When Meng Shuying found Su Luowei, she was helping a filthy, stumbling woman out of a woodshed.
"Senior Sister…" Meng Shuying took a step forward, ready to explain, but Su Luowei didn't even look up. She just nodded her chin slightly and coldly said, "Come help."
The words Meng Shuying wanted to say got stuck in her throat.
She took the woman from Su Luowei's hands, silently observing her Senior Sister's expression. There was no emotion on Su Luowei's face, making it impossible to tell if she was angry about what had happened earlier. This left Meng Shuying feeling uneasy.
Had her Senior Sister already stopped caring so quickly?
A bitter feeling welled up in her heart as Meng Shuying lowered her gaze, unable to meet her Senior Sister's eyes. It seemed her importance to Su Luowei was even less than she had imagined.
But Meng Shuying was mistaken. Not only was Su Luowei angry, but she was furious. However, due to the current situation, she was forcing herself to stay composed.
Meng Shuying, with her deep understanding of Su Luowei, knew exactly how to handle her. Recently, she had been pretending to be pitiful and submissive, and it had worked like a charm.
She stayed by Su Luowei's side every day, calling her "wife" at every opportunity. After hearing it so often, Su Luowei had gone from blushing in embarrassment to getting used to it, even starting to consider the idea of becoming Dao companions with her.
But whenever Su Luowei felt that urge, a cold wave of reality would douse her, extinguishing the small spark in her heart.
She hadn't yet escaped the control of the system, and if she followed the plot as it was meant to unfold, she would inevitably have to face Meng Shuying in battle one day. Just the thought of this extinguished any ideas she had.
In the original story, she was killed by Meng Shuying.
Xiao Ba had warned her that the plot couldn't be changed. If she caused it to deviate, she would be punished by the system.
This was her dilemma. She knew her own tragic fate and could see it coming but couldn't find a way to change it.
Every day spent with Meng Shuying was like walking on thin ice. She knew that this peace would eventually shatter, but she still hoped that day would come later rather than sooner.
And even with a sword hanging over her head, she couldn't help but wonder—what if?
What if the story didn't unfold as written? What if Meng Shuying never broke the Demon Seal, never committed those grave mistakes, and never became the villain everyone wanted dead?
She was already torn—she didn't want to see Meng Shuying sad, wanting to accept her feelings despite everything; yet she feared that after completing her task, she would suddenly leave, leaving Meng Shuying all alone.
And now, seeing Meng Shuying getting close to someone else made Su Luowei feel like a fool.
Meng Shuying had been sweet-talking her daily, making her lose her bearings, and then turned around and cozied up to someone else the moment they were apart.
Anger surged within her, and she couldn't help but imagine—if she hadn't barged in when she did, would Meng Shuying have ended up in bed with that demoness, completely oblivious to everything?
Even though Meng Shuying was now fully dressed, Su Luowei couldn't bring herself to be kind to her and only wanted to stay far away.
After handing the woman over, Su Luowei immediately turned and went back into the woodshed. Soon, she came out again, helping another woman.
She had discovered several people locked in the woodshed, men, women, and children, but mostly women. They were all in tattered clothes, with haggard faces and lifeless expressions.
These were people kidnapped by the Tiger Bandits, mostly merchants passing through or residents from nearby towns visiting family. They had been targeted by the bandits, who took their money and locked them up, waiting for their families to pay ransom.
If their families brought enough money, the bandits would release them as agreed. Those still here were the ones with no one to ransom them or whose families couldn't gather the money in time.
The bandits had lost patience with these people and now only had the servants bring them a bucket of leftover food each day, caring nothing for their survival.
Finding a place for these people was no easy task. Su Luowei had no experience with such matters and was at a loss. Xie Hanzhu and Wen Miaomiao, who had little interaction with ordinary people, were also overwhelmed by the blank, empty eyes staring back at them.
At this critical moment, it was Meng Shuying who took charge. After a quick assessment of the situation, she divided the people into three groups: those who were healthy and strong were sent to fetch water and prepare food; those who were mobile but less able were tasked with cleaning up the place for the others to rest; and the injured and elderly were told to rest.
With everything organized, the group seemed to regain some sense of direction. Some even stepped up to help Meng Shuying care for the weak and injured.
The injured were mostly those who had resisted the bandits or tried to protect their families, resulting in cuts and wounds. They had been left untreated and survived only with the care of others.
Though Su Luowei and the others were cultivators and could use spiritual energy to stabilize the injured temporarily, they were helpless against the infected and festering wounds.
The bodies of mortals couldn't heal themselves like cultivators. If the wounds weren't treated properly, no amount of spiritual energy could save them.
Seeing the injured groaning in pain, Meng Shuying rolled up her sleeves and told others to prepare a clean room. She then said to Su Luowei, "These people have been injured for a long time. The rotting flesh on their wounds needs to be cleaned out immediately. Senior Sister, could you check the rooms for any anti-inflammatory and hemostatic medicine?"
Though Su Luowei was still upset with her, she couldn't let others suffer, so she reluctantly set aside her feelings and took out some medicine bottles from her Qiankun bag, handing them to Meng Shuying. "I have some pills here."
Meng Shuying shook her head. "These pills are too valuable to waste on mortals."
Seeing Su Luowei's disapproving look, she quickly added, "And there are too many wounded. These pills might not be enough. Let's save them for those on the brink of death."
She then turned to Xie Hanzhu. "Senior Sister Xie, I need to trouble you with something else. Could you go to the nearest town and inform the local authorities that we've subdued the Tiger Bandits and need them to send people to handle the aftermath?"
Xie Hanzhu raised an eyebrow. "It takes two days to travel to the nearest town and back. Besides, the bandits have been here for a long time. If the local authorities wanted to take them down, they would have done it by now. What's the point of me going? Are you trying to get back at me, Meng Shuying?"
Meng Shuying replied, "They haven't acted because the bandits were entrenched between two towns, making it difficult to coordinate. But now that we've taken control, they just need to send people to take over. There's no danger, and they can claim the credit."
Xie Hanzhu said, "And I'm supposed to go alone? What if they don't believe me?"
Wen Miaomiao softly suggested, "Senior Sister, you can fly there on your sword and land directly at the governor's residence. Identify yourself as a Qingxu Sect disciple, and they will surely believe you."
With Wen Miaomiao agreeing with Meng Shuying's plan, Xie Hanzhu had no choice but to set off to get reinforcements.
The room was quickly prepared, and Su Luowei found some medicine and clean bandages. It turned out that the bandits often got injured, so their storeroom was well-stocked with various medicines.
After everything was ready, Su Luowei began to feel worried. From half a meter away, she quietly asked Meng Shuying, "Did you learn medicine during your travels?"
Meng Shuying replied, "No."
"Then why don't we wait for Xie Hanzhu to return with help before treating them?"
Many of the people were seriously injured, and Xie Hanzhu would likely bring doctors back. Rather than risk doing something they weren't confident in, it might be better to wait.
"I may not have studied medicine, but I'm confident I can handle this."
During her travels, Meng Shuying had encountered a plague where the infected needed to have their rotting skin removed before treatment could begin. The plague spread easily among mortals, but she was completely immune. Because of this, she had been forced to take up the responsibility of saving the infected, despite having only ever killed people before.
Without any anesthetics, Meng Shuying cast a spell to make the wounded fall unconscious. She then took out a set of knives from her Qiankun bag, selecting a small blade and carefully heating it over a fire.
Cleaning a wound seemed simple—just cut away the rotting flesh with a sterilized knife and then apply medicine and bandages. But it required skill to do it quickly and precisely.
Even the two volunteers who had initially come in to help turned pale and fled, vomiting outside after seeing Meng Shuying's cold expression as she cut away the flesh like peeling a potato.
Once they left, only Meng Shuying, Su Luowei, and Wen Miaomiao were left in the room.
Su Luowei, being a cultivator who had participated in sect trials, was somewhat resistant to such scenes.
But even after mentally preparing herself, when she saw the deep, bone-revealing sores on one patient's back, her face still turned pale.
Although Meng Shuying was focused on treating the wounds, part of her attention was always on Su Luowei. Noticing her discomfort, Meng Shuying paused and said, "Senior Sister, you can go rest outside."
Originally, Meng Shuying was treating the wounds, Su Luowei was applying the medicine and bandaging, and Wen Miaomiao was using her spiritual energy to protect the patient's heart to prevent any accidents. If Su Luowei left, the burden would fall more heavily on the other two.
Thinking of this, Su Luowei shook her head and gritted her teeth. "I can manage."
"Let's switch roles, Senior Sister," Wen Miaomiao suddenly suggested. "You protect the heart, and I'll apply the medicine and bandage the wounds."
Su Luowei instinctively wanted to refuse, but Wen Miaomiao had already taken the medicine and bandages from her, calmly tending to the injured.
One by one, the wounded were brought in and then carried out. Some were so severely injured that half their bodies were rotting, and Su Luowei couldn't bear to look. But Meng Shuying remained unfazed, calmly cutting away the dead flesh before passing the patient to Wen Miaomiao.
Applying medicine and bandaging took time, so Meng Shuying used the opportunity to clean the tools she had used.
Su Luowei couldn't leave since she was protecting the patients' hearts. Watching Wen Miaomiao work so attentively, she couldn't help but comment, "You've never done this before, yet you're so meticulous and calm. Compared to you, I'm not much use as a Senior Sister."
Wen Miaomiao paused for a moment, then looked up at her without stopping her work. "Senior Sister has spent most of her time on Inkstone Mountain and hasn't seen much of this, so it's understandable that you're not used to it. It's nothing—any doctor could do a better job than me. But it's really Senior Meng who's worked hard today."