Chapter 921: Fruitful Reaping: Spirit Bath
The medical treatment for Patriarch Zhen Shi and Hermit Zhong Wei went as smooth as butter.
The arena where they were performing makeshift operation was entirely empty and looked to have been clean recently.
There was a momentary scare, where it had turned out that the Zhen Clan’s storehouse had actually ran out of the medical ingredients that Zhen Jin needed, but as luck would have it, a servant had been sent out earlier to purchase the items as a routine resupply.
As for the treatment itself, Miss Lucille proved to be even better with manipulating her cutting wind than anticipated, as she managed to excise Zhen Shi and Zhong Wei from the [Parasitic Wyrmwood] with minimal cuts and blood loss.
Honestly…it was a bit anti-climatic.
Then again, a medical procedure where everything went smoothly was much preferred over one where everything went wrong. Especially after a battle against a freaky aether monkey that seemed to defy logic.
Regardless, due to every possible circumstance somehow going their way, the Zhen Clan managed to treat their ailing patriarch and honored guest without a hitch.
“Phew!”
Now that their father/leader was no longer in critical condition, and was recuperating, the Zhen Clan warriors had a choice to make.
“Okay, do we stick around here and hope that Zhen Yan, his son and his future daughter-in-law retreat safely, or do we go back into the wandering ruins and make sure they’re okay?”
“Which do you think?”
“No shit.”
With the mentality of “no man left behind”, the Zhen Clan warriors proceeded to return to the [Monkey Temple Jungle], in order to make sure the others were okay…which turned out to be unnecessary.
…
“Wait a minute, I think you missed some details, father.”
“I did?”
“Yes, first, what happened to Jinju Ren? Last I checked she had passed out because she overexerted her dragon force related abilities.”
“Oh, yeah. She managed to regain consciousness after they had finished the procedures on father and Hermit Zhong Wei. From what the others told me, she had a voracious appetite after waking up. Something about dragon blooded benefits of just needing to eat a lot of energy rich foods in order to recuperate?”
“That…somehow makes sense,” Zhen Liu replied as he thought how painfully cliche it was. “But moving on, did they make sure to deposit the treasures? I’d rather not have to fight over for this stuff again.”
“We managed to do just that. The only treasure we hadn’t secured yet is the fountain we picked up, but that can be addressed later.”
“Fair enough. Finally, How’d you know that they came back?”
“Oh, simple. They swung by us before heading over to the [Spirit Tempering Pond].”
“They did?!”
“Yeah. They also said we should meet up with them after you regained consciousness.”
“Oh…let’s go then.”
“You sure you don’t want to rest and heal a bit more?,” Jin Fang asked, worried about Zhen Liu’s physical condition. She had read somewhere that being rendered unconscious has a tendency to lead to permanent brain damage, and her boyfriend had been rather…haphazard as of late…
“Five minutes of me sitting here could actually make a difference in this crazy place, and not in a good way. I’d rather meet up with the others and get the fuck out of here before incurring the wrath of any more aether primates. Also are we sure that one in the fire chains is still unconscious?”
“Oh you won’t have to worry about intruders.”
“Really? Why?”
“You’ll see.”
_____One brisk walk back to the [Tempering Spirit Pond] later…_______________________
“Ook?”
“Eek?”
“Oh, right. Elite primate squad.”
“Xiao Liu!”
“Hey guys, I’m alive.”
“As expecte-! Wait…what’s with the tied up dragon monkey thing?”
Zhen Liu, Zhen Yan, Jin Fang and Rianna had arrived to the [Tempering Spirit Pond] under much more favorables circumstances than before.
The elders of the Zhen Clan were busying themselves patrolling the perimeter, alongside the help with a squad of giant aether primates that had decided to make Zhen Hai their leader, while the scions themselves were mentally preparing to absorb the power of the [Tempering Spirit Pond].
That stated, they could take a break from such activities for the sake of family. Especially a family member that risked their life to secure such a moment. Correction: a family member who helped facilitate a lot more victories than was obvious.
“Xiao Liu, you gotta lend me that ice puppet for a longer period of time. It helped keep our asses covered by a lot.”
“If we’re making requests, can I borrow the chimeric one? I wanna see if they can help me improve my instrument skills.”
“I will admit, I had doubts about the skeletal one being able to boost my punches, but she does good work.”
“Darling!”
“Oh? Hey Jinju R-GAH!”
Of course, as much as gratitude as famiy members could express to Zhen Liu, they kind of failed in comparison to a dragon princess with a perchance of physical affection.
As Zhen Liu was in the middle of expressing joy in the survival and success of his cousins, Jinju Ren showed up from nowhere and proceeded to tackle hug him. It was a good thing he was sturdier than he looked, otherwise he would’ve been knocked over.
Granted, this was an understandable reaction given that the last time they saw each other, one of them had been rendered unconscious.
“Thank the heavens that you’re okay! What happened after I passed out?”
“Ah, well…”
“Alright, that’s enough badgering, everybody. Give the man room to breathe.”
Before Zhen Liu could spin his semi-lie for everyone to hear, Elder Zhen Long interjected himself so that everyone could bring their attention back to the present.
With the First Elder of the Zhen Clan present, the scions and princess proceeded to quiet down and give Zhen Liu space to breathe, as Zhen Long instructed.
Once everyone had calmed down, Zhen Long drummed out some new instructions for them all to follow.
“Alright, as we had planned ahead of time, the scions will go first into the pond and absorb as much as they can without bursting, followed by the elders. Hopefully the gains we reap today will be able to act as the foundation for an even more solid future.”
“Yes, First Elder.”
“Yes, father.”
“Good.”
“Aight, cool,” Zhen Liu piped up. “If that’s the case, I’m gonna go and-”
“Oh no you don’t,” Zhen Hai said as he grabbed the leavig Zhen Liu’s collar. “You’re coming too.”
“Eh? But-”
Before Zhen Liu could even rattle off the excuse of “I don’t have any aether channels, it doesn’t make sense for me to be in there”, he was cut off by a predictive statement from his cousin, Zhen Yue.
“We agreed that it felt wrong to exclude you from at least trying to reap some benefit from the [Tempering Spirit Pond], even if it will ultimately lead to nothing. Who knows, it might just repair your missing aether channels.”
“I mean…maybe…”
“And besides, you can still have your puppets act like your aether channels right? What’s the worst that could happen from doing that?”
“That…huh.”
As much as Zhen Liu wanted to deny that possibility form working, in reality, he actually hadn’t tested that yet.
He had figured that if there were any interesting natural aether treasures or medicines that could help with cultivation that they would just go directly to the kaijin. He didn’t need to be the middle man since he already benefitted from their cultivation anyways.
But alas, his family didn’t really know that, so he and no choice to play along and hope that the [Tempering Spirit Pond] did something for him.
‘I mean worst case, nothing happens. Right?’
Evidently, he was so caught up in the mood that he forgot that his abilities had a tendency to lead to… unintended consequences.
________________________________________
‘Well…at least the water’s relaxing…and everyone else is benefitting more than me.’
At this point in time, Zhen Liu was more or less stewing in a pond full of aether charged water that his cousins were reaping way more benefits from.
Due to having active aether channels, they could easily focus on circulating their aether in such a way that they could absorb the more mystical properties of the water.
As for Zhen Liu…well…
‘On the plus side…I think my ability to detect the flow of aether has improved,’ he thought to himself. ‘I should just…huh.’
He was just about to give up and leave the water, until he noticed something weird.
Namely, that even more aether seemed to be coming out from the bottom of the pond.
‘What the hell?’
________________________________________
[Ow…my aching non-existent bones…is everyone okay?]
[Yeah…]
[Think so?]
[Bleh…why do I feel like I just had the worst bender in my life? Wait, can we even get drunk?]
[Not sure, and I don’t think finding out will be a good idea.]
[Fair.]*3
