It took only one glance.
Chu Yunfei's breathing faltered.
Candlelight fell across Wen Jiao's smooth back, her skin like jade, the lines of her shoulders and neck tapering down to outline her slender waist.
A faint fragrance like secluded orchids lingered at his nose.
Chu Yunfei's mouth went dry despite himself.
What an enchantress, he thought.
He swore he had only acted on a healer's instinct, wanting to confirm how far the Yin Baleful Intent had spread.
As for whether he had any other thoughts...
That was not important.
Just then, Wen Jiao seemed about to turn around.
Chu Yunfei's heart tightened. He immediately squeezed his eyes shut, focused his eyes on his nose and his nose on his heart, and sat straighter than an enlightened sage.
Wen Jiao slowly turned around.
Her cheeks were scarlet, and even the roots of her ears were tinged with red.
For the first time in her life, she was in such an embarrassing state before a man she had only recently met.
Shame, embarrassment, and a trace of irrepressible anger all clogged her chest.
If the searing pain inside her had not kept reminding her that this man might be her only lifeline, she would have struck him with her palm long ago.
Wen Jiao took a deep breath and forced her voice steady.
"Ready."
"How do we treat it next?"
Chu Yunfei kept his eyes closed, carefully sensing the flow of Yin Baleful Intent within her.
After a moment, he said:
"The Yin Baleful Intent has already begun surging back."
"Its source is in your dantian, while the meridians at your Gate of Life are its channels of spread. I must first cut it off at the source in your dantian, then clear the meridians in your back in reverse."
"Lie down first."
This explanation sounded professional enough.
Some of Wen Jiao's suspicions faded, and she stiffly lay down on the bed.
Her body trembled slightly as the cold bed touched her skin.
Chu Yunfei steadied himself and reached toward the bed.
Just then, the chill made Wen Jiao turn slightly onto her side.
Chu Yunfei still lowered his hand toward her original position, and his fingertips immediately touched a softness they should not have touched.
Warm.
Silky.
And astonishingly springy.
Chu Yunfei froze.
With his experience from two lifetimes, how could he not know what he had touched?
Oh no.
The air fell silent for an instant.
Then icy killing intent erupted from the bed.
The temperature in the room dropped again.
"What are you touching?"
Wen Jiao's voice seemed to squeeze through her clenched teeth.
She was both ashamed and furious.
This bastard!
She had already lain down, yet he could still touch the wrong place?
Deliberate.
It was absolutely deliberate!
"An accident."
Chu Yunfei immediately withdrew his hand, his tone utterly sincere.
"You moved just now, and I can't see. It's perfectly normal for my aim to be off."
Wen Jiao's chest heaved as she stared fixedly at him.
There seemed to be nothing wrong with that explanation.
But for some reason, she simply wanted to hit him.
Yet right now, she really could not do without this fellow.
Wen Jiao gritted her teeth, seized Chu Yunfei's hand, and pressed it precisely against her flat lower abdomen.
"Here."
"This is the dantian."
Her voice was cold as ice.
"Touch the wrong place again, and I'll chop off your hand."
Chu Yunfei gave a dry cough.
"Don't worry."
"I generally don't make the same mistake twice."
Wen Jiao's temple twitched.
No matter how she heard it, that did not sound reassuring.
"Get ready."
Chu Yunfei stopped joking, his expression turning grave.
Boundless Creation Scripture, circulate!
Boom!
The spiritual power vortex in his dantian abruptly accelerated.
Deep within his sea of consciousness, the Divine Cauldron of Heavenly Mandate gave a low hum.
An overpowering suction surged through Chu Yunfei's meridians toward his palm, forming a tiny vortex invisible to ordinary people.
Wen Jiao's body suddenly went taut.
She could clearly feel something like a bottomless pit appearing over her lower abdomen.
The Yin Baleful Intent Qi entrenched deep within her dantian and meridians immediately grew restless.
That force battered its surroundings frantically, trying to escape the divine cauldron's pull.
But before the Divine Cauldron of Heavenly Mandate, every struggle was futile.
Wisps of black Yin Baleful Intent were forcibly stripped from her dantian, gathering in Chu Yunfei's palm through her meridians.
Hum!
Thin black threads vanished into the vortex one after another.
Then the Divine Cauldron of Heavenly Mandate swallowed them in a single gulp.
The icy chill that had filled Wen Jiao's meridians also began contracting toward her dantian.
The pain receded with it.
Half remained.
Thirty percent.
Ten percent.
The agony that felt like ice blades slicing through her meridians, threatening to freeze even her soul, actually diminished by more than half within just a few breaths.
In its place came a long-absent warmth.
Wen Jiao's body, tense for so long, slowly relaxed.
For twenty years, every time an attack struck, she could only grit her teeth and endure it.
Pills, spiritual medicines, suppression by powerful experts-all could barely protect the meridians around her heart.
Not a single method could truly ease her suffering.
Yet now, the Yin Baleful Intent that had tormented her for years was being drawn away bit by bit by Chu Yunfei.
"Mmm..."
An extremely soft sound escaped her lips.
The room was too quiet.
That soft moan reached Chu Yunfei's ears clearly.
He was circulating the Boundless Creation Scripture with all his strength, his concentration already stretched taut. Disturbed by that sound, his spiritual power nearly veered off course.
Chu Yunfei hurriedly steadied his breathing.
Enchantress.
Was this treating an illness or testing his Dao heart?
He had intended to concentrate on guiding the Yin Baleful Intent.
But in the end, he could not suppress that flicker of curiosity and secretly cracked his eyes open.
Wen Jiao's eyes were tightly shut.
Her long lashes trembled gently. Most of the pain on her face had faded, leaving only the relaxation of someone who had survived a calamity.
Chu Yunfei's gaze slipped half an inch lower beyond his control.
Just one glance.
Only one thought remained in his mind.
Deadly.
The next instant, he immediately squeezed his eyes shut and forcibly dragged his concentration back to his cultivation technique.
If he kept looking, the Heavenly Yin Baleful Intent Physique might not be the only thing needing treatment today.
Chu Yunfei gathered his wandering thoughts and focused all his attention on the divine cauldron.
Inside the cauldron, azure flames rose.
The extracted Yin Baleful Intent Qi was enveloped in azure flames the moment it entered.
Under the azure flames, that power capable of freezing an ordinary martial artist's meridians rapidly lost its violence and impurities, leaving only the purest Yin Baleful Intent essence.
Countless black currents continuously compressed.
Finally, they condensed into a drop of pale golden spiritual liquid.
Origin Spiritual Liquid!
Chu Yunfei's heart stirred slightly.
Just as he thought.
To others, Heavenly Yin Baleful Intent Qi was a deadly poison, but to the Divine Cauldron of Heavenly Mandate, it was merely a special kind of energy.
Not only could it be refined.
Its quality was not low, either.
Wen Jiao paid spirit stones for treatment.
He used the Yin Baleful Intent to cultivate along the way.
He was not losing out this time.
The treatment lasted a full incense stick's time.
Only when the rampaging Yin Baleful Intent within Wen Jiao had completely subsided did Chu Yunfei slowly withdraw his palm.
His cultivation technique stopped circulating.
His face was pale, and a fine layer of sweat had appeared on his forehead.
At his current cultivation realm, activating the Divine Cauldron of Heavenly Mandate for an extended period still took a considerable toll.
His spiritual power was nearly exhausted, and waves of soreness came from his meridians.
The gains, however, were equally astonishing.
That drop of Origin Spiritual Liquid had already merged into every part of his body.
Pure energy continuously washed through his flesh and meridians, strengthening his body further and bringing his cultivation a great step closer to the Seventh Level of Body Tempering.
A few more times, and a breakthrough would be within reach.
Chu Yunfei withdrew from the divine cauldron's space and turned his back.
The faint rustling of clothing sounded in the room again.
A moment later, fully dressed, Wen Jiao sat up on the bed.
She lowered her head, sensing the state of her body, her expression gradually becoming complicated.
The Yin Baleful Intent really had quieted.
Not through suppression by a powerful expert.
Nor through temporary numbing with pills.
A portion of it had genuinely been removed.
She could even feel that the cold Qi clogging her meridians for years had loosened, and her spiritual power circulated much more smoothly than before.
It really worked.
This seemingly frivolous young man, who rarely spoke seriously, actually possessed the ability to treat the Heavenly Yin Baleful Intent Physique.
Over the years, the Pill Pavilion had searched everywhere for renowned physicians and expended countless heavenly materials and earthly treasures, yet the answer had always been the same.
No cure.
Yet with just one hand, Chu Yunfei had accomplished what even those alchemy grandmasters could not.
Wen Jiao raised her head to look at his back.
Chu Yunfei's face was pale, and his breathing had grown considerably weaker.
After that accident earlier, he truly had done nothing else that crossed the line.
Throughout the treatment, he had kept his eyes closed.
At least, that was how it appeared to Wen Jiao.
Thinking of how she had suspected him of using the treatment to take advantage of her, and had even harbored murderous thoughts, Wen Jiao felt a trace of guilt.
Perhaps she really had misunderstood him.
Though this man spoke flippantly, he was fairly reliable when it came to getting things done.
"Chu Yunfei."
Wen Jiao's tone lost some of its coldness that kept others a thousand miles away.
"Thank you."
Chu Yunfei exhaled a breath of stale air and waved a hand.
"No need."
"When you take someone's money, you rid them of their troubles."
"Five thousand spirit stones is no small sum. I do have that much professional integrity."
Hearing the words "professional integrity," Wen Jiao inexplicably recalled the accident earlier.
Her face grew hot, and she forced a change of subject.
"Has my Heavenly Yin Baleful Intent Physique been cured?"
"Not yet."
Chu Yunfei carefully sensed her condition for a moment, then shook his head.
"The Yin Baleful Intent in your body has built up for too long. It has long since seeped into your meridians and bone marrow."
"Today, I only extracted the most active portion near your dantian and temporarily suppressed the Yin Baleful Intent in the meridians around your Gate of Life."
"With my cultivation realm, I'll have to do it over several sessions to eradicate it completely."
Wen Jiao's heart, which had only just settled, rose into her throat again.
"How many more times?"
Chu Yunfei considered for a moment, then held up two fingers.
"Including today, it'll take three sessions in total."
"In other words, two more."
"Also, it's best to act when the Yin Baleful Intent flares up most violently. That's when it gathers in your dantian on its own, allowing for the most thorough extraction."
Two more?
The treatment from earlier immediately surfaced in Wen Jiao's mind.
That meant she would have to undress in front of this man twice more and let him press his hands against her body...
Boom!
Heat surged from her neck all the way to her cheeks.
Wen Jiao's face, which had only just regained its color, turned scarlet in an instant.
For the first time, a hint of helpless uncertainty also appeared in those usually cool phoenix eyes.
Two more...
Could she really keep herself from killing this fellow with a single palm strike?