“That’ll take quite a while to explain.” Li Qianhan seemed to be particularly interested in this topic, because he put his teacup down and prepared to start complaining about the man.

But as soon as he began to talk, he immediately checked himself, pointing his fan in Yun Ruoyan’s direction as he smiled. “You’re trying to get information from me, aren’t you? Well, I’d love to tell you, but I’ve already promised that man not to reveal anything, or he won’t let me sample any of his cherished 150-year-old alcohol!”

“In that case, I have no interest in you, so you should go.” Yun Ruoyan tried to chase the annoying man away. “I’m going to rest… also, please let that man know that my poison’s very unusual, and even my grandfather hasn’t been able to do anything about it. Although I did save his life and he promised to help me deal with the poison, I didn’t realize how difficult it would be, so—”

“Are you crazy?!” Li Qianhan immediately broke Yun Ruoyan off. “Do you know how much his promises are worth?!”

“Hmph! I don’t want a promise, however valuable, from a person who’s unwilling to even tell me his name!”

These were her heartfelt words: the terrible experience of her previous life had left her unable to trust strangers quite so easily.

Li Qianhan jumped up from his stool. “You might be a little ugly, but you’re really quite interesting. I’m finding myself more and more curious about you.”

“Oh, don’t. Just stay away…”

“Haha.” Li Qianhan smiled before taking two bottles out of his pockets, one black and the other white. “The white bottle contains the life quintessence pills you handed me last time, and the black bottle an antidote for poison. It probably won’t be able to treat your poison fully, but it’ll be able to suppress its effects somewhat. At any rate, it won’t harm you.”

“......”

Before Yun Ruoyan could say anything, Li Qianhan had already left the two bottles on the table and jumped out the window once more.

The two bottles lay on her small, circular tea table.

Returning to Dou Yao and Jin Fei’er’s journey…

It was already the twelfth day since they had entered the imperial territory, and they still hadn’t left. On one hand, Jin Fei’er had been so grievously injured that, although her wounds were already starting to heal, she was still weak and in poor health.

These last few days, Dou Yao had had to carry her on his back.

On the other hand, Dou Yao had deliberately slowed his pace. Carrying such a beauty on his back daily didn’t tire him out at all, and was instead surprisingly invigorating. If he could have a girl like her around all the time, then he wouldn’t even mind dying!

Jin Fei’er was clever enough to see through Dou Yao’s thoughts, of course, but given how dependent she was on him, she didn’t dare to try to urge him on. All she could do was call him “Brother, brother,” every few minutes to coax him.

Once she left the territory, she swore she was going to make this odious man kneel and beg for her mercy for three days and nights to dispel her anger and vexation toward him.

But just as he was trundling along, Dou Yao heard her stomach grumble. He quickly turned around and smiled sycophantically. “Aren’t you hungry? Let me get you a little something to eat.”

“I’m not hungry!” Faced with Dou Yao’s smiling, monkey-like face, Jin Fei’er became even more exasperated, and she cursed that she couldn’t simply fly away from this realm and this vile, disgusting man.

“Alright, alright!” Dou Yao followed her every whim: after all, she was a beauty, and he would do everything to keep her happy.

Dou Yao finally turned back along and kept on walking. Lying on his back, Jin Fei’er suddenly became a little nauseated by his bald head, and she quickly shouted, “Brother, let me down quickly!”

He let her down, and she heaved a little, but nothing came up but a little bile.

“...Can we get a little something to eat?” She closed her eyes and lay by a patch of grass, muttering weakly.

“Sure! Just you wait, I’ll catch a chicken and make a splendid dish I learned from an imperial cook…” Dou Yao kept speaking, only to find that Jin Fei’er was lying motionlessly on her side, as if she were asleep. He smiled and hummed as he walked to the forest in search of his promised chicken.

As a fourth-rank blademaster, it wasn’t difficult to catch a wild chicken. Intending to bake it in mud, Dou Yao went off in search of some big leaves that could be used to wrap the chicken..

He looked all around before suddenly noticing a dark green plant by a little corner, with two leaves that were just the right size.

But when he went closer to pluck off the leaves, he suddenly recognized the plant, and his eyes went bright. The leaves secreted what was essentially an aphrodisiac. Male or female, whoever encountered the leaves’ secretion would quickly become engulfed by sexual desire.

There was only one cure: to actually have sex with someone else! He’d found out about this plant in a brothel he frequented, and his heart couldn’t stop thudding at his luck.

After mulling it over for a moment, Dou Yao decided to follow through with his plan, plucking off two big leaves with which to wrap up the tender wild chicken and make a delicious, poisonous meal.

“Here, have some chicken.”

Doou Yao handed Jin Fei’er a surprisingly fragrant drumstick. Although Jin Fei’er was very weak, she forced herself to stay awake, and she’d always been somewhat alert around Dou Yao without ever relaxing.

“Have some too, brother,” she said, smiling at Dou Yao. Although she was terribly hungry, whenever they ate, she always made him taste some first.

Dou Yao looked at the drumstick in his hands before taking a large bite.

He didn’t mind being poisoned! After all, there was no one around them, and the antidote was right in front of his eyes. Even if he somehow died, it would be after satisfying his every desire!

“Well? Have a taste of my cooking skills!”

Seeing Dou Yao enjoying his drumstick, Jin Fei’er finally let down her guard and began to eat.

But, halfway through the meal, she began to feel hot and prickly all over, as if ants had crawled into her heart. Almost unwillingly, she began to unbutton her blouse and shrug out of her clothes.

Dou Yao wasn’t any better; he’d long since taken off his vest and trousers.

Only then did Jin Fei’er finally realize that there was something wrong with her drumstick, and she threw it away without a second thought, her eyes warily looking at Dou Yao opposite her.

But as soon as she glanced at him, it was as if a fog clouded her eyes. She blinked, and the Dou Yao in front of her seemed to have transformed into someone else entirely.

“Brother Wang, you’re not dead? Oh, Brother Wang, I’ve missed you!”

Jin Fei’er’s weak, soft body found some strength in her sudden excitement, and she jumped into Dou Yao’s embrace.

“I’ve missed you too, darling.” Dou Yao naturally wouldn’t look a gift horse in the mouth.

And so the two of them wrapped around each other and fell prey to their carnal desires…

As soon as the first ray of light filtered through the windows, Yun Ruoyan got up and prepared to apply her grandfather’s vile concoctions on her face. She’d washed away her fake birthmark on her face before going to sleep, and now, before Peony came to help her with her morning routine, she had to make a new birthmark once more.

She pulled out the few bottles from her pocket dimension, and, facing the mirror, Yun Ruoyan began to put on her unique makeup.

As her grandfather had instructed, she began by mixing together the powders in the black and red bottles in a basin of water. As soon as those two powders mixed, they immediately reacted and formed a dark red, sticky substance. If she mixed the two powders in different proportions, the substance could even take on other colors.

Yun Ruoyan had to make her scab look better than it was the day before; if it looked too serious, then there would be unnecessary attention. For example, what if her grandmother were to send her a doctor to look at her wound?

So, today, she would make it a dark red color; in two days, she would make it turn black and fall off, and then she could simply make it look like her regular birthmark once more.

First, she applied a layer of ointment that could make her face red and swollen, before extracting the red, sticky substance and putting it on her right cheek.

A little while later, when the substance dried, Yun Ruoyan’s scab on her wounded birthmark looked as natural as it had been before the poison had been purged from her body.

She was very satisfied with the result.

After all this preparation, Peony finally appeared by her door.

“Enter.” Yun Ruoyan sat in front of the dresser, waiting for her to help brush her hair.

Peony left a basin of hot water on the table to cool, to be used to help Yun Ruoyan wash up later. She smiled as she got behind Yun Ruoyan, picked up the cherry brush, and began to help comb Yun Ruoyan’s hair.

“Mistress, will you be cultivating again today?”

“No, not today. After breakfast, I’ll be heading over to my grandfather’s house.” Yun Ruoyan inspected herself from the mirror. “Don’t forget about what I instructed you to do.”

“Peony would never dare, Mistress.” She continued smiling as she brushed Yun Ruoyan’s hair. “I’ll be sure to keep a close eye on Ling Lan the entire time you’re away.”

Yun Ruoyan asked for a simple, unadorned hairstyle, nothing too fancy or complicated.

Peony sighed, thinking back to the days when Yun Ruoyan appeared unhappy because the hair by her temples was never able to cover up her birthmark completely. But now, her mistress seemed to have grown perfectly used to her appearance, and didn’t care about hiding the birthmark at all! She had finally overcome her complex, and Peony was very happy for her.

“Mistress, ever since you returned from the imperial realm, your complexion has been getting better and better!”

“Is that so?” Yun Ruoyan smiled as Peony did.

“Your hair, for example—it used to be fine and dark, but now it’s even more lustrous than before. And your skin! It was already quite white, but now it sparkles and even looks a little translucent.”

After having purged the poison that had plagued her body for many a year and jumping up three ranks in her cultivation, it would be impossible for her appearance to not have changed.

Yun Ruoyan looked at her reflection in the mirror and silently encouraged herself, Yun Ruoyan, you’ll keep getting better and better!

After washing up, Xi Lan brought a tray of food over: a bowl of bird’s nest soup accompanied by two sweet, refreshing plates of snacks. Yun Ruoyan’s appetite was whetted just looking at the food.

Jokingly, she commented that, for once, Xi Lan had specially made her some food.

Xi Lan smiled. “Mistress, I didn’t make this! After all, you know how small our cottage is, and we have neither the personnel or equipment for having a little kitchen of our own. The old matriarch bade me send this over.”

Yun Ruoyan nodded as she began to eat. The cool and refreshing soup slid down her throat, and she tilted her head back in pleasure.

Her gaze landed on the two small bottles, black and white, that the youth from yesterday had left behind.

She reached out for the black bottle and inspected it in her hands, before finding something seemingly engraved on the bottom of the bottle.

“Hmm?” Yun Ruoyan flipped the bottle upside down, noticing that two characters had been carved on its base.

“Li, San.” She frowned. “Who’s Li San?”