When she woke up again, Mo Caihuan was already in a hospital. Her entire body was wrapped in gauze, and her nostrils were filled with the smell of medicine.
Because of the General Knowledge Formula, her sense of smell was sharp, and the assault of the medicinal odors stimulated her brain to a sudden alertness. She forced her eyelids open, and soft light entered her pupils.
How long had she been unconscious? How was the war going? Had the uprisings in various places succeeded? There were too many things that needed attending to.
"Finally awake?" Food Immortal's voice rang out, still sounding like a child.
"How long have I been unconscious?" she asked in her consciousness.
"Not long, around thirty days." Food Immortal replied, "Over the past few days, the Indestructible Body has been repairing your body. Heh heh, thanks to my earnest guidance, otherwise you would already be dead."
Mo Caihuan sensed herself, and she heard her bones pop as a surge of strength welled up. It felt pretty good.
"Although you were heavily injured, the path of Body Tempering itself is a cycle of destruction followed by reconstruction. Every reorganization of the body makes Body Tempering stronger. You could say this misfortune is a blessing in disguise. Tsk tsk, defeating a Golden Core cultivator with a mortal body is unprecedented and never to be repeated. Originally, I wanted to perform Possession, but who would have thought her body would be beaten directly to pieces, and even her Nascent Soul was destroyed." Food Immortal said with a sigh, "Still, her Storage Bag is quite nice, so I'll graciously accept it as compensation for you ruining my grand scheme of Possession."
Even with only a Nascent Soul, one could still use divine abilities.
Mo Caihuan rolled her eyes and stopped talking, sitting straight up in a carp-like leap, an indwelling needle still stuck in her arm. This past month, she had survived entirely on nutrient solution, needing drips every day, and an indwelling needle made it all the more convenient.
The medical care in Jia Yuan City was extremely advanced, nearing that of Earth.
She was still wearing a sky-blue hospital gown outside the bandages, and she tore the bandages off first.
"Leader, Leader, why did you get up? You're heavily injured and need to rest." A nurse doing her rounds saw the patient getting out of bed by herself and immediately cried out.
"I'm already fine." Mo Caihuan said as she removed the bandages wrapping her head. Her peerless, immortal-like appearance took on a completely new look, her skin as fair and tender as a baby's.
"I'm going to call the director." The director the nurse spoke of was Mo Fengwu.
Pulling out the indwelling needle, Mo Caihuan took a deep breath, suddenly discovering that she could no longer sense a shred of inner force within her body.
"Why is my inner force gone?" Previously, her inner force had been endlessly ceaseless, circulating on its own, but now her meridians were completely empty. Although her body felt fantastic, her inner force was gone.
Quietly and carefully sensing within, she only felt a strange little vortex located inside her stomach.
"What is this again?" Mo Caihuan didn't understand; her body had become strange.
"Third Sister." The slender Mo Fengwu walked in carrying a whiff of the scent of disinfectant, and upon seeing that her third sister had recovered to this extent, she couldn't help but let tears fall from her eyes.
"Second Sister, during the time I was unconscious, how was the war? Were the losses in Jia Yuan City large? Were there any other immortal cultivators who came looking for trouble?"
Faced with her third sister's rapid-fire questions, Mo Fengwu grabbed her hands and said, "You rest well, everything with the Whale-Jiao Society is going smoothly, our four mothers are holding down the fort at the main altar, and Big Sister is taking charge of production. The wars everywhere are going smoothly; aside from the Jiang Kingdom, the uprising in the Cheqi Kingdom has also succeeded, overthrowing the emperor. Major nations like the Yuanwu Kingdom and the Tianluo Kingdom have also reacted and are currently gathering large armies. But troops and horses move before grain and fodder do, so their movements are very slow."
"That's good. What about the immortal cultivators?"
"The losses in Jia Yuan City were not small: one hundred and twenty-six people sacrificed their lives, and over three hundred were injured. The direct economic loss amounted to thirty million silver taels, and the even greater loss was that everyone believed the Whale-Jiao Society had offended immortals and suffered heavenly retribution, causing panic among the populace. Opponents seized the opportunity to disrupt people's minds and spread rumors." Mo Fengwu said in a deep voice.
Mo Caihuan nodded; this was normal. After all, immortal cultivators were too strong, and a single Golden Core cultivator could wipe out an entire city, against whom mortal weapons were completely useless. Fear was normal, being scared was reasonable, and not being scared would be abnormal.
"What about inside the Whale-Jiao Society?" Mo Caihuan asked.
"Things inside the Whale-Jiao Society are alright. After all, we've always promoted education and were vaccinated against this long ago. Everyone knows that with the development of mortals, conflict with immortal cultivators would happen sooner or later. Everyone knows immortal cultivators aren't gods, but simply people who have mastered powerful magic power, and creating the happiness of mortals depends on ourselves. While people know an immortal cultivator is a powerful individual, they don't believe rumors like heavenly retribution. There is still worry, however, as we don't know how to defeat immortal cultivators."
"Mhm." Mo Caihuan nodded and said, "Immortal cultivators are indeed powerful, but if immortal cultivators don't want mortals to live good lives, they are the enemy."
"Third Sister, it's still best not to generate conflict with immortal cultivators." Her second sister said with worry.
"As long as immortal cultivators don't provoke us, naturally we won't provoke them." Mo Caihuan said, "Second Sister, go busy yourself, I'm fine." She jumped up and down to prove her body was alright.
"Have a checkup." Mo Fengwu said sternly, "You have no idea what your wretched state was like back then; your internal organs were rotting, your skull was visible through your face, and your limbs had penetrating injuries from electric shocks-it was too ghastly to look at. If you hadn't still been breathing, everyone would have thought you were dead. When you reached the hospital, the doctors were helpless and could only administer IV drips. Fortunately, after a few days, your body began to repair itself, and everyone breathed a sigh of relief."
After undergoing a checkup and confirming there were truly no problems-her body having already recovered as good as new-Mo Fengwu finally allowed her younger sister to leave the hospital.
When Mo Caihuan returned to her post, the members of the Whale-Jiao Society were greatly invigorated.
The opponents were also dumbfounded; they had thought Mo Caihuan was definitely struck dead by heavenly retribution, so how could she be fine? Could it be that even immortals couldn't kill her, which meant she was even more favored by the heavens?
Superstitious people could not explain why Mo Caihuan had not died.
Upon her return to duty, uprisings were surging like a rising wind and scudding clouds across various regions, with everyone hoping Mo Caihuan would issue the order to capture the Yue Capital and slay the muddled ruler.
The common people of the Yue Kingdom had long since grown intolerant of the muddled ruler's actions, and seeing that both the Jiang Kingdom and the Cheqi Kingdom had succeeded, they wanted to launch a massive effort themselves.
Yet Mo Caihuan was not in a hurry at all. First, she sent people to the Jiang Kingdom and the Cheqi Kingdom to study the experience of their uprisings, while helping to restore production and daily life to prevent reactionaries from sabotaging the fruits of the uprising's victory.
The work after victory was of the utmost importance.
Upon reaching the Jiang Kingdom and the Cheqi Kingdom, they still needed to recruit troops and handle other tasks properly. There were many things to do; it certainly wasn't a matter of just finishing the fight and leaving it at that.
Mo Caihuan was waiting-waiting for Han Li and the others to discover the true face of the Yue Emperor, waiting for them to kill the Yue Emperor, and at that time, they would restore the Capital City and liberate the Yue Kingdom.
It was soon, too. She knew Han Li would go to guard the mines for a year, then be sent by his master to the Capital City to protect the descendants of a dear friend, and within months he would discover the traces of the Black Fiend Cult and uncover the darkness within the imperial palace.
If they rashly charged into the Capital City, it would simply be feeding experience to the emperor. He was a late-stage Foundation Establishment Stage cultivator with formidable strength, possessing four Foundation Establishment Blood Attendants as well, and could not be underestimated. Mo Caihuan's Hundred-Storehouse Immortal Art had a very short range; going to the Capital City would exceed the reach of the Short-Distance Teleportation Array.
This time, the enemy had sought her out, and the Hundred-Storehouse Immortal Art had displayed terrifying might, borrowing the electricity of the entire city to kill the foe, but leaving Jia Yuan City would not afford such convenience.
"I still have to practice Body Tempering, but now my inner force is entirely gone, and what on earth is that little vortex in my stomach?" Her mind was full of question marks.
Food Immortal said, "I don't know. Records regarding Body Tempering in the Lower Realm are very scarce, though there are mortals who practice Body Tempering in the Upper Realm. However, Upper Realm Spiritual Energy is abundant, incomparable to the Lower Realm. When your body shattered previously, repairing it clearly yielded immense benefits."
"Benefits?"
"Though your inner force is gone, the vortex in your stomach is quite powerful; it has vastly strengthened your stomach. If you were to borrow the electricity of the entire city again, you certainly wouldn't be injured nearly as severely."
Mo Caihuan held some guesses in her heart, but even if she guessed correctly, it was useless because she lacked the corresponding cultivation technique. She stopped pondering these matters and asked, "You took the Storage Bag—what's inside?"
"What could possibly be inside the Storage Bag of a Golden Core cultivator? Nothing more than medicinal pills, herbs, materials, spirit stones, and the like. Compared to the treasures I collected back in the day, they aren't worth mentioning."
"Are there any things related to formations?"
"There are thirty-six formation flags, which can be used to set up maze formations. There is nothing else related to formations; immortal cultivators who study formations are few, as it's too time-consuming."
Mo Caihuan said, "Let me see."
"Fine."
The space between Mo Caihuan's eyebrows flashed, and a beam of black light landed on the desk in front of her, revealing precisely thirty-six red-and-black banners.