The remaining wolf demons were broken one after another by Gu Ning like so many melons sliced and vegetables chopped.
That scene of melon-slicing and vegetable-chopping put a look of pure shock on Dumpling's face as it lay panting in a corner.
Though the rump behind it, mottled black and blue, still had it shaken. It had come within a hair of being reincarnated as its own dinner.
CRACK—
As the last wolf demon was killed, the nerves Gu Ning had drawn tight relaxed as well, and she put her sword away.
"Stinking imm— pff, pff, pff, Fairy, this here is the main pill chamber, and it's got the good stuff in it."
Dumpling limped over, having said what it was thinking without meaning to, and hastily talked over itself.
Gu Ning's hand paused in the middle of sheathing her sword, and she cut one cold glance at the smug little wretch.
Insufferable. This dog really was asking to be hit.
She would love to stew it.
Still, Gu Ning went on pretending she had not heard, walked to that stone door covered in formation patterns, and laid a slender hand on it.
Nothing happened. Silence.
She knocked on it.
Still no response.
Whereupon she formed the sword seal and prepared to pick the lock by force.
"Hey, hey, hey, Fairy, don't get excited!!!"
Dumpling had been watching this sequence hoping to see her make a fool of herself, but the moment sword energy wrapped itself around her.
It got a fright, and all four short legs scrambled over to stop her.
"That door's protected by a formation. If it takes an attack from outside it locks for good and never opens again!"
Dumpling clawed frantically at Gu Ning's hem to head off her next move.
Only then did Gu Ning break off the attack, and she raised an eyebrow and asked.
"Then how does it open? Can you crack it?"
Dumpling's face changed.
"Uh... actually, I can't."
"You..."
Gu Ning had no words. And here she thought she had found the safe room, and now she was being told there was no key card?
The trouble was that the body's original owner had cultivated the sword dao and had only ever dipped a toe into formations, never gone deep. It was no use here.
Just as Gu Ning was chewing on the problem, a graceful figure in purple drifted over.
It was Yu Ruo.
She studied the formation on the stone door for a moment, then her lips moved and she laid her hand against it.
The runes on the door lit up.
"Strong, strong! So the one in purple was holding something back after all!"
Dumpling looked at the Yu Ruo it had been chasing eight streets earlier and, having assumed she was purely decorative, found that she had her uses.
Gu Ning quietly slapped her own forehead. How had she forgotten her?
If she could not open the door, how had she meant to bring the legacy out?
Much as she hated to admit it, Yu Ruo was extremely useful.
Gu Ning let out an unconvinced little snort and stepped aside.
Before long the light gradually dimmed, and with a rumble.
The stone door opened.
Yu Ruo's slender frame trembled slightly, and the spiritual energy around her had noticeably thinned.
Cracking it had plainly cost her a great deal.
Hiss, hiss, hiss—
A medicinal fragrance beyond describing came drifting out.
The three of them went in.
The light was fairly dim, but they could just make out their surroundings.
Stone walls on all sides. The whole main pill chamber was like a cave hewn out by hand.
Pill furnaces large and small stood about on the stone-tiled floor in considerable disorder.
But the largest furnace in the center drew every eye.
The thick medicinal fragrance was drifting out of it.
Gu Ning walked up, her gaze settling on the furnace's lid.
And beside her, Dumpling was sizing up this odd furnace out of curiosity.
Its advantage of being short let it see a few characters carved near the base.
It read them quietly aloud.
"Poison within. Do not open..."
"?"
And Gu Ning had already reached out and lifted the furnace lid, opening a crack.
And through that crack alone, a thick green mist came spraying out of the furnace.
Gu Ning knew at once this was bad and held her breath on the instant, but it was already too late.
The mist could actually seep through skin and into the body.
Dumpling and Yu Ruo were further off and had backed to safety by the time they reacted, taking only a slight dose.
As the smoke dispersed, Gu Ning felt a scalding pain in her throat, and an unnatural dark red surfaced on her skin.
Yu Ruo and Dumpling hurried over to see how she was.
"Fairy? How bad is it!"
"Senior Sister?"
Gu Ning looked at the two of them and opened her mouth, only to find she could not make a sound at all.
"Just panting with nothing coming out? Don't mess with me, I don't read lips."
Dumpling grumbled.
But Yu Ruo saw something different. Gu Ning appeared to have been struck mute.
And she looked poisoned besides, and the poisoning looked like...
Just then a green pill the size of a longan came floating out of the furnace mouth.
"A Nirvana Pill?"
Dumpling said it in shock.
Yu Ruo had not expected it either. What this furnace had refined was an ancient pill lost for ages.
Nirvana, as the name said, could scour a cultivator's spirit root, physique and soul clean, to immeasurable benefit.
"Cough, cough..."
Gu Ning felt her spiritual power stall and go nowhere, and swallowing was like countless silver needles going in, until a thin film of water rose at the corners of her eyes despite her.
"This is awful..."
Yu Ruo looked at the pain on Gu Ning's face and frowned.
"Senior Sister, you have taken the medicinal poison thrown off by a Nirvana refining. There is no way to neutralize it as yet. However..."
Yu Ruo lowered her head and looked at the Nirvana Pill in her hand.
"The Nirvana Pill does have the property of driving toxins out of the body. Only, taken by mouth its effect is limited. It works only applied to the skin."
Gu Ning listened to all this with some surprise.
But the roles were reversed now. It was not Yu Ruo who needed help. It was her.
Gu Ning leaned back against the stone wall, shut her eyes, and forced the restlessness down.
What she hated most in this life was showing weakness. In her past life and as a sword immortal in this one, that temper had been the same.
But between Tao Yao's teasing and now this humiliating position, her disguise was being broken through again and again.
It made her want to cry.
Yu Ruo held the pill and was in no hurry, knowing perfectly well that the senior sister in front of her would sooner suffer than lose face, and that helping her uninvited might well backfire.
"Hmph. Rather well behaved, aren't you..." Gu Ning cursed sourly in the privacy of her own head, then drew a breath and produced a small, weak "all right."
Yu Ruo looked at her senior sister giving in and smiled faintly.
She closed the pill in her palm and shut her eyes.
Jade-green liquid seeped out of its surface and gathered in her hand.
"The first site is the neck, Senior Sister."
Gu Ning turned aside, gathered her long hair to one side, and bared the long, pale back of her neck.
Cool fingertips came to rest against it.
Gu Ning's shoulders gave an involuntary shiver.
The area was not large, and it was done before long.
"The second site is the lower belly. That is the road the toxin must take through the Sea of Qi point."
This time Gu Ning hesitated, but she set her teeth and did not resist.
"Call it Tao Yao, round two. Damn it!"
She turned to face Yu Ruo and reached down to unfasten the sash at her waist.
Her robe fell open, baring a smooth, softly shaped belly.
Under that fair skin, faint blue-green veins could just be made out. The toxin had spread through her whole body, as expected.
Yu Ruo's gaze darkened, as though she were holding something down, but she dissolved out a portion of the liquid all the same and wet her fingers with it.
Gu Ning glared at her, bit down on her lower lip, and braced herself against the itch.
Contact.
The cold of it still made her belly clench hard, and then Yu Ruo's hand began drawing circles on it, the pressure very light, the rhythm even.
Gu Ning bit down on her lip, but the small sound in her throat gave her away.
Before long that prickling, numbing feeling stopped.
She saw the not-quite-smile in Yu Ruo's eyes.
Gu Ning turned her head aside in vexation, the roots of her ears taking on a faint wash of pink.
Gu Ning had assumed it was over and was about to sit up and settle herself, when Yu Ruo's next words made her lovely eyes go wide.
"The last site is the soles of your feet."