"Wait, wait! It's broken, it's broken..."
"Ow... you brat, you did that on purpose..."
"You're killing me... can't you be a little gentler..."
His screams tore at the heart.
Accompanied by the creaking and cracking of breaking bones, they rang through the night sky above the Tibetan Scripture Pavilion.
It hurt too much.
It hurt so much that even a little old man like Feng Qingye forgot his dignity, tears streaming down his face.
By the time Lin Shisan finished bandaging Feng Qingye, he looked like a wrapped rice dumpling, with only his eyes and mouth exposed.
"Wine... wine..."
Even in that state, Feng Qingye was still demanding wine.
Only then did realization dawn on Lin Shisan.
So Feng Qingye had sent him to buy pork trotters and wine to give him a chance to survive.
Even Feng Qingye, with his seventh-level body tempering cultivation, had been beaten into this state.
Without a doubt, if it had been him, he would probably have ascended to heaven on the spot long ago.
"Pork trotters! Brat, the pork trotters..."
"Wine, wine, wine! Another sip of Seven-Day Immortal..."
"And that apple! Hurry up and bring it here..."
Feng Qingye was like a reincarnated starving ghost.
He cried out in pain while gnawing on pork trotters and drinking Seven-Day Immortal, taking a bite of apple every so often.
"What are you crying for, you Lin brat? I'm not dead."
Feng Qingye scolded him.
It would have been a lie to say Lin Shisan wasn't moved.
The little old man, usually so insatiably greedy, had proved so dependable at the critical moment.
He would rather be beaten until he could no longer care for himself than let Lin Shisan stay.
"If I hadn't left, you wouldn't have been hurt so badly."
Lin Shisan handed him another piece of pork trotter. "Two people taking a beating is better than one person taking it alone."
"You little brat, keep dreaming."
Feng Qingye gnawed on the pork trotter.
He mumbled indistinctly, "Bai Wuqi and I know each other, after all. At most, he'd give me a savage beating."
"With these old arms and legs of mine, he wouldn't have the heart to kill me."
"Besides, with that scrawny little body of yours, do you really think you could withstand a single blow from someone at the sixth level of meridian opening?"
"All right, what's done is done. You could even call it a perfect ending, so stop looking so tearful."
"If you really feel bad, just buy me a few more pork trotters, and apples... wait, this apple doesn't taste right..."
"Heh, heh, heh..."
Lin Shisan didn't know whether to laugh or cry.
Even in this state, he could still tell that the apple tasted wrong.
He had bought it down the mountain, so naturally it couldn't compare to an apple evolved by the Little Black Cauldron.
"Maybe I was in such a hurry that I remembered the wrong place. I'll go look for the original apple tree another day."
As he spoke, Lin Shisan handed Feng Qingye another cup of Seven-Day Immortal.
"Brother Ye, how bad are your injuries, exactly? Are they serious? Should I go to the Medicine Sage Hall and ask an Immortal Lord to come examine you?"
Lin Shisan was still worried about Feng Qingye's injuries.
Although Feng Qingye said he was fine, he looked anything but fine.
"It's nothing. Just a few broken bones. Most of it is superficial. A few days of rest and I'll be fine."
"My dantian might be a bit of a problem, though. Bai Wuqi didn't cripple my cultivation, but he did nearly scatter all the spiritual energy in my dantian. Now I have less than a tenth of my former cultivation left, probably only the second or third level of body tempering. He really went for the kill."
"That serious?"
Lin Shisan felt his nose sting.
For a cultivator, having their cultivation knocked down was practically worse than being killed.
How could Bai Wuqi be so heartless? Hadn't Feng Qingye said they knew each other?
He had been far too vicious.
"No, Brother Ye. I'm still going to the Medicine Sage Hall."
"There's really no need."
Seeing Lin Shisan's sincere concern, Feng Qingye told him the truth. "In my current condition, a complete recovery would take either money or influence, and I have neither. Even if I somehow managed to get someone here, I couldn't afford the medical fees."
"I'll pay. I'll pay for it."
Lin Shisan immediately replied.
"You'll pay... pay my ass..."
"Do you know how much an Origin Returning Pill costs? At least a hundred thousand Spirit Stones. One with two or three markings costs two hundred thousand."
Lin Shisan's resolve immediately wilted.
A hundred or two hundred thousand Spirit Stones was an astronomical sum to him.
Everything he had on him totaled fewer than two hundred Spirit Stones.
It wasn't even enough to cover a fraction.
"Brother Ye, is there really no other way?"
Lin Shisan still couldn't resign himself to it.
At that life-or-death moment, Feng Qingye had sent him away and let him escape a fatal calamity.
"There is. If you were a mighty cultivator in the Yellow Dragon Realm, you could use your Dao Seed to nourish my dantian. I'd recover in less than three days."
"...Well..."
Lin Shisan fell silent again.
The strongest cultivator he had ever seen was only at the ninth level of meridian opening: Zhao Xun, who had refined pills last time.
Besides, how many mighty Yellow Dragon Realm cultivators did the entire Tai Chi Hall have? You could count them on two hands.
"All right, stop worrying about me."
Feng Qingye comforted Lin Shisan. "I won't be able to get out of bed for the next few days, so all the work inside and outside the courtyard will be yours."
"No problem."
Lin Shisan agreed at once.
You say that as if you've ever done any cleaning.
Ever since Lin Shisan came to the Tibetan Scripture Pavilion, he had never seen Feng Qingye do even the smallest chore.
Even the bowls and chopsticks he ate with were washed by Lin Shisan.
"There's one more thing I might need your help with over the next few days."
Looking at the agreeable Lin Shisan, Feng Qingye appeared embarrassed and lowered his voice.
"I can't move for the next few days, so... so when I need to shit or piss, I'll have to trouble you to help me with that, too."
"What?"
Lin Shisan nearly went berserk again.
You actually have the nerve to ask me to help you shit and piss? And you call that troubling me to look after you? You might as well ascend to heaven right here.
"No way."
Fuming, Lin Shisan turned and walked away.
He picked up the large broom and began sweeping with loud swishes.
Words were one thing, actions another. Feng Qingye really did shamelessly ask Lin Shisan to help him shit and piss.
In the spirit of humanitarianism, Lin Shisan finally went over to help, pinching his nose and glaring.
"Shisan, thank you."
Afterward, Feng Qingye still remembered to express his
thanks.
Lin Shisan simply turned the back of his head toward him.
He couldn't be bothered to respond.
"Shisan, don't forget to check the Message Stone regularly."
"If we hold up some poor sucker's blind-box opening, we'll both deserve ten thousand deaths again."
Feng Qingye also reminded Lin Shisan to check the Message Stone on the desk in his office whenever he had time.
Normally, anyone coming to open a blind box would contact them in advance, sending the information to the Message Stone beforehand.
Of course, there were also unexpected visits decided on at the last minute.
"Fine. I'll check it every two hours."
Lin Shisan replied halfheartedly.
He had cleaning to do, flowers and trees to plant, and a house to build.
For two days straight, Lin Shisan worked late into the night.
On the third day, a message really did arrive on the Message Stone. Bai Wuqi's senior brother, Lei Shi, was coming to open a blind box.
With no other choice, he followed Feng Qingye's instructions and hurried down to the foot of the mountain after finishing his work to buy a jar of hundred-year-old Seven-Day Immortal.
On his way back, he didn't forget to bring Feng Qingye two pork trotters.
Before you continue