Chapter 19
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Chapter 19: Title
“Why cause such a scene when you came in early?”
The healer gripped a rope binding Xia Shi and Suiyin together by their wrists.
Xia Shi secretly gathered spiritual power, but the sudden pain in her meridians forced her to give up.
Suiyin, walking behind, noticed and sent a voice transmission: “Don’t act rashly. This healer’s dangerous. Wait for an opportunity.”
They were dragged into a room. The healer glanced at her puppet, which immediately dragged Suiyin to a wooden chair, tied her down, and slapped a talisman on her.
Suiyin: “…”
She watched the healer shove Xia Shi into another chair and untie her ropes.
“?!”
“Why am I still tied?!” Suiyin protested.
The healer pressed a finger to her own lips.
The puppet grabbed another silencing talisman and slapped it over Suiyin’s mouth.
Suiyin: “…”
“Aren’t you afraid I’ll resist after untying me?” Xia Shi asked.
The healer chuckled, placing a bowl beside Xia Shi’s hand. She ignored the question and said, “I need blood. Draw it yourself.”
Suiyin frantically blinked at Xia Shi, her eyes straining. Two talismans paralyzed her body and sealed her voice.
Since when do healers demand blood upfront?!
A shadow fell over Suiyin. She looked up to find the healer looming before her, face darkening.
The healer studied her like a puzzle. “Which sect raised you?”
Xia Shi’s spiritual breath marked her as a proper sect disciple. But Suiyin? Faint spiritual roots, chaotic meridians – an anomaly.
Spiritual roots and meridians solidify at birth, strengthened through cultivation over centuries. Any medical cultivator could easily assess them.
This mystery thrilled the healer. Two patients – two enigmas.
Suiyin’s meridians were still forming, weaker than a newborn’s.
Only when Suiyin glared did the healer notice the silencing talisman. She ripped it off. “Which sect?”
What reckless sect would recruit someone as fragile as glass?
“None of your business!” Suiyin snapped. Seizing the moment, she yelled, “Xia Shi! Don’t bleed for her!”
Her voice echoed through the room. The healer frowned in irritation.
The silencing talisman smacked back onto Suiyin’s mouth.
Suiyin: “…”
She shot daggers at the puppet. Since when did puppets need to be so observant?!
“If you won’t speak, I’ll have to check myself.” The healer placed her hand on Suiyin’s shoulder. When her spiritual power probed for the spiritual root, it was abruptly repelled by a powerful force.
Her palm numbed from the backlash, yet the healer froze mid-air, hand suspended as if petrified.
Xia Shi approached and thrust a small bowl at her.
A thin layer of blood coated its bottom.
“Your request.”
“She’s a rogue cultivator, not affiliated with any sect. Cease harassing her.”
Xia Shi moved beside Suiyin, pressing her palm where the healer’s had been. Only after confirming no hidden tricks lingered inside the girl’s body did she relax.
The healer nodded absently, lifting the bowl to sniff its contents. Glass clinked as she shifted to her medicine-laden worktable.
“You’re poisoned. The toxin’s festered for three to four centuries.”
“Violent by nature, yet suppressed until recently.”
“Were you aware?”
Suiyin’s immobilized form screamed internally: Centuries!? Xia Shi claimed to be twenty!
Deceiver!
The healer tilted her head at Xia Shi’s murmured denial. “This venom chills bones, corrodes spiritual roots and meridians during flare-ups. Previous episodes?”
Xia Shi’s mind drifted through four blurred centuries. “None.”
Secluded in Sword Pavilion, she’d practiced the path of tranquility through her Master’s ascension, numb to worldly affairs. No memories of pain surfaced from that stagnant existence.
Her awakening came years later – slipping unnoticed from Sword Pavilion to Wentiang Peak’s eternal snows. Only rumors of Lingyang Secret Realm’s Hanyu Stone had drawn her downhill.
The poison’s origins? The culprit? Symptoms? All shrouded in fog.
“Mmph! Mmmph!” Suiyin’s frantic blinking and muffled whimpers finally drew attention.
Xia Shi peeled off the silencing talisman. “What poison? Can it be cured?” burst from the girl instantly.
The healer’s gaze flickered between them. “Curious. Miss Xia bears the toxin, yet you’re the teary one.”
Xia Shi turned. Indeed, Suiyin’s eyes glistened, edges pinkening.
Tears? For near-strangers?
“Allergies!” Suiyin blurted. “Bodily reactions vary! You medical cultivators grasp nothing!”
Healer: “…”
Xia Shi: “…”
As Xia Shi removed remaining talismans, Suiyin shook off ropes and descended upon her. “Are you chilled? Any aches? Where?”
Though the concern seemed genuine, Xia Shi flinched at the sudden onslaught.
She withdrew her hand and coughed lightly. "Not cold, not in pain. I’m fine."
Suiyin’s concern felt excessive.
Her hand now empty, Suiyin rubbed her fingertips where Xia Shi’s lingering warmth had slipped away like silk.
She felt a strange hollowness.
Pushing down the odd emotion, Suiyin turned to the observing healer.
"Can this poison be cured?"
The healer paused before answering. "I recognize the toxicity but can’t identify its source. The Nine Realms teem with venomous plants and creatures – some only exist in ancient texts…"
As she rambled, Suiyin cut in sharply. "So you can’t cure it?"
The healer remained silent.
The puppet snapped, "Lies! The master can cure anything!"
The healer smiled faintly.
Half an incense time later:
"These elixirs will temporarily suppress the cold poison. I need days to study it," the healer said, revealing a jade bottle. "I’ll find you when ready."
Xia Shi stored the bottle in her storage ring and bowed. "My thanks."
"Don’t thank me yet." The healer’s voice turned grim. "If you deteriorate before I make the antidote, I’ll keep you alive through excruciating means until it’s done. You might come to loathe me."
Medical cultivators always obsessed over incurable cases.
Xia Shi recalled another such practitioner – a friend who’d vanish for weeks when confronted with rare maladies.
"If you doubt me," the healer added, "seek blood fruit in Qingshou’s Valley of Subdued Dragons. It suppresses all known cold poisons in the Nine Realms, buying time if not curing."
The puppet immediately gestured toward the exit.
Outside Beauty Manor, Suiyin summoned her snow lion. She nearly helped Xia Shi board before a confused glance made her withdraw.
As the carriage jolted forward, Suiyin produced a blanket. "Qingshou’s nearby. We’ll pass through."
"Pass through?" Xia Shi blinked. Qingshou lay eastward while their path led north – no direct route existed. Detouring would delay their Sanqing Realm journey.
The blanket engulfed her completely, Suiyin tucking every edge securely.
"…"
They’d known each other briefly. Xia Shi had buried her alive. Their history brimmed with conflict.
Yet since Lingyang Secret Realm, Suiyin constantly sought physical closeness – leaning during conversations, touching casually. The shift began with their declared friendship.
Friendship…
Memories surfaced of four centuries past – wandering the realms, collecting companions. Her master had noticed when cheerful voice transmissions interrupted training, asking dryly: "Making friends again?"
At that time, she didn’t understand her Master’s words, only noticing his odd expression and the gritted teeth behind his speech.
Later over tea, Xia Shi learned from her senior sister that during those days, her Master had thoroughly investigated everyone around her, even rating them.
Her senior sister teased, “Master thought you’d secretly taken a cultivation partner and was furious.”
Only then did Xia Shi realize her Master’s “making friends” didn’t mean ordinary companions, but romantic partners.
As for Suiyin…
If they were friends, Suiyin cared too intensely—nearly crying upon hearing Xia Shi was poisoned, detouring all the way to Qingshou for medicine.
If they were lovers…
After a long silence, Xia Shi closed her eyes and whispered unsteadily, “Suiyin.”
“Hm?” Suiyin met her gaze.
“I speak little, have no interests, and live a dull life.”
Suiyin blinked, confused by this sudden self-criticism. She grasped Xia Shi’s cool hand beneath the blanket.
“You’re wonderful.”
Xia Shi froze, struck silent by the reply: “…”
You’re wonderful. I like you?
