Help, I’m Being Forced to Marry a Frail and Sickly Immortal Doctor! 20

Chapter 20: A Sword’s Startling Appearance

Like a cat with its fur standing on end.

“There’s someone still alive.”

Yin Buran’s clear and cold voice was even more ethereal in the cave.

Ning Ruoque looked up. Yin Buran had already landed by a stone pillar not far away.

Still dressed in fluttering white, unstained by a speck of dust, she was out of place with the surrounding environment. She lifted a corner of her sleeve and tentatively reached out to touch the corpse leaning against the stone pillar.

“Bang!”

A sharp glint of spiritual light flashed. Ning Ruoque threw the willow-leaf knife without hesitation, and it collided with it.

The spiritual light grazed past Yin Buran’s sleeve, and the willow-leaf knife also broke in half, no longer usable.

She leaped to Yin Buran’s side in a few steps, only to find that the blood-soaked woman was not a corpse.

The rise and fall of the woman’s chest were negligible. Her messy long hair covered half of her face, and the blood had soaked her clothes to a dark black.

A gruesome wound stretched across her neck, a bloody mess, as if her throat had been cut.

But she still held a broken sword tightly in her hand. Under the gaze of the two, she even raised her hand with great effort, trying to stick the broken sword into the ground.

In such a situation, she still wanted to stand up.

Ning Ruoque felt a pang of pity. Just as she was about to state her intentions, Yin Buran spoke first, “Save your strength. We mean no harm.”

After a long while, the woman turned her head with difficulty. Her messy bangs parted, revealing a pair of dull, lifeless eyes.

She opened her mouth, her throat like a broken bellows, pulling out a hoarse voice, “You are…”

Yin Buran’s expression was indifferent. “Azurefall Creek, Yin Buran.”

As if to prove her identity, she ignored the bloodstains on the woman and gently placed her fingers on the other’s shoulder.

A gentle spiritual energy, wrapped in medicinal power, spread throughout her body. The fresh scent of plants and trees rose around them, dispelling the stench of corpses.

This was the third time Ning Ruoque had seen Yin Buran make a move.

The originally dying woman suddenly began to gasp violently. She lunged forward, and because her body was too weak, she fell heavily to the ground.

She didn’t give up and tried to climb up again, muttering incoherently, “Fei Zhi… Brightlight Pavilion has a Fei Zhi. The Pavilion Master has gone mad. He tricked my disciple into coming here. We wanted to save them, but…”

After trying several times, she finally grabbed Yin Buran’s sleeve. “Divine… Divine Pivot Lord, can you save… save them…”

The pure white, flawless sleeve was stained with black. Yin Buran, on the contrary, held her hand back and sighed softly.

“I know. They will be fine.”

Having received the answer she wanted, the woman finally let go, her eyes returning to their deathly stillness.

From her fragmented words, it was not difficult to guess that this was the feeding ground of that Fei Zhi.

The old Pavilion Master of Brightlight Pavilion had tricked his disciples into coming here, either by sneak attack or by suppressing them with his cultivation, and fed these living people to the Fei Zhi, then used the Fei Zhi to nourish himself.

It was unknown how long this despicable act had continued until it was discovered by a part of Brightlight Pavilion.

The two sides must have fought, but the woman had lost, and she herself had become food for the Fei Zhi.

Ning Ruoque looked around, trying to find more survivors.

But Yin Buran shook her head. “She’s the only living person here.”

Because she was the only one at the Form Transformation realm, she had lasted longer than the others. The pain of having her cultivation devoured, of course, also lasted longer.

Ning Ruoque could see that her body was on the verge of collapse. The only reason she had held on until now was that sliver of obsession.

Yin Buran’s treatment had not stopped, but the other’s complexion was still ashen. The wound on her throat was like a breach, and her life force and spiritual energy were crazily escaping from it.

Perhaps it was her last moments, a final burst of energy. She struggled to pick up the sword in her hand, her eyes turning to the silent Ning Ruoque.

She said haltingly, “This is my eldest disciple’s sword. She always wanted to be like the Sword Venerable. Unfortunately… I’m not as powerful as the Sword Venerable. I can’t avenge her.”

She pulled up the corners of her mouth in self-mockery, her trembling hand stroking the blade inch by inch, as if stroking someone’s face.

“I… I probably won’t live. Fellow Daoist, I have a favor to ask of you. Use this sword to kill me.”

The broken sword let out a faint hum, as if reluctant, but it was forcefully pushed into Ning Ruoque’s hand by the woman.

Ning Ruoque was stunned for a moment, but the hand holding the sword did not tremble in the slightest.

She had experience. The faster the sword, the less pain the other person would suffer. She just felt a little sad.

If only she could have come earlier.

The woman closed her eyes peacefully. Ning Ruoque immediately raised her hand, and a cool question suddenly sounded by her ear.

“What are you two doing? Acting as if I don’t exist?”

Yin Buran’s face was cold as she punched Ning Ruoque’s arm.

The latter subconsciously retreated, shrinking back timidly, not daring to move. “Yin Buran—”

The woman also let out a puzzled sound. “Divine Pivot Lord?”

For as long as the sword cultivator had been emotionally reciting, Yin Buran had been watching coldly.

The corners of her mouth turned up, but there was no smile in her eyes. “Announcing your own death in front of a medical cultivator is truly rare. Of course, if you really don’t want to live, I don’t mind sending you on your way.”

Ning Ruoque felt that the current Yin Buran was like a cat with its fur standing on end. If she said one more word, she would be hissed at and then scratched.

She and the woman lowered their heads at the same time, as silent as cicadas in winter.

After a moment, they couldn’t help but speak at the same time, “Can you save her/me?”

Yin Buran narrowed her eyes, a little impatient. “Are you questioning my medical skills?”

A chill ran up Ning Ruoque’s back. She quickly shook her head to show her stance. “Not at all.”

Finally, she praised with genuine feeling, “You’re amazing!”

Yin Buran snorted lightly. With a change of hand seals, the wound on the woman’s throat healed at a speed visible to the naked eye, leaving only a light pink scar in the end.

Ning Ruoque looked at the woman, whose complexion had clearly improved a lot, and then at Yin Buran.

To be able to heal a fatal wound of this degree, no wonder Yin Buran’s medical skills were called the “greatest of all time.”

But she still advised in a low voice, “Don’t push yourself too hard.”

Yin Buran clearly didn’t take her words to heart and said nonchalantly, “I know my limits.”

She tapped a few of the woman’s acupoints with extreme speed. “Don’t die. Otherwise, if you can’t pay the medical fees, I’ll use your disciple to test my medicine.”

As soon as her voice fell, the other party spat out a few mouthfuls of clotted blood. The dark blood splattered on Yin Buran’s sleeve, like blooming red plum blossoms.

But she didn’t seem to care at all and even grinned, revealing a small canine tooth. “Ha, ha, as expected of the Divine Pivot Lord. You really are as kind-hearted as the rumors say—”

Yin Buran expressionlessly stuck a needle in.

The person who had been smiling just now was instantly moved to tears.

“You really are… a kind-hearted person.”

Ning Ruoque silently took a step back and made a mental note to never speak ill of Yin Buran in front of her.

In less than the time it takes for an incense stick to burn, the woman’s injuries had stabilized.

Yin Buran stood up, and the bloodstains on her clothes instantly disappeared without a trace.

She frowned and instructed Ning Ruoque, “Carry her on your back. We’re going back.”

Ning Ruoque shook her head. “I’ll take you up first.”

She still remembered what Yin Buran had said before, that she needed to use less spiritual energy due to the relapse of her old illness. Now that she had just pulled a dying person back, it was probably best for her to rest.

Yin Buran paused, lowered her eyes, and the cold aura from before suddenly softened.

She didn’t speak, but walked to Ning Ruoque’s side and tugged on her sleeve, which was a tacit agreement.

So Ning Ruoque ran back and forth twice, then carried the woman on her back and slipped out of Brightlight Tower.

Everything had been going smoothly, but as they were about to go down the mountain, she keenly sensed the aura of another person.

Looking back, there was a thin figure standing on top of Brightlight Tower. The wind lifted her robes, and it seemed to bring a few crisp chimes of a bell.

The shadow stood motionless, as if watching them.

Ning Ruoque and Yin Buran exchanged a look, but neither of them spoke. They returned to the small courtyard under the cover of night.

*

As soon as she had sent the woman to Qingtong’s room, Yin Buran went to take a bath.

Ning Ruoque sat on the steps outside the room, a plum blossom cake in her mouth and the broken sword in her hand. She ate while listening to the two inside bickering.

And thus she learned that the woman she had saved was the elder of Brightlight Pavilion’s Sword Division, named Yan Huaifeng.

If she hadn’t suffered this calamity, she would have been Yan Lingge’s grandmaster or master.

Elder Yan was lying down to have her medicine applied, her whole body wrapped in bandages, but she still didn’t forget to ask Qingtong, “Can I work for Azurefall Creek to pay off the medical fees?”

Qingtong’s gloomy gaze swept over Yan Huaifeng’s ceaseless mouth.

She really couldn’t understand why Little Senior Sister’s ill-fated relationship with sword cultivators was so deep. She could pick up a few wherever she went.

Looking at Yan Huaifeng’s mouth now, so lively, it was probably Little Senior Sister’s doing.

Qingtong fiercely crushed a pill. “No! If everyone was like you, wouldn’t Azurefall Creek be full of dull-witted sword cultivators!”

Yan Huaifeng directly ignored some of the strange words and asked, puzzled, “Why are they all sword cultivators? Aren’t there any artifact cultivators or spell cultivators?”

Qingtong was very impatient and wished she could smear the medicine on the other’s mouth. “There’s no why.”

“Little Immortal Doctor, can you reduce the medical fees a little? I still have many disciples to raise.”

“Shut up!”

The angry voice almost lifted the roof. Ning Ruoque blew away the wood shavings in her hand and then looked up at the sky.

The night was deep, the north wind was biting, and the bright moon was nowhere to be seen. The dark clouds were almost pressing down on the mountaintop.

It was going to snow.

She patted the broken sword in her hand, stood up, and walked into the room.