Treatment

With Nie Li's abilities, handling a young girl like Xiao Ning'er, who had not even reached the Bronze Realm, would have been as easy as turning his hand.

But he did not.

"Once night falls, do your feet feel as if they're burning?"

Startled, Xiao Ning'er put away her knife. She had never expected Nie Li to know about this.

"Not only that, but around midnight, even though your feet burn, you feel as if you've fallen into an ice cellar. The agony is unbearable, and even cultivating becomes a struggle. Am I right?"

Xiao Ning'er's knife-bearing arm dropped limply. "Yes."

These symptoms had persisted for a long time, troubling her deeply. When her cultivation faltered, she pushed herself even harder, but that only made the pain worse.

"Ah, it really is extreme cold syndrome."

Nie Li wore an expression that said his suspicions had been confirmed, and hope immediately welled up in Xiao Ning'er.

"You know what my illness is?"

Nie Li pointed at the top of her foot.

"You must have an inherently cold constitution. On top of that, you often cultivate at night, allowing cold energy to enter your body and block your energy channels. That's what caused these bruises. Not only are they unbearably painful, they'll keep spreading as your cultivation increases. Once you reach the Bronze Realm, at best, you'll be bedridden and lose all your cultivation. At worst, your body will burst and you'll die."

With every sentence he spoke, Xiao Ning'er's grip tightened.

"In my opinion-"

"Enough!"

Xiao Ning'er could not help interrupting him.

"I worked desperately at cultivating so I wouldn't have to marry someone like Shen Fei, so I could control my own destiny. I'm finally about to reach one-star Bronze, and now you're telling me I'll lose all my cultivation and burst apart?"

Now Xiao Ning'er slumped to the ground like a lost little girl, with none of her usual coldness or strength.

"Were all my efforts... nothing but a joke?"

Unwilling to accept it, she tipped her head back toward the sky, a tear slipping from the corner of her eye.

Below the sky screen, Xiao Yunfeng was already planning to find a doctor. He refused to believe that a city as large as Glory City had no doctor capable of treating this illness.

Still, he was praying that Nie Li knew how. After all, Nie Li had recognized it.

On the sky screen, since Nie Li knew what the illness was, he naturally knew how to treat it. "Extreme cold syndrome is troublesome, but it isn't incurable. With regular massages using the Guiding Technique to gently nourish your energy channels, combined with medicine prepared from goldthread grass, heavenly luan grass, and other ingredients, you should recover within a month in your current condition."

Those words were like music from heaven. Xiao Ning'er hurried to her feet. "Really?"

It could be treated. That was the best news of all.

Understanding dawned on Xiao Yunfeng. No wonder Ning'er had been buying those ingredients recently. Nie Li had already given her advice.

Wait, those massages?

Xiao Yunfeng hurriedly searched his memory. As far as he recalled, no one knew this so-called Guiding Technique, did they?

Then the person massaging Ning'er was...

Ye Ziyun was also anxiously asking Xiao Ning'er how she had been lately. While assuring her that it was nothing serious anymore, Xiao Ning'er wondered what she would do if the screen later showed something it should not.

On the sky screen, now that Xiao Ning'er had hope, she naturally intended to hold on to it tightly.

Nie Li also offered a warning. "You must never cultivate your soul force in the middle of the night again."

Xiao Ning'er nodded. Curing her illness mattered more than anything else.

"Let me see the cultivation technique you're practicing."

Nie Li held out his hand.

Seeing Xiao Ning'er's puzzled gaze, Nie Li smiled. "I just want to check whether your illness is related to your cultivation technique. If you don't feel comfortable-"

"I trust you."

Xiao Ning'er immediately took her family's cultivation technique out of her Space Ring.

Nie Li reached to take it and accidentally touched Xiao Ning'er's hand. She hastily pulled her hand back, then looked at him.

Nie Li had paid no attention to it at all. He simply opened the scroll and began reading.

Below the sky screen.

At Holy Orchid Academy.

Quite a few students gave Nie Li a thumbs-up.

Not bad. Damn impressive.

He had touched the hand of such a stunning ice-cold beauty, and all he did was read the cultivation technique?

If it had been them, a single word from her would have kept them excited for ages. If they touched her hand, they would not wash theirs for three days!

She was a goddess, after all.

A gentleman. A true gentleman through and through.

Seeing Lu Piao give him a thumbs-up, Nie Li was speechless.

His heart belonged entirely to Ziyun, all right?

On the sky screen, Nie Li unrolled the scroll and examined the cultivation technique.

At first glance, it was too awful to look at.

At second glance, it really was garbage.

"Such a prominent noble family, yet even the technique taught to its direct-line disciples is this inferior. No wonder Glory City will-"

"What did you say?"

Hearing Nie Li mutter, Xiao Ning'er asked him.

Nie Li quickly cut himself off and said it was nothing.

Meanwhile, the Winged Dragon Family's senior members below were already turning red with anger.

Inferior? Their cultivation technique was inferior?

They were one of Glory City's seven great noble families!

Their cultivation technique was unquestionably high-grade within Glory City, yet he dismissed it as inferior?

The elders who had already been displeased with Xiao Ning'er for handing over the technique could barely keep themselves from erupting.

On the sky screen.

Nie Li bluntly explained that practicing this technique would inevitably damage the meridians, and that it had also contributed to her developing extreme cold syndrome. Thus, he would revise it for her.

Even Xiao Ning'er could not help finding it absurd. This is the sixth-ranked cultivation technique in our family, passed down by our ancestors. Nie Li thinks he can just revise it on a whim?

In her urgency, she grabbed Nie Li's hand. "Nie Li, could you explain that again?"

Helpless, Nie Li explained it to her once more.

The more Xiao Ning'er listened, the more shaken she became.

The more the Winged Dragon Family members below the sky screen listened, the harder it became for them to control their expressions.

Even Xiao Ning'er could tell how much better these revisions made the technique. How could they fail to hear it?

Xiao Yunfeng hurriedly roared for them to write it down.

The stunned elders were jolted awake by his shout and scrambled for paper and brushes, their usual calm composure nowhere to be seen.

A windfall of wealth had come pouring down from heaven!

Everyone instantly changed their opinion of Nie Li. Someone who could casually revise a cultivation technique and make it stronger-even Lord Ye Mo would not dare guarantee that. Could Nie Li have been a Legendary Demon Spirit Master in his previous life too?

That would be extraordinary!

Ye Zong had already sent Ye Xiu to fetch him.

With this ability alone, Nie Li would have no trouble entering the City Lord's Mansion.

On the sky screen, Xiao Ning'er could not help thinking of Nie Li's bold declaration in class that he would become the greatest Demon Spirit Master in the world.

After finishing his revisions, Nie Li handed the cultivation technique back to Xiao Ning'er.

The revised cultivation technique would no longer damage her meridians.

Nie Li let out a breath, then stretched his limbs. It was about time to prepare to leave.

He would write Xiao Ning'er a prescription so she could regularly obtain and take the medicine. Then she could find someone to perform regular massages using the Guiding Technique, and she would be fine.

Just as he was about to turn and leave, Xiao Ning'er called out to stop him.

"Do you know the Guiding Technique?"

"Huh?"

"Other than you, I've never heard anyone mention the Guiding Technique."