Chapter Fifty-Three: The Banquet

  The speed of the Golden Silk Wasp was originally extremely fast, and now that it had absorbed the essence of Guyun's blood and evolved into a mature insect, its speed was several times faster than when it was in its larval stage. With just the naked eye, it was basically impossible to see anything, only with divine sense could one catch a glimpse of a flash of golden light, and it was fundamentally impossible to capture its specific appearance. At this speed, I estimate that not many people would be able to dodge the Golden Silk Wasp's sneak attack, and once the larva invaded the body, the outcome would be sealed.

  The golden light circled around Gu Yun a few times before drilling into his brow, quietly floating beside his primordial spirit. Gu Yun also stood up from the ground, and this refining process was much shorter than he had expected - it only took as long as it takes to drink a cup of tea. If he had used the first method, it would have taken at least ten days or more to succeed. Walking over to the two women who were watching from the side, Chen Xue'er asked curiously: "Big Brother Gu, what was that thing just now?"

  Gu Yun smiled slightly and roughly told the two girls about the Golden Silkworm case. The two girls nodded, seeming to understand but not really getting it, and didn't ask any more questions. Gu Yun didn't explain further either, figuring they probably wouldn't get it even if he did. Just as Gu Yun was thinking of asking the girls if they wanted something to eat, there was a knock at the door. He opened it to see Murong Yong standing outside with his son. Upon seeing Gu Yun, Murong Yong immediately smiled and said, "Thank you so much for saving my son earlier, Mr. Gu. My son has now woken up, and I brought him here to thank you in person." Then he turned to the young man beside him and said, "Zhe, don't forget to thank Mr. Gu."

  The young man beside him immediately bowed to Gu Yun and said, "Junior Murong Zhe, thank you, Mr. Gu, for saving my life." As he called his own father "Mr.", he naturally referred to himself as a junior, even though he was slightly older than Gu Yun.

  Gu Yun looked at Murong Zhe for a moment, his face slightly pale from over half a year of drowsiness, but his cultivation was not weak and had already reached the mid-stage of Yuan Ying. He nodded and said: "Lord Murong doesn't need to be so polite, treating illnesses and saving lives is the duty of a medical cultivator."

  Murong Yong smiled and didn't say anything else. Then he said to Gu Yun, "Mr. Gu, the wine and dishes are already prepared ahead, I hope Mr. Gu will dine with the two ladies." He also made a gesture of invitation.

  Gu Yun smiled slightly, and when Murong Yong called the two women his wives, he did not object. He knew that in their eyes, they could definitely see the relationship between him and the two women. In fact, he himself thought so too. As for the two women, they were now very dependent on Gu Yun, and had long regarded Gu Yun as the only kin they had in the world.

  With two women, Gu Yun and three others followed Mu Rong's father and son to the front hall. As soon as the five of them entered the hall, the previously noisy hall immediately fell silent. Gu Yun took a look and saw that there were three large tables set up for a wine feast in the hall. All those young masters who had been making trouble with him earlier were present, including Commander Liu Qinghe, and the others were all middle-aged men in their 40s or 50s dressed in luxurious attire. When they saw Mu Rong come out, the people who were chatting and laughing immediately stood up and paid their respects to Mu Rong, saying: "We have seen the city master."

  Murong Yong nodded and then invited Gu Yun to the main table in the middle, before saying to everyone: "Ladies and gentlemen, this is Mr. Gu, a highly skilled medical practitioner who successfully treated the child's illness."

  As soon as Murong Yong spoke, the people below immediately began to discuss it. They knew about the illness of Murong Yong's son, and none of the many imperial doctors had been able to cure him, but now he was suddenly cured by this person who looked like a young man.

  "This old gentleman's medical skills are truly remarkable. The illness that so many imperial physicians couldn't cure was actually cured by him."

  "Yes, I think most of them are medical practitioners in their later years."

  "Nonsense, I think it must be a doctor from the Rejuvenation Realm who can do this. Didn't Murong City Lord find many doctors from the late stage of Rejuvenation to treat his son's illness back then? None of them were able to cure him. Look at Mr. Gu, he looks so young, he must have used the legendary anti-aging technique that only doctors from the Rejuvenation Realm can use."

  "You're all talking nonsense, Mr. Gu must be a genius beyond compare, what we see now is his true age."

  "Hum, have you ever heard of a Spring Returning Medicine Master as young as this?"

  Although the voice was very small, Gu Yun and Mu Rong Yong both heard it in their ears. Gu Yun smiled slightly, it seemed that these people all thought of themselves as some kind of rejuvenating monster. Never mind, he would just be an old monster then, otherwise this young and vigorous doctor's return to youth was truly a bit frightening. The principle that "a tree standing out among others will be battered by the wind" Gu Yun still understood.

  However, regardless of whether Gu Yun was really that young, his medical skills were indeed exceptional. After the discussion, a slightly chubby middle-aged man immediately stood up, raised his wine glass and said: "I am Wang Feng, the master of the Wang family from Liangping County. Today, my unfilial son was blind and offended Mr. Gu, I hope Mr. Gu will be magnanimous and not take it to heart with this young whelp. I'll drink three cups as an apology to Mr. Gu." After finishing speaking, he drank three consecutive cups of wine, then turned to a young man sitting next to him and said: "Hurry up and get up to apologize to Mr. Gu!"

  The young man next to him immediately stood up and carefully apologized to Gu Yun. In his heart, he was cursing his bad luck, never expecting to run into a medical practitioner who even the city master had to be polite to. Not only did he not get any benefits, but he was also poisoned by the other party, and now he had to apologize to him instead. When he got back, he would probably be scolded by his own father again.

  The old man didn't say anything, he just slightly nodded his head. Wang Feng and his son saw the old man nodding and immediately sat down excitedly. In their opinion, the old man's nod meant that he would no longer argue with his son. In fact, the old man had never intended to argue with them, otherwise these people would have been dead long ago. The others who saw this situation also stood up one by one to apologize for offending the old man today, which was the purpose of their visit today. Now that the matter has been resolved, they are naturally happy and didn't expect Mr. Gu to be so easy-going. However, the head of the Wang family added: "Mr. Gu is magnanimous and doesn't blame these children for their mistakes, but now the poison in these young people's bodies..." The rest of his words were self-explanatory, everyone understood that he wanted Mr. Gu to produce an antidote.

  Hehe smiled and said, "I have the antidote right now, but as I said before, it's not easy to refine this antidote. So, considering the face of all the family heads, I'll just take ten mid-grade spirit stones for it, and consider it a small punishment for them."

  As soon as the words fell, several family heads couldn't help but scold in their hearts. It's just a small punishment, ten middle-grade spirit stones, they've only earned so much in a month, and you're asking for ten middle-grade spirit stones at once, this is simply daylight robbery! The one with the ugliest face was Liu Suifeng, his subordinates were the most poisoned, it seemed that he would suffer heavy losses this time. However, they didn't dare say anything, a medical cultivator of the Medical Master realm wasn't someone they could afford to offend, let alone Gu Yun who might be a Return to Spring realm medical cultivator. Now, being able to spend some money to get past it was still worth it for them.

  A group of people continued to drink and chat there, when a voice suddenly rang out: "Tsk tsk tsk, the city master's place is quite lively, what's so happy to talk about?" Immediately, a young man in his twenties, smiling and accompanied by two old men in black and white clothes, appeared before everyone.

  When the young man appeared, the originally bustling hall suddenly became quiet. Murong Yong stood up and made a fist to the young man: "It turns out that Gong Sun Gongzi has arrived, I'm sorry for not welcoming you from afar, I'm sorry for not welcoming you from afar." The others also got up one by one and paid their respects to the young man.

  Gu Yun remained seated, unmoving, but was slightly surprised in his heart. What was the background of this young man that made Murong Yong so polite? The young man only nodded slightly to acknowledge the bows of the crowd, but his gaze fell on Gu Yun. In the grand hall, the three people sitting with Gu Yun stood out. He thought about how Gong Sun Yu was always warmly welcomed wherever he went, but today he met someone who didn't even stand up for him, which made his face turn gloomy in an instant. However, when he saw the two women sitting beside Gu Yun, his eyes gleaming with lust couldn't move away. His feet moved involuntarily towards Gu Yun and the others. The gloomy expression on his face had disappeared, replaced by a warm smile like spring breeze. As for Gu Yun's disrespect, he had already forgotten about it.

  Gongsun Yong's eyes widened as he took in Gongsun Yu's appearance. This Gongsun Yu was also a well-known figure throughout Xuzhou, but his reputation wasn't exactly a good one - it was notorious. As the third son of the current head of the Gongsun family in Xuzhou, Gongsun Yu had been reckless and lawless since he was young, and as an adult, he became even more brazen. Whenever he saw someone else's valuable treasure, he would want it for himself, and if he couldn't buy it, he would resort to robbery or even murder. If he saw a beautiful woman, he would also want her, and if she didn't comply, he would take her by force. Over the past twenty years, who knows how many enemies he had made, how many women's lives he had ruined? Yet he remained unscathed. This was partly because the Gongsun family was the most powerful clan in the empire, with a vast network of influence that few people dared to cross. Another reason was that before Gongsun Yu provoked others, he would always investigate their background first. He only targeted those without any significant power or connections, and even if things got out of hand, his extremely doting father would usually bail him out, allowing him to resume his troublemaking ways after a brief period of house arrest.