Chapter 3

The housekeeper had announced some news on behalf of Senior Lord Ning the next day . But it was not about the issue between the west and east courtyards, which was what Ning Tianxiong's was interested in . It was about changing their surname .

The Ning Mansion would become the Jiang Mansion .

The Nings would become the Jiangs .

It turned out that the ancestor of the Ning Mansion was from another clan, whose surname was Jiang . He was the Nings' subordinate . The Nings bestowed their surname on him to reward his service to the family . The family had been using Ning as their surname ever since .

Now the Nings had deprived Jiang's grandson of his holy pulse and had imprisoned his son under the Black Dragon Pool .

He would have rather abandon this surname!

There were no objections in the family . What the Nings had done to the east courtyard was like a slap in the face of the whole clan . It also weakened the mansion's power .

But in this way, Ning Chen had become Jiang Chen again!

"Isn't this God's will?"

Jiang Chen was somewhat surprised, but he didn't pay much attention to it . He was busy figuring out a way to recover his meridian system .

It was not difficult for him .

To achieve this, he only needed a piece of the Scripture of Spirit Nurturing, which was a secret method to strengthen the meridian system . It was rather common in the Sacred Zone . Any force more or less powerful would possess one .

However, the Hundred Thousand Mountains didn't possess it . The Ning Mansion-no, the Jiang Mansion didn't possess it .

That was why after the family found out about the status of his meridian system, they didn't think he could ever recover .

"How ridiculous!"

Jiang Chen let out a sigh . The importance of the meridian was so obvious . Hence it was crucial to make it impregnable .

But here, people had to upgrade their states to strengthen their bodies . The strengthening of the meridian system was only a secondary effect of this process .

In the Sacred Zone, it was quite the contrary .

They would nurture their meridians first by practicing secret methods . As they got stronger and stronger, they would yield twice the result with only half the effort when they practiced . Even if there was anything wrong in the process of practicing, their meridians would be strong enough to hold it . They didn't have to be as cautious as the people were here .

"Here we go . "

The whole section of Scripture of Spirit Nurturing showed up in his mind . He told the maid not to disturb him, and then sat on the bed with eyes closed .

As his breath became more and more even, a halo appeared around him .

These were the spirits of the universe . They were swarming into his meridian system .

Obviously, people of the Jiang Mansion had no idea of how to use these spirits to amend the damaged meridians .

It was quite simple, actually . Before the spirits turned into genuine qi, they would disintegrate into numerous tiny spots, which would be scattered into the whole meridian system .

The meridians would absorb these spirits automatically .

The holy pulse was removed from Jiang Chen's body, so his meridians should have been more or less the same as an ordinary human being . However, additional harm was done during the transplant, and as a result, his normal meridians were severely damaged .

The meridian in his left chest and ventral area were almost fractured .

His meridian next to his Dantian and Qihai were so weak that even a slight manipulation of his genuine qi brought him great pain . If he acted recklessly, the meridians that connected Qihai would be entirely broken . That would make him genuinely disabled .

The genuine Qi converted from the spirits would be saved in Qihai, located in the Dantian area . Hence, the meridians were very important .

Jiang Chen was practicing the Scripture of Spirit Nurturing with much care . The goal was to recover the area near Qihai .

Jiang Chen felt very warm during this process, as if he were bathing in a hot spring .

Half a day had passed before he knew it . His meridians around Dantian had been greatly recovered . At least he wasn't feeling so much pain when manipulating the genuine qi .

His state had been enhanced from Cloud Two to Cloud Three .

The state enhancement is that fast?

Jiang Chen was quite surprised . But on second thought, after all,, he was once in Cloud Nine . His state was greatly lowered due to the damage to his meridians and the deprivation of his holy pulse . But he had never practiced with the holy pulse before .

"Young Master, the meal is ready . Do you want me to send the food over or…?" A maid asked from outside the door .

"No need to send it over . "

Jiang Chen came to the main hall of the east courtyard . His mother, Gao Yue, was already sitting at the table . Behind her was standing a row of silent servants, with heads bowed .

The atmosphere was quite dull . Gao Yue was in a bad mood, absentmindedly staring at the bowl in her hand .

"Mother, what happened?" Jiang Chen asked .

"The west courtyard is poaching people from us . The east courtyard used to be full of talented people . Our annual income was many times more than the sum of the other three courtyards . But now…" Gao Yue unconsciously said, but soon realized that there was no point in telling this to Jiang Chen .

Jiang Chen recalled that when he went to the Black Dragon City with his father, they were not alone, but had many attendants and loyal subordinates of the east courtyard .

"None of the Red Cloud Guard came back?" Jiang Chen nervously asked .

Gao Yue didn't reply, but her expression was enough of an answer .

Jiang Chen felt cold and gloomy inside . The Red Cloud Guards were attendants of his father, recruited when he was struggling for success . They were all very loyal and had watched Jiang Chen grow up .

Jiang Chen realized his new identity and felt anger burning in his chest .

"Fan Tu is the only one that came back . He brought you back, too . He was being chased along the way and got very severely injured . "

Jiang Qingyu was imprisoned in the Black Dragon Pool, but his attendants didn't have such luck . They were such loyal attendants that even if their master touched a tiger's whiskers they would follow him with no hesitation .

They were all executed by the Nings . Their corpses were hung on the walls of the Black Dragon City .

The maid Cher ran into the room crying, "Lady, I am afraid Steward Fan is dying!"

Gao Yue stood up quickly and followed Cher out . Jiang Chen followed them as well .

The three of them soon arrived outside of a room in the east courtyard . Even before entering the room, they were able to hear the noises inside .

They could smell a pungent mix of blood and medicine .

Gao Yue pushed the door open . Jiang Chen, who was behind her, saw a few men who looked like doctors bustling about next to the bed .

The man in the bed was strong, but was clearly in agony .

"Lady, Steward Fan is too severely injured . There is nothing more we can do . " An elder doctor came to her, his face full of shame and embarrassment .

"Young Lord, My Lady . " The man in the bed tried to get up when he heard them .

"Fan Tu, don't get up . "

Gao Yue went to him and sorrowfully said, "It's our fault that you got injured…"

"Lady Lord, please don't say that . If Lord hadn't saved my brothers and I, we would have been killed by the bastards of the Fire Cloud Gang, though all of my brothers are already dead now . " Fan Tu was so immersed in his sorrow that he looked like he had forgotten his pain .

"What are you doing?!"

Jiang Chen had been looking around since he came into the room . He saw that the doctors were packing their things . He also found the traces of the failed treatment they had left in Fan Tu's body when they were treating him . What he saw made him angry .

"How dare you call yourselves doctors?"

His anger made all of them confused .

The doctors were astonished and speechless .

"Young Master Chen, we have tried our best . "

The elder doctor came to him and bent down to answer his questions . He thought Jiang Chen was only venting his frustration to them .

"Give me a set of silver needles," Jiang Chen ordered crossly .

The doctors were looking at each other . They didn't understand what he was going to do .

"Son, what are you doing?" Gao Yue didn't think that Jiang Chen was capable of curing Fan Tu .

"Mother, Uncle Fan's life is in danger . There is no time to lose . I'll explain it to you later . "

Jiang Chen found some silver needles in the doctors' wooden box . He rushed to the bed, while Gao Yue stepped aside doubtfully .

Fan Tu was a tough man . He had a liberal attitude regarding life and death . Thus, he didn't really care whether Jiang Chen was able to save him . He grinned at him . "Young Lord, I didn't know you knew medicine . "

"Don't worry . Even Yama has to give up if I intend to save someone," Jiang Chen said .

Any patient in the Sacred Zone would have dreamed to hear such a promise .