Chapter 8: A Sword’s Startling Appearance
She actually developed the misconception that Yin Buran was easy to feed…
Help!
Alarm bells rang in Ning Ruoque’s mind, and she wished she could swallow the words she had just spoken.
What was her relationship with Yin Buran? How could they be so intimate?
She refused decisively, “The matter of my memory loss hasn’t been cleared up yet. This is improper.”
Yin Buran stared at her with a blank expression, then suddenly lowered her eyes and extended her slender hand.
She said in a low voice, “These hands of mine, I’m afraid they can’t even hold a silver needle right now.”
The sunlight happened to fall on her palm, blurring its outline, as if it would dissipate like quicksand in the next second.
“…”
Ning Ruoque silently reproached herself. The other person was just weak and had no choice but to seek help from others. Yet she had misunderstood Yin Buran’s intentions as wanting to be close to her.
She was really overthinking it!
With the misunderstanding cleared up, Ning Ruoque simply sat down opposite Yin Buran.
She was used to being casual, eating whatever was in her hands without much fuss.
But with Yin Buran’s disposition, directly handing her the food would probably earn her a look of disdain.
Fortunately, Ning Ruoque’s cooking skills were excellent. The pheasant was first roasted and then stewed, the meat fragrant, soft, and juicy, easily falling off the bone.
She carefully deboned the chicken leg with her chopsticks. Just as she was about to feed it to her, her hand paused in mid-air, and she hesitated once more.
No matter how you looked at it, this meal was too shabby. It was neither precious nor exquisite, completely out of place with Yin Buran.
Perhaps seeing her pause for too long, Yin Buran spoke faintly, “Are you reluctant now?”
“No.”
Ning Ruoque quickly made a gesture to offer it, then subconsciously pulled back the moment the other person leaned forward.
It looked a lot like she was fishing.
Yin Buran nearly bit a mouthful of air. Seeing the person before her with darting eyes and stiff movements, her face suddenly turned cold.
“If you really don’t want to, then forget it.”
Although she said so, and her expression was icy, there was a clear trace of disappointment in her eyes when she turned her head away.
Ning Ruoque quickly corrected her attitude and explained hastily, “Sorry, I’m a little unused to it. I’m ready now.”
She was afraid that the person would start crying again at the slightest disagreement.
So she cast aside all distracting thoughts and focused on feeding her.
All she had to do was extend the chopsticks and get a little closer, and Yin Buran would eat on her own.
She took a small bite of meat, tucked a stray strand of white hair behind her ear, and then chewed slowly.
Because of the angle, Ning Ruoque could even see the swallowing motion of her throat, her slightly open collar, and the small mole on her collarbone.
Occasionally, when she offered a chopstick of cut fruit, Yin Buran would also eat it obediently.
After a few rounds of this, she actually developed the misconception that Yin Buran was easy to feed.
So much so that even the act of feeding Yin Buran became like cultivation, single-minded and focused.
Ning Ruoque noticed that Yin Buran ate the meat slowly and would occasionally get distracted.
She had heard the conversation between Qingtong and Yin Buran and guessed that the plum blossom cake was probably a tonic.
Taking advantage of Yin Buran’s inattention, she quickly picked up a piece of plum blossom cake and attempted to feed it to her.
The latter glanced at her coolly and lowered her head as if to take a bite.
But just as she got close, she turned her head and grabbed Ning Ruoque’s wrist.
“You—” Ning Ruoque was caught off guard, watching helplessly as Yin Buran suddenly leaned in and stuffed something into her mouth.
The thing melted the moment it entered her mouth, carrying an indescribable bitterness and a rusty, metallic taste of blood.
Ning Ruoque frowned, keeping her lips pressed together for a long time before the taste finally dissipated.
The chopsticks in her hand were still held steady, not a single crumb of the plum blossom cake had fallen.
She suspected that Yin Buran had learned this trick from her.
“What was that?”
Using Ning Ruoque’s hand, Yin Buran casually took a bite of the plum blossom cake.
She also frowned, unwilling to touch it again.
She answered with a straight face, “A gu-poison. I have the antidote. You must take it once every three days, or you will bleed from all seven orifices and die.”
“…”
Seeing that her expression didn’t seem fake, Ning Ruoque tried to circulate her spiritual energy but found nothing wrong.
“I don’t believe you.”
Not seeing a panicked expression on Ning Ruoque’s face, Yin Buran narrowed her eyes. The sense of triumph from her successful scheme was instantly halved.
She listlessly took a sip of tea to rinse the bitter taste from her mouth.
“You don’t believe me? Then go ahead and run. See if what I said is true.”
Ning Ruoque still said, “It’s definitely not true. You’re not that kind of person.”
She said it with such conviction, as if she knew her very well.
In fact, this serious-looking sword cultivator remembered nothing, her mind was solely focused on practicing the sword, and even feeding her a few bites of food would make her blush.
Yin Buran tilted her head slightly.
She asked out of the blue, “When did we first meet?”
Ning Ruoque didn’t hesitate much. “At the regular meeting of the Immortal Alliance.”
After a brief silence, Yin Buran lowered her eyelids again.
“Wrong. You really have forgotten me.”
She stroked the jade bracelet on her wrist and leaned lazily against the soft pillow. “Your spiritual soul is very weak. Once the spiritual energy you use exceeds the limit you can bear, your soul will leave your body.”
Soul separation during a fight was extremely dangerous. The slightest error could lead to a point of no return.
Ning Ruoque didn’t doubt Yin Buran’s judgment. After all, the description perfectly matched her situation from last night.
She was already worried about her low cultivation, and now she was even more anxious.
Yin Buran hadn’t noticed the grave expression on the other’s face and was explaining slowly, “So, you should know that your best choice right now is to stay by my side.”
She raised her chin reservedly. “In the morning, you must dress me. For morning and evening meals, you must serve me. When I have no strength, you must carry me. You must also attend to my bath, and—”
Hearing Yin Buran’s words become more and more outrageous, Ning Ruoque immediately interrupted in a fluster.
She was aghast. “Why?”
Feeding was one thing, but she would never, and could never, do the rest.
Yin Buran’s lips curved slightly, her face showing no sign of blushing as she said, “Because that’s how you used to take care of me.”
Ning Ruoque studied her for a few seconds.
But there was no flaw in the expression on Yin Buran’s face, as if this was a matter of course in her daily life.
Meticulous care, physical contact, a long-established tacit understanding—she couldn’t imagine any of those scenes. Ning Ruoque began to fidget with her clothes.
Without her cool sword by her side, she felt even more flustered.
It was like a hollow block of ice with molten iron poured inside, starting to melt with a drip and sizzle.
After a long while, Ning Ruoque turned her head away, avoiding Yin Buran’s smiling eyes.
She said decisively, “I don’t believe you!”
***
A minute later, Ning Ruoque was squatting in the courtyard’s covered corridor, eating pastries.
Because she was too “unreceptive,” Yin Buran had irritably told her to go out and practice her sword, and to finish that plate of plum blossom cakes while she was at it.
Only when she put it in her mouth did she realize that this thing was actually bitter.
She didn’t know if it was Qingtong’s cooking skills or the nature of the medicine itself. The pastry had a rough, sandy texture, mixed with a strange sour and bitter taste. No wonder Yin Buran avoided it like the plague.
Even a simple steamed white cake would be much sweeter and more fragrant than this.
Ning Ruoque ate them two at a time. When she caught a glimpse of Qingtong’s green skirt in her peripheral vision, she quickly wrapped the rest in oil paper and stuffed them into her pouch.
She wouldn’t waste a single one.
Then she clapped her hands and familiarly blocked Qingtong’s path.
Ning Ruoque was exactly a head taller than Qingtong. When she suddenly walked over, she startled the girl so much that her shoulders trembled and her eyes widened.
Ning Ruoque: …
Before, in front of Yin Buran, she had shown her disdain with impunity, and she hadn’t seen her afraid of her.
Ning Ruoque took a step back and put her hands behind her back to reduce her threat.
She got straight to the point. “What’s wrong with your Little Senior Sister’s health?”
Qingtong’s previously hunched shoulders slowly relaxed.
After thinking for a moment, Yin Buran hadn’t told her not to say anything.
She skillfully set up a barrier to prevent eavesdropping, opened her small mouth, and began to explain animatedly.
“A while ago, the Palace Master of Heavenly Eon Palace suffered a backlash from prying into the heavenly dao and asked Little Senior Sister to treat her. As payment, she gave Little Senior Sister a divination.”
Heavenly Eon Palace was a sect that specialized in astrology and fortune-telling. The Palace Master was also an old acquaintance of Ning Ruoque’s.
Her divinations were extremely accurate and sought after throughout the cultivation world.
Before her battle with the Demon God, Ning Ruoque had also asked her for three divinations. The first two were of great misfortune, and the last one couldn’t be interpreted, so she had to give up.
Ning Ruoque already had a guess. “And then?”
Qingtong pouted. Just thinking about it was upsetting.
“Unexpectedly, after the divination, she suffered another backlash, so Little Senior Sister had to save her again. The two treatments consumed a great deal of her energy, and with the relapse of her old illness in the winter, she ended up like this.”
A divination that could cause a backlash could only be because it had angered the heavenly dao.
Ning Ruoque’s brows knitted into a deep frown. She wanted to reach for her sword again, but only found a willow-leaf knife wrapped in a tattered cloth at her waist.
Many questions swirled in her mind. “That divination…”
At this point, Qingtong’s face scrunched up into a bun.
“Brightlight Pavilion originally invited me to treat their Pavilion Master. Because of that divination, Little Senior Sister refused to recuperate properly and insisted on coming here with me.”
Like a little sparrow, she explained the whole story in a few words.
Finally, she clapped her hands. “Wait, why are you asking me everything? Why don’t you go and ask Little Senior Sister?”
Sword cultivators are so dense. Of course, it was best for the two of them to clarify such matters face to face.
What if she only had a partial understanding of the key points? Wouldn’t that just add to the misunderstanding?
Ning Ruoque hesitated for a while.
Finally, she asked with some uncertainty, “…Does Yin Buran have hysteria?”
Qingtong: ?
She lifted her skirt, turned around, and walked away. “Alright then, I’m going to tell Little Senior Sister!”
