Xiao Shuying pressed his lips together in silence, at a loss for how to respond. The person before him had killed him ninety-nine times, yet was now advising him to cherish his life?
Was there any joke in this world more ironic than that?
He was on the verge of telling Su Yunyu to drop the hypocritical act, when a sudden, sharp pain flared in his lower leg, causing Xiao Shuying to stumble and fall to the ground. The sudden agony neatly severed his tangled, surging thoughts.
It also fortuitously saved him from having to reply to Su Yunyu’s ineffable remark.
Faking a few pants of lingering pain, he adopted a weak and frail tone:
“Master”
Seeing this, Su Yunyu predictably dropped the matter, hurrying forward to roll back the edge of Xiao Shuying’s trouser leg. He saw two puncture wounds deeply embedded in the boy’s slender calf.
They were inflicted by the Netherfire Python. Fortunately, Xiao Shuying was wearing the protective spirit garment he had provided; otherwise, a single bite would have shattered his bones and torn his flesh apart.
The wounds Xiao Shuying had sustained weren’t too severe, though blood was trickling down his leg, looking rather alarming. Channeling spiritual energy, Su Yunyu watched as the wounds knitted back together, finally letting out a breath of relief.
Yet no sooner had he relaxed than Xiao Shuying winced again:
“Master, the place where I was bitten feels burning hot.”
Hot?
Su Yunyu cast his gaze toward the spot. The bite marks had healed, but the skin still retained a scald-like redness. Falling into deep contemplation, he mentally asked the system what was going on.
After a quick lookup, the system replied with sudden realization:
[The Netherfire Python is venomous; using Clearing-Fire Polygonum grass can cure it.]
“Where can we find Clearing-Fire Polygonum grass?”
The system’s voice turned excited: [What a coincidence—the plant you just harvested over there is precisely that!]
Su Yunyu paused for a moment before a sudden wave of enlightenment hit him:
He got bitten by a snake, and I happened to harvest the exact herb capable of curing the venom. Could this possibly be the Dragon-Heaven protagonist’s passive skill?
Regardless, the injury was salvageable. Without wasting any time, Su Yunyu produced the polygonum grass he had just gathered and assumed a calm, steady demeanor:
“Don’t worry; Master just gathered an herb over on the east side that can cure the poison.”
With that, he channeled his spiritual energy to refine the medicinal herb, channeling all of its potency directly into Xiao Shuying’s wound.
He was so deeply absorbed in the process that he completely missed the dark, fathomless look Xiao Shuying was casting his way.
The boy was now strongly suspecting that the Netherfire Python was part of a plot orchestrated by Su Yunyu himself.
Otherwise, how could he have conveniently excused himself to scout ahead, arrived right in the nick of time when the pythons attacked, and now happened to have the exact medicinal cure already harvested on hand?
Could there truly be such an abundance of coincidences in this world?
Xiao Shuying dismissed the notion with a silent, wry amusement. The person before him possessed a fathomless, unfathomable city-deep cunning; he had to handle him with even greater caution.
Lowering his gaze after channeling the medicine, Su Yunyu looked at the pale-faced boy and asked with detached concern:
“How is it now?”
Xiao Shuying stood up, brushed the dirt from his clothes, and put on an expression of “heartfelt gratitude”:
“It’s already healed. Many thanks, Master.”
As he spoke, eyeing the towering mountain ridges ahead, he retrieved a Bigu pill to replenish his physical strength. Just as he was about to swallow it, Su Yunyu’s brow furrowed, and he snatched the pill right out of his hand.
Meeting Xiao Shuying’s blinking, bewildered eyes, he unhurriedly explained:
“You possess no cultivation, and you’ve just recovered from venom poisoning. Consuming Bigu pills will easily cause you to suffer from accumulated pill toxicity.”
Bigu pills were useless to high-tier cultivators and were only suited for low-tier cultivators who lacked the ability to go days without food while still possessing sufficient cultivation to purge the residual pill toxins.
Since Xiao Shuying clearly fit into neither category, naturally, taking Bigu pills was ill-advised.
“But if I don’t use Bigu pills…” Xiao Shuying watched as Su Yunyu tucked the pill away, his tone carrying a hesitant, trailing reluctance.
In truth, the moment Su Yunyu had arrived earlier, he had noticed the winding streams weaving amidst the mountain landscape, stirring an irrepressible craving within him:
“Follow me.”
As it happened, Su Yunyu possessed one great lifelong hobby: catching fish.
He loved loitering on the job at his workstation, and seeing a small river always made him want to wade in and catch some fish.
Since the Dragon-Heaven protagonist was currently exhausted and lacking strength, he might as well spear a fish himself and roast it.
Besides, the fish in this mystic realm were overflowing with spiritual energy; roasting them must yield an immensely fragrant aroma.
Seeing right through his intentions, the system snorted:
[I think you’re just craving food yourself.]
“Shut your trap,” Su Yunyu ignored the system entirely, leading Xiao Shuying over to the side of the stream while holding the Xuehua Sword as he stepped into the flowing water.
The stream trickled and bubbled, splashing into silver-white crests of foam as it crashed against the reef rocks. The figure clad in sky-water blue stood motionless amidst the splashing ripples, his thoughts completely inscrutable.
In fact, the moment Su Yunyu had stepped into the small stream, Xiao Shuying had been staring in total, utter bafflement.
He stood frozen in silence, observing the scene for a moment. Seeing the man stand completely still in the running water with only his sword gripped firmly in his hand, a bizarre, unthinkable notion gradually took root in his mind.
Before he could even dismiss the thought, the person in the stream finally moved. He raised his sword high and thrust it fiercely into a patch of water—only to lift the blade and discover that the tip was entirely empty, causing his posture to stiffen visibly.
Disregarding whatever unconventional performance Xiao Shuying was witnessing over on the bank, the system was already shrieking at the top of its lungs inside his head:
[Ahhh, stop right there! The original host would never use a sword to spear fish! Do you have any regard for the aloof persona at all?!]
Su Yunyu looked at the empty sword tip with a trace of disappointment, pouting in response to the system:
“Being aloof doesn’t mean standing frozen on a pedestal like a statue all day long. I can’t stay far away in the clouds forever; I have to get down to earth and close up every once in a while.”
[Sophistry, it’s all sophistry!] The system finished speaking and went dead silent, leaving only the sound of flipping book pages echoing in his sea of consciousness—presumably running off to check the original novel again.
111’s spiritual resolve is weaker than paper; how utterly easy to manipulate.
Dismissing the system, Su Yunyu caught sight of another large fish swimming past. With lightning speed and sharp eyes, he raised his sword and thrust downward.
Amidst the churning, splashing waves, Xiao Shuying watched as this figure in sky-water blue carefully lifted his sword, revealing a large fish impaled on the tip, a look of unmistakable, unadulterated joy blooming across his features.
Even though he wore a sparrow-patterned mask, Xiao Shuying found his thoughts inexplicably wandering to the facial features hidden behind that mask.
Presumably, the willow-leaf eyebrows that were usually tied in a slight frown must be unfurled right now, and those thin lips that were habitually pressed tight would undoubtedly be curving upward into a soft arc.
Come to think of it, when Su Yunyu wasn’t smiling, he looked cold and aloof; but when he smiled, he truly resembled a mountain sprite stirring up waves…
Wait, my thoughts are drifting entirely too far.
Xiao Shuying snapped back to his senses abruptly, shifting his perspective to realize that this person somehow felt vastly different from the one in his first life.
He simply couldn’t tell whether it was a deliberate act of disguise, or if they truly were two entirely different souls.
Whichever the case might be, the fact that this man had hunted him down across ninety-eight lifetimes remained deeply ingrained.
While Xiao Shuying was lost in thought, Su Yunyu turned back carrying the Xuehua Sword with a fish skewered on its tip. Perhaps because his movements were excessively graceful, it triggered another round of stray associations in the boy’s mind.
Usually, this man dressed entirely in white, resembling a cold, frosty epiphyllum blooming upon a snowy peak, the very definition of otherworldly and slender.
Right now, clad in sky-water blue, he looked like a water lotus swaying in a gentle breeze—elegant without a hint of vulgarity.
Especially that jade-inlaid belt, which cinched his waist even tighter and cast an even stronger immortal aura around his posture.
It wasn’t until Su Yunyu stood directly before him and asked for the second time how the fish looked that Xiao Shuying snapped out of it and hurriedly replied:
“The fish Master speared is naturally exceptionally good.”
“In that case—” Su Yunyu felt inwardly delighted at his successful fishing endeavor, choosing to ignore the Xuehua Sword’s faint, lingering grievances as he calmly stated:
“This fish will be yours to replenish your strength.”
He figured the Dragon-Heaven protagonist would undoubtedly insist on letting him taste a bite as well, achieving a win-win scenario for both of them.
Hearing this, the system, despite lacking a physical body, mentally twitched its “lips.”
This is wrong. How did a proper mystic realm trial suddenly devolve into pastoral pastoralism?
The grilling rack was cobbled together on the spot by Su Yunyu using various battered, broken items pulled straight from his spatial storage, and the fish had been cleaned using a spell.
Within a short while, wisps of cooking smoke began curling gracefully above the picturesque mountain landscape.
A moment later, a faint, mouth-watering aroma of grilled fish drifted through the smoke.
Xiao Shuying mechanically turned the fish roasting over the flames, while internally raging at himself for having had a momentary lapse in brain function earlier and volunteering to roast the fish.
Clearly, both spearing and grilling the fish should have been tasks carried out from start to finish by Su Yunyu himself.
Yet, glancing at Su Yunyu’s immaculate, spotless sleeves, he found himself speaking up against his better judgment.
Lifting his gaze to look at the man who was currently sitting beneath a tree with his eyes closed in light repose, Xiao Shuying nearly laughed out of sheer exasperation.
He honestly couldn’t tell whose strength was actually being replenished by this fish.
Furthermore, judging by appearances, Su Yunyu clearly harbored illicit, covetous desires toward this fish as well.
Since that was the case… Xiao Shuying glanced at the fish, which was nearly done roasting, and deliberately chose to turn a blind eye, letting the flames continue charring it.
Meanwhile, Su Yunyu was sitting quite contentedly beneath the tree with his eyes closed, having the system stream an animation in his mind while wondering why a strange, burnt odor was suddenly tickling his nostrils.
Initially paying it no mind, he began to feel a creeping sense of foreboding as the burnt smell grew stronger; abandoning the animation, he immediately stood up to check on the fish.
Just as he approached and before he could inspect it closely, Xiao Shuying abruptly sprang to his feet, lifted the grilled fish, and turned to Su Yunyu with a look of feigned panic:
“Master, what should I do? It seems to have burned.”
“…” Su Yunyu studied it for a couple of seconds and discovered that only one side was charred. Not yet realizing the gravity of the situation, he opened his mouth to offer comforting words when Xiao Shuying continued:
“Fortunately, only one side is burned. I will eat this charred side, and leave the good side for Master.”
Su Yunyu instinctively opened his mouth to refuse:
“No need, eat it yourself.”
Only after the words left his mouth did he realize something was terribly wrong. Originally, he had reasoned that a grilled fish had two sides, meaning he could reasonably finagle a bite for himself.
Yet now, with only one side edible and Xiao Shuying displaying such extraordinary modesty and deference, he completely lost any plausible pretext to sample it.
“This.” Having achieved his intended objective, Xiao Shuying lowered his gaze and secretly curved his lips into a smile, while putting on a bashfully reluctant facade:
“This wouldn’t be very appropriate.”
Seeing him act like this, Su Yunyu had no choice but to reject the offer with a heavy heart:
“Your master has no need for sustenance.”
With that, he retreated back beneath the tree, choosing to keep his eyes closed so he wouldn’t have to look at the fish.
Darn it, if not for my strict persona constraints, how wonderful would it have been to grill it myself so I could sneak a bite?
Grilled fish, I haven’t had grilled fish in ages.
Ahhh, I must complete this mission as quickly as possible and return to my original world.
When that happens, I’ll eat grilled fish three times a day.
At this thought, tears of longing literally began streaming from the corners of Su Yunyu’s mouth.
While the rich aroma of fish continued lingering unbated in the air and Su Yunyu desperately chanted his heart-cleansing mantra, a chaotic barrage of footsteps suddenly echoed from not far away. Lifting his gaze, he saw a disciple clad in outer-sect robes sprinting over in a state of sheer panic.
Catching sight of Su Yunyu and Xiao Shuying, the disciple’s face instantly lit up with relief. He lunged forward, throwing himself down before Su Yunyu with a loud cry:
“Fellow sect members, save me.!”
“…”
Really, there’s no need to go through such dramatic formalities.
Before Su Yunyu could speak, Xiao Shuying set aside the unappealing grilled fish, stepped forward, and asked with guarded vigilance:
“Who are you?”
Lifting his head, the disciple revealed a face that was stained an ominous, bruised bluish-black. His features were twisted together in agony, and he appeared utterly frantic as he stammered out:
“I, I am a disciple under Elder Liufeng. Please, please save me.”
Elder Liufeng was the very instructor who taught swordsmanship in the Sword Hall, renowned throughout the sect for his upright and unyielding character.
Su Yunyu had always held him in high esteem, and consequently felt a natural inclination to extend goodwill to his disciples:
“What has happened to you? How are we supposed to save you?”
“I” The disciple gasped for breath, panting so heavily he looked like he might collapse dead on the spot the next second:
“I’ve been poisoned.”