Chapter 52 They repay kindness with enmity, they won't even let me live comfortably...
To be honest, Shen Zhengyuan looks somewhat human now, at least he has some humanity, and he doesn't look as scary as he did in that illusion or nightmare before.
I suppose he should...
Just trying to scare people for fun?
Is he not inherently bad?
After the man and the dog had each finished eating a grilled fish, Li Chen was taken to Pinglan Palace by Shen Zhengyuan.
Now that Shen Zhengyuan has obtained the Thousand-Year Snow Lotus, and even three of them at once, she could easily figure out what he was planning to do. It was nothing more than administering a drastic measure and making a desperate attempt.
Although she resisted, she was currently on Shen Zhengyuan's territory, and as the saying goes, one has to bow one's head under someone else's roof. No matter how unwilling she was, she could only follow Shen Zhengyuan into the inner hall.
As soon as Li Chen entered the hall, he saw seven physicians dressed in the attire of the alchemy world standing inside.
She had never been to the world of alchemy, so she was naturally unfamiliar with those faces.
As soon as he saw Li Chenjin, he put his hands together in a gesture of respect and smiled slightly, saying, "Sect Leader Li, it's been a long time. How have you been?"
Li Chen said, "Don't try to tease me like your master does. I haven't done anything wrong lately. Except for accidentally making your junior brother cry, I haven't done anything bad."
The monk Dusheng said, "So you made my little junior brother cry again. Your nature hasn't changed at all; you still like to tease people. Very good."
Li Chenjin: "..."
Li Chen couldn't tell whether he was being sincere or just indirectly criticizing her, so she simply pursed her lips and stopped talking.
This is definitely something you shouldn't do. She only accidentally made the child cry, but when she saw the person, before they even asked a single question, she blurted out everything...
However, judging from what Monk Dusheng said, he must not have returned to the Zen world yet. Otherwise, given that little monk's tendency to tattle on her, he would have told him long ago. It seems that he was discovered by Shen Zhengyuan's people while he was still on Snow Mang Mountain, and they brought him back along with Snow Lotus.
Li Chen glanced at Shen Zhengyuan, then reached out to the monk Dusheng and said, "This Sect Leader Shen insists on curing me. Even when I said I couldn't, he wouldn't believe me. Now that you're here, monks don't lie, so he'll definitely believe what you say."
Dusheng was the eldest disciple of Zen Master Mingcun. He had been practicing under Zen Master Mingcun's tutelage since childhood, and his medical skills were also superior to Li Chenjin's.
He took Li Chenjin's wrist, and after a moment, said to Shen Zhengyuan, "Sect Leader Shen, what Chenjin said is correct. These thousand-year-old snow lotuses are rare, and they have consumed a lot of Sect Leader Shen's cultivation to catalyze them. They are rare spiritual medicines in the world. But for Chenjin, they are indeed not very effective."
"What are the chances?" Shen Zhengyuan suddenly asked.
The monk Dusheng said, "One-tenth."
Shen Zhengyuan nodded. "Even a one percent chance is an opportunity. Let's give it a try."
"Sect Leader Shen, this medicine is meant for me, so shouldn't you at least listen to my opinion as the patient?" Li Chen shook his head helplessly. "I'm not going to try it. It's already killing me with pain, and it might even worsen my injuries. It's hardly a good method. Can't you just let me go peacefully for the sake of our friendship?"
Shen Zhengyuan said, "I'll give you two choices. One, try; two, I'll take your soul now and turn it into a weapon spirit."
Shen Zhengyuan wasn't the type to joke around, so the fact that he said that meant he was already prepared to do it.
It just so happens that the genius who is the only one in a hundred years in the world of weapon crafting is also here. If we could turn her into some kind of weapon spirit or sword spirit, wouldn't it be a piece of cake?
Like those weapon spirits and sword spirits, although they are not bound by a physical body and no longer feel pain, they are destined to be unable to reincarnate on the day they become weapon spirits and sword spirits. They can only live forever in those magical artifacts and swords, forever bowing to their masters.
If the magical artifacts and swords are destroyed and no new items are found to store them within ten days, they will vanish into thin air, which is worse than being a dog!
She didn't want to be a dog, much less a weapon spirit or sword spirit. Shen Zhengyuan was truly insane!
If only she had known this hundreds of years ago, she would have diligently learned the secret techniques and formations of the magic cultivation world. Once she had learned them, she would have killed Shen Zhengyuan and rebuilt a magic cultivation world for him, which would definitely be more righteous than the one currently under his control!
Li Chenjin frowned, and the monk Dusheng beside him didn't look much better. He said coldly, "Sect Leader Chen, I came with you because I heard you were going to save Chenjin. If you want to force me like this, as Chenjin's fellow disciple, don't blame me for turning against you."
"Although the Chan meditation community now relies on the Dharma meditation community for many things, it is not indispensable to the Dharma meditation community. The two communities have always had a mutually supportive relationship. I urge Sect Leader Shen not to destroy the centuries-old friendship between the Dharma meditation community and the Chan meditation community today."
Faced with the monk Dusheng's threat, Shen Zhengyuan merely chuckled, seemingly not taking him seriously at all. "You are welcome to try and see if you can leave the Pure Land today."
Shen Zhengyuan and Monk Dusheng were facing off. The group of alchemists who had been waiting silently to the side were all terrified and turned pale when they saw that they looked like they were about to fight. "Um... Sect Leader Shen, can... can we old guys leave?"
"Gentlemen...we're all too old to fight..."
Seeing that Monk Dusheng and Shen Zhengyuan were locked in a stalemate, and that the people from the alchemy world nearby were almost scared out of their wits, Li Chen couldn't help but sigh and said helplessly, "Sect Leader Shen, for the sake of our previous friendship, let's skip the artifact spirit. I'll try the medicine, okay?"
After she finished speaking, she turned around and whispered in the ear of the monk Dusheng, "Don't argue with him. He's mentally ill. He probably got frostbite on Xuemang Mountain hundreds of years ago. After you return to the Zen community, please pass on a message to your master for me."
The monk's expression softened slightly, and he asked softly, "What did you say?"
“Let him wait and see,” Li Chen said. “I treated your master as a close friend despite the age gap, but he turned around and betrayed me. This is not over. Once I find a chance to go back, I will definitely settle the score with him.”
The monk Dusheng exclaimed, "You don't need to be so angry. Your master must have a deeper meaning and would never harm you."
Li Chen glared and said, "If it weren't for your master, I'd still be walking the dog outside right now! Now, not only can I not walk the dog, but I'm almost turned into a spirit and used as a dog by others!"
The monk Dusheng said, “I believe your master would never harm you. Rest assured, you and your master have a close relationship; he would never stand by and watch you become a spirit. I think Sect Leader Shen was just joking. If you truly and unintentionally become a spirit…”
The monk Dusheng paused for a moment, then continued, "Then I will certainly work with my fellow disciples to bring you back to the meditation community, place you before the Buddha statue, and chant sutras and pray for you day and night. This will surely help you achieve liberation soon."
Li Chen sighed, looking quite troubled, and said, "Alright, stop talking."
With people from the alchemy world around, refining the thousand-year-old snow lotus into pills becomes very easy.
There was a reason why Shen Zhengyuan invited so many powerful figures from the alchemy world.
He didn't just need to refine one thousand-year-old snow lotus; he refined all three he had obtained together, condensing them into a single pill, and tried his best to neutralize and mitigate the harmful medicinal power within. After all, given her current condition, only a desperate measure might be effective.
However, she would inevitably suffer after consuming it, but compared to being made into a spirit and enduring the pain of forty-nine days of refining, she would rather take medicine.
The moment the pill entered her stomach, she felt an extremely fierce spiritual energy suddenly burst forth within her body. In an instant, it expanded all the meridians in her body, and the power continued to expand.
The power seemed to be about to rupture her meridians, and then her skin. At that time, the spiritual energy would engulf her flesh and blood and explode in all directions. She would be like a lit firecracker, leaving her mark everywhere in the hall.
Even with Shen Zhengyuan behind her suppressing the spiritual energy, the pain did not lessen at all; instead, it intensified, causing her breathing to become rapid involuntarily.
With each breath, it felt as if cold steel needles were piercing her lungs, making her feel as if she were about to die.
What "putting someone in a life-or-death situation to survive"? This method is clearly meant to kill her, and in the most painful way possible, even more painful than the worst injury she has ever suffered before!
Shen Zhengyuan is such an ungrateful bastard! I should have killed him while he was off guard!
In a daze, she heard the monk Dusheng's voice in her ear, "Sect Leader Shen, stop. If you continue, she will die from the rupture of her internal organs before her meridians can be repaired."
At this moment, the formation beneath Li Chenjin and Shen Zhengyuan can temporarily bind them together. The spiritual energy and medicinal power that Li Chenjin can no longer withstand will flow into Shen Zhengyuan's body through the formation.
This was the only thing that could give Li Chen some comfort, since Shen Zhengyuan would feel just as much pain as she did, so it was fair.
Only after all the spiritual energy was drained did Li Chenjin's body suddenly relax. The blood that had been rising to her throat then gushed out of her mouth uncontrollably. After spitting out all the blood, she couldn't help but cough for a while before she felt like she had come back to life.
She lowered her eyes, inhaling the strong smell of blood, and slightly curled her lips into a mocking smile, saying in a hoarse voice, "...I told you, it's no use."
"Sect Leader Shen...you really are...ungrateful...you won't even let me live comfortably, you have to, cough cough...you have to make me suffer before you'll stop...If I had known this would happen...I would have fed that skewer of grilled fish to the dogs..."
After muttering half-jokingly, Li Chen couldn't help but faint, falling right into Shen Zhengyuan's arms.
Seeing that he was looking down at Li Chenjin's face with a thoughtful expression, and considering what he had said earlier, it seemed as if he was thinking about what kind of spirit Li Chenjin should be made into. Monk Dusheng couldn't help but say, "Sect Leader Shen, if someone truly wants to do good for another person, it should also be that the other person feels it is good for them."
Author's Note: Don't worry, that's not Xiao Shen's real plan either. [doge emoji with rose in hand]
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