Heretic Doctor Zihou - Chapter 56

Translator: Atlas Studios  Editor: Atlas Studios

 “Okay…” Mo Yunhuang nodded and released his grip. However, his gaze was still fixed on Zihou.

 Feeling the pressure on her waist dissipating, Zihou immediately changed and escaped from his shackles and flew dozens of feet away in a flash. At the same time, she retrieved some white powder from her sleeves and threw it all over his face…

 “Scoundrel—since you wanna threaten yours truly, I’ll let you have a taste of my capabilities!” Zihou figure flashed, stopped at the entrance of the room, turned back, and sneered coldly.

 The sudden disappearance of the warm and soft figure in his arms and the poisonous powder that came at him made Mo Yunhuang come to his senses. Not only did the lady’s smug smile not anger him in the least bit, it even made an unknown evil fire accumulate and circulate within his body through his limbs and bones…

 The inexplicable heat and vexing emptiness made Mo Yunhuang frown deeply.

 Based on his cultivation, he should be immune to all poisons. Thus, he didn’t bother with that bag of poisonous powder. As such, just like this, the poison seeped into his body and made his already heated body even warmer…

 After he took a hard look at Zihou, Mo Yunhuang’s figure flashed, and with a gust of wind, his black robe was camouflaged in the dark night in the blink of an eye…

 Seeing that he left, the smile on Zihou’s face gradually disappeared. For some reason, seeing him leave actually made an odd sense of disappointment arise in her heart…

Laying on her bed, she saw his shadow regardless of having her eyes opened or closed. No matter what, she couldn’t get that bugging sight out of her mind.

 Zihou tossed and turned in bed and couldn’t fall asleep. Eventually, she became vexed and scolded a certain someone in her heart a couple of times. She decided to just forget about sleeping, sat up, retrieved the Ancient Fragment, and started to read intently. She wanted to use it to distract herself so that she didn’t think about other nonsense…

 Right now, she could already easily alchemize Grade 4 pills. As for Grade 5 pills, she had yet to attempt. However, according to the Ancient Fragment, as long as she kept trying, it was just a matter of time that she alchemized Grade 5 pills.

 Zihou’s gaze swept past the formula for the Grade 5 transformation cutting pills and flickered slightly. Since she couldn’t get to sleep, she might as well take the opportunity to make an attempt at it? Thinking of this, Zihou’s face lit up and she became excited.

 Very ordinary ingredients were needed for the Grade 5 transformation cutting pills—they weren’t rare and she had already bought them previously at the medicinal pavilion. However, the difficulty in the alchemization laid in perfectly integrating these ingredients, which tested an alchemist’s skills. The slightest oversight or imperfectly integrated ingredients would render one’s efforts useless!

 One of the key factors of pill alchemization was the role played by fire. Now that Zihou didn’t have the heavenly fire, she could only depend on ordinary fire. However, ordinary fire was hard to control and a single mistake would cause all the pills in the urn to go to waste. This made Zihou secretly determined to look for the heavenly fire.

 Lighting up the fire, Zihou placed the ingredients that she had carefully measured out beforehand into the urn. Her previous experience of alchemizing pills, coupled with her talent in pill alchemization, ensured everything was completed with ease. Grilling in the flames, the ingredients emitted a mild therapeutic medicinal scent…

 The sky was already dark. Within Mu Xuan Court, a room’s light continued to be lit till the sun rose…

 The next day, a loud explosion rang through the entire General’s estate. That violent impact shook the entire estate…

In the living room, Master Wei was sipping tea when the teacup in his hand shook, spilling some tea from within. The sound of the explosion made him blink and left him momentarily stunned. Soon after, as if he thought of something, he smiled joyfully…

 The servants around him, seeing that Master was scalded by the tea and still smiled mysteriously, all turned ghastly and wondered to themselves. “General Wei, what’s the matter with you? Your hand is scalded and you can still smile?”

 Naturally, Wei Guoting ignored the opinions of the servants. Without saying a word, he immediately dumped the teacup, stood up, and rushed towards the source of that sound…

 Upon reaching Mu Xuan Court, he saw that the newly renovated courtyard was ruined with broken bricks and stones scattered everywhere—it was simply an unbearable sight. However, Wei Guoting’s smile became even brighter. He thought enthusiastically. “Wow, such a violent explosion—it must be some top-grade pills?!”

 “Girl, there’s an explosion again?” Wei Guoting scanned the surroundings, finally found a dilapidated Zihou in the mess, and spoke with extreme kindness. His tone was seemingly saying, “Girl, you’ve woken up?”

 Zihou was speechless at her grandfather’s behavior.

 “Did you successfully cultivated the Grade 5 transformation pills?” Before Zihou could reply, Wei Guoting grinned once again, his face filled with curiosity and a tinge of… slyness!

 Seeing that her own grandfather was grinning so happily, Zihou pouted and said helplessly, “This place is in such a state and you can still smile?”

 Looking up and rolling her eyes, Zihou felt a deep sense of helplessness. Fortunately, after learning from the painful experience from the previous time, she had very quickly retrieved the pills and fled before the explosion this time around and wasn’t too seriously hit by the impact.

 However, she finally realized that this explosion wasn’t indicative of the quality of the pills that she alchemized but was largely due to the fact that ordinary urns couldn’t withstand the huge pressure of alchemizing high-grade pills! It seemed like it wasn’t just urgent for her to find the heavenly fire—she also needed an urn of better quality!

 Otherwise, if an explosion were to happen every time she alchemized pills, the entire General’s estate would be demolished by her sooner or later…

 “Hehe…” Wei Guoting sneered. “Quick, let Grandpa have a look—what precious pills have you alchemized?” Wei Guoting grabbed the Zihou’s tightly held fist with a face filled with curiosity.

 Zihou glanced at the curious Wei Guoting and a sly glow flashed past her eyes. She lifted her brows, curled up her lips into a teasing smile, and asked frivolously, “You wanna know? Take a guess!”

 Hearing this, Wei Guoting’s face fell and he looked at Zihou with an extremely resentful expression. From a tough general to an old foggy trying to act adorable and then to the king of resentment right now, Zihou felt that she was truly defeated by her grandfather’s range of personas.

 “What treasure can I have—it’s just the cutting pills that I promised you guys previously!” Zihou didn’t intend to continue teasing him as she opened her palm, presenting the pills in her hand.

 The marble-sized pills appeared plainly greenish-brown under the sunlight but were actually covered in straight, brown lines. In the breeze, a mild scent could be smelled from time to time, making one feel refreshed.

 Wei Guoting’s face turned serious as his eyes filled with scorching heat. He had lived his whole life on the back of horses and seen much of the world but had only seen Grade 5 transformation pills a few times—less than five times based on his impression. Moreover, the Grade 5 transformation pills that he’d seen were all safely kept within the palace’s Treasure House and totally untouchable by the ordinary folks. Those things were way beyond his reach.

 However, right now, the Grade 5 transformation pills that were just right before him were way more than those he had ever seen in the many years in his life.

 It felt surreal.

 “Girl, you’re indeed promising!” Wei Guoting woke up from the dream-like state and patted Zihou behind the back with an excited expression, his eyes filled with emotions…

 “But of course—just look at who’s my grandfather!” Zihou unabashedly accepted Wei Guoting’s praise and conveniently praised her grandfather back as well.

 Hearing this, Master Wei smiled slightly with a tinge of bitterness that others wouldn’t understand…

 “General, Young Mistress—good news!” Ya-er’s excited voice came from outside the courtyard.

 “What happened?” Zihou asked.

 “Young Master Yu stood up!” Ya-er said enthusiastically, her voice trembling from the excitement.

 “What?!”

 “What?!”

 Hearing this, both Wei Guoting and Zihou whispered in disbelief. They exchanged glances and, without saying anything else, immediately rushed towards Wei Ziyu’s courtyard…

 In the Flying Winds Court, Wei Ziyu was still clad in white clothes as his frail figure looked in the distance with slight loneliness.

 He supported himself on the wheelchair with his slightly trembling arms and then got up with great effort on his legs. His face was darkened, his brows furrowed, thin perspiration seeped from his nose and forehead, and he looked like he was trying to bear with great pain. Obviously, this process was still very hard on him. However, he moved adeptly—obviously, he had repeated it many times.

 He gritted on his teeth, got up slowly, and finally let go of his grip on the wheelchair, attempting to transfer his entire body weight to his legs.

 His body trembled slightly as his upright torso twisted unnaturally. He wanted to move his feet but eventually didn’t manage to do it as he stood there struggling with his own body.

 Half a second later, his legs eventually couldn’t take the pressure, leaned back, and once again returned him to the wheelchair. He panted heavily as perspiration flowed from his forehead profusely.

 However, after resting for a moment, he once again repeated his previous actions with grit, not giving up the least bit.

 At the entrance of the Flying Winds Court, Wei Guoting and Zihou both halted their steps, took in the sight within the courtyard, and didn’t interrupt him.

 Their eyes reflected Wei Ziyu’s unrelenting tries—even though each time he could only stand up before falling back down, he kept his chin up.

As someone with medical knowledge, she knew deeply just how serious was Wei Ziyu’s paralysis and just how much effort and time was needed for recovery.

 She had originally thought that it would still take some time before he could stand up, which explained why she was shocked when she heard Ya-er’s words just now. However, he had given her a surprise once again. His unrelenting spirit touched her.

 “Brother, you can try walking with the walking stick first…” The voice from outside stunned Wei Ziyu, who was trying hard to stand up.

 “Grandpa, Hou-er, you guys are here!” Upon seeing them, a faint smile appeared on Wei Ziyu’s pale face.

 “Yup.” Zihou nodded as she walked up to Wei Ziyu, helped him, and said, “Come, let me help you. Let’s take one step at a time.”

 “Is this okay?” Wei Ziyu frowned slightly. He had already tried umpteen times but still couldn’t take a single step!

 “You won’t know until you try.” Zihou smiled confidently, which made Wei Ziyu trust her for some reason.

 With Zihou helping him and her professional advice, after a few tries, Wei Ziyu actually really took his first step! He took a while to get over his excitement—that long-awaited feeling made him emotional and he almost teared up!

 He had waited for five years and yearned for five years. Now, he finally got what he wished for!

 However, before he could feel excited, the overwhelming surprise filled his face, which had been dull for many years, with a radiant smile that stayed on for a long time…

 In the sunshine, the image of the siblings helping each other reflected in the depths of Wei Guoting’s aged eyes. His face, which had been tough for all his life, turned gentle as tears gradually slid down…

 Having been through a night of alchemizing Grade 5 transformation pills, Zihou vaguely felt that she was going to have a breakthrough…

 She split the alchemized Grade 5 transformation cutting pills to Wei Guoting, Wei Shirong, and Wei Ziyu before keeping one for herself as she got ready to practice in seclusion.

 Three days later.

 Within Mu Xuan Court, Ya-er was sitting leisurely on the stone chair under the Japanese Pagoda Tree and having a staring contest with the black leopard sprawled on the tree.

 “Xiaohei, when do you think Young Mistress will come out from seclusion?” Really bored to tears, Ya-er asked, supporting her chin with her hand.

 The black leopard stayed still.

 “Guess you don’t know either, right?”

 The black leopard stayed still.

 “Do you know exactly, or do you not?”

 The black leopard stayed still.

 “I guess you don’t know?”

 “Sniff~” Finally, the black leopard sniffled loudly, as if it couldn’t stand Ya-er’s extreme nagging. Shooting Ya-er a disdainful glance, the black leopard climbed further up the tree, not wanting to deal with her. Instead, it raised its head and looked into the room door not too far away as a hint of human-like self-pity gleamed in its quiet green eyes.

 “Humph!” The deeply despised Ya-er snorted angrily as she similarly turned away, not wanting to bother with Xiaohei anymore. Although she’d been despised by Xiaohei countless times, she was still especially unhappy each time!

 “Why, do you miss me?” A clear, leisure, and slightly teasing voice suddenly rang, instantly perking up both the woman and the beast below and on top of the tree, as if injecting them with steroids.

 “Young Mistress, you’re finally out!” Ya-er got up and dashed towards the room door with a radiant expression which was unlike its dullness just now. Xiaohei, the black leopard, didn’t lose out either. It jumped nimbly from the Japanese Pagoda Tree and rushed towards the room door like a streak of black-colored lightning…

 The room door swung open gently to the corner of clean and white clothes.

 Zihou was clad in a simple, long, and snow-white dress. On her peerless face, her red lips curled up gently, her long brows lifted slightly, her bright eyes sparkled brilliantly, and her faint smile seemed to contain a splash of spring water and encompass the radiance of the universe. Her skin was translucent like snow, frail, delicate, and glimmered gorgeously.

 She strode out looking peerlessly beautiful!

 Ya-er was already dumbfounded. Although she had been seeing Young Mistress’s face for a long time, she could still see changes each time. Only then did she shockingly realize that her Young Mistress seemed to be changing every day during this period. Regardless of her looks or abilities, she was becoming increasingly mysterious and powerful!

 “Why, you’re stunned again?” Zihou gently patted Ya-er’s stunned face as she smiled and teased her.

 “Ugh… it’s all because of you, Young Mistress—we haven’t met for a few days and you’ve become prettier again, causing me to be stunned!” Awoken by Zihou, Ya-er blushed slightly as she pouted and complained. She couldn’t help but think that based on Young Mistress’s progress, she would definitely be the most beautiful woman in the world in the future!

 “Roar~” Aside, Xiaohei, the black leopard felt ignored as it circled Zihou, looked up, and barked, fighting to be noticed.

 Seeing that black leopard struggling to be noticed, Ya-er gloated at its misfortune. Who told it to despise her—she must make use of the opportunity to seek revenge!

 “Oh yes, Young Mistress, just now, someone said that the Night King was looking for you.”

 The Night King?

 Zihou’s brows lifted slightly as she quickly understood that the Night King that Ya-er referred to was her cousin, Chu Lingye.

 However, why was Chu Lingye looking for her?

 Right now, the living room of the Wei Estate was filled with an extremely oppressive atmosphere.

 Wei Guoting sat on top, his usually straight posture actually slightly slouched at this point. With a hand placed on the table, his head hung slightly and he was surrounded by a depressing aura. Below, Wei Shirong and Zhao Xinrou both looked miserable and lost, especially Zhao Xinrou, whose eyes were already red…

 Chu Lingye sat across Wei Shirong and his wife without the least bit of expression on his face. He was like a distant mountain shrouded in clouds, his emotions a mystery.

 The few of them sat silently just like this, making the living room appear exceptionally quiet until a clear and leisure voice broke the silence…