Immortal Herbs

The hundred-thousand-year right leg bone lit up.

Gentle blue light spread from his right leg throughout his body, and the Blue Silver Domain silently expanded within him-not outward, but inward. Every inch of his meridians, every blood vessel, every sinew and bone within the domain was repeatedly scoured, reshaped, and widened by Ice and Fire Qi under that "ceaselessly renewing" power.

Cold and heat, ice and fire.

Tang Yin knelt in the spring for an entire night.

Dugu Bo kept watch by the spring all night. He watched the small figure at the boundary between ice and fire, freezing over one moment and burning hot the next, yet the emerald light shield of the domain never shattered. It was a constitution unlike any he had ever heard of, forcibly bringing two utterly opposing powers into a new balance within the body.

Three days later, Tang Yin opened his eyes.

He stood up by the spring and flexed his arms and legs. His meridians had been tempered by ice and fire, and his Soul Power flowed more than twice as smoothly as before. When he deployed and withdrew the Blue Silver Domain, it was as solid as a physical object. He could even feel that his Soul Power was only a paper-thin barrier away from level thirty-six.

He turned to Dugu Bo and spoke.

"Senior, I'd like two more herbs."

Dugu Bo warily stepped back half a pace. "What else are you going to ruin now?"

"Earth Dragon Golden Melon, for Sister Yan." Tang Yin paused. "And one more-the Aromatic Silk Beauty."

"What do you want it for?"

It was dusk when Tang Yin walked out of Sunset Forest. He glanced back at the valley shrouded in poisonous mist, then turned and headed toward Heaven Dou City.

He did not look back.

He knew that, from today onward, the green-haired old monster in the herb garden was truly on his side. And Dugu Yan, far away at Heaven Dou Academy, still did not know that her grandfather was going to give her an Immortal Herb that could eradicate her serpent poison at its root.

Three days later, Heaven Dou Royal Academy.

Dugu Yan was resting beside the training ground when Tang Yin came over and held out a small jade box to her.

"What is it?" Dugu Yan frowned.

"Earth Dragon Golden Melon," Tang Yin said. "Your grandfather asked me to choose it for you. Take it, and it can root out the backlash from the Jade Phosphorous Serpent Poison that's been with you since childhood."

Dugu Yan's hand froze.

She knew better than anyone what the serpent poison's backlash did to her-the higher her cultivation, the more it felt as though little snakes were biting between her bones at night. Every year, her grandfather used his poison arts to suppress it for her, treating the symptoms but not the root cause. She had never told anyone on the team about it.

"How did you know..." She looked up at Tang Yin.

"I guessed." Tang Yin pressed the porcelain bottle into her hand. "Take it."

Dugu Yan held the porcelain bottle and stared down at it for a long time. She opened her mouth, intending to say, as usual, "Who wants your stuff?" But today, she just couldn't get the words out. She remembered how this person had saved her life in Soul Hunting Forest, how he had quietly treated her injuries, how he even knew the deepest secret in her grandfather's herb garden-and then he had brought her the Immortal Herb that could cure her illness at its root.

"...Tang Yin." Her voice suddenly grew quiet, its usual prickliness gone.

"Hmm?"

Dugu Yan turned her face away, the tips of her ears bright red, and clenched the porcelain bottle tightly in her palm. "Thanks. This time, I mean it."

Tang Yin looked at her, nodded, then turned and walked away.

Dugu Yan stood where she was, clutching the little porcelain bottle and watching his retreating figure for a long time.

That night, in the treatment room.

Ye Lingling was sorting medicine bottles when the door was pushed gently open. Tang Yin walked in, a small flower resting in his palm, its whole body glowing white and giving off a faint, delicate fragrance.

Ye Lingling looked up.

"Aromatic Silk Beauty." Tang Yin held the flower out to her. "Take it, and you'll be immune to all poisons. On the battlefield, no matter what poison it is, it won't be able to get near you."

Ye Lingling was stunned. She looked at the flower, then at Tang Yin, but did not take it right away.

"How..." Her voice was very soft. "How do you have something like this?"

"Don't ask," Tang Yin said. "You're the team's healer. If you go down, the whole team goes down. You need this more than anyone."

Ye Lingling lowered her head and looked at the little glowing white flower. Wisps of delicate fragrance drifted toward her, and she could feel the gentle, vast vitality within it. She looked up at Tang Yin-the boy who always spoke so little and always quietly saved the best things for her.

She did not act awkwardly like Dugu Yan, nor did she refuse. She simply reached out gently and took the flower, her fingertips accidentally brushing Tang Yin's hand.

"Tang Yin," she said softly.

"Hmm?"

"The things you've given me," Ye Lingling said, looking up, a soft light rising in her always-tranquil eyes, "I've kept them all."

She paused.

"You too. If you're hurt in the future, you don't have to bear it on your own." Her voice was as soft as a sigh. "Call me."

Tang Yin looked at her without speaking.

Outside the window, moonlight slanted in, falling on their overlapping hands. There was no fusion skill or training in the treatment room that night, only two Immortal Herbs and two things that neither of them had spoken aloud, yet both knew full well.