For a moment, the surrounding crowds fell into complete silence.

Meng Qi looked at Chu Tianfeng in surprise. This young man, who previously risked his life to protect Lu Qingran, at this moment was looking at the same woman with a dark face and icy glare.

None of the disciples of Qingfeng Valley or Fentian Palace dared to speak, all of them simply watched with a dumbfounded look.

Not long ago, they saw how this Fentian Palace’s young master came back while hugging Senior Sister Lu. Did his heart change so quickly?

Meng Qi lightly shook her hand, and Chu Tianfeng immediately loosened the grip on her wrist. His hand hung down on the side. His palm seemed to retain the sensation of Meng Qi’s blue-colored sleeve. Her robe was made from very ordinary cotton fabric, but for him, it brought an indescribable warmth.

What is he doing?!

Meng Qi frowned. Chu Tianfeng even criticized Lu Qingran in public. Why did she feel somewhat strange?

“I…I’m sorry…” After being silent for a while, Lu Qingran suddenly apologized weakly. She had been tormented by the poison, and now was scolded so mercilessly by the man she liked. Her face was getting hotter and hotter, both by the poison and the embarrassment she felt.

“Tianfeng, I’m really worried about you, forgive me…”

“You don’t have to apologize to me.” Chu Tianfeng coldly interrupted Lu Qingran. He frowned and said: “The one you should apologize to is your junior sister.”

“I’m sorry, Junior Sister Meng Qi.” Lu Qingran lightly bit her lower lip. She didn’t know what happened to Chu Tianfeng. She never intended to offend Junior Sister Meng Qi and was simply too worried. When she heard that Chu Tianfeng was injured and carried back, she rushed to take a look. She couldn’t think clearly and accidentally ran into junior sister’s room.

“Oh.” Meng Qi narrowed her eyes. Her tone was indifferent. “Be careful next time.”

“I’m not intentional.” Lu Qingran still wanted to explain. She didn’t dare to mention Chu Tianfeng’s name again: “I was really too worried just now.”

“I know.” Meng Qi casually replied. She couldn’t afford to get mad at Lu Qingran, this heaven’s darling. Unless she was strong enough to fight against heaven, there was no need to made things big with Lu Qingran, lest the heavenly Dao saw her unpleasant and directly obliterated her.

Chu Tianfeng frowned, and wanted to speak again. He opened his mouth but couldn’t say anything. His impatience towards Lu Qingran reached its peak.

Meng Qi took out a pill from her storage bracelet and threw it to Lu Qingran: “Antidote.”

In the protective array she set on the door, Meng Qi put medicinal powder that would induce some ulcer and pus on the skin, but it was not very serious. At most, the skin would turn red and itchy, but the symptoms could easily be relieved by taking the antidote…

“Hiss——” When Meng Qi saw Lu Qingran’s exposed face, she couldn’t help but take a gasp.

After she learned this protective array, she rarely used it. In the past, she usually put some lethal poisons, but this time didn’t. She knew that when people touched the array, it would automatically release the powder, and also strengthening its effect a bit.

But she never knew it would be this scary?!

Meng Qi stared at Lu Qingran’s face that had become even a more disgusting and terrifying, and couldn’t help swallowing her saliva. No wonder Lu Qingran cried so miserably. When she took the medicine, she didn’t dare to let Chu Tianfeng saw her face. It was truly terrifying.

“Th-thank you, Junior Sister Meng Qi.” Lu Qingran turned her back quickly and swallowed the pill. A chill immediately spread all over her body, and the itching on her face eased a lot. Lu Qingran was surprised. She had taken the antidote pill she refined by herself, but the pill only aggravated the poison instead of nullifying it. However, the effect of Meng Qi’s antidote was immediate.

When did this little junior sister who entered the sect just half a year ago become this powerful?! No wonder her master said that Elder Yan valued Meng Qi very much, saying that she was extremely talented, second only to herself in the sect.

Lu Qingran wanted to turn her head to look at Meng Qi, but remembered how her face looked like at this moment.

And Chu Tianfeng was also here…

She couldn’t understand. When they were attacked by that terrible devil beast, the young man obviously protected her with his own life, and carefully took care of herself. Her senior sisters all told her how the young man personally held her in his arm and brought her back to the sect. Why did Chu Tianfeng become so scornful after she woke up?

“If there is nothing else…” Meng Qi’s gaze swept the crowd “I’ll go back to my room.” Meng Qi didn’t want to keep standing here and wasted even more time. She had picked up both the book from Xue Jinwen and the jackdaw grass, and wanted to study them carefully.

“I, I’m leaving.” Lu Qingran left first.

Other disciples saw the commotion has over and also left one by one.

Chu Tianfeng took a deep look at Meng Qi and said to the four Fentian Palace’s disciples: “You go first.” He stepped forward to Meng Qi: “I have something to say to you.”

Meng Qi’s steps paused.

Chu Tianfeng said quickly: “Your sect leader has agreed to our offer. After Elder Xun returns, the entire Qingfeng Valley will join our Fentian Palace.” He paused. “After that, Qingfeng Valley will become a subordinate of Fentian Palace. Elder Xun and I have discussed it. You can enter the medical hall of Fentian Palace. The duties there are mainly to do medical research. Except for that, you are free to do anything you like in your free time.”

“I’m going to Fentian City.” Meng Qi said: “But I won’t join Fentian Palace.” She turned her head to look at Chu Tianfeng: “If Fentian Palace is willing to let me travel together, I can pay spirit stones as the escort fee.”

“Why?” Chu Tianfeng frowned slightly.

“Just like how I charge for medical treatment, it is normal for me to pay for protection.” Meng Qi said matter-of-factly: “I don’t like to owe any favor. It’s better for us to settle accounts properly.”

“You know I’m not asking about this.” Chu Tianfeng stared at Meng Qi.

“I don’t know.” Meng Qi was a little speechless. How could she never know that Chu Tianfeng was such a person? Where did the proud and cold young man gone? She preferred the former Chu Tianfeng more.

“Young Palace Master Chu, as I said earlier, it is better for us to simply ignore each other even if we met on the road.” Meng Qi said: “Since I saved you, you might feel somewhat grateful towards me. But I charged a payment and received a lot of spirit stones from you. We already even. Besides…” She paused. “My senior sister likes you. Just now you criticized her like that, she must be sad and uncomfortable, and probably is crying somewhere now. I don’t know if you and she are currently in some conflict or what, but I don’t want to be involved in that kind of quarrel at all.” Meng Qi folded her hands and made a gesture: “Absolutely don’t want!”

“Please go back.” After Meng Qi finished talking, she didn’t give Chu Tianfeng a chance to speak before she walked back into her room. Her nature was that she usually never spoke badly to people. Just now, Chu Tianfeng has helped her. She really couldn’t do things like scolding the other party or speaking some harsh words.

Meng Qi went back into her room and carefully checked the protective array on the ground. Indeed, it had been activated. There was also a slight smell of medicinal powder in the air.

Tsk…

Meng Qi recalled Lu Qingran’s miserable face.

Was this array really make the poison so powerful?

Or…

She squatted down, her fingers randomly touched along the lines of the array. If the effect of poison could be enhanced, then it should do the same for medicine used for healing. In that case, could she get twice the result with half the effort?

Huh?

Meng Qi’s eyes flashed. Her gaze landed on the two diagonal lines in the center of the array. She remembered that she didn’t draw these. Her memory was excellent, and she has always been careful. This kind of detail was even more meticulous. Although the array didn’t seem to change much, she still could recognize it.

“What’s happen?” Meng Qi muttered. She stood up and looked at the protective array from a high level.

Did someone touch it? Or was she so hurry and really made a mistake?

Meng Qi glanced across the room, confirming that no one else had touched the array. Xiao Qi was still lying on the bed lazily, looking weaker than when she left. His azure blue eyes had become dimmer, his little head was resting on the paws, and his little semicircular ears seemed to droop down weakly. His whole appearance looked pretty weak.

“Xiao Qi.” Meng Qi stepped forward and rubbed his body smoothly. “I brought the jackdaw grass back.” She took out the wooden box containing the jackdaw grass from the storage space.

Moreover, she also brought back the bamboo slip sent by Xue Jinwen: ‘Northern Realm Herbs Compendium’. Meng Qi held the bamboo slip in her hand, and it began to glow slightly. She quickly read the book and soon found the description of jackdaw grass.

“A leafy herb shaped like a jackdaw feather that grows in the snow-capped summits of the Northern Realm. After getting poisoned by it, the wound will show some silver gleam, bleeding incessantly and unhealed for years.”

After the description, it wrote the treatment method for the jackdaw grass.

“Other ingredients are fine, but this celestial star grass and blazing feather…” Meng Qi frowned. Celestial star grass might be bought at Beyond The Heaven, but what about blazing feather? It was said to be phoenix’s feather, one of the celestial demon clan from Demon Realm. Their feather was supposed to be one of the legendary treasures. This thing probably couldn’t be found in Three Thousand Worlds, and Meng Qi obviously never saw it being sold before.

A dim light flashed in the eyes of the little white tiger, who was still lying on the bed.

Blazing feather…

Is it really them?

***

Blazing feather…

Meng Qi paced back and forth inside the room. If she wanted to cure the jackdaw grass poison, she must find the blazing feather.

So…

She frowned. Should she find that noisy fox Su Junmo? He was a celestial noble demon, he might have some methods. Meng Qi narrowed her eyes, she remembered that Su Junmo would not appear near Lu Qingran until much later.

Where could she find him?

Beyond The Heaven?

Meng Qi hesitated.

“Let’s put it aside for now.” She took out two pills and stuffed them into Xiao Qi’s mouth. One was the Beiming pill and another was the Ganlin pill.

“Before going to Fentian City, I’ll gather the other ingredients first.” In order to cure the jackdaw grass poison, except for the celestial star grass and blazing feather, the spiritual dew of a cold pond was also needed. She could find it the bottom of the cold pond in Qingfeng Valley.

Meng Qi packed some necessities, got up, and walked towards the top of Qingfeng Valley. Since the sect leader and all the elders were absent, nobody would be visiting the cold pond. When Meng Qi almost reached her destination, she stuffed one spring warmth pill into her mouth. After all, she was still in the Qi Condensation stage. The cold aura and water of the cold pond were too cold for her.

Right before she reached the cold pond, Meng Qi heard someone crying sorrowfully. The voice, a female, sounded very sad, but also seemed to be soft, and pleasant to the ears.

Lu Qingran?!

Meng Qi immediately saw Lu Qingran, who was leaning on the big rock beside the cold lake, crying sadly. The girl heard the footsteps, and turned back to see Meng Qi. Tears filled her face, and her eyes were red, inducing people’s pity and sympathy.

“Ju-junior Sister Meng Qi?” Lu Qingran quickly stood up and wiped away the tears on her face.

“Senior Sister Lu.” Meng Qi looked at Lu Qingran. Although she already reached the Foundation Establishment stage, the cold aura around the pond was still too strong. The sect leader must give her a magic tool, the warm jade, for this favorite disciple so her body could completely negate the coldness’s effect on the edge of this cold pond.

“You…” Lu Qingran stood up, looking at Meng Qi with some bewilderment. She was born beautiful, even crying only enhanced her beauty. Tears on beauty indeed had the same effect as the raindrops on the pear flowers.

“Junior Sister Meng, do you have some business here?” Lu Qingran asked tentatively.

“Go to take something.” Meng Qi said and took off her robe. She already wore a tight diving suit inside.

“You…you are going to dive into the water?” Lu Qingran’s eyes widened in surprise.

“Yes.” Meng Qi once again stuffed two spring warmth pill into her mouth.

“Then…” Lu Qingran seemed at a loss, “Do you…” She took out the warm jade given by her master: “Do you want to use this?”

“No need.” Meng Qi shook her head. As she spoke, she quickly walked towards the pond’s edge, then jumped in easily. Even through the thick diving suit, the bitter cold from the water still struck deep into her limbs. Meng Qi gritted her teeth and dived down.

The spiritual dew was located on the spring eye at the bottom of the cold pond. Both the place and quantity was very small. It took more than one hundred years to gather half a bottle. Meng Qi once returned to Qingfeng Valley after formed her core in her previous life. At that time, the place had been raided and looted by demon cultivators, and nothing was left.

Except for this cold pond’s water spring.

After diving into the water for three days, Meng Qi finally found the spring eye location and gathered the spiritual dew into a tiny bottle. And now, she swam in the direction of her memory. Cultivators in the Qi Condensation stage could already breathe without relying on air, but the pool water was still so cold, and she didn’t want to stay here for too long.

Eh?

When Meng Qi approached the spring source, she saw some dark shadows from the front. The cold pond’s water wasn’t clear. When diving in the bottom, people often couldn’t see what was ahead. Meng Qi hesitated. However, the location of the shadow exactly where the spring was. And the shadow didn’t look to be dangerous. They were simply floating and staying in place. She took out her small medicine knife from the storage bracelet and kept swimming forward.

“Huh? This is…” Meng Qi widened her eyes in surprise. The black shadows group turned out to be one person, wearing a black robe, floating face-down above the spring. There was a black belt around his waist, with the other end was tied to the spring eye. It was unclear whether the man tied himself on the spring, or someone else deliberately did it.

Meng Qi swam around the man for a while, but the other party didn’t move at all. Maybe he was passed out, or already… Meng Qi’s heart jumped. She quickly swam towards the man and stopped right next to him. She reached out and gripped his shoulder, carefully turning him sideways.

Meng Qi: “!!!”

The person floating in the bottom of the cold pond was a young man. His face was pale, with tightly closed eyes. The young face looked distorted in the water, but even so, couldn’t hide his handsomeness in the slightest.

For a split second, Meng Qi’s brain stopped working. But the hands on the man’s shoulder, as if having its own consciousness, automatically moved to check his physical condition.

Still alive.

Meng Qi subconsciously sighed in relief. Her right hand quickly activated a spell near the man’s eyebrows, while her left hand was going to take the medicine inside her storage space. But her hand that just touched the other person’s forehead suddenly froze in shock.

He is one of them!

Lu Qingran’s ardent suitor!

And also a very powerful one!

This person is even more powerful than Chu Tianfeng and that chattery fox!

Should she save him?!

Meng Qi pursed her lips. Although the man was still alive, she could feel how chaotic his pulse was. The aura inside his body was in a mess: rampantly charging around and entirely out of his control.

Of course she knew the reason. This guy already reached the peak of the Golden Core stage. To be promoted to each small realm, all cultivators from Golden Core and above had to pass a tribulation. The tribulation thunder between each realm of the Golden Core stage was very weak. But after reaching the Golden Core peak, the tribulation thunder to break through into the Nascent Soul stage was very big.

When this man was receiving his tribulation, he was stabbed in the back by his former friend, causing Qi deviation, and his spiritual aura lashed back. Although he managed to escape with his life, he was now weaker to an ordinary Qi Condensation cultivator. He must use his last strength to tied himself here. The spiritual dew of a cold pond indeed has the ability to calm the aura that has become chaotic because of his Qi deviation. But if he relied only on spiritual dew to completely heal himself, it would probably take hundreds of years.

Meng Qi frowned. She remembered that this man did not show up so early. He only appeared after they arrived in Fentian City.

So now…

Her eyes flickered. Save or not?

No need!

Meng Qi thought of the events from her previous life and let go of her grip on the man. Anyway, he wouldn’t die. So just let him stay here. She took out a small porcelain bottle from the storage bracelet and prepared to fill it with the spiritual dew of the cold pond. This thing was very rare, hundreds of years needed just to accumulate a small bottle.

Meng Qi was not sure how deep Xiao Qi’s poison was, or how much spiritual dew he needed. So she simply took away all the dew that had been accumulated for more than one hundred years in the cold pond’s spring. If there was leftover, she could sell it. Because of its rarity, although cold pond’s spiritual dew wasn’t a legendary treasure, it still wasn’t cheap and was sold by drop.

Meng Qi took the last drop and put the porcelain bottle away in satisfaction when the black-robed man suddenly struggled frantically.

“Uh…” He groaned loudly, either because of pain or…

What a blunder! Meng Qi suddenly startled. She forgot!

This guy chose to recuperate here, first, was because the cold pond could hide his presence, so he wouldn’t easily be found. Another reason was because of the existence of the spiritual dew. This thing was particularly useful for qi deviation and had a significant effect on appeasing a chaotic aura.

If she took it away, this man would be in danger!

Save him or not?

Countless thoughts flashed in Meng Qi’s mind.

Don’t!

A voice was screaming at her. This man was also Lu Qingran’s admirer, and most importantly, was very cruel and merciless!

If he died here, then just be it…

Meng Qi’s hand clenched into a fist. The black-robed man struggled even harder, his limbs started to twitch, and his originally beautiful face became frightening. When he struggled, the cold water was stirred, splashing Meng Qi’s body. His face became more and more distorted.

Meng Qi muttered: if he dies, then so be it!

Anyway, he wasn’t a good person.

The most important thing was for herself to be alive…

Damn it!