Chapter 218 – Fangfei and Linghua
Saying any more wouldn’t do much good. Lin Xuanzhi’s actions today really were too harsh, so much so that Duan Yuyang couldn’t help but start to doubt whether there was some other profound meaning behind Lin Xuanzhi’s actions. Otherwise, with Lin Xuanzhi’s personality, he would never take this kind of action that brought pain to those he held dear and joy to his enemies.
Three people and two tigers swiftly arrived at the foot of the mountain. It was full of different varieties of trees and lush green vegetation. At first glance, the mountain was verdant and full of vitality.
Ah Bai and Hu Po were experts at mountain exploration. As soon as Hu Po received the command, he disappeared up the mountain, leaving a trail of smoke in his wake. Ah Bai, however, remained locked in Yan Tianhen’s arms, shivering nonstop.
Yan Tianhen saw Ah Bai’s pitiful appearance and took out a demonic delight fruit, giving it to Ah Bai. Ah Bai held the demonic delight fruit in his mouth and immediately pulled himself together. He shook his head, splattering water on Yan Tianhen’s face.
Within a moment, Hu Po returned.
“Ao ao ao!” Hu Po excitedly ran to Yan Tianhen. Yan Tianhen’s eyes lit up, and he informed Duan Yuyang, “Yuyang Gege, we found a cave.”
It wasn’t easy to climb up mountains on rainy days. Yan Tianhen had already prepared himself for accidental slips and falls.
At this moment, Yuan Tianwen spoke up, “Let Chi Xiao take us up.”
He whistled once, and a penta-coloured crane spread its wings and soared over from the distant rainy sky. It even uttered a crisp chirp.
“Why didn’t you say so earlier if you brought Chi Xiao?” Duan Yuyang rolled his eyes.
“As soon as I saw you, I forgot about everything else.” Yuan Tianwen stared at Duan Yuyang with deep affection.
Duan Yuyang shivered and rubbed the goosebumps that broke out on the back of his hand.
Yan Tianhen couldn’t help laughing, but he choked on something, and his chuckles abruptly turned into coughing that seemed as though he was hacking out a lung.
Ah Bai saw the penta-coloured crane and was immediately excited, as though he’d been pumped full of chicken blood. He jumped down from Yan Tianhen’s arms in a flash and half-ran, half-skipped towards Chixiao, who had landed on the ground.
Chi Xiao, “…..”
Heavens, why did he bump into this crazy tiger again?
Ah Bai, “Ao ao ao!”
Seeking kisses, seeking hugs!
Chi Xiao, “Chirp–”
The two rolled on the ground—
For a moment, the crane tried to fly around as the tiger kept jumping on it.
Hu Po expressionlessly watched Ah Bai act like an extreme embarrassment. Suddenly, a demonic delight fruit appeared in front of his eyes; instantly, Hu Po couldn’t move his eyes away.
“Don’t pull such a long face.” Yan Tianhen hugged Hu Po in his arms and kissed his black nose. He smiled, “You’re still a tiger cub, don’t be so mature.”
Hu Po thought secretly, what’s wrong with being mature? Don’t tell me it’s better to be like Ah Bai, who acts as though there’s a pit in his brain every day?
However, for the sake of that demonic delight fruit, he wouldn’t refute the little master.
Just as they were about to approach the cave entrance, the rain suddenly stopped, and the sky changed from a dark grey to an eerie twilight crimson. Half of a deathly-pale moon hung from the sky, but it also didn’t seem like the moon, because it was truly too large — it was a hundred times larger than the moon that Yan Tianhen had seen before!
Yuan Tianwen stood at the entrance of the cave and gazed at this moon, frowning deeply.
This could absolutely be considered an anomaly.
Even in Mysterious Lands, anomalies definitely were not common sights.
Yan Tianhen was damp and clammy all over, as though a piercing chill had reached his very bones. Moreover, he felt that this frigid chill had already drilled into every single inch of his body, leaving him with nowhere to hide, and he couldn’t even expel the cold.
Not long after, his mind started to become distracted, and his body shook uncontrollably.
“Ah Hen, what’s wrong with you?!” Duan Yuyang, who had just finished heating up and drying his clothes with Qi, opened his eyes and saw that Yan Tianhen’s lips were purple, his entire body cold and clammy. He hurriedly rushed over, felt Yan Tianhen’s forehead with the back of his hand, and cried, “Yuan Tianwen hurry up and come over for Laozi, Ah Hen is sick!”
Yan Tianhen was already a Refining Qi Seventh Layer and naturally couldn’t be afflicted with common diseases.
Right now, his entire body was burning hot, like a stove, yet he gritted his teeth with all his might and trembled all over, evidently extremely cold.
Yuan Tianwen felt Yan Tianhen’s pulse. After a moment, he frowned. “The spiritual Qi in his body is in chaos, that strange rainwater has affected him.”
Looking at Yan Tianhen’s skin, it had actually turned red, as though it was burning.
Duan Yuyang was scared to death. He looked at the back of his own hand, and even though it was a little red and hurt a little, it simply couldn’t be compared to Yan Tianhen’s condition and wasn’t even worth mentioning.
Duan Yuyang was extremely anxious. “What do we do? I brought quite a lot of medicinal pills with me, see if any of them can be used.”
However, Yuan Tianwen said with a grave expression, “I have never seen symptoms like his before. He’s showing symptoms for both a fever and a cold. Clearly, we can’t casually give him any random medicine.”
The so-called “prescribing the right medicine for an illness” meant that one should be cautious. Even a small mistake could lead to a disastrous result and produce an irreversible consequence.
Duan Yuyang was so anxious that he scratched at his cheeks. He took another glance at Yan Tianhen and saw that he had fallen into a coma.
Duan Yuyang gritted his teeth as he reached his hand out and pushed Yan Tianhen up. “Anyways, we should at least dry up his wet clothes.”
Yuan Tianwen sat down in a cross-legged position and took Yan Tianhen. “Let me do this kind of thing.”
Duan Yuyang didn’t argue with him either. After all, his cultivation level was far behind Yuan Tianwen’s, and the experience he could bring Ah Hen couldn’t compare to what the other party could bring.
Within a moment, Yan Tianhen’s clothes were steamed dry.
He fell softly into Duan Yuyang’s arms and muttered unceasingly, “Da……Dage, Dage.”
Duan Yuyang’s heart hurt hearing that. “You silly child, who knows what came over your Dage, he actually drove you away, yet you still think of him. Truly an idiot.”
Yuan Tianwen remained silent for a moment, then asked, “Do you really think that Lin Xuanzhi plans to part with Yan Tianhen?”
Duan Yuyang shook his head. “Who knows what Lin Xuanzhi, this petty and narrow-minded person, was thinking. If he was still wearing some magic tools, at the very least, they could have still provided him with some defense against the rain, and the situation never would have developed to this stage.”
Yan Tianhen’s person could be said to have been stripped clean of all magic tools. He didn’t have even a single defensive treasure with him, from head to toe, which caused such a huge response.
On the other hand, with Duan Yuyang and Yuan Tianwen, when traveling outside, who among them didn’t take a few defensive magic treasures with them?
Duan Yuyang was even more dissatisfied with Lin Xuanzhi. Moreover, he just couldn’t understand. Even if Lin Xuanzhi was truly angry with Yan Tianhen, he was unlikely to go so far as to jeopardize Yan Tianhen’s health and wellbeing.
Yan Tianhen’s situation was clearly not good. He rolled and shifted about, unable to find peace, and sometimes reached out a hand to scratch at his skin. He probably felt both itchy and pained all over and was extremely miserable.
Even though Duan Yuyang was anxious, he didn’t know how to resolve it.
Yuan Tianwen had originally planned to follow Duan Yuyang inside the Mysterious Land and use this chance to reconcile with him, but unexpectedly, he met such a situation. Naturally, he was no longer in the mood to talk about love.
Duan Yuyang looked at Yan Tianhen’s miserable appearance and suggested reluctantly, “Or else, we can go out and find an alchemist or a doctor?”
Yuan Tianwen asked, “How? We don’t know how big this Mysterious Land is, and we don’t know what kinds of mechanisms or traps it has either. If we recklessly charged about, I’m afraid we’ll encounter some problem.”
Duan Yuyang answered back, “The grand Young Peak Master Yuan, is it possible that he’s actually afraid of leaving and never being able to return?”
Yuan Tianwen was ridiculed but didn’t get angry. He looked into Duan Yuyang’s eyes, “I’m not afraid that I will run into danger, but I’m afraid that you’ll encounter danger after I leave and won’t be able to protect yourself. I won’t feel at ease unless I’m attentively watching you and making sure that you’re safe.”
He paused, then decided that he might as well say everything, “I like you so much that my heart hurts. You can reject me, but you cannot pretend to be ignorant of this.”
Duan Yuyang’s face instantly flushed red from this candid expression of love. He was originally a clever and eloquent little overlord, but he couldn’t deal with this kind of frank confession.
“You…you don’t like Han Yuran anymore?” As soon as he asked that, Duan Yuyang wanted to slap himself twice.
An expression of disgust appeared on Yuan Tianwen’s face. “I never liked him to begin with. If he hadn’t deceived me, I would never have had any contact with this kind of person.”
There was some bitter taste in Duan Yuyang’s mouth; his heart still couldn’t accept this twist of events. He thought for a moment, “But you can even mistake someone else for the one you like. You only feel this way because you appreciate what I’ve done for you…”
“Yangyang.” Yuan Tianwen rarely interrupted Duan Yuyang, but he did now. He spoke with a firm expression, “I won’t deny or erase my foolish deeds. You can scold me or think that I have no brain, but I will never give up on pursuing you.”
Duan Yuyang didn’t know how to face such a blunt and sincere Yuan Tianwen.
To tell the truth, ever since he was young, he had only ever loved Yuan Tianwen, so when he gave himself completely to Yuan Tianwen, there was not an ounce of burden in his heart. On the contrary, the physical pain brought sweet happiness to his heart.
However, how happy he felt was exactly how bitter and pained he felt afterward.
The events that happened, Duan Yuyang couldn’t easily let go of them.
Two people; one seemed to be waiting for a verdict, while no one knew what the other one was thinking.
After a while, Duan Yuyang spoke up first. “Forget it, let’s wait until after we get out to discuss this kind of thing. Right now all I can think of is Ah Hen, I’m not in the mood to pay attention to you.”
His eyes didn’t look at Yuan Tianwen when he spoke those words. After all, Yuan Tianwen was the person he admired. If he looked into his eyes, he wouldn’t be able to say them.
Yuan Tianwen was slightly disappointed, but he also knew that the situation was special and couldn’t tolerate his continued pestering.
Seeing that Yan Tianhen’s situation had yet to improve, Yuan Tianwen stood up, “I’d better go and look for people nearby, see if I can meet an alchemist.”
Duan Yuyang wiped away the sweat on Yan Tianhen’s forehead as he nodded, “Leave early and return soon.”
Yuan Tianwen looked at him.
Duan Yuyang thickened his skin to say, “Be careful.”
Yuan Tianwen smiled. “Rest assured, Yangyang.”
Duan Yuyang was incensed from this address on the outside while feeling tender on the inside.
Two tiger cubs paced around Yan Tianhen, anxiously scratching their cheeks, afraid that something bad would happen to Yan Tianhen.
Duan Yuyang hated himself for not learning even a tiny bit of his mother’s ability. Otherwise, he wouldn’t be so muddled from not knowing anything.
“Damn it, that big master of yours really is a good-for-nothing.” Duan Yuyang directed his scorn at Ah Bai and Hu Po and spoke in a bad mood, “What kind of fucking bullshit he is, doesn’t even need his little brother anymore after seeing a beautiful girl.”
“Dage!” Yan Tianhen suddenly gave a cry and trembled even more.
Hu Po stared at Yan Tianhen for a moment, then turned and ran outside the cave with his tail up. Duan Yuyang was solely preoccupied with looking after Yan Tianhen and didn’t notice that he was missing a tiger cub.
After one incense’s worth of time, Yuan Tianwen actually did return with two people.
As soon as they entered the cave, Duan Yuyang stared towards the light and saw two female cultivators wearing Cloud Jade Sect’s clothes following Yuan Tianwen.
“What symptoms? Let my Senior Martial Sister Linghua take a look.” The female cultivator dressed in a yellow Dao robe looked very young and had a babyface, her bangs neatly cut. However, her voice wasn’t small.
Duan Yuyang stood up. “You two are…?”
“I’m Jin Fangfei, from Cloud Jade Sect.” The babyface female cultivator said, “This is my Linghua Shijie, Wan Linghua. Hurry up and get out of the way, don’t talk so much nonsense. Do you still want to save him?”
Duan Yuyang looked at Wan Linghua and felt quite surprised.
Wan Linghua’s hair was bound with a hairband. She looked valiant and formidable and was dressed in a male cultivator’s clothes. She didn’t have even an ounce of the aura that female cultivators possessed. Rather, she quite gave off the aura of a graceful and elegant young man, yet Jin Fangfei actually called her “senior martial sister.” Could it be that this really was a woman dressed in men’s clothes?
“What abilities do you have?” Duan Yuyang wouldn’t casually hand Yan Tianhen off to others.
