Painting of the Nine Immortals
Chapter 100: The Rescue

The giant sun was hanging in the sky, draping down bright lights that warmed everything.

At the foot of the mountain, the corners of Su Zi’s lips curved up as she flashed a sweet smile. She was happy that she thought of a method to carry back the youth.

She started taking action. Putting down the bamboo basket, she took out her rope that was made out of a beast’s tendons. After much struggling, she tied it around the young man’s waist.

Throughout the entire process, Su Zi touched the youth’s fragile and weak body a few times. She heard him groan in pain and watched his brows tighten even more. Despite that, he still did not wake up. Just how injured was he?

[He’s not waking up… What kind of experience did he go through to cause such bad injuries?] Su Zi frowned as well. Her heart ached a little.

Shaking, she reached out her hand, trying to soothe the young man’s frown. Just as her hand was about to come in contact with his forehead, she felt a jolt of electricity pass through her. Her cheeks flushed with redness and her entire face heated up.

“Blarg, what am I thinking about.” The young girl bit her lip as she stared at the young man whose eyes were tightly shut. She mumbled to herself, “But, I really want to touch him for once. Once he wakes up, I will not have the chance.”

She had a lot of thoughts going on in her head. Kneeling with her hands supporting her cheeks, she stared at the handsome man before her lovingly. After a while, she sighed and said, “Whatever. Grandpa told me not to have skin to skin relationships with men. He is so wounded I should hurry up and take him back to the village.”

She then tied the other end of the rope onto her slender waist. Facing the burning sun, she marched toward the village.

During her entire journey back, for every three steps she walked, she had to rest for a minute. She was rather weak in terms of physical strength and the sun straight above her head was causing her to sweat out of all her pores. Her body was getting exhausted, and it was getting harder to walk. Thinking about the youth behind her, who was on the brink of death, she endured and dragged her body off the ground and kept walking forward.

Luckily, the road back to the village was mostly flat. Otherwise, he really would’ve died on the way.

After a while, Su Zi finally managed to bring him back to the village. As soon as she reached the entrance, she collapsed down on her butt and breathed heavily while shouting, “Grandpa, grandpa, come here quickly! Someone is about to die!”

Hearing Su Zi’s anxious voice, men, women, and children rushed over and circled her right away. Looking at the good looking and barely breathing young man behind her, chatter broke out.

“Su Zi, who is this? Why is he so hurt?”

“Based on his clothes and his skin color, he’s not from the Barren. Is he someone from outside the mountains?”

“No way. We live in pure wilderness. Who would come here? There are also countless beasts around the mountains. Leaving this place is not even possible, how and why would someone enter it?”

“Look at all his injuries. He was most likely mauled by a beast!”

Everyone in the village guessed and deduced. None of them even thought of the idea that Ling Xian never walked into the wilderness, he fell into the wilderness.

“Alright, everyone, quiet down. Let me check out his injuries.” A white-haired Elder walked over. He was the Village Leader, and also Su Zi’s grandpa.

Everyone automatically cleared a path for him. Their actions showed his high status in the village.

Seeing the arrival of her grandpa, Su Zi became very hopeful. She grabbed onto his arm and asked impatiently, “Grandpa, look, look. His injuries are really serious. I think he is dying.”

“Slow down, slow down, don’t drag me. My old bones cannot be so violently shaken.” The Village Leader shook his head helplessly and loosened Su Zi’s grasp. He patted her head and smiled affectionately, “Why are you behaving so crazily? Who is this person that’s causing you to panic so much?”

“I don’t know who he is. But I saw that he was very hurt, so I brought him back.” Su Zi stuck out her tongue as worry filled her face.

“You don’t know him?” The Elder paused. He wanted to tell her how angry he was about this, but seeing Su Zi’s pitiful and worried face, his heart softened. Sighing, he said, “You! What am I going to do about you? You bring back someone you’ve never met before? What if he is someone evil?”

“Grandpa…” Su Zi shook the old man’s arm pettishly, “He doesn’t seem like a bad guy based on how he looks.”

“Based on how he looks… Do you hear yourself?” the Village Leader chuckled bitterly. “Would evil people write ‘I am bad’ on their foreheads?”

Su Zi smiled back and sweetly said, “He is about to die. Grandpa, why don’t you check his status first? We can talk about this afterward, what do you say?”

“Ah, you… Whatever, I’ll do what you say this once.” The Elder laughed helplessly and moved his gaze away from Su Zi. When he saw the young boy, he gasped and frowned. “His complexion, his skin color, even his aura tells me he does not belong to the Barren Village.”

“Grandpa, stop paying so much attention to those type of things, please hurry and save him.” Su Zi continued to rock her grandpa’s arm like a child.

Sighing again, the Elder caved and kneeled down. He extended three fingers and placed them on the young man’s wrist. He soon discovered that half of his meridians were damaged and most of his bones were broken in multiple places. There were also countless bruises and blood clots all over his body.

“How… How can he be so heavily hurt!” the Elder’s expression drastically changed. Forgetting about his concern regarding this man’s background, he quickly waved at everyone. “People, please help me carry him home. His injuries are very very serious. If we don’t do some emergency procedures, it’ll be too late!”

Due to the Elder’s respected status, the villagers stopped chattering about the young man’s background as well. They didn’t question the Elder’s decision. Immediately, two olive-skinned muscular men volunteered and carried Ling Xian toward the Village Leader’s home.

Very quickly, they arrived. After placing Ling Xian on the bed, the Elder asked them to leave and locked the front door behind them. His face and tone were both serious. “Quickly, Su Zi, bring me my acupuncture needles and medicine.”

Seeing her grandpa’s stern face, she turned anxious as well. Hurriedly, she ran to the other bed, reached under, and took out a medicine box that was made out stones. She brought it to the Elder.

“Good thing I know a thing or two about medicine. Even though his injuries are severe, they aren’t caused by spiritual means. If they were, I would not be able to save him with the little knowledge I have.” Still looking rigid, he opened up the medicine box, and countless three-inch-long needles floated into the air.

“Grandpa, you are going to use silver needles?” Su Zi suddenly asked.

“That’s right. I will use silver needles and puncture all 108 of his acupuncture points. This will ensure he stops losing any more energy. His broken bones and damaged meridians, however, can only be cured with herbal medicine and a lot of bed rest.” The Elder swooshed his sleeve, and the silver needles fell from air. Like swords, they pierced Ling Xian’s body.

Rustle!

After a series of rustling sounds, all 108 needles found their spots and stabbed into Ling Xian’s body, sealing all 108 of his acupuncture spots.

However, in the next moment, a wave of strong force bounced the 108 needles back and threw them onto the ground.

“What...”

The Elder’s face darkened. Looking at the situation before him, he couldn’t figure out why this was happening. The young man’s chest, the origin of his spirits, was highly damaged and he had little to none mana left. How could someone so near death produce such a strong rejection force?

He knew the basics of medicine, but he wasn’t highly trained nor has he experienced much in the cultivation community. He didn’t understand that the event happening before him was a very mysterious phenomenon in the Taoism community – the mana was protecting its owner.

Of course, because Ling Xian was depleted of all spiritual energy at this point, the phenomenon was more like the majestic blood protecting its owner.

Yes, it was the ancient majestic blood.

When Ling Xian drifted into unconsciousness, the blood in his body reached a state of boil. When external forces try to invade him, the ancient majestic blood exploded powerfully in order to stop all invasions.

Just now, when the 108 silver needles were entering his body, the ancient majestic blood woke up and forcefully rejected the silver needles. But of course, once the majestic blood awakens, it also produces another mysterious force that heals its master’s injuries.

“Grandpa, I thought he was unconscious. What is happening?” Peeking at the chalk white Ling Xian, Su Zi asked nervously, “He rejected the silver needles. What do we do now?”

“Don’t panic. Even though he made all my needles bounce back, this could be a good thing.” The Elder frowned. Even though he was inexperienced, having lived for so long, he had a feeling that everything that was happening was not necessarily bad.

“A good thing?” Su Zi was a little taken back. Her face was full of disbelief. “Grandpa, stop lying to me! He rejected the silver needles, which means we cannot seal his energy within his body. Why would this be a good thing? It’s an awful thing! Very awful!”

“Stop panicking. Since he rejected my needles, this means the force in his body has recovered and woken up. This mysterious power might make him better.” The Elder shook his head, and then he noticed that some color was returning to the young man’s face. Smirking, he pointed, “Look, doesn’t his face look a little redder?”

“Grandpa stop lying to me. His face was pale just a second ago—” Su Zi pouted. As she spoke, however, she too saw the color in Ling Xian’s cheek. She bit back her words and said excitedly, “Grandpa, his face is red now. Doesn’t this mean he’s getting better?”

“What do you think?” the Elder looked at his granddaughter, wisdom filled his murky old eyes.

“Thank goodness he is fine now.” Su Zi giggled. Looking at the handsome boy, she couldn’t find words to describe her happiness and excitement.

“Look how happy you are. You never get this nervous when I get hurt.” The elderly shook his head with a slight grin on his face. He teased, “My granddaughter is growing up now. I don’t blame you. Look how handsome he is, even in the outside society, he would be considered very attractive. You grew up in the Barren Village. It’s natural to fall for someone so good looking.”

“What are you talking about, Grandpa!” Su Zi blushed.

“Haha, even though I never married in my life, I have experienced many things. How could I not know what you are thinking?” The Elder laughed.

Su Zi pouted again and grabbed the Elder’s beard. “Stop making fun of me Grandpa. Or else I will tear off your beard!”

“Ah! Su Zi, let go quickly!” the Elder was in pain and hastily asked for forgiveness, “Okay, okay, I will stop. Let go now, young lady.”

Seeing the Elder agreeing, Su Zi smiled Sweetly. “Good.”

“You! My beard is going to be torn out by you sooner or later.” The Elder chuckled. “Alright, stop playing. Go and find some pain killing herbs. Since there is a mysterious force healing him, we shall not meddle. We will just try to ease his pain.”

“OK, grandpa,” Su Zi kindly grinned. Gawking at the handsome young boy, her eyes were full of happiness. She whispered, “May the mysterious power in your body heal you quickly.”