine the strengths of different people to create a completely new person.”

(End of this chapter)