Zhou Ziang was holding Xiao Que’s dical report as he left the ward.
**
Xiao Que lay quietly on the bed, struggling to close her eyes, her breathing gradually smoothing out from its initially frantic pace.
Her heart raced urgently, like an athlete who had just run eight hundred ters. None of the visitors, including Zhou Ziang, had noticed this.
Underneath the hospital gown of the nine-year-old girl, in a chaotic ss, i Nian felt as if soone was choking her throat, making her extrely uncomfortable.
Contrary to the body’s reaction, i Nian’s consciousness could clearly see Xiao Xian and Zhou Ziang discussing "her" condition on the side.
Xiao Xian, ginseng boy (i Nian liked to call Zhou Ziang ginseng boy because of the excellent ginseng he provided), the old undying of the Wang Family, i Nian wanted to loudly remind them.
No sound ca out. i Nian found she could neither speak nor use her Spiritual Power.
Countless hair-thin ginseng spirit whiskers enveloped her Spiritual Sense.
After the initial anger and agitation, her thoughts returned to over a month ago when she first found out about the issues with the Plum Rice Ball’s ginseng supply.
She contacted the supplier in the northeast, and from their evasive answers, i Nian guessed that soone was deliberately sabotaging the pharmacy. The sudden disruption of the ginseng supply forced her to reconsider an old theory by i Xiang.
Before the Bai Juyi incident, i Xiang had traveled alone to various regions rich in Spiritual Energy, including the Changbai Mountain area.
i Xiang asserted that there must be a precious ginseng spiritual vein hidden sowhere in the Changbai Mountains. According to the ancient teachings of the i Family, where there are spirit veins, there are unusual and rare herbs accompanying them. i Nian deduced from the data i Xiang left that the lack of good wild ginseng in the Changbai Mountains over the past decades might be related to changes in this spiritual vein.
To be cautious, she kept an ice blade fragnt and repeatedly instructed Huang Yaoshi, if the fragnt showed any changes, to notify Xiao Xian imdiately. And one more thing, Yu Gang must not be allowed to co under any circumstances.
So when the ice blade fragnt changed, Huang Yaoshi notified Xiao Xian right away.
On the second day after arriving at Changbai Mountain, i Nian discovered traces of Cultivators in the mountains. Being cautious, she eventually reached the small cabin and encountered Xiao Que and Wang Fenglei who was hiding from the world. Upon first seeing Wang Fenglei, i Nian was even more certain that the ginseng spiritual vein was nearby.
In the dostic Cultivation World, there was a rumor about Wang Fenglei. It was said that for a woman of loose morals, he killed his father and abandoned his family. He even preserved the woman’s corpse in millennium-old ice and searched for ways to bring her back to life. At the ti, i Nian had heard this rumor and found it sowhat amusing. However, upon encountering Wang Fenglei again, she probed his intentions and found it might indeed be possible.
The land of the spiritual vein could extend a living person’s lifespan, but whether it could revive the dead was unknown.
Regrettably, Wang Fenglei, having lived there for many years, hadn’t determined the exact location of the spiritual vein.
i Nian, utilizing her ability to search with Spiritual Power, roughly pinpointed the location of the spiritual vein near the Snow Gully. At that ti, the Snow Gully was only the size Xiao Xian and Zhou Ziang first saw it; wide enough for just one person to climb down.
Knowing that Wang Fenglei was also after the treasure, she did not share her discovery with him. Instead, she prepared an iron crowbar and slip-resistant knee and wrist guards before descending into the gully.
She was fortunate; after climbing down, she only searched for little over a thousand ters before finding the ginseng, which had just broken through the ground.
i Nian’s knowledge of ginseng far exceeded Xiao Xian’s ability to appraise plants under a hundred years. She knew such a treasure must be harvested promptly and moved to a specified container within two hours of harvesting.
At the ti, the ginseng itself did not emit much Spiritual Energy fluctuation, which led i Nian to be careless and attempt to harvest it directly.
As she approached the ginseng, several ginseng spirit whiskers erged from the ground. i Nian could manage the Spiritual Power of the whiskers, but when her energy fell below that of the ginseng whiskers, she discovered that each whisker carried the millennia-old spectral cold accumulated in the Changbai Mountain area.
Instantly frozen, i Nian only had ti to protect a few crucial organs with her Spiritual Power. In the fading days, i Nian nearly gave up several tis, but each ti, a stream of Spiritual Energy would surround her heart and expel the cold.
That stream of Spiritual Energy ward her slightly, just like when i Nian was still around.
In the forest, where no human tread and wild beasts howled, i Xiang took out the last of the Plum Rice Balls.
Breaking open the rice ball, she stuffed the entire thing into the nine-year-old i Nian’s mouth while she rely licked the rice grains off her fingers and, with a sour plum between her lips, smiled at i Nian, saying, "I love plums the most. We two are like a plum rice ball; inseparable, and we’ll definitely make it out alive."
In the Snow Valley, when she was released from the ice sculpture and woke up, the first thing she saw was countless ginseng whiskers rushing towards her, dragging her Spiritual Sense out of "i Nian’s" body and binding it to that of a small girl who had just followed the White Spirit Mastiff down the secret path.
She had beco "Xiao Que," but then who was the current "i Nian"? And how did that ginseng spiritual vein possess such astounding capabilities?
Surrounded by ginseng spirit whiskers, an image flashed through i Nian’s mind.
Just now, when Xiao Xian entered the ward, i Nian, surrounded by layers of ginseng spirit whiskers, detected a familiar Spiritual Energy on Xiao Xian—it was the sa energy that occasionally nourished her.
There must be another way; not giving up, i Nian silently chanted, "Survive," which beca her sole obsession. (To be continued. If you like this work, welco to vote for it with a recomndation ticket or a monthly ticket at Qidian (qidian). Your support is my greatest motivation.)
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