Didn't You Say the Curse Wouldn't Affect You?

"By the way, I also have a question for the Valley Master." "Speak." "Once Old Meng's curse shifts to making women loathe him, will the curse affect you?" Valley Master Shuang's expression soured, feeling as though Lu Yang was questioning her authority. "I had never encountered the Meng Family boy's curse before, which was why a mistake occurred and made him run all over the place for half a day. Now, I have diagnosed him via suspended thread and have a complete grasp of his curse's nature. After my treatment plan, the curse will have deteriorated to the point where it has no effect on me whatsoever." Lu Yang let out a sigh of relief. That was good to hear. *** "Valley Master Shuang said toad skin, dried centipede, five poisons insect powder... you have to eat all of them. Raw, too—it works faster that way." Lu Yang used the Valley Master's authority to order Meng Jingzhou around. Meng Jingzhou unraveled the white threads binding him. When he caught sight of the assorted bizarre ingredients, his face turned green. Were these things fit for human consumption? "Are you sure eating them raw is more effective?" "Don't look at me, that's what Valley Master Shuang said." Meng Jingzhou had no other choice. Strictly following the doctor's orders, his scalp prickled with dread as he held back the urge to gag and forced down each ingredient one by one. They were clearly dead matter, yet the moment they hit his stomach, it felt as though they came alive, churning his innards into a violent tempest. Zhao Po stood silently to the side, watching. He couldn't help wondering: was this how the two geniuses of the Dao Seeking Sect competed with one another—scheming and tormenting each other at every turn? "Next is acupuncture and bloodletting." Lu Yang produced the Seven Stars Silver Needles lent to him by Valley Master Shuang. The silver needle was evidently an extraordinary magical treasure; without Lu Yang even channeling any spiritual mana into it, a single jab into Meng Jingzhou's arm easily pierced right through his defenses. One had to remember that Meng Jingzhou was a body cultivator whose physical resilience was absurdly tough. Even Lu Yang couldn't guarantee breaching his defenses in a short span of time. "*Hiss*—could you give me a warning before stabbing me!" Meng Jingzhou bared his teeth, his expression twisting in agony. It had been a long time since he had felt this kind of pain. Had a proper physician administered the needles, the bloodletting would have been painless, leaving the patient unaware of any prick at all. Unfortunately, Lu Yang was not a proper physician. In fact, he wasn't a physician at all. *Fairy, do you know how to administer acupuncture?* Lu Yang remembered that he had a theoretical golden finger residing in his spiritual space. *How to bleed him? Oh, I'm quite familiar with that! Demon beast meat often has a foul gamey stench if the blood isn't properly drained. Bleed him using my method, and I guarantee not a single drop of blood will be left behind.* Lu Yang decided that Meng Jingzhou didn't need to pay with his life for this. Lu Yang pulled the silver needle out, and Meng Jingzhou's blood began gushing forth like a fountain. The needle seemed to carry an effect that impeded recovery; the self-healing ability Meng Jingzhou took such pride in proved utterly useless, leaving him with no choice but to wait slowly for the wound to close. Drops of blood from the puncture fell onto the ground. This was the blood of a Golden Core grand cultivator, imbued with exceptionally precious spiritual mana. Furthermore, it was the blood of a Dual Bachelor Golden Core cultivator—supremely pure and masculine, outperforming many Pure Yang spiritual medicines in potency. Various insects seemed to instinctively sense the preciousness of this blood and swarmed in to drink it. After feeding, they buzzed with surging vitality. What these insects didn't know was that from this day forward, they would never lay eyes on a female insect again. For now, however, no one was aware of this. Lu Yang and Meng Jingzhou didn't know, nor did the insects themselves... As the wound gradually healed, Lu Yang pricked him again, pulled the needle, drained the blood, let it heal, and pricked him once more. After repeating the process three times, Meng Jingzhou felt the lingering sense of unease in his heart lighten considerably. A look of delight bloomed across his brow. "It really works!" Though it hadn't been resolved entirely, partial mitigation was still mitigation. This was tremendous progress. Coming to Huangzhou had indeed been the right choice—far more reliable than consulting the elders back home. Valley Master Shuang estimated that enough time had passed, so she stepped out of the Seven Emotions Valley and finally laid eyes on Meng Jingzhou. "You are the boy from the Meng Family?" The moment Meng Jingzhou saw Valley Master Shuang, he knew the lightening of that lingering dread hadn't been an illusion. A portion of his curse really had been dissolved. "Greeting the Valley Master. I am Meng Jingzhou of the Meng Family, a disciple of the Dao Seeking Sect." Valley Master Shuang let out a cold snort. "A Meng Family member indeed." A foreboding sensation crept over Lu Yang. He stepped forward at once, cupped his hands, and asked, "Many thanks to Valley Master Shuang for treating my companion. May I ask what our next step should be to completely cure Old Meng's curse?" Valley Master Shuang's expression grew cold and displeased. "I shouldn't have treated you just now. Old Scoundrel Buyu swindled me, and you Meng Family folk are no better. Get lost, all of you!" Lu Yang: "..." *Didn't you say the curse wouldn't affect you?* *Valley Master, could you be at least a little bit reliable?* Since things had come to this, Lu Yang and Meng Jingzhou couldn't very well thicken their skins and press for the next step. They had no choice but to depart from the Seven Emotions Valley. Inside the carriage, Zhao Po was the first to break the silence, suggesting, "How about we head to our Corpse Driving Sect first? The elders and the Sect Master are well-acquainted with Huangzhou. They know many top-tier curse masters and unorthodox masters of the esoteric arts. Perhaps they might have a way." "I suppose that's our only option." *** Three people, one corpse, and one horse journeyed on. As they approached a city and prepared to rest, a clamor of voices reached them from near the city walls. "Everyone, gather round! I am Qingluo, Sect Master of the Yuntai Sect, having just assumed leadership of the sect. According to the rules of our sect, whenever a woman ascends to the position of sect master, she must choose a husband through a martial contest for marriage. "To that end, this Sect Master has erected an arena here. Anyone may challenge me! Whosoever can defeat me shall become my beloved husband!" Qingluo was just sixteen years of age, pure and lovely, with large, limpid eyes that lent her an untainted beauty. Her resolute demeanor only made one want to dote on her even more. She had publicized long in advance that she would be selecting a husband through a martial contest, so most of the people gathered here already knew about it and had come specifically to win her hand. However, there were also those who had been kept in the dark—such as Lu Yang and his companions. "The Yuntai Sect... I've never heard of them. Brother Zhao, do you know anything?" Zhao Po racked his brains and finally fished out information regarding the Yuntai Sect from a dusty corner of his memory. "The Yuntai Sect is a very small sect, essentially bottom-tier. Its influence is confined to a single city—or perhaps even smaller than that. The highest cultivation in the sect is likely only at the Golden Core stage. The most famous thing about the Yuntai Sect is one of their ancestral rules: if the sect master is female, she must select a man stronger than herself to be her husband. That should be the situation before us." Small sects like the Yuntai Sect were as numerous as ox hairs throughout the Great Xia Dynasty, practically beyond counting. While the people Lu Yang regularly dealt with were casually at the Golden Core or Nascent Soul stages—and the enemies he made started at the Body Integration stage and capped out at immortals—that was only because Lu Yang was a disciple of the Dao Seeking Sect. The circle he moved in was simply too high. What was the Dao Seeking Sect? It was the foremost among the Five Great Immortal Sects, gathering the peerless geniuses of the entire continent. Anyone who walked out of that sect at random could make a thunderous name for themselves across the Central Continent. In reality, the vast majority of cultivators struggled their whole lives just to achieve Foundation Establishment, while the Golden Core was a goal far out of reach. That was precisely why Golden Core clans and Golden Core sects existed. Meng Jingzhou looked at Qingluo, his eyes lighting up. His heart stirred, feeling that his romantic luck was finally about to arrive.