The Elixir is for You, The Poison is for Me

#400 - Nightmare

Lu Jing had a dream where he found a way to suppress the expansion of his secret power, successfully maintaining his realm at the first palace. However, before he could rejoice, something went wrong with the green-clad girl again.

And this time, Lu Jing was also helpless, able only to watch her being poisoned to death. As a result, the market continued to face shortages of Fire Lantern Grass and White-Eyed Silkworm Clothes.

Lu Jing tried everything he could, but it became increasingly difficult to find these two medicinal materials. By the time he had consumed all the 'Fallen to Earth' pills he had hoarded, he had no choice but to resort to using internal force to stimulate his acupoints to quench his thirst with poison.

As a result, the internal force in his dantian grew stronger and stronger, but the interval between each surge became shorter and shorter.

To make matters worse, because he had spent all his money buying medicine, he couldn't afford to refine the secret power poison, which caused his secret power to begin to spiral out of control.

Just when he was about to despair, the most mysterious organization in the Jianghu, the Joyful Union Palace, approached him and offered him a helping hand, but at the same time forced him to sign a contract of servitude.

And to add insult to injury, those women didn't even pay a tael of silver.

It was a true free ride, not even a small monthly card was offered.

Even more tragically, Lu Jing then had to use his meager free time to plant medicine for the Joyful Union Palace, consuming the secret power in his upper dantian. He had completely become a production tool for the Joyful Union Palace, in both senses of the word.

His whole person had become numb from the inside out. Although he was still alive, he was just a walking corpse.

And his former friends, Xia Huai, Yang Tao, and Yan Yun, Chi, and others, did not give up on him and wanted to save him, but when they went through great pains to reach Lu Jing and wanted to rescue him.

They didn't expect Lu Jing to be unwilling to leave at all.

He even fought with Yan Yun and others for the sake of those妖女 from the Joyful Union Palace, and in the end, Lu Jing easily achieved victory with his terrifying internal strength and secret power cultivation.

But when Lu Jing saw the look Xia Huai gave him before leaving, even he, who had lost his soul, felt a pang of heartbreak.

It was that moment that made Lu Jing feel utterly hopeless.

In addition, his secret power was about to reach the seventh palace, and he was about to lose control completely. Lu Jing left the Joyful Union Palace that night, returned to Wu River City, secretly saw his master one last time, and then picked up a large rock and jumped into the heart of the river.

However, because his internal force was too strong, Lu Jing didn't feel suffocated even after soaking in the water for a long time, which made him angry. He found a few water plants and tied a noose around his neck.

After tossing and turning for a while, Lu Jing finally felt his mind start to blur, and he heard auditory hallucinations in his ears, "Wake up, wake up quickly."

At the same time, he smelled a faint fragrance of orchids.

Lu Jing opened his eyes in a daze and found himself lying in the lecture hall, while Professor Cui and the other disciples of the academy below were looking at him with strange expressions.

Only Xia Huai had buried her head almost completely under the desk.

Lu Jing then remembered what had just happened. He was currently attending the 'Mysteries of Strange Objects' class, cooperating with Professor Cui to teach and explain a strange object at his request.

Thinking of this, Lu Jing quickly sat up and moved away from the boxwood pillow.

Professor Cui then began to explain to the people below about [Yi Character Ninety-One], "Did you see that? The effect of this strange object is to allow the person who pillows it to enter dreamland in half an incense stick's time, so some people think it can help people fall asleep quickly, but the truth is that when you wake up the next morning, the person who pillows it will be more tired than the day before.

"This is because that person is having nightmares all night, and it is generally difficult to wake up the person having nightmares, only the fragrance of orchids can help him break free from the nightmare."

Professor Cui paused here, then looked at Lu Jing and asked curiously, "What kind of nightmare did you have just now?"

"It's nothing, I just encountered a group of very powerful bandits when I was traveling, I couldn't beat them, and they robbed all the silver on my body."

It was definitely not okay to tell the truth. Even if Lu Jing didn't care about his secrets being leaked, the content of the dream was really too embarrassing to mention, so he casually made up a lie, wanting to muddle through.

But he didn't expect the expression on Professor Cui's face to become even more interesting after he finished speaking.

And not only Professor Cui, but also a murmur of whispers sounded in the lecture hall at this time.

"What's wrong? Is there a problem?" Lu Jing raised his eyebrows.

"Well... when you were having a nightmare before, you said, 'No more, really no more, not a drop left, don't come again,' or something like that."

"Well, after they robbed the money, they also robbed my wine, that is, the wine gourd that I usually carry with me, but the wine inside has already been drunk by me," Lu Jing said, trying to remain calm.

"So brutal? But you also said later, 'Do whatever you want, I'm tired, if you want to move, move yourself, I'll just lie here.'"

"That group of bandits was aggressive and wanted to compete with me, but I had resisted very hard before and was really too tired, so I just lay on the ground and let them do it themselves."

"Then Xia Huai, I'm sorry, I know how you see me now, but I'm not the kind of person you think I am, I also have my own difficulties, how should I explain it?" Professor Cui threw out his trump card.

"…………"

Lu Jing finally understood why Xia Huai's head was so low, and he could only reluctantly say, "That group of bandits, seeing that I was unwilling to do anything, escorted me to nearby villages to rob and plunder, and happened to run into Xia Huai, who was very disappointed in me, that's why I said that."

Lu Jing knew very well how ridiculous his explanation was, but fortunately Professor Cui finally didn't continue to ask, not because he was persuaded by Lu Jing, but because he was also worried that Lu Jing's story would become more and more bizarre.

So he waved his hand and let Lu Jing return to his seat, then hastily added a few words, saying that the nightmares produced by [Yi Character Ninety-One] are mostly the things that a person is most afraid of, and then turned his attention to the next strange object.

However, the speaker is unintentional, but the listener is mindful.

No one knows what Lu Jing is most afraid of, but it is definitely not being robbed, nonsense, he is already a first-rate expert, if he is still afraid of being robbed, then everyone should not go out, so it seems that what he is most afraid of in this nightmare is being misunderstood by Xia Huai?

Thinking of this, the expressions on the faces of many young heroes became even more ugly.