Consultation

Inside the quiet secret chamber, the inscriptions on the walls gave off a gentle glow, illuminating the tables crowded with all manner of bottles and jars. Gently taking Xu Yuan—who had been beaten half to death like a stray dog—from Feng Jiuxuan's hands, Lou Ji looked down with a trace of heartache and asked reproachfully, "Feng Jiuxuan, why did you hit him so hard? He's your own nephew!" Feng Jiuxuan looked away somewhat awkwardly and cleared his throat lightly. "Once I caught up to the kid, his mouth got a bit foul, and I couldn't pull my punches in time. But I still exercised restraint—that bizarre energy inside him hasn't completely dissipated." "Whew..." Lou Ji's chest rose and fell slightly as she exhaled softly. "Understood. Go outside for now. I'll examine Changtian's condition first." A flicker of hesitation crossed Feng Jiuxuan's eyes upon hearing this, and he gazed with concern at the boy in her arms. "Is there anything else I can do?" "Probably not for the moment." Turning around, Lou Ji carried Xu Yuan over and placed him on the stone table in the center of the chamber. "However, don't leave just yet. Later on, we might need your saint origin as a Saint." "All right. Call me if anything comes up. I'll keep watch at the door." With that, Feng Jiuxuan cleanly walked out of the chamber, though as he walked, he glanced back from time to time at the boy he had beaten nearly to the brink of death. As the heavy stone door closed once more, Lou Ji spoke softly to the empty chamber: "Senior Luo, I'll leave Changtian's examination to you." Given Changtian's current state, it was best for Luo Xiran to handle this. Lou Ji could only probe Xu Yuan's body with Source Qi or her intent-soul, but the kid was now capable of devouring others' Source Qi and intent-souls. Luo Xiran, on the other hand, controlled that bizarre fungal carpet and harbored no such concern. As her voice fell, Luo Xiran's figure slowly condensed within the secret chamber. Yet the form she condensed this time looked far younger and much smaller compared to her previous appearance as a dignified, mature beauty. With control over the vast majority of the fungal carpet seized by Xu Yuan, she was already powerless to maintain her original form. Appearing as a young girl, Luo Xiran said nothing. She stared at Xu Yuan lying on the stone table for several breaths, then gently placed a slender jade hand onto his bare chest, which was exposed through his torn brocade robe. Wisps of the fungal carpet began cautiously seeping into his body. Time slipped by quietly amid the silence of the chamber. After an unknown amount of time had passed, Luo Xiran slowly withdrew her hand, turned her gaze back, and said softly, "The brat's current condition is roughly what we predicted before. His life origin and yin origin have completely fused." Standing at the edge of the stone table, Lou Ji looked at Xu Yuan's body by the light of the inscription lamps, furrowing her dark brows as she murmured, "Which means we have to separate these two powers beforehand? But perhaps Feng Jiuxuan can accomplish that." Various pieces of pharmacological knowledge flashed through Luo Xiran's mind, and she shook her head gently. "You said it yourself—that is merely a possibility. Xu Yuan's condition is very poor right now. If we forcefully separate these two energies, it could very well endanger his life directly." At this point, a sigh flickered through Luo Xiran's eyes. "Moreover, even if we succeed in separating the life origin from the yin origin, we already discussed the Fate-Reversing Liquid earlier. The extinct Dragon Rock Grass can indeed be replaced with Pure Spirit Flower, so the life origin can be resolved, but how do we deal with the yin origin belonging to the yin ghost inside him?" "..." Lou Ji fell silent. During the day since arriving in Zidu Prefecture, Luo Bingli had already told her the entire process of how the Fate-Reversing Liquid was developed in the past. It was an achievement born from exhausting countless manpower and resources to counter the great calamity of the aberrant ghosts, taking more than twenty years and gathering over half the realm's finest minds to produce. And what about yin ghosts? The human race was in its prime now, and yin ghosts were hardly worth mentioning. Naturally, no faction would waste massive amounts of manpower and resources to research something so thankless. In recent years, the greatest achievement concerning yin ghosts was probably the formation their Chancellor's Manor had developed to extract soul power from them... right? Wait. At that thought, Lou Ji's spirits jolted violently. Just as Source Qi was to myriad human cultivators, a yin origin was not unique to Saint Tier yin ghosts. That formation could purify a yin ghost's violent soul power through various procedures into soul power that humans could absorb. With some modifications, perhaps it could be applied to Changtian now. Thinking of this, Lou Ji could hardly wait to pull the Heavenly Communication Crystal from her Sumeru ring and contact Jiang He of the Gewu Academy. That old man seemed to have conducted considerable research on yin ghosts. Yet the voice coming from the Heavenly Communication Crystal left both women feeling somewhat helpless. "Chief Lou, why are you suddenly asking about this? Do you have some kind of plan? Well, forget it, this old man won't pry into your Black Scale Guards' business. "In short, a yin ghost's yin origin is actually similar to our human sea of consciousness. The stronger the yin origin, the more soul power the yin ghost can hold. "The formation I researched back then wasn't aimed at the yin ghost's yin origin; it simply extracted and purified their soul power until it was drained dry. "As long as the yin origin remains, it can be utilized continuously. If the formation destroyed the yin origin, wouldn't that just be killing the goose that lays the golden eggs?" Having said this, Jiang He changed the subject. Clearly unaware that Xu Yuan had suffered an assassination attempt, he said with a chuckle, "However, if you're willing to invest a tiny bit of silver into my Gewu Academy in the name of the Black Scale Guards, Chief Lou, then I could certainly..." Before he could finish, Lou Ji severed the transmission directly. Start researching now? Given how that old ghost made empty promises everywhere to swindle funds, the grass on Xu Yuan's grave would be thirty feet high by the time he actually produced any research results. The two women in the secret chamber sank into silence at the same time. Looking at the grim-faced Lou Ji, Luo Xiran spoke softly in comfort: "Chief Lou, although Xu Yuan's condition is poor right now, his life is not in immediate danger." Lou Ji raised her eyes, a sharp gleam flashing within them. "Are you saying we should keep Changtian hanging onto life in this state for now, and then slowly research an antidote?" Luo Xiran paused briefly. "That's the only option right now. If we administer medicine recklessly, I'm afraid it will only cause even greater chaos." Suppressing certain emotions, Lou Ji's voice took on a husky, raspy edge. "You should know full well how peculiar Changtian's situation is. We don't have any other medicine humans to experiment on! Under these circumstances, how are we supposed to conduct research?!" Luo Xiran remained silent. Many people had died in the research of aberrant ghosts. If it were merely yin ghosts, then with the power of the Prime Minister's Manor, they could likewise commit plenty of people to research it. Yet having the two blend together was virtually impossible. Seeing this, Lou Ji took a deep breath, drove her slender fingers through her hair, and murmured with some despondency, "I'm sorry... I lost control just now." After a brief pause, Lou Ji regained her composure and said in a low voice, "I'll have our subordinates find a secret realm containing aberrant ghosts and throw an aberrant ghost into the ghost mist to see if it can undergo yin ghost transformation. If it works, we'll at least have research materials. "If not, then our only choice is to have Jiang He develop a formation that extracts a yin ghost's yin origin, and then attempt to implant that yin origin into an aberrant ghost's body. "As for Changtian... "Senior Luo, you're right. For now, we can only keep Changtian hanging onto life in this state..." In life, one must never give up until the very last moment!