Chapter 170 Birth, Aging, Illness and Death in Life

——Thanks to Fan Xuanzi and friends who used a dot for their rewards. Also, this is the transition of the last chapter.

He Ji and Cao Yuanze entered Zhou Chen's cabin and saw him lying on the bed with a sallow face, dry lips, and unconscious. They felt a little sympathetic. He Ji sighed to Shi Xuan: "Hey, calling people to the deck in the middle of the night, the weather is so cold, the wind is so strong, and Brother Zhou is not in good health. It is inevitable that he will get sick."

Cao Yuanze smiled and said: "Thanks to Brother Shi's proficiency in medicine, he can use the medicinal materials on the ship to make an effective prescription. Although Brother Zhou is sick, his life is not in danger." He tried to please Shi Xuan a little, because he dared not guarantee that he would not get sick once during the two and a half years of voyage, and the doctors of the Fan family were expensive and arrogant, and the island countries controlled by the North Sea Blood Demon Sect were far apart, and he would only meet one every one or two months.

Shi Xuan didn't care about Cao Yuanze's flattery. He looked at Zhou Yi and Zhou Ying, who were helping to serve tea and water, and said, "Fortunately, the two children are fine." In fact, if the disciple of the Blood Demon Sect had asked everyone to kneel down last night, Shi Xuan would have quietly taken action to control him. With Shi Xuan's current strength, it would be a very simple matter. Shi Xuan was mainly worried that the true disciples and elders of the Blood Demon Sect who passed by would use their spiritual sense to scan him while he was practicing and running his true qi, so he deliberately stopped from the moment he got on the ship.

As for why he didn't just use the Soul-Concentrating Refining Pill to advance, but instead looked for this illusory opportunity, it was because there would always be instability when using pills to advance. If it involved the physical body and meridians, it would be possible to make up for it later, but it would just take more time. But if it involved the soul and divine consciousness, once there was a problem, it would be very difficult to make up for it.

Many people who have reached the Soul Stage dare not take the Divine Pill to achieve the Middle Grade Golden Pill, because something went wrong when they used the Soul Gathering Pill to advance, which was due to the incomplete integration of soul and spirit. Once a step is wrong, it is difficult to make up for it later. The Nine-Turn Nine-Return Jade Liquid Divine Pill, which can only increase the possibility by 30%, naturally will not give them the confidence to break through to the Middle Grade Golden Pill.

The possibility of something going wrong when advancing the Soul Gathering Pill may be about ten out of a hundred people, which is not too high, and it is also related to their own cultivation and control ability. There may be only five or six people with strong soul control out of a hundred. But for Shi Xuan, who wants to achieve the Great Dao of Longevity, this risk is not daring at all. In comparison, Shi Xuan is more willing to accept some stressful training, at least he has a certain control over life and death.

In general, it is better to control yourself, reject the temptation of the seemingly easy road, stick to your heart, and stick to the choice of the road.

"Ah, the two children really suffered last night. But it's good, those monks who should have fled have all fled, and the immortals of the Blood Demon Sect will not come to search again." He Ji's face did not show the embarrassment of his previous bragging of big copper bell eyes and bloody mouth.

Cao Yuanze also said easily: "That's right, the immortal of the Blood Demon Sect made my legs weak just by looking at me, I hope I can never see him again in the future. Okay, brother He, let's go to the canteen to eat, and bring a portion for Brother Shi and the two children. Well, brother Zhou, just bring some porridge, right?"

As soon as he opened the door, he heard crying from the other side of the corridor. Cao Yuanze was curious and said: "Brothers, I will go and take a look first and come back soon." After saying that, he walked out immediately.

After a while, Cao Yuanze came back a little depressed. He Ji asked, "What happened over there? Why is someone in pain?"

"Don't mention it, someone died." Cao Yuanze waved his hand, "It's the white-haired old man named Zhang who I often meet. He looked very healthy. I didn't expect that he caught a cold last night and died today."

He Ji didn't expect that the cold wind last night would actually kill someone. He didn't know how to answer for a while. It took a long time before he said, "It's the old man Zhang from Beifeng Country whose granddaughter married a cultivator from the Arctic?"

Shi Xuan was not too surprised. Before he boarded the ship in Beifeng Country, he accidentally met the old man named Zhang. He could see that he was strong on the outside but weak on the inside. So he looked at his breath and knew that his life span was almost over, at most one or two years. But he didn't expect that he had just arrived in the North Sea and died of a cold because of what happened last night. Shi Xuan felt that things in the world are unpredictable.

Cao Yuanze said: "It's that old man Zhang. Hey, the old man received a letter from his granddaughter this time, asking them to go to the North Pole to enjoy themselves. Who knew that he died just after arriving in the North Sea? It's so pitiful."

"Okay, okay, let's not talk about this. Let's go to the canteen. Brother Shi is still waiting!" He Ji didn't want to talk about such a heavy topic, so he pushed Cao Yuanze's shoulder and went out with him.

Seeing the two leave, Shi Xuan took Zhou Yi and Zhou Ying to learn to read. In the hearts of the two children, Uncle Shi, who knows a lot of words, can tell stories, and can treat their father's illness, is really amazing, much better than those flying red-clothed bad guys! Therefore, under Shi Xuan's teaching, Zhou Yi and Zhou Ying did not look reluctant at all, but were full of enthusiasm for learning to read.

"Aqiong...Aqiong..." Zhou Chen, who was sleeping on the bed, spoke incoherently and with a painful expression, and then shouted: "Xiaoyi...Xiaoying..."

Zhou Yi and Zhou Ying looked at each other and pouted: "Dad often talks in his sleep like this."

…………

After old man Zhang passed away, the people of the Fan family fleet came forward to build a small mourning hall on the deck so that the Zhang family could cry.

After the seventh day, the Fan family sent people to pile up a pile of wood there, put the body of old man Zhang on it, and prepared for cremation. Old man Zhang's wife had no objection. After all, there was still more than two years of journey, and there were no monks on the ship. The body was not as strong as a monster, so it would definitely not be preserved for that long. Compared with water burial, cremation could at least leave some ashes.

The deck of the Fan family fleet was fireproof, so there was no fear of the fire spreading, so Shi Xuan, He Ji, Cao Yuanze, Zhou Yi, and Zhou Ying stood in the distance to watch the cremation.

Zhou Chen's illness had recovered for a long time, but his body was still very weak and he couldn't get up. Every day, Shi Xuan, He Ji, and Cao Yuanze took turns to take care of the two children.

Seeing the excitement here today, Zhou Yi and Zhou Ying clamored to come and see, so the three had to bring them over.

"Don't those fires hurt?" Zhou Ying asked curiously as she watched the fire gradually rise.

Zhou Yi looked at his sister with contempt: "He was asleep, how could he feel pain!"

"That's right, when you were asleep, I couldn't wake you up no matter how hard I squeezed you." Zhou Ying's words caused Zhou Yi to glare.

After a while, after the fire stopped, Zhou Ying hurriedly pulled Zhou Yi: "Brother, that man is gone! Is he changing his magic?"

"You are stupid, Huozang (zang) means hiding."

"Oh, then will he show up?"

"How should I know, you should ask him!"

The two children's words made He Ji and Cao Yuanze look bad. The more childish and innocent they were, the more they felt the cruelty of death.

…………

Half a year later, the Fan family fleet arrived at an island outside the Blood Demon Sect. The medicinal materials, spiritual herbs, and monster corpses on the ship will be unloaded here, and the two disciples of the Blood Demon Sect will also leave here. As for whether the Fan family fleet capsized or sank in the future, it has nothing to do with them.

Fan Han respectfully accompanied the two inner disciples of the Blood Demon Sect into the island, while the stewards directed the boatmen to carry all the items to the island. After that, they would go to buy the unique spiritual herbs and magic tools of the Blood Demon Sect.

However, these had nothing to do with Shi Xuan and the others. They leaned against the railing of the boat and looked at the ordinary people on the island who were in good spirits, and then casually instructed Zhou Yi and Zhou Ying to do some basic body-building routines.

After Zhou Chen recovered from his illness, he felt the importance of physical health. In addition, he heard the knowledgeable He Ji bragging that most cultivators have been training since childhood, so he asked Zhou Yi and Zhou Ying to spend an hour every day doing some boxing in addition to learning to read. There were many people with martial arts on the boat, and there were always people passing by to give instructions, so Zhou Yi and Zhou Ying's boxing was similar. Of course, Shi Xuan also helped to remove some unreasonable movements, which made He Ji, Zhou Chen and others sigh for a while, saying that Mr. Shi was really good at both civil and military affairs, and he was also proficient in medicine.

"Uncle Shi, look, we've grown taller again!" Zhou Yi said excitedly, and his name for Shi Xuan had changed from unconscious uncle to obvious Uncle Shi.

Zhou Ying was also standing by the railing, comparing the line she had carved last month, and was satisfied to find that she had surpassed it by a lot. For children of their age, they grow taller every day, and the effect is more obvious when they start to exercise.

Zhou Chen looked at his children growing taller, and he was relieved and sighed: "They are also growing up slowly, and I am getting older, ah, old." The illness six months ago gave Zhou Chen some more white hair and wrinkles, and he looked four or five years older.

He Ji patted Zhou Chen on the shoulder and said with a smile: "This is normal. Children grow up and parents grow old naturally. But your Xiaoyi and Xiaoying will definitely have a bright future. Brother Zhou, you can just wait and enjoy your life." After a pause, he continued: "Tsk tsk, I'm so envious. I really want to go back to Crystal City right away, marry a wife, and have a big fat boy." He is only one or two years younger than Zhou Chen, but after arriving in the North Pole, he was busy working hard and had not yet started a family.

After he finished speaking, he saw Shi Xuan and Cao Yuanze smiling but not saying anything, so he teased: "What's up, two brothers, do you want me to be your matchmaker? There are many beauties in Crystal City, their bodies are tall and strong, but very even, with curves where they should be."

Shi Xuan and Cao Yuanze had seen women before, so they didn't blush, and said a few perfunctory words to change the topic: "The fleet only traveled for half a year to reach the Blood Demon Sect, how come it took nearly two years?"

"You don't understand this, the Blood Demon Sect is in the south, and further north is the ocean where icebergs often float. The ship dare not go too fast, and it has to slow down at night. In the event of a heavy snowstorm, it has to find an island to hide. It was originally a journey of less than a year, but it took two years." He Ji proudly showed off his knowledge.