Library of Heaven’s Path

Time ticked by. A crack of light appeared over the eastern horizon, and the brilliant sun slowly rose into the sky. Gradually, You Ruoxin regained consciousness. She struggled to her feet, and when she saw the endless waste that extended as far as she could see, her body staggered a little.

The Glacier Plain Court had existed on the Master Teacher Continent for many millenniums, and it had been through its fair share of tragedies. There were even a few battles that had resulted in more than half of their disciples dying, but despite all those crises, the City of Glacier had always survived and continued standing firm. While some buildings might be destroyed by the enemies from time to time, it would only be a small portion of the entire city. Yet, at that moment, everything had been torn to the ground, reduced to debris…

While none of the disciples and elders had lost their lives, they were all severely wounded. From the looks of it, it seemed like none of them would be able to recover without at least half a month of recuperation.

“For an individual to be able to summon lightning and wield such immense strength…” You Ruoxin could not help but shudder when she recalled the sight that she had seen the previous night.

In all honesty, she had never really thought of Zhang Xuan as a threat. After all, a Phantasmal Space realm cultivator should have been nothing more than an ant compared to her. With her strength, she could crush dozens of them with just a flick of her finger, but the other party turned out to possess a trump card far stronger than her wildest imagination!

With just a Dimension Sundering Ordeal, he had reduced the Glacier Plain Court to such a state… If he underwent his Macrocosm Ascendancy Ordeal, would the Master Teacher Pavilion headquarters be torn down as well?

“First Elder… the Glacier Plain Court has been completely destroyed!” Struggling to You Ruoxin’s side, the Second Elder shook her head with a look of desolation.

“Indeed, it’s all destroyed,” You Ruoxin replied in a daze.

Having served as the de facto leader of the Glacier Plain Court for so many years, she had thought that she would be able to bring it to greater heights under her leadership. Yet, as if fate was playing tricks on her, her attempts to achieve her ambition had ended up reducing it to ruins instead.

“As long as our disciples remain, we’ll have a chance to rise back up. From this day onward, Zhang Xuan shall be the greatest enemy of our Glacier Plain Court. Any disciple who spots him is to kill him on sight!” You Ruoxin spat with gritted teeth.

“Yes!” the elders and disciples who had just awoken replied resoundingly.

You Ruoxin turned to the awoken Elder Qu and said, “Elder Qu, you witnessed what happened with your own eyes. That Zhang Xuan has kidnapped our young court chief and destroyed the entire Glacier Plain Court. I hope that you can report his heinous sins to the Master Teacher Pavilion headquarters so as to put a bounty on his head!”

“Rest assured, I’ll report this matter as I have seen and have him brought to justice!” Elder Qu nodded as he rubbed his glabella.

Despite being a master teacher, Zhang Xuan had disregarded the rules and acted as he pleased.

A person like him had to be punished severely. Otherwise, if everyone wreaked havoc just because they possessed a bit of strength, the entire Master Teacher Continent would swiftly be reduced to chaos!

Peng!

After flying for some time, Zhang Xuan finally reached the limits of his strength and plummeted to the ground.

While the Sanctum Head Token had blocked off some of Elder Qu’s desperate attack, a portion of the shockwave had seeped into his body, and even at that moment, it was still tearing apart the vitality in his body, worsening his injuries.

If not for the energy that Zhao Ya had infused into his body, putting aside summoning the Dimension Sundering Ordeal, he might have simply died on the spot.

Even so, he still found himself coming to the limits of his body after just flying for a night.

Of course, he could have chosen to ride on the Inferno Qilin as well, but the problem with that was that the latter’s fire aura was simply too conspicuous. While it did fly fast, it would also make it easier for them to be tracked down.

On the other hand, Zhang Xuan was different. Possessing the Heaven’s Path zhenqi, he was to perfectly conceal his aura. On top of that, through the Eye of Insight, he was able to check if he had accidentally left behind any tracks and erase them in advance, thus making it difficult for even real 9-star master teachers to find him.

Struggling to his feet once more, he found that he was standing in the midst of a primitive jungle. Seeing that there was no one in sight, he heaved a sigh of relief.

Zhang Xuan lowered his head to gaze at the young lady in his embrace. Her eyes were still tightly shut, and even though she was breathing, it was extremely frail, almost as if she would stop breathing at the slightest trauma.

“Zhao Ya, since I have said that I’ll save you, I’ll definitely do it!”

If not for Zhang Xuan holding her throughout the entire journey, sustaining her vitals with his Heaven’s Path zhenqi, she might have already departed from the world.

Placing her lightly on the ground, Zhang Xuan placed his finger on her meridians and willed, “Flaws!”

Weng!

A book materialized in the Library of Heaven’s Path, and Zhang Xuan quickly browsed through it.

“Her injuries are too severe. Every last one of her meridians had crumbled…” Zhang Xuan shook his head hopelessly.

Zhao Ya’s condition was worse than he had thought. Due to her forcefully driving her zhenqi, her frozen meridians had ended up shattering into countless fragments. If there was anything fortunate about the situation, it would be that the effects of the Heaven Sealing Lock had vanished as well.

In other words, while shattering her meridians, she had succeeded in shattering the Heaven Sealing Lock with her strength, resolving its threat.

“If it’s a cut or a tear, the Heaven’s Path zhenqi would still be able to repair it, but her meridians have shattered completely, ceasing to exist,” Zhang Xuan murmured with an awful complexion.

The Heaven’s Path zhenqi’s restorative property far surpassed that of any medicinal herbs or pills… but despite its seemingly miraculous effects, it did not have the ability to recreate meridians out of nothing.

Even the most skilled of blacksmith would be unable to forge a weapon without tools and ores.

This was exactly what was going on with Zhao Ya.

Given that her meridians had been completely destroyed, how could the Heaven’s Path zhenqi heal something that was no longer there?

“Without meridians, I won’t be able to drive my zhenqi through her body effectively, and that’ll make it much more difficult to treat her…”

In a sense, meridians were like the capillaries of the body; they could be found everywhere so that the bloodstream could transport oxygen to every cell in the body. The destruction of the meridians was somewhat similar to the collapse of the roads. The Heaven’s Path zhenqi would not be able to get around her body easily, thus slowing down the treatment significantly.

“Let’s try using the silver needles!”

Flicking his wrist, Zhang Xuan took out a couple of silver needles and infused a surge of his zhenqi on each of them before flicking them away.

Weng weng weng weng!

Several hundred silver needles immediately pierced into the acupoints of the young lady.

“Cough cough…” Zhang Xuan swayed on the spot before falling back down onto the ground.

His injuries were not light, and he was in no state to expend too much energy. While attempting to save Zhao Ya, he had also nearly depleted himself dry.

Knowing that he could not afford to collapse at this moment, he swiftly took out a pill and swallowed it. A while later, when he felt that some strength had returned to his body, he quickly turned his sight to the young lady once more.

After infusing several hundred surges of zhenqi into Zhao Ya’s body via the silver needles, her complexion alleviated significantly. However, due to the severity of her injuries, she was still a long way off from regaining consciousness.

“The trauma to her body as a result of the collapse of her meridians is simply too great. If she ever wants to recover her strength as a cultivator, her meridians will have to be reconstructed…”

A deep frown surfaced between Zhang Xuan’s brows.

As formidable as his medical skills were, this was his first time meeting with such a situation. There was nothing like this detailed in the medical books, so he was also at a complete loss as to what he could do.

At this point, it was not a matter of whether he knew how to reconstruct meridians or not—such a matter was completely unheard of in the Master Teacher Continent in the very first place!

A glint flashed across Zhang Xuan’s eyes. “But just because it’s unheard of doesn’t mean that it’s impossible. All I have to do is be the first one to achieve it!”

So what if no one had achieved it in the past?

If no one had done it before, he would just have to be the one to break new grounds then!

“But… what can I use to replace her meridians? The material must allow zhenqi to pass through it without any obstruction, be sufficiently flexible and resilient, and be able to store energy.”

Meridians were similar to expressways tailored for zhenqi. In order to reconstruct them, the first thing that Zhang Xuan had to do was find a material suitable to replace it.

But what in the world had the properties necessary to replace meridians and yet not harm a person’s body?

After some contemplation, Zhang Xuan was unable to come up with anything good, so he could only shake his head helplessly.

“It seems like I should drop by the Blacksmith Guild or Physician Guild to take a look…”

If it were to come down to it, he might have to try fusing several materials together and forge out a new set of meridians for her. However, the problem was that his forging abilities were simply too unremarkable! Forging a brick was already the limits of his ability, let alone forging something that had to be small, delicate, precise, and allow zhenqi to pass through without any obstruction. That was really asking the impossible of him!

Besides, it was not even certain yet if meridians could be replaced by other materials. So, he would have to hit the books to determine his next course of action.