Chapter 136: The Great Jin Dynasty

"It is truly an honor to have you all esteemed fellow Daoists gather here."

Lin Yang was already waiting inside the grand hall. Once the other six Nascent Soul cultivators arrived, he politely escorted them in.

As for the retinues accompanying these Nascent Soul experts, they were guided away and re-accommodated in a separate palace.

Nascent Soul cultivators would converse exclusively within their own private hall, whereas those they brought along were mostly there just to show their faces and mingle with their peers.

Inside the palace at this moment, there were a total of nine people.

They were Lin Yang, Old Ancestor Linghu, two Nascent Soul cultivators from the Masked Moon Sect, and several others from various other sects, making nine in total.

Lin Yang naturally took the seat of honor at the head of the table, as he was the central figure of the day.

Stepping forward, he personally poured cups of tea for everyone as the host, served them one by one, and inquired about their names.

Having finished pouring the tea, Lin Yang picked up a cup and walked directly to the person occupying the first guest seat on the left.

"This fellow Daoist looks somewhat familiar to me, though I cannot recall your esteemed name."

Lin Yang looked at the person on the far left with a sense of familiarity, though he could not quite place where they had met.

The person on the left was an elderly man with snow-white hair and a profoundly benevolent expression—in short, the very image of a venerable white-bearded sage.

"We have indeed met before, Fellow Daoist. How could you forget so soon?"

The old man took the teacup, took a light sip, and set it down.

Lin Yang searched through every memory of his life, racking his brain, yet still failed to recall.

"Please forgive my poor memory; I truly cannot remember where we have met. Might Fellow Daoist give me a hint?"

"My name is Gongsun Nan, and my title is True Monarch Qingyuan. Several decades ago, you even treated my granddaughter for an illness."

Once Old Ancestor Gongsun stated this, Lin Yang finally remembered where he had seen him.

It turned out to be from decades ago when he went to the Masked Moon Sect to provide medical treatment, though at the time, he had not dared to brazenly raise his head and stare directly at the face of a Nascent Soul True Monarch.

He had merely glanced at it once, fearing that any lingering gaze might mistakenly brand him as having peculiar fetishes.

"Ah, that was entirely my oversight. How is your granddaughter doing now?"

Recalling the young woman who had been kneaded into a state resembling mud, Lin Yang could empathize with the anguish of a grandfather possessing immense power yet finding himself utterly helpless.

"Alas, ever since that ordeal, my granddaughter developed a severe inner demon. To this day, her cultivation has remained entirely stagnant."

"Might Fellow Daoist have any solution?"

It was at this moment that Old Ancestor Gongsun remembered Lin Yang had already reached the Nascent Soul stage and might possibly possess a remedy.

When asked by Old Ancestor Gongsun, Lin Yang pondered quietly on what he could possibly do.

Afflictions of the heart are notoriously difficult to treat; as the saying goes, heart ailments require heart remedies.

Otherwise, one could only rely on the passage of time to slowly wash it away.

"Allow me to think on it."

Lin Yang first scratched his head, then stroked his chin, pondering what methods might be employed.

Just as he was at his wit's end, a sudden flash of inspiration struck him. That was right—as long as one could induce complete forgetfulness, the inner demon could be dispelled.

By refining a medicinal pill that causes memory loss, he imagined he could help that young woman walk out from the shadow of her inner demon.

"I do happen to have a method to cure your granddaughter, but the price to be paid might be rather heavy."

Lin Yang spoke in a leisurely tone. Hearing this, Old Ancestor Gongsun was overjoyed and hastily pressed for details.

"What method might that be, Fellow Daoist? As long as you can save my granddaughter, I am willing to offer a reward that will satisfy you."

"It is quite simple: we need only make your granddaughter forget every single memory she possesses."

"However, after taking the pill, your granddaughter will lose all her memories, reverting to the state of a newborn infant, as pure and blank as a sheet of white paper."

While Lin Yang was indeed capable of refining pills that induced amnesia, he was not yet skilled enough to formulate a medicine capable of selectively erasing only a designated memory.

Furthermore, once the pill was ingested, it lacked such specificity; it would simply wipe the slate clean entirely, leaving no room to negotiate which memories should be excised and which should be preserved.

Old Ancestor Gongsun fell into a solemn, contemplative silence for a moment before finally letting out a long sigh.

For he recalled the endless resentment and despair his granddaughter exhibited every waking moment at home, and his heart felt as though it were being carved by knives.

"Then I must thank you, Fellow Daoist. To forget painful memories is still far better than squandering away her years in such torment."

"Besides, even if her memories are gone, she will still be my granddaughter. I will patiently help her understand who her grandfather is all over again."

Thinking of every agonizing day she had endured, he gritted his teeth and accepted the solution.

"Very well, this pill of mine possesses precisely the property of erasing memories, and it can even slightly enhance one's cultivation."

Lin Yang produced a colorful, multi-hued medicinal pill—a defective product he had previously concocted.

Its original efficacy in boosting cultivation was decent, but it carried the severe side effect of inducing total amnesia, reducing the mind to a blank slate.

Ultimately, it had been cast aside into his collection as a failed batch, though he still possessed many other experimental pills of a similar nature.

For instance, he even had medicines that could cause a person's left arm to undergo a secondary growth spurt, ending up one centimeter longer than the right.

All of these bizarrely effective drugs had been tested by disciples who eagerly volunteered for the experiments, each test generously rewarded.

For certain disciples trapped at a stubborn bottleneck, such rewards could help them break through to an entirely new realm.

Thus, they practically flocked to these trials since the side effects were generally mild and carried zero risk of death.

"Many thanks, Fellow Daoist. Such a profound grace cannot be repaid with mere words. I happen to possess a piece of ten-thousand-year-old extraterrestrial cold meteoric iron, which I shall gift to you."

Old Ancestor Gongsun accepted the medicinal pill and produced a piece of silvery metal.

The moment this metal left the storage pouch and was exposed to the air, delicate frost immediately began to crystallize in the surrounding atmosphere.

The temperature inside the entire grand hall plummeted by over a dozen degrees, filling the air with a biting, wintry chill.

Gazing at this piece of extraterrestrial cold iron, Lin Yang felt a surge of fondness and readily accepted it.

"Then I thank you, Fellow Daoist, and I wish you a speedy fulfillment in healing your granddaughter."

Lin Yang took the piece of meteoric iron. Although it was only the size of a fist, it weighed several thousand catties.

At the same time, holding it in his hand felt intensely freezing; a layer of frost had already formed over his hand, though it posed no real obstacle.

Following this, Lin Yang exchanged formal introductions with the rest of the Nascent Soul cultivators. Impressed by Lin Yang's exceptional medical prowess, the other experts seized the opportunity to consult him on various matters, concerning both their younger disciples and their own cultivation.

Lin Yang answered every single query with patience, showing not the slightest hint of annoyance.

Just as everyone was conversing merrily, all present simultaneously perceived through their spiritual sense the approach of another massive fleet of flying vessels from the distance.

This fleet consisted of no less than a dozen gigantic ships, each far superior in craftsmanship and design to those of the other six sects.

Furthermore, every single flying ship flew two banners: one bearing the crest of the Jin State, and the other displaying the insignia of their own sect.

Finding this rather curious, Lin Yang walked out of the grand hall to greet the arrivals.

Noticing this, the other Nascent Soul cultivators also stood up and followed Lin Yang out to the plaza to welcome the incoming fleet.