Qin Yi had not slept. He was still mixing medicine. Liusu claimed that many medicines had to draw upon moonlight, forcing him to stay up through the night time and again.
"Red Firefly Grass, take only one inch from the tip; Cold Mat Flower, take only the very center of the stamen. Then add three drops of Golden Toad Pus, blend it with Moonlight Dew, and pound it repeatedly... Qin Yi, you bastard, don't use me to pound medicine!"
"It'd already be good enough if I didn't feed you toads' shit! What the hell is Golden Toad Pus? What you make with that won't be body-tempering fluid, it'll be itching powder!"
"What do you know? This is called sovereign, minister, assistant, and envoy, harmonizing yin and yang..."
"Cut the crap. That Stone Skin Water you taught me to make last time had some Ghost Head Rock Powder added to it, and it made me itch for three days and three nights. And the time before that..."
Liusu cut him off with perfect righteousness. "To temper one's flesh and skin, one must endure what others cannot. Did you think practicing martial arts was eating and sleeping?"
"I really believed your bullshit!" Qin Yi angrily dripped in three drops of pus, lifted the Wolf Tooth Club, and hammered it into the stone mortar. He automatically imagined himself holding someone's head down and smashing it inside, their legs kicking wildly outside the mortar, which gave him a little comfort.
"Qin Yi, you bastard!"
"Shut up, Stinky Stick!"
He had been studying medicinal principles and pill refinement for some time now. As his knowledge of medicine deepened, Qin Yi had long begun to suspect that some of those ingredients were not necessary at all. This dead stick was simply deliberately making him add things that would screw him over without causing any serious consequences, taking revenge for Qin Yi ruining its attempt at Body Seizing. Even this supposed borrowing of moonlight sounded deeply unreliable. Who knew whether that was fake too?
But an intern ultimately lacked the confidence to overturn his mentor's guidance. He could only follow Liusu's prescriptions and be tricked day after day.
What Qin Yi was refining now was body-tempering medicine.
Though he had not learned any immortal cultivation methods, he was learning martial arts.
His martial techniques had not come from Liusu, but from the original owner of this body. There was even a manual on him. It was just that the original owner apparently had not grasped the right methods and had practiced poorly. Yet Liusu knew quite a few high-level methods—even staff techniques...
The original owner of this body had been mediocre at martial arts, but his blood could open Liusu's strange space. Qin Yi knew there had to be something fishy here. Even the villagers were probably not as simple as they appeared. Liusu ought to know something, but no matter how Qin Yi asked, its replies always skirted around the subject.
There were secrets hidden by the basketful. Trusting this Stinky Stick would be a ghost's dream.
"Pound it repeatedly eighty-one times, until the medicinal liquid is evenly mixed and becomes a pale red paste, then open the furnace and refine it?"
"Mm... refine it, my ass... mm..." The Wolf Tooth Club moved in and out of the stone mortar as it said laboriously, "At most, refine the Pill Embryo first. You're still missing Purple Lotus Root as the main medicine!"
Qin Yi froze. "Purple Lotus Root..."
"Did you think this broken mountain had every medicinal herb? Even the county town has no decent goods worth mentioning. It's time to leave, boy. Go somewhere big, go to a land of immortal spirits. What future is there in this shithole? You have nothing you want—are you going to refine pills by dreaming?"
Qin Yi stopped pounding the medicine. He pressed his lips together, lost in thought. Only after a long while did he say, "We'll talk after the problems in the mountains are resolved."
He said nothing more. He carried over a bucket of water, poured in some Stone Skin Water he had mixed before, and blended it into a batch of Body Tempering Fluid. Then he stripped completely naked and slowly lowered himself into the water in the courtyard beneath the moonlight.
He had only soaked for a short while, before the medicinal power even had time to spread, when the courtyard gate was kicked open with a bang. Li Qingjun entered with a spear in one hand and a wild rabbit in the other. "Liar..."
Before she could finish, a water pouch above the doorframe suddenly split open, pouring a strange milky-white liquid straight over her head and face. Li Qingjun instinctively tried to rush forward to avoid it, but how could she dodge water pouring down from less than a foot away? It splattered solidly across her head and face, soaking her from head to toe.
That was not the end of it. As she instinctively lunged forward, she stepped on something beneath her feet. A vine immediately wrapped tightly around her ankle. Li Qingjun fiercely exerted strength, trying to snap the vine, only to discover that something was wrong with the water that had drenched her. Her entire body had gone weak and limp, unable to muster any strength. And this vine had apparently undergone some special treatment; her weakened true qi could no longer break it.
With a whoosh, the vine yanked upward. Accompanied by a scream, Li Qingjun had no time to take a second measure to save herself before she was hoisted upside down, dangling from the doorframe and swaying back and forth.
At the very instant she was hung upside down, two more vines shot in from either side and tightly bound both her hands.
"Qin..." Li Qingjun gritted her teeth. She had only just opened her mouth when the liquid that had been smeared over her chin flowed back into it, leaving only muffled "mmph mmph" sounds.
Her eyes were likewise smeared into a mess. Looking upside down, she could vaguely see Qin Yi apparently curled up in the bucket, staring at her in utter shock.
From the moment she kicked the door open to the moment she was strung upside down, only one breath had passed. Qin Yi himself had not even reacted before there was a girl hanging upside down at his gate...
Yes, clearly a girl. Once she had been soaked through, the graceful curves of her body were obvious, especially that exquisite waist—absolutely not a physique a man could possess.
Her tied-up hair had come loose, long hair hanging down like a waterfall. Her face was flushed crimson with rage, silver teeth clenched, eyes spitting fire—the image of an unyielding, fierce maiden...
"Why are you looking at me with that virtuous, chaste expression?" Qin Yi hugged his shoulders as he curled up in the bucket. "I'm bathing in my own home, and you barged in to watch me, all right?"
Li Qingjun glared at him upside down, gritting her teeth without saying a word.
In her fifteen years of life, she had never been so humiliated. She feared that if she spoke, she would not be able to stop herself from crying.
Qin Yi fell silent too. The situation was a little awkward... Li Qingjun was hanging upside down facing the courtyard, directly opposite his bath bucket. Standing up was wrong, but staying where he was was wrong too.
The two stared wide-eyed at each other for a long while before Li Qingjun finally ground out, "Let me go!"
Qin Yi could only say, "Close your eyes first."
Li Qingjun was instantly wary. "What are you trying to do?"
"..." Qin Yi slowly raised the Wolf Tooth Club resting against the side of the bucket.
Li Qingjun was ashamed and furious. She had not cried even while being hung up, but this time she truly did. Tears welled in her eyes, and the moment she shut them, they fell.
Liusu's laughter sounded in Qin Yi's Sea of Consciousness. "This girl is amusing." Qin Yi ignored it; he still could not communicate through souls.
Water splashed for a while. After some time, footsteps approached, and someone seemed to be standing before her. Li Qingjun kept her eyes tightly shut. She waited for ages, but Qin Yi did not release her. Imagining his gaze roaming over and appraising her body sent a chill down her spine. She could not help panicking. "Y-you'd better not try anything. My brother will be here soon, and he'll kill you!"
Qin Yi tilted his head and admired the upside-down beauty for a while. The way she tightly gripped her spear revealed the panic in the young girl's heart.
Li Qingjun suddenly opened her eyes wide, glaring furiously.
The moment she opened them, she discovered that Qin Yi was properly dressed and stood two feet away from her. Her heart finally settled a little, and she snapped, "Put me down!"
Qin Yi suddenly struck, tapping one of Li Qingjun's acupoints.
Li Qingjun was shocked. "You!"
Qin Yi leisurely began untying the vines. "If I don't take a few precautions, what if you give me a hole in my body the moment you get down? I can't bear that. Forgive the offense."
Li Qingjun swallowed the words she had wanted to say and coldly asked, "You put Tendon Weakening Powder in that water. Do you still need to seal my acupoints and block my meridians?"
"There's no harm in being careful." Qin Yi pushed against her shoulder with one hand and supported her ankle with the other. Without any excessive touching or embracing, he easily turned her upright.
Li Qingjun had already prepared herself to be taken advantage of. Qin Yi's behavior surprised her. A man who seemed so loose-tongued was actually rather proper? The shame and anger filling her chest diminished somewhat because of that action.
The moment her feet touched the ground, the vines wrapped around her from every direction vanished with a whoosh, making the scene seem almost dreamlike. Li Qingjun silently watched them disappear, rubbing her wrists without saying anything.
At the very least, this man was certainly no ordinary villager. Ordinary villagers would not set traps outside their own doors, much less traps like this that incorporated some kind of formation.
Qin Yi casually pulled over a chair for her and said unhurriedly, "Miss, you broke into my courtyard. Can you now tell me why?"
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