Chapter 5: Flower Boy (2)

Chapter 5: Flower Boy (2)

Master glossed it over saying that he just had a weak constitution since youth, but now that I think about it, it was quite strange.

In the first place, it was strange that a martial artist was weak and prone to sickness. Cultivation was the training of the body and the mind. Naturally, cultivators experiencing as many illnesses as an ordinary person meant that something was wrong.

It wasn’t that he was starving, nor was he not maintaining his hygiene. He had a regular lifestyle, a balanced diet, and regular sleeping hours while taking in qi from nature, so there was no way he was not healthy. Even someone with an innately weak body would see improvement after a while unless they had lived out the full extent of their lifespan or had suffered from serious internal injuries.

Liu Zhengmu belonged to neither of those categories, so why?

The answer was simple.

It wasn’t his constitution; it was an illness.

Zhou Xuchuan had no idea how long the disease lay dormant. He didn’t even know what it was, much less whether it was something Liu Zhengmu was born with or had acquired after birth.

However, this disease would gnaw away at his master’s life and eventually consume it in five years.

In his previous life, Zhou Xuchuan had only found out that Liu Zhengmu was afflicted with a serious disease after his health had deteriorated a lot.

I still cannot forget the powerlessness I felt that day.

One day, his master had a high fever and collapsed. He had called for a physician but was only given a hopeless diagnosis.

I cannot know for sure, but it seems that the disease has been dormant for a long time. He never showed any symptoms until that moment...

As Liu Zhengmu had been sick quite often since young, the doctor looked after him quite a lot. He had undergone many regular checkups, but until then, the doctor had been unable to find any symptoms that indicated that Liu Zhengmu had any disease in particular.

Ultimately, Liu Zhengmu was unable to leave behind any last words and left the world without ever regaining consciousness.

I must prevent that at all costs!

Zhou Xuchuan had cried a lot the moment he’d seen his master after his regression. Liu Zhengmu’s existence was just that important and special to him. He had told himself multiple times after regressing that he would not let Liu Zehngmu die.

To help his master survive his disease was the first thing on his list of things to do.

The second thing on the list happens six years from now, when I’m fifteen.

A year after Liu Zhengmu’s passing, there was a huge event that shook the foundations of the central martial world.

The Treasury of the Three-Eyed Godly Thief!

Around three hundred years ago, there was a legendary thief renowned across all of the central plains, and not just in the martial world.

That thief always left a symbol with three eyes whenever he stole something. He was later dubbed the Three-Eyed Godly Thief.

The Three-Eyed Godly Thief was active for around one hundred years, but no one was able to find a trace of him apart from the symbol with three eyes.

Two hundred years after his first appearance, the Three-Eyed Godly Thief no longer showed any activities, and the government declared him captured.

Naturally, no one believed the official declaration. Aside from the government, the Three-Eyed Godly Thief was chased by multiple factions for nearly three hundred years. However, neither the Righteous Faction, the Evil Faction, the Demon Cult, the Blood Cult, nor even the Imperial Palace managed to find the Three-Eyed Godly Thief. People naturally came to believe that the Three-Eyed Godly Thief had died of old age after hiding away his treasures. Although many people had looked for his treasury since then, there were no reports of anyone finding it.

That was until six years later when the legendary treasury would be discovered and exposed to the outside world.

‘I have to go and rob that place clean before that time comes!’

As soon as the Three-Eyed Godly Thief’s treasury was found, people flocked to that place like bees to honey in search of treasure.

Although the Era Of War And Chaos had yet to begin at that time, the conflict that occurred there was just as bloody and messy.

Ultimately, someone touched the wrong mechanism within the treasury before all the treasures could be taken out, making the whole cave collapse and putting an end to the saga.

That was why Zhou Xuchuan thought to go there first and take everything out before that happened.

The problem is that I was never able to leave the sect, even six years later.

At fifteen, he would be considered of age, but that did not mean freedom within Mount Hua. In the sect, the elders usually gave the younger generation permission to leave the sect and roam around the world when they were around twenty unless a disciple was particularly strong.

This measure was put in place to prevent disciples from dying in vain while roaming around the world. In other words, the disciples were trained until they were twenty so that they could be more prepared for what was outside the sect.

What do I do?

***

Two months passed.

During that time, Zhou Xuchuan was able to gain one more year’s worth of internal qi, and now, his internal qi had reached two and a half years’ worth in total.

However, Zhou Xuchuan was too young and was restricted in his movements. He couldn’t even leave the sect as he wished to. On top of that, there was a considerable distance between Mount Hua and the treasury, and above all, his cultivation was too weak, which would bring a myriad of problems.

The way he was now, he would lose his life in vain at the hands of bandits or wanderers while roaming around the world.

No, in the first place, it was impossible for him to leave the sect under the surveillance of the older generation.

I’ve already thought multiple times about how to bring the Divine Physician here... isn’t there another way?

Due to the circumstances he was in, he couldn’t put any of his plans into practice despite knowing what was happening in the future. That sense of powerlessness made him infuriated.

Zhou Xuchuan calmed down his anger and started to think about other methods to save his master.

Aren’t there any pills that the Divine Physician concocted?

The Divine Physician was at the peak of all medical fields, with concoction of medicine being one of them. Naturally, those medicines were traded for insanely high prices, befitting of his title.

They were one of the few priceless items in the world.

Zhou Xuchuan ruled that option out since it wasn’t like he had a lot of money in hand.

No, wait, it doesn’t have to be the Divine Physician's pill!

Zhou Xuchuan tapped on his knees and stood up.

There are spiritual medicines!

Spiritual medicines were naturally-occurring medicines that contained the qi or essence of nature, and brought an increase in internal qi for normal cultivators.

However, being medicines, they were also used for treatment aside from increasing cultivation.

Why didn’t I think of this?

Zhou Xuchan smacked his head, blaming his own stupidity. He was trying to walk a roundabout path when he had the shortcut right in front of him.

Let’s see, I believe a few spiritual medicines were found.

He could think of three or four off the top of his head. One of them happened to be near Mount Hua.

‘The Water Spiritual Fruit!’

This was discovered around twenty years later, during the Era Of War And Chaos.

One wanderer was fleeing after getting injured during a war when he fell into a river and got caught up in a current.

Luckily, that wanderer managed to survive and arrive at an underwater cave that no one knew of, where he had a fortunate encounter.

For some curious reason, there was a tree growing in the underwater cave, and the fruit of that tree was the Water Spiritual Fruit.

That wanderer managed to see considerable advances in cultivation after consuming the fruit, and would later join the ranks of the Hundred Experts Under Heaven.

Truly, it was a fortunate encounter.

That’s good, that place is not far from here!

The underwater cave was in a place called Huayin City, which was located north of Mount Hua. Around that area was a river that flowed along the borders between the Shanxi Province, the Henan Province, and the Shaanxi Province, where Mount Hua was located.

This wanderer was quite talkative, and the place became quite famous in the future to the point that it became a tourist attraction.

Of course, Mount Hua also searched every cave near this place in search of another Water Spiritual Fruit. Thanks to that, even Zhou Xuchuan had a rather detailed knowledge of this place.

Naturally, a few caves were discovered during the investigation, but not to mention the Water Spiritual Fruit, even the tree couldn’t be found.

It’s a fruit that propelled a third-rate wanderer to the realm of the hundred experts. The potential is there.

That wanderer was said to have obtained an immense quantity of internal qi after consuming the fruit.

Zhou Xuchuan had complete faith that an energy of that scale could completely crush Liu Zhengmu’s disease by brute force.

“Haha, it seems I was blinded by the treasury of the Three-Eyed Godly Thief. I should learn to look a little farther.”

Zhou Xuchuan repented his past actions.

Master said he will participate in the regular gathering that’s happening in one week, so that will be my opportunity.

The regular gathering usually lasted about three to five days. That was enough time. This was his opportunity.