Chapter 270: Awakening
Inside the room, Gu Xiaoxue took off her shoes and sat cross-legged behind Tang Xiu, putting her hands on his back and transferring her True Essence into his body.
“Huh, what happened?”
After transferring her True Essence energy for half a minute, Gu Xiaoxue retracted her hands. Tang Xiu’s body was actually repelling her True Essence energy. Originally, she wanted to use True Essence to heal Tang Xiu. But not only it had been ineffective, it even backfired, worsening Tang Xiu’s condition.
“Could it be that Grand Master’s cultivation technique doesn’t cultivate True Essence? But if it’s not True Essence, how can I save him? By using the Blood Sacrifice Art on him?”
Gu Xiaoxue’s complexion changed constantly as an hesitating expression flashed in her eyes. The Blood Sacrifice Art could indeed treat Tang Xiu, but it would be greatly detrimental to her. Not only would it reduce her lifespan, her cultivation speed would also be affected.
After pondering for a while, Gu Xiaoxue finally made up her mind and used the Blood Sacrifice Art to treat Tang Xiu. After all, Tang Xiu was her Grand Master and the person her Master cared the most.
“Heaven and Earth bestow the profoundness. Devour the blood to revive life.”
Biting her fingertips, Gu Xiaoxue’s ten fingers made several finger seals. Forcing out a drop of blood essence from her body, she imprinted the blood along with the finger seals onto the spot between Tang Xiu’s eyebrows. A profound and mysterious aura arose between the Heaven and Earth as it fused into the drop of blood essence forced out by Gu Xiaoxue and seeped into the middle of Tang Xiu’s eyebrows.
Immediately, her body floated in midair and instantly appeared on top of Tang Xiu’s head. Along with the turning of her body upside down, her palm pressed on Tang Xiu’s top of the head as a thread of her innate qi was as though crossing over into Tang Xiu’s body.
After doing all these, her complexion turned a bit pale. Her figure instantly flashed and appeared in front of Tang Xiu. Sitting cross-legged, she closed her eyes and adjusted her breathing. At present, she had surpassed the path of the Golden Core but had yet to break the core and birth a Nascent embryo. However, forcing out a drop of her blood essence and using the Blood Sacrifice Art was rather a great loss for her because, at the least, more than ten years of her lifespan had been reduced.
At this time, Tang Xiu’s life force that had been leaking out suddenly had a mass of strong life force burst out from his heart. Gu Xiaoxue’s life force from her drop of blood essence contained a huge energy and was much stronger than all the energy from Tang Xiu’s cultivation.
Thump!
Thump, thump!
As the strength of his heartbeat was getting stronger, the force of the stars and the sun from the distant blue dome of heaven began to drift away from all directions and fused into his body. The originally dried up star force began to condensate a bit as Tang Xiu finally recovered little by little.
Yet, the profound and mysterious aura rapidly left the drop of life and blood essence and fused into Tang Xiu’s mind sea. Right at this moment, Tang Xiu’s consciousness, that had fallen into the darkness, finally woke up from the chaos. As his consciousness recovered and proliferated throughout his body, he found the drop of lifeblood essence, his complexion suddenly changing.
He knew perfectly well about the condition of his body.
But that drop of lifeblood essence came from the outside, and he knew that someone had used the Blood Sacrifice Art to save his life. Not having enough time to ponder on whom had saved him, his consciousness began to settle down as Tang Xiu silently circulated his cultivation technique, the “Heavenly Art of Cosmic Genesis”.
Time fleeted and three days had passed.
When Tang Xiu’s eyelids jittered and he opened his eyes, he saw one person sitting cross-legged in front him, holding her chin without blinking an eye- Gu Xiaoxue.
Was she the person who had saved him?
Tang Xiu’s facial expression slightly moved. His face was somewhat still pale, but he showed a slight faint smile and blinked at Gu Xiaoxue. Speaking in a hoarse voice, he asked, “Did you use the Blood Sacrifice Art to save me?”
Seeing Tang Xiu opening his eyes, Gu Xiaoxue dazed a bit. When she saw Tang Xiu blink and speak, she immediately called out in pleasant surprise, “Grand Master, you’ve finally awoken? I thought it’d take a long time for you to wake up! Yes. I did use the Blood Sacrifice Art because I found that Grand Master’s body refuses True Essence energy.”
It was really her!
Secretly sighing, Tang Xiu then smiled, “My cultivation technique is somewhat special so it will reject the others’ True Essence energy. Thus, it would be useless for you try to heal me with True Essence energy. Xiaoxue, I really have to thank you for this time. If you didn’t use the Blood Sacrifice Art to treat me, I might have died already.”
Raising her small face, Gu Xiaoxue smiled, “This is what I’m supposed to do, Grand Master!”
Tang Xiu nodded and looked at the surrounding, realizing that he was still inside the side hall Tang Guosheng provided him for the treatment. But at the moment, there was no trace of Tang Guosheng. The smile on his face faded away as he asked in a low voice, “Where are we now?”
“Beijing, Tang Family’s residence,” answered Gu Xiaoxue.
Tang Xiu asked in astonishment, “How did you find me?”
“The Tang Family spread the news all over the country, inviting numerous doctors to treat you. They promised to pay no matter the cost whoever was able to heal you. The Chen family head, Martial Uncle Chen, called Ouyang Lulu. At that time she was sojourning in the Everlasting Feast Hall, hence I also got the news.”
The Tang Family…
Tang Xiu’s browed knitted as it then smoothed a moment after.
They would pay whatever the price?
Such a commitment was truly heavy!
Despite Tang Xiu still having some feelings of rejection toward the Tang Family, but at this moment, he had to admit that the Tang Family had indeed treated him as a genuine family member. Now, he finally believed that everything that Tang Guosheng had said was truly true, that they had indeed attempted to find them.
“It’s a pointless insistence, and no longer makes sense.
Since the Tang Family really treats mother and me as family members, then let nature take its course.
It’s too short a time to tell, but I’ll see it later on.
It doesn’t matter what we call each other, the most important thing is to see how we get along in the future.
I shouldn’t make Mom feel awkward and embarrassed.”
"..."
Ideas crossed Tang Xiu’s mind one after another. After getting out of the bed and wearing his shoes, he looked at Gu Xiaoxue and asked, “How did you and Ouyang Lulu come here?”
“Via Lulu’s private jet,” answered Gu Xiaoxue.
Tang Xiu asked again, “Ouyang Lulu? Where’s she now?”
Shaking her head, Gu Xiaoxue said, “I don’t know. I never left this side hall on these three days. However, she's very worried about you, so she should still be in this Tang Family’s residence.”
Tang Xiu nodded. When he opened the door along with Gu Xiaoxue, in an instant, dozens of Tang Family members gathered ecstatically. Su Lingyun rushed over and flew herself to him as she fell into tears out of extreme happiness.
“Mom, I’m fine,” slightly smiling, Tang Xiu patted her back gently and comforted her.
At the side, sitting in a wheelchair as his mobility was still somewhat inconvenient, a look of excitement emerged on Tang Yunde’s face. His eyes tightly locked on Tang Xiu, observing him closely. Nobody had a more complicated mood than he had. All sorts of feelings, all joys and sorrows of life, all of them bubbled up and filled his heart and mind.
However, as emotional as he was, Tang Yunde was mostly feeling ashamed and guilty.
He had never been a father. He didn’t raise him up!
If it was merely this, that was it. But in order to save him, his son almost lost his own life. As tough as he was, he couldn’t speak even after opening his mouth a few times.
Standing at Tang Yunde’s side, Tang Guosheng patted his shoulder. As his vision shifted from Tang Xiu to the slim Gu Xiaoxue, he said gratefully, “Miss Gu, I truly have to thank you for everything. You have saved my grandson’s life. No matter what you wish for, the Tang Family will absolutely fulfill it as long as it is within our abilities.”
“Saving my Grand Master is my duty. I don’t wish for anything, and the Tang Family need not repay me,” Gu Xiaoxue replied serenely.
Tang Xiu pushed Su Lingyun away gently, wiping the tears from her face. He then looked at Tang Guosheng and Tang Yunde. His sight finally landed on the excited and tearful Qin Changyue, “Grandma, I’m hungry. Please ask someone to cook something for me!”
Grandma?
Qin Changyue was stunned. A hard-to-believe expression appeared in her tearful eyes, but in an instant, it was replaced with an ecstatic expression. It was the feeling of being in a dream for her, since her grandson—Tang Xiu, who had always rejected recognizing the Tang Family unexpectedly called her 'grandmother'.
“Alright, G-grandma… grandma will cook for you myself.”
The other Tang Family members also showed pleasantly surprised expressions. This represented Tang Xiu’s willingness, finally accepting the Tang Family and recognizing all of them and himself as a Tang Family member.
As Qin Changyue left, Tang Xiu then looked at Tang Yunde and said calmly, “Father, since you have woken up, let’s go back to Star City after dinner! Mom has waited for you for twenty years, I hope you won’t disappoint her later.”
Being called ‘father’ by Tang Xiu, a warm feeling filled Tang Yunde’s heart as tears streamed down his face. Nodding heavily, he replied with all seriousness, “Rest assured, son. I’ll use the rest of my remaining years in life to compensate you and your mother.”
Half an hour later, Tang Xiu and Gu Xiaoxue had eaten and drunk enough.
Qin Changyue, who sat beside him, looked quite satisfied as she saw that the food she cooked had nearly been cleaned up by Tang Xiu. The moment Tang Xiu put his chopsticks down, she quickly asked, “Grandson, are you full already?”
“Yes, grandma!” Tang Xiu nodded.
Pleased, Qin Changyue nodded in satisfaction and smileed, “If you like grandma’s food, I’ll do the cooking for you every day later.”
Tang Xiu shook his head, “Grandma, I still have important things to do. I need to go to Jingmen Island and following that, I’ll also go abroad. I’ll be back here when Shanghai University’s classes have started.”
Qin Changyue was surprised, “You will go abroad?”
Tang Xiu nodded and didn’t give more explanation. He then turned toward Tang Guosheng, “Grandpa, we’ll go first.”
“Can it be delayed?” asked Tang Guosheng.
Tang Xiu asked back, “Is there something else?”
Tang Guosheng said, “Since you’re here, I already planned to let you pay homage to the ancestors tomorrow as well as include you and your mother in the family tree. If you have something thing to do, you can leave after paying homage to the ancestors tomorrow.”
Pondering for a moment, Tang Xiu then slowly nodded, “Alright! I will have to trouble you to arrange rooms for Xiaoxue and Lulu.”
“No problem!”
Tang Guosheng replied immediately with a happy expression.
At night!
Tang Xiu, Gu Xiaoxue, Ouyang Lulu, and even Zhizhong and Long Zhengyu were all staying in the Tang Family’s residence. But Tang Yunpeng himself booked a dining hall in an upscale restaurant nearby and prepared eight tables to celebrate Tang Yunde having regained consciousness as well as Tang Xiu’s safety and speedy recovery.