The Question That Wasn't Asked

Under the dim, flickering light of the oil lamp, Li Muyang glanced at his makeshift sister on the bed and said, "I'll just sleep on the floor. Doctor Lin said your injuries require complete rest; you mustn't move around, or the demonic energy in your body will continue to corrode you."

"It's only just begun. The next few days are going to be increasingly painful for you."

"I'm heading to Cloud City again tomorrow. How much money do you have left? Give it all to me; I'll use it to buy medicinal herbs for you."

"Also, where did you agree to meet that friend of Father's? The mountain gate closes in three days, so they should be arriving soon."

"Once I get the herbs, I'll refine them into medicine to treat your wounds."

Li Muyang briefly laid out his plans for the coming days.

The girl, curled up under the quilt, shrank her neck and said cautiously, "Um... Brother, you aren't angry, are you? I used up all your money..."

Twenty taels of gold was not a small sum for anyone in Jiuyuan City.

If it were the old version of her brother, he certainly wouldn't have been willing to spend that much on her.

The girl looked at Li Muyang with a guilty conscience, carefully observing his expression.

Li Muyang glared at her and said, "Then I'll write you an IOU. Consider this money a loan; you can pay me back once you start earning your own."

Li Yuechan felt sheepish at once. Seeing Li Muyang's displeasure, she quickly changed the subject.

"When I left home this time, Aunt gave me thirty-five taels of gold. I converted it all into gold notes and hid them away."

"They're hidden inside a book I brought with me. You can find it if you look in my room tomorrow, Brother."

The amount the girl mentioned made Li Muyang pause.

"How much?"

Thirty-five taels...

He only got twenty, yet this makeshift sister was given thirty-five.

Who was the biological child here, anyway?

Li Muyang was speechless for a moment.

Li Yuechan hurriedly explained, "When I left, Aunt told me to carry a bit more on me. She said if you, um... if you ran out of money, I should give some to you."

The girl's answer made Li Muyang understand.

It seemed the original owner of this body was such a loser, constantly throwing money at Ning Wan'er, that his mother back home couldn't rest easy and had entrusted a portion of the gold to her adopted daughter.

That way, if Li Muyang spent all his money in the Demon Sect, his sister could still bail him out.

Tsk... the original owner was such a simp; he really was a source of constant worry.

Li Muyang shook his head and said, "Understood. Go to sleep. Rest early; you won't have it this easy tomorrow."

Doctor Lin had said that once the residual demonic energy began to corrode the body, various complications would arise—high fevers, lethargy, and increasingly intense, stabbing pains... The little girl's real ordeal was yet to come.

After setting up his bedding, Li Muyang blew out the oil lamp and lay down in the corner of the room.

The hard, packed-earth floor was even colder and stiffer than the hard wooden bed frame.

Li Muyang rolled around on it twice, still unable to get used to it.

From the bed in the darkness, the girl suddenly spoke, her tone hesitant.

"Um... Brother, can I ask you a question?"

Li Muyang glanced toward the bed in the dark. Through the dim light, he could faintly see a pair of watery eyes watching him.

She seemed very serious.

"What question?" Li Muyang asked with a frown.

What was with this little girl? Why was she acting so strange?

There was a long silence in the darkness, then the girl on the bed suddenly let out a breath and pulled the quilt over her head.

"It's nothing. Sleep early, Brother. I'm going to sleep too."

Soon, the sound of the girl's steady breathing filled the room; she seemed to have fallen asleep.

Li Muyang couldn't be bothered to ask further. Perhaps girls this age were just like that—unpredictable.

He closed his eyes, trying to lull himself to sleep.

Because of the distraction with his sister, Li Muyang hadn't been able to eat his spirit rice or play any games tonight.

He couldn't exactly cook high-grade spirit rice right in front of her...

Fortunately, Li Muyang had long ago dug a secret cellar in the mud-brick house to hide his jar of spirit rice, so he didn't have to worry about it being stolen even if a thief broke in.

He didn't know how much time had passed, but Li Muyang soon drifted off to sleep.

When he woke up the next morning, Li Yuechan's condition had indeed worsened significantly.

The girl's face was even paler, and her body was trembling slightly as she endured the intense pain of her flesh being corroded from within.

On her right shoulder, a faint, dark red hue was vaguely visible beneath her fair skin.

Her entire right arm and half of her right face were covered in this dull, blood-red hue.

If the situation continued to deteriorate, all the flesh tinged with that dark red would rot away.

At this moment, Li Yuechan had lost all the mischievous spirit she possessed the night before.

She curled up weakly under the quilt, her body trembling as she spoke to Li Muyang.

"Brother... don't lift my quilt..."

The girl seemed to be drifting in and out of consciousness from the pain, beginning to ramble.

Who would lift your quilt for no reason?

Li Muyang couldn't help but sigh as he watched her like this.

Although he didn't have much affection for this "cheap" younger sister, seeing such a young girl suffer right before his eyes still stirred a sense of pity within him.

Li Muyang sat by the bedside and talked with her for a while until the girl's consciousness cleared and the pain in her body temporarily subsided, at which point he stood up and headed out.

He went to Li Yuechan's small cottage at the foot of the mountain, found the gold notes tucked inside a book, and then made a trip to Cloud City to purchase spiritual medicine worth thirty-five taels of gold.

He was fortunate enough to run into that friend of his "cheap" father, Li Damu, who handed over the spiritual medicine he had brought.

These medicinal supplies had been prepared by Li Damu for the siblings to use in their cultivation within the Demon Sect, and their value was far higher than Li Muyang had anticipated.

However, Li Muyang brought them all back to the small tile-roofed house and refined them entirely using a medicine cauldron.

Once all the spiritual medicine had been successfully refined, it yielded three bowls of medicinal liquid.

Li Muyang carefully awakened the girl, who had fallen into a coma from the pain, and had her consume the three bowls of steaming liquid.

After the three bowls were finished, about half of the black line on the girl's right wrist had vanished.

The blood-red hue on her right cheek had faded significantly, the redness on her shoulder had disappeared entirely, and the blood-red on her arm was now confined only to the area below the elbow.

With the replenishment of the spiritual liquid and the extraction of the demonic energy, the girl was finally no longer in such agony.

She regained her senses, looking at Li Muyang before her and the pile of opened medicine boxes beside him.

Sniffing the medicinal fragrance in the air, Li Yuechan blinked.

"Brother, where did you get so much spiritual medicine..."

Li Muyang sighed: "I refined all the medicine sent from home, but unfortunately, it's still not quite enough..."

The girl fell silent at once.

She looked at the pile of empty medicine boxes scattered around the room, then at the black line on her wrist, and finally murmured.

"...Actually, you don't need to worry about me. It wouldn't matter if this flesh rotted away. Once I reach a higher cultivation realm in the future, perhaps if I get promoted to the inner sect, I might find a way to regenerate the flesh."

"You don't need to worry anymore, Brother. It's just an arm; it won't affect anything."

The girl whispered, trying to comfort Li Muyang.

Li Muyang, however, glanced at her with a calm expression.

"Do I look like I'm worried about you?"