Library of Heaven’s Path

After a moment of shock, Divine Healer Bai Yu swiftly came to a realization.

It was not that the young man was far stronger than him or anything else. Rather, the lotus was already left on the verge of shattering after the combined attack between him and the Netherworld Azure Dragon Beast, and the young man had aimed his attack at the very opening of the lotus.

Because of that, he was able to destroy the lotus with a single strike.

Nevertheless, it was still an extremely formidable feat.

Even he had not managed to find the opening of the lotus that had appeared out of nowhere yet, but the young man was able to see right through it, even accurately striking down on it from afar with his sword qi to destroy the lotus, not harming Elder Liao in the slightest. It had to be said that his eye of discernment and control over his strength had reached an astonishing level.

While Divine Healer Bai Yu was feeling deeply impressed by the young man’s feat, he lowered his head to look at the young man, only to see that the latter did not show the slightest hint of joy at having sliced apart the lotus. Instead, there was a tight knot between his eyebrows, and his face was slightly pale.

“Hmm? What’s going on?”

“There’s something bizarre about the lotus…”

Just as Divine Healer Bai Yu was just about to ask what was wrong, he suddenly heard shocked voices from the crowd below. He immediately turned to look in Elder Liao’s direction and saw that the scattered mist of the shattered lotus had attempted to dive into Elder Liao’s body once more, as if it had a life of its own.

“Humph, don’t you dare!” With a cold harrumph, Zhang Xuan flicked out several dozen silver needles and flung them in Elder Liao’s direction.

Wuwuwuwu!

The silver needles fell right on the various acupoints all over Elder Liao’s body, impeding the mist from delving back into his body. As if meeting its nemesis, the mist released a sizzling sound upon contact with the silver needles before dissipating.

Hu!

Heaving a sigh of relief, Zhang Xuan waved his hand and pulled Elder Liao back from the sky, gently placing his back onto the stretcher. Then, he tapped his finger lightly on the latter’s glabella.

“Cough cough!”

While violently coughing, Elder Liao opened his eyes once more and spurted out black blood. After which, he sat up from the stretcher.

Pipa!

A resounding cracking sound reminiscent of snapping bamboo shoots sounded from within his body.

“This is…” Divine Healer Bai Yu widened his eyes in shock. “He’s making a breakthrough in his cultivation!”

He was well-aware of the circumstances surrounding his old friend. Under the assault of the fire poison, his friend’s vitality had been waning constantly, putting him on the verge of death. Even with his superior medicinal skill as the Divine Healer, he was still unable to treat him. Who would have thought that with just a few needles and a simple tap on the forehead, the young man would actually be able to induce a breakthrough in his old friend?

Could he be seeing things?

Hong long long!

Before he could recover from his shock, more and more cracking sounds echoed from Elder Liao’s body. Following which, his cultivation swiftly surged, rising from Saint 7-dan intermediate stage to pinnacle within moments.

Even so, the momentum in his surge of strength showed no sign of calming down. Elder Liao shattered his Phantasmal Space realm pinnacle bottleneck within ten breaths, and a Dominion tinged with the power of Dimension Sundering suddenly extended from his body.

It was only then that the rise in his cultivation gradually slowed to a halt.

Half-Dimension Sundering realm!

To rise from Phantasmal Space realm intermediate stage to Half-Dimension Sundering realm in a single shot, this rate of cultivation could be said to be unprecedented!

Divine Healer Bai Yu’s lips twitched uncontrollably.

The cultivation of his old friend had never risen ever since he was afflicted with the fire poison. For several centuries now, he had remained stagnant at Phantasmal Space realm intermediate stage. Who would have thought that he would suddenly experience such a tremendous surge in his cultivation, shattering all of the bottlenecks that lay in his path?

“I…” Elder Liao was also shocked beyond words. Feeling the overflowing power harnessed within his body, he sat in a daze on the stretcher, wondering if he was in a dream.

Before he was knocked out, his vitality had been swiftly dissipating, putting him on the verge of death. But when he opened his eyes, not only did he fully recover from his illness, his cultivation had also risen by leaps and bounds. At this point, he was deeply frightened that he would simply wake up and find that it was all a lie.

Pah!

He slapped his face, and to his relief, stinging pain assaulted his cheeks.

“I am still alive?”

The sudden realization of this fact made Elder Liao tremble in agitation, and even to his own surprise, tears began streaming down his cheeks.

For how many years, he had teetered on the edge of death. He had thought that his time had finally come, and death had descended upon him to claim his dues. Yet, at the very last moment, a savior appeared, and not only was his affliction cured, he even achieved a breakthrough in his cultivation.

He pushed himself up from the stretcher and walked up to Zhang Xuan. Standing before the young man who had brought him out of his anguish, his knees fell to the ground.

“Zhang shi, thank you for saving my life.”

Even though he had been unconscious and was oblivious to what had happened, he could tell that Zhang Xuan had paid a heavy price for him just by looking at the latter’s pale face and trembling body.

“There’s no need to stand on ceremony. To be honest, I didn’t have much confidence either, considering the critical state you were in. It’s a huge relief that everything turned out fine,” Zhang Xuan replied with a forced smile.

Puhe!

He suddenly collapsed to the ground.

This time, his injuries were not faked.

He had just depleted himself from executing the Sea Severing Sword when he had to deal with Elder Liao’s fire poison. Even if he had a pinnacle spirit stone in hand to replenish his spiritual energy, the immense mental toll he had been put under still left him on the edge of fainting at any moment.

“Zhang shi!” Elder Liao hurriedly stood up to support Zhang Xuan.

Hu!

Divine Healer Bai Yu also quickly descended from the sky to examine Zhang Xuan. “Don’t worry, he’s just suffering from overexertion. With sufficient spiritual energy and time, he should be able to fully recover from his condition without any lingering trauma.”

The reason he wanted to make a move on Zhang Xuan earlier was because he thought that the young man bore malicious intentions toward Elder Liao. But with all that had happened, it was apparent that he had misunderstood the young man’s intentions, so all hostility he bore toward the young man had disappeared without a trace.

More importantly, he had been looking into his old friend’s condition for several centuries now, only to remain deeply helpless before it. Yet, in less than three minutes, not only did the young man manage to resolve his old friend’s affliction, he even induced a breakthrough in the latter. On top of that, there was no medicine or any complex procedure to the treatment process at all.

This left him feeling deeply perplexed.

“That’s good. That’s good.” Hearing that Zhang Xuan was fine, Elder Liao heaved a sigh of relief.

“Zhang shi, just… what is going on?” Divine Healer Bai Yu asked.

He had been a physician for many centuries now, but he had never seen any treatment method like this. And what was even more confounding was that it was actually extremely effective, vanquishing the affliction in just a few moments.

“Pardon me for my earlier insult. I had to provoke you in order to treat Elder Liao, so I hope that you won’t take it to heart.” Struggling up for a moment, Zhang Xuan clasped his fist apologetically.

“Don’t worry about that, I won’t take it to heart.” Divine Healer Bai Yu waved his hand.

Putting aside being berated, even if he had been beaten up, he felt that it would have been well worth the price for his old friend to be treated.

Not to mention, he had been able to witness such miraculous medical skills on top of that. This had deeply incited his curiosity as a physician.

Divine Healer Bai Yu clasped his fist and requested with an earnest look in his eyes, “Zhang shi, I ask of you to answer my doubts.”

Hearing those words, Fei shi, Feng Ziyi, Zhang Yu, and the others also quickly turned curious gazes over in their direction.

If Elder Liao had ingested a pill and driven his zhenqi in certain circulation pathways in order to resolve the fire poison, it would have been understandable that he achieved a breakthrough. But what had happened earlier… knocking out the patient, criticizing the principal physician, and pummeling the patient to the ground… how the heck did it turn out to be another treatment method? It was completely inconceivable to the crowd.

If it was that easy to treat an affliction, there would not be so many patients who died of illnesses every single day in the world.

“This…” Seeing Divine Healer Bai Yu’s intent gaze, Zhang Xuan said with a bitter smile, “My apologies, but will you allow me to heal up a little before answering your doubts?”

He was feeling so feeble that he could faint at any moment now, let alone explain the situation to the other party.

“Of course, of course. Please pardon my lack of consideration,” Divine Healer Bai Yu quickly replied in embarrassment.

He had been too focused on learning that he had forgotten the young man’s current state.

“I have an Energy Repository Pill here that can help you recover from your depletion!” Divine Healer Bai Yu flicked his wrist and passed a jade bottle over.

As the top physician of the Sanctum of Sages, there were countless patients who sought his treatment each year. As a result, he had plenty of good items on him.

Zhang Xuan took out the Energy Repository Pill from the jade bottle, and after taking a look at it, he shook his head helplessly.

The pill was of good quality, but to him, it was not of much use anymore.

Due to his Heaven’s Path zhenqi, there was a strict requirement on the concentration of the spiritual energy he could absorb. The higher his cultivation became, the higher the requirement was. While the Energy Repository Pill would be effective to even the average Dimension Sundering realm expert, it was no different from popping a sweet to him.

“Thank you, but I’m afraid that this pill is completely ineffective to me.” Zhang Xuan shook his head as he passed the pill back into Bai Yu’s hands.

“It’s ineffective?” Bai Yu was taken aback. “I still have a couple of them here if you need more.”

“Physician Bai, I appreciate your goodwill, but I think I’ll find a way myself.” At which point, Zhang Xuan hesitated for a brief moment, but he still could not bring himself to use his pinnacle spirit stone. So, he turned to the elder by the other side and said, “Elder Liao, may I trouble you a little?”

“Zhang shi, there’s no need to stand on ceremony. Feel free to say whatever you require. As long as it’s within my means, consider it done!” Elder Liao nodded.

“That’s a relief.” Zhang Xuan nodded as a hint of excitement flashed across his eyes. “Then, Elder Liao, I’d need to trouble you to achieve a breakthrough to the Dimension Sundering realm!”

“Achieve a breakthrough to the Dimension Sundering realm?” Elder Liao was stunned.