childhood sweethearts
Kou Qiyu and Lan Fengguang both came to see Ren Xiangxiang. They had previously suspected that the demons near Yanshi Ridge were the culprits, but now it seems that even the demons have fallen.
Everyone agreed that the most important thing right now was to detoxify, so Ren Xiangxiang locked herself in her room for two whole days without coming out.
She stood there for a while, watching. Most of the disciples were afraid of her, so they politely greeted her and ran away as if fleeing.
Behind the Stream Shadow, Lan Fengguang touched his nose. Although the two were of the same mind on the demon race, when it came to their own family, Lan Fengguang still felt some sympathy for Ren Xiangxiang.
“The child is growing up, and so are you… I mean… we can take it slow, it’s the rebellious phase! We can’t condemn them all at once, senior sister…”
"I'm afraid she'll follow in my footsteps." Sheliuying closed her eyes, unwilling to recall, but the memories still flooded her mind wildly.
The child grew cold in her arms, and her heart, along with the child, sank into an icy abyss.
"Her situation is different! Strictly speaking, it's different from... and... anyway, it's still different. Besides, this is nothing!"
Lan Fengguang thought she was overthinking it. "Let her try to save him first. If he dies and can't be saved, then everyone's happy, and it won't be our fault, right?"
Sheliuying glanced at Lanfengguang, who felt a chill run down her spine from her gaze.
"Do you think I would make a move?" Shooting Shadow withdrew his gaze.
“If I really wanted to kill him, he would have died last time. Xiangxiang has always been very obedient. Even if she thinks I'm wrong, she won't go against me. But this time…”
She Liuying smiled wryly, "This is the first time I've expressed my thoughts so firmly... Shu Huixin! She really knows how to teach her disciples..."
Lan Fengguang scratched his head, "Are you praising her or are you angry?"
"Is there a difference?" Shooting Shadow turned to leave.
Lan Fengguang caught up, "How can there be no difference? Senior Sister, have you thought about how to explain this to Xiao He? Your wife is almost here..."
"shut up!"
"Okay!"
...
Ren Xiangxiang slammed her head on the table, opened her eyes abruptly, and immediately rushed to the bedside to check Mo You's breathing.
Still alive...
She breathed a sigh of relief, then returned to the table and looked at the dismembered, mangled corpse of the rat-head flower on the plate, muttering to herself.
"As expected, it can only delay the onset of the poison..."
"Xiangxiang..." Caowa yawned and got up. "Aren't we going out today?"
"I'm sorry, Caowa, I probably won't be able to take you out to play lately." Ren Xiangxiang said apologetically, then suddenly remembered that there was someone else here. "How about this, I'll introduce you to a new friend."
In the courtyard, Wu Fei was sleeping with a book spread out on his face. This book on insect formations, which should be memorized thoroughly by those who form a spirit contract, had only two parts he remembered so far.
"Idiot, someone's coming."
A pebble, along with the voice in his mind, shattered his sweet dream of playing chess with the Duke of Zhou. Wu Fei suddenly stood up, dropping the book to the ground. In front of him, Ren Xiangxiang, with her child, looked apologetic.
"Excuse me, Senior Brother Wu, could you please look after my good friend for a while and show him around?" Ren Xiangxiang said, pushing Caowa forward.
Caowa looked reluctant, "Xiangxiang..."
"The scarecrow has come to life?" Wu Fei's mouth dropped open.
Grass Boy immediately flew into a rage, jumped up and shouted, "You're the scarecrow who's become a spirit! Your whole family are scarecrow spirits!"
“Goodness…the Monster Garden doesn’t even have a breed like you. Can I take you back to show my master?” Wu Fei, ever the friendly type, picked up the grass doll.
The little grasshopper scratched at him in frustration but couldn't reach him. "Xiangxiang!!! He bullied me, and you didn't do anything about it!!!"
Ren Xiangxiang sighed and quickly rescued Caowa from Wu Fei's hands before introducing him again.
"...Senior Brother Wu, he is not a demon beast, please don't misunderstand. Please, I will definitely keep Senior Brother Kou Feng's matter in mind."
Ren Xiangxiang's attitude was sincere, so Wu Fei couldn't continue to be nonchalant. He nodded to reassure her.
Just as the two were talking, a junior disciple from the outer sect rushed towards them.
"Senior brothers and sisters, what, what..."
He Wenwen has arrived.
After being cooped up at Banshanju for two days, he finally couldn't hold back any longer.
When his master and his uncle discussed their marriage that day, he felt as if he were in a dream. His long-buried feelings were suddenly brought into the open, and he felt both exhilarated and tormented.
He didn't know what Xiangxiang's attitude was, because he had also heard that the reason why Uncle She was in such a hurry to arrange a marriage for her was because she had made friends with the demons in Fox Mountain.
She never expected that she would bring the other party to Yang Palace, and that they would not even step into Banshan Residence until now.
She needed the antidote, but was unwilling to seek help from Half Mountain Residence, so she still refused to seek help from herself.
Thinking of this, He Wenwen felt utterly hopeless. Now that things had come to this, she was the one who couldn't help but come to Wen Zhangmao first.
He appeared here in a daze, unable to recall what he had come for.
An obvious answer would only make one a laughingstock and bring shame upon oneself.
"Ah, Brother Wen?" Ren Xiangxiang came out with her junior disciple and saw the tall and handsome young man in front of her with sunken eyes and a tired expression.
“You look…not well…” Ren Xiangxiang said cautiously.
The younger disciple wisely ran away.
He Wenwen has a sinister personality and is not popular. However, because he is the disciple of the Demon Refining Ancestor, no one dares to provoke him. Of course, even now, some people privately spread rumors that he is actually the Demon Refining Ancestor's illegitimate son.
“You don’t look much better either. Even a corpse that’s been dead for three days looks more energetic than you,” He Wenwen blurted out, then immediately wanted to slap herself.
Did he come all this way just to spout this nonsense?
"Oh...you look more energetic than a corpse that's been dead for three days." Ren Xiangxiang said expressionlessly.
"I'll do it..."
"You come here..."
They both took a deep breath at the same time. Ren Xiangxiang wiped her lips and gestured for him to speak first.
"Weren't you researching an antidote? There's nothing here. Are you trying to kill him already?"
"Why does this person always have to be so rude?" Ren Xiangxiang retorted patiently, her face darkening. "So you made it and brought it to me?"
"Who said I made it?" He Wenwen asked, bewildered.
Ren Xiangxiang was even more confused, "Then what are you doing here?"
"I—" He Wenwen suddenly regretted making this trip. This woman was simply unreasonable. He had actually still harbored fantasies about her, and had been fantasizing about her for so many years. "I'm telling you, it's a waste of your time to guard a rooster and lay eggs, don't you understand?"
Oh, Ren Xiangxiang suddenly realized, was he inviting her to Banshanju to work together on developing an antidote? Is that what he meant?
Seeing that she didn't react, He Wenwen was filled with regret. She flung her sleeves, turned around, and was about to leave, saying, "If you don't understand, forget I said anything!"
"Would it kill you to speak like a normal person?" Ren Xiangxiang yelled from behind him.
Upon hearing this, He Wenwen immediately turned back. Before she could speak, Ren Xiangxiang continued, "Do you think your Banshanju is a big market where anyone can just go whenever they want? Besides, do you think I can leave? Do you think I'm not in a hurry?"
"When I came... I heard from Uncle Lan that your mother won't do anything to him for the time being, at least not until he's cured of the poison. She won't take advantage of the demon's danger," He Wenwen replied dryly.
Ren Xiangxiang's eyebrows shot up immediately, and she became even angrier. "Why didn't you tell me such important news sooner?!"
In the afternoon, Ren Xiangxiang tidied up briefly, handed Mo You over to Caowa and Wu Fei for care, and then went to Banshanju with He Wenwen, who had a dark expression on her face.
Half-Mountain Residence is located halfway up a mountain, more than ten miles outside Xujia Town, where a stone as tall as a person stands.
Back in the day, this place produced a renowned master of demon refining, but times have changed, and now the lineage of demon refining masters is not as good as the previous generation.
In the past, they could easily acquire all kinds of weapons and elixirs, but now they are basically treated like half-doctors because they lack demon cores and demon bones to support them.
They couldn't forge any powerful weapons, at most they could forge daggers that were only effective against minor demons, so that ordinary people would have a relatively powerful means of self-defense.
As for the miraculous elixir that could bring people back from the dead and prolong their lives back then.
Now, don't even think about it. In Qiling Mountain, where humans and demons live in peace, where can you hunt powerful demon cores and bones?
Therefore, among the three demon masters, Xu Jinnian's presence was as insignificant as air, and he had virtually no say.
But now only he has produced an antidote to temporarily delay the onset of the poison, so the usually quiet Half-Mountain Residence has suddenly become lively.
"Senior brother, senior brother, you can't touch that!"
The boy hurriedly stopped the two from lifting the large water vat in the corner of the yard.
"We quickly restored it to its original state; it was too chaotic here."
"No need, no need!"
The boy quickly stopped them, but when he turned around, he saw someone else preparing to move the coarse cloth on the ground.
"Ah! Don't move, don't move!!"
Perhaps his screams were too piercing, for the two people who were helping to move him immediately withdrew their hands, saying with some grievance:
"Didn't you say you wanted to dry these dead rat flowers? There's no sun here anymore."
"It's alright, air-drying is fine too!" the boy explained, wiping the sweat from his brow.
"These rat flowers may look dead, but what if they come back to life and bite my senior brother?"
As they were talking, he saw several kind senior sisters cleaning their master's alchemy room. He was terrified and rushed in. It took him a lot of effort to get the kind senior sisters out.
Since Master was ill and concocting the antidote, Uncle Kou and Uncle Lan sent their own disciples to help. However, their Demon Refining lineage was already small, and those who had completed their training had all become doctors. Master only had him and his senior brother as disciples, and they had been living a lonely life.
Who would have thought it would suddenly become so sought-after? It's kind of strange...
He is Xu Caiyou, the second disciple of Xu Jinnian. Although he is young, he is smart and capable. After persuading a group of senior brothers and sisters to leave, he did so.
He was finally exhausted; this was even more tiring than when he was here alone serving his master.
Calculating the time, he knew his master would be waking up soon. Without time to rest, he quickly reheated the medicine, chanting as he watched the stove fire.
"Senior Brother He is really something, running away like that. Is he really that worried about his childhood sweetheart? Or are the rumors true? Could Sister Xiangxiang really like a demon? Is that demon even better than Senior Brother He? I really want to meet her..."
"Who do you want to see?" He Wenwen's voice suddenly came from behind, startling Xu Caiyou.
He turned around abruptly and saw a woman in green next to He Wenwen, with dark circles under her eyes, yawning from exhaustion, and completely lacking in any semblance of elegance, giving him a very perfunctory greeting, "Junior Brother Caiyou, long time no see."
Xu Caiyou opened her mouth wide and stared blankly for a while before stammering, "Sister Xiang... Sister Xiangxiang?!"
Xu Caiyou, who was just a little kid back then, is now the same height as Ren Xiangxiang, but her face still looks childish.
As dusk fell, the lights were relit inside the house, He Wenwen gently closed the windows, and Xu Caiyou brought over her master's medicine.
The middle-aged man on the bed was skin and bones, his cheeks sunken and his breath faint. When Ren Xiangxiang took his pulse, her face was gloomy and she didn't say a word.
"Your master..."
“Kou Feng had no family, and no one could decide to abandon the research he was using to develop the antidote. My master naturally couldn't do that either, so he had no choice but to test the poison on himself. I know he was prepared to die, but…”
“This poison…” Ren Xiangxiang’s expression was solemn. She naturally knew how troublesome this poison was, and she also knew why the other party had to do this.
Although the toxins in his body were spreading slowly, they had already invaded his lungs and internal organs. If he were a demon, he could still be saved after taking the antidote, but he was a human with weak spiritual power, almost no different from an ordinary person. If this continued, even with the antidote, he might not be able to survive.
Xu Jinnian's fingers twitched, and He Wenwen and Ren Xiangxiang helped him sit up. As if experiencing a final burst of energy before death, Xu Jinnian slowly woke up and immediately saw Ren Xiangxiang standing beside him. A slight smile appeared on his lips, and he said weakly, "You've come..."
“Okay, I’ll help.” Ren Xiangxiang nodded. “Uncle Xu, you can let me do it from now on. I can do it.”
“I know.” Xu Jinnian smiled with relief. “She…is far superior to me, so naturally her disciples…”
"Uncle-Master Xu."
Xu Jinnian took a breath and pointed to the table, "Take it! Awen... I'll help you..."
On the table was a notebook, stained with specks of blood.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
