Chapter 113: I'm afraid of death.
Qing Guiyu felt that he might be crazy.
No, to be more precise, she'd been dealing with lunatics for the past few days. First it was the younger ones, now it was the older ones. Fortunately, the older ones were easier to deal with, because they didn't engage her in romantic conversations, only in talk of life and death and bargaining chips.
——That’s okay.
But I was so exhausted that I felt like crying out in injustice.
She held her forehead, feeling a drain of energy all over her body, a hollowed-out exhaustion permeating her entire being. The removal of the needles had used the most dangerous "blood-guided" method. Even with the warm jade needles protecting her heart meridians, saving her life, it had also drained most of her internal energy and her mind.
Now the patient has been cured, but the trouble remains.
Serves you right.
Qing Guiyu shook his head.
That confused troublemaker from Tianji Pavilion was still thinking about marrying her while she was trying her best and almost risking her life to remove the needle from him.
But she had indeed made considerable progress. She had chosen the method of channeling blood into her acupuncture points, avoiding the old wound on her hand. This was unlike the forced blood-transfer she'd used at seventeen, which had nearly cost her her life. Qing Guiyu leaned against the edge of the couch and sighed happily, feeling very pleased with herself.
She took out the purple bamboo flute from her bosom and stroked it. It felt warm and cool, polished smooth and warm.
Even at this point, she propped up her chin, still thinking, "This flute is really well-carved." When Chen Juansheng left, he was still asleep, like shattered glass, which was really pitiful to see.
*
"Junior sister."
The ship docked, the hatch was gently pushed open, and Lu Guiyan walked in. His face was still pale, but his breathing had become much calmer, obviously the breathing control had taken effect.
He glanced at her tired expression and frowned slightly, "You've been overexerting yourself. You should get some rest."
He was still dressed in white, with a hint of blood. Even in this dim cabin, there seemed to be frost and snow that had not melted.
"I can't rest." Qing Guiyu waved his hand and pointed out the window, "I'm already on the pirate ship, how can I sleep peacefully?"
She pushed the copied Ice Wall Technique in front of him and said, "Little Senior Brother, take this and leave as soon as possible."
Chen Yan's goal has never been Lu Guiyan, but the meridian cleansing technique, or the method of bringing the dead back to life.
Now that Shen Yan had her, forcing her to do what she wanted, killing Lu Guiyan, or leaving a severely injured Snow Mountain Sect heir behind would be of no benefit to Shen Yan. Letting him go might lead to someone else being caught.
But Lu Guiyan's eyes swept across the martial arts technique and quickly returned to her face, his brows thick with sadness. He did not take the secret manual that was coveted by the martial arts world, but simply said to her, "Chen Yan is here."
The implication was that with the blood feud at stake, there was no way he could leave alone.
Qing Guiyu understood it very well, but the fact that he understood it only gave him an even greater headache.
"I know he's here," she said patiently, trying to reason with him. "Since Chen Yan could kill the entire Snow Mountain Sect, he wouldn't care about your life. He's keeping you here just to use you to contain me." She thought carefully and chose her words. "Junior Brother, if you stay here, you'll just be a sitting duck."
"What about you?" Lu Guiyan stepped forward. "If I leave now, what will you do?"
It seemed as if some forcibly suppressed anger was settling and swirling, and his expression was a little dejected. He glanced at the purple bamboo flute, as if he wanted to ask something, but in the end he just pursed his lips.
Junior Brother rarely showed his emotions like this. Qing Guiyu felt a pang of fear when he saw him, so he had no choice but to continue to persuade him, "If you leave, he will be afraid to really hurt me. We can take our time. You stabilize your injuries and study this technique. I will stay here and test his strength. It's better than both of us dying here."
Qing Guiyu thought about it again and felt that there was no way to persuade him to leave, so he could only say to him,
"Take the technique and find a quiet place to study it and recover from your injuries. I have my own way of escaping, and I also have a way for you to find me."
With some difficulty, she pulled a small oil-paper package from her bag and showed it to him. "This is, uh, something I made for children in Yuzhou City to play with. I mix grass seeds that birds like to eat with some medicinal stones, grind them into a paste, and throw it on the ground. Birds will gather. If you pay attention, you can see it from a distance."
This little sparrow bird is indeed found everywhere in the world. It will fly away when it sees people and there is no need to worry about being discovered.
"I'll give you half," she unfolded the medicine, stuffed it into his hand, and said with a smile, "Little Senior Brother, you should heal your wounds first, and then slowly study this technique. As for Chen Yan, I have my own ways to deal with him. You should stay away from him so that he won't find you, and I can help you at any time."
Then, she hardened her heart, turned her head away and stopped talking to him.
After a long time, he heard a soft sigh and the sound of a jade pendant behind him. He stood up, walked away a few steps, and there was no more movement.
After about half an hour, Shen Yan entered the cabin. The old man had changed into an ordinary gray robe, but his sinister and cruel aura remained unchanged. Instead, his simple attire made him seem even more unfathomable.
"The child is gone." He stood with his hands behind his back and said lightly.
"Yeah." Qing Guiyu didn't even raise his head.
The old man turned around, noncommittal, as if letting the two go was like letting a mouse go. His eyes, glancing at the purple bamboo flute at her waist, seemed to be filled with amusement.
"You changed it." He said, as if he were judging an interesting toy. "My good son would be very happy if he knew."
He heard it all and knew it all. Qing Guiyu's heart shuddered, and he felt a chill running down his spine.
"You're very calm." Chen Yan walked over and sat down opposite her, looking at her with interest. "Do you really think that you can survive my hands with that little bit of cleverness?"
"What else?" Qing Guiyu finally raised her head and looked him in the eye. "Even if I can't live, I have to live. I'm born afraid of death."
Chen Yan laughed, "Okay, it's good to be afraid of death. Only those who are afraid of death will cherish their lives and know how to weigh the pros and cons."
"You are a smart girl. You should know that your biggest trouble now is not me." The old man suddenly stopped smiling and his voice turned cold. "Mrs. Wei of the Northern Dynasty will not easily let go of a doctor who can unlock the secret of the Yellow Emperor's needle. And my good son,"
He acted as if he was about to say something, but hesitated. "When he wakes up and finds out you've traded your life for his, what do you think he'll become?"
This old madman insisted on what would happen to Shen Juansheng, which made her feel a little guilty.
But the needle was not fake, she comforted herself.
Seeing that she remained silent, the gray-robed old man just smiled coldly at her.
*
Two days later, she thought she was being taken to some dangerous place, but she was taken to a rather ordinary courtyard outside Baidi City. The courtyard was filled with lush flowers and trees, quiet and elegant, without a trace of murderous intent.
Chen Yan led her to a study room. The walls of the room were lined with bookshelves, but there was only one thing in them.
It was a rosewood box. When it was opened, it was found not to contain any martial arts secrets, but a set of tools of astonishing sophistication.
There were masks as thin and soft as human skin, dozens of plasters of different colors and strange smells, and a set of small silver hooks as thin as cow hair. Next to it was an atlas with drawings of the facial features and skeletons of various people, with detailed annotations, comparable to a medical illustration.
"This is..." Qing Guiyu stared with her eyes wide open. She really hadn't gotten rid of her bad habit of being excited when seeing prey. She couldn't help but take a step forward.
"Thousand Faces." Chen Yan said calmly, a hint of complacency on his face. "This is a secret technique I obtained from the Thousand Faces Sect in the Western Regions when I founded the Tianji Pavilion. Since you want to keep it a secret from my good son, ordinary techniques are completely useless. This set of things will be my payment to you."
Qing Guiyu's heart skipped a beat. This old madman actually helped her "take care of her funeral" so happily.
She picked up a mask that was as thin as a cicada's wing. It was soft to the touch and had the texture of skin. She didn't know what material it was made of.
"This technique isn't just about changing your appearance; it's also about changing your form," Chen Yan said. "Applying the 'Bone-Dissolving Paste' will make your cheekbones slightly higher and your jaw slightly wider. Hanging the 'Pulling Hook' in your mouth will change your tone of voice. And with the 'Mimicry Chapter', you can mimic someone else's behavior and demeanor. Even if your senior brother were to come face to face, he might not recognize you."
Qing Guiyu was moved when he heard this. This was not a disguise at all, it was simply an evil method of changing one's appearance!
Yet, she couldn't help but feel a strange excitement rising in her heart, like a top embroiderer who suddenly encountered a long-lost and unique needlework technique.
This... this is so interesting!
The depression that had been tormenting me these past few days was suddenly diluted a lot by this new and novel thing.
She picked up an atlas and looked through it. It covered everything from muscle patterns to bone structure, from vocal techniques to gait habits. Its level of detail was even surpassed by Yaowang Valley's "Medical Bone Mirror".
"If you master this technique, you can travel anywhere in the world." Chen Yan said with a smile, "Neither the Queen Mother of the Northern Dynasty nor the Master of the Tianji Pavilion will ever find a 'living' Qing Guiyu. You can disguise yourself as a merchant, an old woman, or even a man."
Qing Guiyu was holding a thin piece of glass that changed the color of his eyes. The fatigue in his heart was immediately aroused by this novel thing.
My goodness, this is far superior to those recipes used to cover scars in Medicine King Valley. This is not a disguise, it's a head replacement!
If you try to get the skin of a tiger, won’t you get the skin first?
"Deal!" she blurted out, then realized she'd agreed too quickly, seemed spineless, and cleared her throat again. "It'll be quite helpful in my practice," she said sternly.
Upon hearing this, Chen Yan just smiled meaningfully and said no more.
So, in the following days, Qing Guiyu immersed himself in the study of the "Thousand Faces" in this villa.
This craft was half about creating ingenious objects, and half about intricate techniques. She was already well versed in medical theory and knew the human skeleton and meridians like the back of her hand, so learning it was surprisingly quick and easy.
Within ten days, she was able to disguise herself as an ordinary-looking herbalist, and even her accent had a hint of local dialect. If it weren't for her overly bright eyes, she could have been mistaken for the real thing.
Every day she would look at the bronze mirror, pinching here, wiping there, and looking at the unfamiliar face in the mirror, she felt a little happy in her heart.
That was all right. That troublemaker, Chen Juansheng, would never be able to recognize her by her face again. She could also quietly follow her junior brother so that he wouldn't be put in any danger.
As for that old lunatic Shen Yan...
While she was thinking about this, various carriages entered the Baidi Villa.
Some were big, some were small. Shen Yan seemed to be waiting for something, just watching, becoming more and more crazy.
Finally she saw the carriage that was exuding cold air.
It was the body of Shen Yan's wife, carried here in a cut ice coffin.
A massive carriage, constructed entirely of black iron, was surrounded by a white chill. Even the eight horses pulling it were covered in frost from their mouths and noses, their hooves frozen in ice. Wherever the wheels passed, a shallow streak of ice was left on the road.
Everyone in the courtyard seemed to be frozen by the cold air, and there was complete silence.
Qing Guiyu stood behind the study window, feeling the chill as if it could penetrate the wall and pierce into his bones.
Shen Yan's last bargaining chip has finally arrived.
Sure enough, not long after, someone came to invite him.
Chen Yan, still dressed in a gray robe, stood before the carriage in the courtyard, which exuded a chill. His expression was no longer gentle, nor sinister, but rather very soft, as if the carriage before him was not carrying a cold corpse.
"Coming." He didn't turn around, but just said softly.
The carriage door slowly opened, and a chilling air, even more intense than the peak of a snowy mountain, surged out. Four Tianji Pavilion warriors worked together to lift a massive, black ice coffin from the carriage.
The coffin was crystal clear, as if carved from a whole piece of cold jade. Through the translucent ice layer, one could vaguely see the figure of a woman lying inside.
Qing Guiyu's heart skipped a beat.
"Follow me." Shen Yan finally turned his head. The hostility in his aura was somewhat similar to that of Shen Juansheng, but this time it seemed to contain a crazy fire that was enough to burn the entire world.
He led her through the heavy guards and came to a secret room in the deepest part of the courtyard.
The secret room was extremely large and empty, with all four walls made of black iron, and the black ice coffin was placed firmly in it.
"Look." Chen Yan walked to the coffin, stretched out his hand, and gently brushed the cold coffin lid. "She has slept for twenty years. It's time for her to wake up."
Qing Guiyu walked forward and finally saw the woman's face clearly through the now thinner ice layer.
She was a beautiful woman. Even in the silence of death, her features were graceful, as if she were alive, but her face was completely pale.
She just lay there quietly, as if she was just sleeping.
"Her name is Ah Wan." The old man's voice was low. "I promised her that I would show her the most supreme martial arts in the world, and that she would never suffer from this cold poison again."
He turned his head and Qing Guiyu took a step back, but was stared at by those eyes burning with madness.
"Now, it's your turn."
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
