Chapter 26: I Might Be Your Destiny
Time... is truly an unimaginable beast. It can cause the strongest man beneath the stars to die, and it can cause the most precious medicinal pill to turn into useless dregs. Zhou Dufu might not have understood medicine, but the pills he collected were stored with great care regarding both environment and containers. Yet even so, after several hundred years, there was no way to preserve their potency.
Xu Yourong received confirmation from his silence, thought for a moment, and then said, "In that case, I'll sleep a bit more."
By now, she had stopped coughing and fell asleep very peacefully.
If one were about to enter an eternal slumber, one probably wouldn't be able to fall asleep beforehand no matter what. Chen Changsheng looked at the sleeping girl and felt boundless admiration and respect. How powerful must one's will and mental fortitude be to sleep peacefully in such a situation?
That Flowing Fire Pill had failed. How could he save her?
He hesitated for a moment, then decided to use the method that had made him hesitate for over ten days on the grassland—Golden Needle Blood Drive.
Golden Needle Blood Drive was a technique that stimulated life force and blood vessel strength, causing immense harm to the patient. Before his teacher, the Daoist Ji, successfully modified it, this acupuncture method was basically classified as a forbidden art by the State Church, strictly prohibited from use. Even now, this technique couldn't completely avoid severe side effects, so it was generally only used when a patient was on the verge of death.
In a sense, Golden Needle Blood Drive was like that last bowl of aged ginseng soup.
Since he had made the decision, he no longer hesitated. He sat down behind Xu Yourong, untied the golden thread wrapped around the ring finger of his left hand, and with a slight stir of his spiritual sense, the golden thread straightened like a needle and stabbed into the back of her neck like lightning.
Golden Needle Blood Drive was very difficult; the hardest part was inserting the needle into the patient's marrow meridian in one go. Since she was asleep now, it was the perfect opportunity.
Xu Yourong frowned slightly, feeling some pain, and woke up.
"Don't move. I'm treating you."
Chen Changsheng knew she was young, but she remained calm in the face of change and composed in adversity. As long as he explained clearly, she would cooperate. As expected, Xu Yourong quickly calmed down. His true essence, carrying a chill, slowly entered her body through the golden needle, traveling through her meridians and blood vessels like a tide, dispersing the toxins accumulated between her diaphragm and organs, while also dispelling the suspicion she had felt earlier.
Sweat beads the size of soybeans kept emerging on Chen Changsheng's forehead, then froze into ice pellets, rolling to the ground with a crisp sound. As time passed, the ground around them became covered in frozen sweat beads, looking like a sea of pearls. Some ice pellets rolled down the stone steps, traveling far away until they hit the huge black obsidian coffin and stopped.
After an unknown amount of time, the golden needle withdrew from the back of Xu Yourong's neck and rewound around Chen Changsheng's finger.
A long time passed. He didn't speak, and Xu Yourong didn't speak either.
He lowered his head, looking at the ice beads on the ground, feeling somewhat sad, but more than that, unwilling to accept it—Golden Needle Blood Drive was the last method he could think of, very dangerous and violent, yet even so, it had achieved no effect at all.
This technique could stimulate a person's life force and blood vessels. Even an elderly person gasping for breath on their sickbed could regain some spirit, even snatch a thread of life from the underworld. However, it had no effect on Xu Yourong at all, because her blood vessels were completely withered, and her life force had long been exhausted in the continuous battles and journeys.
If there was no firewood, no matter how intensely you applied the flames, how could you ignite it?
"Sorry."
It wasn't Chen Changsheng who said these two words, but Xu Yourong. She looked at him with a smile and said, "Although I don't understand medicine, I know that the acupuncture technique you just used was remarkable. It's a pity that this patient of yours is too uncooperative."
This was the truth. Her Holy Light Technique had saved many people in the Zhou Garden, but that belonged to a different domain from medicine.
Chen Changsheng raised his head, looking at her slightly swollen yet still beautiful face, feeling extremely downcast.
"Your essence blood is exhausted. Apart from replenishing blood, there's no other method. But we tried a few days ago—your blood vessels are somewhat special. Beast blood is meaningless to you. I even think that aside from your own blood, no blood has any meaning for you. So even if we could leave the Zhou Garden, we might not be able to cure you."
He honestly explained the current situation to her. Telling a dying girl why she was going to die had nothing to do with his respect for her strong will, but rather his own powerful, even stubborn and obsessive attitude toward death. People didn't know how they came into this world, so when leaving it, they should be clear-headed—only then could it be said that they hadn't come to this world in vain.
He didn't explain his thoughts to Xu Yourong, but Xu Yourong wasn't grief-stricken, nor did she vent her anger at him. It was as if she understood his meaning. She smiled and said, "But if we can leave the Zhou Garden, at least you can survive."
Since coming to this tomb, Xu Yourong had often smiled, but those smiles were actually very weak. Chen Changsheng couldn't even bear to look at them.
"I haven't found a way to leave the Zhou Garden. I don't know if that will make you a little happier." He looked at her and smiled. He knew she couldn't possibly be happy about it, but he hoped she could cheer up because of this unfunny joke he had told.
Xu Yourong didn't cheer up. Instead, her smile gradually faded. She looked at him calmly and said, "It seems I'm going to die."
Because of this sentence—a sentence that wasn't said for the first time—Chen Changsheng suddenly felt as if a stone had slammed heavily into his chest, making him unbearably sad.
He remembered that night when she said she was only fifteen, the same age as him. In the prime of youth, yet at the end of life—this was truly the saddest thing in the world, the sadness he had experienced in advance countless nights before.
He had prepared for death for a very long time. No one was more prepared than he was. Yet now, watching her die before his eyes, he still had no way to stop it.
"I don't want to die." Xu Yourong looked at him very seriously and said this.
When she said this, she wasn't sad. Her expression was still so calm, because she wasn't begging for his pity, just telling him her final thoughts.
"You won't die," Chen Changsheng said.
Xu Yourong said, "You know I can't accept such unconvincing comfort."
Chen Changsheng suddenly thought of something, his mind wandering, his voice trembling slightly as he said, "You... won't die."
Xu Yourong's expression shifted slightly. She didn't understand why his emotions had suddenly become somewhat strange.
"You won't die."
Chen Changsheng repeated it a third time, but this time, his voice was exceptionally calm and certain, his clear eyes shining brightly.
Xu Yourong thought he had lost his mind a little and said, "You don't need to bear any responsibility for my death."
Chen Changsheng said, "But I don't want you to die."
Xu Yourong teased him with a tired voice, "Are you a god? If you don't want someone to die, they won't die."
"Yes." Chen Changsheng's clear voice echoed through the empty tomb, so certain.
Xu Yourong stared blankly at him.
He smiled.
He didn't know why fate had brought him into the Zhou Garden and then to this tomb—was it because of that sword intent, or something else? But now he knew one thing: he could perhaps change this girl's fate.
To put it another way, he was her destiny, or at least a part of it.