Help, I’m Being Forced to Marry a Frail and Sickly Immortal Doctor! 21

Chapter 21: A Sword’s Startling Appearance

“Protect yourself.”

As soon as Ning Ruoque turned past the screen, she saw Qingtong’s bitter and resentful little face.

In contrast was Yan Huaifeng’s carefree smile.

Even though her cultivation was less than a tenth of what it used to be, her body was too weak to even hold a sword, and she might even have irreparable hidden injuries, she was still cheerful.

Ning Ruoque nodded to her in greeting. “Elder Yan, I would like to ask about something. Is it convenient now?”

Yan Huaifeng was quite straightforward. “Just say it.”

Ning Ruoque: “Does Elder know what kind of person Xu Chuo is?”

Hearing a familiar name from her mouth, the smile in Yan Huaifeng’s eyes disappeared.

After a long hesitation, she finally spoke with a worried tone.

“That child was always quiet and loved to dwell on things. Some time ago, I heard that she had encountered a bottleneck in her cultivation and had been following that old coot. I was just afraid that she would go astray.”

Qingtong pouted and interjected, “She has already gone astray!”

She looked at Yan Huaifeng’s suddenly widened eyes and secretly cursed in her heart, Dull-witted sword cultivator!

Without needing Ning Ruoque to say more, Qingtong chattered away, explaining the cause and effect in a few words.

After she finished, the room, filled with the scent of medicine, fell into silence.

After a while, Yan Huaifeng shook her head with a bitter smile. “If my cultivation wasn’t gone, I would have gone to end her myself.”

There was a blood feud between the demon and human races. Countless people had died tragically in the mouths of demonic beasts, and countless ancestors had sacrificed their lives for this.

No matter what, humans should not collude with demons.

Not wanting to dwell on sad things, Yan Huaifeng wanted to do something else to distract herself and asked casually, “Hey, is there anything to eat?”

Ning Ruoque silently took out a fruit from her storage bag and handed it to her.

The latter showed a friendly smile, took a bite without much hesitation, and then her whole face scrunched up into a bun.

She slapped her thigh hard, and after finally swallowing it, she stared at Ning Ruoque with an indescribable expression.

Ning Ruoque felt no psychological burden. The sweet fruits were for Yin Buran. Sword cultivators could just eat whatever.

“By the way, that old coot needs the Fei Zhi’s demon core to practice his demonic arts. Using this thing for a long time affects the spiritual soul and will make people lose their minds.”

Yan Huaifeng grimaced from the sourness, her expression ferocious, but she refused to give up, eating as she spoke, “I’m just afraid that the demon core will fall into Xu Chuo’s hands…”

Ning Ruoque was stunned. “Lose their minds?”

She recalled Xu Chuo’s state these past few days. She was very calm, even a little too calm. Even though Yin Buran had ruined her plans several times and saved Yan Huaifeng, she hadn’t done anything.

A thousand thoughts raced through Ning Ruoque’s mind, trying to find a suspicious point among all the events.

The feeling of something being wrong grew stronger, so much so that her hand holding the sword tightened several times.

Qingtong glanced at her and continued to grind the medicine. “Don’t overthink it. I’ve already sprinkled the powder to suppress the Fei Zhi’s clones. The people from Azurefall Creek will arrive tonight at the earliest. No matter how much she wants to cause trouble, she won’t have the chance.”

This was probably the only good news in the past two days. Ning Ruoque’s heart relaxed a little, but it was still hanging.

She held the broken sword horizontally in front of her, her fingertips stroking the spine of the sword.

Although the long sword was broken, its blade was still sharp. A speck of candlelight fell on it, and then burned brightly in Ning Ruoque’s eyes.

She said softly, “Elder Yan, may I borrow this sword? I won’t break it.”

As if in response to her words, the broken sword let out a faint hum.

Yan Huaifeng was stunned for a moment, sized her up for a long while, and said, “Alright.”

So Ning Ruoque put away the broken sword, gave Qingtong a look, and then pointed outside. Although she didn’t understand what she wanted to do, Qingtong still obediently followed her out.

The moment she stepped out, she was pulled to a corner by Ning Ruoque.

Seeing this person looking around mysteriously and with a hesitant expression, Qingtong was very impatient. “What exactly do you want to ask?”

“Qingtong, how serious is Yin Buran’s old illness?” Ning Ruoque chose her words carefully and tentatively asked, “Is she…”

“Unable to use poison anymore?”

“…”

She had originally hoped that she was overthinking it, but Qingtong’s silence was so real. So real that it made her feel a mix of emotions, unable to tell if it was regret or worry.

Ning Ruoque pressed her lips together, and her originally bright eyes gradually dimmed, looking a little dazed.

Qingtong lowered her voice and threatened like a baring little beast, “It’s fine if you’ve guessed it, but don’t go spreading it around.”

A medical cultivator without offensive means was as coveted as a top-tier spiritual treasure in this perilous cultivation world.

Not to mention that Yin Buran’s constitution was so weak.

Confirming her guess, Ning Ruoque nodded and, stepping on the shattered light and shadows on the ground, walked quickly towards Yin Buran’s room.

Since this was the last night, she had to protect her before the people from Azurefall Creek arrived.

The main house was quiet. Ning Ruoque first knocked on the door, but there was no answer.

She stepped into the house silently and saw a ball of white, fluffy fox-fur cloak nestled on the cool couch by the window.

And Yin Buran was wrapped in the cloak, her face resting on the windowsill, looking as if she were planning to eavesdrop, but she couldn’t resist the sleepiness at all.

Such a large, soft ball, yet she was sleeping so defenselessly.

Seeing the red mark pressed on her cheek, Ning Ruoque couldn’t help but stretch out a finger and quickly poke it.

It was a very familiar touch, soft and smooth, exactly the same as what she had touched during the day.

Yin Buran frowned and rubbed against the cloak, as if trying to get rid of this sudden itch.

Seeing that she was about to fall asleep again, Ning Ruoque quickly reached out to try and pull her back.

Before she could reach, a loud “bang” came from outside the window, and the earth trembled. The house shook violently, and Yin Buran’s whole body tilted, her head hitting the windowsill.

Ning Ruoque sucked in a sharp breath.

Yin Buran clutched her head. Even though her eyes were half-closed, it was not difficult to see the shimmering water in them.

The first thing she did was to look for Ning Ruoque. Before she could say anything, the latter immediately raised her hands to prove her innocence.

“It wasn’t me!”

Yin Buran lowered her eyes, silently holding back her tears, and rubbed her own head.

“Go and see what happened.” Her voice was very hoarse, with a thick fatigue and sleepiness, probably caused by the excessive consumption of spiritual energy.

Ning Ruoque was a little worried about Yin Buran’s body, but the noise outside was getting louder and louder.

She frowned, and in the end, she nimbly vaulted out of the window and ran towards the courtyard.

Above Brightlight Pavilion, the clouds rolled like the sea.

Vast snowflakes fell, blown by the biting wind, rushing straight into people’s faces.

She ignored the wind and snow, easily leaped onto the roof, and saw the rolling thick smoke and fire in the distance, and—

A four-winged Fei Zhi that almost covered the entire mountain.

The entire Brightlight Pavilion echoed with the alarm of a demon attack, but their mountain-protecting formation had not been activated.

“This Fei Zhi is at least at the Spirit Refinement realm.”

Qingtong appeared, holding a bamboo umbrella, her tone anxious. “What is Xu Chuo trying to do? Is she going to sacrifice the entire Brightlight Pavilion?!”

Just then, Yan Lingge stumbled over, not even having caught her breath, her crying voice came first, “Senior… there seem to be… a lot of living corpses outside!”

As soon as her voice fell, Ning Ruoque brushed past her. The broken sword in her hand collided with a black shadow, fiercely pinning it to the ground.

Caught off guard, she met a pair of panicked and still childish faces.

The person under her was still struggling. A highly aggressive flame exploded beside Ning Ruoque, but it was completely blocked by Qingtong’s bamboo umbrella.

“It’s not a living corpse,” Ning Ruoque let out a soft breath and said with unusual calmness, “It’s a person controlled by a Fei Zhi clone.”

The auras outside the small courtyard were mixed. Clearly, this was not the only one that had come.

Qingtong’s scalp tingled. The snow hitting her body felt like being scraped by a knife. She didn’t think the Fei Zhi was difficult to deal with, but what if it were living, innocent people?

In a brief moment of daze, a white shadow flashed out, landing beside Ning Ruoque like a fluttering butterfly.

A guqin floated beside her. Although no one was playing it, it emitted a few pleasant notes.

The person Ning Ruoque was pinning down gradually gave up struggling, their eyes vacant, and the swarming “living corpses” also slowed their pace.

Yin Buran glanced at Qingtong and reminded her lightly, “Don’t be in a daze.”

Qingtong instantly came back to her senses, her eyes slightly red.

“Little Senior Sister!”

What answered her were countless zither notes, like the cry of a phoenix and the shattering of jade. They seemed to materialize into wisps of pure white spiritual energy.

Wherever they passed, all the controlled people were frozen in place.

The spiritual energy passed through their bodies, bringing out some writhing black mist.

“Since you are a doctor, you should remain calm in any situation.” Yin Buran’s eyes were half-closed, and her whole person seemed to be white to the point of transparency.

But her voice struck everyone’s heart with solid weight.

“What are you afraid of? Am I not here?”

Qingtong rubbed her eyes and took out her silver needles and potions. She was going to perform acupuncture on the spot, saving as many as she could.

The situation seemed to be temporarily under control. Ning Ruoque flexed her wrist.

In her peripheral vision, the huge Fei Zhi flapped its wings, stirring up a storm. Its orange-yellow beastly pupils hung high in the sky, watching all the tiny ants that it was.

It did not make a move. It only sent out its puppets, and then waited, and watched.

Ning Ruoque met Qingtong’s worried gaze, and then they both looked at Yin Buran.

They couldn’t let this drag on. They both knew it.

Ning Ruoque quickly stuffed something into Yin Buran’s hand. “Protect yourself.”

Before the other could react, she leaped onto the roof, her black-clad figure disappearing into the wind and snow in the blink of an eye.

She didn’t look back, as if she had no attachment to anything behind her.

Yin Buran looked at her palm.

There lay a wooden hairpin, similar to the one she had lost.

Although the pattern was rough, it was smooth and delicate to the touch, polished very carefully.

After a long while, she blinked, still dazed, like a wooden puppet.

A clap of thunder struck.

The sky was suddenly torn in half by lightning. The clouds gathered into a surging vortex, and countless lightning bolts moved within it.

Qingtong’s hand, which was performing acupuncture, paused. She was so shocked that she almost lost her voice. “Is that… a lightning tribulation?!”

Judging by the scale, it should be a lightning tribulation from the Spirit Induction to the Dust Cleansing realm. Its owner should be…

“Ning Man!”

How did she not see it earlier? This sword cultivator is also a lunatic!