Chapter 18
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Chapter 18: Title
Finding no trace of Suiyin, Xia Shi’s hand flew to her sword. Her fingers brushed the rough cloth wrapping it before remembering the blade was beyond use.
The Tai Chi Seal materialized in her palm. Her hands danced through seals, and in a breath, the cloying fragrance vanished. Her vision sharpened.
Xia Shi scanned the area. No shadow of Suiyin remained.
Where had she gone?
“Young friend, shall I read your fate?” A figure slouched against the corridor pillars, swallowed by a Daoist robe large enough to cloak three of her. The sleeves pooled on the ground like a child playing dress-up.
Xia Shi stepped past without glancing at the fortune-teller, eyes fixed ahead where Suiyin might be.
“Stay, young friend.” The raspy voice held an edge of command.
Xia Shi halted. Below her, milky-white eyes gleamed in the shadows – luminous as moonstones, utterly inhuman.
“You… address me?” Xia Shi frowned. Though the corridor teemed with passersby, those blind orbs tracked her movements unerringly.
The woman shifted against her pillar, skeletal hands gesturing to the empty floor before her. When Xia Shi mirrored her cross-legged posture, the world snapped silent.
A barrier hummed to life around them. Xia Shi’s brows lifted as spiritual pressure thickened the air – the crushing weight of someone far beyond her cultivation.
Steadying her breath, she inclined her head. “Esteemed senior.”
“I divine fortunes – blessings, journeys, riches, even love matches.” The fortune-teller rattled three copper coins inside a turtle shell.
Xia Shi’s thumb traced her sword’s ruined hilt. “Read life and death.”
The seer’s chuckle crackled like dry leaves. “Life and death bow to Heaven’s decree. Mortal flesh cannot defy the Heavenly Dao.”
Memories ambushed Xia Shi – her own voice, sharp with youth’s arrogance:
*Watch closely. One day my blade will demand answers from the Heavenly Dao itself.*
*Why fear heaven’s judgment? If none dare challenge it, I’ll be the first.*
The clatter of coins snapped her back. Three coppers spun across stone tiles.
White eyes closed as the fortune-teller’s fingers spidered over fallen coins. Her nail scraped one coin’s cracked edge, paused, then stilled.
After six attempts, a hexagram finally formed.
“Fortune and misfortune intertwine; gains and losses are trivial,” the Fortune-teller declared.
Xia Shi lowered her gaze. “Fortune and misfortune intertwine…”
The Fortune-teller added, “An opportunity lies before you. Seizing it may resolve your current dilemma.”
Her dilemma was none other than repairing the Heartless Sword’s form and finding its spirit.
Xia Shi’s fingers tightened around her sword’s hilt. A tremor of excitement ran through her, flushing her cheeks.
Did this mean she could actually restore the Heartless Sword!?
As she opened her mouth to ask, the barrier around them dissolved. Three drunken men lurched nearby,
slumping against the wall like sacks of grain.
“Look! The blind fraud’s fooled another one!” one cackled.
Others roared with laughter.
“Girl, don’t believe her,” a man hiccuped. “She’s no Fortune-teller. All that ‘opportunity’ and ‘intertwined fortunes’ nonsense? Same lines for every sucker.”
Xia Shi studied the silent Fortune-teller. The oversized robe exposed hands crisscrossed with bramble-scars.
Suiyin materialized suddenly, dragging her away. “Found it! There’s really a healer here!”
Xia Shi stumbled four steps before glancing back.
The drunkards still jeered.
The Fortune-teller had vanished. Only a turtle shell and three copper coins remained.
“Where were you?” Xia Shi asked flatly.
“Me? The second floor felt suffocating. I went for air, then poof—you’d disappeared!” Suiyin lifted their linked hands (hers vising Xia Shi’s wrist) with a sunbeam smile. “Hold tight, friend! Lose you now, where’d I find another?”
Xia Shi said nothing as Suiyin hauled her toward the second floor’s shadowed corner.
No lamps lit the passage. Before a distant door snaked a queue containing the brothers from earlier.
The elder brother’s chest barely moved—more corpse than man.
“Healer! Save Big Brother! I’ll give anything!” The younger brother smashed his forehead against floorboards, painting the wood crimson.
Queued patrons frowned but stayed silent.
The healer followed no rules but whim, despised noise—hence the mute crowd.
A creak pierced the silence. The door opened, disgorging a sword cultivator brandishing his blade.
His forms unfolded like flowing water.
“The healer’s skill is peerless!” he exulted before striding off.
A green-robed woman emerged next. Her gaze skipped over the kneeling brothers, locking onto Xia Shi and Suiyin.
She’d barely stepped forward when hands yanked her sleeve.
“Fairy! Fairy! We came first! You should treat my Big Brother first!” The man knelt desperately with blood streaming from his forehead, horrified to be ignored as she turned toward another patient.
“Your shouting gave the master a headache. No more consultations today.”
Still clutching her sleeve with blood-streaked cheeks, the man pleaded, “No! Please beg the healer! My Big Brother’s dying! I’ll stay quiet – I swear!”
The green-robed woman’s face twitched with irritation, unable to free herself from the entangled man.
She warned coldly, “Persist like this, and I’ll have you both expelled from Beauty Manor.”
The man hesitated, then lunged abruptly. A blade flashed from his waist, its edge kissing her throat as he roared toward the room: “Healer! Save us!”
His desperate charge carried the recklessness of a cornered beast.
“Don’t blame me, Fairy! I’ve no choi—”
*Clang!*
The blade clattered to the floor. Xia Shi glanced up to see the attacker’s skull pierced by a thin object, dark blood oozing between his brows.
The green-robed woman remained expressionless throughout, moving with puppet-like precision. She emotionlessly kicked the corpse aside and dusted her hands. Servants ascended to remove both brothers.
“The master receives no more patients today. Disperse.”
The crowd muttered curses – less at the interrupted treatment than at the dead man’s foolishness. Such scenes occurred monthly at Beauty Manor. None challenged the healer.
Xia Shi exhaled, overwhelmed by the Nine Realms’ new harshness. Medical cultivators treating lives as worthless straw. Cultivators wallowing in decadence. Chaos everywhere.
“Let’s go.”
Suiyin followed as Xia Shi turned to leave. The green-robed woman intercepted them.
“Fairies, wait. The master will see you.”
Xia Shi and Suiyin shared startled glances.
“You said consultations ended,” Suiyin challenged, shielding Xia Shi.
“The master wills it.”
*How peculiar,* Suiyin thought. Edging closer until their shoulders touched, she whispered near Xia Shi’s ear: “Trust this?”
Xia Shi’s neck prickled at the proximity. She pressed a finger against Suiyin’s encroaching cheek. “Use voice transmission.”
There was no need to stand so close to talk.
Suiyin blinked—oh right, they could use voice transmission!
"Do you think we should go?" she transmitted again.
"Unnecessary." The reply mirrored its sender’s usual brevity.
Suiyin nodded through the transmission. "Makes sense. Plenty of medical cultivators around. Any would be better than this."
The recent silent killing had left her deeply unsettled.
They quickly agreed and turned to leave.
But the medical cultivator inside had other plans.
A ghostly figure materialized before them.
"Leave now, and you’ll regret it later."
The legendary healer wore black robes, her skin bearing the sickly pallor of someone who hadn’t seen sunlight for decades. Though her features were finely carved, that unnatural complexion cast them in shadow.
Her burning gaze locked onto Xia Shi, blazing with unsettling fervor.
She looked like a collector who’d found rare treasure.
Xia Shi frowned under the intense scrutiny, her fingers tightening around the Tai Chi Seal.
"Your spiritual power leaks daily. Your realm keeps deteriorating." The healer watched Xia Shi’s face hungrily, seeking any reaction.
She found none. Xia Shi met that predatory gaze with calm indifference.
"So you know." The healer’s fingers twitched rhythmically against her thigh, betraying her impatience. "Then you must also know what comes next—bone-melting agony, meridians shredding like rotten cloth."
"Want to live? To cultivate again? I’m your only hope."
Xia Shi’s arm jerked as someone gripped her wrist—Suiyin’s fingers digging deeper with each word from the healer.
Odd, Xia Shi thought. Why was Suiyin more agitated than the actual patient?
"The Nine Realms teem with medical cultivators. Divine Doctor Valley itself houses sacred beast lineages." Xia Shi’s wariness grew—this woman reeked of danger. "Countless options exist."
"Divine Doctor Valley?" The healer’s lips curled. "Those quacks? They’ll have you rotting in your coffin before lifting a finger."
The green-robed girl who’d stood silent finally spoke: "My lady treats those rejected by Divine Doctor Valley. Not one failure since Beauty Manor’s founding."
The healer tilted her chin upward, awaiting pleas for help.
Xia Shi studied them both—the preening healer, the green-robed girl.
Did this woman truly not notice how flawed her puppet act was?
The green-robed girl was clearly the healer’s puppet.
That entire speech had been shameless self-praise.
