Laying Mu Huiqing down on the bed inside the room, Fang Ren immediately took out his Small Furnace and started alchemy to heal her. Although her internal injuries had been temporarily stabilized, the immense pain caused by her damaged meridians was still tormenting her relentlessly.
"The young master knows how to craft elixirs?"
Lin Bozhong, standing outside the door, looked on with some surprise at Fang Ren's practiced movements. He had only heard that the young master was the third worst student in his school and couldn't even grasp the fundamental theories.
"I just have a rudimentary understanding," Fang Ren casually replied to him.
As he spoke, he continuously searched his room for the hidden herbs, tossing them one after another into the Small Furnace.
Lin Bozhong, watching from the doorway, was dumbfounded; alchemy wasn't this hurried—a different degree of condensation was required for each herb, and tossing them all in at once like that wouldn't result in any pills forming.
"Young master, perhaps I should help you with the alchemy," Lin Bozhong suggested.
Too engrossed in his task, Fang Ren didn't pay attention to what he said and suddenly furrowed his brow, "Damn! How could there be no Yao Guangye?"
"This thing? This old man happens to carry some small medicinal herbs with him, and I do have Yao Guangye," Lin Bozhong said as he touched a small bundle at his chest.
"You're a lifesaver, hand it over quickly."
"Alright, I'll get it now."
Throwing the Yao Guangye directly into the furnace, Fang Ren then began to prepare Cold Fire and more water on the side. This time, he still planned to use his unique method to speed up the elixir crafting process.
Lin Bozhong entered the room and sat beside the Small Furnace with a worried expression. No matter how he looked at it, he thought the young master was just wasting herbs and that it was impossible to create an elixir this way.
Moreover, Madame Xuan suffered severe injuries that led to the severing of her meridians. To stabilize her meridians and erase her pain, a Three-level pill was at least needed, so how could a student who couldn't even learn the theory possibly craft one?
However, Lin Bozhong didn't say anything more, just watching with a frown as Fang Ren crafted the elixir, ready to assist once the young master failed.
A few minutes later, Fang Ren immediately changed the flame at the bottom of the furnace to Cold Fire and poured in a large amount of the water he had prepared earlier.
"Young master... with so much water and the use of Cold Fire, even if we burn till tomorrow, no elixir will come out," Lin Bozhong lamented with helplessness.
Fang Ren put down what he was doing and looked at him, "Don't worry about it. You saved my life today, and the medicinal herbs you provided were a great help. I appreciate it, but for now, I still can't fully trust you. I hope you wouldn't mind stepping outside for a moment."
He definitely couldn't let others witness the special process of crafting a Three-level pill, and since he still didn't have a clear understanding of what kind of person Lin Bozhong was, it was better to expose as little as possible.
"Fine, the old man will just take care of the two bodies in the courtyard." Saying this, Lin Bozhong left the room and closed the door behind him.
Seeing him leave, Fang Ren immediately turned up the Cold Fire. Although the elixir crafting process was too rapid and might not yield the original potency, it could still stabilize the meridians within Mu Huiqing's body and eliminate her pain.
Within minutes, Fang Ren immediately retrieved a White Pill from the water and placed it into Mu Huiqing's mouth.
It had to be said, a Three-level pill was remarkable, utterly different from lower-level ones—it melted upon entry into the mouth, not requiring the person to consciously swallow it.
"Young master, did you just succeed?" Lin Bozhong's voice came from outside the door.
Upon hearing his voice, a shiver went down Fang Ren's spine; this man could actually discern the birth of an elixir by its aura, which was indeed frightening.
Holding his Small Furnace, Fang Ren opened the door and, seeing Lin Bozhong's astonished face outside, he said, "Yes, I've administered it."
"Ah?"
Lin Bozhong stared blankly at the Small Furnace in his hands and then at him, his mind filled with confusion. Such a method of elixir crafting should have made it impossible to condense into a pill—how could it possibly have been successful? And a Three-level pill at that?
Could it be that the young master wasn't as simple as he claimed to be?
This left Lin Bozhong with a profound doubt.
"How many people from the Fang Family came this time?" Fang Ren asked.
"It should be just those two," Lin Bozhong replied. "They didn't dare act earlier because Shang Han was here. Now that Shang Han has left, they must have wanted to time their attack to kill the young master, thinking there are no strong protectors around you at the moment. Sending only two people would avoid drawing attention; sending more would be conspicuous."
"You've been secretly observing me for several days?" Fang Ren asked.
"Actually, I haven't been scrutinizing your movements, young master. Each time you go out, I make sure to check the surroundings for potential dangers ahead of time, waiting at a distance of a thousand meters once no one from the Fang Family's right faction is seen. I haven't been following or investigating your actions," Lin Bozhong explained.
"That's good then."
Fang Ren nodded, feeling that the old man's words were most likely true. After all, it was during their time at Jiulong Mountain that he had crippled Wang Shuai, yet the old man had been completely unaware.
If the old man had known that he was capable of cultivation, he wouldn't have appeared immediately when the two people attacked earlier; he would have certainly observed his actual strength first, stepping in to protect him only if he found him incapable of resisting the assailants.
The old man took out a yellow talisman paper from his bag and said, "Young Master, if you encounter any danger at school, just tear this talisman, and I will be at your side in no time to ensure your safety."
"Alright." Fang Ren took the yellow talisman paper from the old man's hands.
"Then I shall take my leave. Remember to carry this talisman with you at all times."
Lin Bozhong bowed and, as he did, a white, transparent True Qi emanated from his body, and he flew out the window of the small corridor.
Fang Ren returned to his room and carefully inspected the talisman paper, only to find it was a regular signal talisman with no other marks or means to monitor him.
It seemed the old man was simply there to ensure his safety.
He peered out at the courtyard below, now cleared of bloodstains, and glanced at the small iron door, pulled out from the wall and lying on the ground.
Fang Ren then drew the curtains, grabbed a towel to wipe the blood from Mu Huanqing's mouth, washed her feet for her, and lastly settled in bed after a quick tidy-up of himself.
The events of the evening left him tossing and turning, unable to sleep.
To think that he was the eldest son of the Tianjiang Fang Family was something he couldn't quite come to terms with.
The thought that he lost both parents had taken deep root in his mind from a young age, and now, suddenly, he had relatives from a major family emerge. Moreover, his own uncle had sent someone to kill him tonight; this sort of experience would be hard for anyone to accept in the moment.
What's more absurd was that he had been stripped of his Spiritual Root at birth; instantly transforming him from a cultivator with boundless potential into a mere mortal. His parents, fearing he would suffer from others' disdain, had sent him away from the major family. For 22 years, no one had mentioned these matters to him.
Even more outrageous was the fact that he was bound by a childhood marriage contract, and the girl was none other than the princess of the greatest Tianjiang family on Earth.
He remembered the Tianjiang princess's name seemed to be Bai Qi, the only human on Earth with two Spiritual Roots and extraordinary cultivation talent. Currently, she was regarded by everyone as the strongest human for the next fifty years.
He was absolutely vexed. Why did all these ridiculous things have to happen to him?
Whether he had Spiritual Roots or not, Fang Ren didn't care much by now; after all, life with Sister Hui Qing was incredibly happy. But why on Earth did they have to set up that marriage contract in the first place?
The Tianjiang princess had nothing to do with him. In the 22 years of his life, he had never seen her, nor had she come to visit her fiancé. Just because of her, his life was in jeopardy, and that infuriated him. There was no relationship between them; did he really deserve to have his head hunted every day without rhyme or reason?
The more he thought, the more displeased he became. If one day he met Bai Qi, he was certain he'd break it off with her.
Tianjiang princess? The strongest human for the next fifty years? What nonsense, what does that have to do with him?
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At this moment, in the central hospital of Yangming City, Wang Shuai, wrapped in bandages and fixed in a support frame, lay in a coma on the hospital bed, with a circle of Wang Family members standing around.
A well-dressed woman sobbed uncontrollably by the bed, complaining incessantly at the man beside her, "Our son has been beaten into a vegetative state and you can't even catch the culprit!"
"You think I don't want to catch the culprit?" A man with a beer belly roared angrily, "If only I knew who did it, I would have them arrested right away!"
Among those in the ward stood a familiar figure, evidently another member of the Wang Family, Wang Cang. His face was seething with fury, and he cursed without pause—Wang Shuai was his younger brother, and he shared his father's thoughts as his brother had been reduced to a vegetative state.
"We must find that Nightfall Organization!" shouted Wang Cang in anger.
At the mention of the Nightfall Organization, the room suddenly became much quieter.
With an angry yet apprehensive demeanor, the Chief of the Public Security Bureau, Wang Baidai, was aware that the case hadn't yet led to the culprit, and as chief, he was in charge of the investigation.
But now his son truly had become a vegetable, and the Nightfall Organization's warning had been extreme. He could not forgive those people; he had to locate the Nightfall Organization and eradicate it completely!
Especially the person who had put his son in this state—he would make sure they suffered a fate worse than death!