Not long after, Vivian arrived with the other members of the joint guard team. All over the ground, blood
was flowing and corpses were lying in unnatural positions. Most of the dead and injured were members
of the joint guard team. Vivian narrowed her eyes and frowned. When they had arrived in the Nether
Fire Land, they didn't expect to be welcomed by such horrors.
"Godly Genius Valeria, are you okay?" Vivian asked as she approached Valeria's stooped figure.
"I... I'm fine..." As soon as Valeria finished speaking, dizziness swept over her. The next moment, she
lost all her strength and swayed, falling to the ground.
Rocky scrambled to catch her. Then, he grabbed her wrist and infused a stream of spiritual power into
it. Soon, he sensed that the demonic aura that had invaded her body was extremely strong and was
destroying her meridians. If the demonic aura were to stay inside of her body, she would be in danger.
"Miss Vivian, I may need your help with her," Rocky said in an urgent tone.
The latter nodded and ordered the joint guard team to set up a tent and rest.
After their tent was ready, Rocky carried Valeria inside with Vivian trailing on his heels.
"As we speak, the demonic aura in her body is approaching her heart meridian. I need you to slow
down the spread of it with your spiritual power. That will buy me more time so I can perform the
acupuncture." At present, the only way to save Valeria was to drive the demonic aura out with the Skill
of Magic Needle. The demonic aura was powerful and was eating away at her meridians. Therefore, if
Rocky couldn't gain control of it as soon as possible, he would not be able to complete the Skill of
Magic Needle before the demonic aura reached her heart.
Vivian saw how critical the situation was so she approached the table to help. Wasting no time, she
reached down and started peeling back the bottom of Valeria's clothes.
"What are you doing?" Rocky asked, looking at her in shock.
"I'm taking off her clothes. Otherwise, how are you going to perform the acupuncture?" Vivian
answered. She believed that performing acupuncture on a naked body was the way it was always
done.
"No. That's not necessary. I can use the needles through the clothes now." Rocky waved his hand at
her. He was no longer a beginner. Even if he were to close his eyes, he could still find the right places
to stick the needles in.
"What? But when you detoxified me, you removed my..." Vivian trailed off, looking at Rocky through
suspicious, narrowed eyes. She had been one hundred percent aware when he had her clothes
removed back then. However, she was not the kind of person who cared about such minor things. In
her opinion, Rocky was just trying to save her life. Therefore, she had pretended not to know about it
until that moment.
Now, the situation in front of her felt very similar and the memories were all coming back to her.
"Well, at that time, I was not that good at the needles," Rocky admitted. Previously, he was secretly
teaching himself the Skill of Magic Needle. It was not until Esteban made him his disciple that he began
to learn the Skill of Magic Needle officially and openly.
"Did you undress me on purpose?" Vivian glared at him out of the corners of her eyes.
"No way! I swear it! I was just a beginner and I was not good at the needles..." Rocky struggled to
explain with a bitter smile plastered on his face.
"Fine. I believe you." The expression on Rocky's face told Vivian that he was not lying to her, so she
gave a quiet snort and didn't push the conversation further.
Rocky was a little surprised by her reaction. It was clear that Vivian was more reasonable than he had
thought. With her help, he started to use the Skill of Magic Needle to treat Valeria.
It took him about fifteen minutes to place all the needles in the right positions on Valeria's body.
After that, Rocky activated his spiritual power to control the needles and began to slowly drive away the
demonic aura in her body. Soon, black gas and water started seeping from all of Valeria's pores. She
looked like she was floating on a black cloud.
Nearly two hours later, Rocky, who was sweating heavily due to his hard work, finally withdrew his
spiritual power.
"It's done," Rocky told Vivian.
Vivian nodded and withdrew her spiritual power too.
"I'm going to leave now. She won't wake up for a while. You better find someone to take care of her
until she does," Rocky announced.
"You are the doctor. Shouldn't you be the one to take care of her?" Vivian stared at Rocky with curious
eyes.
"Do you really think I'm the first one she wants to see when she wakes up?" Rocky asked with a smile.
"Well..." Vivian trailed off before adding, "Valeria is not a bad person. She is just a little bit arrogant.
Now that you guys are engaged, you should try and get along. It will be good for your dual cultivation in
the future."
"To be honest with you, I don't ever want to cultivate with her. If it weren't for the leader's order, I
wouldn't have gotten engaged to her. I hate it when someone forces me to do something I don't want to
do. And besides, she doesn't like me either," Rocky said honestly.
"You'll never find out if she truly likes you or not if you never try and be kind to her," Vivian reasoned
with him.
"Oh? It looks like you are quite experienced at this sort of stuff. I wonder who had the honor of making
you fall in love..." Rocky took a guess and assumed that Vivian must have had a romantic relationship
once that no one knew about.
"It's none of your business." Vivian glared at Rocky.
"Fine. Then I'm leaving." Rocky waved and left.
"This guy..." As she watched Rocky retreating, Vivian smiled. Even she thought that it was weird. The
new version of her was totally different from her usual cold character.
If anyone saw her smiling like that, they would be shocked to the core.
After leaving the tent, Rocky didn't rest. Instead, he was worried that the people from the Primitive Fief
might launch a second attack, so he decided to take some preventative measures.
Because the people from the Primitive Fief had attacked them, Rocky's side had suffered a great loss.
Over a hundred of their members were killed while only around thirty members died on the Primitive
Fief's side. Now, Rocky's side would have a harder time defending themselves.
If the people from the Primitive Fief or the other Godly Geniuses launched more attacks, Rocky and his
team would lose more of their people. Therefore, he couldn't sit still and wait for death to surround him.
Rocky selected around one hundred members from the team and taught them the mysterious military
arrays that were usually used on the battlefield only. He ordered them to practice the arrays until they
had mastered them.
As a matter of fact, exposing his real strength in combat was the last thing Rocky wanted to do. But
Valeria was seriously injured and it would take her a while to recover. And it would be difficult for Vivian
to fight against the people from the Primitive Fief on her own. So, Rocky's hands were tied. He had to
show his military ability.
While he was busy training the selected members, Vivian showed up.
"What are you doing?" Vivian asked, stopping behind Rocky and examining the trainees.
"I am training them!" Rocky folded his arms across his chest and looked at Vivian.
"What? But why are you training them as soldiers?" All the members of the joint guard team were at the
third grade of the Spirit Realm or above and they were no ordinary soldiers. So normally, there was no
need for them to be trained further.
"The Nether Fire Land is like a battlefield and the joint guard team is equivalent to our army. If we want
to survive, we need to have our army master some necessary skills. Strength alone won't help us in the
long run," Rocky answered.
"I knew you had mastered some medical skills, but I didn't know you were also fluent in the art of war!"
Vivian exclaimed when she noticed that the members were practicing arrays, not just performing
strength training.
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