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Jiang Huali tried to push the person, but there was no response.

Has he really fainted?

He was wearing black clothes, which was not noticeable at first, but now that you get closer, you can see blood seeping from under him.

It looks rather scary.

The bottle of wound medicine that had just been given to him was still unopened and placed to the side. Jiang Huali thought for a moment and then touched his collar.

The wound couldn't be seen because it was covered by clothes, so I had to take it off to see it.

Jiang Huali carefully peeled off her clothes. In the process, she inevitably touched some places she shouldn't have. Hmm, the feel was not bad.

But just as she undressed a little, a hand suddenly grabbed her.

A weak, feeble voice drifted over: "What are you doing?"

Jiang Huali looked down and met the man's eyes.

It was pitch black, and she couldn't help but recall the pair of golden vertical pupils she had seen when she first entered the cave.

Seeing that he had woken up, she quietly moved her hand away from his chest and explained, "I saw that you had fainted, so I wanted to help you treat your wounds."

Xuan Qing propped herself up and sat up, her lips pressed tightly together. She didn't know whether she believed what she heard, and just looked at her coldly.

Jiang Huali sat down on the spot and looked at the sword beside him. The blade was smooth, dark and shiny, with traces of blood that had not yet been wiped away. Two characters were engraved on the hilt.

Dark blue.

"Your sword is called Xuanqing?" Jiang Huali asked casually.

After she finished speaking, she saw the person in front of her pick up the sword, wipe the blood off with his finger, and put the sword back into its sheath.

“Xuanqing is my name.”

Carve your name on a sword?

Jiang Huali looked at it, thought for a moment, and said, "You didn't wipe the blood off your sword properly; it'll easily smell bad."

"..."

Xuan Qing remained expressionless, drew his sword again, and wiped the remaining blood off the blade with his sleeve.

Actually, Jiang Huali wasn't in much better shape either; she had a bloody hole in her shoulder, stabbed by the man in black.

Jiang Huali looked at the bloodstains beneath Xuan Qing and kindly advised, "Why don't you treat your wounds first?"

She kindly said, "If it's inconvenient, you can take off your clothes and I'll help you apply the medicine."

Xuanqing was stunned by her words. Recalling her actions just now, a faint blush belatedly appeared on her face.

"Shameless."

He spoke slowly and deliberately, with a hint of gritted teeth.

Seeing that he was angry, Jiang Huali wisely stopped talking and sat down on the other side.

She's a bit tactless; it's all because of her face.

Jiang Huali glanced at Xuan Qing and thought: He shouldn't get angry and stab her with his sword, right?

It's unlikely; Xuanqing doesn't seem to want to talk to her.

Jiang Huali picked up a stick from the side and started writing and drawing on the ground.

The village at the foot of the mountain where evil cultivators appeared is called Golden Leaf Village. Yu Tian was taken away by the demons in that area. The evil cultivator was not actually killed by them, but committed suicide.

However, the original owner's memories were interrupted after that evil cultivator committed suicide.

When she woke up again, Yu Tian had been taken away by the demons, and she was being suppressed by the disciples who had rushed over.

Jiang Huali decided to go to Jinye Village to look for clues first.

However, her leg is now broken, her shoulder has been stabbed, and her cultivation is ruined. To get down the mountain, she'll have to avoid those masked men in black...

Just thinking about it makes me feel like I'm headed for disaster.

Jiang Huali was more inclined to believe that those men in black were sent by someone from within the sect, though she didn't know who they were.

She was almost silenced as soon as she came down the mountain. The system said that someone had plundered Yu Tian's luck, and that person might be from the Lingxiao Sect.

But the most urgent task now is to find Yu Tian.

Jiang Huali's mind was in a mess, and she started rummaging through her storage bag.

Even though she has lost her cultivation, she can still use her storage bag, but the bag is no longer protected by any restrictions, so anyone can open it.

Jiang Huali took out a jade pendant from her storage bag. It was engraved with a python and was made of warm, lustrous jade in a sky-blue color.

What's this?

She examined the jade pendant closely, but couldn't figure out what it was. In the original owner's memory, it seemed to be a keepsake left to her by her father.

Jiang Huali put the jade pendant back. The storage bag contained very little, not even many spirit stones.

A voice suddenly came from the side.

Where is this place?

"?" Jiang Huali looked at Xuan Qing beside her, then pointed to herself with some confusion, "You're asking me?"

“…I was injured and forgot many things. When I woke up, I was being chased and fled here. Then you suddenly barged in,” Xuanqing said.

Jiang Huali stood up with some suspicion, walked to Xuan Qing's side, circled around him to observe him, and said doubtfully, "I don't think your head is injured."

Xuan Qing pursed his lips.

“This is a desolate mountain near the Lingxiao Sect,” Jiang Huali said.

Fearing he might ask a question like "What is the Lingxiao Sect?", Jiang Huali explained, "The Lingxiao Sect is the number one sword sect in the cultivation world, you know that, right?"

"Are you a disciple of the Lingxiao Sect?" Xuanqing asked.

Jiang Huali looked at her coarse linen clothes and shrugged: "Look at me, I don't even have any cultivation, how could I possibly be a disciple of the Lingxiao Sect?"

She sighed, "I'm just an ordinary person."

Xuanqing looked at her with his dark eyes and said slowly, "You have residual spiritual energy in your body, but no spiritual power, and your meridians are blocked... Your spiritual meridians have been sealed. You used to be a cultivator."

Easily exposed, Jiang Huali said, "So what if it is? Anyway, I'm just a mortal now."

"Aren't you sad?" Xuanqing asked, puzzled.

Falling from the path of cultivation to become an ordinary mortal is bound to cause anyone loss and pain. There is an insurmountable chasm between mortals and cultivators, and lifespans are short... but she seemed completely unconcerned.

Jiang Huali was originally an ordinary person. Her cultivation was destroyed as soon as she transmigrated, so she didn't feel much.

She said, "Who says I'm not heartbroken? You noticed there were people outside earlier. They were all there to kill me. I'm in a precarious situation now, and I don't even have two spirit stones left. I'm heartbroken to death."

Xuan Qing was silent for a moment, then said, "I can help you get rid of those who are chasing you, but I have one condition."

Jiang Huali looked at him and asked, "What are your requirements?"

“You’ll know when the time comes,” Xuanqing said.

Jiang Huali refused, "What kind of request can't you make now? What if you want my life later?"

Xuan Qing: "...I don't want your life."

“I need you to help me find the location of a ruin,” Xuan Qing said, taking out a map from his pocket. “Once you find it, you can leave. During this time, I will protect you.”

Jiang Huali was skeptical: "I'm just someone who has lost all my spiritual power, I can't help you much, why don't you find it yourself?"

Xuan Qing paused for a moment, his eyelashes drooping to cover his eyes: "I have amnesia and am seriously injured. I am not familiar with the environment here, and someone is chasing me. It is inconvenient for me to show myself."

He paused and then said, "Those people outside the cave just now weren't very powerful; I could have killed them."

There's a ghost.

Jiang Huali thought to herself, but pretended to be relenting: "Okay, I agree."

The two of them agreed to that.

However, they were both injured and had no medicine around. Jiang Huali asked Xuan Qing if he had any spiritual medicine, but she only had ordinary wound medicine in her storage bag, which was not very effective.

To everyone's surprise, Xuanqing said that he had lost his storage bag while fleeing and had nothing on him except a sword.

"..."

"Do you know any healing magic?"

Jiang Huali asked, unwilling to give up.

“…I am currently depleted of spiritual energy and cannot use magic to heal you,” Xuan Qing said.

"Didn't you just use a spell?" She was referring to the concealment spell.

Xuanqing remained silent.

Jiang Huali realized that he had fainted because his spiritual energy had dried up.

So now they can only wait for Xuanqing to recover and regain his spiritual power before they can continue their journey.

Cultivators can heal themselves by regulating their breathing, but ordinary people cannot. Jiang Huali was in pain all over her body. Although the bleeding from her wounds had stopped, her condition was not much better.

They stayed in the cave until nightfall. Since Taoist practitioners had long since abstained from grains and did not need to eat, they did not go out to find food.

But Jiang Huali momentarily forgot that she had become a mortal.

The temperature dropped sharply at night, and they were inside a cave, where the surrounding environment was damp and cold. Xuanqing closed his eyes and meditated to regulate his breathing, while Jiang Huali leaned against a rock.

Suffering from hunger and cold, and with her wounds not properly treated, Jiang Huali suddenly developed a high fever in the middle of the night.

In the darkness, Xuanqing opened his eyes.

For a fleeting moment, his eyes transformed into golden vertical pupils, before quickly returning to normal.

After hesitating for a moment, he got up and walked towards Jiang Huali, who was in a coma with a high fever.

But his first instinct wasn't to check on Jiang Huali's condition; instead, he half-squatted down and tried to grab the storage bag from her waist.

The storage bag was tucked between her clothes. Xuan Qing paused for a moment, but ultimately didn't take the next step. Instead, he touched her burning forehead.

Jiang Huali, delirious with fever, mumbled in her sleep: "...So hot...He...Yuqing, I want to drink water..."

Xuanqing heard the unfamiliar name and her request, but did not react.

A little spiritual energy covered Jiang Huali's forehead. After a few cycles, when her body temperature dropped, Xuan Qing put his hand down and cast a healing spell on her wounds.

With the fever subsiding and the pain lessening considerably, Jiang Huali felt much better, stopped muttering in her sleep, and quietly fell asleep.

Xuan Qing knelt to the side, hesitated for a long time, and finally pulled the storage bag out from Jiang Huali's waist.

Xuanqing easily opened the storage bag, searched inside, and a few seconds later took out a jade pendant wrapped in a handkerchief.

The jade pendant emitted a faint glow in the darkness, its surface gleaming.

Xuanqing looked at the totem on it, poured spiritual power into his hand, and the totem suddenly emitted a dazzling light. An array appeared and floated on the jade pendant.

Xuanqing quietly observed the jade pendant, continuously channeling spiritual energy into it, causing the array to flow and change.

It can't be solved.

After several attempts, the array on the jade pendant remained unbroken. Xuan Qing looked at the sleeping Jiang Huali, wrapped the jade pendant again, and put it back into his storage bag.

Then put the storage bag back on Jiang Huali's waist.

During this time, Jiang Huali seemed to sense the movement, unconsciously licking her dry lips, and muttering again, "Thirsty..."

Xuanqing went straight back to his original spot, sat down, and closed his eyes to meditate.

After a while, Jiang Huali fell silent again.

Xuanqing opened his eyes, stood up in the darkness, left the cave, picked a leaf, filled it with some clear stream water, and brought it back.

He came to Jiang Huali's side, pinched her cheek with one hand, and slowly poured water into her mouth with the other.

After doing all this, Xuanqing cast a spell to ignite the leaf in his hand. Once the leaf turned to ashes, he returned to meditate and regulate his breathing.

Outside the cave, the waterfall cascades down, making a rushing sound, while inside the cave, all is quiet.