Purchase Complete!
After the purchase was completed, the Edea pulp was immediately sent to his inventory.
Ziqian was just about to take it out when Lia and Xue returned carrying several bowls of still-steaming concoction. The bitter medicinal smell quickly spread throughout the tent.
The moment Xue entered, he immediately noticed that Ziqian's complexion had worsened. His brows instantly furrowed.
"What's wrong?" Xue asked as he hurriedly walked over to Ziqian's side. "Are you okay?"
Lia knew better than most how exhausting it was to use pheromones to calm a beastman. Every time he used his pheromones to soothe Bei, he would end up too drained to even leave the bed for an entire day afterward.
And that was with a bonded partner.
Ziqian and Huo were not even bonded yet, so the strain on Ziqian's body was much worse. Seeing Ziqian's pale complexion and slightly unfocused eyes, Lia became even more worried.
"You should rest, Ziqian. Xue and I can handle things here for now," Lia softly chimed in as he placed the bowls down nearby.
"I'm fine…"
Before Ziqian could even finish speaking, Xue hurriedly pulled his hand away from Huo's grip.
"What do you mean you're fine?!" Xue asked angrily.
Lia gasped the moment he saw Ziqian's hand.
Several deep claw marks stretched across the slender hand, blood continuously dripping down his fingers. The skin around the wounds had already turned an alarming shade of purple from how tightly Huo had been gripping him earlier.
Only then did Ziqian finally feel the sharp stinging pain and growing numbness coming from his left hand.
He had been so focused on his conversation with the guardians and searching for a way to save Huo that he had not even realized his hand was already injured this badly.
Ahhh, it's hurt!
"Xue, I'm really fine," Ziqian insisted, but the longer he stared at his almost mangled hand, the more intense the pain became.
Ziqian nearly grimaced from the pain, but he forcibly held it back. He was afraid Xue would become even angrier if he showed how much it hurt.
But ah… it really hurt!
Of course, Xue did not believe him at all.
Without replying to Ziqian, he directly turned toward Lia and handed over the bowl he had been carrying.
"Mother," Xue said in a firm voice, "I'm taking Ziqian to rest first."
Xue immediately walked toward Ziqian and was about to carry him, but Ziqian firmly grabbed his arm.
"Xue, listen to me. I'm really fine," Ziqian quickly said. "Yes, it hurts, but it's not that serious. Just put some medicine on it, okay?"
Xue did not respond, but he stopped moving.
The strength of Ziqian's grip on his arm was weak enough to be easily brushed off, but the desperation in his voice was impossible to ignore.
Xue's jaw tightened slightly.
He had just promised earlier that he would never let Ziqian get hurt again, but he had only stepped away for a few minutes to help his mother, and the sub-beast had already been injured once more.
Suddenly, a dangerous urge rose inside him.
He wanted nothing more than to keep Ziqian by his side at all times and never let him out of his sight again. If possible, he would tie the sub-beast to himself and carry him everywhere.
Still, Xue forcibly suppressed those thoughts and quietly waited for Ziqian to continue speaking.
Ziqian continued softly, "We need to prioritize Huo first. His condition is really severe. We have to treat him as soon as possible, or the damage might become irreparable."
Xue remained silent for a while.
In the end, he slowly turned around and walked back to the area where they had prepared the medicine earlier. A few moments later, Xue returned carrying a bowl of warm water, a clean cloth, and a wooden tube of medicine in his hands.
"Thank you," Ziqian said with a faint smile.
Lia watched the interaction helplessly and could only shake his head. Xue had yielded to Ziqian's words so easily that it reminded him of Bei—like father, like son.
Lia's expression soon became serious again as he looked at Huo's condition.
"We know Huo's condition is severe," Lia said quietly while slowly feeding Huo the medicine little by little. "But until now, no cure has ever been found for the aftereffects of going berserk. Right now, all I can do is ease his pain as much as possible."
He paused briefly before letting out a faint sigh.
"At least his mind was not heavily affected this time, and he still retains his consciousness. I have high hopes that he will recover."
Ziqian quietly raised his injured hand and allowed Xue to carefully clean the wounds and apply medicine to them while he spoke.
"No… it's not that there's no cure for the aftereffects of going berserk." Ziqian hesitated for a moment before continuing in a softer voice. "It's just that the cure is difficult to find… and extremely dangerous to obtain."
Although the exact location was not written in the shop's description, the general area had still been mentioned.
The Edea fruit grew in the deepest part of a cave beneath the center of the ocean.
With just that description alone, finding it was almost impossible. How were they even supposed to reach the center of the ocean? Not to mention that there might be terrifying monsters guarding such precious treasure.
Ziqian already learned the basic knowledge of this world, and he knew that one of the most dangerous places in Gaia was the endless ocean.
"Where is it?" Lia hurriedly asked. The hand he was using to feed Huo paused midair as he looked at Ziqian with widened eyes.
Lia did not doubt Ziqian's words in the slightest. If Ziqian said there was a cure, then there was one.
Ziqian only needed to tell him where it was, and Lia would do everything within his power to obtain it just to save Huo.
Even Xue stopped and looked at the sub-beast intently, waiting for his answer.
Ziqian organized his thoughts for a moment before answering.
"The Edea fruit can mend a person's soul," Ziqian started softly. "It's a fruit capable of healing people who have gone berserk. But like I said earlier, it's extremely difficult and dangerous to obtain because it only grows in the deepest part of a cave beneath the center of the ocean."
"Mend a person's soul?" Xue repeated with a slight frown. This was the first time he had ever heard of a fruit capable of healing souls.
Lia also frowned deeply as he tried to recall whether he had ever heard of a fruit called Edea before.
"Yes. The Edea fruit is a spiritual fruit," Ziqian answered as he looked toward Huo.
"No matter what medicine Huo takes, even if all his physical injuries heal completely, he would still suffer from the aftereffects of going berserk." His voice gradually became somber.
"He would continue feeling immense pain, his health would slowly deteriorate, and he might eventually lose his mind before…" Ziqian suddenly choked on his words and could not continue.
The atmosphere inside the tent instantly turned heavy.
What am I even saying…?
Ziqian inwardly reprimanded himself. He just wanted to explain Huo's condition properly, but hearing those words out loud only made the situation feel even more painful.
Lia felt uncomfortable, and even Xue's face darkened slightly.
Realizing his mistake, Ziqian quickly continued and explained the real damage caused by going berserk.
"Because going berserk doesn't just exhaust energy and push the body beyond its limits. It also forcefully consumes a person's life force, which damages the soul."
He unconsciously lowered his gaze as he spoke.
"A damaged soul is extremely painful. And that excruciating pain is what causes people to gradually lose their minds."
"Huo had already gone berserk once before to kill the five-horned monster," Ziqian continued. "That time was brief, so the damage was still negligible. But earlier, he went berserk again, and the accumulated damage became much worse."
Lia and Xue were shocked to hear such information for the first time.
All this time, everyone believed that when a beastman went berserk, their brain would be damaged, causing them to lose their minds before eventually dying.
It was the knowledge passed down to them.
Lia even believed that since Huo still retained his consciousness and had not completely lost his mind, as long as he could help ease Huo's pain, he would slowly recover.
But after hearing Ziqian's explanation, Lia felt all the strength in his body had been drained away.
Fear, worry, and guilt. All the emotions Lia was desperately trying to suppress finally overwhelmed him at once. He slumped beside Huo, and the tears he had been holding back finally came pouring out.
Xue remained silent the entire time and quietly continued treating Ziqian's wounds.
The atmosphere inside the tent became unbearably depressing. Huo's occasional painful groans and Lia's suppressed sobs were the only sounds echoing inside the quiet tent.
Ziqian also felt suffocated by the atmosphere.
He had only wanted to explain Huo's condition properly, but it seemed to have shattered the little hope Lia had been holding onto.
This was the scene Bei saw when he returned carrying a basket filled with herbs.