The untied waistband fell to the ground. Calming her mind, Ji Zhixing carefully parted the outer robe with her subtly trembling fingers.
It revealed a pure white inner garment stained with blood.
Ji Zhixing’s already unstable mind was completely thrown into turmoil. Tightly closing her eyes, she relied on the impression in her memory before shutting them, reaching out until her fingertips touched the knot tied on the inner garment.
With a gentle pull from her hand, the inner garment fell to the ground as well.
Ji Zhixing’s heart thumped wildly.
Because she had deprived herself of sight, the sensation beneath her hands became all the more pronounced.
The pad of her index finger pressed against Lu Qing’an’s collarbone, tracing all the way downward.
She only barely stopped once she touched the dried blood around the wound.
Opening the cap of the ointment bottle, she realized that she could not apply the medicine with her eyes closed.
Yet opening her eyes.
Ji Zhixing truly did not quite dare to. After wrestling with her thoughts for a moment, she slipped off her own outer robe.
Pressing down on Lu Qing’an’s shoulders, she draped it over her by feel.
Fumbling carefully along the edges of the garment, she confirmed that Lu Qing’an’s upper body was securely covered before she finally opened her eyes.
Her frame was smaller than Lu Qing’an’s, so it barely managed to cover the skin that had just been exposed. If it shifted even slightly out of place, everything would be laid bare.
Ji Zhixing let out a long breath. Carefully lifting the outer robe from the abdomen and parting Lu Qing’an’s clothes once more, she finally saw the wound.
The blackness surrounding the raw, red hole was glaring. Ji Zhixing quickly smeared the ointment over it and rubbed it in thoroughly and evenly.
After confirming there were no issues, Ji Zhixing gently smoothed the clothes back into place.
Looking up, she saw Lu Qing’an staring at her with bright, clear eyes, a playful look in her gaze.
She had no idea how long she had been watching.
“Senior Sister, you certainly have a lot of steps for applying medicine.”
“First taking off my clothes, then taking off yours.”
A playful smile curled at the corners of her lips. Her lips were pale, yet her eyes shone brightly.
Annoyed by her words, Ji Zhixing opened her mouth to refute her, yet she did not know what to say.
“It is not as if I mind anyway. Xia Qingyi and I take baths together all the time,” Lu Qing’an said casually.
Listening to Lu Qing’an’s words, Ji Zhixing placed her hand on the arrow lodged in her calf, letting out an unreadable “Oh.”
With a swift yank of her hand, the arrow came free.
Another trail of blood arched through the air.
Lu Qing’an’s body twitched from the agony, and this time she fainted completely.
Moving with unusual haste, Ji Zhixing rolled the pant legs up to her knees and applied the medicine.
When Lu Qing’an woke up again, she found her clothes neatly dressed, and Ji Zhixing was meditating nearby.
However, the familiar spiritual energy was absent around her body.
Lu Qing’an endured the pain to sit up. “Senior Sister.”
She came to Ji Zhixing’s side and roused her. “How do we get out?”
Ji Zhixing pointed deeper inside. “There is only one path, heading further in.”
While Lu Qing’an was unconscious, Ji Zhixing had tried to see if she could shatter the stone wall behind them, only to discover that spiritual energy could not damage it in the slightest.
Instead, her strength had been drained by the stone wall once again.
Ji Zhixing supported Lu Qing’an’s arm, and the two leaned against each other as they moved forward.
The path was pitch-black, dark enough that one could not see their own hand in front of their face. Their only light source was a single fire striker.
Lu Qing’an leaned a little closer to Ji Zhixing’s side.
The passage seemed endless. Lu Qing’an and Ji Zhixing walked for a long time along a winding road without a single landmark.
The longer Lu Qing’an walked, the more irritable she felt, and her pace grew hurried.
Sensing her impatience, Ji Zhixing stopped and soothed her feelings in a soft voice.
Only when Lu Qing’an had calmed her mood down did she take steady steps to continue down the remaining path.
After walking for an unknown length of time, a faint light finally came into view.
The frustrated expression on Lu Qing’an’s face vanished entirely. Suddenly feeling as though her legs no longer hurt and her abdomen no longer ached, she ran over excitedly.
Ji Zhixing placed the fire striker in a corner of the wall and followed behind her, vigilantly scanning the surroundings.
This place appeared to be the end of the passage, with no other path leading downward.
Right here lay a circular array.
The light they had seen was coming directly from this array.
Lu Qing’an’s forward steps halted, and a gasp escaped her lips. “Senior Sister, so many bones!”
She pivoted on her heel, leaped backward, and tightly wrapped her arms around Ji Zhixing’s arm.
Ji Zhixing’s gaze turned solemn.
There were at least twenty skeletons here, arranged in neat order.
They formed two concentric circles. In the inner ring, the skeletons leaned against the stone wall with arms linked together.
In the outer ring, the skeletons leaned against the ones in the inner ring.
Lu Qing’an did not dare open her eyes to look at this horrific scene, settling for gripping Ji Zhixing’s arm tightly.
In the next moment, she felt Ji Zhixing walking toward a specific spot.
Lu Qing’an had no choice but to move along with her.
After taking two steps, she felt something was wrong.
Opening her eyes, she saw Ji Zhixing walking expressionlessly toward those twenty skeletons.
Lu Qing’an was startled, hurriedly calling out “Senior Sister” again and again.
Yet Ji Zhixing was as though she had heard nothing, gazing straight ahead as she walked toward the skeletons.
Seeing that her hand was about to hook into one of the skeletons, Lu Qing’an quickly grabbed Ji Zhixing’s wrist.
Ji Zhixing lifted her dull, lifeless eyes, looking at Lu Qing’an as if bestowing a favor.
She drew her sword, ruthlessly swinging it toward Lu Qing’an with all her might.
Lu Qing’an had no choice but to dodge the slash in panic.
With a barrage of subsequent sword blades following, Lu Qing’an dodged desperately, yet she was still wounded in many places.
Her sleeves were tattered and stained with blood, and dozens of fresh cuts lined her cheeks.
Kicked squarely in the chest by Ji Zhixing, Lu Qing’an was thrown backward, her back slamming heavily against the stone wall and kicking up a cloud of dust.
Fresh blood mixed with bits of internal organs spat from her mouth, and a trail of dark red blood ran down from the corner of her lips.
Ji Zhixing stood before Lu Qing’an, holding her sword in both hands as she slashed downward.
The sharp blade swung down heavily with a force that could split mountains.
Lu Qing’an raised both hands above her head, firmly gripping the blade. Her palms made direct contact with the sharp, smooth steel.
Blood poured out in an instant, staining the plain silver sword red.
Drip, drip.
Round drops of blood fell to the ground, splashing against the dust.
“Senior Sister, it is me, Qing’an! Lu Qing’an!”
Ji Zhixing’s body froze.
Seizing this opening and ignoring the pain, Lu Qing’an clenched her hands into fists and swung toward Ji Zhixing’s cheek.
Yet her fist stopped a mere millimeter away.
Blood escaped her palm and, carried by momentum, brushed past the corner of Ji Zhixing’s mouth.
This was her Senior Sister.
Draining all strength from her body, Lu Qing’an released her fist and converted her hand into a knife chop, intending to strike the back of Ji Zhixing’s neck to knock her out.
However, Ji Zhixing had already sensed her intention.
Dodging swiftly, her silver sword sliced across Lu Qing’an’s forearm, leaving another trail of blood.
Yet the speed of her sword swings grew slower and slower, lacking the fierceness from before.
Noticing this point, Lu Qing’an felt a surge of joy in her heart.
Thinking back to what had just happened, her eyes fixed on Ji Zhixing’s lips.
The blood she had splashed on earlier was slowly trickling into Ji Zhixing’s mouth.
Furthermore, when she had called out her name earlier, Ji Zhixing had paused as well.
Lu Qing’an lunged forward, pinning Ji Zhixing beneath her and straddling her abdomen.
Quickly snatching the sword, she kicked it far out of reach.
Ji Zhixing’s previous slash had cut deep enough that blood continued to pour from both of Lu Qing’an’s hands.
Clenching her hands into fists, she held them upright so the blood could flow down through the gap formed between her fingers and palm, dripping between Ji Zhixing’s lips.
“Senior Sister, it is me, Qing’an. It is me, Qing’an.”
She repeated that sentence over and over again.
Lu Qing’an did not know which of the two actions actually worked, so she simply used both.
Ji Zhixing’s struggling movements gradually grew smaller.
As her eyes slowly closed, Lu Qing’an did not dare relax her mind.
With blood draining rapidly, Lu Qing’an only felt her body grow colder and weaker.
She braced her other hand against the ground beside Ji Zhixing’s ear to steady her frame, but her vision grew increasingly blurry.
Lu Qing’an’s straight elbow gradually gave way.
With a shift of her body, she came off Ji Zhixing and lay down beside her, completely drained of strength.
Turning on her side, she pressed her lips as close to Ji Zhixing’s ear as possible.
“It is me, Qing’an, Senior Sister.”
She could no longer hold her clenched fist suspended above Ji Zhixing’s lips.
Opening her palm, she pressed the center of her still-bleeding palm against Ji Zhixing’s lips.
“Senior Sister, it is me, Qing’an.”
She spoke the words again and again, refusing to give up.
In the last glance before Lu Qing’an lost consciousness, she saw her Senior Sister’s eyelashes flutter slightly.
When she opened her eyes again, she found herself back in the familiar small wooden cabin.
Recalling the events in her mind, Lu Qing’an breathed a sigh of relief.
Since she was back, her Senior Sister must have regained consciousness as well.
Happy in her heart, Lu Qing’an wanted to sit up. Yet as her hands pressed against the bed, she realized the texture felt wrong.
Looking down, she saw both of her hands wrapped in white cloth like rice dumplings.
Ji Zhixing walked into the room and saw that Lu Qing’an was awake. She hurried over immediately.
“Qing’an.”
She called out softly, yet did not know what else to say, the expression on her face deeply complex.
Lu Qing’an offered a bright, flawless smile, her eyes shining as though filled with stars.
“Senior Sister, look, am I not fine?”
Lu Qing’an’s comfort failed to work in the slightest.
Suddenly embraced tightly by Ji Zhixing, Lu Qing’an hugged her back upon seeing this.
“Senior Sister, I am fine.”
Her hands, wrapped in thick layers of gauze, patted Ji Zhixing’s back.
Yet immediately after, she felt a dampness on her shoulder.
Realizing it a moment too late, she recognized that Ji Zhixing was crying.
Her body stiffened as her mind raced.
“Senior Sister, you do not need to feel guilty. Had it been anyone else, I would have done the same.”
Her words seemed to have an effect.
Ji Zhixing released her and lowered her head, unsure of how to face her.
Back in the cave, she had felt her vision blur, and when she woke up again, Lu Qing’an was lying beside her.
A segment of memory had been added to her mind as well.
Ji Zhixing did not know how to describe the feeling of opening her eyes and seeing Lu Qing’an.
At that time, Lu Qing’an was covered in blood from head to toe. It was impossible to tell whether she was wearing clothes or rags, her entire body soaked in blood with hardly a patch of intact skin in sight.
The repeated calls of “It is me, Qing’an” from her memory echoed continuously around Ji Zhixing’s ears.
She remembered how she had picked up her sword to attack Lu Qing’an.
Looking at Lu Qing’an now, whose face was completely clean, Ji Zhixing only felt a surge of bitterness in her heart, her heart beating at an alarming speed.