Xue Gu stared at Tuoba Keyan’s face for a long moment before finally nodding.

He truly did seem to be in fine condition. Perhaps a little blood really didn’t matter much after all.

Looking at how close the flower seemed to blooming, perhaps once it finally opened, everything would be fine.

“I’d guess this flower will probably bloom sometime before the next full moon.”

Tuoba Keyan returned to stand before the Blood Ganoderma, gazing at the blood-red bud, a soft gleam surfacing in his ink-dark eyes.

“Once the flower blooms, Jiu’er may finally be able to break free of the Gu Poison’s control completely. From then on, she’ll never have to suffer under it again.”

His long fingers came to rest on the Blood Ganoderma’s bud, brushing gently across it — a tender gesture, so careful, so precious to him, that when Xue Gu came closer, she even caught a glimpse of tenderness and pity welling in his eyes.

Her heart gave a sudden start, and an inexplicable unease began to creep over her.

This boy and Jiu’er… he actually harbored such deep, special feelings for her!

Having spent so long together, perhaps it was because Jiu’er had always presented herself as a man, carrying herself with such masculine bearing in everything she did, that Xue Gu herself had sometimes forgotten Jiu’er was a girl at all, treating her instead like a young man the whole time.

But deep down, no one had truly forgotten — Jiu’er was Jiu’er, not “Feng Jiu” the young master.

So this was it — Tuoba Keyan’s feelings for Jiu’er…

As she stepped out of Tuoba Keyan’s room, Xue Gu’s heart grew heavier still. This foolish boy — to Jiu’er, he was nothing more than a patient, or perhaps, by now, a friend at most.

But Jiu’er would never harbor the slightest romantic feeling toward him.

How could she make him give up this hope, before he sank any deeper?

But what she feared most was that he himself might not even realize what he truly felt for Jiu’er. If that were the case, how could she possibly wake him from it?

If she tried to tell him, he would probably only think she was worrying over nothing.

Passing beneath the archway of the western wing, before she knew it, she found herself already standing outside Feng Jiu’er’s door.

Yanu had just stepped out from within; seeing Xue Gu, he gave her a smiling nod, then walked off carrying his tray.

Xue Gu knocked, then pushed the door open and went in.

“Still not asleep this late?”

“And what about you, running around at this hour yourself?” Feng Jiu’er leaned against the headboard. She had already slept once and woken up, had just finished a little porridge, and looked considerably more alert now.

“You went to the palace?”

Caught off guard by the question, Xue Gu hesitated, then finally nodded.

“The masters there were far too formidable. I didn’t dare get close, so I left.” She shut the door behind her and walked over, sitting down at the bedside. “Jiu’er, will you blame me for not being able to take revenge for you?”

“You’re no match for that masked Lady. Going to seek revenge would only have gotten you killed. I’m glad you’ve come back safe and unharmed.”

Jiu’er’s words were sincere, of course, but she also understood perfectly well that, in her current state, even if she had wanted to stop Xue Gu, there would have been no way to hold her back.

Xue Gu’s eyes darkened slightly as she looked at Jiu’er’s still-pale face, an indescribable feeling weighing on her heart.

“Jiu’er,” after a long moment, she finally fixed her gaze on her and asked softly, “do you… hate that Lady?”

“Why would I hate her?”

“But she…”

“I don’t hate her. But if I ever get the chance in the future, I will have my revenge.” So the lack of hatred was genuine — after all, that woman owed her nothing, so there was no need for hatred.

Still, the debt would have to be repaid, if she ever got the chance in this lifetime.

Of course, unless she had the ability to do it herself, she had no need for anyone else to seek revenge on her behalf.

“Xue Gu, don’t ever do something like standing up for me again. If it isn’t done by my own hand, you can’t truly stand up for me at all.”

Even if Xue Gu had helped her kill the masked Lady, she would not have been pleased — there would have been nothing to be pleased about.

Victory or defeat decided everything; if she meant to destroy her opponent, she would have to do it with her own two hands.

Xue Gu’s feelings were a tangled mess. After a long while, she finally spoke, her voice distant. “Perhaps, sometimes, having one’s martial arts stripped away isn’t necessarily a bad thing. I know of a martial technique within the Feng clan that’s suited to those with no inner strength at all to cultivate.”

Feng Jiu’er froze, staring at her.

Xue Gu continued, “But that technique requires the cultivator to have absolutely no trace of inner strength left in their body at all. Even a single remaining trace, like what’s still left in you now, would make it impossible.”

Feng Jiu’er’s fingers tightened. It wasn’t that she hadn’t considered training anew — it was simply that, until now, it had genuinely been difficult to accept. After all, no matter how excellent a martial technique might be, rebuilding inner strength from scratch was never something that could be done in a single day.

But if Xue Gu herself was bringing up such a technique now… could it be that her inner strength could actually be restored within some shorter span of time?

Xue Gu had no wish to leave her guessing any longer, and said, “There’s still a trace of true energy remaining in your body right now, but it will fade away little by little over time, until none of it is left at all. That, however, will take time.”

“Forty-nine days from now, the true energy within your body will have vanished completely. And the Feng clan possesses a secret martial technique — so long as one’s body is suited to it, within a single month, one can cultivate inner strength so profound it defies measure.”

“Within a single month?”

“Yes. If your potential is great enough, you could even master it in half a month, or even just ten days.”

But Feng Jiu’er suddenly seized hold of Xue Gu’s wrist, her eyes narrowing slightly. “Xue Gu, what exactly did you do tonight? That masked Lady — do you… know her?”

How sharp was Jiu’er, truly? Though Xue Gu had already rehearsed what she would say before coming, under the pressure of that piercing gaze, she very nearly gave herself away.

Xue Gu pressed her lips together, about to say something, but Feng Jiu’er suddenly released her wrist and smiled. “I don’t want to hear you lie to me, Xue Gu. Just tell me what you know. Whatever you can’t tell me, that’s fine too.”

Xue Gu let out a breath of relief, never having expected that, at her age, having seen so much of the world, her own wits would still fall short of those of this young girl.

She said, “Don’t you have a topographical map on you?”

Feng Jiu’er immediately took out the map and handed it to her.

Xue Gu studied it carefully for a long while, then suddenly her eyes lit up, as though everything had become clear.

“Well? Do you know what place this is?” Even Uncle Lanyue hadn’t known what it was — yet Xue Gu, of all people, apparently did.

Xue Gu nodded, then shook her head, and said, “It’s the Feng clan’s Demon Realm — the Ruins of Desolation.”

“The Ruins of Desolation?” This was the first time Feng Jiu’er had ever heard the name. “What do you mean by ‘Demon Realm’?”

“‘Demon Realm’ is the name the Feng clan gives that place out of reverence and fear. It has another name too — the Den of Ghosts.”

That name, at least, Feng Jiu’er didn’t need to ask about — she could tell at once it was no good place, likely some perilous ground from which few who entered ever returned alive.

“Are you saying the treasure map leads into this dangerous place?”

“It’s not just the treasure map — the Phoenix Nirvana manual is there as well. If you can find it, you’ll be able to cultivate an unparalleled, peerless technique even with a body holding no inner strength at all.”

Feng Jiu’er understood exactly what Xue Gu meant. She asked flatly, “Then perhaps I should be grateful to that masked Lady after all, for giving me this chance at rebirth through nirvana?”

That so-called Feng clan ancestral ground must lie somewhere far away — forty-nine days might be just enough time to reach the Ruins of Desolation and find the Phoenix Nirvana manual.

Was this, then, exactly what the masked Lady had intended all along?