What Bad Luck

Li Muyang's tone was calm.

From the moment he saw his younger sister, Li Yuechan, to directing the others to carry the girl into the house, and up until now, Li Muyang had not shown a hint of agitation.

His composed reaction caused the previously noisy crowd to quiet down.

Steward Wang hesitated for a moment before nodding. "Very well, I will go and invite Doctor Lin for you."

Doctor Lin was an old demonic cultivator within their outer sect. Having stayed in the outer sect for over twenty years, she had refused to return to the mortal world once her term of service ended, choosing instead to remain within the Demon Refining Sect's outer perimeter.

Her medical skills were excellent; if any outer sect disciples suffered severe injuries like broken bones or torn tendons, they would always seek her out for treatment.

The only catch was that her fees were exorbitant.

After Steward Wang trotted away, Li Muyang turned his gaze toward Guan Xiaoshun.

"Xiaoshun, do you know what happened?"

Li Muyang's question caused the remaining outer sect disciples to fix their eyes on Guan Xiaoshun as well.

"That's right, Xiaoshun, what happened?"

"How did Li's little sister end up so severely injured out of the blue?"

These outer sect disciples had been called by Steward Wang to help carry the girl, but they were mostly there to watch the spectacle.

Life in the outer sect was incredibly enclosed; the slightest incident could attract a crowd of onlookers.

That was why there had been such a grand display just to carry Li Yuechan.

Facing the curious gazes of the crowd, Guan Xiaoshun sighed and said to Li Muyang, "Brother Li, the Steward and I ran into your sister on the flying boat."

"She was already injured when we found her, being carried on the back of a female disciple who called herself Ning Wan'er."

"Miss Ning said her injuries were critical and that she needed to bring her to you for help."

"Upon hearing it was your sister, Steward Wang hurried to call everyone to help carry her here to you."

"That Miss Ning said she was going back to retrieve some medicine she had for treating wounds, and she would be here shortly."

At this point, Guan Xiaoshun hesitated before adding, "Miss Ning said that a senior sister from the inner sect named Qin Haie was the one who caused the injuries."

"I've heard of that Senior Sister Qin; she is a personal disciple of Elder Qi from the inner sect and has always been known for her overbearing conduct."

"She got into a verbal altercation with another personal disciple in the city this afternoon, and afterwards, she suddenly flew into a rage in the street, injuring over a dozen people. It is said that some even died on the spot."

"Little Sister Li is actually quite lucky; her injuries aren't that severe. Once Doctor Lin arrives, she will surely be able to heal her."

Guan Xiaoshun and the others had great confidence in Doctor Lin's medical skills.

After hearing the cause and effect of the incident, Li Muyang fell into a brief silence before slowly exhaling a breath of stagnant air.

"So that's how it is..."

He looked at the unconscious girl on the bed, his expression complex.

This was the very thing he had feared most after transmigrating—suffering an unprovoked disaster simply because he had become collateral damage for some powerful demonic cultivator's wrath.

That Senior Sister Qin hadn't even had the intention of targeting Li Yuechan.

She had simply been in a bad mood and picked a dozen unlucky passersby to vent her frustrations on.

Yet, those dozen passersby who happened to cross her path were either dead or maimed.

And as long as this Senior Sister Qin paid a small fine, there would be no consequences for her.

The passersby who were injured or killed because of her wouldn't even leave a ripple in her memory.

—Just as a person wouldn't notice the ants they crushed while walking.

Li Muyang sighed and said, "Yuechan is truly unlucky..."

The others in the room also lamented, "Indeed, truly unlucky..."

For the common folk under the rule of the Demon Refining Sect, such things were already commonplace.

Those uninvolved, upon seeing or hearing of it, would at most let out a sigh—how unlucky.

Beyond that, the small fry had nothing else to say.

After clarifying the situation, Li Muyang smiled and invited everyone to sit at the doorway, boiling some water and pouring tea for everyone one by one.

Although the conditions at home were crude, there were still a few broken bowls and a box of stale tea leaves.

In any case, most outer sect disciples lived a bitter life; while the various items distributed by the sect were worth a fortune to ordinary people, many of these things could not be converted into cash without leaving the outer sect.

The living conditions of outer sect disciples were generally meager.

After the group sat at the doorway for a while and drank two cups of hot tea, the panting Steward Wang appeared with Doctor Lin.

Doctor Lin, a woman in her fifties with some wrinkles at the corners of her eyes, looked only to be in her thirties due to her cultivation.

As soon as she arrived in the room, she waved her hands in disgust and chased everyone out.

"Get out, all of you! Don't be an eyesore here. Treating a young girl's wounds—why are a bunch of rough men standing around here? If you want to watch something, go home and watch your own mothers."

Doctor Lin rudely drove everyone out of the room, Li Muyang included.

No one knew what kind of treatment she had been undergoing inside, but a full hour passed before the door to the tile-roofed house finally creaked open.

Doctor Lin, her hands covered in blood, beckoned Guan Xiaoshun to fetch her some water to wash up, then turned her gaze toward Li Muyang.

"You must be this little girl's husband, right?"

Doctor Lin cast a sidelong glance at Li Muyang.

Li Muyang shook his head. "I am her brother."

Doctor Lin didn't seem to care in the slightest. "Brother is the same, as long as you can pay."

"It's done for now, so let me explain the situation to you."

"This little girl's injuries look minor, but they are actually quite troublesome. Qin Haie's demonic arts cause continuous corrosive damage to both the physical body and the soul."

"If the residual demonic energy in her body isn't extracted, she will lose at least her left arm and half her shoulder, and her face will be disfigured."

"I can only save her life for now, but whether the remaining demonic energy in her body can be removed, and how much of it, depends on you."

Doctor Lin spoke in a casual tone, washing her hands with the water Guan Xiaoshun had brought over as she talked.

Steward Wang, standing to the side, asked curiously, "Sister Lin, young Li doesn't know medicine. How can it depend on him?"

Doctor Lin shook the water off her hands and said, "It depends on him spending money... This extraction of demonic energy isn't exactly difficult, but it isn't simple, either."

"There are two ways. First, you go find Qin Haie and have her voluntarily withdraw the demonic energy she left behind. That doesn't cost money and is the simplest method."

Steward Wang let out a sheepish laugh upon hearing this.

"Now, now... Sister Lin, please don't joke. If we poor wretches could invite someone like Senior Sister Qin Haie, would we still be stuck in the outer sect?"

Doctor Lin replied, "Then there is only the second way: spend money."

As she spoke, Doctor Lin rummaged through the storage pouch at her waist for a moment before pulling out a small cauldron and tossing it to Li Muyang.

"This is a medicine-refining cauldron. Go find some century-old wild ginseng, fifty-year-old vermilion fruit, and other such spiritual herbs, then use this cauldron to refine them into spiritual liquid and feed it to your sister."

"If there is enough spiritual liquid, it is not impossible to completely extract the demonic energy from your sister's body."

"In short, the extent of her recovery and how much of her body rots away depends on how much silver you, as her brother, have."

After Doctor Lin finished speaking, she saw Li Muyang pull out a thick money pouch and immediately shook her head.

"You don't need to give me that much; I only charge for the treatment."

"As for the spiritual herbs, you'll have to buy them yourself. You don't think I'd keep a stockpile of expensive herbs at home, do you?"

With that, Doctor Lin glared at the crowd of outer sect disciples watching from the doorway and added, "There are so many poor wretches in the outer sect; who knows when they might get stolen."