What a Thick Skinned Sword.
All speculations converged and settled at this very moment.
Wen Chiyue managed a strained smile and said, “Is that so? That’s great.”
“Your voice doesn’t sound very happy.” Jiang Xiechen’s perception of emotion was incredibly sharp, instantly catching the shift in Wen Chiyue’s mood. She lifted her head, making no move to pack away the medicinal herbs. Instead, like a “confidante sister,” she asked, “What happened?”
Her tone, however, was a bit cold and detached.
Yet compared to Jiang Xiechen’s past manner of speaking, it could already be considered considerate.
Wen Chiyue’s mind wandered for a moment, nearly falling into it. She opened her mouth to speak: “I…”
A flash of red light flickered in her eyes, snapping her back to reality. She felt vexed with herself for how easily she had been spellbound, nearly confessing without being forced.
Wen Chiyue was a bit skeptical.
To put it plainly, her master hadn’t even used her charms. How could she have been so overwhelmed by emotion in a single moment, nearly giving herself away?
Could it be because a sword spirit, by nature, simply cannot hide anything from its master?
It made sense. But if the rules were truly that strict, she wouldn’t have snatched the medicinal herbs away the first moment she saw them instead of giving them to Jiang Xiechen.
A voice in the back of her mind told Wen Chiyue that she was a sword spirit, but not entirely a sword spirit.
Wen Chiyue hadn’t understood the meaning of those words yet.
A sword spirit was a sword spirit. How could one be half of it and half not? Was it cut into two halves?
But now, Wen Chiyue seemed to understand a little.
With a turn of her mind, Wen Chiyue deliberately used a wronged tone, saying, “I’m just afraid that after Master regains her sight, she will dislike me for being ugly and take a fancy to other swords.”
“After all, some swords are indeed fancy and flashy, while I… am gray and dull. It’s only normal not to be liked.” Although there was an element of deliberate acting in her words, by the time Wen Chiyue finished, a hint of genuine emotion had seeped in.
After all, the Autumn Frost Sword truly couldn’t be called beautiful.
Wen Chiyue sighed faintly, “Master won’t go flirting around outside and forget to come home, right?”
Jiang Xiechen: “…”
Jiang Xiechen found an open space, took out the tools used for grinding medicine from her spatial ring, sat cross-legged, discarded the berries of the herb, and began to grind it slowly.
Feeling bored, Wen Chiyue’s eyes scanned the room, and she instantly spotted the cloth resting beneath that other sword.
She stepped forward quickly, shook the dust off the cloth, and placed it under Jiang Xiechen. She chuckled and said, “There’s a cushion here.”
Jiang Xiechen nodded.
A berry rolled all the way to Wen Chiyue’s feet with a soft thud.
The berry emitted a refreshing fragrance, a hundred times more pleasant than the herb itself. Wen Chiyue lightly sniffed the scent in the air and, unable to resist, picked up the berry to play with it in her hand.
The berry was crystal clear, its skin a pale pink. Even in this airtight secret chamber, it still emitted faint flecks of light.
Wen Chiyue asked curiously, “Can’t this berry be used?”
Compared to the flower and the roots, the fragrance of this berry was distinctly stronger, seemingly constantly tempting Wen Chiyue.
Just by smelling this scent, Wen Chiyue could already imagine how delicious it would taste.
“No,” Jiang Xiechen said. “It’s poisonous.”
Wen Chiyue let out a soft exclamation of surprise, saying regretfully, “Such a beautiful berry is actually poisonous? As expected, the more beautiful a thing is, the more toxic it is. Whew, luckily Master is here, otherwise I would have nearly fallen for it and suffered a loss.”
Jiang Xiechen’s hand grinding the medicine abruptly stopped.
Right after, she slowly resumed her pounding.
However, the force and speed were obviously different from before, making Wen Chiyue’s heart skip a beat.
She felt like she had asked something wrong.
Sure enough, the next second Jiang Xiechen said, “Fortunately, while it looks beautiful, it smells foul. This herb is called the Dual Plant of Immortal and Demon. The flower is gathered from the spiritual aura of heaven and earth, while the fruit feeds on flesh and blood. As soon as a cultivator approaches, they can smell a foul, bloody stench from the fruit.”
She paused, then said, “You can take one and smell it.”
Wen Chiyue’s spine went completely stiff. The berry in her hand felt like a hot potato. She didn’t know if Jiang Xiechen had heard the sound when she picked it up.
At the very least, if she threw it away now, she would definitely be found out.
Even at this point, Wen Chiyue still thought the berry smelled fragrant.
Wen Chiyue thought with a tinge of despair. Am I really a demon?
But logically speaking, immortals and demons repel each other. Since cultivators smell a foul odor from the fruit, then a demon cultivator should feel nauseous and want to vomit upon smelling the flower.
Yet Wen Chiyue had no such feeling.
Jiang Xiechen’s hand accurately reached out toward the berry on the ground, picked it up, held it out in front of Wen Chiyue, and asked, “Try it?”
From the way Jiang Xiechen frowned when she picked up the berry, Wen Chiyue judged that her master hadn’t lied.
When Jiang Xiechen raised her head, a strand of elegant hair slid down her shoulder, accentuating her rosy lips and fair skin, showing an peerless grace.
Wen Chiyue was stunned.
No, she was a sword spirit, not a demon cultivator. She had never practiced demonic cultivation and had a clear conscience. There was nothing to be embarrassed to talk about.
Wen Chiyue said in surprise, “Oh, is that so? But I find this scent quite fragrant. The flower smells good, and the berry smells good too. Why is that?”
Wen Chiyue said cheerfully, “Could it be that I am both a demon and a cultivator?”
She said in a solemn tone, “Me, a cultivator sword spirit who can infiltrate the demon race.”
Jiang Xiechen lowered her head again, tossing the berry casually back onto the ground. Jiang Xiechen said, “Perhaps because a sword is a weapon of slaughter.”
She continued to grind the medicine and spoke no further.
But Wen Chiyue instantly understood the meaning behind it.
Whether it was a sword of the demon race or a sword of cultivators, a sword was inherently an object of slaughter, born from drinking blood. Being attracted by the berry was also completely normal.
Wen Chiyue peered at Jiang Xiechen, unable to tell for a moment whether it was a deliberate test or just a casual remark.
She simply rolled up her sleeves and said, “Master, let me help you, I am fast.”
Jiang Xiechen did not refuse, stepping aside and guiding her, “Crush the flowers, pay attention to the roots…”
The herb wasn’t large, but it was harder to grind than expected. Wen Chiyue ground it for a long while before finally crushing it completely.
Wiping the sweat from her brow, she asked, “Is this good enough? What else needs to be done?”
Wen Chiyue was already prepared.
When the time came that her master’s sight was about to be restored, she would only take one look.
Then she would pretend something happened and return inside the Autumn Frost Sword.
Wen Chiyue wasn’t greedy, one look was enough.
She handed the ground powder to Jiang Xiechen, offering on her own initiative, “Let me help Master apply it! Will you recover right after it’s applied?”
With a bit of hidden selfishness, she thought: What if I can get another look?
As long as she grasped the timing well, every extra second she could look would be a gain.
Wen Chiyue had never looked at Jiang Xiechen from a direct, front facing perspective before.
Jiang Xiechen shook her head, taking out the white cloth she had removed earlier, and said, “It won’t be that fast. It needs to be applied for at least a month to show results.”
Wen Chiyue was disappointed. “Alright then.”
The trailing sound of her last word was stretched out extra long, completely forgetting that just a moment ago, she was regretting that her master would recover her sight so quickly.
She could still look at her master for another month.
Wen Chiyue said, “Let me apply it for Master.”
The medicinal paste was applied thickly, layer after layer, and carefully covered over Jiang Xiechen’s eyes.
Jiang Xiechen was sitting down.
If Wen Chiyue also sat down to apply it, it would take some effort to reach up. If she stood up, she would be too tall.
She twisted her body uncomfortably, then simply knelt on the ground with a rustle, making herself just one head taller than Jiang Xiechen.
Wen Chiyue wrapped her arms around both sides of Jiang Xiechen’s cheeks, gently covering them with the white cloth.
The freshly ground herb was slightly cool. Once it fully covered her eyes, Jiang Xiechen trembled slightly.
If it weren’t because Wen Chiyue’s body was pressed close against Jiang Xiechen’s back, she probably would have hardly noticed this tremble.
Tying a knot at the back of her head to cover her eyes once more, Wen Chiyue asked, “Master, how does it feel?”
Jiang Xiechen wrinkled her nose: “Dirty.”
“Huh?”
“The medicine smell is heavy,” Jiang Xiechen corrected her phrasing.
Wen Chiyue understood at once.
After all, conditions were limited, and the herb hadn’t been washed, having been placed carelessly on the ground, so there must be remnants of soil and dust mixed in.
Since Jiang Xiechen ground it directly, it meant these remnants wouldn’t affect the medicinal property, but for her master, it was probably hard to tolerate.
Wen Chiyue couldn’t help but burst into laughter.
This time, she did not hide it, laughing heartily. After all, she rarely saw Jiang Xiechen express her dislike so clearly.
Perhaps it was also because finding the medicine made her master feel a lot lighter.
Leaning against Jiang Xiechen’s shoulder, Wen Chiyue smiled and said, “Let me look around for you again. Maybe there’s more. We can change the medicine once we leave the secret realm.”
Knowing that Jiang Xiechen’s eyes would get better, and that it wouldn’t happen immediately, the whole sword spirit cheered up again. She walked with a skip and a hop, fluttering like a little butterfly among the piles of herbs.
The Dual Plant of Immortal and Demon was rare, but who knew what kind of identity the master of this secret realm held after Wen Chiyue rummaged through it from beginning to end, she actually managed to find another one.
That plant didn’t have as many flowers and berries as the previous one. Estimating that it was still in its growth phase, Wen Chiyue raised her hand and said, “Master, then let me put this one away first.”
Jiang Xiechen nodded calmly, picking and choosing a few more herbs to take along.
She felt around carefully, so her progress naturally slowed down. Wen Chiyue, being someone who couldn’t recognize medicinal herbs, couldn’t help much from the side, so she suggested, “Why don’t we take them all? Anyway, the spatial ring has enough room.”
Regardless of whether they were useful or not, just take them all away first.
Jiang Xiechen, however, rejected Wen Chiyue’s suggestion. “No need.”
Wen Chiyue wouldn’t question Jiang Xiechen’s actions, she was just puzzled. “Huh? Is it for sustainable development? True, chives should be cut batch by batch.”
It was just that most of these herbs looked like they had already matured. Did they still need to be left to grow?
Wen Chiyue’s hands itched.
She wanted to put them all away.
Jiang Xiechen, of course, couldn’t be thinking that way. After all, whether they would come to this secret realm a second time was hard to say.
Jiang Xiechen said, “If others find absolutely nothing left, they will find it strange.”
They hadn’t fallen in here alone. Fellow Daoist Chen was still outside. If the treasures in the secret realm were stripped entirely clean, suspicion would definitely fall on her.
Jiang Xiechen said, “Let’s go.”
Seeing that the two of them were really about to walk out, the sword on the table finally could no longer hold back. With a sudden whoosh, it flew right in front of Jiang Xiechen.
The sword unsheathed, displaying its sharp edge, and hovered a turn in front of Wen Chiyue, carrying a strong sense of showing off.
Jiang Xiechen acted as if she hadn’t noticed, stepping aside to continue walking toward the doorway.
How could that sword let matters rest? Fearing that Jiang Xiechen wouldn’t take it out, it charged swiftly toward her.
Wen Chiyue quickly blocked the path in front of Jiang Xiechen, terrified that the sword would hurt her master. She raised her arms to intercept the direction of the sword.
Though her body appeared to be made of flesh, it was actually impervious to blades and swords.
Wen Chiyue raised her eyebrows, her beautiful eyes filled with anger. “I’m warning you, don’t get near my master! No matter what tricks you use, I won’t…”
Just as it was about to touch Wen Chiyue’s arm, the sword suddenly fell to the ground, letting out a crisp clattering sound.
Jiang Xiechen was bewildered. “What happened?”
Wen Chiyue cried out loudly to protest her innocence. “This sword, this sword is framing me!”
Even though she had said that no tricks would work, this was way too shameless.
As expected of a ten thousand year-old ancient sword, its skin was thick, even resorting to this kind of tactic!