Chapter 24
Chapter 24: Too Hot to Hold
Jiang Li Sheng grumbled to herself, and her annoyance slipped onto her face before she could hide it.
Ying Zong Yu stared at her for a long beat. He had never met someone this easy to read—foolishly cute and clueless, like she truly believed the world would be kind if she only wanted it enough. In Kun Lun Sect, people like that didn’t exist. There was no need for fellow cultivators to kill her for opportunities; a demon beast could swallow her in one bite.
He clicked his tongue. “How did Sect Master Yu teach you? Fine, your cultivation might be limited by birth and slow to improve, but why do you look like a blank sheet of paper?”
“I’m not a blank sheet,” Jiang Li Sheng muttered.
She never understood why people insisted on hiding their emotions. How exhausting. If your strength wasn’t enough, was scheming supposed to make up the difference?
[If the Great Dao can’t be reached, then even forcing it is still useless, isn’t it?]
Her master had said she wasn’t favored by the heavens, so she might as well go with the flow.
And so she had—right up to now.
Ying Zong Yu looked ready to choke. “Look at you—how are you not a blank sheet? Want me to find you a mirror? That stupid face of yours. Even the beasts on Spirit Beast Peak, pick any one of them, and it’s smarter than you.”
Jiang Li Sheng went quiet.
That was just insulting. She was at least a little better than those beasts.
She lifted her chin and glared at him.
“Chased around like a stray by a tu lou, nearly eaten, and you still think you’re ‘better’?” Ying Zong Yu shot back without mercy.
Jiang Li Sheng couldn’t argue with that. She instantly wilted, an annoyed heaviness settling in her chest. That beast had even eaten her snacks. The new snacks she’d bought still hadn’t arrived, which meant she had nothing at all to munch on.
She turned and stared at Wei Qing Lan with pleading eyes. “Senior Brother Wei… when will Senior Brother Yun be back?”
Wei Qing Lan looked at her. “No idea.”
Jiang Li Sheng let out a long sigh. “My snacks…”
Her spiritual power was almost drained; her face was pale and weak. And at a time like this, she wasn’t thinking about recovering—only about food. Wei Qing Lan fell silent for a moment, then said, “Three to five days at most. Endure it.”
He turned to Ying Zong Yu. “I’ll take Junior Sister Jiang back. The spirit-replenishing pills she used today—put them on my tab.”
“On your tab?” Ying Zong Yu waved him off. “You killed two demon beasts that escaped from the Demon-Suppressing Tower for the sect. Put it on the sect’s public account.”
He added, “Send her back to rest. Once I have disciples buy more spirit-replenishing pills, I’ll call you over.”
Wei Qing Lan nodded and didn’t argue. He unfastened his sword and motioned for Jiang Li Sheng to follow.
Jiang Li Sheng resisted in her heart. “I can go back on my own. You don’t have to escort me, Senior Brother Wei.”
Wei Qing Lan raised a brow. “You sure you can fly on your sword?”
“I can,” Jiang Li Sheng insisted, even as her knees threatened to buckle.
Wei Qing Lan stared at her. “You can’t even stand steady. Where did you learn to be this stubborn? If you refuse to let me escort you, then I won’t need you to repair my spirit mansion anymore.”
Jiang Li Sheng shut her mouth at once and obediently followed him out of the Medical Hall.
They stood on the same sword, one near the tip and one near the hilt, with enough space between them to fit another person. The blade lifted smoothly, steady as a bridge.
Ying Zong Yu watched them leave and clicked his tongue. “Sect Master must have gone into seclusion too early. He should’ve met that little girl first.”
Si Shao didn’t understand. “Master… what do you mean?”
Ying Zong Yu didn’t answer. He only ordered, “Go down the mountain and buy spirit-replenishing pills. Bring back a thousand bottles.”
Kun Lun Sect was wealthy enough that a thousand sounded like a handful when it came from Ying Zong Yu’s mouth. But Kun Lun Sect’s rules strictly forbade disciples from consuming spirit-replenishing pills in large quantities, lest they chase shortcuts and end up with shaky foundations. Because of that, the Medical Hall and the storehouse kept only a few dozen on hand, reserved for emergencies.
Today, Jiang Li Sheng had burned through all of them in one go.
Qing Xu Sect had no such rule. Jiang Li Sheng had been born “useless” and treated spirit-replenishing pills like meals. Naturally, she didn’t know any of this.
Si Shao hesitated, then asked quietly, “Master, Junior Sister Jiang can draw all the spiritual power out of a spirit-replenishing pill with her hand?”
“There are countless paths in the Dao,” Ying Zong Yu said with a lazy wave. “Her spiritual power is special. It’s not strange.”
Si Shao thought that made sense, but he still couldn’t shake the feeling that Junior Sister Jiang was full of mysteries—so many that he wanted to pry them open and see what was inside.
Wei Qing Lan brought Jiang Li Sheng to her courtyard in short order. Once her feet touched the ground, she bowed her head obediently. “Thank you, Senior Brother Wei.”
Wei Qing Lan reached into his storage ring and took out a box, pressing it into her hands. “I don’t have spirit-replenishing pills on me, so I can’t help you recover quickly. But I have a box of jia fruit. Eat it as snacks for now.”
Jiang Li Sheng froze and hurriedly waved her hands. “Jia fruit is precious. How can you give it to me as snacks? No, no—”
“Take it.” Wei Qing Lan shoved it into her grip. “If you won’t eat it, throw it away.”
Then he mounted his sword and left.
He flew off far faster than he had when he escorted her home, as if he couldn’t wait to be gone.
Jiang Li Sheng stared at the box in her hands. In the blink of an eye, Wei Qing Lan’s figure was already gone. For a moment, her mood was hard to name.
This was jia fruit. Jia fruit from Bu Zhou Mountain.
Throw it away if she didn’t eat it?
How would she dare?
She was afraid the heavens would strike her down.
Rumor said that beyond the Northwest Sea, in a corner of the Great Wilderness, there stood a mountain that did not fit with the world. Its name was Bu Zhou, a mountain of the Divine Realm.
Bu Zhou Mountain was cold year-round, snow drifting through every season. No human footsteps lingered there. Deep within lived two strange beasts—the yellow bear and the yellow leopard—known together as the two yellow beasts.
They were savage, and ordinary people couldn’t get close. Anyone who entered Bu Zhou Mountain had nine chances out of ten of never returning.
Rumor also said that Bu Zhou Mountain faced north toward Zhu Pi Mountain, and at its foot lay You Marsh. Along the shore grew a fruit tree with leaves like jujube leaves. It bloomed yellow flowers with red calyxes and bore fruit shaped like peaches. It was called jia fruit. In a duel or a fight against demon beasts, eating one could banish exhaustion.
Wei Qing Lan giving her an entire box to snack on was… obscene.
But she really was tired.
She opened the lid. Six fruits lay inside. She picked one up and took a bite. It was sweet and fragrant, bursting with juice—so good it made her forget to swallow for a moment.
She finished one jia fruit. Just as she was debating whether to eat another, a head popped out from next door.
“Junior Sister Jiang, you’re back?” An Ru Xu asked, alarmed. “Why is your face so white? Is it because you helped Senior Brother Wei…”
Jiang Li Sheng nodded.
An Ru Xu stepped out and asked with concern, “What did you do? Why are you so weak and pale? Is Senior Brother Wei better?”
“I just used some spiritual power,” Jiang Li Sheng said. “If my spiritual power can help Senior Brother Wei, that’s enough. I’m fine.”
But she couldn’t quite hide the strain in her voice.
“My spiritual power isn’t sufficient yet. He’s still not fully healed.”
An Ru Xu frowned. “You look awful. Why didn’t you stay in the Medical Hall? If your spiritual power was lacking, you could refill it with spirit-replenishing pills. Don’t tell me the Medical Hall still wouldn’t give you any at a time like this?”
“I used them,” Jiang Li Sheng admitted. “All of them. I used them dry.”
Every time she emptied her spiritual power, she felt ravenous, but the jia fruit had already eased that hollow ache into something warm and bearable.
“Senior Brother Wei gave me a box of jia fruit,” she added. “I ate one and I don’t feel tired anymore. Thank you for worrying, Senior Brother An.”
“Jia fruit?” An Ru Xu’s eyes widened. “Is it the box he brought back from Bu Zhou Mountain?”
“Wait—he went there himself?” Jiang Li Sheng blurted.
She’d thought he’d gotten it through some lucky chance, something left behind by predecessors. He’d actually gone to Bu Zhou Mountain?
An Ru Xu nodded, his gaze dropping to the box in her hands. “A year ago, he went to Bu Zhou Mountain. He came back covered in wounds and brought back a box of jia fruit.”
He paused, then added, as if it mattered. “Six.”
Then he added again, “He wanted to hand it to the Sect Master. The Sect Master told him to keep it.”
Jiang Li Sheng’s grip tightened until her knuckles whitened.
So Wei Qing Lan only had this one box.
And he’d given all of it to her.
The jia fruit she’d swallowed earlier seemed to flare in her stomach, suddenly too hot to bear.