Early morning.
With the rising sun before him, Zhang Yuan returned to the little courtyard on Ten Thousand Bamboo Mountain. Before he even entered, he heard voices talking behind the gate.
He pushed it open and found the courtyard bustling, with quite a few people gathered inside.
Cui Yuanxi, Xiao Shi, Tong Ke, and two people who should not have been there: Deng Yici and Deng Huansha, a junior of the Wen River Deng Clan.
Deng Yici had evidently brought Xu Lingyin back safely, but instead of leaving afterward, she had stayed. Zhang Yuan had not expected that.
Hearing the gate open, everyone in the courtyard turned toward the sound.
Cui Yuanxi's eyes lit up at the sight of Zhang Yuan, and she was about to greet him.
Deng Yici had been watching Cui Yuanxi all along. Seeing her reaction, she used her Late Celestial Person cultivation to speak before Cui Yuanxi could:
"Fellow Daoist Zhang, you're finally back. Were you injured in your battle with that Heavenly Immortal from middle antiquity? If you were, I have some excellent healing pills here. Please take them first."
In a flash, Deng Yici appeared beside Zhang Yuan. Turning her slender hand over, she retrieved several bottles of fine spirit pills effective even for Celestial Persons from her Dao Domain, then tried to feed them to the perfectly hale and hearty Zhang Yuan without giving him a chance to object.
Zhang Yuan took two steps back, unable to fathom what madness had come over Deng Yici.
With her Late Celestial Person cultivation, could she really not tell whether he was injured?
Cui Yuanxi's brows drew together slightly. She approached with light steps and asked, "Fellow Daoist Zhang, you went out to fight?"
She had known nothing about this.
All she knew was that