If someone were to come here and see Zhou Xuan's situation, they would find it strange. However, Ito had no intention of coming to monitor him. There was no other way out of the cave except for the waterway. Zhou Xuan and the others did not have any other threatening weapons. Besides, he himself was a master swordsman who had practiced for many years, so there was no need to be too wary of them.
The only threat to him was his junior sister, Yuriko, but Ito had no intention of harming her. Although he pushed her while escaping underwater, there was nothing to say about saving one's own life in such a life-or-death situation. He knew Yuriko's personality very well, and even after all that had happened, she would not try to ambush or harm him.
At this time, Yuriko and Fu Ying were already fast asleep from exhaustion, completely unaware of Zhou Xuan's condition.
Although Zhou Xuan's situation was critical, he realized that although the energy in the boulder was extremely large, it could not devour the ice energy of his pill. This was because although the boulder's energy was great, it had no spiritual consciousness, just like a vegetable without thoughts. Although his pill's ice energy was weak, it was closely connected to his mind.
In his extremely weak state, Zhou Xuan could only desperately try to circulate his internal energy. There seemed to be a faint trace of internal energy in his left wrist, which was extremely difficult to circulate within his body's meridians. However, after a few difficult cycles, the trace of internal energy became much faster, and after a few more cycles, it even managed to draw back some of the energy from the boulder.
The internal energy within his body suddenly became stronger. Zhou Xuan could feel the connection between himself and the icy energy of the pill inside the boulder. He quickly tried to summon the icy energy back with his mind, but it was enveloped by the enormous energy inside the boulder and could not return to his hand.
But this was better than the feeling of being exhausted from being drained at the beginning. So he immediately circulated his internal energy while using his mind to direct the ice energy to circulate in the energy of the large stone.
Before long, Zhou Xuan suddenly discovered that his pill's ice energy was actually absorbing the energy inside the boulder while it was circulating. He was overjoyed, and his internal energy circulated more and more smoothly and easily. The pill's ice energy was also circulating faster and faster inside the boulder, absorbing a large amount of energy into the pill as it rotated, and then transforming it into new pill ice energy!
While Zhou Xuan was overjoyed, he guessed that the new energy resulting from the combination of his inner breath and ice energy was already very familiar with the energy in the golden stone, making it easy for him to absorb.
The icy energy within the pill spun faster and faster. Eventually, Zhou Xuan could almost control the rapidly increasing icy energy to surge wildly. His mind felt increasingly relaxed. However, the energy within the large rock was simply too immense, almost incomparable to the energy in the smaller rocks he had previously encountered. No matter how hard he absorbed the icy energy from the pill, he could only manage to absorb about one or two tenths of it. Moreover, Zhou Xuan could feel his pill energy expanding violently, but at the same time, his head felt uncomfortably swollen. It was like eating; once you're full and your stomach is stuffed, can you still eat anything else?
Zhou Xuan used his mind to try to retract the surging ice energy from the pill. Unexpectedly, he was able to easily recall the ice energy. The new ice energy from the pill had expanded to the size of a fist, golden and five or six times larger than the previous ping-pong ball shape.
The icy energy from the pill didn't stay in the left wrist after returning to the body. Instead, it rapidly circulated within the body along the path of internal energy flow. When one cycle was completed, the pill returned from the left wrist to the large stone.
Zhou Xuan was somewhat surprised; he couldn't control the flow of the Danren Ice Qi!
The icy energy from the pill returned to the large rock, circulated within the energy field, absorbed a considerable amount of energy, and then flowed back down the wrist into Zhou Xuan's body, continuing to circulate along the internal energy pathway. It then returned to the large rock again, and so on in an endless cycle.
However, after each cycle within his body, the icy energy from the pill absorbed significantly more energy from the large rock than before. Zhou Xuan did not feel any stuffiness and clearly sensed that the meridians within his body seemed much smoother and more spacious.
It's like the internal energy pathways in the body initially resembled a track and field path, but now they're like a six- or seven-meter-wide road for cars, and it seems they're still expanding in an even wider direction!
At this moment, Zhou Xuan almost involuntarily let the ice energy of the pill circulate wildly on its own. Finally, when the ice energy of the pill returned to his body and no longer returned to the big rock, Zhou Xuan realized that the ice energy in the golden big rock had disappeared, and the rock had turned black.
Meanwhile, the pill inside his body, which was still operating at high speed, had swelled to the size of a ball that needed to be held in both hands!
Zhou Xuan sensed the immense surging energy within his body, which he could not and dared not stop. Otherwise, he felt that if he stopped, this immense energy would cause his body to explode.
This was a contradictory moment. Zhou Xuan desperately wanted to possess the ice energy, but the energy within the boulder was too immense for him to handle. The ice energy from the pill had mixed all the energy together, making it impossible to separate. It had evolved into a new whole. If he were to separate it and leave it within the boulder, Zhou Xuan could imagine that he might die from exhaustion!
That's the feeling, but the icy energy in the pill seemed to be doing its best. After expanding the internal energy path to its limit, it continued to circulate rapidly along the path. However, the shape of the pill was slowly shrinking, but its color was becoming more golden. Eventually, it shrank to the size of a ping-pong ball. Gradually, the circulation speed also slowed down, and finally it stopped circulating and returned to its left wrist to lie dormant. At this moment, the pill was radiating golden light.
Zhou Xuan let out a long breath, opened his eyes, and found that he could move. He pulled his left hand back and looked at his wrist. Although he knew that the Dan Blade Ice Qi inside was golden, the skin on his wrist was light and the same color as the rest of his body. The skin color on his wrist had actually returned to normal!
Zhou Xuan quickly bit the glove with his teeth and took his left hand out of the glove. He looked at it again and saw that his palm was pale yellow and his skin color was normal, without any abnormality!
Zhou Xuan was overjoyed. Although he was in a dangerous situation, he was in a great mood. He closed his eyes and felt the energy of the pill's ice energy. He then channeled the ice energy from his fingertips and forced it out. The ice energy seemed to see clearly, as if it had eyes open, and it could detect the area within a dozen meters around him!
Beside him, Fu Ying and Yuriko were drowsy, and in the distance, Ito leaned against the cliff with his eyes closed, his hand pressing down on a pile of gems. All of these images were clearly imprinted in his mind.
Even if Zhou Xuan wanted to, the icy energy could penetrate into Ito's body and perceive his internal organs, facial features, and molecular structure!
This is amazing! In the past, it would have been impossible for Zhou Xuan to teleport his supernatural ice energy without the aid of an object. Even with the aid of an object, he could only teleport it to a distance of about three meters away from his body. But now, he can teleport it more than ten meters away. If he were to teleport it with the aid of an object, he could probably reach even greater distances.
After thinking for a moment, Zhou Xuan withdrew his breath and focused it on Fu Ying, checking the injury on her right wrist.
(I highly recommend "The Way of the Commoner Official," a classic work on officialdom by Nan Hua, to my friend who is also quite lonely. It's a must-read for anyone interested in urban officialdom!)
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Volume One: The Lotus Buds Just Begin to Emerge, Chapter Thirty-Three: Turning Stone into Gold
Fu Ying's wrist was tightly bandaged with cloth strips; the bleeding had long since stopped, but some blood clots remained under her skin. Even if no bones or tendons were damaged, she would certainly suffer pain for over a month. ()
However, Fu Ying was fast asleep at this time, but her left hand was holding Zhou Xuan's right hand very tightly. Zhou Xuan gently pulled away, but Fu Ying held on even tighter, pulling his hand to her chest. The movement seemed to affect her right hand, and there was a trace of pain at the corner of her mouth.
Zhou Xuan quickly stopped what he was doing. Fu Ying only stirred slightly before falling back asleep.
Zhou Xuan stopped making noise and transferred the icy energy from his right hand into Fu Ying's body. After checking her over, he found that Fu Ying was in good health, except for the injury to her right wrist.
When the icy energy reached her right wrist, it immediately devoured the necrotic cells there. The surging icy energy then stimulated the rapid metabolism of Fu Ying's blood, causing it to circulate and grow blood cells hundreds of times faster than normal. It also devoured and decomposed foreign microorganisms and aging, dead tissue cells in her body, and then rapidly restored herself with newly generated cells.
All of this was clearly presented in Zhou Xuan's mind. Zhou Xuan had experienced similar things before. The only time he was bitten by a sea turtle was when he was asleep and unaware of it. However, when he treated Wei Haihong, he was fully aware of it. But when he treated Wei Haihong, the recovery of Wei Haihong's injuries was much slower, and Wei Haihong eventually couldn't hold on and fainted. He still doesn't know what happened to Wei Haihong.
Thinking of this, Zhou Xuan still felt a little sorry for Brother Hong. Although Brother Hong was also a wealthy man and from a different world, Zhou Xuan could still feel Brother Hong's concern for him. He didn't care about the Six-Sided Vajra Night-Shining Pearl at all. With his current abilities, would he ever have to worry about money in this life? Perhaps the lives of his friends and family were more important!
Of course, all of this depends on leaving this place alive.
The icy energy restored almost 80% of the injury to Fu Ying's wrist, and Zhou Xuan withdrew the icy energy. He was well aware of the damage to himself from healing like this before, and it was almost unbearable. But now he easily restored Fu Ying's injury and he didn't seem to feel much. The damage from the pill's icy energy was almost imperceptible!
The goal was to completely heal the wound inside Fu Ying's wrist, since it was invisible inside. The wound on the surface of her wrist should be left to scab over and heal slowly over a few days, so that Fu Ying wouldn't be too suspicious.
Yuriko Ono wouldn't suspect anything, because she couldn't see inside Fu Ying's skin and wouldn't even think of it.
Just then, Fu Ying whispered, "Don't leave me!"
Zhou Xuan was taken aback and turned his head to look at her. He saw that Fu Ying's eyes were closed, and a crystal tear was hanging under her long eyelashes.
He's obviously talking in his sleep!
Zhou Xuan gently patted Fu Ying's shoulder, and Fu Ying then held Zhou Xuan's right hand tightly against her chest with both hands. Even though her wound had healed, she couldn't feel any pain.
Zhou Xuan looked at her; her skin was as smooth as a baby's. He sighed and muttered softly, "So beautiful!"
Unfortunately, no matter how beautiful she is, she's not his type. He doesn't have any romantic feelings for Fu Ying, but beautiful people are always pleasing to the eye, and who wouldn't want to look at beautiful things more often?
When Zhou Xuan’s gaze fell on the black stones beside him, he suddenly wondered what he should say if Ito and Yuriko noticed that the stones had changed color.
I couldn't think of a good solution for the time being, but I guess even without an explanation, Ito wouldn't have too much suspicion, since he couldn't possibly think of it in terms of superpowers.