Only after two hours had passed did Zheng Zhuxi finish her Organ Dressing. Two servants carried her out from behind Flamefire Hall on a stretcher, with a light, soft, warm silk quilt covering her.
"How did it go?" Ding Songyan leaned closer to ask.
He saw that all color had drained from his senior sister's face, leaving it almost snow-white. Her lips were pale too, rather than their usual rosy red.
With little strength to spare, Zheng Zhuxi tugged at the corners of her mouth, revealing a faint smile.
"Quite well. Everything went as usual."
With two servants present, she said little more, but her meaning was clear:
I've never used the old method to dress my body with Vermilion Bird organs, so I can't compare them. All I know is that nothing seems wrong so far.
Ding Songyan had only been worried about the procedure; he remained confident in the method he had improved. Hearing that, he quieted down and walked beside the stretcher, escorting Zheng Zhuxi all the way back to Ten-Thousand Valleys Courtyard.
Tao Wenshu had not gone out to handle affairs that day and was waiting at home. Seeing that Zheng Zhuxi seemed reasonably well, she secretly breathed a sigh of relief.
After moving her daughter onto the bed, she asked only a few questions about how she felt, then began talking about the various recent happenings in the Xiaoming Sect. That way, Zheng Zhuxi would neither have to force herself to answer questions nor become so bored and weak that she fell asleep too soon.
Zheng Zhuxi's inability to sleep yet had nothing to do with Numbing Powder. Rather, once she had recovered a little, she needed to circulate her Illuminating Candle True Qi as soon as possible, making it pass through the Vermilion Bird