Spirit Spring Hidden Show Valley (Part 2)

Zhu Zhuqing stole a glance, her eyes darting toward Gu Chensha.

Sunlight fell upon his upright figure, outlining a sharp jawline and the fluid slope of his shoulders.

That face was handsome to the point of being uncanny; he was, without a doubt, a young man in every sense.

She hurriedly lowered her head, her heart hammering so fast it felt as if it might leap right out of her throat.

Reason told her that Teacher was originally the Primordial Demon Spider Emperor, a soul beast rather than a human, and could not be judged by human moral standards.

He was merely treating her wounds; there was no other meaning behind it.

Yet, the panic and shyness in her heart refused to be suppressed, and her earlobes burned as if they were catching fire.

Seeing Gu Chensha's hand reach toward the animal hide covering her, she panicked and scrambled for a way to change the subject.

"Teacher... why are you able to manifest in a physical form? Before, weren't you only able to possess my body?"

At the mention of this, Gu Chensha withdrew his hand and gave a slight nod.

It was indeed something that required a brief explanation.

He was not good at explaining things, nor had he ever needed to explain himself to anyone before.

Yet, facing the blushing young girl before him, he patiently began to speak.

As it turned out, he had only truly awakened through the fluctuations of the Primordial Demon Spider Emperor's power at the very moment Zhu Zhuqing was driven to a dead end and released her Second Martial Soul.

Otherwise, there was no telling how much longer he would have remained in slumber.

This sleep had lasted far longer than expected, but it had also brought unexpected gains.

As Zhu Zhuqing's soul power increased, his control over this body grew in tandem, and he had unlocked a core ability inherent to the martial soul:

Martial Soul Manifestation.

"This is not a true resurrection of the flesh, but merely a temporary manifestation of the Primordial Demon Spider Emperor, anchored by the soul connection between us."

Gu Chensha's voice was calm and ripple-free. "The benefit is that the consumption is extremely low; it only drains a bit of your soul power the moment I appear, and maintaining the state is almost effortless."

"Otherwise, given your critical injuries at the time, I would never have been able to bring you here."

"The downside is that there is a time limit."

He paused, then added, "I can only manifest for one shichen a day, which is two hours."

"However, this limit will gradually extend as your soul power grows."

Zhu Zhuqing looked up.

Every day... only two hours?

She stared blankly at Gu Chensha, a complex mix of emotions swirling in her heart.

So Teacher hadn't intentionally broken his promise, nor had he watched her fall into despair without intervening; he had truly only just awakened.

She had been acting out, ignoring him and harboring resentment in her heart—she had been so immature.

A trace of guilt welled up, followed by an inexplicable sense of cherishing the moment.

So, the time she had to look at him and speak with him was only these two short hours each day.

"Alright, stop overthinking it. Let's apply the medicine."

Gu Chensha picked up the dark green medicinal paste in the stone bowl once more.

"No! I... I can do it myself."

Zhu Zhuqing hurriedly reached out to snatch the bowl, her cheeks as red as a ripened apple.

That wasn't enough; like a startled kitten, she shrank back and whispered, "You... you turn around."

Gu Chensha froze for a moment.

An extremely unfamiliar sensation welled up in his heart.

He had seen countless corpses of human soul masters—men, women, old, and young—what hadn't he seen?

Back when he had wiped out three sects in a single night, leaving bodies strewn across the fields, he had never felt a ripple of emotion.

Yet, at this moment, looking at Zhu Zhuqing's appearance, he felt inexplicably uncomfortable.

Everything that should have been seen had already been seen.

When he changed her clothes and treated her wounds earlier, he hadn't avoided anything.

Why was she so resistant now?

Humans were truly strange creatures.

Still, instinct compelled him to turn around, facing away from her.

"Apply it yourself where you can reach, and call me for the places you can't."

Wangcai, standing to the side, was still looking on blankly, craning its neck in curiosity, when Gu Chensha backhanded it across the forehead.

"You're a male, so you turn around too."

Wangcai let out a whimpering sound of grievance and obediently turned around, facing the wall with its large head.

It was only a tiger, after all, so it naturally had no ulterior thoughts regarding human females. It was simply curious:

Why was human skin so smooth, with hair growing in only a few places?

Wasn't it cold?

It had never studied them carefully when eating them in the past...

Humans were truly troublesome; even tigresses weren't this pretentious. If they took a fancy to someone, they would just pounce and wiggle their lower bodies, and that would be the end of it.

Confirming that both had turned away, Zhu Zhuqing finally let out a sigh of relief and carefully lifted the animal hide covering her body.

She looked down at herself; the originally tattered Martial Soul Hall uniform had long since vanished, replaced by a few pieces of crudely cut yet exceptionally soft animal hide.

It was clear the craftsmanship was terrible, yet it managed to cover the private areas of her chest and lower abdomen just right.

At the thought that Gu Chensha had personally stripped off her blood-stained clothes and personally changed her into this animal hide tunic, her face burned once again. She accidentally tugged at the wound on her arm, causing her to let out a pained "mmph."

"What's wrong? Do you need—"

"No! Don't turn around!"

Zhu Zhuqing hurriedly shouted, her voice thick with intense shyness.

Wangcai snuck a glance, wanting to take one more look, but was quickly slapped back into position by Gu Chensha's swift hand.

It buried its head into its paws in grievance, completely abandoning its curiosity.

Zhu Zhuqing took a deep breath, forcing herself to calm down.

The pale green medicinal paste emitted a faint, herbal fragrance. She dipped her fingertips into it and gently applied it to the wounds on her arms and legs.

Her skin was fair and delicate, like fine mutton-fat jade, glowing with a soft luster in the dim light.

Those originally ghastly scratches and bite marks had already mostly healed, leaving only faint pink traces with no sign of scarring.

It was clear that Gu Chensha had used excellent medicine and had cared for her attentively while she was unconscious.

She quickly finished applying it to the places she could reach, but she couldn't touch the deep wounds on her back and shoulders no matter how hard she tried.

She bit her lip, hesitating for a long time before speaking in a voice as thin as a mosquito's:

"Teacher... I can't reach my back and shoulders..."

Hearing this, Gu Chensha slowly turned around.

He crouched down, extended his distinctively jointed fingers, and took the medicine bowl she handed over.

Zhu Zhuqing's back tensed slightly; she could clearly feel Gu Chensha's breath landing on the back of her neck.

Gu Chensha dipped a bit of the paste, his fingertips landing gently on her shoulder.

"Hiss..."

The moment the paste touched the wound, a tingling, itchy sting washed over her.

Zhu Zhuqing couldn't help but gasp, her body trembling uncontrollably.

Gu Chensha spread the paste bit by bit.

His movements were focused and clean.

Yet every time his fingertips grazed her skin, it felt like an electric current surged through, causing a fine layer of goosebumps to rise.

The wounds on her back were deeper, so he had to press down with a bit more force to ensure the paste penetrated properly.