Desolate Devouring Art

Chapter 838 - Rescue

When dawn arrived, the city finally appeared in their sight.

The girl had covered Liu Wuxie with her raincoat, shielding him from the rain.

When the first ray of sunlight shone on the ground, the group of four finally entered the city. This ancient city seemed vast, but few people lived there. This meant something must have happened here that had driven most human inhabitants away.

The scale of this city was comparable to Martial City; it only lacked vibrancy. Perhaps it was the autumn season or their state of mind, but everyone was weighed down with heavy emotions in their hearts.

Liu Wuxie remained unconscious. If he had been awake, he would have detected something eerie in the atmosphere. This aura was undetectable to ordinary people but not to Liu Wuxie.

Since it was morning, the shops lining the streets were open for business. The group of four traversed several streets before they finally arrived at a modest estate.

The rain had ceased, and the youth was panting heavily after carrying Liu Wuxie the entire way back. When the doors opened, two youths stepped out to welcome the four.

"Patriarch, young master, young lady, you've returned!" The two youths came forward to hold Liu Wuxie.

"Carry him in," said the middle-aged man.

Their clan wasn't big, and they could only be considered fifth-tier in the Central Plains.

Among the clans in the Central Plains, the Four Great Clans stood at the pinnacle—superpowers in their own right.

Clans were classified into tiers based on the strongest cultivator in their clan. The first tier had experts at the Heaven Profound Realm, the second tier had experts at the Earth Profound Realm, the third tier had fewer experts at the low levels of the Earth Profound Realm, the fourth tier only had experts at the Spirit Profound Realm, and the fifth tier only had cultivators at the True Profound Realm.

This meant that if a fifth-tier clan could produce an expert at the Spirit Profound Realm, they would be promoted to a fourth-tier clan.

The entrance bore a wooden plaque engraved with the characters "Lu Clan." The middle-aged man was Lu Funian, the clan’s patriarch. The youth beside him was his eldest son, Lu Qiang, while the young woman was his daughter, Lu Hua.

The Lu Clan was not a powerful force, with only one to two hundred members. However, they shared a strong familial bond, and their bloodline remained pure over the past five generations.

Liu Wuxie was placed on a soft couch but showed no signs of regaining consciousness.

"Patriarch, who is this person, and why is he so heavily injured?" the two youths carrying Liu Wuxie asked, curious about Liu Wuxie's identity.

"No questions. Go and invite the best physician in the city," Lu Funian said. He also didn't dare to treat Liu Wuxie's injuries, unwilling to risk worsening his condition.

The two youths promptly departed to seek physicians in the city.

"You two can go and rest," Lu Funian said after looking at his son and daughter. He knew they were exhausted from a long training and their travel through the night.

"Yes, father!" the two replied with a bow before exiting the room, leaving Lu Funian and the unconscious Liu Wuxie.

When Lu Funian approached Liu Wuxie to scrutinize him, he soon frowned and muttered, "How strange. His wounds don't seem to have been caused by external forces, so how did he sustain them if he wasn't attacked?"

There were no external wounds on Liu Wuxie, nor did he seem to suffer any attack. Yet, his internal organs were severely injured, making it a baffling phenomenon.

After a long inspection, Lu Funian sighed in frustration. He couldn't determine the cause of Liu Wuxie’s injuries and had no choice but to give up. Even with his cultivation at the True Profound Realm, his abilities fell short of uncovering the truth. Only someone at the Heaven Profound Realm could have recognized that Liu Wuxie’s condition stemmed from the Annihilation Fist’s backlash.

About an hour later, the two youths led an old man into the room.

"Doctor Sun, please come in!" Lu Funian welcomed the old man warmly. Doctor Sun was a well-respected physician in the city, known for saving many lives over the years.

Doctor Sun clasped his hands together and turned to look at the bed. He asked, "Is this the patient?"

"That's right, Doctor Sun!" Lu Funian led Doctor Sun over to the couch.

Liu Wuxie's face was pale and twisted in pain.

When Doctor Sun placed his hand on Liu Wuxie's wrist and began taking the latter's pulse, he soon frowned, his expression shifting into deep thoughts.

Though it seemed like a standard examination, Doctor Sun used a unique technique to probe the patient's condition with this true essence.

His true essence seeped into Liu Wuxie's wrist and navigated through his meridians like a pair of eyes, revealing more details than using the divine sense.

"His condition is dire," Doctor Sun concluded, withdrawing his hand.

"Doctor Sun, is there a way to treat him?" Lu Funian could already guess the answer from Doctor Sun's expression.

"It won't be easy," Doctor Sun said, shaking his head. It wasn't impossible, but the cost of treatment would be staggering.

"Doctor Sun, please go on. What must be done to save him?" Lu Funian pressed. Doctor Sun would've just told him to prepare for the worst without hope in treatment.

"It's a miracle he's still alive. He must have taken a rare pill that protected his heart pulse. Without it, even I wouldn't be able to help," Doctor Sun explained, his tone grave. He had correctly deduced that Lu Funian had used the Grand Purity Pill to sustain Liu Wuxie's life.

"Is there truly no way to cure him?" Lu Funian asked, unwilling to give up after all they had done.

"There's only one method: using external stimulation to awaken him," Doctor Sun suggested. It was risky, but that was the only thing that could work.

If Liu Wuxie didn't wake up before the Grand Purity Pill's effect dissipated, he could only wait for death. But if he could regain consciousness, his internal injuries could be treated with medicine. Not to mention, his body wasn't in danger, with the Grand Purity Pill protecting his internal organs.

Should he regain awareness, he could channel his true essence to aid his recovery. But if he remained unconscious, his body would become little more than a shell—alive in form but no different from death.

Lu Funian absorbed this information, realizing that the key to saving Liu Wuxie lay in awakening him.

"Doctor Sun, please prescribe the necessary medicine," Lu Funian said. He couldn't possibly send Liu Wuxie back since they had taken him in, and they had to try at least.

Due to their integrity, the Lu Clan had existed in this city for so long.

The prescribed medicines were expensive, amounting to thousands of high-grade spirit stones. This was an enormous expense for a fifth-tier clan.

"Bathe him in the medicine daily and maintain the water's temperature at forty-five degrees. The fire has to be kept burning. If he doesn't awaken within five days, you can prepare for the worst," Doctor Sun instructed before taking his payment and leaving.

The Lu Clan had some of the required spiritual herbs and did not need to buy them. However, Lu Funian instructed someone to purchase the rarer ones.

Everything was ready in two hours, and Lu Funian assigned a servant to monitor Liu Wuxie's condition. They had prepared a tub with the naked Liu Wuxie inside, and the servant was to monitor the fire and add herbs.

Time passed, and Lu Funian checked on Liu Wuxie at timely intervals, only to leave in disappointment, shaking his head. Lu Qiang and Lu Hua also came to check on Liu Wuxie two times, but they stopped visiting by the third day.

"I don't understand what the patriarch thinks about spending so many spirit stones on an outsider. Our Lu Clan isn't wealthy, to begin with, and we're even worse off now," grumbled the Lu Clan's servant as he watched the fire.

Without the patriarch's strict orders to watch over this man, he would've kicked over the tub and thrown Liu Wuxie out by now.

Meanwhile, Liu Wuxie's consciousness was trapped in a black prison, and he could not escape the darkness no matter how hard he tried. If this continued, he knew his consciousness would fade, swallowed by the darkness.

"Am I going to die here?" Liu Wuxie murmured. There were still so many things to do, and he was about to be devoured by the darkness. His consciousness began to fade, with memories flashing before his eyes, but he could do nothing. He had done everything he could but still couldn't escape the abyss.

"Burn you to death!" The servant increased the temperature as the medicinal essence in the bath began seeping into Liu Wuxie's pores like tiny needles stabbing into his acupoints.

The servant was resentful and let the water soar past fifty degrees, ignoring the doctor's instructions. While it wasn't enough to scald the flesh, it had exceeded the safe limit.

Little did he know that his reckless act had triggered an unexpected reaction. After the temperature increased, the medicinal essence relentlessly stimulated Liu Wuxie's acupoints.

Right then, a mysterious acupoint on Liu Wuxie's chest was struck, sending jolts through his consciousness, tearing an opening in the darkness.

"I can feel pain?" Liu Wuxie felt a sudden surge of pain just when his consciousness was fading into oblivion, yanking him back from the brink of death.