Ze Tian Ji

Edited by: Michyrr

The desert in the night was very cold. Without any wind, the dust stirred up in the daytime slowly settled to the ground, leaving the air very clean.

The stars in the night sky were so densely packed that they seemed unreal.

Xining Village was only several hundred li from the Cloud Grave, so it was often foggy. As a result, Chen Changsheng had only seen this sort of starry night in the wilderness on his journey back to the south with Su Li.

The bright starlight shone on the desert. The invisible star radiance was also somewhat more concentrated, falling on the needle between his fingers and providing the best cleansing method.

"Turn around," Chen Changsheng said to Zhexiu.

Zhexiu turned around, not asking why.

These sorts of words had been spoken many times in the Orthodox Academy and the Mausoleum of Books, so he was very familiar with the procedure.

A needle was slowly thrust into Zhexiu’s neck and then began to tremble in Chen Changsheng’s fingers.

Zhexiu’s brows slightly rose.

Chen Changsheng knew that this represented pain, because Zhexiu was not one who like to twist his brow in pain, as this would indicate that he was not tough enough.

If even Zhexiu felt it painful, just how painful was it?

Chen Changsheng poured true essence into Zhexiu’s meridians and began to examine the state of his body.

Zhexiu closed his eyes.

In a short while, an almost indescribable flow of true essence, somewhat like a tide, charged through Zhexiu’s meridians.

In response, his blood similarly surged.

The fingers Chen Changsheng was using to hold the needle were almost jolted off.

Zhexiu’s eyelids trembled.

This was Zhexiu’s illness: the Tide Rush of Blood.

In both the medical books and Daoist scriptures, this sort of inborn illness resulting from a conflict in bloodlines was described as a fatal illness that no medicine could treat.

This was the reason Su Li and the Mount Li Sword Sect had taken such a tough stance towards the relationship between Zhexiu and Qi Jian.

Chen Changsheng did not release his fingers, instead continuing to silently wait. He also placed two more needles at two of Zhexiu’s other meridians.

After some time, he finally pulled out the needles and stared into Zhexiu’s eye. "You haven’t been taking the medicine on schedule?"

After killing Zhou Tong, he and Zhexiu had left the capital. Although they had both come to the north, they had never once met.

But he had already prepared a prescription beforehand, clearly indicating how to take the medicine and what should be paid attention.

Tonight, it seemed that although Zhexiu’s illness had not worsened any, it had also not improved. Some sort of problem must have occurred.

As he looked at Chen Changsheng’s bright and serious eyes, Zhexiu felt an inexplicable sense of apology, but his face remained expressionless.

"I’m fighting constantly. Whether it’s scouting out the enemy or chasing and assassinating, they all require long expeditions. At times, I even have to hide in the snow for seven days and nights."

He continued, "Where could I find the time to take medicine? And that medicine brings me trouble. It requires boiling, but I can’t light a fire."

Chen Changsheng didn’t know how to reply. After a pause, he said, "Then I’ll think of another way and see if it can be made into a powder or pill."

Hearing this, Zhexiu thought of that rumor and asked, "You fed me the Cinnabar Pill?"

Chen Changsheng nodded.

A bit more than a year ago, Chen Changsheng had thought of a few methods to resolve the conflict between two divine laws of the world, allowing him to make his blood into the Cinnabar Pill. At the first opportunity, he had Zhizhi deliver the pill to Zhexiu, but... he discovered that his blood was of no use against Zhexiu’s illness.

The current rumor circulating about the world that the Cinnabar Pill could bring the dying back to life was truthfully rather exaggerated.

The Cinnabar Pill truly was effective for those casualties from the battlefield who had suffered damage to their limbs or lost too much blood, but it absolutely could not cure all illnesses.

Like Zhexiu’s illness, or Nanke’s illness.

Whether it was the Tide Rush of Blood or a chaotic soul, they were all extremely rare and strange illnesses.

Zhexiu asked, "Can my illness be cured?"

Chen Changsheng was a superb doctor and had an unmatched understanding of the meridians.

If not even he could cure Zhexiu’s illness, then it really was incurable.

Chen Changsheng did not attempt to deceive him, whispering, "The outlook isn’t very good."

Zhexiu appeared very calm, or perhaps numb. After hearing this answer, he only fell quiet for a few moments, then asked, "What about her?"

Chen Changsheng shook his head and replied, "I still haven’t found a method. I’m just using medicine and needles to help stabilize her soul."

"It looks to me like she’s not a true imbecile."

"There are thousands of ways for one to be an imbecile."

"Then how will she wake up?"

"I only hope that she can have some lucky encounter and wake up herself."

Zhexiu looked into his eyes and asked, "Have you ever thought about what you will do if she really does wake up?"

Chen Changsheng found it impossible to imagine such a sight. He pondered the question for a few moments, then said, "I’ll think about it when the time comes."

Zhexiu continued, "Even if she’s never able to wake up, if someone recognizes her, it will still cause a big problem."

Chen Changsheng understood his meaning.

Nanke was not an ordinary person.

She wasn’t even a human.

She was a demon, and a Demon Princess at that.

One recalled that even with Su Li’s power and means, he still had to conceal his love for a Demon Princess from the world and hide his daughter’s name while raising her in Mount Li.

And he was not Su Li.

Of course, his situation was different from Su Li’s. He did not have that sort of relationship with Nanke.

But if he always kept Nanke at his side, he would have to face this problem eventually.

Zhexiu’s question made him recall that Demon Princess who had died in the Longevity Sect’s cold pool, which made him recall the conversation between two generations of Demon Lords on that night in the mountains.

The young Demon Lord had been very shocked to see the Heavenly Demon Horn, as everyone in Xuelao City believed that that Demon Princess had taken this divine object with her when she left for the human world twenty-some years ago. Who could have expected that after all this time, the Heavenly Demon Horn would reappear in his father’s hands?

Compared to all those other events that took place that night, this was just a trivial matter, but now that he thought about it, a great deal of information was concealed behind it.

If the Heavenly Demon Horn really had been taken from Xuelao City by that Demon Princess, then after her death, it was highly likely that the Heavenly Demon Horn should have been lost in the Longevity Sect.

How had it reappeared in the Demon Lord’s hand?

He then recalled that little monster he had encountered in Hanqiu City that seemed to have flowed out of the Yellow Springs.

An ancient legacy that not even the Li Palace possessed? Just which place in the world could preserve it? It naturally had to be the equally ancient Longevity Sect.

Chen Changsheng silently thought, his expression turning grave.

It was naturally important to find that person in the Orthodoxy that was working with the Imperial Court, but it was even more important that he find the person that was colluding with the demons.

This question had been on his mind ever since that night in the mountains.

With someone’s help, the young Demon Lord had managed to easily deceive countless people and changes places with the original young array master on the stretcher.

Now that he looked at it, could it be that it was not a person that was working with the demons, but a sect? Or perhaps a noble clan?