"It doesn’t matter if I become a cripple," Wei Zhen eventually declared. "I have to stop feeding energy to this evil organisation. Princess Zhao, please help me sever the connection inside me!"
With the objective changed, the bar of difficulty for Anji’s first spiritual operation suddenly became much lower. If it was merely severing the connection, Anji had full confidence in making that happen. Of course, ideally, she did not want to cripple her patient’s cultivation progress.
Gaining confidence, Anji agreed to help. Without wasting time, Bai Dajin and Gu Ying assisted with setting up an ideal treatment area, borrowing Bai Dajin’s bed.
"I will begin now," Anji informed, touching the Wei Zhen’s palms.
Closing their eyes, the room fell silent. Gu Ying and Bai Dajin watched from the side as Anji concentrated. Neither of them was an expert in energy manipulation. However, they had just enough knowledge to seal acupoints and disable a person in a frenzy.
Pulling out the energy from within her core, Anji gently transferred her energy threads into Wei Zhen’s body through his hands. The meridians resembled a dried-up creek. No matter how much energy Anji tried to supplement them with, they always disappeared. Following the direction of the vanishing energy, Anji followed the traces of a spell that quickly became familiar.
"Don’t supply your energy to feed the seal," the golden dragon warned. "Conserve it for later. Most seals would be hidden near the heart chakra or the solar plexus. Everything in the body must pass through the stomach or the heart. There are no exceptions."
Anji wanted to protest. All food passes through the stomach. But what about air? They passed through the lungs! However, the golden dragon was right about everything needed to pass through the heart. Hence, that was now her first destination.
Unsurprisingly, Anji was blocked before arriving at the heart’s centre. The meridian route was blocked like a dam. This was not the start of the siphon seal. It was the other end.
"Told you," Grandpa Jin scoffed proudly. "You went to the distribution centre instead of the receiving centre. If I were to design an energy siphon seal, I would directly take the energy from the source and cut off the supply that might contest my resources." Find the newest release on novel_fіre.net
Huffing mentally at the golden dragon’s lack of explanation, Anji turned around. She headed back to the solar plexus chakra and saw how the flow of qi became stronger here. Unlike the seal her father created over her core, the siphon seal was not a tight lock. It functioned like a pump, redirecting Wei Zhen’s energy processed in his cultivator core to an unknown source. That energy bank was not located within the man’s body but left a trace from the original spell caster. Sadly, it was not a familiar energy signature that Anji was familiar with.
After checking every other meridian point in Wei Zhen’s body to ensure there were no other hidden traps and spells apart from the siphon seal, Grandpa Jin deemed it safe enough for Anji to remove the seal on the heart’s centre.
"Shouldn’t I cut the spell at the root near the cultivator core?" she asked. "If we destroy that, the spell caster cannot collect more energy from Mister Wei."
Tutting at the child’s naive thinking, the golden dragon chided Anji.
"If they know the connection has been cut, do you think these bad people will do nothing about it? You don’t want to stir the grass and startle the snake here. Instead, if you release the end of the seal at his heart, this siphon seal will gradually become ineffective."
It sounded like a good plan that minimised the risk of crippling Wei Zhen’s cultivation. However, Anji did not like the idea of feeding the evil organisation.
"Is there nothing else we can do?" she asked. "It would feel uncomfortable having something foreign stuck inside your body, wouldn’t it?"
Raising a brow, the golden dragon wondered if Anji was qualified to say this when she had both her father’s and teacher’s energy stuck inside her body for most of her life.
"If it isn’t hurting him or acting harmful, foreign energy is similar to having a guest in your home. If you’re worried, you can put your seal in him to make sure this siphon will cut off immediately once it senses an energy input coming through this seal into his body. Ultimately, the bond will be severed if his life is threatened. But for now, I think it’s wiser not to let the enemy know one of their pawns has been defeated. War is all about deception. Don’t you know?"
Strategies were more of her second brother’s thing. Unlike Mingshen, who was crafty, Anji preferred to do things honourably like her father. Her mother was more cunning, and nothing escaped her. Mingshen must have inherited her mother’s genes in that sense. However, Anji thought the golden dragon had a point. If the seal did not do any other harm to Wei Zhen, there was no need to alarm him.
"Don’t you even tell that straight-laced fool what you did," Grandpa Jin warned Anji, too aware of her honest nature. "You can tell everyone else in this room but him. And maybe your second brother."
Promising she wouldn’t tell Wei Zhen she did not sever the connection completely, Anji immediately unravelled the seal near his heart centre. The Daoist heart was in poor condition due to a lack of nourishment. Anji studied the seal carefully and decided to re-route the energy flow from Wei Zhen’s meridians into his heart chakra. This way, the original spellcaster will not suspect a thing.
After re-routing all the twenty meridians, the heart centre started improving. However, it would take a few months before Wei Zhen could cultivate again.
"If you’re worried about his cultivation progress, you can redirect some of his energy flow coming from the golden core to speed up his recovery and decrease the energy stolen from him."
Taking the golden dragon’s advice, Anji returned to alter the siphon seal, carefully avoiding touching the original spell. When she finished, the girl added a new sealing spell that remained dormant until it sensed a new energy trying to enter Wei Zhen’s body through the connection on this siphon seal. As the circuitry was slightly more complex, Anji spent more time perfecting the formula. The golden dragon remained silent as Anji worked. In just three years, her spell-weaving knowledge was already on par with most of the seniors in the Mystical Qilin Sect.
After running through Wei Zhen’s meridians one last time to check if anything else was amiss, Anji finally concluded the treatment.
"It’s done," she smiled simultaneously when her stomach protested. "Your energy will naturally recover in a few months, and you will be able to cultivate again but at slower progress due to the small damage done to your core. I’m sorry, but it was the best I could do."
Hearing that he could still cultivate and not all was lost, Wei Zhen burst into manly tears.
Climbing off the bed to grovel on the floor at Anji’s feet, the earnest porter kowtowed to his saviour three times.
"I, Wei Zhen, will not forget the kindness shown to me by the fourth princess of the Celestial Dragon Sect!"
Too hungry from the spiritual operation, Anji’s stomach interrupted the touching moment and demanded food immediately. Gu Ying presented her with a bun while Bai Dajin chased the porter away. Not one to miss an opportunity to cash in that gratitude, Mingshen invited Wei Zhen to his room to calm down.
"Did I do well?" Anji asked after wolfing down a bun.
After four long hours, Anji’s first spiritual operation concluded on a positive note. How could that be anything else but a good thing?
"You did very well," praised the stoic bodyguard, making Anji smile widely.