He Qing could fully understand Lu Li's dissatisfaction. For the sake of their agreement, Lu Li was swallowed by the monster without exposing his identity. On the contrary, she, as a partner, had a lot of troubles.
Lu Li was a little stunned. He had never seen He Qing look so weak. Even when she suffered a heavenly calamity, she would force herself to stay awake so that no one would notice her discomfort.
But now, He Qing was so tired that he didn't even want to pretend.
Lu Li silently grasped He Qing's pulse, and after a careful examination he discovered that there was miasma in He Qing's body, which was more serious than what he had just sensed through He Qing's spiritual energy.
"Heh." Lu Li chuckled expressionlessly and said, "Master is truly a kind-hearted person. It is truly amazing that he could sacrifice himself to this extent for his beloved disciple."
He was still sarcastic, but he didn't push He Qing away, allowing her to lean on his shoulder.
He Qing closed his eyes and took a long breath, then sighed, "I was forced to do this."
Lu Li naturally didn't believe this, he rolled his eyes and looked at the empty spot in the room, and said lightly: "If this is the case, then I think our cooperation will have to stop here."
He Qing shook his head and said tiredly but firmly: "No, we can't stop here, but we have to be more cautious. We must be sure of hitting the target before we take action. Otherwise..." His voice stopped abruptly.
Lu Li raised his eyebrows slightly: "What if not?"
"…"
Frankly speaking, He Qing wanted to find someone to complain about this outrageous development and curse the heavens together. Lu Li seemed to be a good candidate. He was a standard "three-no" person like her, with no moral integrity, no bottom line, no principles, and even no respect for ghosts and gods.
However, He Qing still couldn't completely trust him.
Strictly speaking, you can't trust anyone.
If this matter were known to others, who knows if it would be used as a bargaining chip to threaten her?
The only person she could trust was herself.
He Qing suppressed his desire to talk under great pressure, exhaled a breath of foul air, sat up straight, and said calmly: "If not, he will be on guard, and it will be difficult to succeed."
Lu Li saw that He Qing was hiding something, and also felt her helplessness and resentment. Although he didn't know the details, he didn't expose her directly.
Lu Li said half-truthfully: "Master has his own plans, and I will obey them. However, if Master exchanges his life for others' every time, I am afraid that Master will die young."
It was still a joke, but it was obviously much milder than the previous moment.
However, He Qing took this joke very seriously. She said firmly, "No, I must live to the end."
"..." Lu Li looked at her steadily, as if an indescribable resonance had arisen in his heart, and his eyes moved slightly.
Should I trust her again...?
※
Gu Changnian was seriously injured this time. Even though He Qing had drawn out the miasma in his body in time, his cultivation level still regressed to the Golden Core stage, and his Golden Core was also broken, so he still needed Daoyi to repair it.
He Qing, who had heard the news, was lying on the bed, suffering from the miasma in his body. He was sweating profusely from the pain, but he couldn't suppress the joy in his heart.
If Gu Changnian could be defeated every time he encountered such a major crisis, then she wouldn't mind happening a few more times.
"Knock, knock, knock."
"Master." Yue Qingru knocked on the door and called, "Can I come in?"
"Enter."
Yue Qingru came in with some water. As soon as she walked around the screen, she saw He Qing's face full of sweat. She hurried over to wipe the sweat off her face.
"Master, you should go to Kaiyang Palace and ask Immortal Chongying to help you. It's been three days."
He Qing propped himself up and pushed aside the hair stuck to his neck. He smiled weakly and said with pain: "It's okay. I'll be fine in two days."
With her current level of cultivation, which was still unrelated to purification, it was a bit difficult for her to digest such a large dose of miasma entirely on her own.
But because she was contaminated with Lu Li's aura when she helped Lu Li to draw out the miasma, if someone with the same level of cultivation directly came into contact with her sea of consciousness, they would most likely discover the slight demonic energy in that aura.
He Qing asked: "What's going on outside?"
Yue Qingru twisted the handkerchief and replied, "Brother hasn't woken up yet. I heard from Sister Hua that Brother's golden elixir has been repaired, but his consciousness has not been restored. In the next two days, I will ask Master Daoyi to use talismans to assist in the treatment."
"Hmm. What about that demon beast? Have you ever found any other traces of it?"
"No." Yue Qingru shook his head and said, "Master Xuanqing and Master Guanyue led people to check every corner of Lingshan, but they didn't find the corpse of the monster, and there was no miasma. Master Daoyi said that he was sure that the monster was hit, but Master Xuanqing was worried and said that he would go to the other nine seals to check in person, and he would set off today."
He Qing fell into deep thought. The current situation had completely exceeded the original plot of the novel. It was a pity that she had not finished reading the novel and could not be sure whether the breaking of the seal of Wulingyuan was part of the subsequent plot.
Coming back to his senses, He Qing asked again: "Where's Lu Li?"
Yue Qingru pursed her lips and said reluctantly, "He said he wanted to go for a walk."
"walk?"
Lu Li, who was "taking a walk", came to the Tianmu Cave which was destroyed by the thunder due to He Qing's tribulation. With the help of the remaining traces of the formation left here by Xuan Qingzi and others, he created a barrier of an inch in size with a little effort.
He reached his white hand into the barrier, flipped his palm, and summoned out a small purple beast the size of a palm.
The little beast rolled to the ground, crying and pounding the barrier as if it was dissatisfied.
Lu Li narrowed his eyes and said softly, "You came to find me without permission, and you are still restless even after being seriously injured. It seems that you really want to die."
The little beast sensed Lu Li's murderous intent and immediately stopped, lying obediently on the ground.
Lu Li poked it with a finger, turned it over, and said with an extremely harmless smile: "If you don't want to suffer, do it yourself."
The little beast cried out in grievance, and scratched Lu Li's fingers with its two little claws as if to vent its anger.
Lu Li smiled more gently, and with a little force, his fingers sank into the belly of the little beast: "Then let me do it?"
"Ah~"
※
That night, He Qing was lying on the bed, tossing and turning in pain. The miasma in his dantian was surging violently, sometimes like a heat wave, sometimes like being splashed with pepper water. It was simply torture.
Amid He Qing's suppressed breathing, the door creaked open.
He Qing knew it was Lu Li without even looking, and quickly turned over and pretended to be asleep, not wanting him to see him looking so useless.
Lu Li's footsteps were light and he soon came to the bedside. Hearing the sound of clothes rustling, Lu Li immediately sat down at the head of the bed.
He said, "Don't pretend, Master, I know you are awake." His tone was nonchalant and a little smiling.
The pain was unbearable and he was in a bad mood. He Qing gritted his teeth and said unhappily, "You came here in the middle of the night just to expose my pretending to be asleep?"