Chapter 72: Damn You, Nangong Yin!

“Devil Lord.”

As Nangong Yin returned victorious, Lei Shuang and Jiang Ying lined up to greet her.

Lei Shuang had already heard about the events atop the Medicine God Sect.

It was she who, valuing her friendship with Chen Er, had introduced her to Nangong Yin. Yet the partner Chen Er had recommended changed their objective at the crucial moment and even took Yan Zhao hostage.

Knowing that the Devil Lord had personally ordered Feng Jin to protect Yan Zhao, Xuanyuan Mu’s actions were akin to pulling a tooth from a tiger’s mouth. As the one who had made the introduction, Lei Shuang feared she would inevitably share the blame.

Whether it was psychological or reality, Lei Shuang felt the air pressure beside Nangong Yin was incredibly low. When Nangong Yin passed by her, a cold, chilling wind seemed to blow, making Lei Shuang’s heart tremble again and again.

She bowed her head low, her expression painfully awkward, cold sweat breaking out on her back in waves.

Just then, Nangong Yin’s footsteps suddenly stopped.

“Lei Shuang.”

Being called out by name made Lei Shuang’s heart lurch. Speak of the devil.

At this close distance, she didn’t dare pretend she hadn’t heard. She could only raise her head with the resolve of a martyr facing execution.

Thud—

A Jade Casket smacked her on the forehead.

Because her forehead was so hard, the Jade Casket popped open, and the pill inside flew out.

Seeing this, Nangong Yin frowned. “What are you daydreaming about?”

Lei Shuang clutched her forehead, mouth agape, speechless. She looked at Nangong Yin, then down at the pill on the ground, bewildered. “This is… the Yang Marrow Pill?!”

Jiang Ying rolled her eyes at her as if she were an idiot. “Hurry up and pick it up.”

“Oh, oh!” Lei Shuang hurriedly bent down to pick up the pill and the Jade Casket from the ground. As she placed the pill back into the casket, a sudden flash of inspiration hit her. “Devil Lord…”

Nangong Yin said, “Give the medicine to Feng Jin. Once her injuries are healed, the three of you will do something for This Seat.”

Seeing her guess confirmed, the tension in Lei Shuang’s heart dissolved. Instantly, her brows curved into a smile. Before Nangong Yin could fully explain the task, she was already thumping her chest in assurance. “Please, just give us your orders, Devil Lord! We will certainly get it done!”

Jiang Ying couldn’t stand Lei Shuang’s foolishness anymore and surreptitiously kicked her.

This kick landed right in the crook of Lei Shuang’s knee. Still holding the pill, Lei Shuang crashed to her knees with a thud.

Nangong Yin raised an eyebrow.

Lei Shuang grimaced in pain, but her mind worked fast. She smoothly continued her declaration, “Through mountains of swords and seas of fire, we will not refuse!”

She faced Nangong Yin with a look of utter loyalty, but her hands, hidden behind her back, made a provocative gesture at Jiang Ying.

Jiang Ying turned her face away, struggling not to laugh, the corners of her mouth twitching uncontrollably, barely suppressed.

Nangong Yin didn’t explain the task verbally. Instead, she inscribed the clues to the Yantian Divine Scroll onto a Jade Slip, passed it to Lei Shuang and Jiang Ying to read, and instructed them to bring it along with the pill to Feng Jin.

Lei Shuang and Jiang Ying accepted their orders and withdrew. Nangong Yin sat down cross-legged on the spot to meditate and regulate her breathing.

Night passed and dawn broke. The dark clouds dispersed. The first ray of morning light illuminated Nangong Yin’s cheek, and her long hair, fluttering in the wind, was rimmed with a layer of gold where the thin light passed through.

At first glance, this Female Devil, whose name struck terror into hearts, seemed bathed in sunlight, taking on an almost saintly, Buddha-like aura.

Whoosh, whoosh!

Several figures suddenly appeared in the dense forest.

Nangong Yin still had her eyes closed, remaining motionless in her cross-legged position.

But she didn’t need to consciously observe. As soon as these people approached her, no matter how they tried to conceal their auras, they were completely exposed.

On all sides: four on the ground, six in the trees. Ten people in total.

Nangong Yin hadn’t bothered to hide her trail, so it was easy for the Immortal Alliance to find her.

She had stayed here without leaving precisely to wait for them.

The Immortal Alliance members exchanged silent glances. Ultimately, with no intention of negotiating, all ten attacked simultaneously.

Swish—

Rain suddenly began to fall within the dense forest, pattering softly, soaking the branches of the trees.

Nangong Yin remained seated, still unmoving.

But a mere ten feet around her cross-legged position, the soil had already been stained red by a rain of blood. The ground was littered with broken limbs and dismembered body parts. One could only roughly guess the number of dead by counting the severed heads.

Nangong Yin opened her eyes, her gaze sweeping dispassionately over the gory mess surrounding her.

She had originally thought they might have some cleverer strategy.

In the end, this was all they amounted to.

The pleasant mood from seeing Yan Zhao, even exchanging words with her, was completely ruined by these flies.

“Tedious.”

·

After Yan Zhao fell asleep, she heard a woman calling softly again.

“Little Zhaozhao, Mother is so bored~ Come and play with Mother~”

Though it had only been a single day and night of silence, Yan Zhao felt as if she hadn’t seen the woman from her dreams in a very long time.

Yan Zhao let her mind drift, ignoring Yan Yuanqing’s calls.

“Little Zhaozhao~ This Mother’s good daughter, come play~”

Yan Yuanqing persisted relentlessly, giving Yan Zhao a headache.

Unable to resist, Yan Zhao willed herself, and instantly, she was within the Cave Abode.

There was no day or night in the Cave Abode; the sky was always clear and bright. Yan Zhao appeared in the courtyard, surrounded by a garden full of unnamed blossoms, all blooming with extraordinary vividness.

Suddenly, a hand reached out from behind and tapped Yan Zhao on the shoulder.

Yan Zhao turned around, but no one was there.

A ghostly shadow silently appeared on Yan Zhao’s other side, wearing a mysterious smile as it spread its arms wide towards her.

“Ah.” Seeming to spot something, Yan Zhao suddenly crouched down.

Yan Yuanqing’s arms grasped empty air.

Looking down, she saw Yan Zhao pulling a Thousand-Legged Centipede out from a crack in the stone floor.

Sensing a shadow falling over her head, Yan Zhao looked up and saw Yan Yuanqing, the centipede still thrashing wildly in her hand.

Yan Yuanqing’s face turned pale as a sheet. In a flash, she darted behind the bamboo pillars of the Pavilion, frantically waving at Yan Zhao from a distance. “Ahhh! Throw it away, quick!”

Yan Zhao held up the insect towards Yan Yuanqing and said, “But when it’s roasted, it’s sweet and very crunchy.”

“…”

Yan Yuanqing’s face turned the color of a vegetable.

She did not want to acquire such bizarre knowledge from her own daughter!

“Little Zhaozhao, throw it away quickly! Wuwuwuwuwu!” Yan Yuanqing hugged a pillar, sobbing. “Mother is so scared!”

“Oh.” Yan Zhao casually tossed it aside.

The centipede burrowed into the damp soil and vanished in the blink of an eye.

Only then did Yan Yuanqing let out a long sigh of relief, though she still felt lingering fear thinking about that creature.

It was all Ah Yin’s fault, always saying that toxicology was also part of herbal lore, insisting on raising all sorts of weird things in her garden.

Yan Zhao shook off her hands after tossing the bug and stood up.

Afraid that something equally terrifying might crawl out from another stone crevice, Yan Yuanqing didn’t dare step a single foot into the garden now. She could only hide behind the stone pillar and beckon to Yan Zhao. “Little Zhaozhao, come over here to Mother.”

Yan Zhao stood there, unmoving.

Yan Yuanqing snapped her fingers, and instantly, several plates appeared on the stone table within the Pavilion.

There were Wine Fruits, Flower Cakes, beans, and peanuts.

Yan Yuanqing had even thoughtfully prepared a pot of tea for Yan Zhao.

Yan Zhao’s eyes lit up, and she strode into the Pavilion.

Yan Yuanqing grasped her hand, pulled her to the table to sit, and picked up a piece of Flower Cake with bamboo chopsticks, lifting it to Yan Zhao’s mouth.

Yan Zhao opened her mouth wide.

But the Flower Cake suddenly pulled back a bit. Yan Yuanqing looked at her with a smiling face. “Tell Mother, has anything interesting happened these past couple of days?”

Yan Zhao’s cheeks puffed out in anger, having been denied her cake.

But for the sake of the Flower Cake, she reluctantly said, “I learned to write.”

The moment the words were out, a subtle and strange feeling arose in her heart.

“Write?” Yan Yuanqing was surprised.

Taking advantage of the moment, Yan Zhao stretched her neck forward and gobbled the Flower Cake off the tip of Yan Yuanqing’s chopsticks.

Yan Yuanqing set the chopsticks down, pushed the plate of Flower Cakes in front of Yan Zhao, propped her chin in her hands, and smiled. “What words did you write? Can you show Mother?”

Yan Zhao remembered the stark contrast between her chicken-scratch writing and Ren Qingyue’s elegant calligraphy.

She resolutely shook her head. “No brush, can’t write.”

“Mother has brushes in her room, and paper and ink, too,” Yan Yuanqing said cheerfully.

Yan Zhao firmly refused. “Not writing.”

Yan Yuanqing looked regretful but didn’t press further, merely asking, “Anything else?”

Yan Zhao then said, “I learned Alchemy.”

An inexpressible sense of joy drifted through her heart. Yan Zhao thought to herself, so this is what it feels like to share your experiences with someone else.

Yan Yuanqing clapped her hands in applause. “My good daughter is so amazing? What pill did you make?”

Without a trace of modesty, Yan Zhao answered, “Soul Nourishing Pill.”

Yan Yuanqing’s eyelids fluttered, and the corners of her mouth lifted high. “That’s a Fourth-Tier Pill! Our Zhaozhao is practically a little genius!”

Unknowingly, a smile crept into Yan Zhao’s eyes, too. But feeling that this unfamiliar emotion was a bit embarrassing to display so openly, she pursed her lips, lowered her head, and continued eating her Flower Cake.

“Tell me more,” Yan Yuanqing coaxed softly. “Mother loves hearing it.”

Yan Zhao paused mid-bite, tilted her head, and racked her brain, wondering what else she could tell Yan Yuanqing.

Suddenly, an idea sparked in her mind.

“I subdued the Pill Furnace, but Snowball got hurt.” Yan Zhao took a bite of the sweet Flower Cake. “Then, in the woods, I met a person. She said Snowball’s soul was damaged, and she taught me a technique to heal Snowball’s injuries.”

Yan Yuanqing pressed, “Who was this person?”

As she asked, a doubt stirred within her heart: An injury as serious as soul damage—with our Little Zhaozhao’s Cultivation Base, what kind of technique could she possibly use to help? Could that person have been deceiving Little Zhaozhao?

Yan Zhao tilted her head, thinking, and tried to describe the woman’s appearance. “A woman in black clothes, long hair, a mole under her left eye, very beautiful, but…”

As she listened, Yan Yuanqing gradually became lost in thought. A beautiful woman with a mole under her left eye? How closely did that resemble…

So she pressed further. “But what?”

Yan Zhao pursed her lips. “It seemed like she only had one arm.”

Yan Yuanqing stiffened.

Yan Zhao, oblivious to her reaction, focused intently on explaining it clearly to Yan Yuanqing, gesturing with both hands. “She taught me to do it like this, and like that…”

Yan Yuanqing snapped back to reality, the dazed expression on her face vanishing bit by bit.

In its place, veins bulged on her forehead.

Crack.

The chopsticks in her hand snapped in two. She smiled, though it didn’t reach her eyes.

Damn you, Nangong Yin!

Is this how you teach your daughter?!