Chapter 670: I'll See You Home

Jianyang Prefecture, a medical clinic.

Between two clean beds, Meng Xiuwen's face was pale, his lips drained of color.

This man, once the strongest Demon-Slaying Officer in all of Dananzhou, now looked as though a single breath might snuff him out; even his usual restless temperament had been reined in considerably.

But compared to the figure on the other bed, his condition could already be considered quite decent.

That young man's body was covered in gashes, white scales surfacing across his face—he could barely hold a human shape. Even though a Miss beside him was crying as she kept dabbing at him with a towel, the blood welling ceaselessly from between the scales could not be wiped clean no matter what.

He stared wide-eyed, gazing blankly upward, like a candle guttering in the wind, a breath away from going out.

"Where's the pill!"

Watching Zi Xian struggle to hold back her sobs, Meng Xiuwen couldn't help glancing toward the door and rasped out a shout.

Two runners hurried in and said softly, "Lord Rain-Prayer Envoy's injuries are too severe. The pills needed must be requisitioned from the Imperial Capital, and the Prefecture Office is doing all it can to press the matter."

"Press, press, press! By the time you lot press it through, the man will long be dead!"

Meng Xiuwen grit his teeth. Though the Rain-Prayer Envoy belonged to one of the Eight Offices, he was clearly not in the same league as an existence like Zhan Yao Si. That the Prefecture Office would even go to the Imperial Capital to request pills was only because Prince Ziyang had been hurt while blocking a demon.

The two runners lowered their heads helplessly and slowly backed out.

"And you—coming from some backwater village or whatever is no excuse for not even recognizing a Taiyi Immortal. What, did your brain break? You were only praying for rain—see things going south, hide first, would that kill you? You had to throw yourself right in the middle. Could you hold him off for even a single breath?"

Meng Xiuwen propped himself up, shot the next bed an irritated glare, accidentally tugged his wound, and immediately grimaced and bared his teeth.

Forget anyone else—even he had been terrified when he saw what that little dragon demon did. To shield him from that strike, he'd burned through every last reserve he'd saved over the years, and still could only buy the other a single breath, nearly dragging himself down with it.

And that was only because the Imperial Qi had suppressed that beast's cultivation by more than ninety percent.

Swap in a Taiyi Immortal at full strength, and what should be lying here would be two mounds of earth.

"In that inn… was my only sister… my only father."

Prince Ziyang stared upward, his voice thin as a mosquito's hum, as though those few words alone had drained every ounce of his strength.

Hearing this, Zi Xian, who had been holding her emotions in check, finally buried her face against her brother's chest and broke into loud, wrenching sobs.

Outside, apart from a group of runners, there was also a spry old man—small and thin, dressed in hemp cloth. Though his hair was streaked with white and his years were many, a pair of eyes brimming with vigor still betrayed a few hints of fierceness.

Hearing this, he cast a glance toward the room.

The old man had clearly just suffered some grievance; his mood was irritable, and his tone carried a touch of impatience: "Have your Prefect send another letter, in my name."

Dananzhou was so terribly far from the Imperial Capital—no matter how urgent, the odds of making it in time were still vanishingly small.

All one could do was exhaust human effort and leave the rest to fate.

"Yes, Lord Yan. This subordinate will go at once."

The runners hurried to bow. They did not know the old man's exact identity, only that even the Prefect himself was utterly deferential before him.

At the same time, Meng Xiuwen inside was also a man who couldn't stand the sound of weeping. He slapped the bed, hauled himself upright despite his injuries, and swung his legs off: "Carry him on my back. Without that butcher Zhang, we'll still eat our pork—just not the hairy kind. Move!"

Zi Xian stopped sobbing in some bewilderment, but obediently lifted her brother onto her back: "Senior Meng, where are we going?"

"To find our Lord Ye."

Meng Xiuwen limped his way toward the door. Ye Lan, as Peak Master of the Alchemy Peak of Master Master Shenxu Mountain, might not know how to refine pills herself, but getting hold of something life-saving shouldn't be hard.

He stepped outside, still a bit irritated, but upon seeing the old man, he earnestly cupped his hands in greeting.

"General Yan."

Only after the old man gave a slight nod did he lead the brother and sister away from the clinic, heading toward a certain residence.

……

The deserted residence finally had voices within it.

Zi Xian, carrying her brother, glanced around cautiously. When she caught sight of that familiar figure in ink-black robes, her panicked heart inexplicably settled a great deal.

Prince Ziyang strained to lift his head. Even in such dire condition, he still forced the corners of his mouth up and called out, "Brother Shen."

Ever since Shen Yi had helped them rescue their father, he was no longer some senior or Sect Master—he was the benefactor of the entire Purple-Whiskered White Dragon clan.

For the imperial court to set aside such a secluded residence for him in this sprawling Jianyang Prefecture, Brother Shen must have become an honored guest of Jianyang.

And looking at himself now, this wretched, half-dead state—truly a laughingstock.

"You two are finally back. You have no idea—your Old Meng nearly got beaten to death on the street."

Meng Xiuwen cried out in misery, glancing back and forth: "Where is she? Call her back quick. If we drag this out any longer, your old friend's life won't be worth a copper."

"……"

Shen Yi looked at the brother and sister, his expression betraying little. He paused a moment: "What happened?"

"Save the details for later—find Ye Lan first…" Before Meng Xiuwen could finish, he saw the other had already turned away.

A moment later, with a slight flick of his sleeve, a massive alchemy furnace crashed to the ground with a boom.

"Take your time. No rush."

Shen Yi seemed to need no thought at all. With a light tap of five fingers, a host of medicinal ingredients leapt out from his thumb ring.

Driven by spiritual energy, the furnace fire leapt up at once, lending a touch of warmth to the entire courtyard.

As Peak Master of the Alchemy Peak, when he had left, he had indeed taken quite a few "personal" heavenly materials and earthly treasures with him. And this sort of healing pill didn't involve Tribulation Power—placed in the Scripture Pavilion, it wouldn't even count as top-grade.

For Shen Yi, who had read through the alchemy texts in full, it was entirely a matter of lifting a hand.

"Huh?"

Meng Xiuwen wasn't surprised that Shen Yi could produce an alchemy furnace.

Compared to sect disciples, wandering cultivators on the road tended to dabble in a few of the hundred arts of cultivation—particularly alchemy and artifact-forging.

But dabbling was dabbling; the methods were mostly crude and clumsy, barely enough for emergencies.

Yet when a true master made a move, one glance was enough to see the difference.

Watching the medicinal ingredients swiftly refined within the furnace into pure medicinal liquid, the entire process flowed like water—without the slightest hint of clumsiness. The potency gathered wholly within the furnace, not a wisp leaking out.

Meng Xiuwen's eyes gradually went wide.

This was not what an ordinary cultivator's alchemy looked like—even compared to those alchemy masters specially trained within the great sects, it was no less impressive!

Most importantly, while Shen Yi refines the pill, he must also listen to me recount events, proving the other party did not exert their full strength at all.

"I feel you are even more terrifying than Ye Lan now."

Meng Xiuwen muttered a complaint; even though he did not know what pill the other was refining, merely by this posture, the stone in his heart inexplicably fell away.

With his mood much lighter, he stood behind the youth and recounted the events that had occurred earlier in a gentle, flowing manner.

Shen Yi listened in silence, his gaze never leaving the pill furnace; only when he heard that the vicious beast had nearly kicked the inn flat did he slightly raise an eyebrow.

In that inn were not only the Eastern Dragon King and Zi Xian, but also several Zongzhu of Yu Nanhong, as well as Elder Xuan Qing and the others.

"Damn it, are the immortals so great? It was just a mount! In the lands of my three prefectures, so many innocent people died in vain; how can that meager apology buy them back?"

"Those two old fools are truly hopelessly confused. The foundation upon which my Divine Dynasty stands is this vast imperial qi. When demons and monsters wreak havoc upon the human world, it naturally makes people fearful and unsettled; if the people's minds waver, it will directly affect the imperial qi. If the demons are not only not executed but are sent back safely and soundly..."

"A thousand-li dam is destroyed by an ant hole. The recent actions of the Puti Sect and the Sanxian Sect are clearly abnormal!"

Meng Xiuwen spoke until his mouth was dry and his throat parched, yet he saw Shen Yi still maintained that same calm appearance, causing him to feel somewhat puzzled.

Judging from their joint actions in the past few times, the other party was not the type to be indifferent to the mundane world.

"Enough, enough. Our status and strength are indeed low; we can only curse on our lips."

He waved his hand listlessly.

Throughout the entire process, neither of the siblings spoke a single word.

Shenzhou is not Hongze; it is not a place where one can act with impunity based on individual strength alone. Brother Shen has already helped Hongze far too much; absolutely no more trouble can be brought upon the other party due to the reasons of us others.

Compared to Meng Xiuwen, the two understood Shen Yi's nature better.

Pill refining requires patient, grinding effort.

Just during the time Shen Yi was refining the medicinal power, two figures entered the residence.

Ye Lan walked ahead with a blank expression, while behind her was a man whose entire body was shrouded in a dark green robe.

His skin was withered and black, his appearance resembling a monkey, with three eyes opened on his forehead.

A hint of wild, eccentric smile lingered on his face as he looked at everyone with a disdainful, worldly air; there were no shackles on his body at all, save for a golden ring around his neck.

"Hey, I'm saying... when will you help me take this thing off?"

He extended his index finger and lightly hooked the golden ring.

Shen Yi quietly refined the pill without turning around; Meng Xiuwen, however, looked at the black-skinned monkey demon with considerable dread, his expression dark and unstable, his five fingers clenched extremely tight.

Zi Xian lowered her head in fear and quietly moved away from the demon with her brother.

Seeing no one pay attention to him, the green-robed monkey demon yawned, lazily looked forward, and then took some interest: "Yo, your methods are not bad, but feeding such precious treasure medicines into the mouth of this wild dragon is a bit too wasteful."

"I should have struck harder back then; that would have saved you some trouble, ha."

"Shut up." Ye Lan glanced sideways.

In a place like Jianyang Prefecture, apart from the cultivators of the Zhan Yao Si, all other living beings are suppressed by the imperial qi, their strength reduced to less than one-tenth.

Moreover, Ye Lan cultivates the Grand Void Dao Fruit and has already consumed over six hundred tribulations, having touched the threshold of the Fourth Rank.

Even if this demon is also a Fifth Rank Taiyi Immortal, being in Jianyang, it would likely not survive three moves under her hand.

But the monkey demon showed no hint of dread on his face; instead, his arrogance grew even more: "What if I don't? What then, do you want to kill me? Try moving a finger?"

It chuckled.

How could these cultivators know that their journey was undertaken by mandate of Heaven? Who dares to move? Who dares to disobey?

"..."

When had Ye Lan ever endured such humiliation, yet the face of Yang Mingli flashed through her mind.

She shifted her gaze, looking at Shen Yi's back.

A few more degrees of apology arose in her heart.

Meng Xiuwen was so angry his gums were itching; he served the imperial court, was severely injured by the demon, and his wounds were not yet healed, yet this demon had already blatantly stepped on his face.

Damn it, this bird of a job; whoever wants to do it can do it, this Daoist will not serve anymore!

Zi Xian stood cautiously in the corner, her gaze sweeping over the crowd, obviously seeing the grievance in Lord Meng's heart.

Even a cultivator with such a formidable realm harbored resentment; how much more so the common people standing even lower.

They could not see the grand scheme; they only knew that relatives and friends were slaughtered without cause, yet the imperial court could not provide an answer that allowed people to vent their grief.

Just then, the furnace fire finally extinguished.

Shen Yi reached out to catch the flying pill in his palm, turned, and came before Zi Xian, extending his hand to feed the pill into Prince Prince Ziyang's mouth.

He then mobilized his spiritual energy to assist in refining this pill.

"Rest well; you will recover in seven days."

Shen Yi softly gave the instruction, but in truth, he did not need to speak at all; the instant the pill entered the abdomen, the life force on Prince Prince Ziyang's body had already visibly intensified, and the white scales slowly sank into the skin.

Such profound effects even caused Meng Xiuwen to temporarily set aside his resentment, feeling somewhat greedy: "Lord Shen, how about you give me one too?"

Although he did not deliberately mention it, Shen Yi was not a fool and naturally knew that given Prince Prince Ziyang's strength, he could not have stopped the demon for even an instant; it was highly probable that Meng Xiuwen had acted at the cost of his life.

He opened his palm and handed over another pill: "Thank you."

"Tsk, being polite with me." Meng Xiuwen smiled freely: "I have never eaten such a wonderful thing in my life."

"Flawless Treasure Pill. Little one, are you interested in returning with me to the Jade Pool Immortal Gate? I guarantee you an unlimited future." The green-robed monkey demon licked his lips; this youth's cultivation revealed just now was not high, still within the realm of the Sky Immortal, but his pill-refining attainment was quite moving.

"An unlimited future? Like you, serving as a mount?"

Meng Xiuwen could finally hold back no longer and sneered: "Master Qingmei's fetish is quite special; having to ride a monkey, I wonder where exactly one rides."

"..." The smile on the green-robed monkey demon's face slowly faded; he turned his head to look at Meng Xiuwen, a few traces of ferocity appearing in his eyes, and the golden ring on his neck suddenly trembled.

He slowly turned around; four eyes met, and only after a long while did he chuckle: "Sharp-tongued. This Seat has remembered you."

Ye Lan interrupted the dispute between the two, walked before Shen Yi, pressed her lips together, and her eyes were somewhat evasive.

"Speak freely." Shen Yi lightly nodded his chin.

"Phew, they wish to entrust you, the Mountain Lord of Master Master Shenxu Shanfeng, to go to the Jade Pool Immortal Gate and escort this vicious beast back..."

The words Ye Lan had finally managed to organize were cut off by the ape demon: "It's sending back."

She could no longer hold back the killing intent in her heart; her Bai Xi right palm suddenly shot out, gripping the ape demon's neck, her five fingers like swords stabbing fiercely into its throat, sticky blood staining her forearm red.

The ape demon felt the pain, yet showed no panic at all; instead its laughter grew even more piercing: "Come, come, come! Don't stand on ceremony!"

Ye Lan was already feeling irritated, unsure how to speak; now goaded, her eyes gradually sank into an emotionless void—this was the manifestation of invoking the Grand Void Dao Fruit.

Just then, that familiar palm pressed down on her wrist once more.

"Alright."

Shen Yi's crisp, decisive reply caught Ye Lan somewhat off guard; she turned her head back in a daze to look.

"Look at this one here, you all should learn from her." The ape demon mocked with a sharp laugh, flicking the bloodstains on its neck.

"I'll go with you." Ye Lan's voice was somewhat faint, the guilt in her heart growing even stronger.

Shen Yi finally looked squarely at that ape demon, his expression still calm, and said lightly: "No need."

For some unknown reason, the instant he looked over, the ape demon inexplicably felt a chill run down its spine and gradually stopped laughing.

(End of chapter)