Although he was indeed saved by Lin Meimei in the end, this experience forced Lin Xueqing to re-examine himself.
This cultivation world was still very dangerous.
Aside from the major danger of Ye Mingjing, there were minor dangers everywhere.
To survive in the cultivation world, the most fundamental thing one relies on is, of course, one’s own cultivation. Therefore, from that day on, the seed of cultivation was planted in Lin Xueqing’s heart.
Since Ye Mingjing was soaking in the medicinal bath these few days.
And didn’t need him to play the sycophant.
Lin Xueqing thought he would cultivate in seclusion for a while. Even if he could only improve a tiny bit, that tiny bit was still an improvement!
But unexpectedly, Feng Ruyu stopped him:
“No. You can cultivate, but you aren’t allowed to go into seclusion.”
Lin Xueqing asked: “Why?”
Feng Ruyu said: “Four days from now is the time to change the medicinal bath. Do you expect me to go alone?”
Lin Xueqing: “Didn’t you just say an array could solve it?”
“An array can solve it, yes.”
Feng Ruyu paused and said solemnly: “But who told you that I’m not afraid of facing Ye Mingjing alone?”
Lin Xueqing: “…”
It was written in the book later.
The three words “Ye Mingjing” became a household “child-stopping cry medicine” in the cultivation world.
There was a reason for that.
Even the doctor was afraid of him; this level of terror was truly unparalleled!
In the end, Lin Xueqing compromised.
He decided to find a grotto-mansion near Ye Mingjing to cultivate, but as Feng Ruyu said, he would cultivate without going into full seclusion.
If there was any movement from Ye Mingjing next door, he could rush over in time.
When Feng Ruyu changed the medicinal bath for Ye Mingjing, he would also be by his side.
Even, when he was tired from cultivating, he would sit near the rock wall of the grotto to rest. Through the rock layers, he could still hear the gurgling sound of the spring water bubbling from next door.
Whenever this happened, he would think.
Ye Mingjing is next door behaving himself and soaking in the medicinal bath.
Then he must also work hard to improve himself as quickly as possible.
So he swallowed two Qi-supplementing pills, sat cross-legged, and continued cultivating!
Four days passed like this.
By the evening of the fourth day, Feng Ruyu came to find him with a new gourd.
“Silly boy, it’s time to change the medicine.”
Feng Ruyu shouted at the entrance of the grotto-mansion.
Lin Xueqing was regulating his breathing, but estimating the time, he knew Feng Ruyu was about to arrive, so he hadn’t entered a very deep meditative state.
As soon as Feng Ruyu shouted, even through the long mountain tunnel, he woke up instantly.
After exhaling.
Lin Xueqing stood up and flew out of the grotto with light footsteps.
“Who are you calling a silly boy!”
Feng Ruyu was all smiles, his head swaying, the things on his body clinking and clattering: “I call whoever answers.”
Lin Xueqing landed, showed his face, raised an eyebrow with a light huff, and said, “I’m not silly.”
Feng Ruyu sized him up from top to bottom and was surprised: “Yo, not bad. You really aren’t silly; in just a few days’ time, you’ve reached the fourth level of Foundation Establishment?”
Hearing this, Lin Xueqing was very happy: “Really?”
“You didn’t know?”
“I had a vague feeling.”
When he was cultivating this morning, he suddenly felt his spiritual platform become clear and bright, and the speed of spiritual energy circulating through his body increased several times.
He was a bit worried at first.
But then he thought, it wasn’t a Qi deviation, so what was there to fear?
So, following the heart sutra formulas, he continuously circulated spiritual energy, inhaling, exhaling, then inhaling, then exhaling… after repeating this several hundred times.
Whoosh!
He opened his eyes. It seemed something had changed, yet nothing had.
If one were to speak of a major change, there indeed wasn’t one.
But he felt his eyes had become much better; he could clearly see even small insects several dozen meters away.
His hearing was also much sharper. Before, he could only hear the gurgling of the spring; now he could even hear Ye Mingjing’s steady breathing.
“It is indeed a breakthrough. As expected of a descendant of the Lin family from the Pill Sect.”
Feng Ruyu praised.
“Does it have to do with me being a descendant?”
“Naturally. In the path of cultivation, talent, inheritance, and bone-meridians are all of utmost importance. The Lin family of the Pill Sect has been a single-descendant line for eighteen generations, with the Heavenly Fire Spiritual Root. Each generation has only one child, so the talent is naturally excellent.”
“Oh.”
So that was it.
Lin Xueqing had thought it was his own extraordinary talent!
But Feng Ruyu added: “However, it also has to do with a person’s later encounters and efforts. You were stuck at the third level of Foundation Establishment for a long time. It should be because you first fought Rong Yaowei and then encountered those three demon cultivators. Having had the life-and-death stimulation of those two encounters, you were able to make a breakthrough recently.”
Saying it this way.
Lin Xueqing felt much more comfortable.
“In short, I’ve broken through.”
He said.
Feng Ruyu said: “Indeed, congratulations are in order.”
Lin Xueqing’s eyes sparkled with joy: “Then today is a double blessing.”
Feng Ruyu was puzzled: “The other blessing being?”
Lin Xueqing: “Changing the medicine for the Venerable One.”
Feng Ruyu: “…”
You call this a blessing?
So basically, you aren’t the one doing the work!
Considering that Ye Mingjing was also nearby, Feng Ruyu’s lips twitched a few times, but in the end, he didn’t voice any complaints.
“Alright, let’s go. It’s about time.”
Feng Ruyu turned and walked toward the neighboring grotto-mansion.
Lin Xueqing followed closely behind, step for step.
The two were fast on their feet.
In just a few moments, they arrived at the entrance of the grotto-mansion.
However, Feng Ruyu had set up a restriction in advance, fearing that idle people might disturb them, and also fearing that some reckless small animals in the back mountain might barge in blindly. So at this moment, the entrance looked like an ordinary tree; one would never imagine there was a whole other world inside.
“I’m lifting the restriction now.”
Standing before the large tree, Feng Ruyu spoke toward the interior.
These words were naturally not meant for Lin Xueqing.
So Lin Xueqing didn’t need to answer, and Ye Mingjing didn’t need to answer either. Feng Ruyu was merely notifying Ye Mingjing, telling him: “I’m coming in.”
Then, with a wave of his hand and a solemn expression, he removed the restriction.
After the restriction was removed, the original appearance of the grotto entrance was revealed. At this point, it was time for Lin Xueqing, the original owner of the grotto, to act.
He held a token in his hand.
On the token, the large character “Pill” was written in red on a black background.
He waved the token in front of the large stone tablet at the grotto entrance. Rumble—
It worked better than a combination lock.
The large stone tablet slowly moved aside.
The two looked at each other, then began to walk inside at an unhurried pace.
The path inside was much smoother.
Both had walked it many times, so they were familiar with the route. Before long, they reached the location of the spring eye.
A full seven days had passed. The situation here had naturally changed compared to seven days ago.
Ignoring Ye Mingjing, who was soaking in the pool, and speaking only of the surrounding environment, much had changed.
Because the water vapor was constantly rising but could not disperse, the entire grotto space was filled with a hazy mist, as if in the clouds.
When Lin Xueqing first arrived, he almost thought he had come to a fairyland.
Then there was the core area.
That is, the spring eye inside the grotto.
When Lin Xueqing had left, the water in the spring eye was pitch black, blacker than a pot of stewed Chinese medicine. Now that seven days had passed, Lin Xueqing took a closer look and saw that the spring water had actually become much clearer.
Lin Xueqing grew anxious for a moment, not realizing that this was because the medicinal effects had been absorbed. He hurried to ask Feng Ruyu: “Lord Ghost Doctor, why has the water cleared? Has the restriction you used to block the flow of the spring eye failed?”
“Your restriction is the one that failed!”
Feng Ruyu said crossly.
As he spoke, he waved his sleeves, using spiritual power to disperse the mist in the entire space.
“It’s clearly because the medicine has been absorbed. Look—”
He pointed to Ye Mingjing soaking in the pool of clear water and raised his eyebrows triumphantly.
The mist dispersed.
Ye Mingjing, soaking in the spring, was finally revealed before them.
With just one look, Lin Xueqing was dazed.
“This, this…”
Lin Xueqing found it hard to believe everything happening before his eyes. Because seven days ago, he had personally watched as he sent the battered and bruised Ye Mingjing into the medicinal spring.
So he knew better than anyone what Ye Mingjing looked like before.
Calling it “battered and bruised” was an understatement… he was completely covered in wounds, with injuries upon injuries, and new wounds growing over old ones!
But now.
It had only been seven days.
Visible to the naked eye, some of the once-ghastly and terrifying wounds had already healed, leaving no trace behind.
There were also some that had been very malicious.
For example, that very repulsive palm print on Ye Mingjing’s chest.
Although it hadn’t completely disappeared, its color had clearly faded significantly.
As the scars faded, Ye Mingjing’s original skin was naturally revealed. It wasn’t exactly to the level of “skin like congealed fat,” as Ye Mingjing had practiced the sword for many years and was constantly injured.
Expecting a Sword Venerable’s skin to be like congealed fat would be too difficult.
But even without being like congealed fat, the current body was lean and muscular with balanced proportions. His skin tone appeared white with a hint of pink in the not-quite-clear spring water, making one look and…
“Hey, hey, what are you staring at! I feel like your nosebleed is about to come out.”
Feng Ruyu snapped Lin Xueqing out of it.
Lin Xueqing awkwardly rubbed his nose and said, “There’s too much water vapor here; it’s too hot.”
“Really?”
Feng Ruyu looked at him suspiciously.
Lin Xueqing felt uncomfortable under his gaze and quickly changed the subject: “Really, really. Let’s stop talking nonsense and hurry up and change the medicine.”
Feng Ruyu shrugged and said, “Fine, then I’ll start.”
Lin Xueqing nodded.
Ye Mingjing in the pool still had his eyes closed, showing no reaction.
Feng Ruyu took out the gourd, but unlike the first time, he didn’t pour it directly into the spring eye.
“This water has already soaked for seven days and been polluted by demonic Qi; it needs to be changed.”
As he spoke, he first removed the restriction that had been preventing the spring water from flowing.
Once the restriction was removed, Lin Xueqing immediately heard the sound of flowing spring water. At the same time, as expected, the water level in the pool began to drop.
As soon as the water level dropped.
Lin Xueqing immediately became nervous.
For no other reason than the fact that as the water level dropped, more and more of Ye Mingjing’s body would be exposed.
At first, it was only from the chest up.
Pectorals, shoulders.
Slowly, the abdominal muscles began to show.
Lin Xueqing had never worked out, but he knew very well that Ye Mingjing absolutely possessed the kind of physique that gym-goers could only dream of.
The muscle lines were clear.
The shapes were well-defined and beautiful, neatly arranged like a bar of chocolate.
This part was fine; it would be a pity not to look at such a beautiful body.
It was just that if it went any lower…
“Still want to look?”
“Stop looking, your eyes are about to pop out.”
“I wasn’t looking.”
Lin Xueqing defended himself guiltily: “I was just worried, pure worry.”
“Worried about what? Relax, with me here, there’s no need to worry about anything.” Feng Ruyu smiled, and the water level subsequently stopped dropping.
At the same time.
As if by magic.
Fresh spring water, not polluted in the slightest, began to flow into the spring eye.
Miraculously, the incoming spring water actually did not merge with the existing spring water. It was as if there were a layer of invisible glass between the two, strictly separating them.
Lin Xueqing: “..”
“Oh my, someone might be disappointed.” Feng Ruyu teased with his words, while on the other side, his hands didn’t stop, pouring all the medicinal powder from the gourd into the fresh spring water.
Thus, the clear raw water instantly turned black again.
Only then.
Did he release the water flow below.
Gurgle, gurgle. The spring water began to flow, and the pitch-black medicinal bath spread from top to bottom, once again tightly enveloping Ye Mingjing’s entire body without leaving the slightest gap.
“Silly boy, are you angry?”
“No.”
“Still saying no, you are clearly angry.” Feng Ruyu said, “Don’t be angry. I’m doing this to protect you too. You don’t understand Ye Mingjing’s temper, but I understand it best. If you had really seen it today, once he recovers, we’d both have more than we could handle.”
Lin Xueqing said gloomily, “I’m really not.”
It was just… a tiny bit of gloominess, that’s all.
What was the gloominess about?
Lin Xueqing thought it didn’t seem to be gloom over not seeing things he shouldn’t see, although he was indeed a bit curious. But as Feng Ruyu said.
Even if that thing were dangling openly before his eyes.
He wouldn’t dare look!
Then why?
Lin Xueqing couldn’t think of an answer for a moment. In the end, he could only temporarily attribute it to the fact that perhaps he was unwilling to have his unseemly thoughts exposed by Feng Ruyu in front of Ye Mingjing.
Even if he admitted.
He wasn’t particularly noble.
But perhaps out of self-esteem, he simply didn’t want to be exposed in front of Ye Mingjing.
However, once the matter passed, it passed. Ye Mingjing hadn’t opened his eyes during the whole process; perhaps the Great Demon Head had been sleeping the whole time and hadn’t heard a thing.
Only when he thought of this did Lin Xueqing feel better, and a smile returned to his face.
“Let’s not talk about that. Lord Ghost Doctor, tell me when the Venerable One will be able to stand up!”