Chapter 37 Gu Medicine and Colorful Clothes.

Back to White Mist Cliff?

Hua Xun stared at the Divine Lord in surprise, his eyes, though completely black, still revealing obvious doubt.

The matter of the demonic poison has not yet been clarified, and Lord Luohe's soul has not yet been retrieved, yet he has already returned?

The deity noticed her confusion, nodded slightly, and smiled: "Greetings, City Lord."

"To see the city lord?" Hua Xun was even more puzzled.

No sooner had the words been spoken than a servant outside Wanyuan respectfully reported, "Gentlemen cultivators and immortals, the city lord requests that you proceed to the main hall."

Hua Xun blinked, then looked at the Divine Lord: "Sir, did you already know what happened at Miaoshouju?"

The deity's lips did not move, only his voice echoed in Hua Xun's mind, like flowing water, unhurried and gentle: "I have observed his destiny."

Hua Xun was taken aback. She followed the deity toward the main hall and after walking for a while, she whispered, "Didn't you say that you wouldn't privately observe or interfere with the fates of all living beings?"

Jiu Qing's gaze sharpened slightly, and she smiled faintly, "It's time to return to White Mist Cliff."

Hua Xun guessed, "Do you miss White Mist Cliff?"

After saying that, he immediately rejected it in his mind.

After all, the Divine Lord always treated everyone the same, regardless of where they were or who they met.

As she pondered other reasons, she heard the deity sigh softly, with a hint of dazedness in his voice: "Perhaps."

He felt a long-lost weariness towards this place.

Hua Xun turned her head in surprise and saw the God walking forward peacefully, his eyes clear and his posture upright, not at all like someone who was attached to any place.

Noticing her gaze, the deity turned his head and looked at her.

Hua Xun's ears burned, and she quickly looked away. Then, as if she had noticed something, she turned to look at the guards and maids of the city lord's mansion and said in surprise, "Sir, it seems like they can't see me."

Her current demonic appearance is truly terrifying.

But these people seemed oblivious to her appearance and showed no reaction whatsoever.

The deity smiled: "Though it is merely a physical form, the human race still cannot conceal its prejudices."

I have concealed your face.

Hua Xun was slightly surprised: "Did they see me as I looked before?"

The deity nodded.

Hua Xun hesitated for a moment: "And what about you?"

The deity said, "What I see is you."

Hua Xun was slightly taken aback. When she came to her senses, she pursed her lips, unable to hide the smile in her eyes.

Out of the corner of her eye, Hua Xun caught sight of Xiao Yunxi walking behind in a daze. Remembering that she hadn't told him yet, she slowed down and waited a moment before saying, "Immortal Lord Yunxi, we don't need to go to Miaoshouju anymore."

Xiao Yunxi snapped out of her daze, glanced at Shenjun's back, then looked at Hua Xun, and gave a faint "hmm".

Hua Xun gave him a strange look.

Xiao Yunxi suddenly asked, "Don't you mind being seen looking like this?"

Hua Xun smiled and said, "It's just a physical appearance."

Xiao Yunxi looked at her for a long time and then scoffed, "An ugly face."

Hua Xun was annoyed, but then remembered something and laughed, "Immortal Lord Yunxi must be very angry right now, right?"

Xiao Yunxi suddenly looked up at her, her high ponytail falling to her left shoulder, no longer swaying.

Seeing this, Hua Xun knew she had guessed correctly. She smiled smugly and whispered, "You admire the God so much, you must be furious that I'm clinging to the God, and you can't do anything about it, right?"

Xiao Yunxi paused, looking at the little demon's smug face, her lips moved slightly, and finally she lowered her eyes.

They soon arrived at the main hall, where Xiao Wancang was already waiting at the door.

Upon seeing the three approaching, he quickly walked down the steps, politely inviting them to sit down as he went.

“I don’t know why,” Xiao Wancang said after ordering tea to be served, “but I just felt that I should meet with the two cultivators and the little immortal ancestor this morning.”

Hua Xun looked at the Divine Lord and guessed that it was he who had planted the seed of affection in Xiao Wancang's heart.

It was clear that the deity's eyebrows and eyes were slightly lowered, like a god looking down upon all living beings, but the reason could not be discerned, so we had to give up.

"I wonder if the three of you have been able to find out anything?" Xiao Wancang asked again.

Hua Xun: "My husband..."

Before I could finish speaking, a calm voice echoed in my mind, "You explain."

Hua Xun was slightly taken aback. She looked at the Divine Lord and was about to ask him "what to explain" when a strange memory slowly began to grow in her mind.

Miaoshouju, that middle-aged man, a human-shaped dragon...

Numerous images flashed by one after another, stringing together a complete past.

Until the scene was set to last night.

At the entrance of the dilapidated Miaoshou Residence, the deity slowly entered. Wherever he passed, even the dust seemed reluctant to settle on him and would give way.

A black mist approached, but was swept away by a pure golden light.

The deity parted his lips, his divine voice soft and serene: "Silence."

As soon as the single word of wisdom was spoken, the earthquake-stricken cave returned to calm.

The serpent roared and glared at him angrily.

The deity then said, "Break."

One by one, the chains binding the serpent broke free from the stone wall, and the serpent fell to the ground, its fingertips touching the moss and damp water stains on the stone.

The deity raised his hand, and the chains wrapped around the serpent flew to him.

The deity gazed at the serpent, sighed softly, and with a slight wave of his hand, the serpent vanished.

Hua Xun opened her eyes, her thoughts still caught up in the newly added memories.

Until Xiao Wancang called out, "Cultivator Hua? Cultivator Hua?"

Hua Xun awoke from the swirling and complex memories, a sense of sorrow rising within her. Looking at the Divine Lord again, she found him smiling at her.

Should I explain?

Hua Xun pointed to himself.

The deity transmitted his voice into her mind again: "Too complicated."

Hua Xun instantly understood what the Divine Lord meant; he felt that explaining this matter would be troublesome.

If his identity is also implicated, there could be even more complicated matters.

Unexpectedly, the God had this side to him, and Hua Xun's earlier sadness was somewhat lessened.

She cleared her throat and explained, "Immortal Lord Yunxi and I have investigated those who were poisoned by demons and found that they had all been injured or born with disabilities."

"Following this clue, we found Miaoshouju and discovered that a snake demon was causing trouble there."

"Sir, you possess great magical powers and have already captured the snake demon."

"A snake demon?" Xiao Wancang was shocked, then overjoyed. "You caught it?"

Hua Xun looked at the Divine Lord and nodded slightly.

Beneath the white sleeves, a glimmer of golden light drifted out unnoticed, and then the human-shaped, snake-faced dragon, bound by chains, slowly floated in mid-air.

His eyes were completely black, yet they still twitched, looking to his side.

Xiao Wancang was startled by the sudden appearance of the "monster," gasped sharply, and fell to the ground.

"Is this the snake demon?"

Hua Xun had seen the dragon snake before, so he remained relatively calm and nodded, "That's right."

Xiao Wancang staggered to his feet: "Now that we've caught it, cultivator Hua, please let this snake demon save my daughter and the other people?"

Hua Xun said helplessly, "Doesn't Lord Xiao want to know why he's causing trouble in Fengshen City?"

Upon hearing this, Xiao Wancang finally realized his duty as the lord of the city and cleared his throat: "Snake demon, tell me, why did you harm my daughter Xiao Ling and many of the people in the city?"

The serpent stirred, and the chains rattled.

Xiao Wancang was startled once again, but he managed to suppress his emotions.

"I saved them," the serpent's voice was hoarse yet faintly echoing, "I didn't harm them..."

Upon hearing this, Xiao Wancang's fear dissipated, and he slammed his fist on the table, angrily saying, "You're spouting nonsense!"

"You spread demonic poison, turning the people of my city into demons, and you still dare to say that you are saving them?"

The serpent lowered its eyes and remained silent.

Hua Xun looked at him: "What if this snake demon wasn't lying?"

Xiao Wancang was taken aback, then sighed, "Cultivator Hua, how could you have been bewitched too?"

Hua Xun sighed softly as she recalled the memories that the Divine Lord had just transmitted into her mind.

"Lord Xiao once mentioned that there was a doctor named Yang Ping at Miaoshouju?" Hua Xun asked.

Xiao Wancang was puzzled: "Yes, Yang Ping has superb medical skills and is kind-hearted. He has treated countless people."

"Yang Ping has an apprentice, do you know him?"

Lord Xiao nodded: "I've heard a little about it," he said, then, as if remembering something, "but his apprentice has never shown his face. I've only heard that he's always grinding medicine for him in the backyard."

The serpent suddenly moved, and the chains it was attached to trembled.

Xiao Wancang hurriedly took a half step back.

Hua Xun looked at the serpent and felt regret: "Yang Ping's apprentice is not helping Yang Ping make medicine, but... he himself is that medicine."

Xiao Wancang asked, puzzled, "What does Cultivator Hua mean by this?"

Hua Xun remained silent for a moment.

This matter is extremely simple.

A doctor obsessed with medicine found a newly hatched snake egg and accidentally discovered that the humanoid serpent inside possessed the power of self-healing.

The doctor picked it up and took it back.

Initially, he only wanted to use the power of the serpent to extract a drop of blood every few days and incorporate it into the pills he made to save more people.

As time went by, the doctor's reputation spread, and he became so engrossed in saving people from suffering that he began to collect the blood of the dragon every day to satisfy his own selfish desires.

As he grew older, he eventually fell into old age.

He began to feel indignant that he, a doctor who dedicated himself to saving lives, had such a short lifespan.

So he cut off the flesh of the dragon and drank its blood, then refined it into medicine and drank it to prolong his life.

The serpent tried to escape, but the almost insane man used chains and nails to drive it into the stone wall, allowing the serpent's body to grow into one with the chains.

However, the doctor still died.

It was not a matter of cause and effect, nor was it a matter of blood for blood; rather, it was simply that he lived to be seventy and died of old age.

That's just how unfair life is.

Even on the day he died, he tried to climb into the cave and ask the serpent to feed him a piece of flesh and blood.

He died in the river, and his body was never found.

The serpent remained pinned to the stone wall, its body extremely weak, and no one came to feed it anymore.

He should have died two years ago from exhaustion and blood loss, ending his life of suffering.

On the day he was on the verge of death, a beam of bamboo-green light descended from the sky, saving his life but also prolonging his suffering.

The serpent, which should have been soaring freely in the mountains and forests, was instead trapped in a narrow, dark cave, pinned to the cold, damp stone wall, unable to move an inch.

When Hua Xun told this story, he omitted the part about the descent of Luo He Shenjun's soul.

Silence fell over the main hall.

After a long while, Xiao Wancang finally said, "But this... serpent still harms people."

Hua Xun said, "Lord Xiao, you might as well think about it. Those people you have locked up in the other courtyard were all people with congenital disabilities or chronic illnesses. And what about them now?"

Xiao Wancang thought about it carefully. The terrifying faces and scaly limbs of the people made him overlook a fact—their mutilated limbs had become whole.

"Is he really saving people?" Xiao Wancang hesitated slightly. "But why... has my youngest daughter's spiritual root disappeared? And why have the people's appearances changed so drastically?"

Hua Xun didn't know why, and subconsciously looked at the God.

But then a fiery red figure slowly rose to his feet, crossed his arms, and said lazily, "Because this serpent believes that humans should be like this."

Hua Xun frowned, then after a moment her eyes brightened and her expression cleared, and she suddenly understood.

A serpent that had been confined to a cave since childhood and had never seen any other mortals besides Yang Ping could not imagine what mortals should look like.

To him, Yang Ping was a terrifying demon who was devouring his flesh and blood.

So he transformed all the humans who came to him for treatment into his likeness.

He believed that only in this way could one be healthy and complete.

Her demon core, Xiao Ling's spiritual root, and Xiao Yunxi's immortal root are all superfluous and should be removed.

People with disabilities are born with disabilities, so new limbs are given to them.

It's laughable that Yang Ping considers himself noble and kind-hearted, but the one who truly understands "benevolence and skill" and "saving lives" is the serpent he has harmed for decades.

Xiao Wancang was stunned for a long time before he asked blankly, "Then how can we restore the people and my daughter to their original state?"

Hua Xun looked at him and smiled: "The serpent is now blind. Lord Xiao, why don't you let it touch your body with its own hands, and then you will know what a human should look like?"

Xiao Wancang's face turned pale: "Let him... touch me?"

Hua Xun nodded.

Xiao Wancang glanced at his little immortal ancestor, but was met with a glare and quickly looked away. After pondering for a while, he gritted his teeth and said, "For the sake of the people of Fengshen City, so be it!"

With that, he stepped forward tremblingly, stood before the serpent, his legs shaking uncontrollably, and said with a death-defying air, "Go ahead and touch it!"

The deity glanced at the girl who was secretly laughing, and his fingers twitched slightly.

Golden light enveloped the serpent as it slowly landed.

Xiao Wancang shuddered and closed his eyes.

After a long silence, a hoarse voice rang out, and the serpent said with difficulty, "I can...see..."

Xiao Wancang suddenly opened his eyes, and when he saw the blood-stained face of the dragon-snake before him, he quickly took a step back.

Hua Xun laughed out loud.

If the dragon cannot see, then she, who was "healed" by the dragon, will inevitably also go blind.

I just found Xiao Wancang's appearance quite amusing, so I deliberately teased him.

Unexpectedly, the deity actually cooperated with her.

Thinking of this, Hua Xun turned to look at the God.

He seemed to be smiling too, his lips slightly curved, a smile different from the solemn and sacred statue, but with a touch more vitality.

Hua Xun was slightly taken aback, and a sense of joy welled up in her heart.

A hoarse growl sounded, and Hua Xun looked in the direction of the sound.

The serpent's jet-black eyes scanned everything around it inch by inch, then it tilted its head back and inhaled and exhaled black mist mixed with bamboo green.

The black fog was even more massive than before, shrouding the vast main hall.

The roaring stopped, and after swirling for a moment, the black mist transformed into wisps of fine mist with trailing tails, dissipating in all directions.

One of the wisps of mist lingered around Hua Xun, swirling around her a few times before disappearing into her brow.

Hua Xun's body trembled, and she felt her lost sea of ​​consciousness gradually resurfacing. The demon core reappeared in her dantian, the scales on her body gradually faded, and the black horn on her forehead slowly disappeared.

A maid's joyful cry came from outside the courtyard: "Master, Miss has recovered!"

"Miss, it's ready!"

Hua Xun looked outside and saw Xiao Wancang excitedly running towards the backyard with the maid. His plump, white figure was exceptionally agile at this moment.

The serpent walked step by step to the God-King, bowed its head, and said with difficulty, "You saved me."

"Now, you can order me to do anything, including... die."

Hua Xun looked at the Divine Lord, the joy in her eyes still lingering from the restoration of his original appearance.

The deity glanced at her, then looked away and said gently, "I grant you your freedom."

*

The people of Fengshen City shed their demonic appearance and regained their original looks.

Moreover, those with congenital or mortal disabilities were able to retain their newly formed limbs.

Xiao Ling's damaged spiritual root also recovered to normal.

The serpent broke free of its chains and swam into the mountains and forests.

Hua Xun stood outside the forest, watching the disappearing figure of the dragon snake, and breathed a sigh of relief: "I didn't expect that the Divine Lord would solve the problem so quickly when I was just starting to understand it."

The deity smiled but did not speak.

“Divine Lord,” Xiao Yunxi stepped forward slowly, her gaze sweeping over Hua Xun, and said quietly, “Now that this matter has been resolved, I will return to the Immortal Sect first.”

Hua Xun looked at Xiao Yunxi.

She noticed his strange behavior at the city lord's mansion earlier that day; his expression was unpredictable, and he remained silent throughout.

Now, meeting her gaze, he paused for a moment before lowering his eyes: "My master sent a letter, asking me to return as soon as possible to report back."

"Go," the deity said slowly.

Xiao Yunxi remained silent for a moment, then transformed into a flame and disappeared into the horizon.

Hua Xun turned his gaze and said easily, "Since the Divine Lord misses White Mist Cliff, let's go back too."

The deity nodded.

A dazzling celestial light descended from the sky, and Hua Xun suddenly felt her body lighten as she flew up with the wind.

She suddenly remembered something: "Has the Divine Lord retrieved the divine soul of the Divine Lord Luohe?"

God: "Hmm."

Hua Xun still found it strange: "Since the dragon-serpent possesses the divine soul of Lord Luohe, why can't it break free from those small chains and nails?"

The deity looked at her and smiled: "Because the dragon-serpent has no divine soul."

Hua Xun's eyes widened in shock: "What?"

The deity seemed amused by her shocked expression, and then glanced at Fang Dao, saying, "The soul is attached to the chains."

Hua Xun was increasingly surprised.

But in the next moment, Hua Xun's demon core trembled, and her green dress instantly turned into gray wings, and her body gradually returned to its original form.

"Divine Lord..." Hua Xun only managed to utter two words before completely transforming into a crow.

The deity smiled and said, "Your demon core has been separated from your body for too long, and the immortal spiritual power in your meridians is almost gone. You will be fine after two days of cultivation."

"Chirp chirp." The response he received was a few chirps that were both annoyed and helpless.

The deity raised his hand, cradled her in his palm, and held her close in front of him: "Let's go back."

Feeling the warmth in the God's arms, Hua Xun suddenly realized that returning to her original form wasn't so bad after all.

After all, if he were in human form, the divine lord would be without desires and would never hold her like this.

Hua Xun sighed and turned over in the Divine Lord's palm.

*

Demon race.

Shang Qu clutched the letter tightly, climbed over the upturned eaves of the Demon Palace, and landed behind the railing at the top of the Demon Palace.

"Your Majesty," Shang Qu bowed respectfully as he looked at the tall figure shrouded in dense demonic energy, "I have discovered that Lord Changsang has sent his avatars to the mortal realm several times to collect the soul of Lord Luohe, who perished ten thousand years ago."

Baili Sheng stood with his hands behind his back, gazing into the distance. After a long while, he let out a mocking laugh: "Do you want to revive the God Clan?"

Shang Qu remembered something and added, "Also accompanying Lord Changsang to the mortal realm this time is that black demon I saw in Dahe Village."

He always remembered that when he was about to kill the little demon to silence him, the Lord stopped him.

Therefore, I also inquired more about that little demon this time.

Baili Sheng's eyes flickered slightly, but he remained silent.

“A demon guard witnessed it firsthand,” Shang Qu tentatively began, “that little demon and Lord Changsang were strolling around Fengshen City, and even released river lanterns together…”

Baili Sheng's expression turned cold, and she interrupted him: "A mere little demon, there's no need to mention it to me again."

Shang Qu hurriedly lowered his head to confess his guilt, then turned and left.

But as they turned a corner, they encountered a ethereal fairy in black robes. Shang Qu was taken aback: "Ethereal fairy."

Qingjiao nodded slightly, stepped forward slowly, her skirt brushing against the stone surface silently.

As she approached, she noticed that the demonic light surrounding Baili Sheng stirred slightly as she drew near, as if in resistance.

Qingjiao's eyes darkened, and she stopped in her tracks: "The demon servant said that you have been here all day, so I came to check on you."

"Mmm," Baili Sheng said softly.

Qingjiao was silent for a few moments: "I had someone send this set of clothes over. Are you happy with it?"

Baili Sheng finally turned to look at her, but paused slightly when he saw the black-clad figure.

"Bai Lisheng, when you return to the Demon Clan, you must first buy me a lot of colorful and brightly colored clothes."

"I never want to wear those drab, dark linen clothes again!"

Baili Sheng was momentarily dazed by the sudden words in his mind.

The shyness on Qingjiao's face gradually faded, and after a moment of surprise, she asked, "Baili, what were you thinking about just now?"

She wanted to ask him more about who he was looking at.

Baili Sheng snapped back to his senses, turned around, and the demonic light momentarily became chaotic.

In that chaotic moment, a cold wind blew by, carrying a faint scent of medicine.

That's... the smell of poison.