The cyan wooden cloud-boat traveled a thousand miles in the blink of an eye, soon rendezvousing with the physicians and alchemists dispatched by Qiandai Platform.
Despite all the disciples sustaining severe injuries during the Ping’an Town operation, fortunately, none of them were in mortal danger. The only person who caused Jiang Xiaohua immense worry was Yun Mu.
“Physician, how is my junior brother’s condition?”
“Sect Master Jiang, rest assured, your junior brother is entirely out of danger.”
“Did you examine him thoroughly? When I checked his pulse earlier, his meridians were shattered, his breath was as thin as a gossamer thread, and his entire body felt on the verge of collapsing—how can he possibly be alright?” Jiang Xiaohua asked skeptically, wearing the expression of someone looking at a quack doctor.
Even if the physician inwardly disliked having his medical expertise questioned, he still inspected him carefully once more: “Perhaps he had some other fortuitous encounter. Right now, the meridians within his body are gradually repairing themselves, even broadening far beyond their original state, and the hardness of his bones and muscles seems to be strengthening as well. The lingering hidden injuries left behind from his previous drop in cultivation, as well as the sluggishness of his spiritual energy, have all improved. Once he wakes up, he will only need proper recuperation afterward.”
Hearing this, Jiang Xiaohua finally set his mind at ease, guessing that it must have been related to the body-refining his junior brother practiced recently, which allowed him to narrowly escape disaster this time around.
Had he known beforehand that the situation would be so perilous, he wouldn’t have let Yun Mu go muddy those dangerous waters for anything; should anything have gone wrong, how could he have possibly answered to Master?
A faint medicinal fragrance drifted through the side hall of Qiandai Platform.
Yun Mu’s fingers clutching the edge of the blanket trembled slightly as he stared at the translucent system panel before him, where the numbers flickered up and down like a glitching machine:
#Sui Yu’s current darkening value: 80%… 90%… 84%… 96%……
System, are you sure you’re not glitching?
The system’s electronic voice carried a rare hint of solemnity: Sui Yu’s divine soul was forcibly yanked back into his physical body at the altar. Although it didn’t shatter, it suffered the backlash of lingering resentment. When the medical cultivator from Qiandai Platform was treating him just now, the system detected abnormal fluctuations in his spiritual consciousness, and he has very likely been affected and fallen into a nightmare.
Yun Mu abruptly sat up, flung off the blanket, and planted his bare feet on the bluestone floor.
He felt around for the outer robe placed at the head of the bed, casually draped it over himself, and tugged at its sash: What are we waiting for then? Hurry over and take a look, make sure nothing goes wrong!
When he pushed open the door to his room, he happened to run into Shi Menglan walking over with a medicinal bowl.
The senior disciple had changed into a moon-white robe today, the golden hair-tassel at her temples swaying slightly with her movements: “Where is Master heading? Your injuries haven’t healed yet…”
“Nothing much, just going to check on that kid Sui Yu.” Yun Mu bypassed her, his hurried pace kicking up a gust of wind. “Right, which room is his?”
A few drops of brown medicinal liquid splashed out from the medicinal bowl at Shi Menglan’s fingertips, spattering onto the bluestone floor and blooming outward: “East… third room on the east side… but the physician said he needs quiet right now…”
The second half of her sentence drifted off into the wind; Yun Mu hadn’t paid attention at all.
The door was ajar, and Shen Xingshuang was dozing off leaning against a table, still holding two medicinal herbs in her hand.
The commotion of Yun Mu pushing the door open startled her awake, and the young girl hurriedly stood straight: “Yun… Jun… Junior Uncle… why did you come? Senior Brother Sui is still unconscious, please don’t…”
“Get out!” Yun Mu frowned as he looked at Sui Yu on the bed, impatiently waving his hand at Shen Xingshuang.
Shen Xingshuang opened her mouth, but ultimately didn’t dare say much more. She stomped her feet unwillingly and ran out looking aggrieved.
Sui Yu’s pale face nearly blended into the snow-white bedding, cold sweat seeping from his temples and his eyelashes trembling violently, as though he were entangled by something terrifying.
Yun Mu walked closer and reached out to probe his forehead. The moment his fingertips touched the skin, an illusory black fog suddenly surged out from between Sui Yu’s brows, wrapping around his fingertips.
“Hiss” He hissed in pain and pulled his hand back, yet that black fog burrowed right along his meridians as if it possessed a life of its own.
The scenery before his eyes underwent a drastic change. After a moment of dizziness, when Yun Mu opened his eyes again, he found himself standing within a large courtyard with vermilion gates.
Moss grew in the seams of the bluestone paving, and a draft sweeping through the hallway rustled the ginkgo leaves into a crisp patter.
Several children wearing brocade garments were clustered around a well, with a tiny figure cowering in the center.
“Monster!” A girl tied with double-buns akimbo scolded, “A mongrel with white hair and fox ears, how dare you even think of playing with us?”
That tiny figure cowering even tighter, and Yun Mu could now clearly see that it was a young Sui Yu.
He looked to be only seven or eight years old, wearing washed-out, coarsened-cloth short garments. Two tufts of snow-white fluff peeked out from the tips of his ears, glowing a bright reddish hue beneath the sparse fur he had obviously just been yanked hard by someone.
The ringleader boy picked up a stone and hurled it: “Your mother is a demon, and you’re a demon too! Our Sui family doesn’t want monsters!”
“It’s not…” Young Sui Yu curled into a ball, his arms shielding his head, “I didn’t…”
“Still trying to quibble?” Another boy in brocade grabbed his collar and hoisted him up, “My sister’s jade bracelet broke yesterday, it must have been you, this monster, who messed with it!” Saying so, he kicked young Sui Yu in the stomach, “Father said he’s going to break your legs!”
Yun Mu wanted to rush over and pull them apart, but discovered he was like an illusory shadow, only able to watch as young Sui Yu was kicked into crashing against the rockery.
At that moment, an authoritative male voice came from the courtyard entrance: “What’s all this commotion?”
Sui Huaizhong, Yun Mu recognized this to be Sui Yu’s father.
He wore the scarlet official robes of a fourth-rank civil official, walking over with furrowed brows. Upon seeing young Sui Yu cowering on the ground, his gaze instantly turned icy: “Causing trouble again?”
“Dad! He’s the one who pushed Prince Zhao’s Princess Changning!” The ringleader boy hid behind Sui Huaizhong, “A-Ning’s bracelet shattered into pieces, and she’s still bedridden and unable to get up!”
“N-No… it wasn’t me… Dad, I didn’t push her…”
Sui Huaizhong squatted down, pinching young Sui Yu’s chin to force him to look up: “Your mother was a Baize demon, you should have been strangled the moment you were born.” His thumb ground against the fluffy fur at young Sui Yu’s ear tips, “And now look at you, even your own kin cannot tolerate you.”
Young Sui Yu’s eye rims were red, biting his lip as he stopped talking; he knew that saying anything was meaningless.
Sui Huaizhong sneered coldly, flicked his sleeves, and said, “Lock him in the cellar for three days, without food or water, to see if he dares cause trouble again!”
The cellar was damp and chilly, the moldy stench so thick it made it difficult to open one’s eyes.
He watched as young Sui Yu curled up in a pile of straw, his lips chapped and bleeding, his fingers digging into the seams of the bluestone slabs as he muttered, “I didn’t push A-Ning…”
Three days later, the cellar door was suddenly kicked open.
Several bailiffs rushed in with torches, shouting, “I don’t know who the Sui family offended, but the entire household has been massacred! Go check if there are any survivors left!”
Young Sui Yu groggily tried to crawl out, only to be kicked right back by a bailiff: “Stinking monster, you must be the one who brought this disaster!”
When Yun Mu was thrown into the mass grave along with young Sui Yu, it was raining.
The scent of rotting corpses mixed with blood sloshed over their ankles, and young Sui Yu stared at the grey, hazy sky with hollow eyes, whimpering like a young beast from the back of his throat: “Why… they’re all dead, so why am I not sad?”
“Because they never treated you like family.” Yun Mu was finally able to speak.
He squatted down, wiping the blood and dirt from young Sui Yu’s face with his sleeve: “You did nothing wrong.”
Young Sui Yu abruptly raised his head, panic flashing in the depths of his eyes.
Only then did Yun Mu realize that his appearance in the illusion differed from reality there was no rigid expression, no deliberately maintained sharp tongue, only a pair of eyes brimming with tenderness.