Song Changsheng had previously used his spiritual sense to examine Lu Yuxiu's dantian, but nothing had seemed out of the ordinary. Even when enhanced by his eye technique, he hadn't detected anything unusual.
But now, faced with what had just happened, he had formed a few suspicions.
The foreign presence within Miss Lu's dantian seemed capable of growing by devouring life force.
The reason it hadn't been detected before was likely because the life force it had previously received was insufficient.
After all, this time, it had not only consumed half of Song Changsheng's spiritual energy, but also absorbed the life essence of a Tier-3, Low-Grade Snow Lotus. Such an enormous amount of energy and vitality was far beyond what a mere Qi Refining stage cultivator could endure.
If Song Changsheng hadn't already confirmed that Lu Yuxiu was capable of absorbing spiritual and life energy, he would never have dared to recklessly feed her such a potent herb. The risk of her body exploding from the overload would have been far too great.
The others had failed to notice this anomaly simply because they didn't possess the same extraordinary conditions that Song Changsheng did. As a result, they'd never been able to carry out targeted treatment, which led to Lu Yuxiu remaining comatose for so long.
Song Changsheng continued to observe her for a while longer and noticed that the entity within her dantian wasn't just absorbing energy rapidly, it was also expending it just as quickly.
In less than fifteen minutes, the mysterious glow had already dimmed and ultimately vanished.
"What in the world is this thing? That much life energy, burned through in a blink?" Song Changsheng frowned deeply. Even with his current cultivation, such rapid consumption would be impossible.
Nearby, Li Anmin, who had been watching closely, hadn't noticed any changes in Lu Yuxiu's condition. Growing increasingly anxious, he fidgeted nervously.
He wanted to ask Song Changsheng for clarification, but after administering the Snow Lotus, the latter had immediately fallen into deep thought, his brows furrowed. Li Anmin didn't dare interrupt and could only stew in silent worry.
Meanwhile, Lu Tianchou, who had been keeping watch at the doorway, had at some point moved closer, eyes fixed on Song Changsheng with a mixture of anticipation and nervous energy.
It was clear to Song Changsheng that both father and disciple had noticed something. After some thought, he turned toward Lu Tianchou and said solemnly:
"Master Lu, I've discovered something about Miss Lu's condition. But to resolve it, I'll need to conduct further tests.
To be honest with you, this is the first time I've encountered such a situation. I cannot predict what might happen during the verification process or how dangerous it may be.
The choice is yours: proceed, or stop here."
Lu Tianchou's stern face relaxed slightly upon hearing the first half of Song Changsheng's words, but tensed again at the latter half.
What does he mean by 'cannot predict'?
His expression darkened.
"You want to use my only daughter as some kind of test subject?" he said, voice low and ominous, his eyes growing sharp.
Song Changsheng met his gaze calmly, utterly unfazed.
The truth was, he had already identified the core of the problem. That alone meant he could name any price he wanted. For someone as desperate as Lu Tianchou, even building him a brand-new flying vessel wouldn't be too high a cost.
But Song Changsheng wasn't interested in exploiting a desperate old man. He genuinely hoped to help.
That said, he wasn't some self-sacrificing saint either. If Lu Tianchou refused to cooperate, he wouldn't push it. Frankly, whether Lu Yuxiu lived or died had nothing to do with him. He could just sell the information he'd uncovered for a good price and move on.
Lu Tianchou wasn't a fool. He quickly realized his position. Still, to gamble his daughter's life, it was a bitter pill to swallow.
She was his everything. He was nearly two hundred years old, half-buried in the grave, when he finally had her. How could he not hesitate?
Seeing the torment on his face, Song Changsheng finally spoke again:
"Master Lu, Miss Lu has been in a coma for nearly a year. Her body is reaching its limit. If we delay any further, the best-case scenario is that she'll never wake up. Worst case, her soul will scatter and her body perish.
I urge you to decide quickly."
Lu Tianchou's expression shifted rapidly. After a long silence, he let out a deep, weary sigh, his figure seeming to age visibly in that instant.
He bowed low to Song Changsheng and said hoarsely,
"It can't get any worse than this. Fellow Daoist Song, do what you must. Whatever the outcome, I will accept it."
Song Changsheng nodded gravely.
"I will do everything in my power.
Now, I'll need more spiritual items rich in life energy, the more, the better."
Having made up his mind, Lu Tianchou was determined to cooperate fully.
He took out a jade token and handed it to Li Anmin.
"Go to the vault and bring all the life-nourishing items I've been saving for Xiu'er. Give them to Master Song."
Li Anmin rushed off and returned shortly with a storage pouch, which he presented with both hands.
Song Changsheng opened it and was genuinely surprised. Lu Tianchou's resources were far more abundant than he had expected.
Inside were piles of spiritual herbs, fruits, and elixirs, stacked like a small mountain. The thick aura of life force radiated from within, and among them were three Tier-3 spirit plants on par with the Snow Lotus.
He couldn't help but be impressed.
This immediately gave Song Changsheng a greater sense of confidence.
"Master Song," Lu Tianchou asked urgently, "is this enough? If not, I'll find a way to get more."
For the only heir of the Lu family and its vast lands, Lu Tianchou was ready to risk everything. As long as there was hope, he wouldn't hesitate to throw in all he had, even if it meant breaking the pot to sell the iron.
Song Changsheng nodded. "This should be enough. Now, I must ask the two of you to wait outside. What I'm about to do is not suitable for spectators. I hope you understand."
Everyone has their secrets. Lu Tianchou could appreciate that. After a brief moment of hesitation, he gritted his teeth and led Li Anmin out of the loft.
Once they had left, Song Changsheng waved his sleeve and cast a barrier, cutting off all external surveillance.
He then sat cross-legged on the floor and began drawing spiritual energy from spirit stones to replenish what he had spent.
Moments later, the ground around him was covered with the powdered remains of those stones.
Exhaling a long breath, he opened his eyes, stood, and walked over to the jade bed.
The foreign entity within Lu Yuxiu's dantian was absorbing life force; anything that entered her body was devoured.
As a cultivator, Lu Yuxiu naturally had a strong life force of her own. Logically, she should have been the first to be consumed.
But after examination, aside from some physical weakness due to excessive blood loss, her life force was surprisingly strong.
This led Song Changsheng to a bold hypothesis: Could it be that this foreign entity had formed some kind of symbiotic relationship with Lu Yuxiu?
Building on that idea, he formed a plan that was simple, but undeniably risky.
He would feed the entity with enough life energy to grow it to a size where he could fully observe and identify it. Only then could he decide how to handle it.
It was a dangerous decision, because no one could predict how this thing might affect Lu Yuxiu once it matured.
Taking a deep breath, Song Changsheng pulled out a large portion of the spiritual items and tossed them into his bronze cauldron, which was usually reserved for refining tools.
Then he took out the Soul-Slaying Gourd and placed it beneath the cauldron. A small flame of Ghostly Blue Spiritfire bloomed, its tongues of fire licking at the cauldron's base.
Though not an alchemist, Song Changsheng's control of temperature was no weaker than that of most skilled pill refiners. Simple refining like this was easy for him.
Under the influence of the spiritual flame, the herbs quickly melted into a thick, concentrated spiritual liquid.
When he removed the lid of the cauldron, colorful mist poured out in seven hues. A wave of rich life energy hit him full in the face; just breathing it in made him feel years younger.
"Go."
He gently tilted Lu Yuxiu's pale chin, then pointed his finger toward her lips. The spiritual liquid transformed into a thin stream and flowed into her mouth.
As the essence of life spread through her body, the foreign entity in her dantian immediately began to feast with wild abandon.
With the help of his eye technique, Song Changsheng could see a crimson light mass rapidly expanding within her dantian.
Once it reached a certain size, he sent a thread of spiritual sense into her dantian to investigate.
Now that the target was large enough, it wasn't hard to locate.
What he saw was a blood-red, spherical tumor, roughly the size of an egg. Its surface was crisscrossed with twisted capillaries, and faint tendrils were beginning to stretch outward from its skin.
"What the hell is this thing?" Song Changsheng's expression darkened. Was this… some kind of tumor?
He hesitated, unsure whether to stop the life energy infusion, but just then, Lu Yuxiu let out a faint sound on the jade bed.
He turned to look and saw that the tight furrow between her brows had begun to relax. Her eyelids trembled ever so slightly, as though she were on the verge of waking.
A flash of joy lit up Song Changsheng's eyes. She was showing signs of recovery; his method might be working!
Now, he faced two options:
First, stop the flow of life energy immediately. No one knew what letting this "tumor" continue growing would ultimately lead to.
Second, continue feeding the entity, betting on the possibility that Lu Yuxiu would regain consciousness as a result.
There was no time for hesitation. Song Changsheng chose the second path.
No matter what, waking her up came first.
As the tumor grew, its disgusting tendrils soon spread throughout Lu Yuxiu's entire dantian.
Meanwhile, she began to stir. Her tightly shut eyes slowly cracked open, and the slit grew wider and wider until it revealed a pair of clear, luminous eyes.
Song Changsheng was momentarily stunned. He had never seen such beautiful eyes, bright and mesmerizing like the stars in the heavens. Without thinking, he stopped the flow of the spiritual liquid.
"Excuse me… who are you?"
Lu Yuxiu's voice held a hint of confusion. She recognized the room, but the man before her was a stranger.
"I'm a physician your father invited. You were ill. I'm here to treat you." Song Changsheng gave her a gentle smile.
"I see. Thank you for your trouble," Lu Yuxiu said softly, her voice delicate and gentle, like a whisper in your ear.
"Do you feel any discomfort in your body?" Song Changsheng subtly glanced at her dantian. With the life energy cut off, the tumor had already begun to shrink.
"I… suddenly feel so sleepy… I just want… to sleep…"
As she spoke, Lu Yuxiu's voice grew weaker and weaker. Her eyelids grew heavier, and she looked like she might pass out again at any moment.
Song Changsheng's expression turned grim; his worst fear had come true. The "tumor" had established a symbiotic relationship with Lu Yuxiu.
If he tried to remove it now, it would likely cost her life on the spot.
Seeing that she was about to lose consciousness again, Song Changsheng quickly grabbed her wrist and channeled his spiritual energy into her body.
Lu Yuxiu immediately perked up.
Her bright, sparkling eyes blinked as she looked at him and said, "I suddenly don't feel tired anymore… and my whole body feels warm and comfy…"
But his spiritual energy was draining fast, so Song Changsheng quickly asked, "Do you remember who attacked you? What did they do to you?"
Lu Yuxiu blinked, her expression confused. She shook her head and said, "I don't remember."
"Do you feel any changes in your body? Anything different from before?"
She shook her head again.
Just then, Song Changsheng felt his strength reaching its limit. As he prepared to pull his hand back, a deep, muffled thumping echoed in his ears. It sounded like a heartbeat, magnified several times.
Thump…
Thump…
Thump…
The rhythm was steady and grew clearer with each beat.
Song Changsheng's eyes widened as he stared at Lu Yuxiu's lower abdomen. The sound was coming from there more precisely, from the "tumor" in her dantian.
"This thing… is alive?!" His heart lurched in alarm.
Lu Yuxiu's pale face twisted in fear as she looked at him helplessly and asked, "What… what is that sound…?"
At that moment, Song Changsheng's spiritual energy had run dry. He tried to pull away, but to his horror, his hand felt as if it were welded in place, completely immobile.
"Not good."
He felt a jolt of dread. If this continued, he might end up completely drained and a dried-out corpse.
As he hesitated over whether to forcibly sever the connection, the tumor suddenly split open, releasing a mass of thick, murky, blood-colored liquid.
The tumor quickly shriveled, its tendrils retracting, curling back into a withered lump.
Lu Yuxiu furrowed her brows in pain, gritting her teeth to stop herself from crying out. In the end, she passed out cold from the sheer agony.
At the same time, Song Changsheng realized he could finally move again.
His face pale, he let go of her wrist. That damned thing had nearly drained him dry.
But before he could catch his breath, he saw the blood-colored liquid in her dantian begin to move. It flowed upward, following the path of her meridians.
He had no idea what the hell it was or what it intended, but one thing was certain: he couldn't let it go unchecked.
He propped Lu Yuxiu up and struck her between the shoulder blades, releasing the very last trace of spiritual energy from his dantian.
With a violent cough, Lu Yuxiu vomited a mouthful of foul, dark blood. Her aura weakened drastically.
The moment the filthy blood hit the ground, it squirmed as if it were alive and slipped into the cracks between the floorboards, disappearing without a trace…
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