Chapter 27: The Destined-to-be-Abandoned Good-for-Nothing (7) p2
“Pfft—”
A long time later.
Mount Lingyu.
Su Mingxiu managed to bring Gui Mian back, but as soon as they returned to this world of ice and snow, she could no longer suppress her injuries. The demonic energy left by the demon and the resurgent power of the celestial lightning caused her to cough up a mouthful of blood.
Her jade-white fingers gripped the Floating Duckweed sword, which she plunged into the frozen ground.
Gui Mian hadn’t even stabilized herself before she fell out of Su Mingxiu’s arms. The turtle slipped from her hand and landed on the ground, its legs flailing in the air as it tried to flip itself over.
At this moment, Gui Mian rushed to Su Mingxiu’s side and wiped the blood from her lips, her expression unusually anxious and helpless:
“You’re bleeding again…”
She murmured: “But I already made a wish.”
Su Mingxiu had been coughing up blood almost daily during the last ninety days of the previous world. Now, apart from the pain in her meridians giving her a sense of novelty, she was actually used to it. She wiped away the blood with her hand and even had the energy to comfort the little girl: “It’s nothing.”
She just needed to return to her cave abode and recuperate.
Su Mingxiu knew that as long as the world line hadn’t reached the point where she had to carry out the final mission, her body would hold up no matter what she did.
But after completing the final mission, no matter how she calculated it, she didn’t think she would die peacefully or ascend to immortality.
Gui Mian quickly ran down the mountain. “I-I’ll go find Elder Tian Nanxing right now.”
Su Mingxiu looked at her retreating figure, unable to even voice her refusal.
Forget it.
She gathered her strength, returned to her cave abode, and entered seclusion once again.
But that night, as she was circulating her spiritual energy, she suddenly sensed movement around her. She opened her eyes instinctively and saw the little girl standing beside her, holding a quilt. The red string on her head was rubbing against the quilt as she tried to cover Su Mingxiu with it.
Su Mingxiu: “?”
Her eyelashes trembled. The first question she asked was: “How did you get in?”
Gui Mian was trying to spread the quilt properly. Hearing this question, she looked up in confusion. After a while, she seemed to remember. “I was hungry when I was sleeping just now, but I couldn’t find anything to eat, so I woke myself up from hunger. When I opened my eyes, I saw you shivering in this cave. Are you cold, Master?”
Su Mingxiu followed her gaze—
The massive block of ice that she had cut from the original and used as the entrance to her cave abode was completely gone.
“Uh…” She was silent for a moment, then let out a rare sigh. “Don’t eat anything randomly anymore. If you’re hungry, have the kitchen send over some spiritual food.”
Just one trip outside with her, and Gui Mian had already shown so many unusual changes. If other members of the Sword Sect saw this, it would be difficult for her to explain.
Then, she said: “I’m not cold, you don’t need to cover me with a quilt. Go back to the Untainted Abode.”
“But Master is shivering.” Gui Mian was stubborn in some aspects.
Su Mingxiu knew what she was referring to. It was the involuntary trembling caused by the intense pain from her old injuries from the celestial lightning. But she didn’t explain further and simply closed her eyes again, continuing her meditation.
Soon.
She heard a “crack, crack, crack” sound.
Su Mingxiu could no longer circulate her spiritual energy smoothly. Thinking about how Gui Mian had even gnawed on the entrance to her cave abode, she wondered what the girl was up to now. She opened her eyes and saw, oh, she was eating pills.
Well, that’s fine then.
This time, before closing her eyes, she reminded Gui Mian: “Don’t forget to feed your little turtle, be careful not to starve it to death. If you don’t know what to feed it, ask the Beast Taming Hall.”
The little girl, reminded, got up and tried to cover Su Mingxiu with the quilt, wrapping her up tightly before skipping out. As she left, she didn’t forget to say: “Master, get well soon.”
Su Mingxiu thought that she just needed to wait patiently for news of Gui Mian’s participation in the secret realm expedition.
Who knew…
Three nights later, her little disciple came to her cultivation spot again in the middle of the night, clutching her stomach and whispering: “Master… my stomach hurts.”
“What did you eat?” Su Mingxiu asked without opening her eyes.
But the messy quilt wrapped around her was suddenly guided by a surge of spiritual energy, unfolding and wrapping the little girl rolling on the icy ground into a bundle. Then, with another jolt, the cold chill disappeared, replaced by a comforting warmth.
But Gui Mian’s condition didn’t improve. She frowned in pain, her forehead covered in cold sweat, as she tried to recall what she had eaten today. “This morning, I had sticky rice chicken from the dining hall, with mushrooms from the Hundred Herbs Hall’s medicinal fields. I also had freshly ground multigrain soy milk…”
For the next fifteen minutes.
Su Mingxiu listened to the entire menu of the Sword Sect’s dining hall for the day.
It almost made her, who had already reached a state where she didn’t need to eat, feel hungry.
However, even as Su Mingxiu’s expression gradually shifted from helplessness to blankness, she couldn’t find anything suspicious in this lengthy list of dishes.
After all, the recipes in the dining hall were carefully planned, taking into account the medicinal properties of the ingredients, to prevent disciples like Gui Mian, with a sweet tooth, from having any problems.
She interrupted: “Besides the food from the dining hall, what else did you eat?”
Gui Mian thought hard for a while. “I ate one of Black Tortoise’s snacks.”
Su Mingxiu: “?”
The little disciple looked at her cautiously, still trying to confirm: “Black Tortoise was fine after eating it, so it doesn’t count as me eating randomly, right?”
“Uh…” For a moment, Su Mingxiu wondered if she had been spoiling this little one too much.
Some lessons couldn’t be learned through words alone. The consequences of eating randomly had to be experienced firsthand.
She asked indifferently: “If you didn’t eat randomly, why is your stomach hurting so much?”
Gui Mian pouted and tugged at her sleeve. “Master, I was wrong.”
“If you were wrong, you should be punished.” Su Mingxiu looked at her like this, but she still reached out, preparing to check her pulse and see what was wrong.
But as soon as her fingertip touched the little disciple’s wrist, Gui Mian rolled around on the ground, unable to control herself. Su Mingxiu’s pupils constricted. She was about to pull her back when she felt something wrap around her forearm—
She looked down.
It was a… tail? Bright red with distinct patterns.
Following the scales, she saw that it was coming from the quilt wrapped around Gui Mian.
Su Mingxiu instinctively grabbed the tail, wanting to see what kind of demon could conceal its aura and sneak in here.
But as soon as she exerted force, she heard a cry of pain. The small face that peeked out from the quilt turned pale.
As she subconsciously loosened her grip, Gui Mian struggled to sit up. Her hair was a mess from rolling around, some strands sticking to her cheeks, making her fair face look even more disheveled.
The little disciple also saw the bright red tail extending from under the quilt, long and slender, covered in scales.
It was obviously not a human feature.
With a thought, the red tail lying on the blue ice surface flicked from side to side.
Gui Mian said in a daze: “Master… this seems to be mine?”
She added: “I grew a tail?”
On her childish and innocent face, those clear eyes were as pure as ever. But because of this contrast, the red snake tail extending from under the quilt looked even more alluring, vibrant, and bewitching.
Extreme opposites, combined in one person.
Su Mingxiu’s eyelashes trembled for a moment, but her voice remained calm: “I see it.”
Seeing that Gui Mian was no longer in pain, she reached out again, wanting to check on her little disciple. But as she moved, the tail, as if finding its target, wrapped around her wrist again. The cold touch made Su Mingxiu frown. “Don’t move.”
“Oh.” Gui Mian nodded obediently.
Then, the tip of the red tail wrapped around Su Mingxiu’s wrist curled up and gently scratched her palm.
Su Mingxiu: “…”
Gui Mian: “!”
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