Chapter 41: Treatment // Her disciples
After releasing themselves from the hug, Zed and Meixiang tended to their wounds while Lan'er and Jingfei were sent out by their master to find herbs to heal Zed's hand.
Back inside the cottage, Zed was staying in the living room while holding his severed left hand. Blood had slightly dried, but fortunately for him, it was cleanly cut.
Reattaching it should be no problem and Zed was confident that he would be able to use it without any defects.
The reason for his confidence was because his elemental affinity with Nature was at Low Tier.
Remember, Zed's four elemental affinities were; Water at High Tier, Fire and Wind at Normal Tier, and lastly, Nature at Low Tier.
Although he had to use three times the normal amount of mana consumption, Zed had no problem with casting three to two Intermediate-level Nature spells.
The result however, would surely empty out his mana reserves and he would no doubt take another week or so in order to refill his entire tank.
In the first place, his mana capacity was very large to the point that he could continuously cast Beginner-level and Intermediate-level spells in his Normal Elemental Tier.
Add to the fact that his affinities improved after consuming a main mana circuit, His other elemental affinities improved and he even gained new ones.
His Fire affinity became High Tier which allowed him to spontaneously use fireballs with minimal mana usage. Aside from that, He gained a Normal Tier in the Dark element.
"Huu..."
Letting out a sigh, he held his separated left hand towards his left arm.
[Advance-level Nature Magic: Conectere]
"!!!"
He sucked in a sharp breath as pain invaded his left arm. His face became as pale as paper while beads of sweat dripped down his forehead.
With a trembling body and lips, he endured the excruciating pain while doing his best not to bite his own tongue.
The feeling of each and every one of his nerves reconnecting while cells conjoined once more, brought an inexplicable pain to his mind.
While he wished that he could give himself an anesthesia or become numb, he didn't, because he needed to focus on accurately reconnecting the severed nerves so that his recovery would be perfect.
Starting from the bones, the next one that recovered were the nerves then the muscles. Lastly, the skin recovered as well.
Flop.
Zed dropped to the couch as he was suffering from mana deficiency.
He knew that the cost would be high and he had expected this would be the result. After all, he had already spent 3/4 of his mana earlier in their fight.
Meanwhile, an Intermediate-level Nature spell would usually cost him 3/4th of his mana reserves but right now, he had just used an Advanced-level Nature spell.
Zed wouldn't be surprised if he found out that his body suffered from the 1st or even the 2nd stage of mana deficiency.
However, the situation was urgent because the recovery would be more successful by how fresh the separated limb was.
If it had been delayed or even preserved, perfect recovery would no longer be possible.
"Zixin... Zixin?!"
With a hazy mind, Zed took one last glance at the speaker, but darkness filled his vision before taking away his consciousness.
-
Meixiang arrived in the living as soon as she heard a weird sound. To her horror, she found Zed lying very sickly on the couch with his left hand perfectly reattached.
She did not have time to worry about that because she wanted to move Zed to his room so that he could rest on a more comfortable bed.
But when she touched him-
"Hot!"
Zed was burning up. His entire face looked pale while his robes were drenched with his sweat.
Meixiang hurriedly moved him into his room and changed his clothes. Zed's face stiffened as he mumbled, "Cold... it's too cold..."
Meixiang gently wiped Zed's body with a hot towel that was boiled in a unique cooling herb.
Unfortunately, Zed's cold grew worse as his body kept trembling.
Meixiang began to panic. Her thoughts were scrambling as she didn't know what to do.
-
"We're back!"
Lan'er and Jingfei entered the house with hastened breaths. They were carrying various herbs and leaves before placing them on the dinner table.
Lan'er proceeded to start preparing the healing salve that they were going to make in order to heal her brother's hand.
She was still plenty shaken after seeing her brother injure himself in front of her, but Lan'er knew that she must move in order to help her brother.
The part where Zed coldly pushed her away was long forgotten by Lan'er's mind.
"Brother? Sis Mei?" Jingfei called out after realizing that the living room was quiet.
She soon heard noises from Zed's room. Following the sound, she found Meixiang desperately trying to help the trembling and badly ill Zed.
Jingfei gasped before rushing to their side.
"What's wrong, Sister Mei?"
Looking at Zed's pale and sickly body, Jingfei asks Meixiang who was busy changing the wet towels that covered Zed's body.
"I.. I.. I don't know! I was tending to my wounds in my room and when I went to the living room, Zixin was already like this."
"Brother!" Lan'er entered the room as well and when she saw Zed's state, she could not help but remember a similar situation in the past.
"I.. I have to take care of brother!" She was about to run to the kitchen to make the medicine that her master taught her in the past, but she was stopped by her master.
"I am afraid it is not so simple this time, Lan'er."
Hearing her master's voice, she glanced at Tang Xiurong who was examining her brother.
"Hmmm..." With narrowing eyes, Tang Xiurong spent a whole thirty seconds examining the entirety of Zed's body before possessing Lan'er's body.
"Master!"
Meixiang and Jingfei became relieved after seeing that their master, Tang Xiurong, was now using Lan'er's body.
If there was anyone that could help their brother then it was definitely their master.
Tang Xiurong put her hand on Zed's forehead and just as she thought, it was hotter than most people with a cold.
After further examination, she found no traces of poisoning, but noticed that Zixin's body was exhausted.
But she didn't find any curses so she was further puzzled by Zed's unnatural sickness. From her experience, she had treated Zed's illness like this in the past, but his current state was far worse than before.
An hour passed, but Tang Xiurong had yet to find a single clue about Zed's condition. Meanwhile Jingfei, Meixiang, and Lan'er remained in the room; maintaining silence throughout the whole procedure.
Only after using Qi to examine Zed's body was Tang Xiurong able to find the source of Zed's sickness.
Inside Zed's body, she found several parts which were different from a regular cultivator's body. An unusual passage that spread throughout his body
'Is this why he said that he had a special physique?'
Recounting the countless and different physiques she had known, She realized that Zed's special physique was completely different.
His body was designed to harness the powerful unknown energy, and after observation, Tang Xiurong found out that these unusual passages were completely dried out.
She was able to conjecture that the cause for his sickness was the emptiness of his passages.
'What about his qi meridians?'
Slowly directing her qi, she found Zed's qi meridians, but was taken aback by what she saw.
'Why is there a bountiful amount of Qi and yet, his body is still sickly? Perhaps the Qi is the cause for his illness as well?'
Tang Xiurong remembered that the cause for Zed's outburst was the conflict between his unknown energy and his Qi.
Her brows creased as she was put in a dilemma. 'Do I expel the qi inside him or do I use my qi to fill the unique passages?'
Either way would be harmful to him. Forcefully expelling qi with a foreign qi would be a painful experience for a cultivator.
On the other hand, Tang Xiurong had no idea of what would happen if she filled the unusual passages with her qi.
Taking a second to decide, Tang Xiurong chose to test the second method first.
She sent her Qi towards Zed's mana circuits and was surprised when half of her qi was suddenly sucked out!
"!!!" She immediately retracted her hand.
Her actions caused the three girls to be surprised before patiently waiting for her next words.
Tang Xiurong placed her hand on Zed's forehead again and she felt that the heat had lessened compared to before.
'Is this treatment viable? Hmmm... what a truly peculiar physique.' Her eyes flashed a strange light as she became more and more curious about Zed.
"He needs Qi. The better quality, the better the treatment."
She then turned to Meixiang. "Now it is your job to treat him. Because you have just become a nascent soul stage cultivator, you cannot precisely and accurately.m treat him"
"So, to efficiently treat him, you must make direct contact inside his body."
"By that master means..." Meixiang trails off.
Tang Xiurong didn't mind continuing her sentence.
"It means that you need to make direct contact with an entrance into his body like the mouth."
Meixiang immediately became flustered. "T-t-the mouth?!"
"Yes, the mouth." Tang Xiurong affirmed.
The room turned silent as they waited for Meixiang to treat Zed. Meixiang on the other hand, had chaotic thoughts as she started to lean towards Zed's face.
'I-it's just for the treatment! B-but this is my first!' She was both ashamed and flustered as she closed in on Zed's lips.
Closing her eyes, she puckered her lips while preparing to make contact with Zed's lips.
Jingfei and Lan'er held a deep breath as they held back from complaining.
"Foolish disciple. What are you doing?"
Meixiang froze when she heard her master's words. She was so close to the point where she could feel Zed's breath on her lips.
She shyly answered in a small voice. "T-treating him?"
Tang Xiurong sighed while placing a hand on her forehead.
This made Meixiang think she was doing something wrong so she backed away from Zed
"I said that you need to have direct contact inside his body, but I did not say you need to use your mouth. You could simply stick your own finger inside his mouth and carefully release your qi."
"T-t-that was possible?!" Meixiang visibly shook.
Jingfei and Lan'er released a sigh of relief as they thought that Zed's first kiss was safe.
Lan'er then thought, 'Wait.. I don't even need to get jealous since brother and I kissed several times already.'
'But... that was a kiss a brother would give to his family, not one between lovers... so it doesn't count?'
However, remembering all her brother's kisses made her feel giddy, and now that she was older, she even felt a little shy.
Often times, she would find herself daydreaming about her brother and marrying each other and having children.
She pictured five children, all inheriting her brother's handsome face.
Her current daydream didn't last as she was brought back to reality when she noticed her sister Meixiang moving once again.
Meixiang stuck in two of her fingers inside Zed's mouth. Feeling the wet, hot, and slimy texture of the interior of Zed's mouth, Meixiang felt a sense of excitement and even... a little bit of pleasure.
"Focus disciple." Tang Xiurong reproached when she noticed that Meixiang was getting a little bit distracted by her thoughts.
Tang Xiurong sighed inwardly as she realized that most of her disciples were easily distracted when it came to their brother.
Her disciple, Lan'er, had the biggest imagination of them all, but at least she used her imagination to further improve her martial arts.
Meixiang on the other hand, usually acted as the mature one of the group, but apparently, her maturity came with the prepubescent perverseness.
Naturally, Tang Xiurong understood how much of a pervert her oldest disciple was.
Compared to the two of them, Jingfei was the most normal of them all. Her feelings and imaginations were kept at a moderate level.
She only got spoiled whenever there was proper time for it, and sometimes, she made a way for her and her brother to be alone together.
Despite her innocent features, she was definitely the most cunning and opportunistic among them all.
"Right.. right.. I'm sorry." Having said that, Meixiang cleared her thoughts and focused on gently releasing qi from the tip of her fingers.
She navigated inside his body and found the unique passages that her master mentioned.
'I just have to send qi into them, right?'
Just as she did so, a force suddenly began to greedily siphon her Qi.
"!!..."
Fortunately, she had quite a considerable amount of Qi, otherwise, a normal cultivator would have been long dried up.
She breathed a sigh of relief when she realized that she could handle the unknown force that was absorbing her qi.
Edited By: WorthyAdversary