Chapter 4779 — The Captain Steps In
The Blossom Guardian · Page 1 of 2
One moment it was metal-attribute, the next wood-attribute, and a little later it would turn water-attribute; then, just when he had finally steeled himself to begin refining it, it abruptly became fire-attribute. There was no pattern to it at all—how could anyone possibly dissolve something like that?!
Ren Zhongyuan was nearly driven out of his mind by the torment. He had run out of ways to deal with this bizarre true qi; the only small mercy was that, up to now, no fatal injury had appeared in his body—it merely flared into agony from time to time, and between attacks he was the same as ever. At least he could still catch his breath, and it looked as though he would not die anytime soon.
Still, Ren Zhongyuan refused to give up. Since he could not refine it himself, he had no choice but to pin all his hopes on pills. Not only the proper antidote pills—any pill with the slightest chance was swallowed down in one go. Even if they could not dissolve that bizarre true qi completely, if they could just ease the pain a little, that would be enough!
To anyone with an ounce of sense, what Ren Zhongyuan was doing amounted to gambling with his life. Recklessly swallowing pills often ended far more miserably than being poisoned, but by now the agony had tortured him past all reason; he simply could not afford to care.
Yet to Ren Zhongyuan's great delight, among the pills he had gulped down so wildly, one actually proved useful. It was a pill called the Turtle-Breath Pill—as the name suggested, it could put a person into a state of turtle-breathing. After he took it, however, he did not enter turtle-breathing; instead, the true qi inside his body simply stopped circulating.
With that, the bizarre true qi seemed to be suppressed as well. So long as this true qi could not go running wild all over the place, he would not be wracked by agony. The only side effect was that he likewise could not cultivate, and certainly could not circulate his mental cultivation method.
This was originally a pill meant to harm people, yet he had taken it as an antidote—and by sheer blind luck, he had used it exactly right.
By the time Ren Zhongyuan finished all this, it was already broad daylight outside. After resting a little, he immediately wanted to go out and make a round, to put on at least some show of having successfully dissolved that true qi, so that no one would look down on him.
"Senior Brother Ren, you had best stay in your room and rest up properly. That is Vice-Headmistress Liu's particular instruction—don't make things difficult for us." Two Eastern Continent disciples at the door blocked his way. Liu Ziqi was, after all, one of the academy's leading figures; there were always plenty of disciples at her command.
Ren Zhongyuan's face turned livid with rage. In his fury, the true qi inside him showed signs of stirring restlessly, giving him a fright; he pointed at the two men in the doorway and for a long while could not get a word out. This ancient warship was his territory—and now he had been openly put under house arrest in his own territory. Who could possibly stomach such a thing?
"Fine! Fine! Fine!" Ren Zhongyuan said "fine" three times through gritted teeth. Before this, he would have already struck and trampled these two bastards beneath his feet; now, however, he could only swallow it for the time being. He said coldly, "All right, I won't go out. But there's no problem if others come to see me, is there? Go on—bring Yi Xiaotian to me!"
The two Eastern Continent disciples exchanged a glance. Liu Ziqi truly had never said anything on that point. Ren Zhongyuan, after all, was a figure with deep connections, and they could not offend him too badly, so they nodded and agreed.
A short while later, Yi Xiaotian arrived at the room. Seeing Ren Zhongyuan lying lazily on the bed, he could not help but laugh. "Brother Ren, you really are taking it easy. Looks like you're all right now?"