Pu Fang originally had the boy with her give Yan Hui the acupuncture treatment. But after the night where they shared the pilfered chicken, she took the responsibility upon herself again.
Every time Yan Hui arrived for treatment, Pu Fang expelled everyone from the room. Even her assistant that was there to learn wasn't allowed to learn. The large room was solely occupied by Yan Hui and Pu Fang. Then Pu Fang used took Yan Hui's treatment time as a an opportunity to pour out all her repressed feelings.
Yan Hui refused at first.
"Mmhm, you went to San Chong Mountain to gather medicinal herbs and bumped into the xian patrol by accident. Then you panicked and ran away, then a young xian cultivator overtook you, then you fought with him, then you two somehow fell into a magic array, then you two fell in a love-hate relationship in the array, then you guys got out of the array, then he didn't kill you and let you go, then....."
Taking advantage of the time when Pu Fang was switching needles, Yan Hui expressionlessly said: "...you became like how you are now....ah!"
Yan Hui sucked in a quick breath. Pu Fang had fiercely stabbed her with a needle.
"I can't talk to anyone else about this. Only to you," said Pu Fang. "It doesn't matter if you find me annoying, but you can't tell anyone about this. I know better than anyone else that you're annoyed, but you can't tell me that. But if you can't hold it in your grumbling anymore, that's fine. It'll be just like before, I'll stab you harder with the needle. If you keep complaining, then maybe my mood won't be so good, and I'll prick you until I draw blood. If you end up bleeding, I can't guarantee it won't leave a scar."
Seeing as she was pretty attractive....Yan Hui gritted her teeth and held her tongue. After all, her face had several more days of acupuncture treatment to go.
Pu Fang stuck another needle in Yan Hui's face and sighed: "I miss him again.....I want to know what he's doing right now, who he's meeting, what he's saying. Those mortals' shows always sing about how longing is like poison. Before I didn't understand, but now I completely do."
Yan Hui dead-eyed rolled her eyes at Pu Fang's yearning. Pu Fang sighed again when she finished talking and whispered, "I really miss him."
Yan Hui looked at Pu Fang, who was lost in thought. She said, "Don't do anything stupid." Yan Hui's tone was much more serious than her usual flippant voice toward Pu Fang. "There's tension between the xian and demons. There are military guards patrolling San Chong Mountain at the boundary around the clock. Don't think you can run around like before no matter how familiar you are with the area." Yan Hui's solemn gaze bored into Pu Fang. "Times have changed."
Pu Fang was shaken by Yan Hui's intense look. It was like Yan Hui's sharp look had probed into her inner heart's plan. Her hand shook, stabbing the needle until it drew blood.
Yan Hui sharply inhaled a breath. She turned over and got up: "Can you be more professional?! Focus on your work, not on men! I'm bleeding! There's going to be a scar! Compensate me!"
Pu Fang focused at the last part of Yan Hui's tirade. She smirked: "You didn't even pay me! Compensate what?! I'll pay you back a needle, lay back down!" She pressed Yan Hui down and extremely efficiently pricked Yan Hui with skill. "How could a great doctor like me be unable to cure your small wound?"
"It was bleeding. Did you say you couldn't guarantee there wouldn't be a scar if I bled?"
"It was to scare you! Lay down. If you talk back, I'll made the next needle painful."
Yan Hui: "..."
Pu Fang pressed Yan Hui back down and lightly wiped away the blood droplet. Suddenly, she spoke: "You're learning that dragon demon's magic, right?"
"Ya, but only magic that sharpens the senses, and a little bit of nine-tailed fox demon magic." Yan Hui snuck a glance at Pu Fang. "How do you know?"
"Your blood's aura has slight dragon aura." Pu Fang continued, " Probably because you're learning from him. But it's strange, usually xian cultivators that transition to demon cultivation without first purifying their essence early on end up misguided and heretical. However, your mind is still clear and sane. From the smell of your blood, it actually seems like your more suited to follow the demon path than the xian pathway."
The Third Prince didn't know the relationship between Yan Hui and Tian Yao. Thus, it was expected that Pu Fang wouldn't know either. In Qing Qiu, other than the king himself, no one else could see what linked Yan Hui and Tian Yao was a Heart Protection Scale.
"If you continue learning from the dragon demon, the dragon aura in your body will become more distinct. But if you continue wearing the anosmia sachet, unless you bleed, no one will be able to tell."
Yan Hui silently listened to those words. She changed the topic: "How do you all know I'm wearing the anosmia sachet?"
"The Nine-tailed Fox Demon Clan wear it to make it easier when going to Central Plains."
Yan Hui nodded and didn't continue to topic. The room grew quiet, and Pu Fang started to talk about the xian cultivator again.
Yan Hui didn't pay any attention. She was pondering her own matters.
Time was going by fast during their stay at Qing Qiu. Every day, Tian Yao was busy discussing with the Nine-tailed Fox Demon Clan on how they were going to break the sky-splitting seal on the night of the full moon. He was so busy that there was no rest. When Yan Hui woke up, he had already left. When Yan Hui went to sleep, he still hadn't returned. They haven't even seen each other these past few days.
Yan Hui didn't care about that at all. She was very satisfied with her current lifestyle. Clothes and food were just a beckon or open mouth away. There probably was nowhere else in the world more suitable for Yan Hui's idle-living-and-eating-until-death style. As for the xian-demon tensions and even Chen Xing Mountain, that was all in the past. She no longer wanted to think about it. She figured by the time her wound healed and the scar was gone, it would've all blown over.
In a blink of an eye, nine days had passed. The wound on Yan Hui's face turned into a scab. She inspected in in a mirror: "Once the scab falls off, that's it? You there won't be a scar?"
Pu Fang rolled her eyes and sneered. She handed over a bowl of black medicinal soup: "Drink that and see for yourself."
Yan Hui looked at the color. She immediately thought it looked bitter and narrowed her eyes in worry: "Is this edible?"
"What do you think?"
Yan Hui signed and accepted the medicine. She tipped her head back and poured it down her throat. The soup was as bitter as she had imagined. Yan Hui made a face when she finished. She couldn't even speak due to the taste. A piece of honey candy was stuffed into her mouth.
The sweet taste immediately dispelled the bitterness.
Yan Hui was shocked. She lifted her head and looked at Pu Fang. Pu Fang proudly arched an eyebrow: "That's what I do when I have to treat naughty little demons. Don't think I"m giving you special treatment."
When Pu Fang said that, Yan Hui suddenly felt her cheek where the scab was start to itch. She looked toward the hand mirror. The dark scab entirely fell off, revealing healed skin underneath. There wasn't even a trace of a dark mark left behind.
Yan Hui felt her face in astonishment. She put down the mirror and hurried said toward Pu Fang, "There's a scar on my chest where my heart is. You have to help me treat it."
"You don't have any money to pay." Pu Fang packed away her case. "Now that your wound has been treated, I won't come by tomorrow."
Yan Hui heard, and she slightly shifted her gaze way from her reflection in the mirror to fall onto Pu Fang's back. Pu Fang didn't speak further; she hefted her case and left the room.
Late at night, a black figure hurried through the dark forest. The clouds were thick tonight, so the moonlight would shine through only to be covered again. This gave the person a perfect screen.
When that person passed under a large tree, their head was hit by a sturdy tree branch. The person cried out in pain. It seemed like a heavy blow.
However after rubbing their head, the person still seemed intent on continuing onwards.
"If that was a sword, you would be in two pieces right now." A person suddenly leapt down from the tree and blocked Pu Fang's path. Yan Hui clasped her hands on top of the branch and partially leaned on it. She calmly looked at Pu Fang, and her words sloppily drawled out: "With that little skill, are you going to San Chong Mountain to die?
Pu Fang was silent.
Yan Hui stepped forwards. "Enough, stop being childish. Let's go back." She reached out to pull Pu Fang.
However Pu Fang stepped sideways to avoid it: "I thought you understood me." Pu Fang felt wronged. "They all don't understand. I thought you would at least understand."
Yan Hui pursed her lips and rolled her eyes: "Acting out a show in the middle of the night, do you think acting pitiful will make me let you go? Come on, let's go."
"Tch!" Pu Fang clicked her tongue in annoyance. Sure enough, she stopped pretending: "You don't have a bit of sympathy!"
"It's because I have sympathy that I'm stopping you! It's still as I said before, you can only love when you're alive. Return with me."
Pu Fang clenched her teeth. She looked unwilling but also like she had no other choice. She held her hand out, and Yan Hui reached out to grab it. However before Yan Hui could grasp it, Pu Fang suddenly raised her hand. White powder immediately hit Yan Hui's face.
Yan Hui instinctively knew this wasn't good. She covered her nose and backed away, but she had already inhaled the powder's strange odor.
In a short moment, she felt her head spin, and her body immediately tipped over.
"It's not poison. It'll just make you sleep." Pu Fang leapt over Yan Hui's body. "I know this path way. I'll be back in the morning!"
Yan Hui, who was lying on the ground, felt like her eyelids weighed 500 kilograms. Right before she lost the struggled and closed her eyes, she saw Pu Fang's leaping figure bounding down the path.
In that moment, Yan Hui suddenly understood how her Head Senior Disciple felt after she played tricks and ran away...
This....brat....
When Yan Hui woke up, it was still deep into the night. She glanced up at the sky. It seemed like she was out for no more than an hour. Looks like she backed away fast enough and didn't breathe in too much powder.
She supported her body into a sitting position. She still felt weak. Yan Hui hurriedly circulated her inner breath and stood up. She tracked Pu Fang's footprint and headed down the path.
Looks like Pu Fang really was familiar with the area. The entire way, Yan Hui didn't encounter any of the demon clan's guards.
She got closer to the crack left 50 years ago where Qing Qiu's king and Zhenren Qing Guang fought. Glowing red lava gurgled below; it was like a scar the earth was bleeding from. On the other end of the crack, Yan Hui saw the dark mountain side had torches gathering toward an area.
.....It looked like an intense response toward an abnormal incident.
Yan Hui's heart tightened.
She tossed away the anosmia sachet and changed her appearance. Then she carefully jumped down to the edge of the crack. Using the swirling hot air from the vent, she leapt up and flew along the current to the other end. Climbing up from the crack, Yan Hui's body was covered in sweat from the burning area. Her clothes were also covered in dust.
She had just stood up from climbing up the crack when she saw about 10 xian cultivators holding jians. They warily looked at her: "Another...another monster?"
Another?
Yan Hui's heart gave a hollow thump, but on the surface she still looked calm. She pretended to look frantic and stumbled toward the cultivators: "Fellow xian cultivators? Are there other xian cultivators here?"
Those people inspected Yan Hui for a long time: "You're...you're a xian cultivator?"
Yan Hui nodded: "I was originally over at the east side patrolling the boundary, but today demon launched a sneak attack. I barely made it out." San Chong Mountain was enormous. The east and west side are a vast distance apart. The people on this side wouldn't immediately know what happened on the other side. At least.....the underlings on patrol wouldn't know. As expected, the patrol ground was greatly alarmed: "
"There was a sneak attack on the east side tonight too? How many wounded?"
Yan Hui shook her head and skipped over the question: "There's demons here too?"
"A five-tailed fox demon crossed over. Not many were hurt, but quite a few were poisoned. Fortunately, xian cultivators Xi Feng and Ling Fei worked together to capture it."
Yan Hui's heart thumped. Naturally, it wasn't because of Ling Fei. When she was heading over, Yan Hui had been prepared to run into Chen Xing Mountain people. What she was scared by was the name, Xi Feng. This was the name Yan Hui had been hearing daily these past nine days-------
The xian cultivator Pu Fang liked.
``````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
Oh no, will this be another Tian Yao-Su Ying situation?????