PID Chapter 54

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While Wang Ludian was having people investigate Xiao Mo and Chu Jinglan, the two had already contacted Liu Shao. Instead of asking them to come to Lin’an Academy, Liu Shao gave them directions to wait at a medicinal cottage.

 

On the way to the medicinal cottage, Xiao Mo stepped on soft grass, his hem dampened by the mountain air: “The Jinxiu Pavilion must be investigating us now.”

 

Chu Jinglan pushed aside a branch blocking the path, letting Xiao Mo pass before releasing it, falling half a step behind: “Mm.”

 

“Soon they’ll know you don’t actually have a brother named Xiao Mo.” Xiao Mo turned back to look at him, not stopping his feet, walking backwards in their direction of travel, unconcerned about falling, “We probably can’t use the blood brother identity anymore.”

 

“Come to think of it, even those three kids, Yan Chun and the others, still think we’re brothers,” Xiao Mo said, “We’re quite bad, aren’t we?”

 

He walked backwards, not using his eyes to see the path, but his spiritual sense was active, fully able to perceive the terrain. Still, Chu Jinglan instinctively warned him: “There’s a stone.”

 

Xiao Mo responded with a small shuffle step, nimbly jumping over the obstructing rock.

 

He was like a spiritual being of heaven and earth, agile and free, yet from birth had the greatest constraint, tethered to Chu Jinglan.

 

“Then we won’t be brothers,” Chu Jinglan said.

 

“Friends, soulmates?” Xiao Mo asked.

 

For them, identity was just for others to see. Whatever the identity, they were destined to be bound together, inseparable.

 

Chu Jinglan’s gaze fell on Xiao Mo’s forehead. Xiao Mo had hidden the red lotus demon mark, but in Chu Jinglan’s eyes, there was now an unhideable flower on his forehead – the Dao Companion Mark that Chu Jinglan had personally drawn.

 

Chu Jinglan didn’t understand love and didn’t think he would have a Dao companion in this life, yet by chance, he had first imprinted a Dao Companion Mark.

 

It’s worth noting that a Dao Companion Mark is a more binding covenant than a mere marriage certificate. With a Dao Companion Mark, in others’ eyes, one is unquestionably a person with a family.

 

An inner demon and its host forming a Dao Companion Mark – they must be the only ones in history. If told, absolutely no one would believe it.

 

Chu Jinglan: “Either is fine.”

 

Xiao Mo made the decision: “Then let’s be close friends, it sounds better than ordinary friends. As for our appearance, we’ll just say we happen to look similar. We ourselves find it strange too, that we hit it off immediately and traveled together.”

 

The immediate connection was false; being at odds with each other from the first meeting was the truth. Not making each other furious to death, being able to become as harmonious as they are now was already not easy.

 

Chu Jinglan: “You… be careful!”

 

Xiao Mo suddenly stopped. Chu Jinglan thought he was going to fall and instinctively grabbed his arm, but this grab instead startled Xiao Mo, making his eyes widen slightly.

 

Only after grabbing Xiao Mo’s arm did Chu Jinglan realize that the person was standing very steadily.

 

Chu Jinglan: “…”

 

Xiao Mo blinked: “I didn’t trip.”

 

Chu Jinglan silently let go, pretending nothing happened: “I was mistaken.”

 

Xiao Mo put his hands behind his back, stepped closer, and thoughtfully stared at Chu Jinglan. Chu Jinglan pressed his knuckles, endured for a while, and finally couldn’t help but speak up: “What?”

 

Xiao Mo looked as if seriously examining and contemplating. It was nothing really, but Chu Jinglan felt his heart strangely lifted by his gaze. As he moved his lips to speak the next sentence, Xiao Mo suddenly relaxed his brows and eyes, leisurely smiling: “Nothing, just thinking the night-blooming cereus I drew really looks good.”

 

Chu Jinglan: “…”

 

Chu Jinglan’s suspended heart suddenly became a bubble in water, bursting with a “pop”.

 

Xiao Mo dared say, he clearly saw a few big words in Chu Jinglan’s changing expression: What trick are you playing now?

 

Chu Jinglan expressionlessly stepped forward, while Xiao Mo softly laughed, walking back to Chu Jinglan’s side. Until the medicinal cottage Liu Shao mentioned appeared in their sight, Xiao Mo finally said: “If Madam Liu doesn’t want to be disturbed while treating, I’ll hide my form and watch inside.”

 

“Don’t worry, her medical skills are so good, there certainly won’t be any issues.”

 

Chu Jinglan’s fingers had been pressed by himself for a while, the feeling of heavy pressure still lingering without disappearing. Hearing Xiao Mo’s words, his fingers reflexively curled.

 

Chu Jinglan was surprised: …Was his teasing and making me laugh earlier meant to make me not nervous?

 

Chu Jinglan wanted to tilt his head to see Xiao Mo’s current expression, but thinking of the inner demon’s appearance just now, he rigidly controlled his neck, preferring to remain stiff rather than turn.

 

He really wasn’t nervous. They had already come step by step to this point. It was just losing some dantian fragments, not even the final crucial moment, what was there to be nervous about?

 

Some people fantasize that the dantian can be glued back together and repaired, guarding the fragments without daring to take a risk. But besides Jing Lei, no one else has successfully climbed out of the quagmire. Xiao Mo’s words were right: he had no retreat path ever since his dantian was destroyed.

 

Xiao Mo’s teasing just now would only make one speechless, it had no effect in relaxing one’s mood, hmm.

 

[Ding, mental attack successful, +10 points!]

 

Xiao Mo: Although I don’t know what kind of points were added again, I’m used to it, so it’s not a big problem.

 

The medicinal cottage was simple and plain, surrounded only by a low fence. Liu Shao was already inside, with a steaming bowl of freshly brewed medicine on the table.

 

Liu Shao nodded to them both. After carefully checking Chu Jinglan’s pulse, she had him drink the medicine and lie down on the low couch inside. Then she said to Xiao Mo: “I don’t like being disturbed, you can wait outside.”

 

Xiao Mo thought to himself, “Just as expected,” obediently agreed, and closed the door as he went out. As soon as the door closed, he blinked and withdrew the spiritual energy maintaining his physical form, passing through the door into the room without any obstruction.

 

Xiao Mo sat down by the table inside the room, completely unnoticed by Liu Shao. Chu Jinglan’s gaze lightly swept over Xiao Mo’s position as he picked up the medicine bowl and drank it all in one go.

 

Liu Shao laid out her tools while saying: “I won’t let you fall completely unconscious. When the medicine takes effect shortly, I’ll channel spiritual energy into your dantian from the outside, letting you feel the positions of the fragments. Remember to tell me which piece you want to keep.”

 

Chu Jinglan had just nodded when he heard Xiao Mo say: “It’s not full anesthesia? Ask her about the pain relief effect.”

 

Chu Jinglan didn’t ask, only sending a mental message to Xiao Mo: “It’s fine, she should know what she’s doing.”

 

Seeing the small, shiny knife in Liu Shao’s hand, Xiao Mo felt the urge to ask on Chu Jinglan’s behalf.

 

As the medicine began to take effect, Liu Shao had Chu Jinglan lie flat: “How long does your dantian hurt each day now?”

 

Xiao Mo was stunned: Chu Jinglan’s dantian still hurts every day?

 

…Someone hadn’t mentioned this at all, nor shown any sign of it.

 

It seemed that except for when sharing the body in battle, when Chu Jinglan would promptly feedback any sensations, at other times he was all about not saying a word, enduring everything on his own.

 

Madam Liu knew what she was doing, but Chu Jinglan didn’t.

 

Xiao Mo pressed his lips tightly: Even if he had taken all the prescribed medicine, if it still hurt, Chu Jinglan should have said something. But even if he had, Xiao Mo realized he probably couldn’t have offered much help.

 

Chu Jinglan didn’t feel guilty, but when Liu Shao asked, he fell silent for a moment, strangely unable to look at Xiao Mo’s expression. After a pause, he said: “On and off, at its worst, about two hours.”

 

Two hours is four hours in Earth time. Xiao Mo’s hand on the table clenched into a fist.

 

Liu Shao placed her hand on his pulse, checking the medicine’s effectiveness: “Although I don’t know if you can succeed using Jing Lei’s method, clearing out the fragments will at least stop the daily pain. Hmm, the medicine has taken effect, let’s begin.”

 

Xiao Mo had seen blood and violence before, and had even killed as a demon, but when the small knife touched Chu Jinglan’s skin, opening a line of blood, his heart still trembled. He closed his eyes briefly, then forcefully opened them, watching tensely.

 

Although it didn’t hurt, the veins on the back of Chu Jinglan’s hand resting on the bed were already bulging. He was now at the mercy of others, and although he knew the other was a medical cultivator, the wariness ingrained since childhood made him instinctively uncomfortable in this situation.

 

Fortunately, the bowl of medicine had left him without strength, otherwise his abdominal muscles would have been tense beyond measure. The fact that he could still make the veins on the back of his hand pop out despite having no strength showed how truly resistant he was.

 

Chu Jinglan breathed slowly, trying to relax the tension in his heart. He could clearly feel Liu Shao’s knife cutting through layer after layer of his skin and flesh. Suddenly, Chu Jinglan wanted to turn his head to look at Xiao Mo.

 

As he hesitated, unsure whether to move, he felt a cool sensation on the back of his hand.

 

Chu Jinglan’s gaze fixed on the ceiling beams, then slowly turned to see Xiao Mo, who had come to the bedside.

 

Xiao Mo was leaning on the edge of the bed, his long legs folded on the ground, his clothes spreading out like a vibrant flower. He patted Chu Jinglan’s hand and gazed at him gently from beside the pillow.

 

Chu Jinglan’s lips moved slightly, and the bulging veins on the back of his hand gradually subsided.

 

“I thought about it, even if you told me about your pain, I probably couldn’t take half of it away,” Xiao Mo said, resting his chin on his arms on the bed edge. “I can only watch over you like this.”

 

Liu Shao’s knife had already cut through the flesh to reach the dantian.

 

Chu Jinglan took a soft breath.

 

[It’s enough]

 

He said this to Xiao Mo through their mental link, which only they could hear, able to reach each other’s hearts at any time.

 

[Ding, mental attack successful, +300 points!]

 

Xiao Mo didn’t speak, just gently patted Chu Jinglan’s arm again, then quietly lay by the bedside without a word.

 

Liu Shao channeled spiritual energy, infusing it and using it to move each fragment: “Feel it, and speak up when I touch the piece you want to keep.”

 

After careful consideration, Chu Jinglan spoke at the right moment. Liu Shao then used her spiritual energy and knife to clear out the remaining fragments.

 

As the dantian is a place for storing spiritual energy, its flesh had fully merged with the energy, presenting an unusual state. Unlike other parts of the body, once the dantian fragments left the body, they dissipated into blue smoke in the air.

 

Liu Shao’s hand was steady, meticulously clearing out the remaining fragments bit by bit. After about an hour, she had cleaned out all the fragments.

 

Then, using celestial silkworm thread and spiritual energy to bind, she closed the wound layer by layer. The celestial silkworm thread would dissolve automatically. Liu Shao applied spiritual medicine to the wound and wrapped it with bandages, then used a cleaning technique to purify her hands.

 

“It’s done.”

 

The numbing effect of the medicine hadn’t worn off yet, so Chu Jinglan couldn’t get up. He could only lie there and say: “Thank you.”

 

Meanwhile, Xiao Mo quickly passed through the walls of the room, materializing outside. When Liu Shao called for him to enter, he pushed open the door, as if he hadn’t been the one lying by the bedside just now.

 

Xiao Mo bowed to Liu Shao: “Thank you, Madam Liu. Your kindness—”

 

Liu Shao interrupted him: “It wasn’t much trouble. As I said, it was for Chu Xia’s sake. That child not only has talent in medicine but also a good nature. I have high hopes for her.”

 

Xiao Mo: “We appreciate your care.”

 

Liu Shao set down a bottle of medicine: “He’ll be able to move again in about two hours. Once his strength returns, he can get out of bed. You can use the medicinal cottage to rest for a day. Take three pills of this medicine daily, you can feed it to him now. The wound will be fully healed in three days.”

 

Liu Shao was as efficient in her actions as in her personality. She didn’t exchange pleasantries with Xiao Mo and left after giving instructions. Xiao Mo opened the bottle to look, sensing it was a fourth-grade spiritual medicine with potent properties.

 

Chu Jinglan still couldn’t move. Xiao Mo looked at the sky outside: “Madam Liu said we could use the medicinal cottage for a day. Let’s stay here tonight.”

 

Chu Jinglan: “Mm.”

 

Xiao Mo set up protective formations around the house, took out a pill, supported Chu Jinglan’s head, and helped him take it. The pill dissolved instantly in his mouth, but Xiao Mo still brought over the cup from the table and gave him some water.

 

With only one fragment left in the dantian now, Xiao Mo thought of something: “You rest for a bit, I’ll go back to the sea of consciousness for a moment.”

 

Having grown accustomed to human form, Xiao Mo hadn’t returned to the sea of consciousness for a while. Inside, his “Eastern Villa” was still beautiful, but Chu Jinglan’s “Moon Lake Community” looked quite desolate.

 

Originally there was a moon in the sky, which was at least something to look at. When the dantian shattered, Xiao Mo had gathered a thread of silver light, barely managing to form a crescent moon. But now even that silver thread was gone, leaving only a dim star that seemed about to extinguish at any moment.

 

The full moon had become a faint little star.

 

The state of Chu Jinglan’s sea of consciousness was left with a barely alive star, a lake that couldn’t ripple, and a withered tree. It looked bleak and desolate from every angle.

 

Xiao Mo sighed. He hadn’t continued to expand his territory in the sea of consciousness, letting the black mist quietly lie dormant at the edges without encroaching. He confirmed the state of the sea of consciousness and was about to leave when his peripheral vision caught something on the withered tree, making him stop abruptly.

 

Huh?

 

Something seemed different about the dead wood. Was he seeing things?

 

Xiao Mo immediately moved closer to look carefully, pushing aside some of the dense withered branches. Finally, he saw what was hidden in the crevices.

 

Because it was blocked by dead branches, he had almost missed it. On the lower branches, there was an extremely tiny, very pale new bud.

 

Xiao Mo had built the scenery in his part of the sea of consciousness bit by bit, while Chu Jinglan’s landscape had been like this since before he could internally view his sea of consciousness. Xiao Mo had thought it would only change when Chu Jinglan decided to reshape his own sea of consciousness.

 

How did a little bud appear? It was so small, looking fragile, but it brought immense vitality to the dead wood.

 

So this wasn’t a completely dead tree after all…

 

Xiao Mo let go, lowering the outer dead branches, not daring to touch the newborn tender bud. He left the sea of consciousness and immediately shared his discovery with Chu Jinglan. Chu Jinglan seemed thoughtful, and Xiao Mo asked him: “Do you know the specific reason?”

 

Chu Jinglan shook his head: “I don’t know.”

 

“It must be related to your state of mind, but sometimes people can’t fully understand their own hearts, so it’s not strange.”

 

Chu Jinglan agreed strongly; he too had certain feelings he couldn’t clearly explain.

 

Liu Shao had already helped them. Xiao Mo took out the messaging jade tablet: “Let’s also tell the children, and since we’re going into the spirit vein next, we should be in seclusion, so they need to know.”

 

This was to prevent the three children from worrying if they couldn’t find them later.

 

They also needed to thank them.

 

As a result, when the message connected, Xiao Mo sent two words of thanks, and the three children immediately became anxious, interrupting with a flurry of words:

 

“If it weren’t for Master and Shixiong, we two siblings would still be slaves in the lower realm. How could we have stepped onto the great path? How can we deserve Master and Shixiong’s thanks?”

 

“That’s right, I’d definitely still be a hungry and cold beggar!”

 

“Chu Xia wants to repay the kindness, it’s not enough yet!”

 

Xiao Mo smiled, both helpless and gratified. He finished saying what needed to be said and ended the message. He noticed Chu Jinglan had started to barely move his wrist as the anesthetic wore off, and asked him: “Does it still hurt?”

 

Chu Jinglan: “It doesn’t hurt.”

 

Xiao Mo said nothing, just gazed at him meaningfully.

 

Chu Jinglan choked a bit under his gaze and added: “This time it really doesn’t hurt.”

 

After the fragments were cleared out, although the dantian area felt more hollow, it indeed no longer hurt.

 

Xiao Mo observed his complexion and reluctantly believed him. He got up to look for bedding in the cottage’s cupboard. Chu Jinglan said: “We’ll set out for the Qingquan Mountain spirit vein early tomorrow morning.”

 

Xiao Mo found the bedding, shook it out and spread it over Chu Jinglan: “Rest for half a day more, we’ll leave after noon.”

 

Chu Jinglan was about to say something, but Xiao Mo tucked in the corners of the blanket: “Listen to me this time.”

 

They had always discussed everything along the way, and most of the time their views aligned. This was the first time Xiao Mo was so assertive about an important matter, not even giving Chu Jinglan a chance to object.

 

But clearly, the other person whose words were blocked wasn’t angry at all.

 

Chu Jinglan’s hands and feet gradually warmed up under the blanket. He moved his lips, not to object, but with just one word: “Alright.”

 

Xiao Mo was satisfied: “Sleep if you’re tired, I’ll cultivate tonight.”

 

Chu Jinglan nodded, but kept watching Xiao Mo meditate. By the time Xiao Mo finished two cycles and opened his eyes, Chu Jinglan was already asleep.

 

Xiao Mo went over, lifted the blanket a bit to touch Chu Jinglan’s hand, making sure he wasn’t cold from blood loss. Only then did he feel reassured.

 

His partner was stubborn and tight-lipped, so he had no choice but to keep a closer eye on him. Although he couldn’t physically take away h

alf the pain, at least he could make him a bit more comfortable and ease the discomfort.

 

Xiao Mo hummed softly, unable to resist poking the cereus mark on Chu Jinglan’s forehead: Be as stubborn as you want, I’ll always find a way to deal with you.

 

 

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1 Kofi = 1 Extra Chapter