Broken Linglong (10)
Qin Zhiqing was pulled away from the Qi family ancestral land by Ye Yingying, and the two of them didn't stop until they reached the old locust tree from the previous night. After the continuous journey, Ye Yingying was already out of breath. She wiped the sweat from her chin, looked back at Qin Zhiqing, and found that the person was still able to breathe steadily without changing expression.
"You're amazing! You ran this far without even breaking a sweat," Ye Yingying said, panting.
“If you ran like me for ten days or half a month, you could do it too,” Qin Zhiqing said calmly, then asked, “Why did you drag me away?”
"I'm so kind to save you, and you still ask me this kind of question." Ye Yingying rolled her eyes at her. "That's a Qingjinhou, a man-eating beast. Even a cub has the strength of an ordinary cultivator at the Golden Core stage, not to mention the size of the one just now. It was obviously an adult."
"If you get eaten, the happy occasion will turn into a tragedy. I'm still waiting to drink the wedding wine."
Moreover, she had an appointment with Qi Shuojun, and if something happened to Qin Zhiqing, she wouldn't be able to explain it to Qi Shuojun. Ye Yingying adjusted her breathing, put her hands on her hips, and said to Qin Zhiqing, "Young Master Qi still cares about you."
Qin Zhiqing looked uncomfortable. She frowned slightly and looked away, saying, "I have my own plans. You don't need to worry about it."
"Hey! I didn't realize you were so stubborn," Ye Yingying said, pointing at him. "Is this how you treat your savior?!"
"Who do you think you are, saving my life? That monster is standing at the edge of the forest and hasn't pounced on me yet, it's obvious it doesn't intend to attack."
"That's because you haven't fought it. The Azure Golden Hou loves to ambush. If you get slapped by it, you'll either die or be crippled."
Ye Yingying spoke with such confidence that Qin Zhiqing couldn't help but be suspicious: "You know a lot about it? Your cultivation level isn't even as high as mine, how do you know about these things?"
"Can't I be knowledgeable? Who says that someone with low cultivation can't know these things?" Ye Yingying said this somewhat guiltily, afraid that Qin Zhiqing would notice something amiss.
Generally speaking, Core Formation stage cultivators don't really have much opportunity to learn about demonic beasts whose strength is comparable to Golden Core stage cultivators, but Ye Yingying has lived a whole life and has dealt with these demonic beasts quite a bit before, so she naturally knows their characteristics by heart.
Qin Zhiqing didn't think much of it, assuming it was information from the Lingyun Alliance's internal records. But she had something else she was more curious about: "How did you get the Azure Nether True Fire? How did you know where it was?"
"Oh? You're really looking for the Azure Nether True Flame?" Ye Yingying straightened her back, raised her chin, and asked instead of answering, "What do you want with it?"
"You don't need to know."
"I won't tell you unless you tell me."
"..." Qin Zhiqing was speechless. This concerned her secret, and she couldn't simply tell someone she had only known for two days.
She pondered for a moment, then suddenly spoke heavily: "I've heard that this flame can convert vengeful spirits, and I want to use it to convert someone."
Ye Yingying tilted her head curiously: "Who?"
"A person who died because of me."
A cool night breeze brushed against Ye Yingying's sweat-drenched nape, and the surroundings suddenly became eerily quiet. Ye Yingying unconsciously shrank her shoulders and asked hesitantly, "What did you do to that person?"
"I couldn't save her."
Mentioning this matter, a shadow fell over Qin Zhiqing's icy face. Ye Yingying saw this and was both shocked and moved. After hesitating for a moment, she decided to be honest with Qin Zhiqing, saying, "The Azure Nether True Fire cannot cross a soul; it can only burn away an unclaimed soul. If you want that person to rest in peace, you should find another way."
After she finished speaking, she saw the astonished look in Qin Zhiqing's eyes. Ye Yingying was telling the truth, but Qin Zhiqing might need some time to process it.
"I'm going back now. Let's pretend we never met tonight."
Ye Yingying left after saying those words, while Qin Zhiqing stood there with a gloomy expression.
It was nearly midnight when Ye Yingying returned to Lingyun Inn. She tiptoed over the eaves into her bedroom, ripped off the wooden hairpin from her hair, and prepared to change and go to bed. With her outer garment half-undone, a muffled thud suddenly came from next door.
Ye Yingying was startled and immediately stopped what she was doing. The muffled sound was coming from Yun Yanqiu's room. She leaned close to the wall, pressed her ear against it, and listened intently to the sounds coming from the other side. To be honest, Ye Yingying had hardly seen Yun Yanqiu these past two days. When Qi Shuojun invited them to Zuijinlou earlier, Yun Yanqiu refused to come out of his room. Zhao Yuxiao made up an excuse about feeling unwell to decline on his behalf, and Ye Yingying assumed that he was staying in his room because he didn't want to see her.
But what was that noise just now? Could a thief have broken into Yun Yanqiu's room? Ye Yingying ran to the window and peered into the next room, but she didn't see any signs that his window had been opened. This was strange. Ye Yingying was puzzled. She put her black clothes back on, tiptoed to open the door, and moved to Yun Yanqiu's door to look around.
Ye Yingying stared at the dark crack in the door for a while, but saw nothing. She unconsciously became nervous, swallowed hard, and considered whether she should go in to take a look. But if she went in rashly, would Yun Yanqiu mistake her for a thief and chop her up with a knife?
Just as she hesitated, a series of thuds came from inside the room, as if something had crashed heavily to the ground. Without thinking, Ye Yingying pushed open the wooden door—the dimly lit room was slightly messy; a round stool lay overturned on the floor, unattended; the bed was empty, but a dark figure lay prone on the floor beside it. Ye Yingying quickly went over and turned the figure over to check, and was surprised to find that the person lying on the floor was none other than Yun Yanqiu!
What was going on? Ye Yingying's mind went blank for a moment. Yun Yanqiu seemed to have lost consciousness, lying motionless in her arms. Ye Yingying checked Yun Yanqiu's breathing; for some reason, his breathing was erratic, sometimes rapid and sometimes shallow. When she touched his forehead, it was covered in cold sweat, as if he had been poisoned.
"Senior Yun, Senior Yun, Yun Yanqiu?" Ye Yingying had never seen Yun Yanqiu look like this before, and she was quite frightened. She hurriedly patted Yun Yanqiu's face and kept calling his name, but Yun Yanqiu did not respond after calling for a long time. Yun Yanqiu's face was already pale, and now, under the moonlight, it was completely bloodless.
Worried that something might have happened to him, Ye Yingying got up to go find Zhao Yuxiao for help. But as soon as she turned around, someone grabbed her from behind, the force so strong that her waist ached slightly.
"Don't go," Yun Yanqiu whispered weakly in her ear, panting heavily, his mind still somewhat hazy.
Ye Yingying was trapped in his arms and couldn't move, so she could only put her hand on his arm to comfort him: "Are you alright?"
"No, ugh!..." Yun Yanqiu endured the excruciating pain that spread from his ribs to his entire body. His chest heaved, and his whole body trembled uncontrollably. Even so, he gritted his teeth and said to Ye Yingying, "Don't tell anyone."
"But you're already like this..." Ye Yingying's face was full of worry. She didn't understand what had happened to Yun Yanqiu. What could have made him look so disheveled?
All she could hear were Yun Yanqiu's painful groans, like knives stabbing into Ye Yingying's heart. She panicked, but her body couldn't break free from Yun Yanqiu's hold. Yun Yanqiu was in so much pain that he couldn't straighten up. He rested his head on Ye Yingying's shoulder, sweat pouring down his forehead, soon soaking her shoulder.
This can't go on. Ye Yingying firmly grasped his wrist, turned her head to the side, and coaxed him in a low voice, "I'll help you to bed to rest."
Yun Yanqiu hesitated for a moment, then slowly loosened his grip, giving Ye Yingying room to move. She turned around, wrapped her arms around Yun Yanqiu's waist and back, and pulled him up with all her might. Fortunately, they weren't far from the bed, and Ye Yingying used the momentum to fall onto the soft couch with Yun Yanqiu, even thoughtfully acting as a cushion for him.
She took a breath, then grabbed Yun Yanqiu's shoulders and rolled him off her. Finally, Yun Yanqiu faced the ceiling with his eyes closed, seemingly having fainted from the pain. Ye Yingying patiently adjusted the position of his pillow and covered him with a thin blanket. Then, she supported herself on both sides of his body and looked down at Yun Yanqiu's sleeping face for a while.
The two were very close, and a few strands of Ye Yingying's hair still clung to his sweaty face. She quietly observed Yun Yanqiu for a while, until his breathing gradually calmed down, his brows slowly relaxed, and he regained his usual composure. Only then did Ye Yingying feel relieved. She got out of bed, straightened the round stool that had fallen to the floor, and took one last reluctant look at the sleeping man on the bed before closing the door and returning to her own room.
Ye Yingying took off her coat and lay on the bed, staring blankly at the headboard, her mind filled with Yun Yanqiu's vulnerable appearance just now. How novel… Ye Yingying couldn't help but click her tongue. She had initially thought Yun Yanqiu's excuse of "being unwell" was just something Zhao Yuxiao made up, but it turned out to be quite plausible. But Yun Yanqiu had just said not to tell anyone; did Zhao Yuxiao actually know about this?
Ye Yingying couldn't understand, so she closed her eyes. All she could see in her mind was Yun Yanqiu's face—his pained yet restrained expression, his sleeping face with his eyes closed, and the feeling of him holding her tightly—all of which lingered in her memory. The more Ye Yingying thought about it, the more alert she became, and the more unsettling the image seemed! She suddenly sat up, slapped her forehead, and let out a long sigh. Her heart was pounding incessantly in her ears.
As dawn broke outside the window, Ye Yingying rubbed her nose and forced herself to lie down and rest. Perhaps the imagination she had just had was too stimulating, because she tossed and turned for a long time, the image lingering in her mind. She didn't even know how she finally fell asleep.
When Ye Yingying opened her eyes again the next day, she was wide awake. She got up decisively, dressed, and rushed to Zhao Yuxiao's door, banging on it repeatedly. Zhao Yuxiao, still half-asleep, opened the door, looking completely bewildered: "What's going on?"
"Let's go inside and talk."
Before he could react, Ye Yingying squeezed into the room, closed the door tightly, and looked up at Zhao Yuxiao with a serious expression, questioning him: "When you said that Senior Yun was unwell, was it intentional or accidental?"
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
