Chapter 24: The Destined-to-be-Abandoned Good-for-Nothing (4) p1
A new mission appeared on the Sword Sect’s demon-slaying board.
The mission mentioned a malevolent spirit with a beautiful appearance lurking below the mountain, disguised as a female celestial, specifically targeting innocent young girls and using evil techniques to drain their vital energy. It called for Sword Sect disciples to swiftly descend the mountain and eliminate this demon.
However, many disciples accepted the mission and staked out the mountain town for months, yet they never encountered the demon.
As time passed, only a few simple missions remained on the demon-slaying board. This particular mission remained at the top, becoming a legend passed down among the inner disciples.
All of this had nothing to do with Mount Lingyu.
That day, as Su Mingxiu brought Gui Mian back to the mountain, before they even reached the cave abode, she felt her robe being tugged—
She turned around and saw Gui Mian, who had fallen face down at some point. The little girl had been fine when they first left the town, but as they reached the foot of the mountain and walked all the way up, her face had become flushed red. As she collapsed unconsciously, her cheek slid against Su Mingxiu’s robe and landed in the snow.
At first, Su Mingxiu thought that the succubus’s poison hadn’t been fully purged. She bent down, her jade-white fingertips touching Gui Mian’s neck through her clothes, and found that her temperature was alarmingly high. After a moment of thought, she took off her outer robe, wrapped Gui Mian in it, and carried her to the Hundred Herbs Hall of the Sword Sect.
When it came to treating injuries, the Hundred Herbs Hall of the Sword Sect was undoubtedly one of the best in the land. The reason was simple: nine out of ten sword cultivators were martial fanatics, constantly seeking to challenge those stronger than themselves or seeking breakthroughs in dangerous situations. They would often return to the sect with strange internal and external injuries. Over time, the Hundred Herbs Hall of the Sword Sect became renowned throughout the world.
Seeing Su Mingxiu, the disciples of the Hundred Herbs Hall immediately realized that something was wrong. After all, the Jade Elder hadn’t set foot in the hall for hundreds of years. Even when she failed her tribulation, she had only closed the gates of her mountain and cave abode, announcing that she was in secluded cultivation to heal her injuries.
What kind of injury could have brought her to the Hundred Herbs Hall?
The disciples who saw her along the way were all surprised. In less than fifteen minutes, the head elder of the Hundred Herbs Hall, Tian Nanxing, hastily excused himself from the Sect Master’s presence and returned to the hall. Seeing Su Mingxiu, he immediately asked: “Is it your old injury acting up?”
Tian Nanxing was one of the few people in the Sword Sect, besides the Sect Master, who had a close relationship with the original owner. He, Lingyu, and the current Sect Master were all disciples of the same master. However, since a few hundred years ago, when the Jade Elder came to consult him about a spiritual herb recorded in an ancient book and later developed the sinister method of “extracting spiritual roots and digging out Golden Cores,” she had started living in seclusion to avoid attention.
This elder of the Hundred Herbs Hall was one of the few who knew that she had suffered hidden injuries from her tribulation, which had hindered her cultivation progress for hundreds of years. Seeing her now, a look of concern appeared on his face. Then, he noticed the bundle in her arms.
Tian Nanxing: “This is…?”
Su Mingxiu briefly explained the incident with the succubus and handed over Gui Mian, who was still unconscious and clinging to her arm.
After a brief moment of disappointment, Tian Nanxing shifted his attention to the unconscious girl in Su Mingxiu’s arms, her face half-hidden. He paused, then seemed to remember something. “Is this your new disciple?”
Tian Nanxing led her to the inner chamber and had her lay Gui Mian down. As he examined the girl, he glanced at Su Mingxiu and said softly: “My senior brother, the Sect Master, was just talking about your disciples today. He said that if you continue to neglect them, Mount Lingyu will soon have no successors. Your reputation as a master has been somewhat… In any case, it’s great that you finally have a disciple you’re willing to protect.”
The person standing beside him only lowered her eyes, her profile breathtakingly beautiful. But there was no emotion in her eyes, making anyone who glanced at her feel a chill to the bone.
Tian Nanxing wasn’t sure if she had heard his words. He could only sigh and fetch some herbs to test for the succubus poison.
Soon, he breathed a sigh of relief. “It’s just a simple fever.” Then, he asked curiously: “How did you detoxify her?”
He didn’t believe for a second that Su Mingxiu, with her seemingly emotionless and detached demeanor, would use that method on her disciple…
But after Su Mingxiu explained, his eyes still went blank for a second.
“This…”
“As expected of you.”
Within half a day, the entire Sword Sect was buzzing with rumors. Gui Mian from Mount Lingyu had somehow won the favor of the Jade Elder. Just a simple fever had made her master rush to the Hundred Herbs Hall.
As the rumors spread, the final version became: Gui Mian, in order to learn swordsmanship from the Jade Elder, knelt in front of her cave abode for three days and three nights. Her persistence moved the most heartless elder of the Sword Sect, who decided to take her on as a closed-door disciple and even rushed to the Hundred Herbs Hall in the middle of the night, begging Elder Tian Nanxing to tell her the location of the legendary “Sentient Grass” recorded in ancient books. She wanted to awaken Gui Mian’s consciousness, open her emotions, and teach her the most powerful swordsmanship.
Su Mingxiu, hearing this rumor: “…”
As expected of the Sword Sect.
In any case, Gui Mian, through a simple fever and a period of unconsciousness, had successfully transformed from “the easily bullied nobody of the Sword Sect” to “the beloved disciple of the Jade Elder.”
After realizing that the instructions she had given to improve Gui Mian’s living conditions were being carried out even better than she had requested, Su Mingxiu decided to let the rumors run their course.
The system, however, had something to say: “If you knew this would happen, why did you resist so much when you were doing the mission before?”
It knew that, faced with such a face, Su Mingxiu wouldn’t be able to bear it. As long as she couldn’t stand to see Gui Mian suffer, she would inevitably develop a protective instinct towards her.
The more guilty and caring Su Mingxiu felt towards Gui Mian, the better it would be for completing the final mission. The system thought smugly, if Su Mingxiu felt guilty about her actions in completing the mission later on, how could she possibly try to trick the female lead into falling in love with her in those ninety days?
Ignoring the system’s words, Su Mingxiu carried the medicine that had been brewed and delivered by the Hundred Herbs Hall to the bedside.
This “Untainted Abode” wasn’t big. Compared to the spacious cave abode the original owner had created for cultivation, this place was at most a small bamboo hut. In her memory, it was specifically reserved for another person.
Later, after her beloved was injured, the Jade Elder spent all her time either cultivating to heal her injuries or searching for treasures from heaven and earth for her beloved. Moreover, Mount Lingyu rarely had visitors, so she didn’t bother maintaining the bamboo hut.
The eight disciples she had taken in later all held a sense of awe towards the original owner and didn’t dare to touch the furnishings of the hut. They relied on their cultivation to keep warm in winter and cool in summer.
Until now, a hint of warmth finally appeared on the perpetually snow-covered peak.
Su Mingxiu glanced at the temperature-regulating formation set up in the corner, and saw that the sheets and blankets covering Gui Mian were all made of fine silk. Finally, her gaze landed on a tattered patch on Gui Mian’s sleeve and lingered there for a long time before moving away.
The medicine bowl in her hand was only slightly warm, but the little girl under the quilt hadn’t regained consciousness, still sound asleep. The high fever had caused her lips to crack and peel, making her look even more pitiful.
Su Mingxiu placed the bowl aside, gathered the medicinal liquid with her hand, and used her spiritual power to turn it into a brown mist, directing it towards Gui Mian’s face.
The moment the mist touched her skin, it silently entered her bloodstream under Su Mingxiu’s guidance.
After the entire bowl of medicine was absorbed, Su Mingxiu touched Gui Mian’s forehead with the back of her hand and felt that her temperature had gone down a bit. Just as she was about to get up and leave, the little girl lying on the bed seemed to have regained consciousness, her limbs thrashing under the quilt.
The brand-new quilt slid to the floor, revealing the grey ink-stained robe that had been covering her.
The long, wide sleeves of the robe were more than enough to cover the little girl’s small frame, leaving only her flushed face exposed. The translucent gauze, with its bold and unrestrained ink strokes, seemed to bind her tightly like chains of ink.
Su Mingxiu blinked slightly, walked over, bent down, picked up the quilt, and carefully covered Gui Mian again, tucking it in tightly.
However, as she spread the quilt, her fingertip caught on something, pulling out a tangled red thread that wrapped around her wrist. As she moved away, a long length of thread trailed behind her.
Outside was the icy white snow, and the bamboo walls of the room had long faded. The light-colored quilt, the pale wrist, and the single red thread wrapped around Su Mingxiu’s wrist stood out in stark contrast, incredibly eye-catching.
Her black eyes reflected the intertwined red thread. Su Mingxiu followed the thread with her gaze, only seeing the soft quilt. She looked away and stood there for a long time.
Then, she raised her hand and formed a seal, making the red thread float out of the quilt. It automatically rolled into a small ball in mid-air and landed silently beside Gui Mian’s pillow.
As dawn broke.
Gui Mian rubbed her eyes and sat up from the bed. At first, she thought she was still in the town below the mountain. But when she looked out the window and saw the icicles hanging outside, she belatedly realized that the only place in the Southern Realm where it still snowed in April was Mount Lingyu.
She looked at the quilt covering her with confusion. Before she could figure out why the fabric was in the Untainted Abode, she saw a light outer robe slipping off the quilt.
She recognized this!
It was Master’s!
Gui Mian suddenly felt a sense of security. She grabbed the robe and got out of bed, rushing outside. However, before she could even leave the room, she almost bumped into someone. Her shoulder was caught, and a voice came from above: “Where are you going?”
She looked up and saw Su Mingxiu. A smile immediately appeared on her face as she held out the robe with both hands: “Master, your robe was left in my room.”
Su Mingxiu was still holding a medicine bowl in one hand. She took the robe with her other hand and handed the bowl to Gui Mian: “Drink it while it’s hot.”
Gui Mian let out an “Oh” and, without asking what it was, opened her mouth and gulped it down. However, after taking two sips, her face scrunched up, and she asked in a muffled voice: “What… is this?”
“Medicine,” Su Mingxiu replied. Just from the original owner’s memories, she could guess that this child had never been cared for and didn’t even know if she was sick, relying solely on her strong constitution to endure. So she explained: “You fainted when you first came up the mountain because you were sick.”
The little girl repeated the words “sick” a few times, looking confused. She picked up the bowl again and took another sip with a frown.
Su Mingxiu, rarely seeing such a lively expression on her face, raised an eyebrow and asked: “Is it bitter?”
Gui Mian nodded. She knew what bitterness was. She had been force-fed all sorts of strange things in the Sword Sect’s kitchen by her senior brothers. It was Senior Sister Qiongying who had stepped in and told her what was edible and what wasn’t.
Bitter things were not.
Thinking of this, she secretly glanced at Su Mingxiu, a rare look of hesitation appearing on her face.
Su Mingxiu had just put on her robe again. She didn’t know if it was because the room was too warm or because the robe had been warmed up in the other person’s bed for too long, but it still held a lingering warmth, which felt strange against her skin.
She was about to form a seal with her hand when she noticed Gui Mian’s expression. “What’s wrong?” she asked.
“Senior Sister said that bitter things can’t be eaten; Master said that bitter things are medicine…” The child’s face was full of confusion. But before Su Mingxiu could answer, she came to her own conclusion: “So only when you’re sick, you eat bitter things, right?”
Su Mingxiu’s movement of summoning wind with a seal slowed down for a second. After a while, her expression softened, and she replied with a hint of helplessness: “I guess so.”
Gui Mian had learned something new. This time, without frowning, she finished the bowl of medicine in one go.
After observing her expression for a while, Su Mingxiu didn’t notice anything unusual. She originally wanted to take out the candied fruits that the disciples of the Hundred Herbs Hall had sent along with the medicine, but she changed her mind.
She turned around and walked back into the snow and wind outside, leaving only a faint sentence: “Rest well.”
The wind and snow on Mount Lingyu howled, whipping at the corners of her robe. The lingering warmth that had bothered Su Mingxiu earlier instantly dissipated in the freezing air, leaving no trace.
Leave a Reply