I am Jinshan Youxia

"Old Joe," Zhang Chengyi called out.

Murong Bo knew something was wrong. He circulated his inner energy and raised his hand to strike with his fingers. Before he could see if his attack had worked, his vision blurred and a heavy pressure came from the back of his head. His body involuntarily leaned forward, and his inner energy, like snow under the blazing sun, melted away in an instant.

"Boom!"

-------------------------------------

Outside Suzhou city, on a quiet little road.

"Whoo~"

Duan Yu walked with uneven steps, probably due to the aftereffects of Ding Chunqiu's actions and his still-weak physique. He felt weak all over as soon as he left Suzhou City. His internal energy was plentiful, but it couldn't make up for the physical depletion.

[Fairy Sister...] Having just escaped death, he was still thinking about the fairy sister he couldn't forget.

His inner demons caused the deaths of his parents. It only gradually subsided after he learned about his true identity and became emperor. Even now, despite all the torment he suffers, he only thinks Ding Chunqiu is an evil person and never imagined that his "fairy sister" was an accomplice.

"Shh!"

The sound of clothes rubbing against the air rang out behind him. Duan Yu turned around and subconsciously raised his right little finger to poke out. The Taichong Sword was light and swift, and the invisible sword energy suddenly burst out, startling even himself, fearing that he might have injured the newcomer.

With a soft "bang," the sword energy vanished into thin air. He felt his body lighten and his neck tighten before he was lifted into the air.

"Young Master Duan, we meet again." He turned his head and saw that he was being carried and 'flying' towards Suzhou City. The person was also carrying the Tibetan monk Kumārajīva, who had just seen him off, in his other hand.

Duan Yu opened his mouth to speak, but the air rushed into his mouth, and he swallowed a mouthful of cold, urgent air. He choked and hiccuped, and had no choice but to swallow his words back down.

He used his Lingbo Weibu (a martial arts technique) to travel for nearly three quarters of an hour, and the men carrying them brought them back to Old Monster Ding's mansion in less than a quarter of an hour.

In the courtyard, several unfamiliar people stood with a tall man at the head. A headless corpse dressed in Ding Chunqiu's clothes lay to one side. Duan Yanqing, the leader of the Four Evils, stood alone to one side, while an unfamiliar gray-robed monk sat on the ground with a deathly pale face.

"Is he Duan Yu?"

"Yes."

The tall, burly man and Duan Yanqing exchanged questions and answers. Then, Duan Yu felt as if he were floating on clouds when he arrived in the hands of a short, thin old man. After his acupoints were touched, he knew something was wrong and that he would probably have to use more internal energy.

However, the internal energy cultivation technique failed to produce any effect.

"Uncle Zhang, he practices the Northern Darkness Divine Art of our sect," the old man said with some surprise.

What sect does the Fairy Sister belong to?

Duan Yu was thinking in a daze when suddenly his finger stung, and a drop of blood fell into the porcelain bottle. During this time, Ding Chunqiu had been drawing blood from him so much that he had become numb to the stinging pain and the feeling of being bled out.

Immediately afterwards, he was led into a side room in a daze. Looking at the familiar room and the women who were still unconscious, he sat skillfully on the bed, sighed that misfortune would surely come again, and resigned himself to his fate.

What can he do?

An hour later, the short, thin old man came in again to collect blood. Unlike Ding Chunqiu, the old man politely said that it was to save the people of Suzhou. Whether Ding Chunqiu believed him or not was irrelevant. He was at Ding Chunqiu's mercy and simply remained silent.

Several more hours passed, and as the sun began to set, the short, thin old man and another person entered the house. The two of them examined him for a long time, taking his pulse and reading his face, before finally leading him out into the courtyard.

“Uncle Zhang, the poison in this kid is too potent. Any living thing that touches it will die instantly. Even a strong man will be exhausted and weak in the blink of an eye, and his body will stiffen in less than a quarter of an hour.”

The short, thin old man sighed, "This road is blocked."

"So, if the person who has been poisoned is physically strong enough, they can live longer?"

The man addressed as Grandpa Zhang asked thoughtfully.

Chapter 52 Li Anu

"Anyone who trespasses on the Li residence shall die!"

What are you doing!

"Under the clear blue sky and bright earth, the Murong clan of Gusu has shown utter disregard for the law. I, Li, will certainly take legal action against them!"

The commotion grew louder as it approached. Li Anu, who was fast asleep in the woodshed, struggled to open his eyes. A large group of servants and maids from the Li family, like him, lay sprawled out beside him. For some reason, they all seemed to have contracted a plague today and had been herded into the woodshed and locked up by the guards.

I heard that Master Li is also ill?

Li Anu felt a strange sense of joy when she recalled the rumors she had heard from her maid that morning.

Even if one dies, having a high-ranking official above one's side with one's death sounds like a very happy thing.

His mother was a maid who used to do laundry in the Li family. More than ten years ago, a drunk guard rushed into the backyard and assaulted his mother. The guard was expelled from the Li family because of this incident. When she found out she was pregnant, his mother almost got expelled from the Li family.

Perhaps it was his destiny to live, for his mother worked tirelessly every day in the dead of winter, heavily pregnant. The day after he was born, she was ordered to work again by the housekeeper and died on her way back in a daze.

This is what he heard from the wet nurses.

He was raised by the maids of the Li family since he was a child, and was given the lowly name Anu. He had no memory of either his father or mother, but he heard every word of the complaints from his wet nurses.

From the time he was old enough to understand, Li Anu lived in the mansion and never stepped outside. Because he was young and weak, he could only live and do things with the wet nurses who had different thoughts. At first, the wet nurses treated him very well. When a gentleman from who-knows-where heard about this, he came to him and praised the wet nurses. He couldn't remember exactly what he said.

All I remember is that Master Li rewarded him with a set of clothes and gave him a nice hot bath.

Later, his new clothes disappeared without him noticing, his food became less and less, and the men seemed to no longer care about him.

As time went on, the wet nurses all felt that he was a burden, but no one was willing or dared to say that they would get rid of him.

But she didn't treat him like a human being either, occasionally pinching him or pricking him with a needle, as if Madam Li were torturing a rag doll she had hidden away.

He rarely interacted with or even saw people his own age, so he could only live in this cramped backyard. For a long time, he had no one to talk to, which led to his taciturn personality. He kept all his thoughts to himself.

"Snap~ Splash~"

After the sound of chains hitting the ground, the door to the woodshed was opened. A man dressed in a tight-fitting outfit glanced at the group of servants who had been awakened and said in a commanding, contemptuous tone, "You all come out with me."

Despite feeling unwell, Li Anu obediently went out first, as he was used to being submissive.

The others hesitated to some extent, and were then met with a beating from the wooden stick the man casually picked up.

very nice.

Li Anu followed the crowd with his head down, feeling a little happy. He didn't get beaten up, and since no one treated him like a human being, he could happily watch everyone else suffer.

However, there were so many people.

He looked at the bustling crowd in the courtyard, his expression slightly blank, but fortunately, he was usually like this, so no one cared.

But as the crowd passed through the corridors and courtyards and left the Li residence, he came to the street for the first time in his life and realized what a large crowd really meant.

All he could see were people—men, women, old, young, strong, thin, short, tall. He didn't know how to describe the crowd; he was completely stunned.

Coupled with the fever causing her head to become somewhat foggy, Li Anu drifted along with the crowds thronging the streets to an open space in the center of Suzhou.

It was clear that there used to be a cluster of buildings here, but they had been mostly demolished, with construction debris piled up nearby. Several pointed tents were erected in the center, and a ragged beggar told him to find his place and instructed him to put his hands on the people in front of and behind him.

He obediently did as instructed, after all, he didn't want to suffer any hardship.

The two people in front and behind were clearly unhappy that a dirty child had his hand on them, but they didn't dare to say anything. They just looked at him with disgust and disdain.

"Don't let go!"

"I'm talking to you! Let go again and I'll chop your hand off!"

I guess everyone's sick. No one has the energy to resist or cause trouble. Everyone looks sickly, which makes them easier to manage and more obedient.

As Li Anu pondered this, and just as he was wondering why he was touching someone else, a surge of heat flowed from the body of the person in front of him through his palm into his body, and then from his other palm into the body of the person behind him.

The heat kept coming and going, and he felt light and bloated all over. His physical discomfort and weakness quickly melted away in the feeling of soaking in the bath.

He fell asleep.

He slept more soundly than ever before, and he even felt that it would be worth dying like this.

"Get up, Grandpa Zhang wants to see you." Unfortunately, things didn't go as planned, and he was soon woken up.

Li Anu used only a little force, yet he flipped and leaped to a high place. He looked around in panic, only to be pushed back to the ground by the beggar who had woken him. The beggar said, "Get used to your internal energy and body..."

Although he was taciturn, he was actually very smart. After landing, he followed the instructions and quickly mastered the circulation of internal energy, knowing how much force he needed to avoid jumping around.

The beggar looked at him in surprise, seemingly having no desire to continue speaking to him, and led him all the way to the tent, where they met 'Grandpa Zhang'.

"What's your name?"

Grandpa Zhang smiled gently and reached out to pat his head.

“Li, Li Anu”.

Li Anu's voice was not loud.

"What a terrible name." Old Zhang laughed. "Your aptitude is quite good, you can actually hold more than seven hundred points of internal energy."

Li Anu didn't say anything, but she felt a strange sense of emotion.

Was it because the old man treated him like a human being, or because he spoke to him in such an equal tone, or perhaps because he affectionately patted his head?

He didn't know, but he just felt like crying.

“How can a grown man cry?” Grandpa Zhang looked at him and said, “If you’ve suffered any injustice, you should fight back with your own hands. What’s the point of crying?”

"Mmm," Li Anu's voice was as soft as a mosquito's buzz, and it was still trembling.

“They’re all lowly names, like ‘Pen,’ ‘Vat,’ ‘Cowboy,’ ‘Pig,’ ‘Dog,’ but your name, ‘Anu,’ is quite memorable.”

Grandpa Zhang patted his forehead again, looked up at the beggar who had led him in, and said, "Take him to be in a group with that Wang Zhu'er from before."

"Practice the body-strengthening method well, so that one day you can stand before me as a dignified man."

Li Anu nodded vigorously, followed the beggar through the crowd to another open space, and stood among the crowd, going with the flow as she listened to the instructions and imitated the gestures along with the others...

Later, he couldn't remember who his instructor was, nor could he remember who the other people who had learned the physical training methods from him were.

But I will never forget Grandpa Zhang's peaceful smile and warm hands.

It wasn't until much later that he learned 'Grandpa Zhang' was actually named Zhang Chengyi, and was also known by many as 'Martial Ancestor'.

But Grandpa Zhang seemed completely unaware that he—no, it should be said—she, Li Anu…

It's a girl.

Chapter 53 Divine Medicine

"The results are much, much better than I expected."

Su Xinghe looked excitedly at the mixed drugs being extracted from the patient not far away, feeling somewhat tempted.

Zhang Chengyi's plan to pass on his skills to everyone was not optimistic at first. Even if everyone possessed unparalleled internal strength, it would still not change the fact that poison would seep into their bones and their lives would be left to chance.

Through his and Xue Muhua's research, they discovered that the Manggu Toad feeds on poison, which is why poisonous creatures fear it. However, the blood poison in Duan Yu's body is not simply the poison of the Manggu Toad; it also contains other components, making it a naturally mixed poison.