The power, filled with immense negative emotions, acted like a drilling bit, frantically trying to breach the defense wall of Tang San's powerful spiritual force.
The clash of these two forces caused Tang San's head to throb with pain. He held his head and closed his eyes for a few seconds. When he could see clearly again, Dai Mubai and the others had already disappeared from his side.
Only a darkness, viscous like black mud, churned around him, occasionally revealing something resembling the segmented limbs of a multi-legged insect.
They seemed to possess their own consciousness, and a greater, different spiritual force twisted together strangely and unitedly, without any repulsion, forcefully breaking through his constructed spiritual barrier.
The backlash of spiritual force turned Tang San's face pale. He uncontrollably coughed out a mist of blood, which was greedily absorbed like a sponge by the invisible matter swirling within his domain.
But it wasn't over yet.
Because another large wave of spiritual force, which had broken through his defenses, suddenly dissolved into individual streams and fiercely drilled into the depths of his mind, beginning to spread its pervasive, leech-like corrupting power.
Even for Tang San, his vision swam, and he temporarily lost his sight.
Something cold drew near him.
A chilling aura, as cold as ice, swept towards his spiritual force like a scraping blade.
His spiritual force was like fish meat, scaled and placed on a cutting board, being cut, decomposed, and recomposed. It was unbearable yet strangely painless, as if he had taken a dose of anesthetic, his brain and thoughts began to float.
Tang San struggled, wanting to open his eyes and wake up.
But his eyelids felt as heavy as if they were welded shut, impossible to open. He could only gradually lose his senses, with no concept of time.
"Xiao San... you should hurry and find your father. Sister Sui's illness this time is severe, I'm afraid better medicinal herbs are needed to suppress it. Good herbs are expensive, and your few copper soul coins aren't enough..."
"Old Li, I'll discuss the money with Tang Hao. You should give Sui Sui medicine first! Sui Sui is in critical condition now and can't wait for Xiao San to find Tang Hao!"
Two aged voices, like sharp needles, continuously stimulated Tang San's otherwise numb nerves.
Upon catching the keywords, Tang San's fluctuating spiritual force began to stir violently again.
Who? Sui Sui? ...Sui Sui is sick again?
A habitual thought, ingrained since childhood, made Tang San subconsciously associate Tang Sui with her former frail health.
The golden patterns between his brows flickered with intense light, and the shallow golden Sea God's Light temporarily banished the spiritual pollution that had taken root in Tang San's mind.
Finally able to open his eyes, Tang San's senses regained clarity, and he heard a familiar, anxious voice—
"Grandpa Li, please give my sister the medicine directly. I'll talk to my father about the money, but Sui Sui really can't wait any longer!"
A clear, gentle youthful voice. A tattered shirt sewn with patches, a thin, short figure, a familiar and long-lost gaunt face – wasn't this his younger self?
The rich medicinal aroma and the desolate, dilapidated room. Old Jack, who hadn't been seen for over a decade, leaned on his wooden crutch, his face full of anxiety. Opposite him sat an elder in simple blue-grey cloth clothes, his face also etched with the marks of time. He looked with bitterness at the small, thin figure lying on the sickbed, so familiar that Tang San's heart began to ache again.
The scrawny little girl was lying on the bed, covered with a lead-grey cotton quilt. Her forehead was covered in fine, hot sweat beads. Only her thin neck and unnaturally red little face were exposed. Her pale lips were slightly parted, like a stranded fish gasping for its last breath as it approached death, but there were only faint rises and falls.
Tang San looked at the bone-thin girl on the sickbed, tormented by illness and merely waiting for death. His lips moved slightly, as if wanting to say something, but he found he could not utter a sound, nor could he move. He could only stand there, a spectator as his younger self bowed a standard ninety-degree bow to the elder named Li, with immense sincerity and urgency.
From his strong and resilient heart, a bittersweetness spread, and memories buried deep in his palace of memory were reawakened.
He remembered...
This was the most dangerous and the time he felt most powerless among Sui Sui's countless illnesses in her childhood.
Autumn was rainy. Despite being careful not to let Sui Sui get wet, the damp, cold air in the atmosphere caused Sui Sui to develop a high fever.
He would never forget.
On that day, his father had gone somewhere, perhaps hiding and drinking in some corner of the village, or perhaps not even in the village at all. In any case, he was not at home.
And he, because he had to cultivate the Xuantiangong and absorb the primordial purple qi of the dawn, had gone alone into the back mountains very early to meditate in his usual spot.
When he returned home after picking wild vegetables, he knocked on Sui Sui's door to wake her for breakfast and discovered something was wrong. Upon opening the door and entering, he saw that his sister's sallow little face was abnormally red.
Reaching out to touch her forehead, it felt as hot as a stone that had been baked by fire.
His heart skipped a beat, and he realized the severity of the situation. He quickly wrapped Sui Sui, along with her small quilt, and carried her to find the village elder, Old Jack.
Old Jack, along with two of the stronger uncles from the village, took them to the village doctor in the neighboring village. However, because Sui Sui's fever had lasted too long, ordinary methods of cooling and cheap herbs were no longer effective. More expensive medicinal herbs were needed for treatment.
"It's not that I don't want to treat her. I've watched Sister Sui grow up from a child. If I can save her, I absolutely will. But the medicinal herbs Sui Sui needs now, I don't have them. I can only buy them in the county town with money! You, me, and Xiao San are all old, weak, and small. We're not as fast as Tang Hao, the blacksmith, who has a strong physique!"
Village Doctor Li explained why he had asked young Tang San to find Tang Hao quickly.
Yes.
Because by the time he discovered Sui Sui had a high fever, it was already quite late, and the situation was more dangerous, requiring better medicinal herbs.
Young Tang San listened, looked up, and glanced worriedly at his sister who was burning with fever on the bed. He then quickly ran out—
"Then I'll go find my father now!"
Old Jack's white beard trembled with urgency. He instructed the two strong young men who had arrived with him to hurry back to the village and mobilize others to find Tang Hao together.
There was truth to the saying that many hands make light work.
Young Tang San harbored hope, but the current Tang San's eyes revealed a trace of sorrow.
Because he knew they wouldn't find him.
That day, he and everyone in the village searched the entire village, but they couldn't find his father.
As an observer, he could only watch as young Tang San ran from one place to another, even using the "Ghost Shadow Step." In the end, his stamina was almost depleted, and he still hadn't found Tang Hao.
Even though he possessed the soul of an adult, facing such dire straits, young Tang San's face showed bewilderment and despair, not knowing what to do.
Use golden needles to stimulate acupoints, but he didn't have golden needles.
He only had two or three embroidery needles at home.
A simple high fever could be treated with many kinds of herbs, but he had none.
If it weren't for him secretly channeling internal energy to his sister on the way to the neighboring village, keeping her alive, she would have likely succumbed to the fever on the road.
Now, his father was nowhere to be found, and his sister could only lie on the sickbed waiting for death...
Although merely a bystander, Tang San felt empathy, and a surge of despair and confusion churned within him, making his spiritual force extremely unstable.
—'You can't protect her at all.'
—Author's Notes—
Tang Hao was with Ah Yin at the time.
and a preview: Tomorrow is Lunar New Year's Eve, and we will have a single update at home for the family reunion. We will start adding updates after the New Year begins on the day after tomorrow. Mwah mwah~