Lin Zhengdu froze. Her mouth opened, but no sound came out. Her mind went blank for a few seconds.
For a moment, she almost suspected something was wrong with her hearing.
Xie Guanqi stood across from her, holding the medicine packets. After a brief hesitation, Lin Zhengdu looked up at him. The lamplight behind him outlined his figure in a faint golden glow, while his shadow stretched forward, completely covering her and still extending beyond.
With the backlight, his face was a little blurred—but she could clearly feel his gaze, heavy with presence, resting on her face.
The skin at the side of her neck began to heat up again. Lin Zhengdu instinctively stepped back until her back hit the cold, solid medicine cabinet. She swallowed, trying to take a deep breath to calm herself.
But he was standing too close. When she inhaled, it felt like all she was breathing in was his scent. That realization nearly made her choke, and she reached up to touch her neck.
Lin Zhengdu struggled awkwardly, like someone making a last-ditch excuse. “Avoiding you? I’m not! I’ve just… been really busy these past couple of days. Very busy. I have a lot to do—I need to make a flower stand, read, prepare medicine… You’re not my only patient, you know. There are other patients waiting for me to prescribe medicine for them!”
As she spoke, she didn’t dare meet his eyes, letting her gaze linger only on his chest.
She wasn’t exactly lying. Medical cultivators from the Medicine Sect didn’t charge ordinary people, but for cultivators, their fees were sky-high. If cultivators couldn’t afford treatment, they could settle for cheaper services—like having a Medicine Sect disciple prepare medicine or stitch wounds.
Although Lin Zhengdu wasn’t particularly outstanding in healing, her skill in preparing medicine was widely acknowledged as the best.
Even though she had prepared her excuse, she also braced herself to be refuted. Unexpectedly, Xie Guanqi remained silent.
His silence lasted a little too long, making her uneasy. She tightened her grip on her clothes, then finally gathered her courage and looked up at him.
His face was cast in dim shadow, his eyelashes lowered, brows slightly furrowed—
He looked… a little sad.
Her heart skipped. Instinctively, she felt something was wrong.
Swallowing, she hurried to add, “I—I’ve just been busy these past couple of days, that’s all. Once I’m done, things will go back to normal. I’m not deliberately avoiding you, and I don’t have any problem with you. Really.”
She sounded flustered, like someone desperately making promises to a boyfriend—Wait until I become rich and successful, then we’ll get married. The absurd comparison made her feel even more awkward.
Xie Guanqi took two steps back, increasing the distance between them. As he moved away, that intense, oppressive warmth around him also receded. Lin Zhengdu took two deep breaths of fresh air, her stiff back finally relaxing.
“I understand,” he said.
She wasn’t sure what exactly he understood—but her thoughts were already in a mess. She nodded vaguely, said a few perfunctory words, and saw him out.
Early the next morning, Lin Zhengdu was woken by urgent knocking.
The knocking was so loud and hurried it sounded like a death summons. Startled awake, she got up to open the door, still shaken. As soon as she opened it, she saw her junior sister, Qinglan.
“Senior Sister! Master wants to see you!”
Leaning against the doorframe, Lin Zhengdu sighed. “Qinglan, could you knock a little softer next time?”
Qinglan widened her eyes. “Of course I knocked loudly—this is urgent!”
She glanced around. Lin Zhengdu said, “No need to look. Only I and that Sword Sect disciple next door live here—”
“You don’t know? Senior Brother Xie from next door has already left.”
The faint smile on Lin Zhengdu’s face froze. “L-left? Who left?”
Qinglan repeated, “Senior Brother Xie from Yan Chou Mountain of the Sword Sect—the one who was poisoned by the epidemic ghost and sent here by Master.”
“He went to say goodbye to Master early this morning. He said he was very grateful for your care during this time, and now that he’s fully recovered, he’s returning to the Sword Sect. Right after he left, Master sent me to find you.”
Lin Zhengdu quickly walked to the side room and pushed the door open. As expected, it was empty.
The room had been cleaned spotless—even the bedding was neatly folded and put away. If anything, it was so clean that it almost made one doubt whether anyone had lived there at all.
Qinglan followed and peeked in from behind her, sighing. “Senior Brother Xie is really nice—even cleaned before leaving. The last patient the Sword Sect sent over even asked if we could wash his clothes… people really can’t be compared.”
Halfway through, Qinglan sensed something was off and carefully glanced at Lin Zhengdu. “Senior Sister… didn’t he tell you before he left?”
Lin Zhengdu closed the door and gently patted Qinglan’s head. “I was probably sleeping too deeply. He didn’t wake me.”
Seeing that her senior sister looked normal and not upset, Qinglan relaxed. “That makes sense. Sword Sect disciples wake up really early. When he went to see Master, I was still asleep—Junior Brother told me.”
“Then why didn’t Lu Yuanyuan come to deliver the message?”
Qinglan pouted. “Junior Brother is starting training in techniques and looking for a suitable magical weapon from today. So now I’m the only one left to run errands.”
As they talked, they used the teleportation array to reach the Lotus Pavilion.
Lin Zhengdu met their master, Fairy Peilan, in a pavilion surrounded by lotus leaves. She was having breakfast and beckoned Lin Zhengdu to join her.
Before sitting, Lin Zhengdu asked nervously, “Did you make this, Master?”
“What if I did?”
“Then I won’t eat it.”
Fairy Peilan shook her head. “You just don’t understand my pursuit of food… Fine, Yuanyuan brought this from outside the mountain.”
Relieved, Lin Zhengdu picked up a pastry and began eating while waiting for her master to speak.
Fairy Peilan narrowed her eyes at her, then suddenly flicked her finger. The sash on her arm moved without wind, flying over and brushing the side of Lin Zhengdu’s neck.
As a pure water-element cultivator, her spiritual energy was soft and cold. The touch made Lin Zhengdu shiver, and she quickly covered her neck.
“Why is there fire-element residue on your neck?” Peilan asked.
Lin Zhengdu froze. “There’s still some? I tried to cover it with my own spiritual energy… I thought it was already gone. Just a small accident—nothing serious.”
Seeing that she didn’t intend to explain further, Peilan clicked her tongue and looked displeased.
“Master, can we get to the main point?” Lin Zhengdu said.
Peilan turned back. “That epidemic ghost poison—did you cure it with medicine, or by replacing his blood?”
“By replacing his blood. Using medicine would have taken too long—he would have died before I could make the right antidote.”
Peilan fell silent, resting her chin on her hand in thought.
Taking the chance, Lin Zhengdu quickly ate two more pastries—they were perfectly sweet, soft like milk cakes. Delicious!
After a while, Peilan said, “If anyone asks in the future, say that Xie Guanqi was cured here at the Lotus Pavilion. You only cared for him in the last few days and don’t know whether the poison was cured by medicine or technique.”
Lin Zhengdu nodded. “Alright.”
After finishing the serious matter, Peilan studied her face again and suddenly asked, “Are you and Guanqi not getting along?”
Lin Zhengdu immediately choked on her pastry, coughing violently and pounding her chest.
With a flick of her hand, Peilan poured tea automatically, and the filled cup floated over.
Lin Zhengdu grabbed it and drank it in one go, finally swallowing the stuck pastry. Holding the cup, she hesitated before asking weakly, “Why would you think that?”
Peilan smiled slightly. “I thought you’d ask whether he complained about you when he came to see me.”
Lin Zhengdu gave an awkward laugh but spoke with certainty, “Xie Guanqi isn’t that kind of person.”
“He just came to say goodbye and thank me. I’m just guessing. Last time you sent word, you said you would observe him for a month before letting him go. But it’s only been half a month, and he came to bid farewell himself—if you didn’t argue and he couldn’t stay here anymore, what else could it be?”
Under her master’s curious gaze, Lin Zhengdu nervously drank another cup of tea.
There was no way she could tell the truth. And honestly, she was confused herself.
Last night had been a little awkward, but hadn’t they been talking just fine? Why did he leave without a word the next morning?
Could it be because she said she was busy, and he didn’t want to trouble her, so he left quietly? That didn’t seem quite right either.
Unable to figure it out, she decided not to think about it anymore. Since she was already at the Lotus Pavilion, she went to the notice board along the main path of the Hundred Herbs Hall.
Not all Medicine Sect disciples were good at fighting. Those who weren’t would post bounties for rare materials they needed, letting stronger disciples earn some extra money.
But ever since the board was established, most of the bounties were actually taken by disciples from the neighboring Sword Sect.
Lin Zhengdu had also posted requests. However, because the materials she needed were quite unusual, her notices often stayed up for a long time. The longest-standing one was a bounty she posted four years ago: one water-attribute white dragon pearl.
It had been there so long that she had already given up hope.
This time, she came to check whether the human-faced moth she posted three months ago had been taken.
Standing before the board, she habitually scanned from the top down. When she reached the middle, she saw that the human-faced moth request was still there.
She sighed and turned to leave—then suddenly realized something.
She whipped her head back and looked at the very top of the board.
The white dragon pearl request… was gone.
Yan Chou Mountain, Sudden Rain Pavilion.
The pavilion had been split in two from the middle, leaving a massive crack. Heavy rain poured through the opening, drenching the young man standing beneath it with a sword in hand.
He stood upright, dressed in simple black training clothes—so plain there wasn’t even a single hidden pattern or embroidery. The only decoration was the rough cloud-pattern stitching on his wrist guards, the kind commonly found on the streets.
Yet on him, even such plain clothes carried a sense of heroic spirit.
Not far away, a junior sister and a second senior brother shared an umbrella, cracking seeds and gossiping.
The junior sister asked curiously, “Why is Senior Brother standing in the rain like that?”
The second senior brother replied, “He wanted to make friends with a medical cultivator from the neighboring Medicine Sect, but got disliked. So he rushed back overnight to our warm family to nurse his wounded heart.”
“But isn’t Senior Brother a fire-element cultivator? Why isn’t there steam coming off him in the rain?”
The second senior brother said solemnly, “When a person is down, they need a storm.”
The junior sister blinked. “A storm? Or poetry? Is he trying to write a poem? But he couldn’t even pass the written exam—how is he going to write poetry? Does he even know what rhyming is?”