The Inner Guard arrived swiftly.
In less than an hour, Jinghong and Fu Rong arrived with the Summer Solstice and Lesser Heat divisions, leading the Plum Blossom Guards.
Taiping immediately deployed them. One division would seal off the mountain paths and surround the Sun-Burning Temple, while the other would secretly carry the children and apes back. They could seek a way to save them once they returned.
Everyone took up their duties.
Zhao Lanjun tended to Mu Qinghong while keeping the entire Jade Pillar Peak area under control.
Jinghong and Fu Rong began organizing people to cut through the Blood Tai Sui's roots, just in case.
After all, they had caused such a commotion that Crescent Moon Hall was bound to notice. The enemy lurked in the shadows while they stood in the light, and the secretive faction behind the men in black was also watching like a tiger eyeing its prey. They had to prepare early, lest an unforeseen turn leave them without a single grain to show for their efforts.
Meanwhile.
Lu Changfeng kept reading the medical books on the shelves, studying them intently.
If the works of the Medicine King, Sun Simiao, in the Pivot of Heaven Pavilion represented the grand, righteous path, emphasizing harmony between yin and yang and strengthening the foundations of vitality, then the books here all took the sword down a treacherous side path-full of bizarre techniques, some downright horrifying!
He leafed through them at random and found examples such as:
There was also a volume titled Life-Prolonging Notes, which boldly proposed the insane notion of using secret methods to replace vital organs such as the heart and eyes, either to prolong life or seize another person's innate gifts!
A sinister, chilling air seeped from every line of these books, running utterly counter