Both Jiang Muchen and Zhang Fengxi were scared out of their wits when they saw the blood.
Zhang Fengxi leaped into the pavilion to catch Xie Jianyu’s body before it toppled backward, while Jiang Muchen pulled at the latter’s arms.
"Little Uncle!!!"
Zhang Fengxi slapped Jiang Muchen’s hands away.
"Xie Jianyu, hey, wake up."
Zhang Fengxi gently tapped at Xie Jianyu’s cheek, but the omega was out cold.
"Will you please stop touching him with your dirty hands???"
Enraged, Jiang Muchen pulled Xie Jianyu into his arms and shoved Zhang Fengxi out of the way.
"Thanks to you, Jianyu got hurt!"
Zhang Fengxi dragged Xie Jianyu back into his arms and shoved Jiang Muchen in return.
"Thanks to me??? It is you who keep making Xie Jianyu help you with your cultivation! When will you grow up and achieve a breakthrough on your own??? Stop making Xie Jianyu work for you!"
Jiang Muchen’s face was purple from anger.
"And who are you to butt into our business???"
Roaring furiously, he jumped at Zhang Fengxi, intending to strangle him.
BANG
Before they lay their hands on one another, both alphas were pushed backward by an explosive force between them. Awake from the deafening ruckus, Xie Jianyu pressed a hand against his chest and panted hard. He wiped off the blood at the corner of his lips and snarled at both of them, "Control yourselves! What’s with this childish argument?"
"Little Uncle!"
Jiang Muchen quickly crawled to Xie Jianyu’s side.
"Are you alright? You are bleeding..."
Zhang Fengxi too approached Xie Jianyu and yanked at his arm.
"You really need to stop helping this guy," he said while pointing at Jiang Muchen’s face. "He is older than you, and he is a grown alpha!"
Jiang Muchen grabbed Xie Jianyu’s other arm and exclaimed, "Little Uncle, this wretched person is an unlucky star. Every time you see him, something bad happens to you. Allow me to throw him out of this palace!"
"..."
Xie Jianyu glowered at them alternately.
"Muchen, I am still the master of this palace."
Jiang Muchen hung his head in dejection.
"Sorry, Little Uncle."
Before Zhang Fengxi could cut a shameless sneer, he too was put into his place.
"And you. Zhang Fengxi, who do you think you are? This is not the first time you move around my palace as you please. When will you start behaving like a proper guest?"
"..."
"Squeeeee!!!"
Xie Jianyu’s anger dissipated when he heard the familiar cry.
Caihong had been hiding somewhere safe when the two young men confronted each other. Now that it was safe to come out, the craven little bird rushed toward Xie Jianyu with eyes full of concern.
"Squeee?"
Xie Jianyu held both of his palms upward. Caihong happily landed on Xie Jianyu’s hands and rubbed its tiny head against Xie Jianyu’s hand.
Xie Jianyu patted the bird’s tiny head and greeted it with a smile.
"Hello." At least there was one sane creature to accompany him.
"I named him Caihong," Zhang Fengxi said. "Do you like the name?"
"Who the hell cares about you or your little bird!!!" Jiang Muchen cried out. "My Little Uncle is hurt!!!"
"Oh. Right."
Zhang Fengxi scratched at his head awkwardly.
"Pretty name. I am fine. What do you need, Zhang Fengxi?"
"Yeah, Zhang Fengxi! What do you need??!" The incensed Jiang Muchen repeated after Xie Jianyu.
Zhang Fengxi shot Jiang Muchen a dirty look before he answered Xie Jianyu’s query, "My twelve meridians are in chaos and my spiritual power flow is blocked by knots. It all happened because I overexerted myself during the fight with the First Demon King."
Zhang Fengxi then took out a piece of paper from his chest and placed it in Xie Jianyu’s hand.
"Our palace physician prescribed me something to take regularly until my condition improves.
I brought you the same prescription. I thought that maybe you also had the same problem."
Jiang Muchen scoffed at the other alpha.
"Zhang Fengxi, do you think that Little Uncle is a beginner at cultivation? If he suffers from any such abnormalities, he would have known weeks ago!"
Unexpectedly, Xie Jianyu did not follow his lead and throw the prescription away.
"... Thanks."
Xie Jianyu unfolded the paper and read the list of ingredients inside.
Jiang Muchen was so shocked that his jaw almost dropped to the ground.
"Little Uncle!" he cried out while clutching Xie Jianyu’s arms. "Is that true? Are you suffering from similar afflictions????"
"It’s not the first time," Xie Jianyu replied without batting an eyelid. "Nothing worth mentioning."
"..."
"..."
Not the first time?
Not the first time????
From the way he said it, it was not the second time either.
Zhang Fengxi roared in his heart out of frustration. If Jiang Muchen, this lapdog of his, did not know that Xie Jianyu encountered this problem before, it meant that Xie Jianyu never told anyone!
How did he deal with this problem and still manage to reach a high cultivation level? The higher people climbed, the more dangerous the fall. A qi deviation at Xie Jianyu’s cultivation level might just mean death!
Additionally, this Crown Prince was too prideful to even ask for a palace physician’s help!
Zhang Fengxi was about to vomit blood out of rage.
"How did you resolve the problem previously?" Zhang Fengxi asked.
Xie Jianyu better did not say that he kept going on without a care for a possible qi deviation. Otherwise, Zhang Fengxi was going to bundle him up and lock him in a safe chamber at Longjing Palace, he swore to himself...
"I usually meditate at the Divine Dragontail Trench," Xie Jianyu said. "Strong spiritual power flows in the veins of the trench walls. It is very effective in purifying the body and unclogging blocked meridians."
"..."
Right.
Zhang Fengxi was so stupid.
How could he forget that Xie Jianyu was the Crown Prince who slept in a crib full of spiritual stones as a baby? As a cultivation freak, he probably knew everything about the best cultivation spots, the most effective methods to avoid qi deviations, and so on.
The hell, his father probably made him meditate underwater three days after he was born.
Disappointment caused Zhang Fengxi’s shoulders to droop.
Jiang Muchen cackled like a hyena.
"Why don’t you try meditating at the bottom of the trench too, Zhang Fengxi? It is a lot faster than drinking bowls of medicine."
Zhang Fengxi glared at Jiang Muchen. One was a tiger and one was a lion. They both disliked deep waters. That was quite a detestable thing to say.
"I will do it if you also rise to the challenge," he said to Jiang Muchen’s face.