Tao Shangyun forced down her physiological discomfort and finished examining the Phoenix Body.
She examined all the way, and also guarded all the way.
After Phoenix Bodies of successive generations were discovered, they were all sent to Fangfei Valley to be cultivated, so the Phoenix Body held incomparably vital significance for Fangfei Valley.
Tao Shangyun had once fantasized about meeting the Phoenix Body herself, bringing the otherworldly-tempered Phoenix Body before the stage, and announcing to the valley that from this day forward they would be Fangfei Valley’s Holy Son or Holy Maiden, then the grand scene of enthusiastic welcome.
These were all conventions.
But she had not thought she would be here examining a body that already looked riddled with a thousand holes and a hundred sores, the red-and-white flesh and blood inside completely filled with densely packed wriggling unknown organisms, while the body’s owner still glared at her with an extremely hateful, yin-damp, chilling gaze.
Those glowing green snake pupils made one’s blood run cold—
This was a Phoenix Body without precedent in history, and also the human gu that most completely stripped away goodwill and sent one’s three views plunging until the scalp went numb.
For the first time Tao Shangyun felt the Phoenix Body’s green snake pupils looked far more frightening than what was recorded in the ancient texts.
Just staying together made her feel as if a primordial giant python that chose people to devour was calculating when it would find her opening, wanting to wrap its tail around her in a single strike, strangle her to death, then cruelly swallow her into its belly.
She dared not stay a moment longer with the Phoenix Body she had originally longed for day and night to come to the sect soon.
She lifted her foot, turned out the door, and sought out Fang Guyuan and Ye Baizhi.
“There’s no hope.”
She said with great certainty.
“What do you mean by that?”
“A Phoenix Body possesses a powerful self-healing ability. As long as she does not die, she can rapidly repair her own injuries within a very short cycle. This is the experiential talk left behind by our Fangfei Valley’s research into successive generations of Phoenix Bodies.”
Tao Shangyun’s face was full of solemnity, then her words turned.
“However, when I examined her, I could very clearly see that her muscle tissue and organs all have quite obvious damage, even hollows. This shows that the speed at which those gu insects in her body destroy her flesh and blood far exceeds the speed at which her own bodily functions repair. If this is left to continue, she will die.”
“If we clear out all the gu insects in her body, would it…”
Fang Guyuan’s question was not yet finished when it was interrupted by Tao Shangyun shaking her head.
“It’s not as simple as you think. First, by my methods alone I cannot clear so many kinds of gu insects I have never seen and whose habits I do not know. Second, these gu insects have already, in the long-term process of destruction and repair of her body, reached a fused-as-one balance with her. If they are all cleared, she will die just the same.”
“Do you understand? If we leave her alone, she might still live a few more months, or perhaps a few years. But if we try to clear all the gu insects in her body, even if we cannot clear them, she will die immediately.”
“Then what do we do?”
Ye Baizhi clicked her tongue.
“My suggestion is that we can try to gradually reduce the number of gu insects on her body step by step, but it is best not to hold too much hope. We can only say it is a tentative try.”
Tao Shangyun proposed a conservative treatment plan.
Fang Guyuan startled, then produced another idea.
“Right, since it’s like this. Then can we first clear the gu insects in her body, life or death regardless. When she revives again, she should no longer be harmed by gu poison, right?”
Tao Shangyun looked deeply at Fang Guyuan.
“It seems you really want her to return to normal. Unfortunately. First, if she still had several more chances at rebirth, I might agree to your proposal, because this method has the possibility of once and for all. But she now only has one precious chance at rebirth left. If those old things hidden in the mountains and forests knew the last chance that originally could have been used on them was wasted by us like this, what would they think? There is no need to do this kind of thing that offends people and is not even certain to succeed.”
Walking the jianghu was of course not merely cultivation.
Cultivating the heart and nature, and even the ways of the world and human feelings, were all a great learning.
“It’s not that I want it that much. I only proposed a possibly feasible plan.”
Fang Guyuan recalled the Phoenix Body’s earlier look of complete indifference when speaking of eating people, and his brows furrowed deeply.
He was long since no longer the youth who judged good and evil by a single cavity of hot blood and freely spurred his horse through the jianghu as his heart pleased.
As a sect’s Senior Brother, compared to freely wielding the sword and acting chivalrously as he pleased, weighing pros and cons was also a very important matter.
Although in his heart he understood the Phoenix Body might also have been deceived and used by the evil cult before doing these things, harming people was still harming people.
Fang Guyuan would not have any special feeling toward her or pardon her crimes just because she had some unspeakable hidden circumstances.
In his heart, such a Phoenix Body who was an anomaly in common sense, who would create killing karma the moment she left control, and who was ignorant and unaware of the sins she herself had created, was far from as important as those great powers whose every raise of a hand or lift of a foot held world-piercing, earth-shaking might.
He very rationally used his view of the overall situation to make his judgment.
“Second…”
Tao Shangyun only smiled.
In that smile there was inexhaustible helplessness.
“Even if you heal her body, you cannot heal her heart. The words ‘treat illness and save people’ appear very pale and powerless when used on her.”
“She actually asked me how many pretty older sisters I eat in one meal, and gave me a fright…”
Fang Guyuan and Ye Baizhi were not unaware that this Phoenix Body’s common sense was abnormal, yet this sudden question still caught them unprepared.
They still completely could not understand this monster’s logic.
“And, I discovered an extremely faint aura of Immortal Origin Pill in her body, though it is extremely faint, so faint I almost dared not determine it.”
The three words Immortal Origin Pill came out, and Fang Guyuan and Ye Baizhi instantly sucked in a cold breath.
Tao Shangyun’s gaze shifted slightly, a meaningful look traveling back and forth across Fang Guyuan’s and Ye Baizhi’s astonished faces.
“You two are both heaven-blessed prides of Dust Sword Palace. You should understand what I mean, right?”
A silent atmosphere spread through the not-large ancient and simple quiet room.
Clearly Fangfei Valley was like spring in all four seasons all year round, yet the two of them still could not help feeling a deep chill crawl like ants and beasts from their spines up the back of their necks, rushing straight to the crown of their skulls, startling them until their scalps went numb.
It was a long story.
This continent’s definition of cultivation was quite broad.
Everyone could cultivate, mainly following the heart.
As long as one selected one’s occupational direction and decided one’s Destiny Path, one could begin cultivation.
These cultivators were collectively called Sequencers.
On a Sequencer’s path of cultivation, one important thing was resources, and another was temperament of the heart.
In the process of cultivation, the Destiny Path would follow the state of the inner heart and give corresponding guidance.
After Sequencers cultivated day after day and month after month, they still had to face, at the time of rank breakthrough, their comprehension of their own inner heart and occupation.
Only when both were in place could they rise in rank.
The reason Sequencers were called Sequencers was that the higher the Sequence rank, the fewer the number of people, and the more forward the ranking the more powerful the ability.
All occupations could be decided by oneself, and the “Dao” within an occupation was also each different.
Even if both were being thieves, one could be a chivalrous thief who robbed the rich to aid the poor, or a greedy thief who stopped at nothing, and one could even decide to be a thief who slacked off every day and never stole anything.
As long as it accorded with the current state of one’s inner heart it was sufficient, mainly free and following the heart.
However, when rising in rank one had to have a Dao that accorded with one’s inner condition and Destiny Path in order to advance.
The fewer people who cultivated a Dao, the easier it was to obtain powerful strength, because the Sequence was easy to rank forward.
Because everyone could cultivate, and cultivation was also as common as household meals, many people would choose not to join a sect, but stay at home or serve in a secular dynasty.
In order to distinguish themselves from ordinary Sequencers, after immortal dao disciples bowed into an immortal sect, if they performed excellently within the sect they could obtain one Immortal Origin Pill, to cut meridians and wash marrow and consolidate their foundation, and also to proclaim the benefits of joining a sect.
Of course, the so-called demonic dao or heretical dao also had similar pills or methods of distinction.
If this Phoenix Body had the power of an Immortal Origin Pill in her body…
Did that not mean—
She had originally been a person of an immortal sect?!