Suddenly, a voice rang out in the room. "You aren't even seventy yet. How did you ruin your body to such a state?"
"Who's there?!"
"Guards—"
With a stranger suddenly appearing in the room, Madam Wu's face changed drastically. She was about to shout for the guards to come to their aid, but Wu Chuanzong stopped her.
She looked at her husband in astonishment, only to find that he, a man wielding supreme power who had long mastered concealing his emotions, was now trembling with excitement, tears faintly glistening in his eyes!
"Sir!"
Wu Chuanzong rose abruptly. Under Madam Wu's shocked gaze, he dropped to his knees with a thud. "Sir! Is it truly you? Chuanzong can finally see you once before he dies!"
Then, Madam Wu felt her vision blur, and a figure suddenly materialized before them.
Looking at the newcomer, he seemed remarkably young, appearing only in his twenties. Yet his presence was deeply arresting at first glance, making it impossible to truly regard him as a mere youth.
Madam Wu's mouth fell open, and she froze in a daze.
She suddenly recalled that the man in the portrait looked exactly like this!
When they parted, he was twenty-one and Wu Chuanzong was nineteen, both full of youthful vigor.
Now that he had returned, he remained a youth, while Wu Chuanzong was crowned with white hair.
Seeing Wu Chuanzong's heartfelt reaction, Qin Sang felt a warmth in his chest. He gently helped the kneeling man up, seeing tears streaming down his aged face.
"Get up, quickly!"
Infected by Wu Chuanzong's emotion, Qin Sang patted him gently on the shoulder. Countless thoughts flooded his mind, leaving him at a loss for where to begin.
"I heard that you are already the dynasty's Grand Preceptor, granted the right to enter court wearing sword and boots and excused from having your name announced, not even having to kneel before the reigning sovereign. Why kneel to an idle rustic like me...?"
"Sir!"
Wu Chuanzong gripped Qin Sang's arms tightly, declaring resolutely, "Without you, Sir, Chuanzong would not be here today! Your kindness gave me new life; you are like a second parent to me. Of course I should kneel to you!"
...
It took Qin Sang considerable effort to calm the utterly overwhelmed Wu Chuanzong.
The two sat opposite each other, and Wu Chuanzong sent his wife to fetch tea.
Looking at Qin Sang's youthful face, Wu Chuanzong felt genuinely happy for him. "Sir, are you an immortal now?"
Qin Sang smiled self-deprecatingly and shook his head. "At best, I can only be considered an immortal cultivator. Only after entering the cultivation world did I realize it is no idyllic paradise. It is not nearly as wonderful as one might imagine; there is intrigue and deception, open hostility and hidden malice. Cultivators are also human. They are dreamers chasing a far-off, unattainable dream..."
Given Wu Chuanzong's worldly experience, hearing Qin Sang speak of the cultivation world came as no great surprise. He merely sighed with emotion. "Indeed, the world is the same everywhere. Still, fortune favors the good. Sir, you are bound to achieve transcendence!"
"I hope so."
Qin Sang gave a soft sigh. Sweeping his spiritual sense over Wu Chuanzong, he frowned. "You are covered in injuries from head to toe. Did you rack them up campaigning north and south all these years? Your body has been completely hollowed out. No matter how high your martial arts are, it is of no help—your true qi has become a burden instead, overdrawing what little potential you have left. Stretch out your arm..."
Qin Sang was also surprised to find that Wu Chuanzong was actually a peak Houtian master, just a hair's breadth away from Xiantian.
Given his status and how burdened he must have been with mundane affairs, to still achieve such martial prowess showed just how diligent he had been.
Wu Chuanzong did as told, an expression of realization dawning on him. "No wonder I always feel revitalized for a while after practicing my martial arts, yet my body worsens day by day. I assumed it was simply due to old age..."
Qin Sang pondered for a moment, then cautiously channeled a wisp of spiritual power into Wu Chuanzong's meridians.
Advanced in years and riddled with hidden wounds, it was no exaggeration to say that Wu Chuanzong's body was nearly burnt out like a lamp running out of oil. Without treatment, he likely had less than two years to live. Even treating him required utmost caution, lest it end up harming him instead.
At that moment, Wu Chuanzong's wife returned carrying tea herself. Seeing the scene, her face was filled with anticipation and excitement. She hurried to slow her steps, treading with extreme care for fear of disturbing Qin Sang.
Qin Sang controlled his spiritual power, combing through Wu Chuanzong's meridians bit by bit. Unfortunately, neither Wu Chuanzong's age nor his physical state permitted it; otherwise, he might have used this opportunity to break through to Xiantian.
A full two hours passed before Qin Sang finished.
The tea had long gone cold.
Madam Wu clutched her hands tightly, ignoring her husband's prompting glances, and gazed uneasily at Qin Sang, waiting for his verdict.
"Sit down, Madam Wu."
Qin Sang noticed a trace of familiarity in Madam Wu's features and suddenly remembered that she was the girl whom Wang Liu had nearly defiled back then. Wu Chuanzong had acted out of kindness, and who would have thought it would blossom into such a fine marriage?
"Take this bottle of elixir pills. Take one pill in three separate doses, and take three pills in succession; that should heal most of your old injuries. However, some deficiencies are difficult to mend, and you are no longer young, so do not carelessly mobilize your true qi in the future. Madam Wu may also take one to nourish her body and prolong her life..."
Qin Sang took out a bottle of healing elixir pills, comparable in efficacy to Water Dew Pills. The Han clan would bestow some health-nourishing pills on the mortal realm, but to avoid disrupting the mortal order, their quality fell far short of Water Dew Pills.
Such pills were completely useless to him now. They were the leftovers from what he had obtained from the man in the conical bamboo hat in the Eight Trigrams Forbidden Ground. Fortunately, he still had them; Wu Chuanzong possessed merely a mortal body, and a higher-grade elixir's medicinal potency would likely have been too much for him to endure.
"Thank you, Sir!"
Wu Chuanzong and his wife rose and bowed in gratitude.
Following the treatment, Wu Chuanzong already felt much lighter and refreshed, filling him with pleasant surprise.
"Sit down and talk!"
Qin Sang motioned Wu Chuanzong back into his seat and asked, "Tell me, how are the others doing? Elder Yue, Bai Jianglan, Water Monkey, and the rest...?"
Wu Chuanzong handed the jade bottle of elixir pills to Madam Wu, who immediately clutched it tightly like a treasured keepsake.
"On that night of the palace coup, Elder Yue was severely injured by assassins while saving the late sovereign, after which he went into retirement.
"General Bai rose to the rank of Commander of the Imperial Guard. At the age of fifty-eight, he retired due to illness and settled in the auxiliary capital, passing away at sixty-seven. The late sovereign remembered his meritorious service as a protector and took good care of his descendants. However, Commander Bai strictly forbade his descendants from joining the military; most entered commerce or became civil officials, and the Bai clan has prospered considerably.
"Water Monkey achieved great merits after you left, Sir, and was enfeoffed as the Prince of Ning, guarding your homeland—the former State of Ning, which the late sovereign renamed Jiangzhou Circuit.
"Zhang Wenkui and the others were also heavily relied upon by the late sovereign thanks to the legacy you left behind, each achieving success in their own right.
"And the Qin family..."
Hearing Wu Chuanzong suddenly mention the Qin family, Qin Sang was taken aback, but did not stop him.
"Your parents, elder brothers, and sisters-in-law all enjoyed their remaining years in peace and lived out their natural lifespans. I never revealed any word of you to them, Sir, but they must have guessed something.
"Your eldest brother and second brother each had a son who distinguished themselves in civil and military service. Both hold high office today and will surely bring greater glory to the Qin clan.
"Talented heroes continue to emerge among the Qin descendants, and their future is bright."
After hearing this, Qin Sang said with deep emotion, "You have worked hard!"
Having lived in the mortal world, he knew very well how difficult it was for a family without any backing like the Qin family to grow to such heights in just a few decades.
Without Wu Chuanzong looking out for them with all his might, the Qin family could never have attained such stature.
Chapter 355