Chapter Sixteen: Third Degree Burns

  The fox girl Qingmu listened to Meng Xuan's words, and as instructed, she handed over her wrist as white as jade in front of Meng Xuan, gazing at him with her large eyes. Meng Xuan, however, lightly waved his hand, indicating that there was no need for a pulse diagnosis. He closed his eyes and sat for a while, then suddenly clasped his hands together to form a "Great Illness Seal". In an instant, the vital energy around him transformed, surging up to his eyes, and when he opened them again, his eyes were shining brightly.

  He stared at Fox Woman Qingmu for a long time, and finally his gaze fell on her lower abdomen, furrowing his brow involuntarily.

  With a sip of tea, Meng Xuan's eyes lost their inner light, and he let out a soft sigh.

  "Lord Meng... can you cure it?"

  Suishou's question was extremely tense, but Kitsune Aoki seemed much more calm.

  Meng Xuan thought for a moment, nodded slightly and said: "Let's give it a try!"

  He just cast the Great Illness Seal, observing the Fox Girl Qingmu's illness aura, and found that the illness aura in her body was concentrated in the lower abdomen, extremely dense, and could be called a rare and stubborn disease since he cultivated the Great Illness Technique. If it were before, he didn't have the confidence to refine this illness aura at all. Fortunately, not long ago, he had just broken through the seventh layer of True Qi, and the power of the Great Illness Seal also increased, so he could try to treat her.

  Shuǐ Yuè Niáng's eyes nearly popped out in excitement as she repeatedly said "good" and asked if they needed to prepare any medicinal herbs.

  Meng Xuan shook his head and said, "Give me a stick of incense time, don't let anyone disturb!"

  Shuiziyue agreed and nervously went outside to keep watch.

  The fox girl Qingmu looked at Meng Xuan with some shyness and said in a low voice, "Big brother, can my illness really be cured?"

  Meng Xuan smiled and said, "What's wrong, are you worried that I'm not good enough?"

  Aoki hastily shook his head and said, "No, no, many white-bearded old men have come before, all saying that Aoki's illness was congenital and couldn't be cured. Aoki has already gotten used to it, but big brother is the first one to say let's give it a try!"

  Meng Xuan smiled and rubbed her head, saying: "Don't worry, I don't have a white beard, so I'm naturally different from them!"

  After comforting Qingmu, Meng Xuan had her sit cross-legged in front of him and warned her to relax her whole body and not use her powers to resist no matter what he did. It turned out that this little fox girl's cultivation was even higher than Meng Xuan's. When Meng Xuan was drawing out the disease, if she suddenly used her powers to resist, it would not only interrupt the healing process but also possibly cause serious injury to Meng Xuan himself.

  Kitsune Aokiya was just a small fox, but she was a bit like a bookworm and meekly agreed without asking any questions.

  Meng Xuan once again formed the "Great Illness Seal", and the vital energy around his body transformed, forming a virtual shadow of an evil dragon, with its mouth at the tiger's mouth position on his right hand. Meng Xuan raised his right hand, just about to press it onto Huo Nü Qingmu's shoulder, but suddenly hesitated for a moment, then pressed down towards her lower abdomen instead. The spot where his hand landed was soft and smooth, but icy cold, even making Meng Xuan's body feel frozen stiff.

  The choice of location for extracting the disease energy is also particular. Before, when Meng Xuan extracted disease energy from others, as long as he came into contact with their body, no matter where the disease energy was hidden, he could directly pull it out. However, the fox girl was different from before, her cultivation was high and the disease energy was very dense, so Meng Xuan had to choose a location closest to the disease energy inside her body, which would give him a better grasp.

  "Get up!"

  Meng Xuan suddenly let out a loud shout, his right palm began to pull outward. When his palm was about an inch away from Qingmu's body, it could be seen that the tiger's mouth at the base of his right palm had bitten down on a ball of eerie and changing black gas, pulling it outward with force.

  This black air was extremely powerful and stubborn, Meng Xuan seemed to be somewhat unable to cope.

  "All sorts of serious illnesses, all fall on me!"

  Meng Xuan's eyebrows suddenly tightened, and with a loud shout, all the vital energy around him began to circulate. The Great Healing Hand reached its peak, and the dragon-shaped shadow also became much stronger in an instant, biting tightly onto the diseased energy and slowly pulling it out thread by thread.

  It was like a tug-of-war, with the black energy repeatedly trying to retreat back into Qingmu's body, only to be firmly held back by Meng Xuan.

  "Hmm..."

  At the moment when Meng Xuan was already covered in sweat, he finally completely pulled out the black air from Qingmu's body. Also at the moment when the sick energy had just left Qingmu's body, it suddenly entered the dragon-shaped virtual shadow's mouth. And in this same instant, Meng Xuan's face suddenly turned deathly pale, his body became extremely cold, and the sweat drops on his forehead suddenly froze into ice particles.

  That dragon-shaped shadow is actually his vital energy transformed, when he absorbs the disease, it looks like the dragon-shaped shadow swallowed the disease, in fact, he pulled the disease from the patient's body to his own.

  That is to say, in their school of thought for treating illnesses, they emphasize the path of substitution. In the moment when they cure someone else's illness, they themselves will contract that very same disease. The difference lies in the fact that they know how to refine and transform the diseased energy.

  "Big brother......are you okay?"

  The fox girl Qingmu suddenly felt a sense of lightness and warmth all over her body, but when she looked at Meng Xuan again, she couldn't help but be shocked.

  Wine...

  Meng Xuan looked at the red gourd beside him with great effort and weakly spat out a word.

  At this time, he was icy cold and stiff all over, unable to move even a single finger.

  The fox girl Qingmu hastily helped him take over the gourd, pulled out the stopper and fed him a mouthful.

  In this gourd, however, was a medicinal wine brewed by Meng Xuan using a secret recipe. It could dispel cold and nourish the yang, for their lineage cultivated through absorbing illnesses. In simpler terms, every time they absorbed an illness, it would be equivalent to suffering from a major illness themselves, so their bodies couldn't help but be somewhat weak, with cold energy invading them. Thus, his master had imparted this method of brewing wine to him, which could alleviate the invasion of the illness to some extent.

  Just then, Mizuki also rushed in and heard Aoki's cry. When she saw Aoki, she was taken aback for a moment because she clearly felt that the ominous aura surrounding Aoki's eyebrows had disappeared without a trace. Had he really recovered? Mizuki couldn't help but feel overjoyed in her heart, but soon after, she saw Meng Xuan's appearance and was shocked, speechless for a while.

  She clearly felt that murderous aura, but it was on Meng Xuan's face that it appeared.

  "Lord Meng, you... this is..."

  The water moon daughter didn't know what to say, her heart was moved and it's hard to describe.

  Although they were demons from the Qingqiu Ridge, they had read Confucian classics and Buddhist scriptures. The scriptures said that the Buddha's flesh was fed to eagles, but they had never seen it before. Now, however, they saw Meng Xuan cure Qingmu's illness by substituting his own body, a shock that could not be described in words.

  "I'm fine... you all go out... leave me alone... don't peek..."

  Meng Xuanfei gave a command, then closed his eyes and began to cultivate.

  Before, he could resist for a while after absorbing the evil energy, and then refine it when he had time. But the evil energy on Qingmu's body was too powerful, he felt that he couldn't withstand it at all, and must refine it immediately.

  Shuiziyue didn't dare disobey, and was dragged out of the room by Qingmu with tears streaming down her face.

  "Aoki, remember, no matter when, never forget Meng Gongzi's great kindness..."

  Suishou's wife solemnly warned Aoki and then tightly hugged her, tears streaming down her face.

  "Give me alchemy..."

  Meng Xuan sat up with his legs crossed, practicing internal alchemy to refine that lump of black pathological energy.

  This mass of evil energy was extremely powerful, almost exceeding his limit for refining evil energy, he could only exhaust all his strength.

  If he can't refine this mass of sick energy, he will end up like his master, who tried to force the refinement of a path that exceeded his physical limits and failed, being entangled by the great illness for decades, finally dying in the midst of it.

  However, Meng Xuan was slightly different. Before absorbing the pathogen, he had calculated that although this mass of pathogenic energy was powerful, it still hadn't exceeded his limits and wouldn't leave him helpless.

  "Ahhh..."

  That mass of black air spun and struggled in Meng Xuan's palm, suddenly becoming extremely large, then being compressed by him into a small black ball. At the critical moment, it seemed to have life as it emitted a faint, almost imperceptible magical hum.

  "A hundred diseases refine the treasure of the body, the cocoon bursts and a fairy butterfly flies..."

  Meng Xuan recites softly, sits cross-legged and still, with a dignified appearance.

  It was unknown how long it took, but the black air finally settled down and transformed into a small black dan bead in his palm. Although it was black, it had a crystal clear feeling, with spiritual light flashing around it.

  "It's actually a third-rate dan..."

  Meng Xuan was somewhat surprised, feeling extremely refreshed and comfortable. He manipulated the dragon-shaped virtual shadow to swallow the dan.

  "Boom..."

  The rolling pure energy dissipated from within his body, and for a moment, Meng Xuan felt his cultivation base surge upward, as if he had broken through the Seventh Realm of True Energy and reached the Eighth Realm. However, after this large amount of pure energy dissipated, he discovered that he was still short of breaking through the Eighth Realm by a hair's breadth. This was normal, after all, he had only just broken through the Seventh Realm not long ago, and it was impossible for him to break through another realm so quickly.

  Cultivation is a path that becomes increasingly difficult as one progresses, and without a powerful technique like the Great Void Scripture, Meng Xuan would have needed at least three to ten years of accumulation to reach his current level of True Energy Seventh Heaven. Yet he had achieved it in just one leap, which already made him extremely satisfied.