Chapter 1 Just Friends 01
Xizhou, Xuanqing Sect.
When Yan'er pushed the door open, she moved very quietly, as if afraid of waking the people inside.
She tiptoed to the bed in the inner room, where a young man lay. Even though she had seen him many times, she couldn't help but stare in amazement every time she saw him.
How can there be such a good-looking person in this world?
Her black hair was spread out on the pillow, like a piece of fine silk, making one want to touch it and hold a lock in one's hand to play with it. It must be as smooth as silkworm silk with a cool touch.
Against the backdrop of his extremely dark hair, the person on the couch appeared even whiter, or rather, "pale."
His skin color was abnormal; anyone could tell at a glance that the young man was seriously injured.
Not only his complexion, but even his lips were extremely pale, requiring a very careful look to discern that faint pink hue, as if only in this way could one prove that the person on the bed was not a jade sculpture.
However, this weakness did not detract from his appearance at all; in fact, it added a touch of broken beauty to it.
Yan'er's dazed gaze followed the high, straight nose upwards, finally landing on the young man's eyes.
Long eyelashes droop down, casting a small shadow under the eyes.
Yan'er couldn't help but wonder what he would look like if he opened his eyes.
He was so handsome, so beautiful that Yan'er couldn't imagine any eyes that could match his looks, yet she inexplicably believed that someone so handsome must also have incredibly beautiful eyes. It was as if Heaven had concentrated all the world's finest talents on this one person, so how could it bear to add a single flaw to him?
But such a beautiful person cannot cultivate themselves.
He had no cultivation; he was just an ordinary person.
Yan'er could never have imagined that such beauty would be worn away by time, turning her into a frail and old woman.
What is commonplace for ordinary people seems exceptionally cruel to the young man on the bed, making Yan'er feel extremely distressed just thinking about it.
Is the inability to cultivate spiritually due to a lack of spiritual roots?
In Yan'er's current understanding, there is only one possibility.
But she also knew that there were indeed rare and precious materials in this world that could help people cultivate their spiritual roots.
As the premier sect in the Western Continent, the Xuanqing Sect possesses such a thing.
Yan'er's elder brother is the head disciple of the Xuanqing Sect and the sect's senior disciple. The latter's contributions to the sect are enough to obtain that kind of spiritual material.
Yan'er wanted to ask her brother for help, but she was worried that he wouldn't agree.
After all, it seemed like the older brother wasn't very willing to save people from the beginning.
Yan'er didn't understand, after all, her brother wasn't the kind of person who would stand by and watch someone die.
Moreover, the young man is so handsome, how could his elder brother bear to watch him die?
Just as Yan'er was thinking this, she heard a deliberately heavy footstep behind her.
She immediately realized who it was, and instinctively flinched, but then turned around with a fawning expression, saying awkwardly, "Brother."
The newcomer was a handsome young man with features somewhat similar to Yan'er's, making their blood relation immediately apparent. However, the young man's features were clearly more rugged, and despite the obvious resemblance, he exuded a compelling aura.
He was dressed in a tight-fitting outfit, carrying a long sword on his back, and his forehead was still damp with sweat, indicating that he had just returned from his training and hadn't had time to retract his aura.
Yan'er glanced up at her brother's expression for only a moment before guiltily glancing to the side.
She hesitated for a moment before continuing, "Brother, you just came back from the training ground, didn't you go and rest for a bit?"
Yan Shuoyun raised an eyebrow at his guilty younger sister and thought to himself, "Doesn't this little brat know why I'm in such a hurry?"
He let out a soft hum from his nose, his expression not particularly stern, but Yan'er couldn't help but shrink back at the sound of his movements, and quickly added, "I've finished my homework for today! I've finished reading the 'Ling Shu' chapter of the Medical Classic, and I've also studied the 'Jin Gui Fang'. I haven't slacked off in my cultivation either."
Yan'er was initially feeling guilty, but as she spoke, she couldn't help but become more assertive. Yan Ben's hunched shoulders gradually straightened up, but when she looked up, she met her brother's ambiguous smile. The girl suddenly fell silent, and after a long while, she stammered, "I...I just came to take a look."
Yan Shuoyun didn't comment on Yan Er's statement, but instead said, "You've finished your homework so early, you seem to have a lot of free time. I'll go talk to Fairy Miaoling about it..."
"Brother!" Yan Shuoyun was interrupted by Yan Er raising her voice before she could finish speaking.
The little girl looked up at her brother in disbelief, her face full of accusations: "How could you be so cold-hearted?!"
Yan Shuoyun raised an eyebrow, but his expression remained unmoved.
Yan'er knew that her brother was capable of such a thing.
The little girl stared at her brother for a long time with an expression of "daring to be angry but not daring to speak," and finally could only hold her breath and say, "I suddenly remembered that I haven't had time to read the Ling Shu Commentary that Master mentioned a few days ago, so I'll go back first."
Yan'er uttered the words "go back" with great difficulty. After saying them, she looked longingly at the young man on the bed until Yan Shuoyun coughed to remind her.
Yan Er!
Her brother is so mean!! Such a beautiful woman is here, and she's only been here for less than fifteen minutes!
Yan'er glared angrily at her brother, snorted heavily, and then turned and ran away.
Looking at the little girl's huffy back, Yan Shuoyun felt like an old-fashioned sect leader who was trying to break up a couple—a feeling he had come up with from the storybook that the little girl had confiscated.
When Yan Shuoyun thought of this, he felt both angry and amused. There was nothing yet, and she was already siding with outsiders. What an ungrateful little brat!
He shook his head and chuckled for a while, but when his gaze swept over the young man on the couch, he gradually stopped laughing and instead frowned.
The person who was unconscious did not possess any cultivation, but he was not the ordinary person that Yan Er thought he was.
His cultivation was destroyed, his spiritual root was taken away, and his dantian and meridians were all broken... Torturing a cultivator to this extent is even more cruel than killing him. One can only imagine the deep hatred he must have harbored.
—His sister really picked up a huge problem.
Furthermore, according to that madman Xu, this person's bones had been dug out.
...A true Taoist spirit.
This is a rare and precious gift bestowed by Heaven, a physique born for cultivation. Legend has it that those with this physique can embark on the path of cultivation even without spiritual roots, truly a blessing from Heaven.
Such abundant blessings are perhaps too much for ordinary people to bear.
After all, possessing a rare treasure without any protection is like a child carrying gold through the market; one need not think too deeply about what will happen to him.
Such things are extremely common in the cultivation world; so common that Yan Shuoyun could cite seven or eight examples in a single moment.
He raised his hand to press his temples, sighed deeply, and said, "We've already picked him up; we can't just throw him out like that."
Putting aside the fact that his Dao bones had been dug out long ago, judging from his broken meridians alone, he must have been an exceptionally talented person before his cultivation was destroyed. However, he had never heard of such a person before.
Thinking back to the location where Yan Er found the person, Yan Shuoyun roughly guessed that this person was probably from Dongzhou.
Since the great war ten thousand years ago, the entire cultivation world has been divided into two continents, East and West. Between the two continents lies a vast ocean, where high-level demonic beasts roam. To cross the sea, one must either possess exceptional cultivation or extraordinary luck; it is by no means an easy task.
Now that this person has arrived in the Western Continent, past grudges and hatreds can no longer affect this place.
It was with this in mind that Yan Shuoyun so easily agreed to Yan Er's request. Otherwise, even if Yan Er had been pleading with him with tears streaming down her face, he wouldn't have so easily dragged his own sister into this feud.
Thinking of this, Yan Shuoyun sighed and hoped that this person would be grateful and repay the kindness.
Being good-looking always has its advantages.
Although Yan Shuoyun wasn't like a girl who couldn't resist beautiful women, his appearance always made people reluctant to think the worst of him before he actually did anything.
With these miscellaneous thoughts swirling in his mind, Yan Shuoyun still reached out and helped the person on the bed to sit up.
The young man's dantian and meridians are now completely destroyed, and he cannot withstand even the slightest bit of excess spiritual energy. Not to mention pills, he cannot even use high-quality spiritual herbs. He can only be slowly nurtured like an ordinary person.
In the vast Xuanqing Sect, finding a common herb is as difficult as finding a ten-thousand-year-old spiritual herb, the latter being even easier for Yan Shuoyun. As Yan Shuoyun helped the person up to drink the medicine, he sighed countless times in his heart that Yan Er had really caused him a lot of trouble.
The young man was indeed very weak; his body felt light and weightless.
Every time Yan Shuoyun helped someone up, he couldn't help but sigh. Not to mention his sword, even when that little girl Yan Er got fat from eating too much, she was heavier than him.
Of course, Yan'er couldn't know this idea, otherwise the girl would make a fuss with him. He didn't know where that little girl got so many ideas all day long.
As Yan Shuoyun was thinking about these things, he noticed that the eyelashes of the person who was helped up trembled.
Like the gently fluttering wings of a butterfly, or the tender leaf bent by morning dew, like everything fragile yet beautiful.
Yan Shuoyun was still holding the medicine bowl, but subconsciously held her breath.
He watched as the young man opened his eyes. His eyes were clear and bright, with distinct black and white, but because he had just woken up, they were covered with a layer of misty moisture, making him seem a little dazed and confused.
When his eyes were closed, he resembled a jade sculpture or a beautiful painting that embodied the artist's heart and soul. But when he opened his eyes, the figure in the painting came to life. His beauty truly made the room shimmer and shine, making even this simple house seem extraordinary.
That moment of dazed expression only lasted for a moment on the young man's face before he quickly came to his senses and his gaze naturally fell on another person present.
Their eyes met, but Yan Shuoyun looked away first.
He lowered his eyes somewhat embarrassed, let out a long breath, and thought to himself that it was fortunate that Yan'er had just gone out.
Otherwise, if lust cloud his judgment, who knows what his sister might force him to do?
After a short while, I couldn't help but sigh that what Heaven had bestowed upon this person was more than just the bone that had been cut off.
Yan Shuoyun placed the bowl of dark medicine aside, paused for a moment, and then withdrew his hand from the other person's shoulder to avoid suspicion. After a long while, he coughed and said in a slightly cold tone, "Since you're awake, drink it yourself."
A low response came from the side, followed by the rustling of fabric, as a bowl placed on a low table was picked up.
Although Yan Shuoyun seemed carefree, he had a younger sister whom he had raised, so he was quite experienced in taking care of people. He quickly realized the problem: after being unconscious for so long, did this person even have the strength to hold a bowl of medicine?
Thinking this, Yan Shuoyun couldn't help but look up.
He quickly got the answer: he had some strength, but probably not enough.
Yan Shuoyun had experienced the taste of medicine firsthand when he brewed it for others. As a cultivator with heightened senses, anything left on the tongue for even a short while was like torture. The reason Yan Shuoyun put a spoon in the medicine was because he couldn't just force-feed it to someone who was unconscious.
Although the man appeared to have no external injuries, his meridians were so severed that he was like a piece of porcelain riddled with cracks. Yan Shuoyun was terrified that if he were to use even the slightest bit too much force, he would shatter this already precarious porcelain vase completely. He had been extremely careful these past few days—it was better to suffer a little than to choke to death.
But if someone is awake and is still sipping like that, then there might be something wrong.
Yan Shuoyun glanced at the medicine bowl that the young man had placed on his lap, and then at the soup spoon that took him a long time to lift and bring to his mouth. After repeating this action a few times, the young man's right arm was already trembling slightly. He put it down and rested for a while before continuing.
Yan Shuoyun's eyelids twitched as he watched, and he felt a bitter taste in his mouth.
At this rate of drinking, how long would it take?
Just as Yan Shuoyun was about to say something, he noticed first that the other person was using the act of drinking medicine to look around at the surroundings. The action was so subtle that even with Yan Shuoyun's keen senses, it took him a while to notice it.
Yan Shuoyun immediately realized that the young man had been unusually calm after regaining consciousness, even to the point of being a little too calm.
With all his meridians destroyed and his cultivation completely gone, he opened his eyes to find himself in an unfamiliar environment, facing a complete stranger... Yet he neither asked who the stranger was nor where he was.
Thinking of what Xu Fengzi had said earlier, a bad feeling welled up in my heart.
To be honest, Yan Shuoyun didn't really want to confirm his guess, but in the end he still spoke up, asking with difficulty, "Do you still remember your name?"
Ren Yi: "..."
Yan Shuoyun “…”
In the silent exchange of glances, Yan Shuoyun noticed that the other person's hand holding the soup spoon paused unnaturally, and the medicinal liquid rippled from the spoon handle.
Yan Shuoyun... Damn it!
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