Chapter 28 Internal Force Crossing, Pale Face
Consciousness, like a glimmer of light slowly rising from the deep sea, the first thing to return is perception.
Su Qinghan felt an unprecedented sense of comfort.
It was a feeling of cleansing and lightness, from the inside out, as if she had been thoroughly washed by warm spring water. The pain of the previous night, which had penetrated her bones, like being repeatedly burned by ice and fire, had vanished without a trace. The burning poison that had lingered in her body was also completely extinguished by a gentle rain, leaving only the refreshing freshness of the first day after rain.
She could even feel that the internal force of "Canglang Jue" in her dantian was even fuller than before, flowing smoothly and gently through her meridians, repairing those veins damaged by injuries and high fever.
She slowly opened her eyes.
What came into view were the familiar beams of the house, with their faint woody fragrance. Outside, the morning light filtered through the lattice, casting bright beams of light in the air. Tiny dust particles could be clearly seen dancing merrily within them. The melodious chirping of birds drifted from the courtyard.
It's a nice day.
She tilted her head, trying to stand up. At that moment, her movements and breathing suddenly froze.
A figure was lying on the edge of her bed, fast asleep.
It is a deep night.
He did not sleep on the low couch in the outer room, but sat on the footstool beside the bed, with his upper body leaning on the edge of the bed and one arm under his head. It seemed that in the process of guarding, he had unknowingly exhausted all his strength and fell asleep in such an extremely uncomfortable posture.
The soft light of the early morning shone on his face without reservation.
What a pale face it is.
Su Qinghan's heart seemed to be gripped gently yet forcefully by an invisible hand.
She had seen him look cold, indifferent, bewildered and stunned by his clumsy way of chopping wood, and even seen him blush and run away in panic because of her chuckle.
But she had never seen him so... vulnerable.
His complexion wasn't the pale, healthy color of a man, but a nearly transparent, porcelain-like pallor. It was the color of a man drained of all his energy and vitality. In the sunlight, she could even see the faint blue veins beneath his skin. His lips had lost their color, tightly pursed, as if he were still enduring a certain fatigue even in his sleep. A thick shadow shone beneath his eyelids, the unwavering evidence of a sleepless night.
Those vague and painful memories of last night flashed through Su Qinghan's mind.
She remembered being engulfed by the burning sensation of fire, she remembered falling into endless cold and darkness, she remembered in her nightmare, she kept calling out for the figure that had long gone away.
Then what?
Then, a stream of cool, mellow water suddenly poured into her from behind. The force, initially icy, carried an undeniable, soothing power. It didn't violently attack the raging heat and poison within her body. Instead, like a skilled chess player, it carefully and methodically navigated the chaotic flow of her meridians. It transformed into countless fine threads, enveloping and neutralizing the raging heat and poison, then guiding them slowly out of her body.
It was a process that was extremely gentle, yet also extremely difficult.
She was unconscious at the time and thought it was just an illusion during her last moments of clarity.
But now, looking at Shen Ye's face as pale as paper, she understood everything.
That's not an illusion.
It's him.
It was he who used his inner strength to dispel her high fever and save her life.
A huge wave rose in Su Qinghan's heart.
Born into a family of officials and later joined the Six Gates, her experience was immense. She knew full well how dangerous and exhausting it was to use her inner strength to heal others, especially to treat a dangerous fever caused by inflammation of the wound.
This is no less than a life-and-death battle at the level of internal strength.
The healer must disperse their internal energy, transforming it into the purest form to regulate the chaotic qi within the victim. This process requires absolutely no mistakes. A single misstep could lead to the two opposing forces colliding within the victim's body, potentially leading to the failure of the healing process at best and the severing of the victim's meridians, resulting in instant death. This, in turn, inflicts immense strain and damage on the healer, who cannot recover without prolonged recuperation.
not to mention……
Su Qinghan could feel how cold and yin the aura belonging to him that remained in his body was.
This kind of internal energy, when used to kill, would undoubtedly be unstoppable and unstoppable. However, using it to save someone would be like asking a venomous snake to spit out its food or a fierce tiger to embroider. The difficulty and risk involved were more than ten times greater than those of ordinary neutral and peaceful internal energy!
How on earth did he do it?
What kind of mood was he in to do such a thankless and stupid thing that might even get him involved?
He is clearly an assassin.
A top assassin from Tianji Pavilion.
Cold-blooded, ruthless, and treating human life as worthless, this is the label that people like them should be labeled as. Seeking profit and avoiding harm is their instinct.
She was already surprised by his saving her.
The fact that he took her in and took care of her made her feel even more incredible.
And now, he was even willing to use up his own original true energy to pull her back from the brink of death...
This was completely beyond Su Qinghan's understanding.
Why?
She stared at him blankly.
Seeing his brows furrowed even in his sleep, the wrinkles between his brows, which usually seemed distant and cold, were now filled with deep fatigue, making her feel inexplicably distressed.
She recalled every little detail of their time together during these days.
Thinking back to the first time he treated her wound, his clumsy and stiff movements formed a sharp contrast with his hands that were used to holding swords and killing people.
Thinking back to the first meal he cooked, the half-cooked rice porridge tasted disastrous, but he ate most of it without batting an eyelid.
I remember him silently going to the back mountain to chop firewood and keeping the yard in order, but he was always silent, as if everything he did was natural.
Thinking back to that night, he was startled by his own chuckle and ran away like a frightened rabbit, with his red ears clearly visible in the moonlight.
It turns out that all his indifference was just a layer of ice covering his heart.
It turns out that all his silence was just because he was not good at speaking.
He was expressing his... concern in his own way, a clumsy, silent, and even somewhat cute assassin-like way.
Su Qinghan's nose suddenly felt a little sour.
Since her father's death, her adoptive father, Tie Wuqing, had shown her great care and love, but that care was more of an elder's support and expectations for the younger, a boss's appreciation and cultivation of his subordinates. Between them, there was always a layer of authority and majesty.
It had been a long, long time since she had been protected so purely and at any cost...
The one who gave her this protection was none other than this man whose identity was a mystery and whose stance was opposed to hers, and who she should have needed to be most wary and on guard against.
How ironic, yet...heartwarming.
The softest part of her heart was deeply touched at this moment.
The towering ice wall she had painstakingly built for revenge and self-protection quietly melted before this silent and profound protection, a huge crack appearing. For the first time, the warm sunlight truly shone through.
She looked at his furrowed brows and felt a strong impulse in her heart.
She wanted to smooth out the wrinkle for him.
She wanted to tell him, stop frowning, you've done enough, now it's your turn to have a good rest.
When this thought came to her mind, even she was shocked.
But the body reacted faster than the mind.
Cautiously, almost silently, she extended her hand. The hand that had accustomed itself to gripping the longsword "Hanjiangxue" and had once unleashed the deadly "Three-Inch Nail" now held a hint of girlish shyness and tenderness, one she herself hadn't even noticed.
Her fingertips trembled slightly in the air as she slowly, slowly approached him.
Finally, her fingertips gently touched the center of his eyebrows.
The moment they touched, Su Qinghan's heart trembled violently.
Cold.
It was a cold feeling like touching the cold jade in deep winter.
This coldness came from the same source as the true energy that entered his body last night.
At this moment, Su Qinghan realized even more profoundly the domineering and isolated cultivation method this man had been practicing for years. Such a method would inevitably suppress emotions, isolate all desires, and turn the practitioner into someone who was less and less "human."
How cold and lonely must his world be?
How did he, whose heart had been frozen by this technique for years,... force a crack open for himself and release the only trace of warmth?
What kind of past does this man have?
Why did he become an assassin? Why did he cultivate such a cold and gloomy martial art? Beneath his stern face, in his eyes as deep as ancient wells, how many unknown stories and pains are buried?
Su Qinghan's fingertips stayed on his brow for a long time.
She suddenly realized that her understanding of him had changed from a vague symbol labeled "Tianji Pavilion Assassin" to a three-dimensional, complex person that made her want to explore and understand...
She no longer thought about his identity, nor about the unbridgeable gap between them.
At this moment, she had only one thought in her mind.
She wanted him to be warmer.
She gently withdrew her hand, and with the gentlest movements, she slowly stood up, picked up her coat that was draped over the back of the chair, and carefully put it on Chen Ye's back.
After doing all this, she sat back on the bed and looked at him quietly.
The morning light outside the window is getting brighter and brighter.
It seemed as if there was light in Su Qinghan's eyes for the first time.
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