Ye Lingling and Dugu Yan

Chapter 37 · Ye Lingling and Dugu Yan

Chen Ming carried Dugu Yan in his arms and raced toward the medical ward. Taking Dugu Yan's condition into consideration, he chose routes with fewer people whenever possible without wasting time, but fewer people did not mean no one at all.

Along the way, Chen Ming saw a young man in Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan attire talking by the roadside with two youths wearing Heaven Dou Royal Academy uniforms. He ran into a group of drunken noble youths staggering down the road, as well as several people who seemed to be academy staff.

One of them was an elderly man with a full head of white hair. Chen Ming had no idea whether he was in charge of discipline or something similar, but when he saw Dugu Yan in Chen Ming's arms, he immediately stretched out a hand to stop him. Chen Ming, however, deftly left him behind.

Well, Chen Ming did not think he had shaken the man off because he was fast. Although his physique was outstanding, he was carrying Dugu Yan. Being able to match the speed of an average Agility Attack System Soul Elder would already have been impressive. Even if the other man was older, an experienced Soul Ancestor or an ordinary Soul King could have caught up to him without much effort.

The bigger reason he had not been caught was simply that the man had not truly intended to chase him.

It could not possibly be because, at such an advanced age, he had not even reached the cultivation of a Soul Ancestor, could it?

At Heaven Dou Royal Academy, that was basically impossible.

After running for a while, Chen Ming finally reached the area where the medical ward was located, relying on his memory of the map.

However, Heaven Dou Royal Academy's so-called medical ward was not just a simple room. Though it was only a small dot on the map, in reality it was a vast complex of wooden corridor buildings.

All kinds of medicinal herbs had been planted around the buildings, leaving only paths wide enough for roughly three or four people to walk abreast. Butterflies fluttered among the flowerbeds on both sides, where flowers of every color—some precious, some rare—bloomed in full splendor.

Compared with an ordinary school infirmary, this place was more like a medical garden prepared by Heaven Dou Royal Academy for Healing System Soul Masters' Mimicry Training Ground cultivation and daily lessons.

Once they got here, Chen Ming was stumped.

He had only been enrolled for a few days and had not yet fully explored the Heaven Dou Royal Academy campus. Though he knew this was within the school hospital's grounds, he truly had no idea where the doctors were or who was in charge.

With no other choice, Chen Ming nudged Dugu Yan's waist in his arms. Dugu Yan lifted her head and shot him an annoyed look.

"Hey, what are you doing?"

The paralytic toxin had gradually begun to wear off on the way here, and Dugu Yan was slowly starting to feel the pain inside her body. To avoid agonizing pain from being jostled, she had wrapped herself tightly around Chen Ming, clinging to him like a koala.

She had just begun to somewhat adapt to the pain in her body and thought treatment was close at hand. Then Chen Ming suddenly nudged her, making her hurt badly enough that she nearly bared her teeth.

"I've never been here, so I don't know where the school hospital teachers are. Do you?"

"I-I don't know either."

Dugu Yan wore a lost expression.

When she entered Heaven Dou Royal Academy, all she needed to do was say the word, and practically every teacher would come running to wherever she was. Although she had met the teachers responsible for treatment at Heaven Dou Royal Academy, she had never cared where they usually stayed.

It was true that Dugu Yan had enrolled a few days before Chen Ming, but the moment she entered the academy, she had been surrounded by countless eager admirers. Where would she have found the time or inclination to wander around campus?

When it came to familiarity with the campus, Dugu Yan knew even less than Chen Ming, who could stroll around the academy a few times in his spare time.

Besides, whenever she could not find the way, she just asked someone for directions. Whenever she did, people practically insisted on taking her there themselves, sometimes refusing to leave even when she tried to send them away. Why would she need to remember the route herself?

"How about we follow the path and check toward the Mimicry Training Ground first? Aren't the training grounds all assigned teachers to oversee them? Even if they aren't Healing System Soul Masters, we can ask for directions."

"That works." Chen Ming nodded and carried Dugu Yan farther in.

Dugu Yan's condition was not actually that serious right now. Without a Healing System Soul Master, relying only on medicinal soups would probably let her get out of bed and walk normally after about a week. She would be unable to use Soul Power for half a month, and a complete recovery would take at least three to five months.

Though the injury was not light, it would not worsen, much less endanger her life. So there was no need to attract attention by shouting frantically.

With a Healing System Soul Master, treatment would be much more effective. A Healing System Soul Master around the level of Soul King could use a Fifth Soul Skill to restore Dugu Yan to a state where she could use Soul Power again. It was just that meridians and internal organs were not easy for ordinary Soul Skills to restore, so she would still need to rest quietly for a few days.

Following the narrow path, Chen Ming and Dugu Yan arrived at a place brimming with Life Force. With their eyesight, they could easily tell that the surrounding flowers, grasses, and trees were all life-attribute materials that could be used as medicinal ingredients.

Amid the flowerbeds, a young girl sat carelessly astride a rock, clutching a handful of flowers and idly tearing off petals. Sometimes she tore off one or two; other times, she casually plucked off a whole handful. She looked completely immersed in her own world.

"Ahem, excuse me—"

"Ah?" Startled by the voice of a stranger, Ye Lingling, who was sitting astride the rock, slipped right off it and landed on the ground in a splayed sitting position.

Since most Support System Soul Masters did not pay much attention to physical training, and she was a woman besides, the sudden fall harshly pulled a tendon along her inner thigh. The pain twisted her normally gentle expression out of shape.

Even so, Ye Lingling remembered her upbringing. She quickly smoothed out the twitching expression on her face, stood up with her knees turned inward while supporting herself against the rock beside her, then hurriedly summoned her Martial Soul and cast two Soul Skills on herself. Only then did she regain the aloof expression she usually wore before others.

Looking at Chen Ming, who was carrying someone in his arms, Ye Lingling suppressed the turmoil in her heart and kept an indifferent expression on her face.

"Who are you? What are you doing at the Healing System Soul Masters' Mimicry Training Ground?"

"Hello, miss. My friend encountered a problem while cultivating and suffered some internal injuries, so I brought her here to find a teacher to treat her. But we're both new students and don't know where the teachers are, so we could only follow the path and ask for directions if we came across someone. Sorry for disturbing you."

"Someone has internal injuries? Let me take a look."

The moment she heard that someone was injured, Ye Lingling immediately became serious. She examined the figure in Chen Ming's arms, who had her head tucked down like an ostrich. Yet the more she looked, the more familiar the figure seemed.

That familiar figure and style of dress looked exactly like her roommate. But that should not have been possible. With her personality, even if she were beaten to death, she would never show such a posture, right?

The more Ye Lingling looked, the more confused she became. After a moment of silence, she tentatively spoke a name.

"Dugu Yan?"