Shen Qinghe looked at the unusually quiet Spirit Medicine Valley today and felt an inexplicable sense of dread.
She turned to Lizhu. “Can you sense where the Demonic Creatures in Spirit Medicine Valley are?”
Lizhu said in a calm voice, “The Demonic Creatures here are smarter than the dream demon. If we find someone who’s been tainted by Demonic Qi, we should be able to locate them.”
That wasn’t hard to find, since Spirit Medicine Valley had already been attacked by Demonic Creatures once. All they needed was to check the wounded.
For example, the Valley Master, who was still unconscious.
Just then, Chu Yueshuang approached from not far away. She glanced at the somewhat eerie young man beside Shen Qinghe and said in a low voice, “Where did you go off to? I’ve been looking everywhere for you. This is the Medicinal Pill I refined today—who said I couldn’t succeed?”
Shen Qinghe gave it a glance. “This pill’s color is dull. It must be from last year.”
“Who said that!” Chu Yueshuang protested quietly. “It’s your imagination.”
Shen Qinghe said, “I take medicine every day. You think I can’t tell the difference?”
Chu Yueshuang instantly wilted like an eggplant hit by frost, slumping to the ground. “You didn’t tell anyone, did you? If you did, Master will scold me to death.”
Shen Qinghe shook her head. “Not yet. Just now you looked like you’d rather die than have me say anything. It was kind of pitiful.”
“Who said that… forget it, I’ll just tell you directly.”
Chu Yueshuang seemed to lose all her strength as she sighed. “It’s been like this all year. I don’t know what’s going on either. Our Spirit Medicine Valley hasn’t produced a single finished Medicinal Pill this year. Master said it’s because of the weather and told us to focus on our cultivation first.
But we’re alchemists. Even if we study other spells first, we’ll eventually have to refine pills. No one has succeeded.”
“Haven’t you figured out the reason yet?” Shen Qinghe asked.
“No.”
Chu Yueshuang shook her head, her voice strained. “Our Spirit Medicine Valley isn’t going to be finished, is it?”
“It shouldn’t come to that. What about moving somewhere else?”
Chu Yueshuang said, “Spirit Medicine Valley has the most variety of spirit herbs, they grow the fastest, and we have the seed flame of Danxin Fire—this is the most suitable place for alchemy. Tell me, where else could we go?”
Shen Qinghe was at a loss for words.
Chu Yueshuang said, “Forget it, I won’t waste time talking to you. I still need to attend to the Valley Master’s treatment today.”
Shen Qinghe immediately said, “We’ll go with you.”
Chu Yueshuang glanced at the White-haired youth beside her.
He barely had any Spiritual Power, yet not long ago, he had easily rendered her unable to move.
This person was not to be trifled with!
Just who was this person Shen Qinghe liked?
Seeing the White-haired youth look over, his pitch-black eyes filled with nothing but coldness, looking at her as if she were already dead.
Chu Yueshuang quickly averted her gaze.
“Strange. Why haven’t we seen a single disciple today?” Along the way, Chu Yueshuang also sensed something was off.
The moment she pushed open the door to the Valley Master’s chamber, before she could even make out the scene inside, a mass of black mist came charging straight at her.
Chu Yueshuang stood frozen in place, unable to react in time as the black mist hurtled directly toward her.
“Watch out!”
Shen Qinghe hastily tossed out six Demon-Warding Needles, forming a hexagonal transparent wall around the black mist.
The needle tips aimed at the center of the black mist.
She gathered her five fingers. “Close!”
The six Demon-Warding Needles converged toward the center simultaneously. Upon closer inspection, one could see that each needle was controlled by a thin stream of water.
“Bang!”
The black mist burst apart like a punctured balloon, dissipating in an instant.
The six Demon-Warding Needles, as if having fulfilled their mission, turned to dust and vanished.
Chu Yueshuang stared at her, her eyes filled with shock that this “good-for-nothing” had actually learned how to deal with Demonic Creatures.
“Bang!”
The black mist dissipated instantly, like a punctured balloon.
The six Demon-Warding Needles, having fulfilled their purpose, crumbled into dust and vanished.
Chu Yueshuang glanced at her, her eyes full of surprise that this useless girl actually knew how to deal with demons.
But she said nothing, hurrying into the Sect Leader’s Hall.
Lizhu patted Shen Qinghe’s head. “Impressive.”
This was a formation Shen Qinghe had designed using the Demon-Warding Needles, driven by water-element spells—simple and effective.
Shen Qinghe said with a hint of smugness, “Of course. Let’s go inside.”
Lizhu’s eyes grew somewhat deep and unreadable. “You’d better not go in.”
“Why not? I’m definitely going.”
Perhaps because Shen Qinghe had been obedient too many times in her past life, in this life her rebellious streak had emerged, and she always liked to say the opposite of what she was told.
Then, she regretted it.
Before she even stepped into the building, a thick, heavy stench of blood hit her in the face.
The moment Shen Qinghe smelled it, she nearly gagged. She was about to turn around when she saw Lizhu watching her with a faint, knowing smile.
She immediately walked into the room.
Tables and chairs were scattered everywhere. In the center, a plaque inscribed with “Blessings for All Living Beings” lay shattered in two, its characters stained red, looking as if someone had altered it to read “Death to All.”
“This culprit doesn’t seem very cultured—didn’t even use a proper idiom. Ugh.” Shen Qinghe bent over, and this time she actually vomited.
Lizhu looked confused. “Why are you throwing up?”
“…” She couldn’t exactly say she couldn’t stand the smell of blood—that would make her sound weak.
A mischievous impulse struck her. She straightened up and said, “Because you’ve got a baby in me, of course.”
Lizhu’s mouth fell slightly open, his expression frozen, as if struck by a massive shock. “How is that possible?!”
Seeing his reaction, Shen Qinghe almost laughed. This man didn’t understand what Dual Cultivation was, or the difference between men and women—he was truly amusing.
The stench of blood suddenly didn’t seem so overwhelming. Shen Qinghe stood up straight and said with complete confidence, “Of course it’s possible. We’ve lain on the same bed, so that counts as Dual Cultivation, and Dual Cultivation means a baby.”
“But I thought… holding each other counts as Dual Cultivation.” Lizhu countered, though clearly lacking conviction.
Shen Qinghe didn’t know who had told him that, but she went along with it anyway. “That counts too. Look at how many times we’ve held each other, how many times we’ve Dual Cultivated. It’s perfectly normal to have a baby.”
Lizhu stood there, stunned.
Shen Qinghe couldn’t hold it in and burst out laughing. She was about to explain when a shrill cry suddenly came from inside.
“Sect Leader, who did this to you?!”
Only then did Shen Qinghe realize something was wrong with their surroundings. She hurried toward the inner room.
The path inside was winding and twisted, like a maze.
After two turns, Shen Qinghe found herself facing two separate paths. She could only look to Lizhu.
Lizhu: “About the baby…”
Shen Qinghe’s lips twitched. “We’ll talk about that later. Let’s focus on the matter at hand first.”
Lizhu looked puzzled. “Isn’t the baby the matter at hand?”
Shen Qinghe saw his earnest expression and found herself momentarily unable to argue.
No, wait—there was no baby at all.
If she explained now, Lizhu would probably throw a fit.
“Let’s go check on the Sect Leader first. You can go in, right?” Shen Qinghe tugged at Lizhu’s sleeve, looking up at him pleadingly. “You’ll listen to your baby’s mother, won’t you?”
Lizhu pressed his lips together, but in the end, he listened to her, pulling her into his arms.
In his limited memory, he only remembered that when females in his clan were pregnant, they needed to be protected.
And this human before him—fragile and useless—had to be watched even more closely.
Shen Qinghe didn’t understand why, but being held by him, she could no longer smell the heavy stench of blood.
Instead, there was a faint, cool fragrance that was strangely reassuring.
She looked down at the floor. There were bloodstains there too, shocking to behold. The Sect Leader’s blood must have all drained out by now—or perhaps it wasn’t just the Sect Leader’s blood.
Shen Qinghe thought of something, her hand moving slightly as a few drops of water fell from her fingers to the ground.
The bloodstains did not merge with the water; instead, they separated into distinct droplets of blood.
Shen Qinghe’s eyes widened, her face gradually turning pale as she hugged the young man tighter.
He returned the embrace, pausing for a few seconds before gently patting her back.
They finally reached the inner chamber, which was likewise covered in blood everywhere.
Chu Yueshuang looked at them blankly. Beside her lay the Valley Master’s corpse, covered only by a thin cloth, with nothing underneath.
Shen Qinghe was startled again: “Was this a humiliation—”
Before she could finish, Chu Yueshuang had already guessed what she was about to say and snapped angrily: “No! The Valley Master’s body is intact—there are no signs of… of desecration.”
Shen Qinghe apologized quickly, even though she hadn’t finished her sentence: “Sorry, pretend I said nothing.”
Chu Yueshuang opened her mouth to say more, but catching sight of the cold-eyed man behind Shen Qinghe, she swallowed her words and said through her grief: “I’ll go find the Deputy Valley Master and report this matter now.”
Shen Qinghe said: “There might be something else you need to report. The blood here isn’t just from the Spirit Medicine Valley Master—it’s from many people.”
A few drops of pale blue liquid dripped from her hand onto the bloodstains on the ground, and the blood separated into individual droplets that refused to merge.
“This is a blood-testing solution I made myself. If the blood isn’t from the same bloodline, it separates.”
Lizhu was quite curious: “How did you come up with the idea to make this?”
Shen Qinghe coughed lightly: “These days, even cultivators who become Dao Companions enjoy great freedom, so this is to guard against the possibility of children being swapped or switched at birth.”
Lizhu: “Wow, what an impressive blood-testing solution.”
Chu Yueshuang was in no mood to joke around with them. She stared at the separated droplets of blood—dense and countless, impossible to tell how many people’s blood was there.
Shen Qinghe was astonished. A quick count revealed that the blood belonged to over a hundred people.
What on earth had happened here? With that much blood from so many people, there was only one corpse—the Valley Master’s!