Winter nights fall quickly, and it was already pitch black.
Chen Xiaowu sat at the table eating pastries and flipping through a storybook, occasionally blurting out a remark to mock the characters in the story before connecting them to someone or other within the sect.
I had no interest in these gossips, so I ignored him, and only then did he awkwardly stop talking.
I got up to close the window. Just as I approached the window frame, a white figure flashed inside, and before I could even gasp, a hand tightly clamped around my throat.
A sense of suffocation washed over me. My throat could not produce any sound, but I clearly saw that the person before me was none other than Duan Qianyue.
“Qianyue Senior Brother.”
Hearing the commotion, Chen Xiaowu put down what was in his hands and ran over, shouting with what seemed like pleasant surprise. But seeing that the situation was somewhat delicate, he asked tentatively, “Are you two fighting?”
Duan Qianyue probably did not expect that there would still be another sect disciple present. He eased the force of his hand slightly and sized up Chen Xiaowu.
Taking the opportunity, I shoved him away and gasped heavily for air. Reason told me that Duan Qianyue did not dare to kill me at this time, but for a split second, I genuinely felt like I was going to die, and he had definitely harbored murderous intent.
Chen Xiaowu ran over and patted my back to help me catch my breath, asking with concern, “Yu Senior Brother, are you alright?”
I waved my hand dismissively. To the side, Duan Qianyue had already put on the appearance of a brotherly and harmonious junior, as if the person who had just tried to snuff out my life was not him at all.
“I haven’t seen Senior Brother in a long time and was so happy that I didn’t control my strength well. I’m sorry, Senior Brother wasn’t scared by me, was he?” I glared at him without speaking.
He then turned to ask Chen Xiaowu, “I’ve seen you in the sect before. Your name is what?”
“Senior Brother, my name is Chen Xiaowu.” Chen Xiaowu had a carefree attitude, though you couldn’t really blame him since he was still young.
“Ah, right, I remember now.” Saying this, Duan Qianyue familiarly threw his arm around Chen Xiaowu’s shoulder.
“Junior Brother, I forgot to pick up the roast chicken I just bought at Cuiyu Pavilion. Could I trouble Junior Brother to make a trip over there?”
Chen Xiaowu looked at Duan Qianyue with some hesitation, then shifted his gaze back to me to seek my opinion.
I nodded. Once Chen Xiaowu closed the door behind him, I recovered from the recent shock and walked over to the table to pour myself a cup of tea.
I moistened my throat to steady myself.
“Spit it out, what is the matter that you even had to send Chen Xiaowu away?”
Duan Qianyue sat down across from me and poured himself a cup of tea as well. I watched him, took a small sip, and put the cup down.
He pushed a small box toward me. When I opened it, a blade of grass lay inside, looking no different from ordinary grass except that it emitted a faint blue glow.
“Seed Spirit Grass?” I blurted out.
Hearing something laughable, Duan Qianyue chuckled. “Senior Brother is truly quite naive.”
Seeing his reaction, I wanted to curse myself. Putting aside how difficult it was for the Duan Qianyue of this period to obtain Seed Spirit Grass, something impossible to acquire within three to five years, he claimed to have found it in three months.
If it wasn’t Seed Spirit Grass, then what was it? At that moment, I suddenly remembered that in the original novel, there was a type of grass that looked extremely similar to Seed Spirit Grass, called Blue Grass.
Not only were their appearances identical, but their effects were also the same: it could restore the internal energy of someone whose meridians or core were damaged back to normal.
However, this Blue Grass was something cultivated by a person named Feng Qiubai by imitating Seed Spirit Grass. At first, he thought he had succeeded, but later he discovered that Blue Grass contained a toxin.
It was not fatal, but it caused excruciating pain when the person consumed too much internal energy and their body was weak. If excessive internal energy consumption was accompanied by severe injuries, the poison of the Blue Grass would be fatal at that time.
“Blue Grass!”
My brow furrowed deeply as I spat out those two words.
Duan Qianyue flashed a hint of surprise. “As expected of Senior Brother from a noble and prestigious family, you are truly well-informed,” his tone dripping with sarcasm.
“You did this on purpose? I don’t want it.” With that, I closed the box containing the Blue Grass and pushed it back to Duan Qianyue, a trace of anger in my tone.
Duan Qianyue stared at the brocade box before him. He opened it, and a slender, well-jointed hand with a faint chill picked the Blue Grass up.
He toyed with it at his fingertips.
“This junior is incompetent. After going through countless twists and turns, I only managed to find Blue Grass. With monsters running amok in the city, I can only let Senior Brother suffer a little grievance for now; in the future, this junior will surely figure out a way to resolve this Blue Grass poison for Senior Brother.”
Duan Qianyue shifted his gaze toward me. “Does Senior Brother think Master will blame me?”
Good grief, he had even thought of how to explain it to Master. I got up, wanting to run.
Duan Qianyue flashed before me in a single step, pinching my cheek with one hand while shoving the Blue Grass into my mouth with the other. The Blue Grass melted instantly upon contact, tasting bitter.
Immediately afterward, I felt a wave of warmth coursing through my entire body, and this was what having internal energy felt like.
My sword was placed far away, so I could only fish out the dagger hidden in my sleeve and lunge at Duan Qianyue. I genuinely wanted to finish him off, but I also knew this dagger couldn’t possibly injure him.
Seeing me driven to anger made him happy. He effortlessly dodged my attacks.
“By the way, Senior Brother, do you know how I managed to get the Blue Grass?” Duan Qianyue lowered his voice.
“I traded the Seed Spirit Grass to Feng Qiubai for it.” Having said that, he suddenly stopped moving and firmly gripped my wrist.
“Is Senior Brother angry? Want to kill me? Do you have the heart to do it?” His words were laced with sarcasm as his eyes swept over the dagger in my hand.
He sneered. “Stab right here,” guiding the dagger I was holding straight toward his chest. Too tired to care about him deliberately provoking me, I just wanted to give him a taste of it.
At that moment, the door pushed open, and Chen Xiaowu skipped inside. I had no choice but to retract the dagger back into my sleeve.
“It’s getting late, Junior Brother should go back and rest. We have to hit the road tomorrow,” I said coldly.
As Duan Qianyue walked out the door, Chen Xiaowu belatedly chased after him.
“Qianyue Senior Brother, your roast chicken.”
Duan Qianyue didn’t take it. Chen Xiaowu placed the roast chicken on the table and closed the door securely.
In the original novel, Feng Qiubai suffered severe injuries after failing his tribulation and went to the Heavenly Mystery Pavilion to beg Chen Haishu for medicine, and what he was begging for, naturally, was the Seed Spirit Grass.
Seed Spirit Grass only grew a few stalks every few hundred years, and even giving all of them to Feng Qiubai wouldn’t be enough because his injuries were simply too heavy.
Thus, Feng Qiubai began researching on his own, and he actually managed to cultivate it, which was this Blue Grass.
He treated immortal cultivators with damaged internal energy as lab rats, passing off the Blue Grass as Seed Spirit Grass and selling it to them at exorbitant prices. Once he discovered its flaws, naturally, he didn’t dare consume it himself.
Therefore, his cultivation level could never return to what it used to be. He simply lived a life of debauchery and drifted along day by day in Luocheng, meaning that this Blue Grass fundamentally had no antidote.
Early the next morning, the inn attendant came to deliver breakfast and mentioned that Young Master Duan had already left.
This I could understand; naturally, he was unwilling to travel along with me. That was even better, as I didn’t care to face him at every single moment either. The attendant also mentioned that the Prince’s Mansion had sent a carriage, and someone was waiting downstairs.
I asked him how many people had come, and he said just one. In the original novel, the original host had a pageboy who grew up with him and followed him everywhere, except that he wasn’t permitted to enter the Star-Turning Sect.
As soon as the original host stepped out of the mountain gates, this person would invariably rush over to pick him up. This person was named A-Yun, and what his full name was, I could no longer remember.