"Quick, give it to me!"
Fairy Peilan was overjoyed to hear this. Beauty Pills refined by Wen Zhi were sure to work wonderfully. They might even make her more beautiful! It never occurred to her that Wen Zhi, whom she had deceived for a hundred years, would deceive her. How could she have that sort of cunning?
Wen Zhi took out a porcelain bottle and tipped a round pill into her palm. Its fragrance instantly filled the air.
Peilan could hardly wait. She swallowed the pill in one gulp and smiled at Wen Zhi. "A-Zhi, you're so good to me."
[Hehe.]
[Senior Sister is so clever. We had the same idea!]
Hearing her junior sister's sly laughter, Wen Zhi couldn't help covering her mouth and laughing too. "Mm."
A moment later, Qiaoqiao reckoned the pill should have taken effect. Her lips curved as she asked Peilan, "Fairy, what do you think of my senior sister's pills?"
Peilan said, "They're all great stuff! There's a market for them, but they're priceless. Selling them makes a fortune!"
Peilan's heart lurched. What was going on?
Why had she blurted out the truth?
How was she supposed to keep tricking Wen Zhi out of her pills now?!
"Oh." Qiaoqiao's eyes curved into crescents. She asked again, "Then what do you think of my senior sister as a person?"
"That idiot Wen Zhi has let me fool her for a hundred years. Hahaha, she's practically my personal cash machine!" As Peilan realized what she was saying, her smile twisted. Her features strained until her face was hideous, yet she couldn't stop the words that followed. "She's so stupid and easy to fool. A few words are all it takes to run circles around her and make her eagerly offer herself up as my blood bag. She doesn't even know how many Spirit Stones I got from those pills! I got rich overnight and lived high on the hog. Hahaha!"
Fairy Peilan couldn't control her laughter, but tears streamed down her twisted face.
Aaaah!
Fucking stop laughing!!
As Wen Zhi's expression darkened little by little before her, Peilan let out a howl!
There was something wrong with that pill!
She! Had! Been! Tricked!
She clawed at her throat, trying to vomit the pill up, but it was too late. The Truth Pill had already dissolved. She let out a string of ugly retches, her throat burning with pain.
Beside her, Qiaoqiao produced a cup of water from somewhere. "Fairy, have some water."
With her throat parched and burning, Fairy Peilan instinctively took a sip. Wait-
Who had given her that water?
She looked at Qiaoqiao's sincere expression. Terror crept up her spine, and she spat the water out.
"What did you give me?!"
Qiaoqiao blinked. "Don't be nervous, Fairy. It's just a cup of water with poison in it."
Fairy Peilan: !!!
Peilan's heart roared. Just a cup of water with poison in it?!
This little disciple had actually dared to poison the water!
"Y-you, you-" Peilan was so shocked that her tongue tied itself in knots, and she couldn't even speak properly.
"Do you want the antidote, Fairy?" Qiaoqiao asked.
"...Yes."
Peilan wanted to threaten her, but under the Truth Pill's effects, she could only tell the truth. Her expression was utterly humiliated.
"As long as you return all the Spirit Stones you've swindled from Senior Sister over the years, then post on the sect forum about what you've done, Senior Sister will give you the antidote." Qiaoqiao held her senior sister's arm and made her promise earnestly.
"No, imposs-"
"A-Zhi, help me. Please help me!" Unable to get the word "impossible" past her lips, Peilan could only look pleadingly at Wen Zhi, begging her to cure the poison.
She had no idea how wretched she looked now. Snot and tears smeared her face. There wasn't a trace of a fairy left in her appearance.
Watching her old friend reduced to this state, Wen Zhi wore a complicated expression. She had sincerely considered Peilan a friend, only to receive a hundred years of deception in return. So in Peilan's heart, she had been nothing more than a tool for making money...
Her heart grew cold, inch by inch.
Perhaps she was foolish and easy to deceive, but now that she had seen Peilan's true face, she could never help her again.
Her tone was firm. "Do as Qiaoqiao says, and I'll give you the antidote."
A flicker of despair crossed Fairy Peilan's eyes.
Weren't they best friends? Wen Zhi actually refused to save her. She had changed...
She turned her venomous gaze on Qiaoqiao. This little bitch had actually dared to poison her! Once she returned to Moonlight Peak and had her senior brother cure the poison, she would come back and teach her a proper lesson-
"I prepared the poison." Wen Zhi stepped forward, shielding her junior sister behind her. "No one but me can cure it."
Peilan stared at her in astonishment.
"If you don't take the antidote within an incense stick's time, your golden core will be destroyed."
As she spoke, Fairy Peilan felt an agonizing, twisting pain in her abdomen. Wen Zhi was telling the truth! She had actually been heartless enough to poison her!
Qiaoqiao poked her head out from behind her senior sister. "Fairy, time is running out."
Peilan nearly ground her teeth to pieces as she took hundreds of thousands of Spirit Stones out of her storage ring. Looking at them, she ached as though her heart were bleeding.
"That's not all you swindled from Senior Sister, is it?"
"I spent the rest..."
Under Wen Zhi's icy gaze, she tossed out everything valuable she had on her, opened her Jade Slip, and began writing a post.
[Wow, her hands are shaking.]
[She finally gets to reveal the truth. She must be so excited!]
Pfft.
Qiaoqiao's thoughts made Wen Zhi laugh.
After publishing the post, Fairy Peilan's face was covered in sweat from anxiety. "Quick, give me the antidote."
"There was no poison in that water," Wen Zhi said flatly. "Your stomach hurt because you were circulating your cultivation to resist the Truth Pill's effects. The pill has worn off now, too."
She looked at her former friend, her voice cold. "Fairy Peilan, from this day forward, we are no longer friends."
As though all her strength had been drained away, Peilan collapsed to the ground.
Suddenly, she felt a little regret.
It seemed she had lost something she could never recover.
"Qiaoqiao, thank you for earlier." When they reached the courtyard gate, Wen Zhi pressed a bottle of pills into her hand.
"These are high-grade Spirit Recovery Pills," Wen Zhi said. "They're very effective at healing injuries. As long as someone still has a breath left, they can save their life."