Persecuted

There was no need to ask; this woman was surely Liu Chun's sister, of whom he had heard no news for so long.

But it was unclear what state she was in now.

Liu Chun set the hot water down in an open space nearby and, before Lin Xiao and the others could even ask, spoke to them with a sorrowful expression:

"This is my poor sister. She... was once an outer disciple of the Tianxuan Sect, and later was promoted to the inner sect. But then she was persecuted by an elder of the Tianxuan Sect—her spiritual root was destroyed, and she lost all her cultivation..."

Hearing this, Lin Xiao and Jiang Youfu stared at the woman on the bed, utterly shocked.

Jiang Youfu in particular was taken aback.

He turned his head in astonishment to glance at Liu Chun.

But he also knew that Liu Chun would never joke about something like this with his own sister, so Jiang Youfu felt his understanding of the world being overturned once again.

An elder of the sect actually persecuted a disciple of his own sect!

He simply could not comprehend why anyone would do such a thing to a disciple of their own sect—and how had it even been done? Did no one in the entire sect know about it?

Elder Liu had been searching for news of his sister for so long, yet had never found even a single trace. Although Elder Liu had not had insider connections like Elder Zhang before, still—could it be that a sect as vast as the Tianxuan Sect did not even notice a disciple going missing? How could it be that even her own brother's strenuous efforts to find out yielded nothing at all...

Jiang Youfu was lost in deep shock and disbelief.

By comparison, Lin Xiao remained much calmer.

Without Liu Chun needing to explain further, Lin Xiao could already mentally fill in the picture of how his sister must have cried out to heaven and earth to no avail under the elder's persecution in the Tianxuan Sect.

As he spoke, Liu Chun turned around, took out a pile of medicinal herbs from his storage pouch, and placed them in order into the hot water in the large vat.

That elder of the Tianxuan Sect who had persecuted Liu Chun's sister was only a minor elder within one of the peaks, not a grand elder who managed the entire sect's affairs.

But he was a kinsman of one of the Tianxuan Sect's grand elders.

Because of this connection, this minor elder had frequently oppressed low-ranking disciples within the sect, yet many people dared not speak out even though they were furious.

This time, it was only thanks to Elder Zhang's loyalty that things turned out differently. Although Elder Zhang was also only a minor elder himself, he too was related to another grand elder, and so had fairly solid backing—he did not fear that other minor elder.

After Elder Zhang looked into the matter, he reported it directly to the upper echelon of the Tianxuan Sect. He had also taken the trouble to gather in advance many pieces of evidence of the elder's past wrongdoings, bringing them all out one by one before the higher-ups. Otherwise, Liu Chun's sister would likely not have been able to be brought out safely at all.

At best, she would have been allowed to die within the Tianxuan Sect, then been written off as a disciple who had died in an accident during training.

As for that minor elder, he would probably have been dealt with quietly—and out of respect for the grand elder, he would likely have been sentenced to decades of confinement and then released.

But Elder Zhang did not let that happen.

Instead, he argued forcefully, and combined with his wide network and popularity among the lower ranks, and the fact that the matter had blown up into a big scandal, it was no longer realistic to silence everyone—that was how Elder Zhang managed to bring Liu Chun's sister out.

As for the minor elder who had oppressed low-ranking disciples, the furious Sect Master directly sent him to the Enforcement Hall, where he was to be judged according to the sect's laws, and the Sect Master personally oversaw the matter, forbidding any favoritism.

Only then did the matter finally settle down within the Tianxuan Sect, and the mouths of the disciples were finally silenced.

But Elder Zhang hadn't explained any of this to Liu Chun in detail.

When they met that day, Elder Zhang simply gave a brief account of what had happened, told him that the perpetrators had already been executed, and then urged him to take his sister back to rest at once.

Because when Elder Zhang had rescued Liu Chun's sister, he had already noticed that the woman seemed to have lost all will to live and was in a very poor state.

Seeing that his younger sister, who had originally been a perfectly healthy person when she entered the Heaven's Origin Sect, had ended up in such a condition, Liu Chun couldn't bring himself to ask too many questions at the time. He hastily expressed his thanks and brought her back to the inn.

After examining his sister's condition, he found that her body had been drained severely, no better than an empty shell.

Originally, he had wanted to use his spiritual power to mend her somewhat, but he discovered that his power kept being rejected whenever it entered her body, and internally, she was a mess—there wasn't a single intact part left.

Her meridians were completely severed, and her dantian was as riddled with holes as a sieve.

So he took out the Peiyuan Pill refined by Sun Yigao, but he found that although his sister seemed to be stuck in a deep sleep without waking, she also appeared unwilling to accept any outside information, her mouth clamped tightly shut no matter what he tried.

Liu Chun didn't dare apply too much force, afraid of hurting her.

Since internal administration wasn't an option, he hurried out to buy various herbs, planning to prepare a medicinal bath for her.

He wasn't very knowledgeable about medicinal baths, so he specially invited a spirit physician to examine her.

At first, after the examination, the spirit physician simply shook his head and told him to prepare for the worst, saying she didn't have much time left.

But with Liu Chun tightly gripping his weapon-talisman brush, clearly ready to strike at any moment, the spirit physician had no choice but to give him a prescription for a medicinal bath.

What Liu Chun was working on now was precisely that barely-useful prescription—nothing more than a token effort.

Liu Chun's sister was named Liu Qin.

The talisman affixed to Liu Qin's forehead was something Liu Chun used to stabilize and maintain her current condition, to prevent her body from deteriorating further.

Seeing that Liu Chun had prepared the medicinal bath for his sister, Lin Xiao and Jiang Youfu both withdrew to the outer room, and Lin Xiao also took the initiative to set up a barrier of isolation.

After Liu Chun had settled his sister into the bath, he also came out.

The medicinal bath needed to soak for half an hour.

Seeing him emerge, Lin Xiao asked:

"Is your sister's condition stable?"

Liu Chun sat down in a chair on the other side, his expression weary, and shook his head, saying:

"I've used talismans to stabilize her for now, but that's not a long-term solution. That prescription from the spirit physician was only given reluctantly after he concluded there was no cure, so I doubt it will do much. Ah..."

As he spoke, perhaps weighed down by bitterness, he recounted his sister's physical condition in detail with a wry smile.

At that moment, he felt deeply pained and full of regret.

He regretted that, in the beginning, when he realized his sister had been out of contact for some time, he hadn't immediately exhausted every means to search for her, and had instead trusted the wolves of the Wu family, wasting time lingering at their estate.

That delay had allowed his sister to suffer for so long.

Seeing the look of profound remorse on Liu Chun's face, Lin Xiao opened his mouth slightly but uttered no words of comfort.

At a time like this, in a situation like this, any words of consolation would be pointless.

Moreover, out of politeness, Liu Chun would probably have to force himself to muster a reply even if the comfort didn't reach him at all—all for nothing.

So Lin Xiao thought for a moment, then said to Liu Chun:

If you don't have any other plans for now, how about I go ask the Yuan family tomorrow if they have any methods to cure this? If not, we'll head straight back to the sect and discuss it together. We're bound to find a solution somehow.