Xie Yijun nodded immediately. With Zhu Yanyi present, she had zero worry about her daughter’s safety. She would do exactly as she instructed, without a single word of objection.
Zhu Yanyi’s arrival had not alarmed anyone. The doctors in the Shanghai hospital could not find the cause of Xie Jingyun’s illness. Although they were concerned about her condition, the parents insisted on discharging her. The hospital could not stop them and processed the discharge papers.
Xie Yijun and Ouyang Manqing brought the comatose Xie Jingyun back to their residence.
As soon as they arrived, Xie Yijun and Ouyang Manqing placed Xie Jingyun on the bed. Zhu Yanyi then ushered everyone out of the room. "Wait outside. I need absolute silence to treat Jingyun."
Trusting Zhu Yanyi, Xie Yijun and Ouyang Manqing left the room despite their worries. Once the door was closed, Zhu Yanyi approached Xie Jingyun. She looked at her for a long moment before speaking softly. "You are lucky. I have just mastered the fifth needle of the Nine Needles of Yanluo. Otherwise, I would not know how to remove the flower gu."
The flower gu was called a gu, and it looked like an insect, but it was not a bug. It was actually a flower seed. However, inside the human body, it behaved like a parasite.
Cultivating a flower gu was much harder than cultivating a poison gu. Poison gu were created by having poisonous insects devour each other until only one survivor remained. Flower gu, however, were grown using rare poisons as nutrients.
Thousands or even tens of thousands of toxic plants were placed root-down in tanks of poison liquid. Once the liquid was absorbed, fresh poison was added. This process repeated endlessly. As the toxicity increased, countless plants died from saturation, turning into new poison that the surviving plants absorbed. Finally, the last surviving plant would bloom and produce seeds. These seeds were harvested, ground into powder, and made into flower gu.
If it took a hundred insects to create one poison gu, it took thousands of toxic flowers to create one flower gu. Thus, flower gu were extremely rare, even more so than poison gu.
Now that the flower gu was inside Xie Jingyun, Zhu Yanyi had to restore the body’s natural environment, which the gu had corrupted. Only the Nine Needles of Yanluo could achieve this.
As Zhu Yanyi had muttered to herself, Xie Jingyun was indeed fortunate. Zhu Yanyi had just mastered the fifth needle recently. Without it, she would have been helpless.
Zhu Yanyi took a deep breath, grateful that her internal energy had reached the level of Gangjin (steel-like force). This made performing the Nine Needles of Yanluo less difficult.
She took out her golden needles and began the fifth needle technique.
As the needle struck, countless flower-like marks appeared on Xie Jingyun’s skin. Zhu Yanyi nodded slightly, recognizing these as the traces of the flower gu.
Carefully, she used her internal energy and special abilities to slowly repair the damage inside Xie Jingyun’s body. Where her energy passed, the flower marks gradually faded.
It was easier said than done. The process took Zhu Yanyi a significant amount of time. It took her a full four hours to completely repair the damage, similar to the duration of a medium-sized surgery.
Zhu Yanyi opened the door and stepped out. Zhang Yan immediately rushed over to assist. "Yanyi, are you okay?"
Zhu Yanyi waved her hand. "I’m fine, just a bit tired." She then turned to Xie Yijun and Ouyang Manqing, who were watching anxiously. "She is safe now. However, due to the flower gu’s influence, she needs rest. She should wake up tomorrow. If you have time, prepare some light porridge. When she wakes, she will be hungry. But because the gu drained her vitality, her stomach and spleen are weak. She can only eat liquid food for now."
Zhu Yanyi added, "Also, in three days, your family must leave Shanghai. Uncle Yijun, you should take Aunt Manqing and Jingyun back to Beijing."
"Three days? Is it really that urgent?" Xie Yijun asked quickly.
Zhu Yanyi nodded. "Although I removed the flower gu, the backlash injured the person who created it. They know exactly who harmed them, so they will definitely come after Jingyun. To be safe, you should go to Beijing. Beijing is my territory. No one dares to cause trouble there, not even the Flower Doctors."
She looked at Xie Yijun and Ouyang Manqing again. "I will handle the cleanup in the next few days. You prepare accordingly."
"Understood." Xie Yijun knew that if Zhu Yanyi said so, there must be a reason. Although she gave an explanation, she sensed the situation was far more complex than she let on.
Indeed, it was more complex. In a room in a building in Shanghai, a young woman spat out a mouthful of blood.
"Ana, what’s wrong?" Another young woman beside her looked at Ana with concern.
"Ayun, my flower gu was removed." Ana took a deep breath. The backlash had severely injured her body and mind. It would take at least half a year to recover.
"Who? Who dared to remove the flower gu?" Ayun’s face grew dark. "I will go kill her." She moved to leave.
"Stop right there." Ana calmed her breathing and said firmly, "Why are you making a fuss? The person who removed the gu could defeat you easily."
"Ana, you are injured. I cannot stand not avenging you." Ayun looked defiant.
In their family, she and Ana had the best talent for flower medicine. They had just left home for a short time and were already treated this way. She refused to accept it.
"The Clan Leader Father taught us that there is always someone better. If I had not placed the flower gu on Xie Jingyun, I would not have suffered this backlash." Ana was clear-headed.
"But it’s not our fault. We were just paid to solve a problem." Ayun argued.
"Correct. So this is my own fault." Ana said. "The Clan Leader Father once told us not to place gu on ordinary people. We traded for money and a token, placing the gu on Xie Jingyun. That was our mistake. Therefore, the backlash is my own doing. There is no doubt about it. You do not need to seek revenge. It is our own error."