Expunge Technique
Ku Mu cooped up in his rooms for days on end. He set up a barrier around the tree to prevent anyone from entering, leaving Mu Yu worried sick.
“Tell me he isn’t dead,” mumbled Mu Yu, touching Xiaoshuai’s ear.
Wagging his tail, Xiaoshuai replied, “I don’t know. Old Green keeps saying he’ll use Worm for alchemy, but he has yet to make good on his word.”
“Oi, Rat, was that a plea to kill you?” grouched the dragon vine, splashing water onto Xiaoshuai using its tail.
After he was done glaring at the dragon vine, Xiaoshuai titled his head and inquired, “You reckon he will expunge his spiritual energy?”
Sitting on the wooden bridge, Mu Yu caressed Xiaoshuai’s fluffy tail out of boredom. “Can I help Ku Mu using the same strategy as I used to extract wood residue from Alchemist Yao’s body?”
“You should already know it’s impossible. Alchemists interact with herbs, while he interacts with poison, too. He only has one option if he wants to live.”
“He’ll suffer from normal humans’ ailments once he reverts back to one. If he’s aggravated, he’s in for it,” added the dragon vine, shaking off the water on its tail.
“Are you trying to imply I have to refrain from exasperating him in the future?”
A burst of energy suddenly discharged from the celestial fiend tree, blowing the chatting trio into the river. The energy sent tremors throughout the entire valley. The fiend beasts in the lake thought it was time for Ku Mu to catch them for his experiments again. Thus, they trembled.
Mu Yu surfaced and spat out a mouthful of water. Spiritual energy was still discharging from the celestial fiend tree. It ended up taking two hours before gradually stopping.
Xiaoshuai climbed onto Mu Yu’s head and shook the water off him. He said, “He ended up expunging his spiritual energy.”
Ku Mu sat cross-legged on his bed, head hanging down and body shaking. His breathing was erratic. His hair had turned white. His white beard came down to his chest. He struggled to raise his head. “You can. Start your. Revenge now. If you. Want.”
Mu Yu sauntered over. “I liked it better when your hair was green, Gramps.”
“Are you ridiculing me?” asked Ku Mu, teeth clenched. He tried to hang Mu Yu again but realised he had lost his power.
“Hehe, you can’t hang me now, can you? Now I don’t have to deal with a flood of blood in my head again.”
“Don’t count your chickens before they hatch!”
“Yeah, yeah, act your age. I’m not a backstabber. What? You thought I’d kick you out or something? Lie back down.” Mu Yu tucked Ku Mu in, then showed Ku Mu a bottle and teased, “Hehe, Gramps, I had nothing to do recently, so, concocted a foundation establishment, energy restoration potion that’ll help you feel better.”
“You want to. Poison me?”
“Poison you? Young Ku Mu did teach me a thing or two. Have some faith in me, will you? Why would I bother with poisoning you if I could just kill you with a single blow?”
Mu Yu boiled some water and started a fire using a pill flame stone to let Ku Mu rest comfortably.
The potion could elevate an ordinary man’s a hundred folds. While Ku Mu was bitter about it, he didn’t refuse the potion.
“Let’s see… Xiaoshuai said you’re too weakened to handle strong herbs, so let me find something toned down,” muttered Mu Yu, fumbling through his herb storage and getting to work after finding what he wanted.
“You want to leave, don’t you?!”
“Obviously. I don’t want to stay in this dodgy, lame and shoddy place. In saying that, I have to bring you along despite you being a burden.”
“Brat, you said I’m your shifu, didn’t you? Weren’t you taught to respect your shifu?”
“Did I say that? It must have been a slip of the tongue. More importantly, what if my real shifu refuses to approve?”
“Hmph!”
“Take the Cosmos Sack,” instructed Ku Mu, reluctantly throwing Mu Yu the pouch.
Eyes inside the pouch, Mu Yu’s eyes lit up. “It’s all mine now!”
Ku Mu tugged up the corner of his lips. He felt sleepy for the first time in many years. Cultivators who slept as Mu Yu did were rare as they only felt exhaustion but not sleep deprivation.
Xiaoshuai asked Mu Yu if there was food in the pouch, only for Mu Yu to speak while sporting a mysterious grin. As much as Xiaoshuai wanted to snatch the pouch, he noticed Ku Mu aging rapidly, so he reminded, “Mu Yu, supply him with vitality. His aging is leaving him very vulnerable to illnesses.”
Mu Yu placed his left hand on the wall and right hand on Ku Mu’s arm. Using himself as a channel, Mu Yu transferred the celestial fiend tree’s vitality over to Ku Mu carefully, ensuring he didn’t feed Ku Mu an excess amount.
Ku Mu had his first night of sound sleep. Mu Yu still couldn’t relax for he was cognisant of the fact he had to bodyguard Ku Mu when they went to Pill Cauldron Sect. To top it off, Mu Yu himself wasn’t exactly strong. Though he liked quarrelling with the elder, that was a no-go henceforward.
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