When Er Sheng supported Ji Ling back to the small courtyard, Shen Zui was lying on the stone table in the yard sunbathing, with two empty wine jugs beside him and another in his arms.
By then, Ji Ling had already passed out, her face as white as paper. Er Sheng had no time to pay attention to Shen Zui and hurriedly carried Ji Ling into the house. Wufang Mountain had no physicians—cultivators mostly suffered internal injuries that required self-meditation to heal. Even for flesh wounds, using one’s spiritual power to meditate was the best method.
However, this time was different. The evil energy from the Bone Mite had invaded Ji Ling’s body. Without outside help to clear the evil energy, she couldn’t meditate alone.
In Er Sheng’s eyes, Senior Sister had always been strong. Since they began hunting demons together, Senior Sister had never been so severely wounded. She had never imagined that Senior Sister could bleed so much…
Er Sheng was frantically searching through Ji Ling’s room for bandages and scissors when suddenly the light at the doorway dimmed. Shen Zui stood there with a dark expression, his gaze ice-cold as he looked at Ji Ling’s shoulder wound. “Who did this?” he asked in a tone more severe than they had ever heard.
Er Sheng was momentarily stunned.
A fire seemed to burn in Shen Zui’s heart that couldn’t be extinguished. “I asked you, who injured her?”
Seeing her usually carefree and frivolous master suddenly turn serious made Er Sheng very uncomfortable. After a long pause, she honestly replied, “It was a demon called Bone Mite. It’s already been killed.”
Shen Zui’s fists clenched until they turned white. He coldly curved his lips: “Really… he got off too easy.”
Er Sheng found the bandages and scissors and ran back to the bedside. She was about to directly remove Ji Ling’s clothes but suddenly remembered Shen Zui was still behind her. “Master, please step out first. I need to remove Senior Sister’s clothes. The teacher says men and women should maintain proper distance.”
Shen Zui coldly laughed: “I raised you since you were a baby, and now you’re being particular about this? Just pretend the teacher was talking nonsense.” As he spoke, he entered the room and gently lifted Ji Ling into his arms. “Her wound is too deep to treat while lying down. I’ll hold her while you clean out the rotted flesh, then sprinkle some medicine and bandage it.”
Upon hearing that she needed to clean out the rotted flesh from the wound, Er Sheng immediately dropped the scissors and bandages. “I can’t do it, I can’t! This is Senior Sister, not some demon or fleshworm. She’s alive… I can’t bring myself to do it.”
Shen Zui frowned: “Little girl, you’re becoming more and more useless.”
After being criticized, Er Sheng had mustered up a bit of courage, but after glancing at Senior Sister’s bloody and mangled shoulder, she immediately shook her head again. “No, no, Master, let’s switch. I’ll hold Senior Sister, and you clean the wound.”
Shen Zui let out a light snort, condensing blue light in his hand to form what looked like a blue dagger.
Er Sheng quickly switched positions with Shen Zui.
However, when Shen Zui’s fingers touched Ji Ling’s collar, he involuntarily paused.
Men and women should maintain proper distance… even if it was someone he had raised since childhood, they were still of different genders now…
Finally suppressing the strange restlessness in his chest, Shen Zui switched to using the blue dagger to lightly lift Ji Ling’s collar. Upon seeing her blood-stained collarbone, Shen Zui’s hand trembled slightly before quickly steadying itself.
“Master, why are you dawdling?” Er Sheng asked curiously.
Shen Zui couldn’t be bothered to scold her now. Steeling his heart, he peeled away the clothing that had almost fused with her flesh. Ji Ling regained some consciousness from the pain, squinting at the person before her and weakly whimpering, “Master, it hurts…”
It had been so long since she had called him “Master” like this after growing up. Shen Zui’s gaze involuntarily softened as he coaxed, “Bear with it.” Looking at her already mangled shoulder, Shen Zui’s hand holding the dagger trembled slightly. He quietly instructed Er Sheng, “Hold your Senior Sister steady, don’t let her move.”
Er Sheng complied, quickly casting an immobilization spell to keep Ji Ling from moving.
When the dagger pierced the wound, Ji Ling seemed to be in extreme pain, her teeth clenched tightly as cold sweat beaded on her forehead. Shen Zui’s face was also somewhat pale, but his movements were very efficient as he dug out pieces of rotted flesh and threw them on the ground. Er Sheng turned her head away, unable to watch.
After what seemed like an eternity, Shen Zui finally said in a deep voice, “Little Ears, help your Senior Sister bandage the wound.”
Er Sheng turned back to look and discovered that Master had already applied the medicine powder. She quickly took the bandages and moved to dress Ji Ling’s wound. Shen Zui stood up to make way, but unexpectedly, Ji Ling was still clutching his sleeve, unwilling to let go.
Her eyes were tightly closed, having clearly passed out from the pain, but her hand was unconsciously gripping tightly, refusing to loosen even slightly.
Er Sheng wasn’t one to ponder such delicate emotions. She rolled up her sleeves and was about to pry Ji Ling’s fingers open one by one, fortunately, Shen Zui finally couldn’t bear to watch and stopped her: “Little Ears… let me do it. You go out first.”
Er Sheng blinked, thinking that bandaging wounds wasn’t like cleaning them out—the clothes would need to be removed quite a bit…
But since Master requested it…
“Then I’ll go boil some water to clean Senior Sister later.”
“Mm.”
Er Sheng obediently walked out, and as she closed the door, she heard Ji Ling hazily calling “Master” over and over. Shen Zui’s hand remained on Ji Ling’s shoulder, not moving for a long time.
Why did the same two words sound so different? Er Sheng’s master and Ji Ling’s master—what exactly was different…
After a busy day, she could finally collapse onto her own bed to rest. Er Sheng still placed the Yilin Sword beside her bed, gently stroking the blade as she mumbled, “Tonight Master is watching over Senior Sister. Should I also go over to look, or stay in the Senior Sister’s room for the night? Otherwise, when Senior Sister wakes up tomorrow, she’ll say I’m heartless.”
Er Sheng hesitated for a moment before continuing, “But I helped so much today, my arms and legs are worn out. Hmm, I better not go over. Besides, Master is there, and there’s nowhere to lie down and sleep in Senior Sister’s room… And from what I’ve seen before, Senior Sister seems to prefer being alone with Master anyway.”
In the darkness where Er Sheng couldn’t see, moonlight shone through the window, casting a small snake’s shadow on the ground. Having heard Er Sheng’s mumblings, the snake’s head nodded solemnly, as if strongly agreeing with her last statement.
“I should just sleep peacefully in my bed.” Er Sheng convinced herself, took off her clothes, and crawled into bed.
Before falling asleep, Er Sheng stared at the Yilin Sword and said, “Chang Yuan, Chang Yuan, today I saved Senior Sister. In the future, I’ll be able to save you too. I’m very powerful now…”
Such words had become Er Sheng’s pre-sleep ritual, like a faith, like a vow.
The room fell quiet, and silvery moonlight poured in, spreading a cold gleam across the floor. The black snake hidden in the dark corner of the room slightly raised its head, bathing in the silver moonlight, its golden eyes gleaming brightly. It looked at Er Sheng, who had already fallen into dreams, then gazed at the unnaturally large moon in the sky.
Tonight at Wufang Mountain, the evil energy was overwhelming…
Unknown to all, in the room next to Er Sheng’s, the severely wounded Ji Ling was still sleeping, with Shen Zui sitting quietly beside her, his eyes filled with emotions too complex to fathom. Within Ji Ling’s blanket, tucked in her clothes, the Bone Mite’s core was emitting strange rays of light, just like the moonlight outside.
But Ji Ling didn’t know, Shen Zui didn’t know, and Er Sheng knew even less.
That night, Er Sheng had a strange dream. At first, there was nothing but darkness in the dream. She felt herself constantly falling as if dropping into a bottomless hole.
There was nothing around except a vast, desolate darkness. Gradually, in the chaos, the figure of a woman in white appeared, and beside her was a huge, blurry black shadow. As the scene became clearer, the woman in white was quietly sitting between the horns of a huge black dragon. She reached out to stroke the dragon’s horn and said, “Chang Yuan, after hearing so many mundane matters from me, do you find it tiresome?”
“According to what Siming says, worldly affairs each have their interest. If there’s a chance, I’d like to experience them myself.”
Siming fell silent for a moment: “Do you want freedom?”
“Yes.”
Siming smiled gently: “Shall I help you?”
“Defying heaven’s will surely won’t go unpunished. Siming, committing such a grave sin for Chang Yuan is not worth it.”
“Chang Yuan, you shouldn’t suffer this punishment without cause. As for heaven’s will, who has truly seen it? As the Star Lord of Fate, what I believe in the least is destiny. My friend, if you’re imprisoned for an ancient prophecy, these tens of thousands of years should be enough.”
Chang Yuan fell silent, then sighed deeply: “Siming, if you defy heaven’s will, how could that person possibly spare you…”
Siming coldly laughed: “What business is it of his? It’s nothing more than correcting some mistranslated ancient language. If heaven would still punish for this… Since heaven is without benevolence, what does it matter if I defy it?”
Since heaven is without benevolence, what does it matter if I defy it…
These words seemed like a spell, taking root in Er Sheng’s mind, constantly swirling until she woke up the next day in a daze, her head splitting with pain. She hazily washed up and sat at the stone table in the courtyard, spacing out.
At that time, Shen Zui came out of Ji Ling’s room, his face ashen. Seeing Er Sheng sitting there dumbly with a confused expression, he frowned and asked, “Did you spend all night eavesdropping at the door?”
“Heaven is without benevolence…” Er Sheng mumbled a few words before looking at Shen Zui, suddenly coming to her senses and asking confusedly, “Master, do you think there’s such a thing as past and present lives?”
“Die once and you’ll probably find out.” Shen Zui answered in a bad mood, then turned and left the courtyard, presumably going to buy more wine.
Er Sheng thought that Senior Sister must have woken up and given Master a hard time again. She sighed: “Such a grown person, why can’t they just be a little easier on their disciple? Such a childish master.” After speaking, she went to the well to draw a bucket of water, heated it for a while, then carried it to Ji Ling’s door and knocked: “Senior Sister, I’ve come to help you wash up.”
Unexpectedly, just as Er Sheng pushed open the door, a sudden gust of cold wind blew past, and a black pearl shot past Er Sheng’s cheek at lightning speed with a “whoosh,” heading straight for the sky.
Er Sheng was still in shock when Ji Ling, unable to move in bed, glared at her fiercely: “Why hasn’t the immobilization spell been removed from me?”
“Yesterday… I forgot,” Er Sheng answered blankly.
Ji Ling angrily said: “That was the Bone Mite’s core, not yet purified. Such a demonic object that could harm people has escaped, and you’re still not going after it!”
Er Sheng was startled by the scolding and immediately responded with a “yes,” rushing back to her room to grab the Yilin Sword before flying off in pursuit.