Ancestor Longyan's Injuries

However, Ancestor Longyan had lived for over a hundred years and weathered great rises and falls.

In just a few breaths, she had adjusted her emotions, and her gaze turned calm. "Shouzhe, I admit that you are outstanding. You actually managed to fish chestnuts from the fire amid the insect plague and make a fortune from it. But this little money is nothing more than a drop in the bucket if you want to heal my injuries."

Upon hearing this, Wang Shouzhe was not disappointed but delighted. "From the sound of it, Ancestor, your injuries can still be treated?"

"Difficult—difficult as climbing to heaven." Ancestor Longyan said calmly, "Even if our Wang Clan emptied its coffers, it would still be nowhere near enough. So, Shouzhe, do not let your imagination run wild. That money of yours is best kept to speed up your charge toward the peak of the Qi Refining Realm."

There was naturally a difficulty to it. Otherwise, the Wang Clan could not possibly have stood by and ignored the Ancestor's injuries. The cost must have been something the Wang Clan could not bear even by selling off its lands and property.

Wang Shouzhe's expression turned grave as he advanced by retreating. "Then could you explain the difficulties in detail, Ancestor, so that Shouzhe can completely give up this thought?"

"Very well. If I do not make it clear to you, I fear you will not give up." Ancestor Longyan's gaze softened considerably. She could see that Shouzhe truly cared for her, his Ancestor. She explained unhurriedly, "That Spirit Platform Realm cultivator who had conspired with the Zhao Clan and Liu Clan back then was no simple man. He possessed an exceptionally pure Yin Sha power and was likely connected to the Yin Sha Sect of the Far West Lands. My guess is that he had committed some crime and was fleeing pursuit, which was why he concealed his identity, pretended to be an independent cultivator, and infiltrated the Liu Clan and Zhao Clan."

"The Yin Sha Sect?" With Wang Shouzhe's knowledge, he naturally had never heard that name.

"It is an evil sect, and its overall strength is no weaker than the Purple Mansion Academy." Ancestor Longyan's starry eyes grew slightly solemn. "Others only knew that the Zhao Clan and Liu Clan harbored wolfish ambitions, but when I fought him, I discovered that he was very likely the one pulling the strings behind the scenes. Thus, in the midst of that fierce battle, I disregarded the danger and relied on my superior cultivation and two Spirit Treasures to forcibly slay him on the spot. Yet I had not expected the disciples of the Yin Sha Sect to be so formidable. His desperate counterattack before death made me pay an enormous price."

Even though that life-and-death battle had taken place fifty years ago, Ancestor Longyan still remembered it as vividly as if it had happened yesterday.

Wang Shouzhe was also secretly alarmed. This fantasy world was far larger and more complicated than he had imagined. He had every reason to believe that what Ancestor Longyan had revealed was merely one corner of this world.

"At the time, the shield seal of the Turtle Scale Armor Shield had already been broken, and I took his full-force Yin Sha Palm." Ancestor Longyan's eyes grew faintly cold. "That palm was exceptionally sinister and vicious. Not only did it inflict severe internal injuries upon me, its Yin Sha power also invaded my organs and entrails. No matter how I tried to expel it, it clung like maggots to the bone and could not be driven away, making my injuries extremely difficult to recover from."

Wang Shouzhe felt a chill run through him. He had previously underestimated this fantasy world somewhat, but in truth, this world was so perilous. And battles were nothing like the fantasy novels he had read in his previous life, where protagonists seemed to possess manuals for up, down, left, and right, had dozens of lives to squander, and would "fight to the death" over a few heated words, while life-and-death battles were as commonplace as daily meals—more absurdly, they had become part of everyday life.

It was truly laughable to the extreme.

Every battle carried the possibility of unforeseen accidents. In that life-and-death battle fifty years ago, the accident for that mysterious Yin Sha Sect was the price of a life.

For Ancestor Longyan, it had cost her half a lifetime of pain and torment.

At the same time, it had left the two Ancestors of the Liu Clan and Zhao Clan with an immense psychological shadow toward Ancestor Longyan. Even now, they did not dare press the Ping'an Wang Clan too far, fearing that in a fit of rage, the Ancestor would disregard life and death and take one of them with her!

Every decision involving battle had to be made cautiously. One also had to consider all manner of possible accidents and whether one could afford their consequences!

Ancestor Longyan had had no choice but to fight back then. If she had not fought, the Wang Clan would have been finished.

"Ancestor." Wang Shouzhe drew a deep breath. "Let us talk about how to treat it." Having heard of that battle, Wang Shouzhe became even more determined to help Ancestor Longyan, no matter how enormous the price might be.

"My injuries have two enormous problems." Ancestor Longyan said, "First, the Yin Sha Poison that has eroded and spread within my body for fifty years has become increasingly sinister and difficult to deal with. As one wanes and the other waxes, I am gradually becoming unable to suppress it. Second, my organs and entrails were severely damaged and have never fully healed due to the entanglement of the Yin Sha Poison. As time passed, the damage only grew worse.

After pausing, she continued, "To dissolve such severe Yin Sha Poison, one must rely on a third-tier pill, the Fire Sun Pill, to suppress and extract the Yin Sha Poison."

"If it is a third-tier pill, then as long as it is not a particularly rare third-tier pill, it should be possible to find a way to obtain it despite the high price, right?" Wang Shouzhe frowned deeply, feeling that it could not be so simple.

Ordinarily, first-tier pills cost ten to twenty Qian Gold, second-tier pills cost several dozen to over a hundred Qian Gold, and third-tier pills ranged from several hundred to over a thousand Qian Gold.

"The Fire Sun Pill is a standard third-tier pill. Many alchemy masters produce it, so it is not difficult to find. One can buy a pill for around three hundred Qian Gold." A trace of helplessness suddenly flashed through Ancestor Longyan's eyes. "But one pill must be taken every month, then the Yin Sha Poison must slowly be suppressed and worn down. Moreover, this medicine must be taken for a long time. It would already be a blessing if the Yin Sha Poison could be completely eradicated within ten years."

One pill a month? Would that not be 3,600 Qian Gold a year?

Even Wang Shouzhe could not help drawing in a cold breath. In fact, before Wang Shouzhe had transmigrated, the book profit from all the family's industries combined had not even reached that figure!

And that book profit could only barely, tightly cover the expenses of the entire clan. It could not even leave any surplus.

In truth, every clan's book income was substantial, but their expenses were likewise enormous. Even the relatively prosperous Shanyang Gongsun Clan, after deducting its vast family expenditures in ordinary years, would find it difficult to retain more than one thousand Qian Gold in surplus.

"More than that, in order to fight the Yin Sha power, I must keep my body in good condition. Every month, Spirit Rice and Spirit Food must be supplied in abundance, and I must also take Foundation Building Pills over the long term to strengthen myself." Ancestor Longyan said, "That expense alone is at least six hundred Qian Gold a year."

"Furthermore, beginning in the second year, I will need the third-tier healing sacred medicine, the Creation Pill, to treat my damaged organs and entrails. The Creation Pill is far harder to obtain than the Fire Sun Pill, and it is also expensive. At one thousand Qian Gold per pill, that comes to twelve thousand Qian Gold a year." Ancestor Longyan said calmly, "In the luckiest case, my injuries will be mostly healed in around ten or eleven years. If my estimates are wrong, it may have to continue for another two or three years."

After saying all this in one breath, Ancestor Longyan's eyes instead held a hint of relief. She understood her clansmen's feelings for her. Back then, how could the Xiao Generation not have wanted to help treat her?

They simply could not afford it. If they insisted on treating her, they would inevitably drag the Wang Clan down, yet still fail to cure her. Forget the Wang Clan—even if the Shanyang Gongsun Clan or Shanyin Liu Clan encountered such a situation, they likely could not afford the treatment either.

Perhaps the Changning Xu Clan could barely afford it, but the entire treatment process would certainly leave the Changning Xu Clan grievously weakened.

Back then, she had seen the despair, helplessness, and pain in her clansmen's eyes. If Shouzhe had not pressed her so hard, she truly would not have wanted him to experience this as well.

"In other words, Ancestor's injuries do not require an enormous investment all at once. The treatment can be funded in installments over time." Wang Shouzhe's eyes lit up as he calculated rapidly. "Counting everything in full, the first year only requires an investment of 4,100 Qian Gold. It is only from the second year onward that an additional expenditure of 12,000 Qian Gold will be added! The full treatment cost will be around a hundred-odd thousand Qian Gold. Good, good, good!"

"Good, good, good!?" Ancestor Longyan's expression was somewhat baffled. The situation was this dire, and the burden was enough to leave anyone despairing and helpless, yet Shouzhe was actually calling it good?

"Do not misunderstand me, Ancestor." Wang Shouzhe calmed his emotions and said, "The reason I say it is good is because the actual situation is somewhat simpler than I had estimated."

Yet inwardly, he also felt rather emotional. No matter what world one was in, one could not afford to fall ill. On Earth, how many families with fairly decent circumstances had been battered into grievous decline by a loved one's serious illness?

Who would have thought that the fantasy world was the same!

"Simpler?" Ancestor Longyan's delicate body trembled lightly. Should he not have been despairing?