Outside the Myriad Text Academy, the experts stationed there had noticed nothing out of the ordinary from beginning to end. After Su Xiuyi returned to the academy, he continued cultivating as usual. Though he worried about Tiezhu and Wang Lin's injuries, everyone at the Southern Heaven Academy was on edge after Zhan Wushuang had crushed them. Tiezhu was surely being treated by a pharmacist now, and even if Su Xiuyi went, he would have no suitable opportunity to treat him.
Tiezhu's injuries were extremely severe. Su Xiuyi knew the pharmacists of the Southern Heaven Academy could never cure him; at best, they could keep him alive. But Su Xiuyi had spent years signing in at the Myriad Text Academy and had obtained a drop of Divine Phoenix essence blood. It possessed the power to be reborn from the flames, just what Tiezhu needed to reforge his sinews and bones.
Night fell, and the Myriad Text Academy took on a ghostly, sinister air. Late at night, even immensely powerful beings dared not extend their willpower into the academy to investigate, lest they be tainted by the power of the curse. For Su Xiuyi, this was the safest time.
Su Xiuyi, who was sitting cross-legged, slowly opened his tightly shut eyes. The instant he did, he activated the Pupil of Void Breaking and took in everything within the Southern Heaven Academy.
"Master Yun, please, find some way to save Tiezhu! I, Wang Lin, am begging you on my knees!"
The moment Su Xiuyi activated the Pupil of Void Breaking, he saw Wang Lin kneel before a pharmacist of the Southern Heaven Academy.
Wang Lin was such a proud man, but now, within the Southern Heaven Academy, only the pharmacist Yun Ze could save Tiezhu's life. Yun Ze had refused him repeatedly, so Wang Lin had dropped to his knees.
"Wang Lin, I truly can do nothing. I have only one Spirit-Fortifying Pill here. Give it to Tiezhu; it will keep him safe for three days. Go and look elsewhere!" Yun Ze frowned, took out a pill, and handed it to Wang Lin.
"Thank you, Pharmacist Yun!"
Though Yun Ze had refused, he had given Wang Lin a Spirit-Fortifying Pill, and Wang Lin breathed a small sigh of relief. The pill could buy them plenty of time. He hurried out of Yun Ze's courtyard.
"Yun Ze, have you forgotten what I told you?" Just after Wang Lin left, a figure stepped out from behind the scenes and looked coldly at Yun Ze. It was Shen Dong's teacher, Ning Xionglin.
"Ning, I didn't lift a finger to treat Wang Lin's disciple's disciple. If you dare touch a hair on my granddaughter's head, I'll slaughter every last member of your Ning Family." Hearing Ning Xionglin's words, Yun Ze's expression turned exceedingly grim, as if a volcano were about to erupt.
"Don't worry. How could I possibly harm your granddaughter? I'm treating her like a little ancestor!" Seeing Yun Ze's anger, Ning Xionglin immediately smiled and walked out of the room.
"Ning Xionglin?"
A cold glint appeared in Su Xiuyi's eyes.
The next moment, the "earth" Divine Rune in Su Xiuyi's soul sea trembled. After leaving a clone in his place, his true body once again melted eerily into the earth and entered the Literary Court without anyone being the wiser.
The Literary Court was frighteningly quiet. Only Wang Lin and Tiezhu lived there to begin with, and Wang Lin had yet to return.
Wearing a mask, Su Xiuyi pushed open the door and entered the room. At the sight of the unconscious Tiezhu, his body trembled, and pain appeared in his eyes.
"Tiezhu, you brat, you really don't know whether to live or die. You're a complete fool. I could beat you to death! What kind of hero did you think you could be without the strength?"
Looking at the unconscious Tiezhu, Su Xiuyi cursed him.
One will character after another appeared around Su Xiuyi: "yin," "stillness," "endurance," "darkness"...
Only after sensing his surroundings and confirming that not a trace of his presence would leak out did Su Xiuyi take out a drop of golden blood. The blood was immensely powerful, as though a Divine Phoenix dwelt within it. It was a drop of essence blood from a Divine Phoenix at the Mountain and Sea Realm.
Such essence blood was exceedingly precious. The Phoenix Race was a supreme major race among the demons, and scarcely any major race dared provoke it. As a result, Phoenix Race essence blood was virtually nonexistent in the outside world.
After protecting Tiezhu's heart meridian, Su Xiuyi had him swallow the drop of Divine Phoenix essence blood. The next moment, Tiezhu's entire body burst into flames. Wave after wave of intangible fire seemed ready to destroy everything, and beneath those flames, his body seemed about to turn to ash. But the instant before he died completely, the power of life erupted. Terrifying vitality grew concentrated to a frightening degree, and Tiezhu's sinews and bones began to reforge themselves. They grew even stronger, and a powerful bloodline power faintly began to emerge within him.
After doing all this, Su Xiuyi sensed Wang Lin returning outside, his expression grim. Su Xiuyi's body slowly vanished into the shadows, then melted into the earth and disappeared.
Though Su Xiuyi had much to say to Wang Lin, he knew he could not let the slightest detail of his own situation leak out, so he held back.
Creak!
At that moment, Wang Lin used a burst of force to push open the door and walked in. He saw Tiezhu lying naked on the bed, his entire body fiery red. Dense traces of vitality still lingered in the room, his injuries had vanished, and his sinews and bones had become utterly flawless. Alarm flashed in Wang Lin's eyes. "The life force of the Divine Phoenix Race. Who was it?"
Wang Lin was instantly shocked. His willpower swept over the entire Literary Court, but he found nothing. Still, sensing that Tiezhu had not only survived but had turned calamity into fortune, he felt a surge of pleasant surprise.
Wang Lin did not investigate further. Given who he was, he naturally knew that the person did not wish to face him, and looking into it would only make that person dislike him. Besides, Divine Phoenix blood was a matter with enormous implications.
The next day, before Wang Lin had even left the Literary Court, an uproar erupted at the Southern Heaven Academy.
Disciples who had gone out to temper themselves had brought back shocking news: Zhan Wushuang had been defeated and had lost both arms, and a disciple of the Southern Heaven Academy had done it.
The moment the news emerged, it raised towering waves.
Like a hurricane, it swiftly spread through countless academies across the Great Zhou Dynasty.
In that instant, the entire Great Zhou Kingdom was in an uproar.
Zhan Wushuang was no nobody. He was a terrifying figure who had won a hundred consecutive battles against heaven's chosen, and he had even crushed Shen Dong, the top scholar. Such a figure had shone as brilliantly as the blazing sun, yet in the blink of an eye, he had lost both arms.
The arrogant, overbearing, and extraordinarily gifted man who had swept aside the heaven's chosen of countless academies across the Great Zhou Kingdom had met such an end. And none of the immensely powerful experts of the Battle Sect spoke out against the Southern Heaven Academy.
That was because Zhan Wushuang himself had said that the person who defeated him was younger than he was. It had not been a senior ambushing him, but merely a mysterious disciple of the Southern Heaven Academy.
For a time, the news filled the Great Zhou Kingdom with excitement. The extraordinarily gifted Su Xiuyi had died, yet the Southern Heaven Academy still had such a terrifying disciple. Talent like that was surely even greater than Su Xiuyi's.
The academy that had been forgotten and scorned once again appeared before the eyes of countless powers in a commanding fashion.
(End of chapter)