Chapter 18: Narrow Sea Azure (Part 1): That Tooth Mark Wound Was Gone Part 1

The carriage rented from Prosperous Joy City was not particularly spacious, but it was clean and tidy, with a faint incense scent that relaxed the mind and body. It made for decent recuperation.

A folded square embroidered quilt sat in the corner, and the soft, cool mat covered the floor of the compartment. The carriage curtain was drawn, allowing slivers of sunlight to spill in and fall upon the woman’s pallid face devoid of any color.

Mu Qian Tan leaned sideways against the carriage wall, her eyes vacant, one hand resting at her side.

Beneath her fingertips lay the Solitary Goose and the rusted sword, stacked together. Half of the money pouch embroidered with Reunion draped over the sword body, and her Storage Pouch sat nearby, with a pile of unopened wound medicines placed underneath.

That smash in the music hall had been too severe. Even if it had been to reasonably drink the Snake Venom and justify the blindness at the time, the method had been overly extreme.

The large expanse of trauma on her back still carried the stinging pain of flame burns. Though she could not see it, from the numb and slightly swollen sensation across her entire back, there must have been a deep bruise rising up.

She had intended to buy some medicine to use, but even lifting her arm was laborious, let alone applying it herself. The wounds on her back required removing her clothes, and she did not trust others to help—not even the physicians at a medical hall. She simply set it aside for now.

Though the swelling was uncomfortable, it did not seem at risk of infection. She would wait until they returned to the sect.

Her naturally pale pink lips were now nearly white, making her seem as fragile as thin paper. After sitting like this for a while, her fingertips twitched, and she rested her head against the carriage wall as well.

The tinkling of wind chimes rang out intermittently. Her face remained as expressionless as a cold fairy, but two voices fiercely clashed in her mind.

Li Biyuan was quite angry: “Sister Tan, I really didn’t expect this. Even with me watching you so closely, you still managed to pull off so many outrageous things on the sly!”

Mu Qian Tan said, “Who can you blame when your own heart is so big?”

Li Biyuan fumed, “In terms of meticulousness, I’m one of the best in our bureau! How many important Small World coordinate calibrations do I handle? Whenever there’s a comparison issue, who do they come to first? And you say I’m careless? Just because you’re good at deception doesn’t mean others are sloppy or stupid!”

Mu Qian Tan said, “Oh? Then you must have noticed that I’ve been coveting the Female Protagonist position for a long time and guessed that I’d beat her to the Demon Core.”

Li Biyuan was at a loss for words. Forget guessing it—if she hadn’t seen the Demon Core handed over to Shang Shan with her own eyes, she would have thought it had turned to ash along with the Pipa Demon.

After a long silence, she gritted her teeth and clapped. “Fine… fine, fine! I admit you’re impressive. But don’t people need basic integrity? You promised me you’d do the task properly, then turned around and started eyeing the Female Protagonist spot. Two-faced like that, you’re bound to flip the cart sooner or later.”

Mu Qian Tan said, “We’ll talk about it if I flip.”

Li Biyuan was so incensed by her attitude that she blurted out, “You absolutely cannot do this again! Otherwise…”

She suddenly trailed off there. Mu Qian Tan said, “What, are you going to punish me?”

Li Biyuan swallowed her words and fell silent.

If it had been anyone else, Li Biyuan would have pinched her according to the rules, to make her feel pain and fear. But the scene from the last punishment was still fresh in her mind, and she truly did not dare to act now, lest it trigger the worst outcome.

After a long sigh, she endured and said, “How could I dare, Sister Tan? But could you at least listen to me a little?”

Mu Qian Tan’s fingertips lightly tapped the Solitary Goose, remaining silent.

Li Biyuan sighed. “I’ve really found myself a tough grandma. Back then, I thought you were easier to control and not too dumb, that’s why I chose you…”

Mu Qian Tan said, “If your judgment was wrong, bear the consequences.”

After saying this, she could not help but recall last night.

The Demon Core had just been extracted—scalding hot and perfectly round, lying in her palm, containing the power to break through Wu Gan’s qi aperture. This should have been the first step in her path to usurping the Female Protagonist, yet after successfully taking it, she had forcibly given it away.

Why had she done that?

True, the method to replace the Female Protagonist was too crude and needed refinement, but there was no need to hand over something already in her grasp.

Mu Qian Tan had a habit of reviewing failures, so she spread out the memories like pages and reread them one by one, yet she could not find the true reason. She could only chalk it up, against the backdrop of that same Fire Sea, to her brain having been burned muddled.

Now that the matter was exposed, it would only make future actions harder, and she too would have to bear the consequences of her misjudgment.

Li Biyuan also said, “Forget it. You already gave the item to her, so I won’t say anything more. But I still want to ask: did you suddenly change your mind because your conscience kicked in?”

“Someone without a conscience wouldn’t suddenly discover one.” Mu Qian Tan rolled her eyes. “I just felt that with you around, I can’t keep blinding myself every time. This isn’t the best method.”

Li Biyuan muttered, “You’re not planning to pull other stunts, are you? I’ll be watching you…”

Footsteps sounded outside the compartment. Someone stepped onto the carriage with a thud and yanked open the curtain with a swish. A flood of sunlight poured in, revealing a smiling face. “That Young Master Huo has been caught!”

Mu Qian Tan narrowed her eyes slightly and held a hand up to block the light. “Mm.”

Shang Shan looked refreshed and invigorated. “I also gave the seed to Qin He. She’ll deliver it to that guy. Mission accomplished perfectly! But she said she won’t travel with us. She asked me to thank you on her behalf and headed back first.”

A seed of vengeance would choose its own place to take root and sprout, devouring the “soil” that nurtured it like an incurable disease. This was the Pipa Demon’s unfinished revenge. Young Master Huo, thinking all was well now, had no idea disaster loomed.

As for Qin He’s later responses, Mu Qian Tan had guessed them.

To unleash the Spirit-Breaking Array, her Spiritual Power had been utterly depleted, so naturally she could not ride White Pupil back. Hence, she hired a carriage.

For some reason, she had asked Qin He if she wanted to come along.

The child, upon waking and understanding the situation, had paled dramatically, her gaze darting away. She then immediately explained everything to the arriving hall master and city lord without answering.

Though their destinations were the same, Qin He already hated her. Waking to find herself saved by her enemy—Mu Qian Tan could imagine the complexity in her heart now. A carriage ride back would take days; it was normal for her not to want to stay together. She probably needed time to process.

Mu Qian Tan let out another “mm.” The people outside fell silent, but the sunlight lingered, and no one lowered the curtain.

She waited quietly for a moment, then moved her hand shielding her eyes and saw the girl’s hesitant, peculiar expression. She asked, “What is it?”

Shang Shan jolted as if called upon, gripping the curtain tightly. “Yesterday in the fire, you blocked a hit for me. I wanted to say thanks. And… are you okay now?”

In that instant, she had thought injury was inevitable, but she never imagined the Flapping Moth—who struck her eight hundred times a day—would take the blow for her. Though her past experiences left her mood mostly sullen, she distinguished favors from grudges clearly. The thanks had to be given.

Moreover, she had been cushioned underneath and still felt dazed and confused from the smash. The woman, bearing the brunt of the impact directly, must have fared worse.

She did not look very sturdy. Hopefully nothing serious came of it…

Mu Qian Tan looked away. “I wasn’t blocking for you. I had my own reasons.”

Shang Shan did not understand. “Reasons? What were they?”

Mu Qian Tan parted her lips slightly, then closed them. Explaining this action would be too troublesome, and with the Brain-Damaged Dragon’s intelligence, she would not get it. A waste of effort—not worth saying anything.

“I get it,” Shang Shan guessed, suddenly enlightened. “You actually wanted to save that little child, right? You just thought I couldn’t protect her, so you stepped in.”

Seeing the woman still not respond, she continued on her own. “I already sent that child back. If that’s the reason, I still have to thank you on her behalf.”

Her words sank like a stone into the sea, without a ripple. Shang Shan shook the curtain. “Why aren’t you saying anything?”

Though most of her words fell on deaf ears, Shang Shan admitted she liked hearing the woman speak.

She always enunciated each word unhurriedly. Even when angry, she merely grew cooler—still steady and smooth, evoking jade soaked in ice water, beautiful and translucent.

Folks back home never spoke like that. Big or small matters, they bellowed at the top of their lungs—bright and clear enough, but lacking that chill clarity, so they did not grip the ear quite the same.

Shang Shan wandered in her thoughts, her gaze drifting until it landed on the medicine bottles. She lifted a foot to climb in. “Do you need to apply medicine? It’s inconvenient by yourself, right? Let me help!”

Mu Qian Tan’s face showed weariness. “Get out.”

Shang Shan halted mid-step, staring wide-eyed in confusion, unable to fathom her sudden attitude shift. Thinking back on her words, nothing seemed off?

She said, “You were fine yesterday. What did I do to annoy you now?”

Mu Qian Tan said, “Seeing you annoys me.”

Even with lingering gratitude in her heart, being rejected so bluntly at her age soured the mood. Shang Shan pouted and huffed, “You’re injured, so I’ll yield to you this time. Fine, I’m going.”

Before leaving, she turned her head outward and pulled out a pancake bigger than her face from behind her back, waving it around. “Want to eat?”

Mu Qian Tan spat out one word: “Scram.”

“…This is from an immortal’s treat. Suit yourself if you don’t want it!”

What jade, what ice water! A big pancake was far more real. Shang Shan buried her head into it, taking a half-moon bite, then shouted to the coachman as she turned. “We can go now! To the Tianyu Mountains!”

Moments later, the wind chimes rang again, and the carriage lurched forward. The curtain was drawn properly, plunging the interior back into darkness.

Mu Qian Tan laboriously picked up a bottle of wound medicine, turned it over to look, then set it down.

It was not safe here. Better not.

After this lull, Li Biyuan had organized her words and earnestly advised, “You got lucky this time because I slipped up. But even if I slip every time from now on, this path of yours won’t lead anywhere. Give it up.”

“‘Going against the protagonist means going against the creator—this can never succeed. Remember, resources will always pour toward her, while you’re doomed to get none. Even a momentary victory won’t last a lifetime. See how rugged and perilous this road is. You’re smart; don’t stray into the wrong path.'”