Chapter 8: A World Like a Furnace, Bearing My Flame

The next morning, Lu Xingzhou went to the Demon Suppression Bureau on his own.

Sheng Yuanyao came out to greet him, saw Lu Xingzhou struggling to roll the wheels forward with both hands, and stepped up to help push him inside.

Lu Xingzhou was somewhat surprised: "Thank you."

"It's a small favor." Sheng Yuanyao asked curiously: "Where is A'nuo? Why are you alone? You're so inconvenient..."

"The mansion is under renovation, a bunch of people are working, someone has to watch over them."

"You really trust a six-year-old child to act alone? Who can she control?"

"If even a Daoist who has entered the graded ranks dares not act alone in Xiazhoucheng, then I think we should first ask how the Xiazhou Demon Suppression Bureau suppresses the region."

Sheng Yuanyao: "..."

She hadn't noticed; so that child was actually a Daoist who had entered the graded ranks?

Then her divination...

"Where is the patient I'm to treat?" Lu Xingzhou asked.

Sheng Yuanyao came to her senses, silently pushed the wheelchair around the corridor, and entered a tightly closed black room.

As soon as the door opened, the sound of chains clattering and a person's low growl came from inside: "Don't look for me... I didn't kill him..."

"Isn't this Old Steward Huo..." Lu Xingzhou glanced sideways at Sheng Yuanyao: "You said he was found dead in the room, so you interrogated me for a long time."

Sheng Yuanyao coughed dryly: "That was a trick on you; at that time he was merely missing, later found. Can you cure his madness?"

"The Demon Suppression Bureau has countless experts; why call me to treat him?"

"Because you once treated him before; start to finish."

"In the end, you are still testing me." Lu Xingzhou smiled, said no more, and rolled his wheelchair into the room.

Strange to say, Old Steward Huo, who had been growling continuously, stopped growling upon seeing Lu Xingzhou enter the door, stared blankly as he approached, seeming quite trusting.

Lu Xingzhou extended two fingers, pressed them on Old Steward Huo's forehead; after a moment, Old Steward Huo's eyelids grew heavy and he fell asleep.

Sheng Yuanyao watched Lu Xingzhou's operation with interest and asked: "How is it?"

"Just calming his spirit first." Lu Xingzhou took out the Soul-Nourishing Pills he had refined last night: "Give him this pill to take for three consecutive days, one pill per day; after three days, his soul and spirit will return to normal."

Sheng Yuanyao said: "Can you determine the cause of his illness?"

"He was frightened into losing his soul; a trivial matter. Once he recovers, just ask him what he saw. Besides that, his hand tendons were severed; I cannot cure that."

Sheng Yuanyao knew this was difficult to treat; if severed tendons could be easily cured, then Lu Xingzhou himself would not have been sitting in a wheelchair for so many years.

Actually, in this age of cultivation, treating such injuries is not too difficult as long as there are suitable medicinal materials. Unfortunately, such materials are often treasures; at the very least, they are not among the medicinal materials widely planted and sold in Xiazhou that one can simply find by searching.

To cure this, perhaps we must see what the Huo family brings from the Capital.

While pondering this, Lu Xingzhou extended a large hand: "Give me money."

Sheng Yuanyao: "?"

"I have three superior-grade Soul-Nourishing Pills, plus consultation fees; does the Demon Suppression Bureau want to get them for free?" Apparently, the supreme-grade had been downgraded by the gold-swallowing beast again.

Sheng Yuanyao was quite speechless. Such matters go through the Demon Suppression Bureau's public accounts; she certainly had no intention of getting them for free, but Lu Xingzhou's appearance really did not match an image that spoke only of money, looking very incongruous: "Besides money, is there nothing else to discuss?"

"You and I are merely the case investigator and the suspect; if not money, then love?" Lu Xingzhou smiled: "However, I am treating him to restore his consciousness also to clear my own suspicion, so the consultation fee can be waived; just give me the medicine cost at cost price."

Sheng Yuanyao had indeed invited Lu Xingzhou to treat the illness only to test him. Now seeing Old Steward Huo's reaction upon meeting Lu Xingzhou, and Lu Xingzhou's attitude, the last shred of doubt in her heart finally dissipated.

She stuffed a silver note at him: "Were you using my influence that day?"

"What makes you say that?" Lu Xingzhou put away the silver note and smiled: "I didn't know I would be taken down the mountain by you as a suspect to be questioned at the Demon Suppression Bureau; returning to the mountain afterward was not something I could decide, nor could I possibly know when Liu Qingcang would betray me; how could I use you?"

"This is precisely what puzzles me." Sheng Yuanyao's eyes rolled, then suddenly she took out another ingot of silver: "If you can solve my puzzle, this is yours."

Lu Xingzhou blinked his eyes, staring at the ingot: "Do you take me for A'nuo?"

"Uh..."

"Your judgment of people is truly accurate." Lu Xingzhou swiftly put the ingot into his pocket, beaming with joy.

Sheng Yuanyao: "..."

"Actually, it's very simple; Liu Yan'er is a fool and cannot hide her words; before I went down the mountain that day, I already knew they were going to welcome some powerful alchemist."

"And then?"

"Although I didn't know I would be taken down the mountain by you as a suspect, since I was being watched, naturally I knew you would definitely go up the mountain to investigate in detail; simply inviting you was enough... does this count as using you? You were going to investigate the case anyway; it wasn't something I decided for you. So it was originally a coincidence; I just had it figured out, making it seem as if I had calculated it; it's not that complicated."

In fact, the entire murder was Lu Xingzhou's scheme; he was obviously aware of being questioned after going down the mountain; he was simply waiting to bring Sheng Yuanyao up the mountain.

Indeed, it was calculated from start to finish.

Sheng Yuanyao did not know this layer; made to feel bored by Lu Xingzhou's words: "That's all there is to it..."

Lu Xingzhou turned to look at her expression, finding it quite amusing. While the two were talking, they had already pushed out of the alley outside the Demon Suppression Bureau; there were vendors setting up stalls at the alley mouth selling watermelons.

Lu Xingzhou stopped, bought one, and handed it to Sheng Yuanyao: "For you."

Sheng Yuanyao was stunned: "How did you know I love eating melons!"

Lu Xingzhou spoke with meaning: "You'll eat until you can't eat anymore later."

Sheng Yuanyao held the melon, turned her head to look at him for a while, then suddenly asked: "Back then at Danxia Temple, how much did you know about the matter of the Seventh Young Master Huo?"

Lu Xingzhou pretended to be stunned: "When my master adopted me, the Seventh Young Master Huo was already dead; I knew little. However, since we were neighbors, I did hear my master mention some things; what does Commander Sheng wish to know?"

"Everything you know."

"My master heard it from a Huo family servant who came to the temple to burn incense; the Seventh Young Master Huo had good martial arts aptitude since childhood, unfortunately he was not well received, had no resources, and was estimated to learn nothing." Lu Xingzhou stroked his chin, recalling: "The so-called equal treatment was just talk to the outside world; the Seventh Young Master Huo went hungry and wore ragged clothes, almost treated like a servant; I know no more details."

"Then why did he die, do you know?"

"How could I possibly know that... anyway, it's highly unlikely he died of illness in his youth."

"Why?"

"You see, even with my level, as long as there are medicines, treating some difficult illnesses is not too hard. There are many people in the Huo family with higher levels than me, and they have all the resources; how could they let a young master die suddenly in his youth?"

Sheng Yuanyao nodded; she thought so too.

Lu Xingzhou added: "I'll guess casually, you listen casually. It is said the Seventh Young Master Huo had many strange ideas since childhood, dismissed as fanciful; the Eldest Young Master was always praised for being steady. Which one is more like the one who proposed the sweet potato plan, sudden as a red immortal descending from the sky? After this proposal, the Seventh Young Master Huo died suddenly, and the Eldest Young Master Huo received an hereditary title."

Sheng Yuanyao cut him off: "Too much speculation. Don't go around saying this to others in the future."

Lu Xingzhou smiled faintly.

Though Sheng Yuanyao spoke those words, in fact, combined with what she had investigated, she clearly had already reached a conclusion in her heart.

In fact, this conclusion was not wrong—the sweet potato proposal really was proposed by Huo Shang, because he was Lu Xingzhou's friend. Lu Xingzhou had never imagined that telling his friend about this plan back then, hoping to help raise his standing within the family, would instead bring a fatal disaster upon his friend.

As for the calamity that befell his own family, it was unrelated to this—it was an accident of obtaining a treasure, guilty for possessing the jade.

Sheng Yuanyao sighed softly: "To make an enemy of the Huo family is like an ant trying to shake a tree. If this person is truly alive… wouldn't it be better to stay alive?"

Lu Xingzhou glanced at her, unsure whether she still harbored some lingering suspicion, hinting at him.

But he still answered: "Everyone who lives has their own meaning in living; otherwise, they might as well be dead."

How could he not know that, with his current strength, wanting to shake the Huo family was no different from a fool's daydream?

But if he did nothing, what was the point of living?

Sheng Yuanyao hesitated, then suddenly asked: "Then what is the meaning of your living?"

Lu Xingzhou stared at the ground, his gaze rippling faintly, and for a long while gave no response.

He had never truly asked himself this question; suddenly confronted with it, his thoughts stirred uneasily.

Reincarnated into a martial arts family in the mountains, a happy childhood from infancy—he had thought he could enjoy a lifetime of carefree wandering, only to face endless injustice and humiliation, and even a despairing death. A frail young body, insufficient cultivation, an ant shaking a tree, powerless to turn the tide.

Barely escaping the tiger's mouth, only to fall into the wolf's den—two years as a medicine human, enduring every bitterness.

He had thought he met salvation, walking side by side, pouring out heart and blood for eight years, helping to build a vast organization, yet could not earn even a moment's pause in her gaze. The day of his confession was the day of his expulsion.

This life truly is like sailing a boat on land—no matter how one rows, it's all a waste of effort.

By his side there was always only Anuo, the one person who would never betray him, bound to him as if sharing one life.

What is the meaning of living?

To seek justice? Or merely to pursue a thoroughly satisfying revenge?

Lu Xingzhou let out a long breath, raised his head to gaze at the distant horizon, and suddenly asked: "Do you see that morning glow? Does it look like dan-fire?"

"Huh?"

"If this world is like a dan-furnace, and you and I are placed within it to be scorched…" Lu Xingzhou finally answered slowly: "Then the meaning of my living is that I will, in the end, replace the dan-fire beneath this furnace with my own flame."

Sheng Yuanyao's expression shifted slightly; she opened her mouth, but for a long while had no words.

Recommending an old author's Korean entertainment work, going on the shelves tomorrow—if you want to read Korean entertainment, don't miss it~





(End of this chapter)