Chapter 62
◎Words from the Heart◎
She was woken up by the cold.
He lay slumped in the empty hall, without even a piece of clothing to cover his body.
Pei Xueyan felt dizzy and weak all over, realizing that she was truly terminally ill.
The scene before her was blurry; she couldn't make out who the figure standing not far away was, and her consciousness was so hazy that it felt like she had fallen into a dream.
As if in a dream, she called out "Master" in a hoarse voice, but no one answered.
A lump formed in her throat, and she tentatively called out "Senior Sister" again, but there was only deathly silence.
She murmured unconsciously, making soft sobs, tears streaming down her burning cheeks as she cried silently.
Jiang Qiye had already heard her intermittent moans from the couch in the inner room, and finally couldn't hold back any longer, so he came over.
Reaching out to touch her forehead, I was surprised to find she had such a high fever.
Her cheeks were flushed, and tears kept streaming down her face, wetting her temples. The stray hairs on her forehead were also soaked with cold sweat and stuck to her skin.
If it were an ordinary person, he might have offered his help, but this woman in front of him... was truly despicable.
Even with these thoughts in mind, I still reached out to help her.
But the moment her fingertips touched her arm, Pei Xueyan weakly pulled away, her voice faint: "Don't worry about me... just let me die."
Her waist was so supple it seemed boneless, and her whole body was burning hot; even her refusal sounded somewhat broken.
Jiang Qiye looked at her like this, his eyes flickered, and he was momentarily lost in thought.
Having broken free, he naturally let go of her hand and simply stood quietly to the side.
Women's thoughts are indeed hard to guess. As soon as he let go, she started sobbing softly again.
Jiang Qiye frowned helplessly: "Do you want me to take care of this or not?"
Her voice was hoarse from illness, and she began to ramble incoherently: "Jiang Xiye, I feel like I'm going to die... Actually, you probably don't know, I'm not dying from illness, I'm dying from sadness... Not just because of you, but also because of my master, and my parents... You've all abandoned me, these past few days, I..."
Pei Xueyan wanted to express her inner turmoil, but she vaguely saw his indifferent face.
She stopped talking and didn't continue.
She seems to have completely forgotten how kind he was to her. Was everything before just a deception?
However, Jiang Qiye is a gentleman and the head of the Qingzong Sect. Even if it is a stranger, he would not stand by and watch someone die.
He bent down, put his arm around her waist, and helped her sit up.
He took her pulse, then focused intently on the area under her eyes, and finally used his spiritual power to probe her body.
It turned out that the old injury to his lower back had flared up again, which caused the persistent high fever.
With all of Jiang Qiye's cultivation within her, her lower back injury could have healed quickly if she had focused on recuperation.
She was restless and felt extremely uncomfortable with even the slightest exertion, so she gave up trying to regulate her breathing, which aggravated her old injuries time and time again, leading to her current condition of having a persistent high fever.
Jiang Qiye carried her to the bed and didn't continue for a moment.
Pei Xueyan's hazy consciousness cleared a little, and she said weakly, "It's alright. If you need to take a closer look, just take off my coat."
While one can sense injuries with spiritual power, to determine the specific condition of the lower back injury, it is necessary to remove clothing for examination.
Jiang Qiye's expression faltered slightly, clearly indicating his reluctance.
Pei Xueyan added softly, "We've lived here together for so long that we've long since lost our reputations. But if we have a clear conscience, why should we care about the gossip of others?"
Saving lives is of course the most important thing.
Jiang Qiye remained silent for a moment, then reached out his hand.
He raised his hand and let her long hair fall to her chest. Pei Xueyan then trembled as she untied her clothes and gently took off her outer garment.
At this moment, her lips were deathly pale, but her cheeks were still flushed. Her eyes were too weak to open, and she could only lean against the couch with difficulty.
As Jiang Qiye bent down to examine the injury on her lower back, he heard her ask in a low voice, "Master Jiang, can you tell what my spiritual root is?"
"Can."
Spiritual roots are fundamental to those who cultivate immortality. Whether one possesses spiritual roots or not can be determined with a single examination; those without spiritual roots are not destined for immortality.
Therefore, she was not a naturally weak woman, nor an ordinary person without cultivation.
She then asked, "Do you know why you passed on your cultivation to me in the first place?"
Jiang Qiye was reluctant to say anything sarcastic or sarcastic because she was sick.
Of course, you tricked him.
He didn't say it aloud, but only gave a faint "hmm".
“I have spiritual roots but no cultivation, because… because…” She paused, as if considering her words, but finally gave him a hint, “because my previous cultivation was destroyed.”
"Why did your master cripple you?" he asked casually as he looked down at her injured back.
"Not my master. Before my master retired from the martial world, he passed on most of his magical power to me. Combined with the results of my own years of cultivation, if I could concentrate on my cultivation, I could have become famous throughout the martial world."
She spoke with utmost seriousness, but Jiang Qiye, listening, felt inexplicably that it was somewhat absurd, yet he did not interrupt her.
"And then what?"
Pei Xueyan lowered her eyelashes and her voice became soft: "Later, my cultivation was crippled, and I became a cripple. I was afraid, both of disappointing my master and of those bullies who prey on the weak. You may not know what kind of bullying a woman can suffer when she is weak and powerless."
She said the order of events was reversed. After she improved her cultivation, she met Jiang Qiye and naturally no one bullied her. But before she improved her cultivation, she was often targeted by villains.
This was not a lie, so she did not feel that she was deceiving him.
Jiang Qiye gently brushed his fingertips across her injured waist, channeling a wisp of spiritual energy to relieve her pain.
However, what she just said still shocked him.
If someone with her appearance truly lost all her cultivation and was all alone, she would indeed encounter a lot of trouble.
His curiosity ended there, and he didn't ask any further questions.
After examining her injuries, he helped her put her clothes back on and said in a deep voice, "Your injuries are quite serious. If you behave yourself and stop using those clever tricks, I can heal you."
Pei Xueyan chuckled softly, and said with a hint of self-abandonment, "There's no need for treatment. Let me die."
“Okay,” Jiang Qiye readily agreed.
"......"
Having spent time together over the years, he had long since figured out this woman's two-faced ways of saying one thing and meaning another.
Pei Xueyan was surprised that he agreed so readily. She forced herself to sit up straight, and while tying her clothes, she asked, "Master Jiang, don't you want to know who crippled my cultivation?"
He didn't want to know, but still went along with her and asked, "What?"
"Because that person thought I would definitely become like my master in the future, so... so he crippled me... Tell me, should I hate him?" Pei Xueyan's voice was filled with extreme grievance, her eyes instantly reddening, almost on the verge of tears. "You also have my master's cultivation within you now. If someone says you might become like my master in the future, and then casually destroys all the hard work you've put in over the years, wouldn't you feel bad?"
Jiang Qiye was slightly shocked, his eyes darkened, and his tone carried a rare sincerity: "Of course I will hate him. In the martial world, there is no reason to arbitrarily cripple someone's cultivation for reasons unknown."
Pei Xueyan burst into tears instantly.
Yes, he understands this very well.
So, her deceiving him about her cultivation level back then wasn't some heinous crime; at most, it was just... a matter of self-preservation, wasn't it?
Jiang Qiye seemed to see through her thoughts and added calmly, "Others crippled you, and then you came to deceive me. It's perfectly normal for me to feel resentment and indifference towards you."
Pei Xueyan turned her head and stared at him intently. She slightly raised her hand and grasped his little finger. Jiang Qiye's body stiffened slightly, and he subconsciously tried to pull his hand back, not wanting to touch his bra.
She whispered, "Come and test my elixir."
He did satisfy her.
My heart rested on her chest, and my spiritual energy slowly probed into it, leaving me deeply shocked.
Her heart elixir was intact, but the traces of the elixir being erased were unusually strong.
Jiang Qiye felt more admiration and curiosity, because someone could separate her heart elixir and the elixir so skillfully.
His own cultivation was completely destroyed, but his core was intact and his heart core was slightly damaged. This was a sign that he had voluntarily given up his cultivation, indicating that there was no obstruction from others and that he must have done it voluntarily.
The fact that her elixir was so thoroughly removed must have been due to external force.
Pei Xueyan looked at his expressionless face and couldn't tell what he was thinking.
He felt his head sink, his vision went black, and he collapsed onto his lap, falling into unconsciousness once more.
In the following days, Pei Xueyan's high fever persisted.
The Qingzong Sect possesses numerous medical texts on treating bone and muscle injuries, and Jiang Qiye herself remembers the incantations and formulas, so healing her injuries would not be difficult.
He felt somewhat unwilling to take the initiative to teach her the method of regulating her breathing and to expend his spiritual energy to heal her injuries.
Deceiving oneself about one's own cultivation level and then imparting mental techniques is the act of a fool; he is not the same fool he used to be.
However, she was so pitiful, curled up on the bed every day, shivering and pale as paper, that he couldn't bring himself to do it.
Logically and emotionally, since he had already inherited part of her master's cultivation, even if it was forced upon him, helping her cure her illness now could be considered settling a karmic debt.
With this in mind, Jiang Qiye began to do his best to heal her wounds.
There are several fractures in my lower back, old and new, and each one is more serious than the last.
Setting bones and repairing them requires spiritual energy, so he thought he might as well go all the way and do a good deed.
Let it be a waste.
He would dedicate half an hour each day to using his own cultivation to transfer his energy to her for healing.
Pei Xueyan remained unconscious for several days and never woke up. Even when she was helped to sit on the bed, she was still unsteady and needed to use a pillow to support herself to sit up properly.
Fortunately, Jiang Qiye's treatment was quite effective, and in just a few days, her body had fully recovered.
However, Jiang Qiye was also finding it difficult to cope with such a drain on his mental and spiritual energy.
After her injuries stabilized, he set up a barrier again, then sat cross-legged, closed his eyes, and regulated his breathing to recover his depleted cultivation.
Unfortunately, physical ailments are easy to treat, but mental illnesses are difficult to cure.
Her heart grew cold; she didn't want to continue like this any longer.
After Pei Xueyan woke up, she learned that Jiang Qiye had once again done his best to save her, so she waited for him to come out of seclusion and then personally bid him farewell.
She shouldn't like him. Yes, why would someone fall for someone who causes them pain?
He wouldn't.
When he learned that she had deceived him about his cultivation level, even if he had given it to her willingly, he was still so heartless and indifferent to her, without a trace of emotion.
And her?
After drinking the potion of forgetfulness and going through several reincarnations, she still fell in love with him again during the time she spent with him after waking up.
What does she actually like?
Upon closer reflection, what she liked was nothing more than his past kindness to her, his unconditional indulgence, and the feeling of being cared for and needed.
Now that all of that is gone, it's time for them to completely part ways.
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