Feng Jiu’er had expected the man to simply ignore her.

To her surprise, after a brief silence, Jiu Qing gave a small nod. “Mm.”

The word had barely fallen when two sets of hoofbeats rang out from ahead.

Before long, the shapes of two horses — one black, one white — appeared in their line of sight.

“He actually brought them back!” Feng Jiu’er was instantly thrilled and moved to stand up at once.

But the moment she shifted her foot, a piercing pain shot through her ankle.

She gasped and dropped back hard onto the ground.

Jiu Qing heard the commotion behind him and turned. He found her sitting on the ground, both hands wrapped around her ankle, brow deeply furrowed.

When she had been thrown from the horse’s back, her body had been shielded by Jiu Qing and escaped injury. But her ankle had been twisted in the fall.

She had been sitting on the ground the entire time without putting any weight on her foot, so it was only now, when she tried to rise, that she noticed.

When one’s luck turned sour, it truly could plunge to bottomless depths. With her martial arts gone, her body had become so fragile — she hadn’t twisted an ankle in several hundred years, and now here was one, right on time.

Was she truly a useless wreck now that she had no martial arts?

Suddenly she felt her body lighten. Someone had swept her up horizontally into their arms.

Without a word, Jiu Qing carried her over to where Zhuifeng stood.

Zhuiyue stamped its hooves irritably, clearly unhappy.

Zhuifeng let out a low snort, and to Feng Jiu’er’s astonishment, Zhuiyue immediately quieted, standing meekly to one side without daring to make another sound.

Oh my goodness! Remarkable! Zhuiyue was afraid of Zhuifeng!

She looked more closely at Zhuiyue’s snow-white coat — there was a layer of mud on it now. Surely Zhuifeng had knocked it off its feet earlier?

Hadn’t she heard that horses couldn’t be knocked down — that if a horse fell, it couldn’t get back up?

The dust and earth on Zhuiyue’s body looked exactly like it had rolled along the ground and then managed to stand again. A divine steed indeed.

And yet it was afraid of Zhuifeng! Ha! Look how obedient it was now — that endearing, cowed little manner of it instantly dissolved all the fury Feng Jiu’er had been nursing toward it.

“Zhuifeng, you have to keep a close eye on it for me. If it steps out of line, you give it a good beating — a real one!”

Zhuiyue stamped its hooves again, clearly dissatisfied.

Zhuifeng gave a low, haughty whinny, and the sheer authority of it sent Zhuiyue’s little hooves snapping to a halt — even its tail didn’t dare to move.

“Ha, hahaha…”

Feng Jiu’er seemed to forget entirely that she was still in someone else’s arms, laughing so hard she could barely breathe.

Who would have thought the world of animals — or rather, the world of horses — operated on the exact same law: the strong rule over the weak? It was too amusing for words!

She was set onto Zhuifeng’s back, and Jiu’er was startled — she found herself inexplicably hesitant to ride this magnificent creature that commanded such awe.

She wasn’t sure why, but that imperious air Zhuifeng had just displayed reminded her strongly of someone.

Yes, it was remarkably like… the arrogant Ninth Imperial Uncle.

So sitting on Ninth Imperial Uncle’s… pah! How could she compare Ninth Imperial Uncle to a horse? Had she lost her mind?

“Jiu Qing, how far have we come?” After settling onto the horse’s back, she looked down at the man standing beside it.

During the wild ride on Zhuiyue just now, the situation had been far too urgent for her to think about how far they had gone.

Thinking about it now — those two horses had been running at a furious pace. They must have covered a considerable distance.

They were still deep in the wild forest. How were they going to find their way back to Mu Mu and the others?

Jiu Qing said nothing. He seemed to have a particular dislike for speech, remaining cold and silent more often than not, going long stretches without a single word.

After lifting Feng Jiu’er onto the horse and settling her properly, he didn’t rush to leave. Instead, he took a small vial from the saddlebag, reached over and took her hand, turning her palm face-up.

“Hiss…” That hurt! She hadn’t paid any attention to it earlier, but now, looking at the wound on her own hand, the pain made her wince sharply and show her teeth.

Jiu Qing drew out a second vial of medicinal liquid and moved to tear a strip from his own clothing.

“Don’t!” Feng Jiu’er said immediately. “I have a handkerchief. Don’t ruin your clothes — do you think fabric grows on trees?”

These people from the ancient era always went about tearing their clothes at the slightest provocation. Something a handkerchief could solve in a moment, and they’d insist on ruining a perfectly good garment.

Did everyone simply enjoy wearing things full of patches?

Jiu Qing paused slightly. When he saw that she truly did pull a handkerchief out of her small bag, he released the hem of his clothing and took it from her.

He dampened the handkerchief with the medicinal liquid and began to clean the wounds on her palms.

The pain brought tears nearly to Feng Jiu’er’s eyes, but she stubbornly refused to let herself show weakness in front of someone else.

Even so — the reins had ground through her skin to the flesh beneath, and it truly, truly hurt.

Jiu Qing said nothing from start to finish, but when he noticed the cold sweat beading at her temple, he instinctively eased his touch.

Careful, ever more careful — his movements could not have been any lighter.

Yet the moment the medicinal liquid touched the wound, Feng Jiu’er’s color drained from her face. No matter how gentle his touch, the pain itself did not lessen by even the smallest fraction.

It was a long, agonizing process, and when Jiu Qing applied the medicine at the end, the pain turned her face nearly bloodless.

Without inner energy to protect her body, she had to endure all of it with nothing but sheer flesh and will — and she was on the verge of reaching her limit.

She was not a person of this era. She was not like Ninth Imperial Uncle or Mu Mu, the kind who could endure a blade dragged across their skin without flinching.

In the twenty-first century, they gave anesthesia even for minor procedures.

This, right now, was enough to drive a person mad.

She endured what felt like an entire century before the medicine on both palms was finally applied. By then, Feng Jiu’er had barely any breath left to exhale — she didn’t even have the strength to inhale.

The pain was real, a numbness spreading across her scalp in waves, as though she had been through a round of dying.

The wounds went deep into the flesh, and in a place that had barely any flesh to begin with — that she hadn’t damaged the tendons and bones was already remarkable.

When she came back to herself, she found that she had been leaning against Jiu Qing’s shoulder the entire time.

She tried to straighten up, but the moment her hand brushed his shoulder to push off, the pain shot through her again and she slumped right back.

Jiu Qing steadied her, helping her settle upright again on the horse. His hands then moved to her ankle.

Feng Jiu’er was covered in cold sweat, drawing in slow, deep breaths, feeling as though she wanted nothing more than to cease existing.

The hands had been tended to, but she had completely forgotten — the ankle was still swollen.

Jiu Qing looked at her. His fingers slowly felt their way to the injury.

Feng Jiu’er looked back at him. She wanted to refuse, but the ankle had to be set. If it wasn’t, it would never heal properly.

She couldn’t travel with a twisted ankle the whole journey — and if it went on like this, the foot would be ruined too.

Her hands were already wrapped. She couldn’t even grab something to take the edge off.

She would simply have to endure this with nothing.

She looked at Jiu Qing, her lashes damp with sweat, barely able to make out his face.

After a long moment, she finally clenched her teeth and gave a nod. “Go ahead.”

Better to endure it now and have it done — the sooner it was over, the sooner she could heal.

Without warning, a bone-deep agony tore through her ankle.

The pain was so intense Feng Jiu’er nearly screamed. Something appeared at the edge of her lips — and without thinking, she bit down with full force…