Chapter Ninety-Six: The Family Traitor

He hurried back to the Jiang family residence. Su Ye did not immediately go to examine what kind of treasure he had obtained; instead, he accompanied Jiang Liuying to check on Jiang Ziyang. After all, Jiang Ziyang’s injuries were the most pressing matter.

"Steward—how is he?" Su Ye stepped forward and asked softly.

Jiang Ziyang was still unconscious at this moment, his face deathly pale. Even from a distance, it looked extremely serious.

"He hasn’t woken up yet, still in a daze," the steward answered honestly.

Jiang Liuying began to tremble all over. She did not cry; instead, she walked to the bedside with remarkable composure, even managing a faint smile as she spoke:

"Dad, I’m back! I went to Yidan Pavilion, and something happened there too. Many people wanted to kill Ouyang Yunfeng, they wanted to kill Su Ye, and even me. Fortunately, that awful Su Ye displayed his prowess and dealt with them..."

Her voice gradually faded as she spoke. In these past few days, it felt as though she had endured more sudden calamities than in all the previous years of her life. One disaster after another had battered her endurance.

The upheaval in her family had nearly destroyed the Jiangs, and even a trip to Yidan Pavilion had almost cost her life. She realized that such shocking events had surely happened before, only she had been oblivious to them.

"So all these years, you were the one protecting me. You always said not to involve myself in family matters, to do whatever I liked. Now that you’ve fallen, I finally realize how difficult it is… Dad, you must get better!"

The head steward was deeply moved by the scene, his cloudy old eyes brimming with tears. The once spoiled and willful young lady seemed to have grown up at last.

"Miss, don’t worry! Master will recover. The medicine you had sent back was very effective. After he took it, he looked much better," the steward said, gratified.

Su Ye turned abruptly at these words, asking quickly, "We didn’t send any medicine back—where did it come from? Liuying, did you have someone deliver medicine?"

He and Jiang Liuying had gone to Yidan Pavilion together and had faced life-and-death dangers, carrying the pills and prescriptions given by Chen Jiayi with them at all times. They hadn’t even attended the banquet afterwards, rushing straight home.

How could anyone have delivered medicine?

Jiang Liuying’s head snapped up in shock, her exquisite face filled with alarm. She asked, "Steward, I didn’t send anyone with medicine either. What medicine was it?"

"Hmm? You didn’t?" The steward’s wrinkled face showed his own shock. He glanced at the table nearby, where half a bowl of medicine remained. He said gravely, "It was Xiao Liu who brought it back! He said you’d gotten the medicine and ordered him to deliver it, and that you were in danger and needed help..."

At this point, the steward seemed to realize something was wrong. Yet Xiao Liu had been with the Jiang family for five or six years, always diligent. When the Yu, Zhou, and Ou families attacked together, Xiao Liu had shown great bravery!

"Where is Xiao Liu? Someone—find Xiao Liu, immediately!"

Su Ye and Jiang Liuying exchanged a shocked glance. They hadn’t seen any support from home at Yidan Pavilion, nor any sign of Xiao Liu.

"Find someone—fetch a pill master at once!"

The head steward was flustered, berating himself for his carelessness. If it were any other time, he would have checked everything thoroughly, but with the master’s life at stake and the timing so coincidental, he had only given the medicine a cursory examination. With his experience, he’d judged it couldn’t be poison and thought no more of it.

Su Ye strode quickly to the table, picked up the half bowl of medicine, and sniffed it lightly. Instantly, he identified several ingredients, counting them off, "Chongxu, Taibai, Spirit Moss... hmm? That scent—it’s severed bloodroot..."

Severed bloodroot was commonly used to staunch bleeding and was not generally considered poisonous. However, if applied to the body, it would block numerous blood vessels, impeding the flow of vital energy and blood. In Jiang Ziyang’s current state, it was nothing short of lethal!

The head steward, his aged body trembling, nearly lost his footing. He rushed to the bedside to examine Jiang Ziyang.

One look, and his face turned ashen yet again.

Jiang Liuying cried out in alarm, "How is my father?"

The head steward had no time to reply, as a servant rushed in from outside with news: "Xiao Liu is missing! After he left with some men, no one could contact him!"

The words fell like a bolt from the blue. Any last hope was now extinguished.

Whatever the reason—whether Xiao Liu had been bribed, coerced, or planted as a spy by another family—it no longer mattered.

They all now knew: Xiao Liu had betrayed them, and Jiang Ziyang was in grave danger.

"Quickly—summon a physician, call for an alchemist!" The steward, though skilled in medicine, was consumed by guilt, having trusted Xiao Liu, and now lacked confidence in his abilities.

Seeing the steward’s distress, Jiang Liuying trembled even more. She grasped her father’s hand tightly, her voice quivering, "Dad, please, you must be all right—don’t leave us!"

Su Ye said in a low, steady voice, "Go and bring help. I’ll stay here and watch over him."

He stepped forward to take Jiang Ziyang’s pulse, but could barely feel a heartbeat, and several blood vessels were already swelling intermittently. At a glance, it was as if some force was surging through his veins.

Su Ye frowned, pressing a hand to Jiang Ziyang’s back, letting it roam slowly as he felt for the flow of vital points. Ever since he had grasped the meaning of “In the myriad of Huaxia, lies the gate of the mysterious feminine!” inside the alchemy furnace, he had gained an unprecedented understanding of martial artists’ meridian flows and cultivation paths.

As he probed further, his astonishment deepened. It was as if he sensed a terrifyingly fierce force raging within Jiang Ziyang, threatening to erupt at any moment upon contact.

"Could it be that he sealed himself off? Is this the secret he’s been carrying?" Su Ye was stunned. Without hesitation, he dashed out of the room, leaving only a single line behind, "Wait for my return—I’m going to the alchemy room for medicine!"

The head steward was already preparing to save his master and didn’t answer; as for the Jiang family’s alchemy room, he knew better than anyone that there was nothing there that could save a life now.

Jiang Liuying, hearing Su Ye was leaving, trembled and cried out helplessly, "Where are you going? Hurry back to me—"

Su Ye had already stepped through the doorway. Hearing her pitiful call, his body jolted, and he turned to see the peerless beauty standing there, eyes brimming with tears, utterly lost and alone.

He nodded heavily. "Don’t worry—I’ll be back immediately!"

With that, Su Ye rushed to the alchemy room. He wasn’t searching for a medicine to heal Jiang Ziyang, but rather for a pill that could force forth true qi in a single burst.

For martial artists, training began with opening acupoints—a raw force known as inner strength, dark strength, bright strength. But once they reached the stage of gathering qi, they could slowly begin to generate true qi.

This was usually a slow process, with only the faintest trickle of true qi at first, but after opening all the acupoints, every martial artist would eventually give rise to true qi.

It was the fusion of all the body’s strengths—inner, quiet, bright, and vital—into one harmonious force!

Su Ye wanted to help Jiang Ziyang, but with his current thunder source power, it was impossible. He needed to use alchemical pills to force out true qi for his own use, regardless of the consequences.

By his calculations, if he did not act, Jiang Ziyang was truly beyond saving.

Su Ye found several kinds of pills and, without hesitation, swallowed them all.

Suddenly, all one hundred and eight of his acupoints blazed with heat.

Already, his acupoints held both heavenly thunder and single fire, and now, stimulated by the true qi-inducing pills, every force within him instantly surged to a boil.

In that moment, a torrent of unstoppable power burst forth from his entire being, so intense that even white vapor streamed from the top of his head.

Other warriors might take a year or more to sense the presence of true qi, but after just a few pills, Su Ye’s body erupted with a thunderous roar, as if a dam had burst. From every major acupoint, streams of golden true qi poured forth…