In the main hall of Lanshen Palace, a group of newly recovered cultivators was clearing away the rubble, hauling stone fragments piece by piece to a designated open area. Though they lacked tools, these cultivators had reached at least Body Casting great completion. Snatching up thousand-jin boulders one in each hand, they ran off with them effortlessly. The Dao Foundation cultivators had Dao arts at their disposal: some guided a heap of gravel through the air, while others fused countless small stones into a massive block before hauling it away.
Wei Yuan summoned Yun Feifei once more and instructed her to scout the surrounding area to select a suitable location a hundred li away for the relocated mortals to settle.
After he finished his instructions, however, Yun Feifei did not budge. Instead, she said with an aggrieved look, "I fought in the battle and took wounds, too. To make someone work without even tending to their injuries—not even mules or horses are run into the ground like this, are they?"
Only then did Wei Yuan recall that Yun Feifei was indeed wounded. After sharing a bloody battle with her, his impression of her had improved considerably. She had truly fought at the vanguard, battling fiercely to the end until she was grievously injured. At this moment, she was holding on purely through sheer cultivation strength.
Softening, Wei Yuan said, "Then rest and tend to your wounds first. I'll find someone else."
"No!"
Wei Yuan was somewhat bewildered. Just what did this woman want?
Yun Feifei bit her lower lip and said, "I suffered these wounds for you, so I want you to treat me! None of the others has medical skills as good as yours!"
By both reason and sentiment, it was difficult for Wei Yuan to refuse. Normally he could have demurred by claiming his medical skills were mediocre. Yet compared to these cultivators of the west, the little he had learned in his Theory of Arts classes was more than enough to boast of profound expertise here; even styling himself a miraculous physician of the realm wouldn't have been far off the mark. Thus, he could hardly claim in good conscience that he was incapable.
Yun Feifei led Wei Yuan into a disciple's room that had not yet collapsed. Inside stood a bed—the very one she had previously lain upon.
Yun Feifei lay face down on the bed and said, "You can begin."
Wei Yuan had intended to get to work, but the phrasing sounded rather peculiar.
Lying motionless, Yun Feifei said, "Hurry up, Senior Brother. Tens of thousands of mortals are waiting at the foot of the mountain. Every extra day they spend in that environment will shave off a bit more of their lives."
This finally struck Wei Yuan's soft spot. Reaching out, he lifted her upper garment. Yun Feifei had quietly undone the front buttons at some point, so with a gentle tug, her entire back was laid bare.
Yun Feifei was luminously fair. Her frame appeared slender, but because of her delicate bones, a soft, supple layer of flesh covered every one of them. When Wei Yuan touched her lightly, he surprisingly felt no bone beneath.
"This physique... is utterly mediocre!" Wei Yuan shook his head inwardly. Zhang Sheng and Eldest Senior Sister both had soft hands, yet a casual point of their fingers could pierce metal and stone. Yun Feifei was simply soft, and nothing more.
Several conspicuous wounds marred her back. From one, half an arrowhead still protruded, continually oozing blood. Fortunately, suppressed by the Jia Wood Life-Mystic, the blood weeping from it bore only a faint tinge of green.
Wei Yuan pulled out the arrowhead, cleaned several wounds, and channeled the Life-Mystic power from his domain into her body. The injuries began to knit together at a speed visible to the naked eye. In less than half a day, the flesh wounds would be fully healed.
After tending to the wounds on her back, Yun Feifei murmured, "There are more below."
Wei Yuan was just about to cut away the bloodstained portion of her skirt when she said frantically, "Don't! This is the only skirt I have left!"
Wei Yuan froze in astonishment. Yun Feifei then loosened the garment herself, exposing the injured areas. She was indeed gravely wounded. Her thigh was shrouded in black qi, the wound already beginning to ulcerate, and clusters of pale white insect eggs were visible within the flesh.
The curses and poison arts of the Shaman race were exceedingly vicious. If a victim was not rescued in time and the eggs formed of magical power were allowed to hatch, the insects would bore into the flesh and hollow out their internal organs, bringing an agonizing death.
Wei Yuan dared not dally. He set to work immediately, carefully tending to every wound before suppressing the venomous curse with the Jia Wood Life-Mystic. Only after an arduous effort was the work finished.
Yet it was not yet time to breathe easy; after all, her injuries were only half-healed.
...
More than an hour later, Yun Feifei and Wei Yuan finally stepped out of the room. Sweat beaded on her forehead, and a flush rose to her cheeks. She appeared utterly limp and drained, her footing somewhat unsteady, though she could still barely manage to fly.
Wei Yuan was about to send her off to survey the settlement land for the mortals when the formation plate suddenly stirred. Sweeping it with his divine sense, Wei Yuan noticed a faint point of light flickering in the distance. Only then did he recall that the location also shared a karmic link with Yun Feifei. The reaction had been weak at the time, and after discovering Qingming, a cascade of events had followed, leaving the matter deferred until now.
Wei Yuan said to Yun Feifei, "Come with me to look for something."
"All right." Yun Feifei was now thoroughly compliant.
Before long, the two arrived at a stretch of ruins ten li away. A dozen or so disciple quarters were scattered across the area, most of them originally two- or three-story buildings, along with a few detached courtyards.
According to Yun Feifei, this place had once housed outer disciples and chore disciples, so there should have been nothing of importance.
The karmic link indicated by the formation plate lay within a standalone residence. Formerly belonging to an assistant steward, it had only two courtyards. By now, external force had flattened the compound into ruins. Traces suggested that someone had leveled the buildings across this area directly with Dao arts, without conducting a meticulous search or dismantling them piece by piece.
Wei Yuan swept the ground with his divine sense, but beneath the rubble lay only bare earth—nothing else.
Having already witnessed Lanshen Palace's methods of concealing incense aspiration power, however, Wei Yuan changed his approach. He deployed the Qi-Gazing Technique to search specifically for it, and sure enough, he detected a small knot of incense aspiration power buried beneath the ruins.
Working together, Wei Yuan and Yun Feifei excavated several subterranean secret chambers in short order.
Wei Yuan entered the passageway first. Pushing open the heavy door at its end, a rather spacious chamber came into view. He materialized a False Sun to illuminate the interior, then lit the wall sconces and candles inside.
Judging by the furnishings, this was a formal reception room for guests. On the main wall hung a portrait depicting a man, a woman, and a young girl—identical to the three divine statues Wei Yuan had seen beneath the main hall. Yet none of the three had faces painted on the canvas; their blank, featureless visages looked exceptionally eerie.
Beneath the portrait stood an altar table flanked by a chair on either side. Sweeping it with his divine sense, Wei Yuan spotted several suspicious details. He gave the altar table a shove, but it did not budge in the slightest. It was made of iron and welded directly to the floor. The table had two drawers. Wei Yuan pulled them open and found only coils of rope and silk ribbons inside, with nothing else out of the ordinary. Yet two iron rings were set into the drawers, serving as handles to pull them open.
Sensing an irregularity in Yun Feifei's aura, Wei Yuan looked back and saw that her face had turned somewhat pale, with fine beads of sweat breaking out on her forehead.
"What is it? Have you been here before?"
Yun Feifei hesitated for a moment, then said, "I can't recall clearly. It feels like I might have come here when I was little, but I have no memory of it once I grew older. I probably haven't been here after all."
Chapter 125