Chapter 19: Concealment (1)

Plop.

Lin Xie’s corpse fell over.

As the corpse collapsed in a heap, an object came tumbling out of the folds. It looked like a command medallion.

The command medallion seemed to have been fashioned from pure gold, and had a large black door engraved on it. The large door was halfway open, and behind the door was the depiction of a brilliant shining light. It was hard to tell exactly what it was.

Su Chen tucked this command medallion into his bosom, then gave Lin Xie’s body a once over. He was only able to find a few pieces of gold and silver, but there was nothing else of value. Su Chen did not treasure gold and silver. Thus, he was about to leave even the Cicada Dagger behind and prepared to leave.

However, he had not taken many steps forward before hearing sounds come from ahead of him.

He knew that the situation wasn’t good. The Lin clan’s guards had definitely heard the commotion and was on their way over to investigate. After all, Lin Xie’s tragic yell from earlier had created too much noise.

In his current condition, if he were to be caught by members of the Lin Clan, it would be difficult for him to escape suspicion.

There was no path forward, so Su Chen could only grit his teeth and made the decision to run back into the courtyard.

Although his wounds were very severe, the adrenaline he had received from recovering his sight continued to spur him on. As he passed by the scenery of the forest, he felt that every flower, every blade of grass, and every tree were all extremely beautiful.

Unfortunately, the first few moments of his newfound sight had been used to kill someone, and the next few moments were spent running for his life. That dampened the mood, and left the scenery absent of beauty.

Thus, Su Chen could only sigh about fate’s fickle behavior. After all, if it wasn’t for his battle today, perhaps he would not have recovered so quickly.

As he simultaneously ran and thought, Su Chen arrived near the small lake.

On the nearby lakefront was a patio jutting out into the water, with a veranda around it. Waterlilies and fragrant lotuses surrounded the patio in great number. It was the fourth month of the year, and the fragrant lotuses had already opened, their stamens gently trembling and releasing a floral fragrance. It was precisely the small building near the lake.

At this moment, a young woman sat near the edge of the veranda of the small building. She was dressed in a pale-green robe and wore a greenish jade headband. She had eyes like willows and cheeks like apricots, and couldn’t be described as anything less than beautiful. At that moment, she was staring into the water, her chin in her hands. No one could tell what she was thinking about.

Su Chen had never actually seen Gu Qingluo, and therefore had no idea whether that was her. However, the young woman’s luxurious clothes and the fact that she was sitting all alone near the small lake gave credence to the assumption that she wasn’t some maidservant. In fact, even if it was Gu Qingluo, he did not know how Gu Qingluo would treat him. After all, he and Gu Qingluo had only known each other for a short time, not nearly enough for her to understand him. The current Su Chen was not so naive that he would carelessly believe that just because someone was a friend that they would help him.

But at this moment he truly had no other choice.

He gritted his teeth, then rushed towards the small building near the lake, intentionally making some noise.

The instant he rushed out of the small forest, the woman in the pavilion heard the noise and turned to look back. First, she seemed dazed, and then she appeared delighted. Next, she looked left and right.

Solely based on her expression and behavior, Su Chen instantly confirmed that she was Gu Qingluo.

The Gu Qingluo over there had already flown towards him. Upon landing near Su Chen, she grabbed hold of him and said, “Why did you come? And why are you injured? Heavens, your injuries are so serious.”

“If you have anything to say just hold on. The Lin Clan’s guards are just behind me,” Su Chen hurriedly said.

Gu Qingluo was amazed, “I knew that your Four Great Clans were at odds, but I never expected that it would be this bad. Then, even though it was so dangerous, you actually came to see me……”

Gu Qingluo evidently had misunderstood something, and the gaze she used on Su Chen was filled with emotion.

However, to say that he had taken risks to see her was also technically accurate. Even if the prior incident had not occurred, if Su Chen had been captured by members of the Lin Clan, his fate definitely would not have been good. It wouldn’t have been as bad as his current state, but nevertheless, it wouldn’t have been a pleasant experience.

Su Chen became agitated, “I say, missy, can you hide me first before talking? I’m on the verge of passing out .”

Gu Qingluo shot him a smile, “Relax. None of them would dare to investigate where I am.”

Even as she spoke, she brought Su Chen back to the small building near the lake.

She was here as a guest. The Lin Clan naturally must have arranged for servants, but Gu Qingluo did not want members of the Lin Clan to know about the relationship between her and Su Chen. Thus, she did not enter from the front door, instead directly entering from the backyard, bringing Su Chen into the room.

“Okay, since you are at my place, you are now safe. You……”

Gu Qingluo had yet to finish speaking before Su Chen’s eyes rolled back into his head. He had already passed out.

The battle with Lin Xie had already exhausted all of Su Chen’s energy. His wounds were also severe, so for him to have persevered to this point was already a miracle. Now that he had arrived at a “safe haven”, he relaxed the vigilance in his heart, and had naturally fallen unconscious.

For him to faint so easily, Gu Qingluo felt dumbfounded, “Hey, hey, how come you passed out? You haven’t even said what to do next. Your body is full of wounds……”

The Gu Clan’s missy was from a large clan and had never taken care of someone before. For someone with such severe injuries to suddenly land in her hands, she couldn’t help but feel paralyzed with indecision. She didn’t know what she should do.

Even though she had never taken care of others, she had at least practiced martial arts and had been injured before.

The wounds that Su Chen received were all exterior injuries. Thus, although his injuries were heavy, curing them actually wasn’t a difficult matter. After pacing back and forth a few times in the room, she gradually calmed down, and figured out what to do.

She gritted her teeth, then pulled Su Chen’s blood-stained clothes off his body.

This was her first time seeing a male’s naked body, and she couldn’t stop her face from blushing and her breathing from accelerating.

Thankfully, the ghastly wounds caused Gu Qingluo to very quickly regain her focus.

She pulled out the Purple Jade Ointment handed down in her family and dipped her finger in it, gently applying it on each wound. This Purple Jade Ointment was a secret medicine of the Gu Clan and was particularly effective in treating external wounds. After applying the medicinal ointment, blood stopped flowing from the wounds, and even the pain decreased somewhat.

Just as she was smearing on the medicine, she heard a maidservant report from outside the room, “Miss, two of the Lin Clan’s guards want to see you.”

“What did they come here to do?” Gu Qingluo asked.

The maidservant replied, “I heard that a murder case just occurred in the small forest near the lake. One of the Lin Clan’s members died there.”

What?

Gu Qingluo was dazed, “What kind of person did it?”

“It’s unclear. However, the Lin Clan guards said that the corpse is still warm, and they think that the murderer has only just left. There was a trail of blood that led to this point, and they followed it all the way here. Upon arriving here, the wanted to ask if Miss had made any discoveries.”

Gu Qingluo replied, “Tell them that I haven’t discovered anything. I’m cultivating at the moment, and it’s inconvenient for me to disturbed. Tell them to go search elsewhere.”

“Yes.”

That maidservant left promptly.

The Lin Clan’s guards left too, either because they were apprehensive of Gu Qingluo’s identity or because they just believed her.

Only now could Gu Qingluo continue to treat Su Chen’s wounds.

“If you wanted to come, you could have just come. What need is there to kill a member of the Lin Clan?” Gu Qingluo murmured as she treated Su Chen, “However, for you to be able to kill someone despite being blind is quite rare.”

Even as she spoke, she completely covered the wounds on Su Chen’s body with medicinal ointment.

While the dagger wounds were easy to treat, his broken right arm was somewhat difficult.

His arm had been fractured by LIn Xie twisting his arm. This kind of compound fracture wasn’t something that could cured with some medicine. The bone had to be realigned, and then put in a splint to recover for a few days. Good medicine would only shorten the time required for recovery, not aid in realigning the bone. That kind of automatic realignment would only happen when one cultivated to a layer where flesh and bone could regenerate. In that scenario, one could simply remove the broken bone and regenerate a new one, greatly simplifying the healing process.

Gu Qingluo had absolutely no experience in healing broken bones. She could only bite the bullet and help Su Chen realign his bone. Naturally, it was inevitable that she would align them incorrectly, and have to realign them again and again. By some miracle, she didn’t do any permanent damage to Su Chen’s arm as she tried to find the right angle to realign the bones. After some painstaking experimentation, Gu Qingluo successfully bound his arm in a proper splint and everything was realigned properly.

Upon seeing her own work, Gu Qingluo felt great satisfaction. “Now I am also someone who knows how to cure illnesses and wounds. Unfortunately, you didn’t have that many wounds, so I couldn’t display my skill at bringing the dead back to life.”

Earlier, she had complained that Su Chen’s wounds were too serious. Now that she had been caught up in the enthusiasm of saving someone, she felt that Su Chen’s wounds were too light, and weren’t enough for her to exhibit her talent. As for the matter of the Purple Jade Ointment, which had taken care of all those dagger wounds and whose medicinal strength could cure ten people, as well as the seven or eight attempts to realign the bone, she naturally dismissed these matters as the esteemed Miss Gu.