Chapter 46: The Su-Mi Flower

Xiao Zongting walked straight into the main room of the Back Courtyard.

Duan Rong also carried the Medicinal Agent package, stepped over the threshold, and stood at the doorway.

On the east and west sides of the main room, each connected to an Inner Room, with door curtains hanging down.

At this moment, a faint yellow light was cast from beneath the door curtain of the east Inner Room, revealing a slanted patch of light by Duan Rong's feet.

That was Xiao Baijiao's boudoir!

Duan Rong seemed to smell a faint, lingering fragrance!

In the darkness, Xiao Zongting fished out a Fire Folder, slid it open, blew on it a few times, and then used the glowing red tip to light the Candle Lamp.

The bright yellow lamplight immediately permeated the main room!

Xiao Zongting extinguished the Fire Folder, limped over, sat down on a grand armchair, looked at Duan Rong with an angry expression, and said, "Bring the medicine here!"

Xiao Zongting was filled with killing intent; although his anger was currently contained, he still possessed the aura of a lion's roar that startles all beasts.

Duan Rong was slightly startled and obediently placed the Medicinal Agent package in his hand onto the carved rosewood table beside Xiao Zongting's grand armchair.

Xiao Zongting unwrapped the Medicinal Agent package and separated the medicinal herbs inside one by one, laying them out on the tabletop.

The more he laid out, the gloomier his expression became.

Finally, Xiao Zongting put a small packet of brownish-black powder to his nose, sniffed it, and flew into a rage, saying, "What the hell kind of tiger-wolf medicine is this?!"

Xiao Zongting looked at Duan Rong, his eyes shooting out a murderous glare. "Come here!"

Duan Rong walked over timidly, like a frightened quail.

Xiao Zongting suddenly bent over, pressed hard on Duan Rong's lower abdomen, then raised his hand to press between Duan Rong's two breasts, and asked, "Do these two spots hurt?"

"The Shenque Point doesn't hurt, but the Shanzhong Point has a slight, dull pain," Duan Rong replied with a worried look.

By now, he knew that the medicine was likely problematic, so he very honestly told Xiao Zongting his symptoms.

Xiao Zongting was slightly surprised; he hadn't expected this kid to know the human body's acupoints so clearly.

The Shenque is located at the dantian, while the Shanzhong Point is the intersection of meridians on the chest.

Ever since Duan Rong devoured the Spirit Tool of the silver needle left behind by Gu Suxiu, he had long since known the human body's meridians and acupoints like the back of his hand!

However, at this moment, Xiao Zongting's mind was not on this; hearing Duan Rong's answer, his gloomy expression finally eased slightly.

"Who gave you the prescription?"

"I bought some miscellaneous books at the antique street, and one of them had this prescription recorded in the back. I saw it was just right for the Inner Breath Realm Second Stage, so I grabbed the medicine to try it."

"What guts! I thought some wandering charlatan gave it to you! Turns out it was recorded in a miscellaneous book! How can the people who write such books be reliable? What decent person writes books?"

Xiao Zongting seemed to get angrier as he spoke; he glared at Duan Rong and asked, "Even if you wanted to use this prescription, couldn't you have brought it to me to look at first?"

Duan Rong looked at the ground and muttered, "The Second Miss is so ill, how could you have the heart to deal with other matters? And I don't know anyone else!"

Hearing this, Xiao Zongting's anger suddenly dissipated by more than half.

He was the Chief Instructor and had originally estimated that Duan Rong would achieve the Internal Breath First Layer within a few days, which was why he had given him the Secret Manual for the second stage, but he had forgotten to give him the prescription for the second stage.

For one, his mind had been troubled at the time. For another, he felt that even if he gave Duan Rong the prescription, he would have no money to buy the medicine.

This tonic for the Inner Breath Realm Second Stage was not something an Apprentice Escort earning three silver coins a month could afford.

He was actually considering applying for a separate training fund for Duan Rong, but once the matter with Xiao Baijiao arose, he truly had no heart to attend to anything else.

When it came down to it, this was also a dereliction of duty on his part as Chief Instructor.

"How many doses of this medicine have you taken?"

"I've only taken one dose."

"When did you take it?"

"At the hour of the tiger three days ago."

Xiao Zongting nodded and continued to ask, "In these three days, how long did you practice Standing Stake each day?"

"Nine hours."

Xiao Zongting's expression remained calm, but his heart was greatly shaken!

With such tiger-wolf medicine, Duan Rong's dantian had not been damaged, naturally because he had only taken one dose, but more importantly, after taking this medicine, he had practiced violently, and the continuous, fierce training had neutralized the surging medicinal power, preventing the dantian from being under pressure for too long!

Xiao Zongting naturally could guess that Duan Rong had only luckily preserved his dantian because of his intense training.

But he still hadn't expected that Duan Rong would be so crazy as to practice Standing Stake for nine hours every day!

And this was on the premise that he had to go out to paint for an hour every day; he was simply a human machine!

Xiao Zongting's gaze had shifted from his initial anger to shock and appreciation.

Exceptional talent, obsessed with martial arts, and diligent to the point of madness!

For this old man to have such a disciple, I should be greatly comforted in this life!

At this moment, all of Xiao Zongting's doubts were gone. He pointed to the herbs on the table and said to Duan Rong in a calm tone, "This Bear Gall Powder, Blood Ginseng, and Polygonatum are all precious medicinal materials that stimulate the potential of the dantian."

"A single one of them is of great benefit to a Martial Artist's cultivation."

"But, using these three types of herbs together, and in such large quantities, is not meant to stimulate the potential of the dantian—it is meant to destroy the dantian!"

Hearing the words "destroy the dantian," Duan Rong felt a sudden chill in his heart!

He remembered that Guan Yun had also said in that autobiography of his that he had been poisoned by someone who destroyed his dantian.

Because his own dantian had been destroyed, he had specially compiled a book and racked his brains to include a prescription that would destroy someone else's dantian!

He wanted to harm others so they would end up in the same state as him!

This was simply an antisocial personality!

"Vicious! Maggot! Disgusting maggot!"

Duan Rong was so angry he cursed in his heart, his dark face flushed red. "Xiao Lao, has my dantian been destroyed?"

"Fortunately, it's fine! You only took one dose, and you practiced crazily, so you were just on the edge of what the dantian could bear. But even with your crazy training, if you had taken three doses of this medicine, your dantian would definitely have been destroyed!"

Hearing that his dantian was fine, the heart Duan Rong had been holding in his throat finally settled.

"Then why do I feel a slight, dull pain in my Shanzhong point?" Duan Rong was truly worried at this moment.

"Meridians are, after all, more fragile than the dantian, and the Shanzhong point is a place where many fine meridians converge. With such a potent, aggressive medicine, I fear some of those tiny meridians have already been injured."

"Can they still recover?"

"As long as you stop taking this medicine, they will slowly repair themselves. Those fine meridians do not participate in the circulation of the Inner Breath Realm at all; it is just that the medicinal power was too surging, causing it to overflow and reach them."

The anxious look on Duan Rong's face finally calmed down.

It seems this time it was a false alarm.

Must learn a lesson!

At this time, Xiao Zongting picked up a withered brown flower stalk from the medicinal herbs and said, "This ingredient is the Sumihua Flower Flower Flower Flower Flower. It is not cheap either."

"When this flower is used in medicine, it can invigorate a person's spirit!"

"But when these two are used together in medicine, it is not as simple as just invigorating the spirit. Such a large dosage will cause a person's heart to race wildly, making them lose the ability to feel the pain in their dantian and meridians!"

"Heart racing wildly?" Duan Rong remembered, wasn't that exactly how he was two days ago?

"This concoction that destroys the dantian is put together quite viciously; the person who takes it will feel the medicinal power is strong and their spirit is invigorated, while being completely unable to feel the pain of their meridians tearing and their dantian being under pressure!"

"This Guan Yun, no wonder he had to use a pseudonym. What a load of crap! Damn you, you almost screwed your father over!"

Duan Rong was so angry that he cursed incessantly in his heart.

(End of this chapter)