Qingque rubbed the jade tiles in her hand. She wasn't sure if it was her imagination, but she felt an odd chill down her spine. At that moment, Qingque noticed her luck seemed to be declining again.
'Could it be that someone saw how smug I've been lately and is secretly casting spells to ruin my luck?'
But Qingque quickly dismissed the thought as impossible. She didn't have every single Xianzhou native's details memorized, but she knew very few of them possessed the divination abilities of the Master Diviner. Much less the power to sabotage her financial luck.
'Since it's not the Master Diviner messing with me, does that mean my luck with money really isn't great today?'
"Never mind, I won't think about it. You win some, you lose some! Come on, ladies, let's keep going!"
Qingque waved her hand grandly, indicating she could still hold on. As long as Master Diviner Fu didn't come to catch her, she could battle it out with her friends until the end of time.
Meanwhile, Noldrei had given Fu Xuan the information she wanted, and he stated directly:
"They are attempting to produce elixirs targeting the Mara-struck condition."
Noldrei's words immediately made Fu Xuan's expression change.
"You actually infiltrated them!"
Fu Xuan remembered that she herself had been the one to send Noldrei in, and that he had probably been subjected to human experimentation by the other party.
Suddenly, she felt burdened by heavy moral shackles. This made ninety percent of her desire to trouble Noldrei vanish, with the remaining ten percent being her last shred of stubborn stubbornness.
"That's right. After seeing that I didn't die from injecting the Vidyadhara Marrow Elixir, the Alchemy Commission arranged for someone to look after me."
Noldrei had long known that the Vidyadhara were similar to little dragon-people, even capable of transforming into draconic beings themselves. As he spoke, he pointed to his forehead.
To Fu Xuan's shocked expression, Noldrei's forehead quickly sprouted dragon horns and pointed ears.
"See? Aren't I just like the Vidyadhara now? Thanks to the modifications here, I've gained a similar appearance to the Vidyadhara. Unfortunately…"
Noldrei sighed, saying, "Unfortunately, I just don't have the Vidyadhara's abilities; I merely have the appearance."
Fu Xuan quickly pulled Noldrei behind the courtyard wall and scolded him in a low voice, "Are you insane? Do you know how great an impact it would have if Xianzhou natives saw you like this? If people found out that injecting Vidyadhara Marrow Elixir might turn them into Vidyadhara, they'd go crazy trying to 'pursue' the Vidyadhara."
"The Vidyadhara might also come to deal with you. Who knows if what you're saying about your lack of abilities is true?"
Noldrei asked in surprise, "Fu Xuan, you actually care about me? I thought you really hated following me at first?"
Fu Xuan didn't have much patience to argue about other things. Her face cold, she said, "Is this the time to talk about that? If others find out you injected Vidyadhara Marrow Elixir, and that you're an outsider at that, you'll become the next person to have their Vidyadhara marrow extracted while alive."
Noldrei hadn't expected the Vidyadhara to have such a high status on the Xianzhou, and he had somewhat underestimated the impact they brought.
He pondered inwardly whether he could graft the Vidyadhara's reputation onto himself.
Noldrei shook his head, brushing the matter off.
He continued, "Let's discuss the Alchemy Commission. To put it simply, someone appeared in your Alchemy Commission who believes that the current Mara-struck condition of Xianzhou natives is incorrect, and that the problem shouldn't simply be attributed to the Abundance, or as they call it, the Ambrosial Arbor."
"This is an irresponsible way of researching for Xianzhou natives. They are also trying to find suitable test subjects through their subordinates. Some Mara-struck Xianzhou natives volunteered, some outsiders accidentally got involved, and then there are those of us who entered after passing an assessment."
"I generally observed the situation in the Alchemy Commission and found that while they have sufficient research on the medicinal properties of herbs, they lack proper guidance in the area of human experimentation."
"Where I come from, human experimentation is a routine clinical procedure; it's nothing messy or strange. It's like the Mara-struck condition for you Xianzhou natives—compared to definitely becoming Mara-struck, isn't it still a gamble worth taking for Xianzhou natives?"
Noldrei wasn't just spouting nonsense; he was saying this after having seen internal research reports from the Alchemy Commission.
That report could not be called complete; it was, in fact, quite rudimentary.
It contained a large number of vague terms, and its excesses were completely comparable to culinary terms like "a little" or "an appropriate amount" in Chinese cooking.
Fu Xuan's expression grew even more complex upon hearing this. She asked softly, "Then you must have suffered a lot during this time inside, right?"
'Is she misunderstanding something?'
Noldrei felt he'd had a pretty good time in the Alchemy Commission.
He reassured her, "Don't worry, I was doing quite well in there. Didn't I send you a video of someone giving me a foot massage?"
Fu Xuan 'understood' the problem. It must be that Noldrei was a precious test subject, so there was no way he would simply be let go.
This also meant that Noldrei must have truly been subjected to human modification, and those who were kind to him must have been monitoring him.
Fu Xuan stopped his attempts at explanation: "You don't need to say more; I understand everything. It must be because you can't speak normally that you're acting this way. Just tell me how you managed to escape first!"
No wonder Noldrei had been lingering at the entrance for so long; it must have been because he didn't want to implicate his friends at a time like this. Despite his carefree appearance, he was clearly exceptionally 'thoughtful' about these small matters.
Fu Xuan was deeply moved and grew even more determined that she should quickly infiltrate the Disciples of the Ambrosial Arbor and rescue this guy as soon as possible!
'No, I don't think that's what I meant.'
'Why don't you try divining it?'
Noldrei had no idea that Elysia had previously tricked Fu Xuan into trying to temporarily abandon her divination abilities to handle matters.
This immediately caused Master Diviner Fu to lose a major advantage, making her practically skip even when walking.
This two-hundred-year-old girl's mind wasn't actually as brilliant as she thought; at heart, she was a very impulsive person.
Noldrei had no choice but to divert the topic away from himself and back to the Alchemy Commission.
"Fu Xuan, it was very easy for me to get out this time. Anyway, just do whatever you want. If you have nothing else, hurry back to the Divination Commission! You don't need to infiltrate the Disciples of the Ambrosial Arbor or anything; that place is about to be streamlined. There will likely be even more Disciples of the Ambrosial Arbor dealt with afterward."
Noldrei earnestly advised the Master Diviner to leave, now worried that she might have used her divine eyes too much, and perhaps the Mara-struck condition had damaged her brain.
But his earnest pleas had no effect. Instead, they only made Fu Xuan even more convinced that this guy was trying to keep her away from some danger.
For a moment, Fu Xuan was actually a little moved.
No! She absolutely had to rescue him!