It was nearly noon when Lu Yang finally closed the book in his hands. Unlike the Medical Canon he had read earlier, which recorded cases, treatments, and the like, this volume read more like a running chronicle.
Although Lu Yang had yet to finish it, he had already found a few useful things within. For instance, it contained accounts of the medicine-refining arts of the Breaking Clan, one of the four single-attribute clans. According to those records, certain herbs with clearly conflicting effects actually became more effective when refined together.
However, the art of refining medicine was a closely guarded secret of the Yang Family. Even their finished pills were rarely sold to outsiders, leaving Lu Yang with no opportunity to study them firsthand for the time being.
Thinking of pills such as the Soul Ascension Pill and Mystic Water Pill in Douluo II, Lu Yang felt that the medicine-refining arts of that era might not have come solely from technological progress over time. The techniques developed by the major sects might also have been inherited from the legacy of this era.
Among those legacies might well have been the medicine-refining arts of the Breaking Clan's Yang Family. After all, by the Peerless Tang Sect era of Douluo II, the Tang Sect had withered until Tang Ya was its sole surviving seedling. Nor was there any trace of the four single-attribute clans within the Tang Sect anymore. It was unknown whether the Breaking Clan's bloodline had even died out.
Seeing Lu Yang close the book, Ye Lingling turned her attention to him. Several times, she opened her mouth to ask something, but in the end, she never managed to voice the words she wanted to say.
Lu Yang returned the book to Ye Lingling, rose, and took his leave of the Medical Clinic. It was not that he did not want to share what he had learned with her, but what he had read that day was far too varied. Much of it consisted of minor details, and he had yet to sort it all out himself. He truly did not know how to explain it to her.
No sooner had Lu Yang left than a strikingly beautiful girl passed through the front hall and entered the Medical Clinic's rear courtyard. She sat beside Ye Lingling and wrapped her arms around her slender waist from behind. "Lingling, did you miss me?"
Returning to the small courtyard where he lived, Lu Yang settled his thoughts and began cultivating. Once he entered meditation, time seemed to flow faster. By the time he opened his eyes again, the sky had already darkened.
When Lu Yang went to the main hall for dinner, he found Qian Renxue and She Long sitting at the table, waiting for him.
He was thoroughly puzzled. Shouldn't Qian Renxue be staying at the Crown Prince's Residence, diligently reviewing memorials and handling affairs of state to play the dutiful crown prince? Why did she keep coming over here for no reason?
What Lu Yang did not know was that Qian Renxue's attitude had changed somewhat after observing his dedication and diligence in cultivation. Although she continued her undercover mission, she had entrusted almost everything she once handled personally to capable subordinates transferred from Spirit City.
Qian Renxue herself had also turned her attention back to cultivation. It was not because she had reached some great realization; she simply did not want a talented person she had recruited to surpass her cultivation one day. If that truly happened, she would have nowhere to hide her face.
"Young Mistress, what brings you here?" Lu Yang asked in surprise.
"I told you, just call me your sister. Why call me Young Mistress? That sounds so distant," Qian Renxue said with a hint of displeasure.
"Uh..." Lu Yang was at a loss for words. He turned to glance at She Long, only to see him look away with an awkward smile.
"Then... Sister Xue?" Lu Yang ventured.
"Mm, call me that from now on." Qian Renxue was very pleased. She planned to keep Lu Yang by her side in the future. If he called her Sister Xue now, switching to Brother Xue later should be no problem at all.
Beside them, She Long felt rather helpless. He had told Lu Yang to call her Young Mistress precisely because he feared the boy might use the wrong form of address in the future. Who could have expected Qian Renxue to pull this? And he had no way to stop her.
The meal was quite harmonious, and Qian Renxue's arrival had considerably improved the quality of that evening's dinner. The Soul Beast meat might all have come from thousand-year beasts.
Eating these energy-rich foods made Lu Yang feel as though his body brimmed with strength. Given his condition, even accumulating large amounts of energy would not place too great a burden on his body. It would be refined quickly.
Lu Yang felt that the abilities granted by his Martial Soul, The Winged Dragon of Ra, might extend far beyond faster cultivation and choosing his own Soul Skills. There ought to be other special abilities he had yet to discover.
One example was the improvement to his physique. When he obtained his first soul ring, Su Yuntao had examined him and found that his physical constitution was already exceptionally strong, far surpassing that of his peers and even One-Ring Soul Masters.
That should have been impossible for a commoner like him, born in a small rural village. Since he had never taken any heavenly treasures to strengthen his physique, the only explanation for such a change was his Martial Soul.
However, verifying all this would require him to continue studying his Martial Soul. What he looked forward to most right now was the day his Winged Dragon of Ra would unfold from its spherical form and descend in its true appearance.
During dinner, Qian Renxue also chatted with Lu Yang about many things. To him, however, nearly all of it was inconsequential chatter.
Only after Qian Renxue and She Long had left did Lu Yang quiet his mind and begin sorting through her reason for visiting that day. In the end, he concluded that she had probably just come to make her presence felt.
But what Lu Yang did not know was that Qian Renxue had truly come with a purpose that day. She wanted to uncover the desires in his heart, because she understood very well that only by grasping what someone desired could she truly bring him under her control and turn him into the most useful blade in her hand.
Yet Lu Yang's train of thought never seemed to connect with hers, and it drove Qian Renxue mad.
After returning to the Crown Prince's Residence, Qian Renxue asked helplessly, "Uncle She Long, do you think Lu Yang might have been born missing a nerve?"
"Young Mistress, could you be overthinking it? Lu Yang is still a child who isn't even eight, and a commoner from a little place in the countryside at that. Isn't it perfectly normal for him to act this way?"
"Besides, Young Mistress, have you forgotten? It isn't as though Lu Yang wants nothing at all. Didn't he ask for quite a few Gold Soul Coins back then to send home and improve the lives of the people there?"
Hearing She Long say this, Qian Renxue calmed down considerably. Perhaps she was so accustomed to seeing peers of distinguished backgrounds in Heaven Dou City and Spirit City that she had read too much into someone like Lu Yang. After She Long's reassurance, she gradually settled down.
"Then... should we give him more spending money? Even if he doesn't use it, there's nothing wrong with letting him save it. What do you think, Uncle She Long?" Qian Renxue asked.
"I think that would work," She Long said.
Lu Yang knew nothing of Qian Renxue's concerns. Not long after seeing her and She Long off, he returned to his room. The nightlife of the Douluo Continent held little appeal for a transmigrator from the modern world like him, so he washed up early and drifted off to sleep. He had already put everything else out of his mind.
The next day, when Lu Yang returned to the Ye Family's Medical Clinic, he encountered an unfamiliar face.
The moment he entered the rear courtyard, he saw a purple-haired girl pressing her whole body against Ye Lingling. Her arm was wrapped around Ye Lingling's slender waist as she leaned close to her ear and whispered something.
Lu Yang's arrival startled both girls. They hastily pulled apart, and Ye Lingling straightened her somewhat disheveled clothes, her face flushed with embarrassment and vexation.
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