The Elixir is for You, The Poison is for Me

#401 - Pretend

Although the dream was fake, Lu Jing's worries were very real.

Recently, his energy had been focused on the newly emerged secret power. Every day, he was either cultivating swordsmanship or practicing spells by growing vegetables, to the point where he had almost forgotten the original purpose of entering the academy.

It was the nightmare just now that pulled Lu Jing back to the cruel reality.

When he came to the capital from Wujiang City, the fire lantern grass and white-eyed cicada slough he carried with him were only enough for half a year.

Even with the ones Gu Caiwei bought for him at great expense, and the ones he picked up in the desert ancient tomb, it would barely last ten months.

During this time, Lu Jing had also thought of some other methods, consuming some internal force in bits and pieces.

But more or less, there were some accidental components, which were not sustainable.

And counting it up, he had already been in the academy for more than five months. Even if he deducted the time wasted in the Other World, the "Fall into the Mortal World" in his hand was almost half used.

This was certainly not good news for him.

Compared to when he first entered the academy, not only had his internal force problem not been solved, but now he also had the problem of secret power. In addition, he owed a huge debt.

After all this tossing around, his troubles had not diminished at all, but had increased.

To outsiders, Lu Jing was a first-class master at a young age, and now he had embarked on the path of cultivation, with a group of confidantes such as Xia Huai and Yan Yun. Life could not be more perfect.

But only Lu Jing himself knew the price of all this.

The previous dream seemed absurd, but it was not necessarily an impossible future, like a bad ending in a game.

Thinking of this, he couldn't help but sigh again. The three hundred doses of poison he had taken from Dongmen Weilan had been lying under the bed.

Originally, he wanted to wait for Hanshan Ke to refine the poison pills he needed before trying them, but now it seemed that he had to do both.

Lu Jing planned to try it when he went back. Even if it couldn't completely replace "Fall into the Mortal World", it would be a huge success if he could change from taking one pill a day to one pill every two days, meaning he would have gained another five months.

In addition, Lu Jing felt that he had to think of a way to protect Dongmen Weilan, a key figure, as much as possible, and not let her be poisoned to death so easily. However, there was no rush for this, as there was still some time before Dongmen Weilan reached the second-rate realm.

Lu Jing couldn't help but interrupt Professor Cui when he heard this. He had been wondering before, after he and Yan Yun and his party in Wujiang City told the Sitianjian's Wind Messenger what had happened.

Whether it was the existence of strange objects or Mr. Ji, they were obviously major events. Logically speaking, Guo Shouhuai, the Supervisor of the Sitianjian, should have sought to understand them in detail as soon as possible.

However, Lu Jing waited for more than a month, but Guo Shouhuai did not show up. Apart from Supervisor Huang privately learning about some of the things that happened that day, there was no movement from the Sitianjian, which seemed quite abnormal.

Now, there was finally an answer. It turned out that Guo Shouhuai had not been around during this time.

However, now that the situation was turbulent and the aftermath of the Divine Brush had not subsided, it was somewhat irresponsible for Guo Shouhuai not to be in charge of the Sitianjian and to run around at this juncture.

Especially since he should have also received the Sitianjian's briefing, but he still did not return, which seemed to indicate from the side that what he was doing now was very important, even more important in his eyes than that mysterious Mr. Ji, who was full of hostility towards the Sitianjian.

Lu Jing inexplicably thought of Guo Shouhuai's previous visit to the library to check books related to the secret realm. Could it be that he was still troubled by this matter?

Professor Cui nodded, "I only found out recently. It is said that Supervisor Guo only told a few people around him when he left, but he also took Kui and several other powerful supervisors with him this time. It seems that he should be safe, but I don't know when they will return."

Speaking of this, Professor Cui paused, "In short, the Sitianjian is indeed a little short-handed during this time. Some things are too busy to handle, so we can only let the academy take over. And you seven are my most outstanding disciples, and I plan to let you take a trip."

"Is there a strange object that needs us to investigate?" It was Yan Yun who spoke.

But this time, Professor Cui shook his head and said, "Although you are all very excellent, you have only been cultivating for less than a year after all. You haven't even finished listening to my class yet. It would be a little too early to deal with strange objects on your own now."

"Then what do you want us to do...?"

"To make an appearance," Professor Cui said, "The Sitianjian has actually investigated almost everything. It has been initially determined that it has nothing to do with strange objects, but the other party is still a little uneasy and hopes that we can send someone over to investigate carefully again. By the way, um... perform a ritual."

"Perform a ritual? When did the Sitianjian start providing this kind of service?" Lu Jing asked in surprise.

"It is not available to others, but this person is different. After all, he allocates a lot of money to us every year. Now that something has happened to his family, we still have to give him this face, just to reassure him."

"This 'he' you speak of..."

"That's right, it's the current official." Professor Cui did not hide it and simply revealed the answer, "About twelve days ago, he found the Supervisor and said that palace maids and eunuchs had been missing in the palace one after another. His most beloved Concubine Ningjie was also seriously ill and has not been able to get out of bed until now. He suspects that some unclean things have appeared."

"Wait, twelve days ago." Lu Jing interrupted Professor Cui again. He thought about it, and this time was exactly after he fought with those eunuchs of the Jingzi Guard, so he naturally suspected that the person's move was ulterior. Lu Jing then asked, "Did the official specifically ask me to go?"

"How is that possible? The official doesn't know that you are a student of the academy. I added you in. After all, you were the top scorer in the last small competition, your martial arts are high enough, and you can also talk nonsense." Professor Cui said.

"Remember, this time you are not going as students of the academy. You must declare to the outside world that you are formal supervisors. This is also the official's request. If it were not for the fact that there were not enough people to spare, the Sitianjian would have originally planned to send a few supervisors over."