Chapter 1389: Yuan Se Seeks Treatment at Medicine Valley

At those words, Yin Ji smiled faintly and shook her head.

Niu Youdao caught the reaction and immediately sent the next question her way. "Old Clan Chief, if you were pitted against Luo Qiu and asked to kill him, could you do it?"

The smile vanished from Yin Ji's face.

Every gaze in the room, from Hei Yun to the other Fox Clan members, instantly fixed on her, watching for her response.

Niu Youdao pressed her. "Old Clan Chief, you can hesitate now. But if we truly reach a moment when life and death are decided in one clash, hesitation like this could get everyone killed. If you are unwilling, then please say so plainly. We simply won't count on you."

Yin Ji said, "My strength isn't enough to kill him."

Niu Youdao said, "I'm only asking whether you're willing to strike to kill him."

Yin Ji looked around and saw every member of the Fox Clan staring at her. A trace of bitterness appeared on her face. At last she nodded. "If killing the Nine Saints can restore freedom to my Fox Clan, then naturally I'm willing."

"Good!" Niu Youdao let the matter end there. "Old Clan Chief, please also give me the fruit Sha Rulai left here for safekeeping. I can take it to him while I'm at it."

A little later, Yin Ji personally returned with a box and handed it to Niu Youdao.

Niu Youdao opened it to inspect the contents. Red light immediately spilled from within. He reached in, took out a Wuliang Fruit, and casually tossed it to Kunlin Shu. "Here!" Then he shut the box again.

Kunlin Shu caught the glowing fruit in both hands and still looked unable to believe it.

A Wuliang Fruit?

He had never imagined that one day he would obtain a treasure like this, much less in a way that felt almost as though someone were forcing it upon him.

At his side, Fire Phoenix watched her senior brother with a complicated expression, unsure whether she ought to be happy for him.

Niu Youdao paid no attention to what the couple might be feeling. Afterward, he went to see the two Zijin Cave disciples who had been left here, Qin Guan and Ke Dingjie. He reassured them for a while and instructed them to cultivate here with peace of mind.

He did not remain long. He had an appointed meeting with Sha Rulai.

When he left, the Fox Clan once again sent people to escort him. After delivering him to the destination, they turned back on their own.

The meeting place was the same as always: the canyon where he and Sha Rulai had often met before.

Niu Youdao arrived first. He waited for a little less than half a day before Sha Rulai, wrapped in a black cloak, finally hurried in.

"I'm late. Something delayed me." Sha Rulai offered a brief explanation.

Niu Youdao said, "No matter. Here." He took out the box and handed it over.

Sha Rulai did not understand. "What is it?"

Niu Youdao said, "A Wuliang Fruit. I brought it for you from the Fox Clan while I was there. We may not have much time left. You need to hurry with your breakthrough to the Nascent Soul Realm."

Sha Rulai fell silent. He did not take the box. After thinking for a while, he instead said, "Wait here." Then he flashed away.

Niu Youdao watched him leave, puzzled as to what he meant.

He did not wait long.

Sha Rulai returned with another man, his trusted subordinate Wang Zun.

Niu Youdao frowned slightly. Sha Rulai pointed at Wang Zun. "Let me formally introduce him. Wang Zun is also Sha Huanli's own maternal uncle."

"Her maternal uncle?" Niu Youdao was startled.

"That's right." Sha Rulai nodded and pointed to the box in Niu Youdao's hand. "Give that to him."

"Ah?" Niu Youdao was surprised. He sought confirmation. "Give it to him? You're certain?"

Sha Rulai reached out, took the box, then turned and handed it to Wang Zun. "It's yours."

Wang Zun was equally bewildered and had no idea what it contained. He tentatively opened the box. The instant red light spilled out, he snapped it shut again and looked around with his heart pounding. Lowering his voice, he asked, "Sir, this is...?"

Sha Rulai said, "A Wuliang Fruit. You're going to use it."

"This..." Wang Zun was both excited and alarmed. He looked from Sha Rulai to Niu Youdao.

Niu Youdao had been watching Sha Rulai's reaction the entire time. At last he could not help saying, "Mr. Sha, there is something I have to remind you of. This is the last remaining fruit. If you miss this opportunity, I'm afraid another may never come. Even if one does, it will probably be sixty years from now."

Strictly speaking, it was not the final Wuliang Fruit. Niu Youdao still had one in his own possession, but that fruit was reserved for himself. He would not give it to anyone else.

At those words, Wang Zun, who had been wavering, suddenly pushed the box back toward Sha Rulai. "Sir, I can't accept something like this. You should keep it for yourself."

Sha Rulai pushed it back with one palm, then said to Niu Youdao, "I made this decision after careful consideration. You said our time may be running short. But the present situation is too complicated. So many enormous incidents have happened one after another that Luo Qiu is watching everything with his eyes wide open and his guard raised to the utmost. There is no way I can vanish into seclusion for more than a month without showing myself. If I arouse suspicion, your contact with the Sacred Realm will be cut off. Wang Zun is different. If he disappears for a period of time, I can arrange it."

Niu Youdao said nothing.

After a long silence, he asked again, "You're certain you want to do this?"

A trace of torment showed on Sha Rulai's face. "I owe my daughter an accounting. I owe my dead wife an accounting. And I owe Luo Qiu one as well."

Niu Youdao fell into thought and seemed to understand something. In the end, he silently nodded. "The fruit was given to you. What you do with it is your affair."

There was a little admiration in the way he looked at Sha Rulai now. If nothing else, a man capable of resisting the temptation of a Wuliang Fruit was worthy of respect.

Sha Rulai said, "Wang Zun can be trusted. You two can establish a separate line of contact directly, just in case."

Niu Youdao nodded.

Wang Zun's willingness just now to refuse the Wuliang Fruit was enough for him.

"Right. There is one thing I forgot to tell you." Sha Rulai added, "Yuan Se has lost one eye."

...

Far out in the depths of the sea stood a volcanic island. Snow covered the mountaintop, yet the valley below enjoyed springlike warmth through all four seasons.

This was Medicine Valley, the secluded residence of the Ghost Doctor.

Yuan Se lay quietly in a reclining chair while Consort Yuan stood beside him, watching every movement of the Ghost Doctor.

The Ghost Doctor bent over and removed the patch covering one of Yuan Se's eyes. He used his art to examine the sunken socket beneath the collapsed eyelid and discovered that the eyeball itself was gone.

After inspecting it carefully for some time, the Ghost Doctor cautiously replaced the eye patch.

Yuan Se looked at him with his remaining eye. "Hei Li, can you cure it?"

The Ghost Doctor hesitated before shaking his head. "The eyeball is already gone. There is nothing I can do."

Consort Yuan immediately shouted, "Nonsense! Do you think I know nothing? Your Medicine Valley has repaired bodily mutilations more than once. As far as I know, you've even cured people who had lost the sight of both eyes. Hei Li, I'm warning you: the Sacred Venerables tolerate you because you still have some use. They gave you this place apart from worldly strife because they wanted you to remain apart from worldly strife, not so you could rely on your medical arts and run outside stirring up storms! We still haven't settled accounts with you for going out last time and interfering in the affairs of the states without permission!"

"Enough." Yuan Se raised a hand to stop her and chuckled. "Hei Li must have a reason for saying that. No harm in hearing him out first. Hei Li, since I've already come all this way, simply telling me 'there is nothing I can do' doesn't seem quite enough, does it?"

The Ghost Doctor bowed slightly. "Sacred Venerable, an eyeball isn't a vegetable growing in a field. I don't have the ability to make one grow back. What Consort Yuan said about repairing bodily mutilation does touch the real point. If it were merely a matter of repair, I could do it. But something repaired is ultimately never as useful as the original, and restoring it to exactly what it was before is even less possible. If it were anyone else, I could carry out the repair as usual. But with Sacred Venerable's body, I truly do not dare act recklessly!"

Yuan Se frowned slightly. "You can't restore it to exactly what it was before?"

The Ghost Doctor said, "There will inevitably be some difference. To put it plainly, I would have to remove someone else's eye and transplant it into Sacred Venerable. I examined Sacred Venerable's body just now and found that its toughness far exceeds that of an ordinary person's. If an ordinary person's eye were placed in Sacred Venerable's body, then once Sacred Venerable used powerful cultivation, I'm afraid the transplanted eye would not be able to withstand it."

Yuan Se asked, "With your medical skill, there isn't some more perfect solution?"

The Ghost Doctor said, "It isn't that there is no solution. By rights, Sacred Venerable should be able to solve this yourself."

Yuan Se made a questioning sound. "Let's hear it."

The Ghost Doctor said, "I've heard that a Wuliang Fruit can remold the physical body. Why would Sacred Venerable not use a Wuliang Fruit instead of relying on my crude methods?"

Yuan Se rolled his remaining eye.

A Wuliang Fruit?

Of course he would like to use one.

The Nine Saints had deliberately left the Wuliang Fruit tree intact instead of destroying it precisely as a reserve against unforeseen need, but the fruits had been stolen.

Thirty years had supposedly passed since the theft. Those Wuliang Fruits had probably entered people's stomachs long ago. Where was he supposed to find one now?

By the same logic, the Nine Saints had no particular use for keeping the Ghost Doctor around either. They had simply left him alive against the possibility that one day they might need him.

"You don't seem quite as cut off from the world as you claim. You appear to have eyes and ears outside. The theft of the Wuliang Fruits caused such a commotion that you couldn't possibly have missed it, could you?" Yuan Se asked.

The Ghost Doctor bowed slightly. "I did hear the rumors. I simply don't know whether they are true."

Yuan Se had no interest in continuing to talk about Wuliang Fruits. After thinking for a while, he asked, "If you transplant another eye, and I control my spiritual power whenever I use my cultivation so it doesn't damage that eye, would I be able to use it normally?"

The Ghost Doctor said, "If Sacred Venerable can control it carefully, then it should be possible. At the very least, you should be able to see normally. And in appearance, two eyes would certainly look better than one."

Yuan Se slapped both hands against the arms of the reclining chair and made his decision. "Then do that. Give me another eye first so I can use it for now."

The Ghost Doctor bowed. "As you command!"

Yuan Se asked, "When would be suitable?"

Faced with this sort of matter, even a Sacred Venerable became rather humble once he was the patient.

The Ghost Doctor said, "That is uncertain. I cannot give you an exact time."

Consort Yuan's voice immediately turned cold. "Hei Li, you've grown bold. Are you trying to display the Ghost Doctor's airs in front of a Sacred Venerable?"

Yuan Se raised a hand again to stop her. "Don't interrupt. Let him finish." His single eye fixed on the Ghost Doctor. "Go on. What do you mean when you say the timing can't be determined?"

Consort Yuan curled her lip and fell silent, glaring coldly at the Ghost Doctor.

The Ghost Doctor said, "Sacred Venerable, transplanting an entire eyeball is not something that can be done with just anyone's eye. People's bodies differ innately from one another. Put another way, not everyone's blood and flesh can merge together. We need to choose a donor, and choose very carefully. We must find someone whose eye will not provoke a rejection reaction from Sacred Venerable's body. Otherwise, not only would the eye be unusable, it would cause Sacred Venerable tremendous suffering. If that happened, how could Sacred Venerable possibly spare me? It would also violate my principles as a physician."

[End of Chapter 1389]