227: Chapter 228 They must be punished!

"Also, Wan'er!"

Wan'er, who was following closely behind, immediately bowed to receive the order: "This subordinate is here."

"Post a notice throughout the city. Anyone who is confident they can treat Minister Lei may come to the City Lord's mansion to offer their services! If there is any progress, they will be rewarded with ten thousand gold! If they succeed in curing him, they will be rewarded with one hundred thousand gold!"

Speaking to this point, Zhou Yun paused his steps, turned his head, and said in a tone heavy with immense weight:

"In short, spare no expense to treat Minister Lei. I want him to live, and live well!"

"This subordinate acknowledges the order!" Wan'er's expression was solemn as she lowered her head to comply.

As the orders from the City Lord's mansion spread throughout the city, Flower City, which had been immersed in the revelry of its promotion, instantly shifted into another silent yet fervent mobilization.

The notice, stamped with the city lord seal, was no sooner hung on the bulletin board than it was surrounded by a dense crowd.

"Treat Minister Lei? Something happened to Minister Lei?!"

"Ten thousand gold just for showing results! My god!"

"And one hundred thousand gold for a successful cure!"

"Heh! Is money all you see? Minister Lei protects the peace of our Flower City; I would do my utmost even without taking a single cent!"

"You are you, we are we! We just arrived and aren't familiar with him, so if we aren't after money, what are we after?"

"Exactly! We can't just work for free!"

"Anyway, whoever has the ability to do this will truly strike it rich! One hundred thousand gold! How could one ever spend it all!"

"I'm going back immediately to call my husband. He used to be a physician, and although he's only Black Iron Rank, maybe he has some folk remedies that could come in handy!"

...

For a time, the entire Flower City was set in motion.

Everyone who felt they had a special skill and could be of some help gathered toward the City Lord's mansion.

...

Inside the spacious medical tent, the scent of medicine and various fluctuations of spiritual energy intertwined.

Magic Potion Master Lan Yin, who had recently received funding from the Granary to build a potion workshop, was now sporting two dark, heavy circles under her eyes.

She hurried to the bedside and, somewhat nervously, handed over a vial of potion emitting a pale blue fluorescent glow:

"City Lord, this is an 'Elemental Neutralization Potion' I concocted using Ice Crystal Grass and Purification Powder. Although it is only Bronze Rank, the quality of this potion is excellent, and it might be able to slow the spread of the foreign spiritual energy within Minister Lei's body..."

Zhou Yun, who was guarding the bedside, nodded slightly and signaled for a nearby guard to take it.

At this point, all conventional methods had been exhausted, so even though this method hadn't been strictly verified, they had no choice but to try.

As the potion was fed bit by bit into Lei Lie's mouth, a pale blue fluorescent glow quickly appeared on his chest, beginning to suppress the black mist.

This was clearly a very good sign, indicating that the potion was having an effect!

However, in less than three breaths, the black mist suddenly surged, instead engulfing the medicinal power and causing the black-purple veins to creep another fraction closer to his heart meridian.

Zhou Yun saw this, his gaze immediately darkening, yet he still said gently: "Thank you for your hard work, Miss Lan. Go to the side tent and rest."

"I'm not tired, I can continue researching!" Lan Yin shook her head, bit her pale lower lip, turned around, and dove back into the pile of medicine tables stacked with various magic test tubes.

On the other side of the bedside, Black Iron Rank Pharmacist Jiang was pinching a one-inch-long golden needle with a grave expression.

He took a deep breath, exerted steady force from his wrist, and the golden needle, accompanied by a faint fluctuation of spiritual energy, pierced with extreme precision into a major acupuncture point on Lei Lie's chest.

"Seal!"

He let out a low shout and lightly twisted his fingertips at the end of the needle, attempting to use the golden needle to seal the acupuncture points around his body and prevent that Gold Rank cold poison from encroaching on his heart meridian.

However, no sooner had the golden needle been set firmly than black frost appeared on the end of the needle at a visible rate.

Pharmacist Jiang's face turned pale instantly, and he hurriedly used his spiritual energy to shake off the chill, preventing that icy cold from backfiring along the golden needle to his fingertips.

At the foot of the bed, Black Iron Rank Jeweler Ge Tong was holding a gentle, warm bead about the size of a longan, emitting a soft green glow.

For this healing bead, he had barely closed his eyes for the past two days, having failed sixteen times in a row before finally succeeding.

"City Lord, placing this bead beside Minister Lei can continuously channel life force into him. Although it is meager, I hope it can lend Minister Lei a hand." Ge Tong bowed, holding the bead with both hands and offering it up.

"Thank you for your trouble." Zhou Yun took it with both hands and placed the healing bead beside Lei Lie.

As soon as the bead was brought close, the soft green glow seeped into his body like a thin stream.

But before long, a very faint cracking sound came from the surface of the bead.

Looking closely, it was shockingly discovered that a hair-like black thread had appeared inside the bead.

Ge Tong's gaze immediately dimmed, but he gritted his teeth and said: "I have another method; I will return immediately to prepare!"

After saying this, he turned and hurried away.

Besides them, in the center of the large tent, Priest Leader Ye Songlin led dozens of exhausted priests, who were operating in groups of three, taking turns around the clock to chant the Glimmer Healing Spell.

Milky white spiritual light wrapped around Lei Lie in circles like water ripples.

But every time a round of white light fell, a wisp of the milky color would be dragged deep into the palm print by the dark, cold, nether energy, as if devoured by something invisible.

Even knowing this, Priest Leader Ye Songlin did not stop.

Because as of now, this was the only method that could barely keep Lei Lie's last breath hanging on.

During these few days of treatment, Zhou Yun stayed in the large tent, never leaving a single step.

On the desk in the large tent lay the myriad tasks of Flower City's initial construction.

The settlement of the million Yellow Turbans, the registry of new citizens, the reports on the Hongdao Array nodes...

After clarifying the reports from Wan'er and Xia Nuannuan, orders flowed like water from his hands.

And not far from the desk was the sound of Lei Lie's breathing, hanging by a thread.

Whenever warm water and medicinal broth were delivered, he would always temporarily put down the administrative affairs in his hands and take them over silently.

However, even a body of iron has its limits, let alone that he was just an ordinary person.

Under such day and night torment, his face, usually as gentle as jade, eventually showed signs of fatigue and haggardness, with faint blue circles appearing under his eyelids.

Nuan Nuan looked at Zhou Yun's shoulders, which appeared stiff from excessive tension, and couldn't help but feel a twinge of soreness in her heart. She stepped forward and whispered:

"City Lord, why don't you go and rest for a while? Nuan Nuan will keep watch here, and as soon as there is any movement, Nuan Nuan will call you immediately, okay?"

However, facing Xia Nuannuan's persuasion, Zhou Yun just revealed a faint smile,

"It's fine, these are just small matters, I can handle them myself."

Although his low voice remained gentle, it was very firm.

This left Xia Nuannuan with no choice but to retreat to the side and continue to accompany him silently.

Just like that, another day passed.

Perhaps it was the all-out rescue efforts of the entire city, or perhaps the healing bead and various potions finally had some slight effect.

In any case, on the morning of the third day, the moment the first ray of dawn shone into the large tent, Lei Lie's cracked lips on the sickbed suddenly moved.

Zhou Yun, who had been guarding by his side, narrowed his eyes and immediately leaned over.

He saw Lei Lie's incredibly heavy eyelids slowly open a crack, his focus coalescing through the blur, and finally landing on Zhou Yun's face, which was a mix of fatigue and surprise.

"City Lord... Sir..."

A hoarse voice squeezed out from the depths of his throat.

As soon as the words left his mouth, he didn't know where he summoned the strength from, but he suddenly rolled off the bed, landing with a solid "thud" as he knelt on the cold floor, his forehead pressed tightly against the ground.

Because of the excessive force, it even made a dull thud.

"This subordinate disobeyed the City Lord's orders and acted without authorization... Please, City Lord, punish me!"

Due to his weak body and the overly violent movement, his breathing became irregular for a moment, and after speaking, he began to cough violently.

Zhou Yun originally intended to reach out to help him up, but after hearing this, his movements froze, and his gaze sank accordingly.

On that face that was usually gentle and refined, a rare severity and coldness were revealed.

"Punishment!"

Zhou Yun flicked his sleeve, his clear voice echoing in the large tent, carrying unquestionable majesty:

"You must be punished!"

"And it will be a heavy punishment!"

Hearing this severe punishment, Lei Lie not only had no complaints, but instead grinned and smiled.

Even if he considered that his unauthorized action of killing Wang Shuai was beneficial to the City Lord and to Flower City, disobeying an order was still disobeying an order.

A general in the field may disregard the monarch's orders?

This saying did not apply to him.

Pros and cons were one thing; whether or not he disobeyed an order was another.

Now that the City Lord had explicitly stated he would punish him, this instead brought closure to his worries.

The unease in his heart was immediately swept away, and he felt his whole being become lighter all at once!

However, before he could open his mouth to thank him for the punishment, Zhou Yun continued:

"But before that, Lei Lie, I order you to live, and live well!"

The smile on Lei Lie's face suddenly froze.

He raised his head, staring blankly at Zhou Yun, looking into those eyes filled with concern.

A warm current instantly surged from the bottom of his heart, rushing straight to his eyes.

"This subordinate... how could I dare not obey?!"

He lowered his head and, using all his strength, growled his response from his throat.

Zhou Yun then returned to his usual gentleness, reaching out to grasp Lei Lie's arm, "Come!"

Lei Lie was helped back to the bed to lie down again.

Now, although his breathing was still weak, there was finally a bit of vital energy and spirit of survival in his eyes.

This made Zhou Yun's heart, which had been hanging, relax a little.

However, Priest Leader Ye Songlin and Pharmacist Jiang, who had been silent on the side, exchanged glances, both seeing gravity in each other's eyes.

Priest Leader Ye Songlin stepped forward and said in an extremely low voice in Zhou Yun's ear:

"City Lord, please step aside for a moment."

Zhou Yun swept his gaze over their faces, as if realizing something, and stood up to follow them out of the medical tent, coming to the empty corridor in front of the mansion.

"Speak, what is actually going on?"

Zhou Yun stood leaning against the railing, his gaze falling on the bamboo shadows slightly swaying in the courtyard.

Pharmacist Jiang sighed and said:

"To be honest, City Lord, Lei Lie's awakening just now... in my opinion, I'm afraid it was more like a final flash of brilliance before death."

Although he had expected it, upon hearing this, Zhou Yun's heart still sank heavily.

"A final flash of brilliance before death?" He turned around, his brows tightly locked, "How could this be? The person who wounded Lei Lie was only Gold Rank. With Flower City's current foundation, can we not even stabilize him?"

Priest Leader Ye Songlin explained with a bitter smile:

"City Lord, you may not know. While Gold Rank foreign spiritual energy is indeed overbearing and fierce, if he had received immediate treatment on the battlefield, the situation would never have deteriorated to this point."

"The most troublesome part now is that after Lei Lie was struck, he consumed a purple jade glazed fruit. At the time, the vast spiritual energy of the purple jade glazed fruit temporarily slowed the invasion of the foreign spiritual energy for Lei Lie, but it also became fodder for it to strengthen itself. By the time we took over, it was already extremely powerful."

Speaking to this point, a deep sense of helplessness appeared on Priest Leader Ye Songlin's face,

"Over these past few days, although our priest group has been using healing spells around the clock to keep Lei Lie alive, however... while the healing spells maintain Lei Lie's vitality, they are also continuously providing a hotbed and nutrients for that foreign spiritual energy."

"Even if we try our best to control it, we can only slow its progress as much as possible."

The corridor fell into silence for a moment.

A breeze blew past, brushing against Zhou Yun's robe.

He asked slowly:

"Is there really... no other way?"

Pharmacist Jiang bowed, raised his head somewhat hesitantly, and whispered:

"The one who tied the bell must untie it. Unless... we can know what the source of this foreign spiritual energy actually is."

"If we can figure out what exotic flowers or herbs were used to assist in the cultivation of that Gold Rank palm technique, we can formulate an antidote to counter that main ingredient. In this way, there might still be a glimmer of hope."

"The source of the foreign spiritual energy?"

"Exactly." Pharmacist Jiang nodded, "While Gold Rank Cultivation Techniques are indeed powerful, based on my judgment, the spiritual energy in Lei Lie's body is not only icy cold, but also carries an extremely strange corrosive wind energy. This could never be achieved by an ordinary Gold Rank Cultivation Technique; it must have been achieved during cultivation by using special exotic flowers and herbs for medicinal baths or consumption as assistance."

"It is just a pity that my knowledge is shallow, and I truly cannot identify the source of that energy... Please forgive me, City Lord!" After saying this, Pharmacist Jiang bowed in some trepidation.

"It's fine, rise."

Zhou Yun waved his hand, and the gloom in his eyes actually dissipated a little.

After all, having this clue was much better than stumbling around like a headless fly in the large tent earlier.

"Nuan Nuan." Zhou Yun called out toward the corner of the corridor.

"I am here." Nuan Nuan walked out from the corner.

"Post a notice, requesting all knowledgeable people in the city who have studied exotic flowers, herbs, and rare poisons to come to the City Lord's mansion to identify the source of the foreign spiritual energy. Whoever can identify the root of this spiritual energy will be rewarded with ten thousand gold!"

"Yes!"

...

Once this notice went out, the front gate of the City Lord's mansion immediately welcomed many scholars and literati with various expressions.

Among them were some local scholars from Flower City, traveling merchants who had migrated from the Ten Cities and specialized in herbal medicine resale, and some physicians who had recently been in the Yellow Turbans.

There were indeed many who came, but one after another, they exhausted their methods at Lei Lie's bedside, only to eventually shake their heads in shame and leave.

For these people, most of whom were not even Bronze Rank, the Gold Rank foreign spiritual energy was of too high a level to be judged at all.

Just as everyone's hearts continued to sink, a middle-aged scholar walked in.

...