Chapter 29: Saving a Life

Upon returning to the Su Palace, Chief Steward Lao was already there, waiting.

He hurried over to Su Chen and bowed in greeting. “Hello, Knowledge Executor Su.”

“Mm.” Su Chen didn’t try to be courteous and accepted his greeting. He went to his seat and said, “Iron Cliff, go and bring Miss Lian out.”

“Yes!” Iron Cliff obeyed his command.

A moment later, Lian Jiao was brought out by Iron Cliff.

Upon seeing Lian Jiao, Chief Steward Lao said excitedly, “Your servant greets Young Miss! Young Miss, how have you been getting by these past few days?”

Confusion was written all over Lian Jiao’s face. “These past few days? How long have I been here for? How come I don’t remember?”

“What?” Chief Steward Lao was stunned. He turned aroung and gazed at Su Chen angrily. “Knowledge Executor Su, what did you do to my clan’s Young Miss?”

“Nothing much. I just wiped away her memories of what happened these past few days. Every person has their own secrets; I just don’t want my secrets to be spread abroad, and I trust that the Lian Clan will understand my logic.”

“Su Chen!” Upon hearing that her memories had been wiped, Lian Jiao’s “Young Miss temper” began to flare. Without her memories of what had happened during that period of time, her fear towards Su Chen was also gone. Naturally, she was just as overbearing as before. “You dare treat me like that? I definitely won’t let you get away with it!”

“Ai, my Young Miss, don’t say things like that anymore.” Chief Steward Lao was so scared that he hurriedly dragged Lian Jiao outside.

“Chief Steward Lao, what do you mean? Does our Lian Clan fear him?” Lian Jiao still wanted to get revenge, but Chief Steward Lao wouldn’t let her go. Finally, with no other option available, he could only lean into her ear and say, “Young Miss, you don’t know. These past few days, of which you don’t remember, Su Chen killed Liu Wuya, took over the Origin Bureau, and allied himself with City Lord An. Long Shaoyou was struck by a curse and it’s currently unknown whether he will survive or not, and the Long Clan has been hit with setback after setback. Many of their members have already died! This is all because of Su Chen!”

“What?” Lian Jiao was stunned.

She stared at Su Chen in disbelief.

Su Chen continued to drink his tea and waved his hand. “If there’s nothing else, then you may leave. Just remember our agreement.”

“The Lian Clan will definitely honor it.” Chief Steward Lao clasped his hands and bowed, then took Lian Jiao with him as they left.

Without even raising his head, Su Chen muttered, “I’m not afraid that you won’t honor it.”

Su Chen hadn’t said it loudly, but the words still entered Chief Steward Lao’s ears, causing his heart to tremble. He had already silently vowed to inspect Lian Jiao’s body when they returned to make sure that he hadn’t done anything else.

After watching them leave, Su Chen fell into silent thought.

“A curse, huh……”

After thinking about it for quite some time, he suddenly stood up and walked towards the research lab.

He concocted a vial of medicine, then dumped it on a human mold that he had prepared.

After the mixture had dried, a mask in the form of a human face had been created.

Su Chen carefully took the mask off, then attached it to his own face. He glanced at himself in a crystal mirror, rearranged his hair, and changed his outfit before walking out of the room.

He didn’t notify anyone. Instead, he just silently disappeared into the night.

——————————————————

In the Long Clan.

Long Qingjiang sat near his son’s bed, clasping his son’s hand. His face was tight with anxiety.

Long Shaoyou’s body continued to weaken day by day. The strange black fog continued to laugh maliciously and transform, slowly draining away Long Shaoyou’s lifeforce.

Wei Liancheng had died.

Without him, there wouldn’t be any way of releasing the curse.

Long Qingjiang had completely given up all hope.

Just as he was feeling sorrow for his son, Chief Steward Lao walked in from outside. “Patriarch, someone would like to see you. He wants to try and treat Prince’s illness.”

“Let him in.” Long Qingjiang’s tone, however, wasn’t excited at all.

He had invited all of the famous doctors in and near Clear River City, and later Origin Qi Scholars, to take a look, but none of them had seen this kind of curse before, and none of them could do anything.

This newcomer would probably only be able to shake his head and apologize helplessly.

Even so, Long Qingjiang held onto a tiny trace of hope as he let the person in and greeted him respectfully.

The newcomer was a middle-aged man with black skin. He seemed quite mediocre, and he carried a medicinal box on his back.

“Long Qingjiang greets sir. May I ask, sir, what your name is?”

“Thank you. My surname is Chen, and my name is just one character – Shu,” the doctor responded as he carefully inspected Long Shaoyou on the bed, his voice a bit raspy.

He didn’t blink in the slightest.

Upon seeing his behavior, Long Qingjiang hurriedly said, “Sir Chen, please, come in.”

Chen Shu didn’t pretend to be courteous. He came to Long Shaoyou’s side and sat down, then grabbed one of Long Shaoyou’s hands and began to take his pulse. He was quite direct and didn’t waste any time dithering about.

Long Qingjiang didn’t mind. Rather, he felt that this doctor was much more reliable in doing things. Some of the earlier doctors who had come by had done a lot of talking, but in the end they weren’t able to do anything.

A moment later, that Doctor Chen let go of his wrist, then peeled back Long Shaoyou’s eyelids to take a quick look. Afterwards, he examined his tongue, then pulled aside his clothes to look at his midsection.

The prior doctors had all done that before, but none of them had looked at his midsection before.

That Doctor Chen inspected Long Shaoyou’s entire body from top to bottom before letting out a sigh. “So that’s how it is.”

“Doctor Chen, what did you find out?” Long Qingjiang asked excitedly.

“Yes, this is a kind of curse,” Chen Shu nodded and said.

Upon hearing this, Long Qingjiang felt like he had been splashed by a bucket of cold water. “Of course I know that it’s a curse!”

“Then does Patriarch Long know what kind of curse it is?” Chen Shu said with a raspy voice.

Long Qingjiang was stunned.

Chen Shu said, “This kind of a curse is actually the result of placing a unique, microscopic substance on a person’s body, then controlling it by using some kind of secret technique.”

“Microscopic substance?”

“Yes, a kind of substance that is as small as specks of dust and can’t be seen with the naked eye. This substance has a unique and mysterious ability. When under the control of a secret technique, it can slowly but surely drain a person of their lifeforce. The only reason Young Master Long is still alive is because Patriarch was probably using large amounts of medicine to nourish him, right? With enough nourishment, he is naturally able to hold on for some time. However, this curse will only continue to strengthen its effects over time as it sucks away your lifeforce. So as time continues to go on, the curse will only grow more and more vicious. Someday, this deficiency won’t be able to be overcome by medicinal strength alone.”

“So that’s how it is.” Long Qingjiang said sadly. “Then my son is totally incurable.”

During this period of time, he had truly used all kinds of precious medicines to try and save Long Shaoyou. It was fine at the beginning, but he found as time went on that the effect became less and less pronounced.

So that was the root cause.

“That might not be true,” Chen Shu suddenly said.

That thought was like a flash of lightning in Long Qingjiang’s consciousness. He said hurriedly, “Does Doctor Chen mean that there is a way to save my son?”

“Yes!” Chen Shu nodded. “There are two possible methods.”

There’s actually two methods?

“The first is to find the person who laid the curse down. As long as you break the way to control the technique, the curse will be incomplete, and without something to keep it together the strange substance will dissipate on its own. But there are many different types of such techniques, and it’s extremely difficult for outsiders to know what type it is. That’s why you need the person who laid the curse themselves to get rid of it.”

Upon hearing this, Long Qingjiang shook his head. “The person who set the curse in place is already dead.”

“Then there’s only the second method. You don’t need to know how the curse was set up; you can directly attack this kind of substance.

Long Qingjiang asked hurriedly, “Sir, can you do that?”

“I’ve never seen this type of substance before, and it’ll take me some time to develop a corresponding medicine. Before then, I can try and suppress it; at the very least, Prince Long will have a bit longer to live.”

As he spoke, Chen Shu pulled out three vials of medicine and handed them to Long Qingjiang. “These vials should be useful to him. One pill every day, no more than that. Every vial will last for seven days. Twenty-one days from now, I’ll be back.”

Long Qingjiang was ecstatic. He bowed deeply to Chen Shu and said, “Many thanks, sir!”