The housekeeper had announced some news on behalf of Senior Lord Ning the next day. But it was not about the issue between the west and east courtyards, which was what Ning Tianxiong's was interested in. It was about changing their surname.
The Ning Mansion would become the Jiang Mansion.
The Nings would become the Jiangs.
It turned out that the ancestor of the Ning Mansion was from another clan, whose surname was Jiang. He was the Nings' subordinate. The Nings bestowed their surname on him to reward his service to the family. The family had been using Ning as their surname ever since.
Now the Nings had deprived Jiang's grandson of his holy pulse and had imprisoned his son under the Black Dragon Pool.
He would have rather abandon this surname!
There were no objections in the family. What the Nings had done to the east courtyard was like a slap in the face of the whole clan. It also weakened the mansion's power.
But in this way, Ning Chen had become Jiang Chen again!
"Isn't this God's will?"
Jiang Chen was somewhat surprised, but he didn't pay much attention to it. He was busy figuring out a way to recover his meridian system.
It was not difficult for him.
To achieve this, he only needed a piece of the Scripture of Spirit Nurturing, which was a secret method to strengthen the meridian system. It was rather common in the Sacred Zone. Any force more or less powerful would possess one.
However, the Hundred Thousand Mountains didn't possess it. The Ning Mansion-no, the Jiang Mansion didn't possess it.
That was why after the family found out about the status of his meridian system, they didn't think he could ever recover.
"How ridiculous!"
Jiang Chen let out a sigh. The importance of the meridian was so obvious. Hence it was crucial to make it impregnable.
But here, people had to upgrade their states to strengthen their bodies. The strengthening of the meridian system was only a secondary effect of this process.
In the Sacred Zone, it was quite the contrary.
They would nurture their meridians first by practicing secret methods. As they got stronger and stronger, they would yield twice the result with only half the effort when they practiced. Even if there was anything wrong in the process of practicing, their meridians would be strong enough to hold it. They didn't have to be as cautious as the people were here.
"Here we go."
The whole section of Scripture of Spirit Nurturing showed up in his mind. He told the maid not to disturb him, and then sat on the bed with eyes closed.
As his breath became more and more even, a halo appeared around him.
These were the spirits of the universe. They were swarming into his meridian system.
Obviously, people of the Jiang Mansion had no idea of how to use these spirits to amend the damaged meridians.
It was quite simple, actually. Before the spirits turned into genuine qi, they would disintegrate into numerous tiny spots, which would be scattered into the whole meridian system.
The meridians would absorb these spirits automatically.
The holy pulse was removed from Jiang Chen's body, so his meridians should have been more or less the same as an ordinary human being. However, additional harm was done during the transplant, and as a result, his normal meridians were severely damaged.
The meridian in his left chest and ventral area were almost fractured.
His meridian next to his Dantian and Qihai were so weak that even a slight manipulation of his genuine qi brought him great pain. If he acted recklessly, the meridians that connected Qihai would be entirely broken. That would make him genuinely disabled.
The genuine Qi converted from the spirits would be saved in Qihai, located in the Dantian area. Hence, the meridians were very important.
Jiang Chen was practicing the Scripture of Spirit Nurturing with much care. The goal was to recover the area near Qihai.
Jiang Chen felt very warm during this process, as if he were bathing in a hot spring.
Half a day had passed before he knew it. His meridians around Dantian had been greatly recovered. At least he wasn't feeling so much pain when manipulating the genuine qi.
His state had been enhanced from Cloud Two to Cloud Three.
The state enhancement is that fast?
Jiang Chen was quite surprised. But on second thought, after all,, he was once in Cloud Nine. His state was greatly lowered due to the damage to his meridians and the deprivation of his holy pulse. But he had never practiced with the holy pulse before.
"Young Master, the meal is ready. Do you want me to send the food over or…?" A maid asked from outside the door.
"No need to send it over."
Jiang Chen came to the main hall of the east courtyard. His mother, Gao Yue, was already sitting at the table. Behind her was standing a row of silent servants, with heads bowed.
The atmosphere was quite dull. Gao Yue was in a bad mood, absentmindedly staring at the bowl in her hand.
"Mother, what happened?" Jiang Chen asked.
"The west courtyard is poaching people from us. The east courtyard used to be full of talented people. Our annual income was many times more than the sum of the other three courtyards. But now…" Gao Yue unconsciously said, but soon realized that there was no point in telling this to Jiang Chen.
Jiang Chen recalled that when he went to the Black Dragon City with his father, they were not alone, but had many attendants and loyal subordinates of the east courtyard.
"None of the Red Cloud Guard came back?" Jiang Chen nervously asked.
Gao Yue didn't reply, but her expression was enough of an answer.
Jiang Chen felt cold and gloomy inside. The Red Cloud Guards were attendants of his father, recruited when he was struggling for success. They were all very loyal and had watched Jiang Chen grow up.
Jiang Chen realized his new identity and felt anger burning in his chest.
"Fan Tu is the only one that came back. He brought you back, too. He was being chased along the way and got very severely injured."
Jiang Qingyu was imprisoned in the Black Dragon Pool, but his attendants didn't have such luck. They were such loyal attendants that even if their master touched a tiger's whiskers they would follow him with no hesitation.
They were all executed by the Nings. Their corpses were hung on the walls of the Black Dragon City.
The maid Cher ran into the room crying, "Lady, I am afraid Steward Fan is dying!"
Gao Yue stood up quickly and followed Cher out. Jiang Chen followed them as well.
The three of them soon arrived outside of a room in the east courtyard. Even before entering the room, they were able to hear the noises inside.
They could smell a pungent mix of blood and medicine.
Gao Yue pushed the door open. Jiang Chen, who was behind her, saw a few men who looked like doctors bustling about next to the bed.
The man in the bed was strong, but was clearly in agony.
"Lady, Steward Fan is too severely injured. There is nothing more we can do." An elder doctor came to her, his face full of shame and embarrassment.
"Young Lord, My Lady." The man in the bed tried to get up when he heard them.
"Fan Tu, don't get up."
Gao Yue went to him and sorrowfully said, "It's our fault that you got injured…"
"Lady Lord, please don't say that. If Lord hadn't saved my brothers and I, we would have been killed by the bastards of the Fire Cloud Gang, though all of my brothers are already dead now." Fan Tu was so immersed in his sorrow that he looked like he had forgotten his pain.
"What are you doing?!"
Jiang Chen had been looking around since he came into the room. He saw that the doctors were packing their things. He also found the traces of the failed treatment they had left in Fan Tu's body when they were treating him. What he saw made him angry.
"How dare you call yourselves doctors?"
His anger made all of them confused.
The doctors were astonished and speechless.
"Young Master Chen, we have tried our best."
The elder doctor came to him and bent down to answer his questions. He thought Jiang Chen was only venting his frustration to them.
"Give me a set of silver needles," Jiang Chen ordered crossly.
The doctors were looking at each other. They didn't understand what he was going to do.
"Son, what are you doing?" Gao Yue didn't think that Jiang Chen was capable of curing Fan Tu.
"Mother, Uncle Fan's life is in danger. There is no time to lose. I'll explain it to you later."
Jiang Chen found some silver needles in the doctors' wooden box. He rushed to the bed, while Gao Yue stepped aside doubtfully.
Fan Tu was a tough man. He had a liberal attitude regarding life and death. Thus, he didn't really care whether Jiang Chen was able to save him. He grinned at him. "Young Lord, I didn't know you knew medicine."
"Don't worry. Even Yama has to give up if I intend to save someone," Jiang Chen said.
Any patient in the Sacred Zone would have dreamed to hear such a promise.