454 Stopping and Driving the Carriage, Speaking of Money and Offering a Sword

With its swiftest speed, the Orthodox Academy's carriage departed from theprincipal alley of the Northern Military Department. The gathered crowd outside the alley didn't have time to react. Even Mao Qiuyuand Prince Chen Liu didn't know what had occurred in that small courtyard. With the departure of the carriage, the five hundred Orthodoxy cavalrydispersed, leaving only trails of dust. Chen Changsheng and the rest were in such a hurry not because Zhexiu was socritically wounded that he was barely clinging to life, but rather because theshadow that had been cast over their minds by that small courtyard was far toofrightening! Lying on the stretcher, Zhexiu was dressed in a set of clean clothes. His facewas the sort of pale obtained from not seeing the sun for a while and his bodywas rather emaciated. However, there were no visible wounds, so his situationcould be considered okay. As the carriage galloped through the street, the wind blew up a corner of thecurtain. Tang Thirty-Six was able to see one of the eaves of Zhou Prison andhis face slightly paled. Subconsciously, he tightened his grip on the hilt ofhis sword. That calm and assured appearance he had when speaking to Zhou Tongwas no longer visible at all. Zhou Prison was sinister, but the truly frightening thing was still Zhou Tonghimself. Chen Changsheng's head was lowered, his hair already dripping with sweat. Heseemed like he had just finished performing some extraordinarily strenuousphysical labor. He extracted a handkerchief from his sleeve and wiped the sweat off his face.Then he balled it up in his palm and enveloped it with his true essence. Before he entered Zhou Prison, he had been kneading this handkerchief. He rarely sweat, such that Tang Thirty-Six and Xuanyuan Po had never seen himdo so. Today's circumstances were special. Beforehand, he had considered that it waspossible he might sweat today. Only after confirming that the handkerchief soaked in sweat was not emittingthat strange scent that made him uneasy did Chen Changsheng truly relax. The standoff with Zhou Tong in that small courtyard, to him, was much morehair-raising than his battle with Zhou Ziheng. Because in this standoff, their minds had to bear an extremely terrifyingpressure. "Don't wipe your mouth," Tang Thirty-Six said to him as he incessantly wipedoff sweat. Chen Changsheng momentarily paused as he asked, "Why?" Tang Thirty-Six answered, "To use a handkerchief to wipe the mouth will makeyou seem just like Zhou Tong. It will look very freakish." From the front of the carriage came Xuanyuan Po's laughter. An honest bearyouth, his standard for humor had always been this low. This joke wasn't very amusing, but the mood in the carriage lightened upsomewhat. Chen Changsheng's mind gradually calmed, and he began to check up on Zhexiu'sinjuries. He placed his finger on Zhexiu's veins and quietly listened. Suddenly, therewas a muffled bang in the compartment as his finger jolted away from the vein. Tang Thirty-Six asked, "What's going on?" "Tide Rush of Blood, his old illness." Chen Changsheng felt that there was a problem with Zhexiu's pulse. He creasedhis brow, but said nothing more. He removed the metal needles from his fingers,undid Zhexiu's collar, and prepared to use the needles to take a look. The moment he undid the collar, his fingers stiffened. After Tang Thirty-Six saw it, his body also stiffened. Chen Changsheng's fingers began to tremble, but he still persisted in slowlyundoing the clothes, revealing Zhexiu's body. Yes, Zhexiu's face did not have the smallest wound, nor could any sign ofinjury or torture be seen. Because all of it was on his body. There wasn't one inch of Zhexiu's body that was complete. It was all wounds and rotted flesh. There were even places where the white bone was visible. There were even places where the bone had turned black. Chen Changsheng had no idea how many tortures Zhexiu had suffered, how manythings he had been poisoned with. He also did not want to know, because he could not bear to know. The carriage compartment was deathly still. "Stop the carriage!" Chen Changsheng suddenly shouted. Tang Thirty-Six's head was lowered. At some point, his right hand had onceagain tightly gripped the hilt of the Wenshui Sword. Xuanyuan Po did not know what had happened within the carriage. After stoppingthe carriage, he entered and saw Zhexiu's miserable situation. His eyes instantly turned red and his breathing became coarse and hurried inhis fury. His arms began to thicken and steel-like hairs began to grow out ofhis skin, both signs of metamorphosis. "I'm going to kill Zhou Tong!" Chen Changsheng and Tang Thirty-Six said nothing, but they were both thinkingthis, which was why he had yelled to stop the carriage, which was why he hadgripped the hilt of his sword. Zhexiu had been tormented into such a wretched state such that even ChenChangsheng found it impossible to maintain his calm stoicism. Tang Thirty-Sixwas even less able to care about his identity as the descendant of a noble clan. If it were said that Liang Xiaoxiao had used his own death to accuse Zhexiu ofcolluding with the demons, then it could be said that Zhexiu suffered from hisinvolvement with Qi Jian. Then when Zhou Tong refused to release Zhexiu andused such cruel methods to torment him, it could be said that he suffered thesetorments in the Orthodox Academy's place. They were the Orthodox Academy, so it was only a matter of course that theytake vengeance on Zhexiu's behalf. At this moment, Zhexiu opened his eyes. There was still a lemon-yellow color in the depths of his pupils. That was the intermixture of Nanke's poison and the fierce blood of the wolftribe. However, because he had been poisoned by so many toxins in Zhou Prison, allthese poisons mutually conflicted with each other. In these last few days, hisvision was surprisingly gradually recovering. Every time he woke up in Zhou Prison, he would have to welcome a boundless andendless pain, so when he opened his eyes, they were cold and filled with hatred. But after a moment, he realized that he wasn't seeing those strange torturedevices that seemed to be built for use on demi-humans, but rather three youngfaces filled with deep concern! It only took a few seconds for Zhexiu to completely sober up, and he was evenable to guess from their expressions what these three intended to do. The vigilance and hatred in his eyes gradually vanished but his face was stillemotionless. He directly said to Xuanyuan Po, "Drive the carriage." His voice was incredibly feeble, but it seemed to possess the feeling that itcould not be refused. Xuanyuan Po yelled, "We're prepared to attack Zhou Prison to get revenge foryou." Zhexiu looked at him and expressionlessly said, "There are many hot pillars inthere. Do you want to make some simmer-fried bear-paw for them?" (TN: A hot pillar is an ancient Chinese punishment where the victim was tiedto a burning hot metal pillar and cooked to death.) This was also a joke that wasn't very amusing, and there was no one laughingthis time. Of course, it wasn't because everyone was stunned because Zhexiu had neverbeen one to make jokes. "But it's really impossible to swallow back down this emotion," TangThirty-Six said. Zhexiu replied, "When you can't defeat your enemy, you have to endure. Youhave to keep your eyes fixed on him, grow stronger, and then kill him in onebite." This was the way of existence for wolves. Chen Changsheng said to him sorrowfully, "I'm sorry, it's all because I gotyou involved." Zhexiu closed his eyes, ignoring him. Xuanyuan Po returned to the front of the carriage and continued to drive itdown the street. Zhou Prison grew farther and farther away. But the four youths on the carriage were keenly aware that there would be aday when they would return. A cold and flat voice suddenly rang out in the carriage. It was Zhexiu's voice, but his eyes were still shut. "If you think I'm too wretched…just add money and it'll be fine." Upon their return to the Orthodox Academy, the priests of the ThirteenDivisions of Radiant Green that had long been awaiting their arrival began touse the Sacred Light technique to treat Zhexiu's wounds. Afterwards, ChenChangsheng began to personally give medical treatment, prudently using needlesand scalpel to treat the appalling wounds on Zhexiu's body. It took half aday's time to complete the treatment, by which time the sky had already turnedcompletely black. Zhexiu's injuries were too severe. In order to make treatment more convenientand minimize movement, he did not stay in those buildings by the forest.Instead, a thick bedding was laid out on the wood flooring of the library so hecould just sleep on the ground. Under the illumination of the lantern light, Chen Changsheng looked throughthe directory of the Orthodox Academy, then put it back in its drawer. Heturned his eyes to the wolf youth whose eyes were tightly shut, enduring thepain without saying a single word. Chen Changsheng recalled that back in theGarden of Zhou, Zhexiu had said that he wanted a sword.