Oh, Crap!

"Big" was a relative term.

If a fish had been this size, it would naturally have been big. But if what he reeled in was a person, then it wasn't big at all.

The unluckiest part was that the person he had reeled in was actually wearing a Demon-Suppression Bureau uniform.

Although it was only a basic constable's uniform, anything connected to the Demon-Suppression Bureau was never good news.

Chu Xingchen swept his divine sense over the person he had fished out.

Seventh level of Qi Refining, and actually still alive-not completely cold yet.

Chu Xingchen had originally planned to pretend he hadn't seen anything and kick the man back into the river if he was dead.

Since the man wasn't dead yet, he naturally couldn't do that.

With no other choice, Chu Xingchen took two steps forward and looked at the remarkably hard-to-kill Demon-Suppression Bureau member.

He was a fairly young-looking man with decent looks, though he still fell far short of Chu Xingchen.

He probably hadn't been in the water very long. His face was deathly pale, but it hadn't swollen yet.

His eyes were tightly shut, but dark red energy had begun flowing along the meridians in his neck.

Chu Xingchen frowned slightly. Was this poisoning?!

To be cautious, Chu Xingchen took a silver needle from his waist and used spiritual energy to guide it into the meridian.

Even after the dark red energy flowed past it, the poison-testing silver needle showed no reaction.

Not poison.

Chu Xingchen relaxed a little, then scanned the man's meridians directly with his divine sense. He discovered that the dark red substance was actually a kind of rampaging energy.

At that moment, it was still surging along the meridians and battering the man's body.

Without help, he probably wouldn't live much longer.

With a faint sigh, Chu Xingchen took several silver needles and inserted them into major acupoints along the man's primary meridians, sealing off the meridians around his heart to ensure that, at least, the energy wouldn't strike his heart and kill him.

As for whether the energy would burst the meridians elsewhere, that wasn't something Chu Xingchen could guarantee.

Once the needles were in place, Chu Xingchen delicately manipulated his magical power and placed the man directly onto the reclining chair he had been lying in while fishing.

He never touched the young man throughout the process.

Gripping one corner of the reclining chair, he carried it and the young fellow toward nearby Yuzhou City.

Naturally, guards stood watch at Yuzhou City's gates.

Chu Xingchen's arrangement of two people and one chair stood out quite a bit among the crowd, especially since the person lying in the chair wore a Demon-Suppression Bureau uniform.

That made them even more conspicuous.

Before Chu Xingchen reached the gate, two of the gate guards broke away and hurried over.

The guards quickly looked over the young Demon-Suppression Bureau member lying in the chair. His face was deathly pale, his entire body was still soaking wet, and several sizable silver needles protruded from him.

Their gazes froze for a moment. Rather than asking questions first, they hurriedly reached for the young fellow's neck. Once they felt a pulse, they breathed sighs of relief.

One of the guards had clearly handled similar situations before. He swiftly shouted toward Yuzhou City's gate:

"A Demon-Suppression Bureau member is badly injured and unconscious over here! Send a fast horse to the bureau for help!"

Soon, a fast horse could be seen galloping wildly into the city from the gate.

They certainly seemed experienced. Rather than rushing a badly injured person all the way to the Demon-Suppression Bureau, having someone from the bureau come to treat him was more sensible!

The guard glanced over the silver needles, then spoke in a gentle tone:

"Thank you for helping, brother. Please wait here a little while. The Demon-Suppression Bureau gives rewards to anyone who saves one of their people."

Chu Xingchen sighed and nodded helplessly.

The reward was probably real, but so was their refusal to let him leave for fear he might be the culprit. This was exactly what made saving people troublesome.

Seeing how cooperative Chu Xingchen was, both guards breathed sighs of relief.

After all, someone capable of saving a Demon-Suppression Bureau member had to be one of those Cultivation practitioners too. Since he was also willing to cooperate, he had likely just happened to rescue the man.

Still, it wasn't too bad. Since someone needed saving, the Demon-Suppression Bureau's people arrived quickly.

Faster than the horse could run, at least.

A figure likewise dressed in a Demon-Suppression Bureau uniform came racing toward the gate at tremendous speed.

Chu Xingchen looked up. It was a short, rather young-looking girl, her hair tied into two little braids that bounced with her steps.

Carrying a medicine chest, the little physician ran swiftly on her two short legs.

Her cultivation was probably around the sixth or seventh level of Qi Refining as well.

The little physician quickly spotted Chu Xingchen's group and hurried over, her gaze immediately settling on the young fellow and the silver needles sealing several of his major acupoints.

The little physician checked his pulse first. After confirming he still had one, she noticed dark red energy churning violently within the meridians sealed by the silver needles.

A faint glow of spiritual energy rose from her hand. She reached out to touch the rampaging energy, trying to determine just what kind of thing it was.

"What vicious energy!"

The little physician's voice had a child's soft, sweet quality, but her intonation leaned toward the Sichuan-Chongqing dialect from Chu Xingchen's previous life rather than Yuzhou City's accent. Presumably, she came from elsewhere.

Even though the little physician sounded serious, there was something oddly adorable about it.

"Were you the one who put these needles in?" The little physician raised her head and looked at Chu Xingchen.

Chu Xingchen nodded. "I was. Is something wrong?"

"No, you did it just right. Without those needles of yours, this lad probably wouldn't have lasted until now." The little physician asked, "Are you a physician too? Could you lend me a hand?"

"I'm not a physician... If it's something simple, I can try to help."

"Come on, then. It'd be hard to get anyone else here now, and this lad can't hold on much longer. Those big lugs are all clumsy as anything. Just do what I tell you next."

Although the silver needles were keeping it suppressed, the energy inside his body was constantly eroding and destroying his meridians. His condition was still critical!

The little physician might have been small, but she knew her own mind. Her large, almond-shaped eyes turned toward Chu Xingchen:

"Your spiritual power should be pretty strong. When you pull the needles out, suppress this energy a little. Then wait for me to take over and guide it out. That'll do."

Chu Xingchen nodded to indicate that would be no problem.

The little physician first took a stalk of balloon flower from her medicine chest, pried the young fellow's mouth open, and pushed the stalk straight into his throat. Then she took a small gourd from the chest and pulled out its stopper, releasing the scent of medicine.

"He's unconscious, so he can't swallow on his own. This method of mine works nicely," the little physician explained.

Then she lined the medicine gourd up with the stalk and poured in a little medicinal liquid. Afterward, she pulled the stalk out and looked at Chu Xingchen.

"You can pull the needles out now."

At her words, Chu Xingchen nodded lightly and reached out. Once he had channeled his spiritual power through the silver needles to seal the meridians, he abruptly pulled the needles out.

The little physician seized the moment. White light suddenly blossomed in her hand, and her little fingers tapped lightly at the acupoints, attempting to guide the vicious energy out.

Very soon, the little physician realized something was terribly wrong!

From outside the skin, she could only get a rough sense of it. Once she came into direct contact with that savage, baleful aura, she found it carried boundless blood energy. It actually began rapidly winding itself around the spiritual energy she was using to guide it.

As the aura broke through the skin, that familiar blood energy instantly made Chu Xingchen's brow furrow.

This... why was it almost exactly the same as the blood energy inside the blood-energy spirit stones?

The little physician felt the blood energy begin savagely tearing into her spiritual energy, while rapidly contaminating the surrounding flesh. Her brows knitted tightly, and she blurted out instinctively:

"Oh, crap!"