Chapter 44 (Part 1)

Eating spirit fruit while lying down and watching Yu Yu cultivate—this kind of life made Lingyin not want to leave at all.

It was just too comfortable. Lying there like this every day, doing nothing at all… Honestly, if she did not still remember her duties, Lingyin would have wanted to spend her whole life lying in the hammock.

This day was the same as always. Yu Yu cultivated, while Lingyin lay in the hammock watching her little junior brother cultivate. The spirit fruit in her hand had already been gnawed down by half.

“Wushang, a disciple of Refining Peak, requests Little Martial Uncle to treat this disciple’s illness.”

A man’s pleading voice suddenly rang out from beyond the peak.

Yu Yu’s cultivation was interrupted, so he opened his eyes and exchanged a look with Lingyin, who had sat up. The two of them flew into the air above Holy Sun Peak and looked down.

They saw a young man with ordinary features kneeling at the foot of Holy Sun Peak. The skin on his body was extremely dry and withered, and the vitality in him was draining away.

Not just anyone could enter Holy Sun Peak without obstruction. Lingyin could enter because she had always had a jade token that allowed her to come and go freely, so when she came in, the array did not block her in the slightest.

This third-generation disciple of Refining Peak was clearly unable to come and go as freely as Lingyin, so he could only kneel at the foot of the mountain and use an amplification spell to request Yu Yu’s help.

After advancing to Foundation Establishment, Yu Yu’s eyesight had also improved. Even from the mountain, he could see what was happening below.

“Treat an illness? It’s not impossible. Do you know my rules?”

Yu Yu was referring to what he had announced in front of the Hall of Affairs.

“Replying to Little Martial Uncle, this disciple knows. This is one thousand middle-grade spirit stones. It is everything I own.”

Wushang took out a storage pouch. In order to treat his illness, he had even exchanged every resource he could use for spirit stones, and only then had he managed to gather these one thousand middle-grade spirit stones.

Logically speaking, as a Golden Core cultivator, even if he had done badly, his entire fortune should not have amounted to only this much.

But he was ill. Most of the spirit stones and resources he had saved had been spent on treating his illness.

“Since you understand, come in.”

Yu Yu thought about it. One thousand middle-grade spirit stones was not much to a Golden Core cultivator, but he was only at Foundation Establishment. On top of that, he was also a little curious about this disciple called Wushang.

What kind of illness was it that made him go not to Medicine Peak for treatment, but to Holy Sun Peak to look for someone at Foundation Establishment?

Another thing was that, even if one did not give face to the monk, one still had to give face to the Buddha. This Wushang was a grand-disciple under his Martial Uncle Qingfang’s branch. He should at least show some consideration and not be too ruthless.

“Greetings, Little Martial Uncle. Greetings, Martial Aunt Lingyin.”

As soon as Wushang entered, he first knelt and saluted.

One big and one small both looked young, but their seniority was high.

Wushang looked older, but he was of the younger generation. Naturally, he had to salute when they met.

“Get up. What illness do you have?”

Seeing that Lingyin had no intention of speaking, Yu Yu could only raise his hand and have Wushang rise to speak.

“Replying to Little Martial Uncle, ever since I entered the Golden Core stage, one day, for some unknown reason, the spiritual energy inside my body began constantly draining away.”

When Wushang spoke of his illness, he could not help wanting to cry.

Advancing to Golden Core should have been a good thing. He had even formed an upper-grade Golden Core. If spoken aloud, how many people would have envied him?

In the end, less than a month after he advanced to Golden Core, problems appeared.

His body had become like a sieve, full of holes everywhere. When he cultivated, he could not retain spiritual energy at all. The spiritual energy within him was still leaking outward, and it looked as though he was about to fall from Golden Core back to Foundation Establishment. After receiving a reminder from a senior brother at Medicine Peak, he came to Holy Sun Peak to try his luck with this Little Martial Uncle.

“Spiritual energy draining away?”

Yu Yu and Lingyin sat in front of the Bamboo Courtyard, while Wushang sat opposite him.

“Don’t move. Let me take a look.”

Yu Yu came to Wushang’s side and placed his hand on his shoulder.

Wushang did not dare move. He sat ramrod straight on the stone stool and let Yu Yu examine him.

“Relax. I’m not going to eat you. Why are you so nervous?”

Yu Yu soothed Wushang. The flesh beneath his hand had turned stiff because of Wushang’s tension.

“Yes, Little Martial Uncle.”

Under Yu Yu’s reassurance, Wushang was indeed no longer as tense as before.

Yu Yu sent his own spiritual energy into Wushang’s body to search for the cause of the leakage. Yu Yu’s spiritual energy was gentle water-and-wood spiritual energy. The moment it entered Wushang’s body, he nearly let out a comfortable groan.

After his dry meridians received nourishment, his entire body became radiant.

Before, because his spiritual energy had been leaking outward, even the skin on his body had grown somewhat withered.

Most people who could cultivate to Golden Core were over a hundred years old. If his spiritual energy kept leaking away, he would soon become an ordinary person, and then die of old age.

So although he looked young now, in reality, he was already an old man over two hundred years old.

As Yu Yu’s spiritual energy entered his body, Wushang’s withered skin gradually recovered. Unfortunately, this was only temporary. Once Yu Yu’s spiritual energy left Wushang’s body, he would very quickly return to his withered appearance.

So this sign of improvement was nothing more than a fleeting bloom. If the leakage of spiritual energy could not be resolved, there would be no way to stop his spiritual energy from dispersing. In the end, he would become an ordinary person and die of old age.

Yu Yu had no time to pay attention to the changes in Wushang’s outward appearance. He focused entirely on letting his spiritual energy search inside Wushang’s body for the source of the illness.

At the same time, he also attached his spiritual sense to the spiritual energy, so that he could better examine Wushang’s physical condition.

Wushang’s situation was far from optimistic. His meridians had already begun to show signs of atrophy.

If the problem was not solved soon, all his spiritual energy would disperse, and he would die.

Yu Yu first examined Wushang’s limbs and head, but found no problem. Finally, he reached his torso. His back and waist were also fine. At last, Yu Yu came to Wushang’s chest.

“Mm?”

Yu Yu quickly gathered his mind and concentrated fully on observing the reaction in his chest.

“Ah?”

Yu Yu withdrew his spiritual energy, took out a jade slip and sent a message, then gestured to Lingyin and Wushang.

“Little Junior Brother, if you can’t find the problem, then forget it. You’re still so young. If he can’t be cured, that’s his fate.” Lingyin rarely said so much at once, though her words were a little hurtful.

Wushang indeed grew distressed. Was he truly beyond saving?

“Little Martial Uncle, if you can’t find the cause, then forget it. Perhaps this is simply my fate!”

Although Wushang said this with his mouth, there was not the slightest trace of grief or sadness on his face.

“I’m sorry. I couldn’t find the cause. My skills are poor, and I made you come here for nothing. Here are some spirit fruits. I’ll give them to you as an apology.”

Yu Yu took out a plate of spirit fruit and set it in front of Wushang.

“Many thanks, Little Martial Uncle, but I won’t eat these spirit fruits. Even if I eat them, they’ll be useless anyway.”

Wushang said this dejectedly.

Little did he know that his refusal made a certain existence terribly anxious.

Why are you refusing? If you refuse, how am I supposed to absorb spiritual energy?

As soon as it became anxious, Wushang felt his chest grow a little stuffy.

Without changing his expression, he pointed once toward his chest. Yu Yu silently nodded.

Understood. The thing absorbing his spiritual energy was in his chest.

Wushang thought about whether he had put anything on his chest and given something an opening.

Suddenly, he remembered something. He did indeed wear something over his chest. It was a family heirloom his mother had given him. In memory of his mother, whose talent had been poor and who had passed away early, he had taken the object out a month and a half ago and hung it around his neck.

Could this family heirloom truly be the source of the disaster? But why would his mother give him something dangerous?

What family heirloom? This was clearly a soul-chasing lock. It was also from the day he put it on that his spirit began to worsen. Now, even his spiritual energy was gradually disappearing.

Too many coincidences were no longer coincidences. Wushang’s expression had already darkened. He had never heard of a family heirloom that would harm its owner. Now he had seen one for himself.

Yu Yu lightly patted his shoulder, telling him to stay steady.

“Rest for a while first. I’ll think again and see if there’s any way to stop your spiritual energy from leaking.”

Yu Yu took out an array plate and gave it to Lingyin, having her temporarily trap Wushang inside.

Lingyin quietly laid down the array, while Wushang also pretended not to know anything and continued sitting on the stool, looking sorrowful.

“Many thanks, Little Martial Uncle. If you truly can’t find a method, then forget it!”

It had to be said, there were quite a few acting talents in Taizhen Immortal Sect, and they played their parts rather convincingly.

Holy Sun Peak’s mountain-protection array silently opened and closed again. Qingsheng brought Qingquan and Qinghe, quietly landing beside Yu Yu and Lingyin.

“Little Martial Nephew, are you sure something is absorbing Wushang’s spiritual energy?”

Qingsheng transmitted his voice.

Yu Yu nodded and told Qingsheng and the others what he had discovered when he probed with his spiritual energy.

“When I examined Wushang’s chest, I found that all the spiritual energy dispersing from him was flowing out through this spot. Yet there was no scattered spiritual energy appearing outside his body. That means this spiritual energy wasn’t vanishing into thin air, but was being sucked away by some strange thing.”

The moment Yu Yu discovered something was wrong, he immediately withdrew his hand and sent a message to Qingsheng and the others.

Because he did not know what the strange thing was, he was afraid of alerting it. He was also afraid Senior Sister Lingyin would be unable to suppress it, so he simply sought out Qingsheng and the others.

One was powerful, one was skilled in arrays and could trap the other party, and one had excellent medical skills and could save the person if necessary.

“Good. Lingyin, withdraw your array first. Junior Brother Qinghe, you set up another trapping array.”

Qingsheng gave the order, and everyone did as he said.

Very soon, a brand-new, much stronger trapping array was set up.

After Qinghe finished setting up the array, he retreated a few steps. He was only skilled in arrays. Fighting was not his strength.

Qingquan protected Yu Yu and Lingyin behind him, and one big and one small quietly poked their heads out from behind him.

Time to watch the show. They wanted to see exactly what kind of thing was absorbing a cultivator’s spiritual energy, and had nearly sucked a Golden Core cultivator dry.

Qingsheng pointed at Wushang’s chest. Wushang nodded and pulled open his Daoist robe, revealing the family heirloom his mother had given him. A black jade pendant appeared before everyone.

Qingsheng quickly reached out toward the jade pendant, but unexpectedly, the jade pendant actually dodged. It flew out from Wushang’s chest and tried to flee, only to be trapped by Qinghe’s array.

Then it tried to escape into Wushang’s body again, but a sword blocked it.

“I didn’t expect to run into something fun the moment I came out of seclusion. Since you’ve come, yet don’t stay as a guest, aren’t you being rather disrespectful to me, the host?”

The appearance of the Golden Sun Sword made Qingsheng and the others breathe a sigh of relief. They had nearly let that jade pendant burrow into Wushang’s body.

They did not know whether it would harm Wushang after entering a person’s body.

It was not that Qingsheng and the others had been careless. It was that no one had expected this jade pendant to be able to dodge, and at such extreme speed too. After seeing that it could not escape, it had actually set its sights on Wushang’s body.

“Master.”

Yu Yu jumped out from behind Martial Uncle Qingquan. His master was so powerful, so he definitely would not let the jade pendant escape.

With Martial Uncle Qinghe’s trapping array added on, no matter how cunning the monster was, it would have to give up.

“Little Yu, wait for Master to catch this monster for you to play with. Then I’ll come talk to you.”

Within the trapping array, Qingyang first tossed Wushang out, then started playing hide-and-seek with the jade pendant.

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