Su Fuyun Reached Foundation Establishment

Sang Ying had few friends and knew only Nan Gurong and a handful of others in White Foothill City.

She found it a little strange when someone suddenly came asking to see her.

Only when she followed Nan Gurong to the waystation gate did she discover that the visitors were none other than Lin Niansheng and the others from Listening Willow Village.

Come to think of it, Sang Ying had originally disguised herself as a bride and deliberately walked into that disaster to find the girls from Listening Willow Village.

Nan Gurong had naturally infiltrated the dungeon while investigating the same matter. She had noticed something amiss there earlier than Sang Ying had, and had rescued Lin Niansheng's younger sister along the way. She had then used a Law Artifact that changed her appearance to take on the girl's likeness, successfully entering the dungeon.

After Sang Ying rescued the girls, the cultivators from the Plain Robe Pavilion had taken them back to the village first. Most of them were from Listening Willow Village, while only a few had been abducted after leaving White Foothill City on errands.

As soon as the girls returned home, they had clung to their families and wept. Though they were all still alive, there was no getting rid of the scars on their faces.

For a time, it was hard to say whether their rescue had been a blessing or a curse.

Lin Niansheng's sister, meanwhile, had been rescued by Nan Gurong and the others, but Nan Gurong had settled her elsewhere, worried that sending her home would alert the people who had abducted them.

Now that the dungeon had been destroyed and the Demon Cultivator in charge had been captured, the Lin girl had returned home safely as well.

Relieved as he was, Lin Niansheng had also heard about Sang Ying. He had therefore asked around until he found where she was staying, intending to bring the Su family along to thank her in person.

Mortals were unlike cultivators; it was already fortunate for them to survive in such circumstances, so they had little to give Sang Ying besides some fruit and food. After handing the gifts over, the four siblings from the Lin and Su families dropped straight to their knees before Sang Ying and Nan Gurong and knocked their heads on the ground several times.

They had seen the rescued girls and knew how much they had suffered. All the more grateful for what Sang Ying and the others had done, they kowtowed with particular sincerity.

Sang Ying and Nan Gurong hurriedly set down what they were holding and helped the four to their feet. After another long spell of comforting them, they finally saw them off.

Watching the four figures gradually disappear into the distance, Sang Ying thought of the girls who had been given the drugs and could not help asking, "Fellow Daoist Nan, what exactly happened to those girls' faces? Is there really no way to heal them?"

Nan Gurong sighed. "Those girls were all captured to test medicines. That medicine was extremely complicated to concoct, and there's no telling how many poisonous substances Cold Crow Devil Lord put into it. Without knowing what ingredients went into it, making an antidote is rather difficult. And these past few days, Cold Crow Devil Lord fed them some other pills too, which makes it even trickier."

How could Nan Gurong not want to rid the girl of the poison? They had already endured a calamity, and after finally making it home, they were left with scars on their faces.

For mortal women, marriage was nearly the most important thing of all. Now that their faces were ruined, most of their chances of marriage were ruined too, and there was no knowing how they would live out the rest of their lives.

Moreover, the scars on their faces were no ordinary matter. For now, Nan Gurong's medicine had barely managed to keep them under control. If the treatment stopped, the scars would likely keep growing until the girls' faces rotted away completely.

Hearing this, Sang Ying could not help clenching her fists. If she had known, she should never have let Cold Crow Devil Lord leave; she should have captured him no matter what.

Suddenly, Sang Ying remembered something. She pressed her lips together and asked after some consideration, "Fellow Daoist Nan, if you obtained a one-of-a-kind medical canon, what would you do?"

Perhaps Nan Gurong had not expected Sang Ying to ask such a question so suddenly. She paused, then replied, "If I had such good fortune, I would certainly bring the medical canon out for the medical cultivators of the world to study together. But only medical cultivators devoted to doing good would be allowed to read it, because only then could more people survive thanks to it."

Nan Gurong's answer left Sang Ying silent for a long time. Only when so much time had passed that Nan Gurong had begun to worry she had said something wrong did Sang Ying suddenly speak. "Then I wish you an early chance to obtain that medical canon, Fellow Daoist Nan."

Nan Gurong did not dampen her spirits. She smiled and said, "Then I'll take your words as a good omen!"

She merely thought Sang Ying was trying to say something nice to comfort her and did not take it to heart.

But later, as Nan Gurong worked late into the night on the antidote, she suddenly heard a strange noise at her window.

Nan Gurong did not think her fellow disciples would come knocking on her window in the middle of the night. She thought some Demon Cultivator or practitioner of the Evil Dao had broken into the waystation to do something wicked.

But when she pushed open the window, medicine pestle in hand, she found no villain as she had expected. Instead, there was a transparent bead and a Jade Slip on the windowsill.

She reached out and touched the bead, and it shot into her head like a streak of flowing light. A white-robed immortal who called himself Immortal Lord Fusheng appeared in her mind along with it.

She did not know how long she remained in a daze. When Nan Gurong finally came to her senses, she snatched up the Jade Slip from the windowsill and began poring over the Pill Formulas inside, wild with joy.

At last, her hand stopped on one page. The pill on that page had a lovely name: the "Complexion Renewal Pill."

"Wonderful, those girls can be saved! Wonderful!" Immediately afterward came the sounds of her rapidly flipping through medical texts and grinding medicinal powder.

Only when Sang Ying heard the commotion did she finally let out a breath of relief on the roof.

"Satisfied now? I told you, the people from the Plain Robe Pavilion aren't fools. You laid everything out so plainly that if this little medical cultivator still couldn't find a way to save them, the Plain Robe Pavilion might as well be finished!" Gu Shu, who lived in the spirit sword, was indignant at the special treatment Sang Ying had given Nan Gurong.

On such a fine night, she should have obediently stayed in her room and listened to its instruction, yet she had come running over to give that little medical cultivator a fortuitous opportunity!

Gu Shu suddenly felt threatened. It could not help thinking that Nan Gurong might steal its place in Sang Ying's heart!

Unable to hold back, it added, "You gave away a fortuitous opportunity like that so easily? If you'd handed it over to your sect or taken it to auction, you could have gotten plenty of good things!"

"Perhaps I could have gotten good things, but then this pill-making inheritance wouldn't have ended up in the hands of someone truly suited to it. I don't regret giving it to Fellow Daoist Nan!" With that, she took Gu Shu and returned to her courtyard under cover of night.

Perhaps by tomorrow, she would hear some good news!

On Discipline Peak of the Flowing Light Sword Sect, a considerable disturbance suddenly came from a quiet chamber where there had never been a ripple.

The Spiritual Qi of the entire peak was abruptly drawn together, and a tremendous boom came from the quiet chamber, a place that could be called utterly devoid of Spiritual Qi.

When everyone went to investigate, they found that the chamber had been reduced to a few chunks of rubble, with no trace of its original appearance. Standing amid the rubble was a white-robed girl with a delicate, pitiful face. The presence she gave off was unmistakably that of the Foundation Establishment Early Stage!

As everyone stood astonished, someone cried out from afar, "Senior Sister Fuyun, you've finally reached Foundation Establishment!"

The girl turned toward the speaker and smiled gently, like a white lotus in the water. "Yes, Heng'an, I've finally reached Foundation Establishment!"

Junior Sister, now I can go looking for you!