"Ah! Then let's hurry inside and take a look!"
When Qin Guan said she might die in there, Yang Hongmei was so frightened that her legs went weak.
Qin Guan said nothing. He pressed his palm against the heavy stone door and applied a little force.
Rumble!
The heavy stone door slowly swung open. The instant it did, a bone-chilling cold surged out.
Yang Hongmei shuddered all over, nearly freezing stiff.
"Wait outside."
After speaking, Qin Guan entered the cultivation room. The cold inside was biting, and a thick layer of frost coated the floor and walls.
Soon, Qin Guan spotted Nan Qiao not far away. The moment he saw her, his heart jolted!
At that moment, Nan Qiao looked like an ice sculpture, her entire body encased in a thick layer of ice crystals. Her face was contorted, alternating between deathly white and fiery red, while the qi in her body was in utter chaos, coursing wildly through her meridians.
She really had gone berserk!
Seeing this, Qin Guan hurried forward and pressed his palm to the top of her head. As a surging wave of Gang Qi entered her body, Nan Qiao's chaotic qi was quickly suppressed, and the ice crystals covering her began to melt rapidly.
Just then, Yang Hongmei braved the bone-chilling cold and ran in from outside. When she saw Nan Qiao's pitiful state, she was so terrified that she nearly burst into tears.
Realizing Qin Guan was treating her daughter, Yang Hongmei only cried out once before quickly clamping a hand over her mouth.
About the time it took an incense stick to burn, all the ice crystals on Nan Qiao had melted. The icy water soaked through her clothes, which clung tightly to her pale, smooth skin.
Some of her more sensitive parts were plainly visible, especially the pair of mounds at her chest, straining to burst free. A few glistening droplets slowly slid into the valley between them, quite...
Yang Hongmei also noticed that her daughter's fiery figure was now fully on display. But instead of covering her, she secretly glanced at Qin Guan.
Qin Guan glanced at Nan Qiao's alluring figure, then quickly looked away. He turned toward Yang Hongmei, about to say something, when he suddenly realized she was secretly watching him.
Qin Guan coughed awkwardly. "It's too cold in here. Take her back to her room, and I'll examine her there."
Yang Hongmei hurriedly nodded. She rushed forward and helped Nan Qiao up, but after only a couple of steps, she looked at Qin Guan. "Son-in-law, I strained my lower back while cultivating these past couple of days. How about you carry Qiao'er?"
As she spoke, Yang Hongmei rubbed her lower back with a pained expression.
"Lead the way." Qin Guan stepped forward and lifted Nan Qiao onto his back.
As they walked, Nan Qiao gradually came to. When she realized a man was carrying her, her chest pressed tightly against his back, she instinctively tried to get up. But her entire body ached and felt weak; she couldn't move at all, and she didn't even have the strength to speak.
Her vision gradually cleared. Soon, she realized that Qin Guan was carrying her, and that the woman walking ahead was her mother.
It seemed her brother-in-law and her mother had saved her. Remembering how the cultivation technique had backfired while she was breaking through to the Spirit Refining Realm, nearly killing her in the cultivation room, she was seized by a lingering fear.
It was already deep into the night. The moon shone bright, and all was silent. The biting wind swept Qin Guan's hair backward, and from time to time, it brushed across Nan Qiao's cheek.
Nan Qiao caught the scent of sweat mingled with a man's distinctive scent. The warmth radiating from Qin Guan's solid, broad back made her feel an overwhelming sense of security in the cold wind.
Yet that sense of security was like a sharp blade, stabbing straight into her heart. Her feelings were tangled, and regret surged over her like a flood, drowning her completely.
Back in the Nan Family's main hall, she had despised this man in every way and handed him over to her elder sister. Now he was her brother-in-law. If only she had...
Before long, Qin Guan carried Nan Qiao to her room. She closed her eyes and pretended to be asleep.
"Mother-in-law, change her clothes," Qin Guan said to Yang Hongmei as he laid Nan Qiao on the bed.
After speaking, Qin Guan headed outside.
"Qiao'er, you're awake! You scared your mother half to death!" Yang Hongmei said excitedly when she saw Nan Qiao open her eyes.
"Mother, I'm fine. D-don't worry," Nan Qiao murmured.
"Don't speak. You're very weak!" Yang Hongmei said, quickly taking several pieces of clothing from the wardrobe to change Nan Qiao into.
"Son-in-law, she's changed!" A little while later, Yang Hongmei called Qin Guan back inside.
Qin Guan came to the bedside and saw that Nan Qiao was awake. "Did your cultivation technique backfire while you were breaking through?"
"Mm." Nan Qiao nodded.
Qin Guan said nothing more. He placed his hand on Nan Qiao's pulse to examine her injuries.
After sensing the extent of her injuries, Qin Guan knitted his brows. Things weren't looking good. He found cracks in Nan Qiao's dantian, damage to meridians throughout her body, and considerable harm to her foundation.
"Your injuries are quite serious. Your foundation and meridians are badly damaged, and there are cracks in your dantian," Qin Guan said gravely after a moment, withdrawing his hand.
When Nan Qiao heard him say her dantian was damaged, her face instantly turned deathly pale.
A dantian was extremely important to a cultivator. Damage to it was often fatal: at best, one's cultivation would stagnate; at worst, it would regress until one became a cripple.
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