As Bai Ye threw away all the tokens, this beautiful melee in which disciples from various sects competed with each other for beauty finally came to an end.
Except for a few people from Xuanxu Sword Sect, Wanjian Sect and Fanyin Temple, the rest of the cultivators either self-destructed and were eliminated, or were knocked unconscious by the one who self-destructed.
Ning Ning was able to demonstrate the traditional virtues of the Chinese nation that have been passed down for thousands of years. Adhering to the spirit of "the mantis stalks the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind" and "since you are here you can't suffer any loss", she searched the crime scene very carefully.
She was responsible for finding it, and Pei Ji was responsible for taking it. When it was Lu Minghao and the male cultivator from Su Wen Tang's turn, Pei Ji refused to let her search them personally and simply stuffed all the tokens into Ning Ning's hands, then squatted down with a cold face.
It seems that Pei Ji is still a traditional and conservative elementary school kid at heart, always keeping in mind the differences between men and women. Ning Ning thought it was a little funny, but she didn't tease him as usual.
When she dodged and approached Bai Ye, a cut was burned on her arm by the talisman. Although the Thunder and Fire Talisman will not cause the skin to bleed, the dual erosion of electricity and flames can bring deep pain to the bone marrow and scars that are no different from burns.
Bai Ye didn't use all his strength to strike, so the wound was not that serious and could heal after applying medicine for a few days.
There have been enough troubles in the past few days. Ningning didn't want to make others worry, so she endured the pain and pretended that nothing had happened, waiting to apply the medicine herself after returning to her room.
If I just search for the token at this moment, the scar may be exposed when my sleeves move.
...But Pei Ji probably wouldn't care much about her injury.
When she thought of this, she inexplicably felt a slight sense of loss and frustration. She put her hands behind her back and looked forward, just in time to meet Pei Ji's gaze.
It was not until then that Ningning discovered that he had very thick dark circles under his eyes, and his eye sockets were slightly red, quietly intertwined with the bloodshot around his pupils.
It was like I had been up all night and had just woken up.
Come to think of it, it was already very late when they both returned to the room last night. Ningning was tired and sleepy, and fell asleep quickly as soon as her head touched the pillow, but Pei Ji was different.
He saw that she was in a bad mood and her eyes were red and swollen, and he happened to hear Ningning say "Star Mark Sword". He didn't know what he was thinking, but he actually searched the entire secret realm carefully, and found the sword one by one.
This thought suddenly flashed through her mind, and now Pei Ji was staring at her blankly. She couldn't help feeling a little embarrassed for a moment, and tried to ask seriously, "What's wrong?"
He said nothing and handed over a few square tokens.
Lu Minghao's body instantly disappeared with this action. Ning Ning reached out to take them and moved her eyes to the male cultivator of Su Wen Tang on the other side: "What about him?"
Pei Ji immediately responded: "I'll do it."
"oh."
She had no choice but to nod, and then looked at the two human-shaped pieces of meat lying in the middle of the road: "Where are He Zhizhou and Xu Ye?"
"I'll do it too."
The stern-looking young man in black seemed to have thought of something. After a brief pause, he spoke again, his tone a little hesitant and a little stiff: "Star Mark Sword...Put it away for now, and wait for me to clean it up."
"No, no, no! How can I really ask you to clean it? I was just joking. You can handle it yourself."
She couldn't let Pei Ji become a full-time babysitter who took care of everyone. She waved her hands and said, "By the way, where did you find it? You must have been looking for it for a long time, right?"
"In a lake."
He was looking down for the token when he spoke, and his voice seemed a little muffled. Perhaps to dispel her confusion, he continued to add, which was rare: "The formation uses water as a mirror. The Star Mark Sword pierced through the water curtain and turned into the sky. In the real secret realm, it fell into a lake somewhere. I will search for it one by one and I will always find it."
He said it simply, but a quick thought will reveal that it is by no means easy.
Not to mention that there are lakes scattered throughout the secret realm, even if he found the right lake, he would have to dive into the water himself and endure the bone-chilling cold to search carefully.
Ning Ning's mind was in a state of confusion. She clenched the sword in her hand and said softly, "Thank you. I'll treat you to a meal when the secret realm is over."
She felt more confident when she said this, and thinking of the small treasury she had accumulated from the pagoda, she vowed and emphasized: "This is definitely the most expensive and largest restaurant in the entire Luan City. You can choose whatever you want to eat. My little junior brother deserves it!"
Pei Ji listened attentively, then turned his head away and shifted his gaze to the other side.
He didn't say anything, but Chengying in his heart kept chirping: "Wow, are you happy? Are you showing off? Your heart is blooming with joy when you hear this? Pei Xiaoji, if you want to laugh, just laugh directly, don't deliberately turn down the corners of your mouth so obviously."
Not satisfied after saying that, he actually used a rough uncle voice to imitate Ning Ning's tone just now, so pretentious and impure: "Oh my, my little junior brother is worth it~"
The smile in Pei Ji's eyes faded, and murderous intent suddenly appeared.
After the two of them had looted all the tokens of the eliminated contestants, the originally crowded path seemed a bit empty.
Mingjing was sitting in a sitting position and slept soundly. Mingkong had finished eating his lettuce and was reading a book carefully. Ningning looked over and saw a few big words: "The Meditation Record of Fallen Plum Blossoms".
This book is worthy of its name. After the little monk read it, he can now confront others with reason and calmness, without changing his expression. However, the person on the other side is a little miserable, and he gets so angry that he has a myocardial infarction every time.
He rejected the suggestion of going back to the village to rest, and gave a long speech about the principle of "the world is our home". Ningning no longer insisted and looked at Su Qinghan who was standing under an ancient tree in the distance.
But the other party had disappeared at some point.
"Thank you all for taking care of Junior Brother Xu Ye."
She was still wondering when Su Qinghan's voice sounded behind her. Ningning turned her head and looked back, and saw the female cultivator standing next to the unconscious Xu Ye, leaning over and looking at the young man's wet, pale face.
Feeling the sudden gaze, Su Qinghan raised his eyelashes while holding the sword.
"When I saw the white light and star marks everywhere in the sky, I guessed it must be you."
Senior Sister Su and Pei Ji both have serious and cold personalities, but the former is "arrogant" while the latter is "cold" and keeps people at a distance.
She spoke without any ups and downs, but her eyes were always filled with a stern fighting spirit. She seemed to remember something and showed disappointment: "I was planning to have a good competition with you, but looking at your current condition, I think you must have very little spiritual power left."
This person must have seen the zombie-like scene. Ning Ning smiled a little embarrassedly, "Senior Sister Su, when my spiritual power recovers, I will be waiting for you to come and spar with me anytime."
Su Qinghan then smiled and looked down at Xu Ye. Without saying a word, he lifted him up and carried him on his shoulder. His movements were merciless and without a trace of romance. It was no different from carrying a sack.
When it was lifted to the top, it was like throwing an Indian flying pancake, and Xu Ye's body, as fragile as a white lotus, was swung in the air for a long circle.
Su Qinghan carried the sack and smiled gently and casually: "Excuse me, where is his room?"
Ning Ning was stunned: "You can pick any room you want, any room you want."
Senior Sister Su, who was said to be as cold and reserved as a flower on the mountaintop, gradually walked away. Before Ningning could recover from the one shock, she was given another shock at the same time.
——The long hair hanging on the left side was gently lifted up by someone's fingertips, and when it passed by the ear, it caused a strange tingling feeling.
She looked up in surprise and met Pei Ji's dark pupils.
He stretched out his right hand and lifted the hair by Ningning's ear. His eyes seemed extremely displeased and his brows were furrowed imperceptibly. Seeing the little girl in front of him looking up blankly, he moved his finger away without leaving a trace: "You have a wound on your face."
……hurt?
Ningning was completely unaware of this, she just felt a stinging pain on the cheek near her ear from time to time. When he finished speaking, she raised her hand and touched it, and immediately gasped in pain.
Because the wound on the temple is covered by black hair, it is not easy to be noticed. Pei Ji accidentally saw a deep mark when she turned around while talking to Su Qinghan and her long hair was blown by the breeze.
"Damn it, that brat actually hurt her!"
Cheng Ying, as an old senior who has lived for who knows how many years, vividly explained what it means to be disrespectful to the elderly. At this moment, he was so angry that his spirit body twisted and bared his teeth: "If you had known this would happen, you should have twisted his legs harder and taught that kid a lesson!"
"Don't touch it."
Pei Ji seemed a little unhappy. When he stood in front of Ning Ning, he cast a tall, thin, dark shadow, which also covered his eyes with a layer of darkness: "Thunder and Fire Talisman?"
"That should be it."
It would have been better if he hadn't said it. Now Ningning realized that there was a scar on her face. She always felt that the wound was showing off its fangs and claws, twisting and turning, and the nerve leading to her head was also twitching and painful.
I wonder if there is a mirror in this village that would allow her to apply medicine on her face accurately. When Ningning thought of this, she suddenly felt someone pulling her sleeve.
Pei Ji still looked gloomy, as if he had traveled from "The Foolish and the Unhappy". He pulled up her sleeve without saying anything and walked forward. Before Ning Ning could ask, he said coldly, "Go apply the medicine."
Ning Ning: “…Oh.”
He didn't have much strength, but his movements were extremely clean and neat. Ningning followed behind obediently, always feeling like she had forgotten something, and frowned in great confusion.
After a while, he hurried back with Pei Ji and pointed at another group of sword cultivators shivering in the cold wind: "He Zhizhou, we forgot about He Zhizhou, he is still lying on the ground!"
=====
Ningning's wound was on her face. Since she couldn't dig out her eyeball for a 360-degree examination, and without a mirror, it would be difficult for her to apply the medicine by herself.
"You want to help me with the medicine?"
When she saw Pei Ji putting ointment on his hands, she was so surprised that she sat awkwardly at the head of the bed.
——How could she have such virtue and ability to make the sword-training machine in the original novel pick up the small medicine bottle, and rush all the way eastward across the river with the script of killing monsters and upgrading, never to return.
Pei Ji was very considerate. He sat in front of her with the medicine in his hand and asked directly, "Are you injured anywhere else?"
He meant it by default.
Ningning's hidden thoughts were immediately seen through. As a senior sister, her arrogance instantly diminished a lot. She stretched out her right hand and rolled up her sleeves.
Then Pei Ji's expression became even gloomier.
He should not have just broken the talisman cultivator's knee. He should have beaten him half to death before letting him go. Even if Bai Ye wanted to escape early, he could force the token back into the man's mouth, leaving him with no way to live or die.
Ning Ning saw that he looked unhappy and thought Pei Ji was angry that she had lied, so she poked the back of his hand with her finger: "It's not serious, you see, not only is there no bleeding, I can still move freely and vigorously--"
As she spoke, she clenched her fists and waved her arms around, but she immediately felt a tearing pain piercing her bones.
The Thunder and Fire Talisman was indeed cruel enough. Ning Ning's expression froze in pain. In order to prevent Pei Ji from seeing her distorted facial features, she could only lower her head, cover her cheeks with her free hand, and make a low breath from her throat.
"This, this, this looks painful!"
Chengying sobbed and trembled in his head: "Pei Xiaoji, please put away your murderous look and don't scare her. Ningning is so good. I didn't want to make you worry, so I kept it to myself."
Pei Ji did not respond, but his expression froze slightly. He tried very awkwardly to suppress the hostility in his facial features, but ended up making his already unnatural expression even more unnatural, like a stone sculpture.
At the same time, the young man tightly grasped the medicine bottle with his right hand and secretly made a gesture with his left hand. Something shattered with a flash of white light.
"What is that?"
Watching the image in the mysterious mirror suddenly turn completely black, Tian Xianzi pounded the table frantically: "How come that brat Pei Ji broke his vision again!"
"Pay compensation! Pay compensation!"
After finally seeing some signs, they were cut off by the brat's own hands. Lin Qian was like a mad rabbit, with bloodshot eyes as she fiercely crushed the white jade cake in her hand: "If I don't make him lose everything, I - I will be so angry that I will die!"
Only He Xiaochen wiped the cold sweat from his forehead and said, "Calm down, calm down."
Mayoi was frightened by the crazy behavior of the two people before, and nodded slowly after hearing this. Sect Leader He is worthy of being his rival who respects him and has remained rational until this moment.
However, a moment later, He Xiaochen continued to say in a serious tone: "Pei Ji deserves to be beaten, but Ning Ning is innocent. If he loses all his money and can't afford to eat, won't the little girl suffer as well? It's inappropriate!" Upon hearing this, Lin Qian and Tian Xianzi both showed a look of sudden enlightenment: "As expected of Sect Leader He, he has been able to maintain his rationality until this moment. He really sympathizes with us!"
Mayoi: ...
Okay, very good, you guys should go and suck each other with the gorillas, he is not worthy.
There was chaos outside the secret realm, but Pei Ji, the instigator of everything, was sitting upright and quietly beside the bed.
Getting injured was a common occurrence for him and nothing to be surprised about. However, even such a trivial thing as drinking boiled water would make him feel inexplicably upset when it happened to Ningning.
wrong.
Rather than saying I'm "upset", perhaps "confused" is a more appropriate description, with a stuffy and uncomfortable feeling in my chest.
It was a very unpleasant and unfamiliar feeling.
Not only him, Chengying is the same.
Since it grew up with Pei Ji, it had seen many times the child being locked in a dark room, scolded and beaten, and his transformation from a pretty white ball to the one covered in scars. As time went by, he gradually got used to Pei Ji's luck, which seemed like he was possessed by bad luck, and he would not react too much to the pain.
But when she saw Ningning's injuries, she immediately trembled all over and looked away, looking as painful as a heartbroken old mother.
Pei Ji applied ointment to his thumb and leaned forward: "It might hurt a little."
Ningning stretched out her hand and nodded obediently: "I'm not afraid of pain."
Her arms were slender and fair, and her fingers were also long and thin, as if frost and snow had condensed on her fingertips, creating a cool and beautiful white.
The scar ran across the wrist bone, like a hideous scratch on snow-white ivory, with a faint blood color, which looked particularly terrifying.
Pei Ji's eyes dimmed slightly. He held her wrist with his left hand and his right thumb gently placed on the edge of the wound.
The ointment seeped into the flesh, like a sharp knife cutting through the skin, and Ningning's fingers trembled.
He learned how to apply medicine to himself since he was a child. Later, when he got older, he felt that healing was unnecessary. If the wound was not that serious, he would skip the step of applying medicine and wait for it to heal on its own without leaving a scar.
——Anyway, he should be used to this.
But when his fingers touched Ningning's skin, he suddenly felt a little hesitant.
After a brief pause, Pei Ji slowly moved his thumb, brushing across her scar very lightly and slowly.
His fingers were not like Ningning's. Although they were slender, they had several old wounds and calluses. When they passed over the girl's fair wrist, they brought a vague and unclear feeling of caressing.
This was a reflection of the huge difference in their childhood lives, cruelly revealing the disparity in status between the two. She never cared about such details, but Pei Ji felt annoyed.
After all, the gap between them was still too big, and he didn't know when he would be able to catch up with her.
Ningning sat on the bed, not daring to move. Occasionally, she raised her eyes curiously, looked at Pei Ji's appearance, and then quickly looked away.
He was very handsome, with long and thin eyes and dark pupils. When he lowered his eyelashes to apply medicine for her, his long eyelashes trembled silently, reminding her of butterfly wings.
The red under the eyes contrasts with the teardrop mole at the corner of the eye, which is particularly prominent against the cold white skin. The messy hair on the forehead falls lightly, making her look less cold and fierce, and adding a gentle, harmless and sickly aura.
This way, it seems, seems, quite pleasing to the eye.
"Why are you so careful, Pei Xiaoji?"
Chengying laughed at him in his heart: "You are not applying medicine, it's like you are planning to pawn your heirloom and say your final goodbye to it - it's not like this when you apply medicine to yourself. My goodness, as soon as you close your eyes and purse your lips, the medicine pours onto the wound with a clang, and you can almost hear the sound of blood spurting out. Tsk, tsk, tsk, tsk, you can't bear to do it now?"
Pei Ji frowned slightly and listened to it continue to give advice: "I'm telling you, just applying the ointment like this will never work. We have to use a more lethal method - after you apply the ointment, lower your head and blow on her wound. Wow, this blow! It will definitely blow out little sparks of tenderness and love, and blow out little saplings of respect for each other! So romantic!"
Pei Ji silently noted in his heart: This is the one thousand and eighty-second time I want to kill this middle-aged man.
He ignored Chengying's bad idea. The scar on Ningning's hand was not long, and it didn't take long for the ointment to cover it all. When his fingers left her arm, the girl's gentle warmth still remained on his fingertips.
"Thank you."
Ningning didn't understand the thoughts behind his indifferent gaze. She chuckled and was about to retract her right arm, but Pei Ji didn't let go of his left hand on her wrist.
Even pressing hard when she was about to pull away.
Ningning's heart skipped a beat and she looked at him in surprise.
Pei Ji didn't seem to expect that he would do this subconsciously. He gritted his teeth awkwardly, and his bony fingers tightened subconsciously. He hesitated for a long time before speaking, his tone was unnaturally low: "Senior Sister."
"Um?"
Ningning responded without much thought. She saw Pei Ji raise his still slightly red eyes, without even looking at her, and quickly lowered his head.
Then he blew gently on the back of her hand, right above the wound.
Chengying was stunned for a moment.
Chengying rolled over and over, his spirit body rising to heaven like a drunken butterfly: “Ahehehehahahahahahahahahaha, good boy, good boy——”
The action ended quickly, and before Ningning realized what was happening, her fingertips moved reflexively.
...a little itchy.
The breath was suppressed very low, and in the sultry midsummer it was like a fresh breeze, bringing a hint of coolness, slowly blowing over the places where she was burned.
After a moment, it was like a stream of sweet spring water that silently seeped into the bones and blood. The burning pain from not long ago was mostly gone, leaving only the cool touch lingering in the blood and nerves, as if it was there and not there.
This really didn't seem like an action that Pei Ji would do, and he did it really clumsily. His entire body was visibly tensed at that moment, and his cheeks bulged like a frog.
No, no, it’s not a frog, Ningning apologized to him in her heart. It should be a round and white marshmallow.
After Pei Ji blew the air, he let go of her hand expressionlessly. By deliberately keeping a straight face, he looked like he was about to draw his sword and chop someone.
“You are…”
The person in front of her seemed to be even more flustered than she was. Ningning was amused by his reaction. She paused for a moment, and the smile on her face deepened: "Can you give me some fairy energy?"
Instead of blushing or feeling shy, the junior sister teased him mercilessly.
It turns out that this is what Chengying calls "the tender and sweet flower, the seedling that respects each other equally", which is really romantic.
Pei Ji felt like there was a fire burning behind his ears and his eyebrows were throbbing.
He began to think seriously about how to kill people who would not die.
"I heard that this would make the pain less severe. The cool air can—"
He was going to make up an explanation, but the more he spoke, the more upset he became. The heat from his ears almost spread to his face. He simply stopped quibbling and changed the subject coldly: "You still have wounds on your face. Keep applying the medicine."
Ning Ning didn't know who Pei Ji heard this method from, but she could see his embarrassment at the moment, so she nodded in agreement and didn't dwell on this issue any further: "Thank you very much, Junior Brother."
Chengying was probably worried that Pei Ji would go berserk because of it, so he didn't say anything after his evil plan succeeded. He finally found peace, but when his fingers touched the wound on Ningning's face, it became even more difficult to calm down.
The profile and the wrist are two completely different concepts. Before, when Pei Ji was applying the medicine, he could deliberately avoid her gaze and not look at her, but now...
A few strands of his black hair fell down, almost overlapping with Ningning's black hair.
As far as the eye can see, there is her fair cheek and slightly raised red lips. The soft floral scent covers most of the medicinal fragrance. With just a move of the thumb, one can feel the warm touch as soft as cotton.
The scar on her face was deeper, so it hurt more when applying the medicine. Ningning couldn't adapt to it for a while and subconsciously shrank back.
Pei Ji was concentrating on applying the medicine. He noticed that she was frowning and her head was shaking. Before he could think of anything else, he instinctively stretched out his left hand and pressed her other cheek firmly.
This action was unexpected, and when the cold, slender fingers touched Ningning's cheek, both of them were stunned at the same time.
The hand was icy cold and very thin, like a piece of cold and hard iron, without much softness to the touch.
Ning Ning was like someone who was caught sleeping in class by the teacher. She held her breath and straightened her body. After realizing why he did that, she said hurriedly, "Sorry, sorry...! I won't move around anymore."
She took it for granted and felt very confident that with Pei Ji's personality, he would let go soon.
However, he unexpectedly did not do so. Instead, he hummed softly, moved his thumb slightly down to her chin, adjusted his position, and held her entire cheek in his palm.
Pei Ji's actions were not aggressive at all, as if it was a very natural reaction. When he met Ning Ning's surprised gaze, his eyes were dark and his voice was much stiffer and lower than usual: "Don't move."
Of course... she won't move.
So close, so close that I can't move.
On her face she felt the cool touch of the young man's fingertips, and close at hand was Pei Ji's angular profile.
Ning Ning was forced to look into his eyes. On the surface, she was as quiet as a chicken, but in reality her heart was beating like a drum, hanging in the air and shaking non-stop: "Okay."
She didn't know what to say, and her body was frozen in place, unable to move at all. She could only grab the bed sheet with her right hand and quickly let go, with many thoughts flashing through her mind.
For example, the way Pei Ji applied medicine could be described as "gentle". This word seemed particularly inappropriate for him, but few people knew that he was indeed a gentle person at heart.
For example, Pei Ji's fingers were cold, but her body was warm. When he leaned closer to her——
Bah, bah, bah, she is imagining something.
Ning Ning was silent for a long time. To break the silent atmosphere, she tentatively asked, "Pei Ji, when we get out of the secret realm, what do you want to eat?"
Pei Ji said with a stern face: "You decide."
"So what are you going to do later?"
"You decide."
"Why don't we go see Qiao Yan and the Spirit Fox Tribe together?" Ning Ning took a deep breath and blinked at the ground. "What do you think?"
Pei Ji didn't hesitate, and probably hadn't even finished reacting to what she said, and immediately said, "Okay."
After a pause, he spoke again in a deep voice: "If you get hurt in the future, don't hide it from me, I can..."
Halfway through his words, he hesitated and spoke in a much lower voice: "I'll help you apply the medicine."
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