Treating the Goddess Lian's Wounds

Treating Goddess Lian's Wounds

Zhang He emerged and saw how wary Lian Yunbi looked. He spread his hands and said calmly, "You were bitten by a Mad Heart Fox. You'd better not move around too much, or the demon poison will circulate faster."

"Who are you?" Lian Yunbi asked, her brows drawing tight. Zhang He's words did nothing to ease her vigilance.

Zhang He couldn't help smiling wryly. His face really wasn't memorable enough. He'd been Lian Yunbi's classmate for three years, yet she didn't even recognize him.

"I'm Zhang He, a martial student at the Martial Child Academy. You could say I'm your classmate." Zhang He sounded a little glum.

Classmate? Lian Yunbi froze. Zhang He's face was completely unfamiliar to her, and she grew even more wary. "I don't remember anyone like you! Why are you here? And how did you know I was bitten by a Mad Heart Fox?"

Seeing how guarded Lian Yunbi was, and that she didn't seem to be in immediate danger, Zhang He decided there was no need to approach her just yet.

"You really are a noble who forgets things easily. But I've always kept a low profile at the Martial Child Academy, so it's understandable that you don't know me. As for why I'm here, I'm probably here for the same reason you are. And that Mad Heart Fox just now... Well, this is a little embarrassing, but I was chasing it."

Zhang He spread his hands helplessly.

Lian Yunbi's eyes widened. So the culprit behind her bite was right here!

"Wait, you're also here to look for an Ice Cold Pangolin? No, how did you know I came here to look for an Ice Cold Pangolin?" Lian Yunbi suddenly realized.

"Ice Cold Pangolin? So you're not here to cultivate?" Zhang He blinked, then smiled awkwardly. So she'd come looking for some pangolin or other. "I see. It was a misunderstanding. I thought you came into the mountains to cultivate."

"You really are a martial student at the Martial Child Academy?" Lian Yunbi asked hesitantly.

Zhang He smiled wryly. Remembering that he'd brought a change of clothes with him, including his martial student uniform, he took it out and showed it to Lian Yunbi.

"So you really are my classmate. Sorry, I hardly ever talk to anyone." Lian Yunbi looked a little embarrassed.

Suddenly, she felt dizzy.

Zhang He saw Lian Yunbi sway and knew the demon poison had flared up. He hurriedly said, "Um, Goddess Lian, if you trust me, I can help you detoxify."

"...You know how to detoxify?" Lian Yunbi looked at Zhang He uncertainly.

"If I didn't know how, I wouldn't dare come all the way into these remote mountains alone." Zhang He pursed his lips.

"Then I'll trouble you." Lian Yunbi hesitated. She knew her condition was bad. As soon as the words left her mouth, her cheeks flushed. She suddenly remembered that she'd been bitten on the thigh.

Zhang He had already come over with his medicine basket.

He took one look at Lian Yunbi, then at the wound, and immediately guessed why she was embarrassed. He rolled his eyes. "You're still shy at a time like this?"

Lian Yunbi was speechless.

Zhang He crouched down and untied the cloth strip. Before him lay a bare thigh, its skin as white as jade, carrying a faint, delicate fragrance. He hadn't noticed anything amiss before, but now he felt strange. His fingers brushed Lian Yunbi's leg, and it was smooth and silky. Lian Yunbi felt goose bumps rise all over her body. She jerked her leg back without thinking. In all her life, no man other than her father had ever touched her leg like this!

Zhang He frowned slightly. "Don't move!" As he spoke, he pressed down on Lian Yunbi's leg.

Lian Yunbi gritted her teeth. She knew she should listen to Zhang He right now. Still, she felt a little uncomfortable. Couldn't this guy show a little tenderness toward a woman? His tone was so brusque.

"I need to tear your clothes open a little so I can see the wound clearly. Forgive me." As Zhang He spoke, he ripped the pants around the wound with a sharp sound. Lian Yunbi cried out and saw her pale thigh exposed. But then she immediately noticed that the wound had turned purplish red, and her face changed.

She'd heard of the Mad Heart Fox long ago and knew it was an especially vicious demon beast.

Seeing the gruesome wound, Zhang He couldn't help drawing in a sharp breath. That female beast had bitten hard!

Zhang He gently placed his hand on Lian Yunbi's thigh. His senses were exceptionally keen now, and the feel of her skin beneath his hand made him feel strange. His face even reddened.

Seeing Zhang He's blush, Lian Yunbi felt both embarrassed and annoyed. "Can you hurry up?"

Zhang He came back to his senses and silently berated himself. He said to Lian Yunbi, "I'll use my true qi to draw the demon poison out of your body. Don't circulate your qi to resist me."

As he spoke, Zhang He slowly circulated his Rejuvenation True Qi into his hand, which he placed against the wound. The qi entered Lian Yunbi's body through it.

Lian Yunbi's whole body was burning hot, and she felt an urge to lash out, but she forced herself not to show it. Zhang He's hand pressed against the wound, and then she felt a cool sensation spread from it, like a parched traveler drinking cool well water. Her spirits lifted at once.

Then Lian Yunbi's expression changed. She felt the cool energy spread from her leg to the rest of her body. Wherever it reached, the heat faded and her mood calmed. It surged onward, rolling on without end.

What powerful true qi! Lian Yunbi was startled. She knew she had the highest cultivation among all the martial students at the Martial Child Academy. She also knew that only a handful had cultivated true qi. Yet Zhang He had just unleashed such abundant true qi, seemingly no weaker than her own! How could she not be shocked?

What shocked her even more, though, was that Zhang He's true qi could absorb the demon poison in her body!

As she thought about it, a tingling sensation suddenly spread across her thigh. Looking down, she saw Zhang He's hand gently pressing around the wound. His touch was so tender it was almost as if he were caressing her thigh.

Lian Yunbi's pretty face turned bright red at once! But she didn't dare move. She knew Zhang He was treating her wound.

As if he'd sensed her thoughts, Zhang He spoke up. "Why did you come to hunt the Ice Cold Pangolin? Going into the mountains alone is dangerous."

"Didn't you come into the mountains alone too?" Lian Yunbi thought, a little unconvinced. Still, she briefly explained why she'd come to hunt the Ice Cold Pangolin.

"Oh? You need the Ice Cold Pangolin's blood to suppress the heat in your body?" Zhang He asked, puzzled. "Why is your younger brother like that?"

"It's because of the bloodline our Lineage inherited." Lian Yunbi sighed. "When the power of the bloodline starts to awaken, this happens. We have to use something with an icy attribute to suppress the heat inside, or we feel awful."

"Bloodline?" Zhang He couldn't help freezing. Wasn't that just a matter of genetic inheritance?

"According to legend, our ancestors drank the blood of the demon beast Fire Qilin, and the Fire Qilin's power has been passed down through our bloodline, generation after generation. So, when our descendants turn ten, they all have to go through this trial." Lian Yunbi spoke softly.

"Your ancestors drank the blood of the demon beast Fire Qilin?" Zhang He looked odd when he heard that. He immediately thought of something. "Why do I feel like the heat in your younger brother's body is some kind of heat toxin..."

"What's a heat toxin?" Lian Yunbi asked, puzzled.

"It's a little like this demon poison, but it's only a guess," Zhang He hurriedly said.

"Oh. By the way, why do you call me Goddess Lian?" Lian Yunbi suddenly asked, puzzled.

"Uh... Because in my heart, you're high above me, as noble as a goddess." Zhang He blurted out an answer. He couldn't exactly explain what the word "goddess" meant; Lian Yunbi would surely fly into a rage if he did.

Lian Yunbi's cheeks flushed. She smiled. "Don't call me Goddess Lian anymore. It sounds strange. Just call me by my name."

Zhang He nodded. "All right, see if you still feel anything unusual in your body." By then, he'd absorbed all the poison from Lian Yunbi's body, and he looked a little tired.

Lian Yunbi was delighted to find that, aside from some pain in her leg, everything else felt normal. Then she noticed how exhausted Zhang He looked and immediately felt a little guilty.

"Thank you."

"Don't mention it. Actually, this was partly my fault. If I hadn't chased that Mad Heart Fox, you wouldn't have been bitten." Zhang He smiled.

"Oh no, I still have to catch that Ice Cold Pangolin! I spent four days luring it out. I hit it with an arrow, so it can't burrow underground. We have to hurry after it!"

Lian Yunbi suddenly remembered what mattered and got to her feet at once.

Seeing this, Zhang He thought for a moment. "I'll go with you. I'd like to see what an Ice Cold Pangolin looks like, too."

The two quickly gathered their things. With Lian Yunbi leading the way, they plunged into the forest.

As expected, there were drops of blood on the ground. They had been left by the Ice Cold Pangolin, and with that trail, it could hardly escape them. The two chased after it without pause.

After they crossed a small slope, Zhang He saw that the blood drops continued down the hillside. He looked up and spotted a pool in the valley ahead, a full hundred zhang across. Its water was black-green and clearly deep, and a waterfall poured into it from above.

"It went in there. The blood is still fresh, so it can't have gone far," Zhang He said excitedly.

But when Lian Yunbi saw the pool ahead, her expression changed dramatically. She stopped Zhang He and said dejectedly, "Forget it. We can't go any farther."

"Why?" Zhang He asked, puzzled.

"This is the Cold Pool. A fourth-level demon beast, the Cold Flood Dragon, lives in it. If we get close, we'll alert it. We'd be as fragile as ants in front of it." Lian Yunbi smiled bitterly.

"A fourth-level demon beast?" Zhang He looked puzzled.

"Ordinary demon beasts are divided into nine levels. The Mad Heart Fox from earlier was a first-level demon beast, and so is the Ice Cold Pangolin. Fourth-level demon beasts have cultivated inner cores. We're no match for one. Only experts at the fourth stage of the True Martial Realm or above have any hope of escaping it," Lian Yunbi explained.

Zhang He nodded thoughtfully.

"I never thought that, in the end, all my efforts would come to nothing." Lian Yunbi smiled bitterly and brushed her hair back. She'd struggled all the way up the mountain to hunt an Ice Cold Pangolin. She'd finally found one, only for it to run down into the pool.

"Forget it. I can only head down the mountain now," Lian Yunbi said helplessly.

"Can't we hunt another one?" Zhang He asked, confused.

"To hunt an Ice Cold Pangolin, you need special bait to lure one out. I don't have any bait left, so I can only go home and prepare more." Lian Yunbi paused. "Besides, I've been away for five or six days. My family must be worried. I need to go back and check on them."

Zhang He froze. It suddenly hit him that he'd been gone for five or six days, too. Damn it, he'd been so focused on cultivating that he'd forgotten he still had to deliver the Five Poison Beads to Wang Pengyu and the others!

"I should head down the mountain, too."

Seeing how reluctant Lian Yunbi was, Zhang He felt a little embarrassed. If he hadn't chased the Mad Heart Fox, perhaps Lian Yunbi wouldn't have been bitten. Then she might have caught that Ice Cold Pangolin.

He thought it over, then took out the Five Poison Beads he'd made from his medicine basket and handed them to Lian Yunbi. "Here's a bottle of medicine. It can detoxify. If your younger brother really has a heat toxin, this may help relieve his condition. When you get home, give him one pill to try. If it works, keep giving them to him. This medicine isn't poisonous and won't harm the body. Even ordinary people can benefit from taking it."

Lian Yunbi accepted it and thanked him, then tucked it into her bag. She'd missed her chance to hunt the Ice Cold Pangolin and was in low spirits, so she barely paid attention to what Zhang He had said.

Seeing this, Zhang He could only smile wryly and say nothing more. The two gathered their things and turned back toward the foot of the mountain.