922 Pick the Frui (1/2)

Upon hearing the noises outside, Doctor Sun unhappily got dressed and walked out of the tent before looking in the direction of the mountaintop in the northwest alongside the rest of the Dragon Army troops. In the first rays of the morning sun, Golden Roc Castle was aflame, looking like a shining star, with the only difference being that it was slightly bigger.

”The Dragon King. It must be the Dragon King who started the fire,” Tie Linglong yelled excitedly. The Dragon King had been away for several days now. Her heart had been torn with anxiety just like the others.

Doctor Sun covered his mouth with his hand and yawned. ”Why would he burn down Golden Roc Castle? Isn't it better to keep it as the Dragon King's palace?”

'It's neither Golden Roc Castle nor the palace that matters. What matters is that the Dragon King is still alive.' Tie Linglong put her palms together devoutly and started praying silently.

Doctor Sun glanced at Chu Nanping, who was not far away, and found that there was a trace of uneasiness in his handsome face. With a smile, he shook his head, instantly dispelling his sleepiness. ”Is the Dragon King trying to take the Golden Roc Castle in advance? Because that would be great. I've been meaning to return to northern Jade City for a long time. These old bones of mine are about to break apart after staying in this camp for so long. Alas.”

Doctor Sun sighed in the same way that Luo Ningcha always did. He was only half a day's journey from his warm, comfortable home, but he couldn't move a single step closer to it, which made him feel pensive.

As long as Golden Roc Castle or Waning Moon Hall still existed, then by no means did Doctor Sun dare move an inch out of the Dragon Army's encampment.

Han Wuxian, who was also taking shelter in this camp like him, looked in the direction of the distant fire and smiled somewhat stiffly. ”That fire was set by Waning Moon Hall.”

”How do you know that? Is there anything special about a fire set by Waning Moon Hall?” Tie Linglong remained unconvinced.

”All fire is the same. But if the Dragon King's victory is certain, then what's the point of setting fire?” Han Wuxian turned and faced Doctor Sun. ”This is your contribution.”

Doctor Sun was startled. ”How does this have anything to do with me?”

”It was with your help that Lotus figured out the secret of the Female Gu and why she then absorbed Han Xuan's internal energy, which led her to believe that she was powerful enough to defeat the Unique King. That is why she decided to set fire to Golden Roc Castle.”

Doctor Sun shook his head and waved his hands. ”Hall Leader Han overestimates me. How could I be that tough? Back in Waning Moon Hall, they merely forced me into making a few batches of pills, and the two Female Gu had scarcely been delivered when I fled. And I didn't even have any time to research them. The Tenth Young Master… Shangguan Ru can prove this.”

Doctor Sun was uneasy. The reason why he had fled was indeed because he didn't want to help Waning Moon Hall produce Female Gu. But before that, he had already made some progress, which could have possibly proved very helpful to Waning Moon Hall.

Han Wuxian's smile grew even more tender and sweet. ”Lotus will come to you and thank you herself. There's still a lot you can do for her.”

Doctor Sun was transfixed with shock. After quite a while, he mumbled, ”What have I done… ”

Lotus knew what Doctor Sun had done.

Just as Han Wuxian expected, Doctor Sun had been more helpful than he had imagined. Before he fled, he had gathered enough data for Waning Moon Hall. With some effort from Lotus as well as some other disciples, they finally managed to uncover the fundamentals principles of making Female Gu. To do so, they had to keep poisoning the subject, and at the same time, they had to use specially-designed drugs to prevent the poison from taking effect, just like how a dam allowed a lake to store more water.

With regards to what kind of water it would store, there were many choices. Shangguan Shaomin's body had been turned into a lethal weapon, while Han Xuan's body was used to store an enormous amount of internal energy. The latter was more difficult to do and also took a longer amount of time.

The cultivation of internal energy was an arduous and winding journey for everybody. There were numerous twists and turns, and even retrogression at times. Just like the cultivation of the Gu family's Balanced Power, there was often more retrogression in the process, since people were always worried that their bodies might fail to contain the power, which would result in Qi deviation.

But this was not a problem for someone who used another person's body to cultivate the internal energy. Han Xuan had worked hard for many years, but she had never been a kung fu expert because most of her meridians had been blocked. Her internal Qi had increased uncontrollably, but she herself could barely use it.

The method of producing Female Gu was one of Han Wuxian's cutting edge undertakings, which she was very invested in. She had spent a lot of time seeking suitable infants. She had failed dozens of times before she finally found Han Xuan. In order to not arouse suspicion among her disciples, she had specifically sent the young Female Gu to a far-off area in the Western Regions and assigned her most trusted subordinate to impart kung fu to her every year.

Unaware of the truth, Han Xuan had continued to practice internal energy, making progress all the time without any setbacks, and the rate of her internal energy increase was ten times that of a common person.

Han Wuxian had also been constantly ingesting drugs in order to strengthen her meridians. She had hoped that one day, she would enjoy the fruits of her hard work towards the Female Gu and drastically boost her internal energy overnight.

Doctor Sun had found out the general truth. It was just that he hadn't figured out the specific process as well as a way to extract the internal energy.

Lotus had perused many secret manuals of the Waning Moon Hall and finally found the method to extract internal energy from a Female Gu. However, she didn't have enough time to strengthen her meridians like Han Wuxian, so she had found another way. She decided to absorb only a small part of the internal energy in Han Xuan at a time, and to do it multiple times until she absorbed all of it.

This was very dangerous and the process of absorbing internal energy was torturous. And after that, Lotus had to spend even more time integrating the foreign Qi with her own.

But Han Xuan found that her physical condition was improving, so she was very grateful to Lotus, believing that Lotus was ”very good” to her.

Lotus' method of extracting the internal Qi step by step did save Han Xuan. If Han Xuan had fallen into Han Wuxian's hands, then all of her internal energy would have been taken away in less than two hours. This would inevitably result in the collapse of her entire meridian network and eventually, her inevitable death.