Many children, many blessings: Stealing the offspring of powerful figures to cultivate immortality.

"Pei Henian has obtained the ancestral hall's fire core; cutting off the array patterns here can only buy him a little time."

Fan Chenxin helped Jiang Yining retreat to the north, with the black knife held horizontally behind her, blocking the pursuing Yin Huo three steps away.

Pei Yunji looked towards the end of the medicine corridor. The twelve guards had broken free from their acupoints in the combined attack formation, but Pei Zheng was not at the forefront.

"I will stay outside to seal off the ancestral hall guards. Inside the medicine room, you are not allowed to touch the Silver Leaf Ancestral Root. Pei Henian is waiting for you to forcibly remove it."

"Take care of yourself first. The ancestral lineage that the Second Elder wants to bestow upon the young master is all on you."

Jiang Yining steadied herself with Fan Chenxin's arm, and the purple-gold vine quietly slipped through the crack in the door, deftly unlocking the first layer of array locks in the north medicine room.

Suddenly, a large patch of green wood roots sprouted from beneath the floor tiles, and Lou Xiaotian's telepathic wooden leaves pressed against the outer wall.

"The ley lines on the east side have been sealed off. I can hold out the outer layer of the medicine room for you for at most half an hour."

"Half an hour is enough. Do not burn your source again. Your roots are only allowed to seal the entrance; they must not bear the silver fire for us."

"Every time you lecture me about not burning my life essence, you're willing to risk your life to test the formation when you're injured."

Although Lou Xiaotian was refuting, the countless green tree roots still avoided the silver fire, only wrapping around the stone pillars outside the medicine room, completely isolating it from the outside world.

Jiang Siyue carried the Fire Spirit Falcon to the inner door, her little face pressed against the crack in the door, the fox ears in her hair spinning anxiously.

"Mother, I'll go in with you in April. The end of April can cover the silver leaves for you."

"No, you stay obediently outside the door. If anyone dares to come near, let the big red chicken peck their hand. You are absolutely not allowed to touch the array patterns yourself."

"Then the man in black can't go in either?"

"No one is allowed to go in; only Uncle Fan is allowed to protect Mother's pulse."

Jiang Siyue hugged the Fire Spirit Falcon tightly and obediently retreated to the threshold formed by the roots of the green wood.

"If Uncle Fan dares to bully Mother, April will make the big red hen peck at him."

The Fire Spirit Falcon raised its head and opened its sharp beak towards Fan Chenxin, but was startled by the silver flames that shot up outside the medicine corridor and shrank back into April's arms.

"Uncle would never bully her. In April, guard the door for us. Come in only when you hear your mother calling you."

Fan Chenxin led Jiang Yining into the inner room, and the heavy stone door slammed shut behind them.

Lou Xiaotian's green tree roots stood like an iron wall outside the door, while Pei Yunji, alone with his sword, turned to face the surging guards.

The inner room contained only a blue stone medicine couch. As soon as Jiang Yining sat down, Silver Fire darted in from behind her and into her side, forcing her to support herself on the edge of the couch.

Fan Chenxin knelt down in front of her, his slender fingers reaching for her sash, but hovering just half an inch away.

"I want to see where the silver leaf has burned, and how much of the robe needs to be loosened—it's all up to you."

"Let me finish telling you what happened in the blood pool, so you won't suspect that I'm hiding something from you while you're healing."

"You've already explained what happened. All I want to know now is the extent of your injuries."

"But when you saw Pei Yunji's robes, the veins on the back of his hand holding the knife were bulging. If you continue to hold back, the Buddhist energy will eventually backfire on you first."

Upon hearing this, Fan Chenxin lowered his hand, the black dagger's gauntlet pressing deeply into the old wound on his palm, a few drops of crimson blood dripping down his cold, hard wrist bone and into his sleeve.

Jiang Yining raised her slightly cool fingertips, grasped his fingers, and pushed the glove away inch by inch from his bleeding wound.

"The dual-pulse lock in the blood pool forcibly dragged us together. He shielded me from the dark silver fire pillar and did indeed hold my waist to stabilize my Qi Sea."

"I even bit open his ancestral mark on his shoulder, touched his wound when I drew blood, and the inner robe I'm wearing was given to me by him personally."

Fan Chenxin's breathing clearly froze, his palms pressed tightly against his knees, causing his still-healing wounds to burst open again.

"What else?"

He asked the question with extreme restraint, his eyes swirling with a deep, dark light.

"When the blood was circulating in the same vein, his ancestral blood traveled through the crack in his dantian for three weeks, but I set a death line, and he never crossed it."

Jiang Yining's tone was calm and steady, yet it carried an undeniable air of control.

"After the silver leaf was left behind, he pressed it down on me several times through my clothes, but each time he only stopped at the outermost layer of the leaf."

"Did he take advantage of your weakened state to secretly investigate the ancestral root of the sacred tree?"

"No, if he dared to do it, I would have had Shenmu drain his ancestral blood completely long ago, and I would never have let him live to this day to explain to you."

Fan Chenxin raised her deep eyes, her black hair, stained with blood, sliding down her brow bone.

"I have never doubted you, and I would never question you about the way you risked your life to survive."

"But when I heard you bite open his shoulder in the pool of blood, I couldn't help but think that if I had arrived a day earlier, the person who would have shielded you from the fire wouldn't have been him."

"If you had arrived a day earlier, the result would have been that you would have been locked in the blood pool with me by the Dual Meridian Returning to Origin Lock. That great formation wouldn't recognize your Buddha blood at all."

Jiang Yining took the bandage from the side and slowly wrapped it around his palm, deliberately tightening the knot a little when tying it.

"I'm telling you this so you understand what really happened between him and me, so you won't go back and fabricate jealousy out of thin air."

"I can't make anything up. I can only keep thinking about how many times you were in pain while you were trapped for six days."

"So stop hurting your hands. In my current state, I don't have the strength to take care of two people at the same time."

Fan Chenxin grabbed her wrist with his other hand, his rough fingertips carefully avoiding the terrible marks caused by the chains.

"I promise you I will never hurt him out of jealousy, and I will never question any of your choices."

"But you have to promise me that when it hurts, you won't endure it, and you won't always wait for me to find the answer in your torn main vein."

"Okay, let's deal with this silver leaf first."

Jiang Yining withdrew her hand from his grasp, turned around and sat with her back to him on the edge of the medicine bed, slowly taking off the black robe draped over her shoulders.

The silver flames had already scorched the fabric at the lower back to ashes, and the dark silver leaf arrogantly spread from the waist to the side of the ribs, with a dark gold vein tightly wrapped around its core.

Fan Chenxin found it too glaring after just one glance, forcing herself to look away and taking the Qingling Spring and hemostatic bandage from the medicine shelf.

"This silver leaf has absorbed my Buddhist aura, and Ye Xin has already memorized the dark gold aura. I can use the old mark on your collarbone to establish a sealed passage."

"Explain the cost of performing the spell."

"It is necessary to use my Buddha bone as a guide to forcefully send the Buddha's breath in from the old lotus seal along the shoulder meridian, and then through the side of the ribs to the silver leaf."

"After the formation is completed, new dark gold lotus petals will be left on your waist. They cannot be removed within three days, but they can completely cover up the Pei family's tracking."

"Anything else?"

"Some of my Buddha bone will be damaged. If Yinye forcibly absorbs the Buddha's breath, my Qi Sea will also be severely affected."

Jiang Yining slightly turned half of her cool and aloof face, her eyes revealing no emotion.

"How many Buddha relics are you prepared to sacrifice for me?"

"It's just a small section, enough to sustain us until we safely leave the ancestral temple."

"Who will make the judgment on this small section?"

"It's all up to you. I will keep the Buddha's bone outside your meridians, and you can use the sacred wood to cut it off at any time."

"You are only allowed to leave behind a Buddhist seal needed for healing. You are absolutely not allowed to use this opportunity to attack Pei Yunji's remaining ancestral blood, and you are even less allowed to use your Buddhist energy to compete for the ownership of the Silver Leaf."

Fan Chenxin dipped the medicinal cloth into the cool spring water and asked a question very softly before raising her hand.

"When cleaning bloodstains on your side, it's inevitable that the outer edge of the silver leaf will come into contact with the skin. Can you handle that?"

"Yes, but you mustn't touch Ye Xin."

Jiang Yining raised her hand and untied the remaining sash of her inner robe, exposing the mottled scars on her right shoulder, neck, and waist to the dim light.

Shengxue's skin was adorned with a complex pattern of dark gold lotus marks, pale blue wood marks, and ferocious silver leaf fire patterns, making her look almost cruelly beautiful.

Fan Chenxin's breathing became almost imperceptibly disordered for a moment, and the force with which she placed the cloth of medicine was incredibly gentle as she carefully wiped away the bloodstains along the edge of the burn.

As the medicine cloth passed over her slender waistline, his long, smooth fingers abruptly stopped half an inch away.

"If it hurts, push me away immediately. Don't worry about whether the spell will be interrupted."

"If I hear you repeat the same sentence three times again, I'll really start to wonder if the Buddhist disciple of the Great Thunder Temple has broken his vows and started practicing some kind of verbose Zen."

"I'm afraid you'll grit your teeth and then try to brush me off with another 'it's nothing'."

"It does hurt now, but it's still within my tolerance. Let's continue."

Fan Chenxin leaned forward slightly, his high nose almost brushing against her graceful neckline, his thin lips finally hovering reverently above the old, dark gold lotus petal.