The cool ointment seeped into the wound. Song Yao frowned slightly, finding it rather strange.
Was her Fourth Junior Brother good or bad after all?
He Yu said he was cold-faced and aloof.
He was always fierce with her too, looking like someone who was very hard to communicate with.
Yet, he had applied medicine to her twice in a row.
It was highly contradictory.
Or was her Fourth Junior Brother, even after being corrupted, still a good kid who was cold on the outside but warm on the inside?
Of course, there was another possibility.
He had recognized her.
However, with his corruption value at a hundred percent, if he had recognized her, his first reaction probably wouldn't be to apply medicine to her, but to break her legs.
Song Yao lowered her eyes and thought for a long while, still planning to test the waters.
Just as she was about to speak, the courtyard gate not far away was pushed open with a creak.
Red plum blossoms rustled as they fell. Zhu Zhao walked out slowly, supporting herself against the doorframe.
Her face was still pale, her lips so faint they were almost invisible. Her usually bright and beautiful eyes were covered with a layer of frost. When her gaze swept over the two people by the stone table, it paused on Xie Zhou's half-kneeling figure.
Song Yao's attention was instantly diverted. She bounced up, bowed properly to Zhu Zhao, and got straight to the point: “Second Senior Sister, is your body doing well? This disciple is here on Master's orders to collect the payment. The elixirs you consumed in the demon realm cost a total of one hundred and eighty thousand spirit stones.
“How would you like to pay?”
Zhu Zhao sneered. Her gaze swept sideways across the jar of translucent white ointment in Xie Zhou's hand, her tone chilly. “This jar of Clear Spirit Ointment was personally refined by the Valley Master of Cloud Medicine Valley. It's extremely rare and priceless, worth two hundred thousand spirit stones a jar.”
Song Yao: “?”
Zhu Zhao: “Consider it my loss. You don't have to return the remaining twenty thousand to me.”
Song Yao: “?”
...
Clear Spirit Ointment—she knew of it.
In the past, when their master had traveled to the Medicine King Valley, he had helped the valley master a great deal and brought back several bottles to distribute among the disciples.
Maintaining her tyrannical persona back then, Song Yao had snatched four bottles all by herself, only failing to snatch Zhu Zhao's.
Who would have thought that the tables would turn, and she would end up suffering a loss here today?
No wonder her Fourth Junior Brother was so kind as to apply medicine to her...
It turned out he was using this thing to settle the debt...
They were indeed heavily corrupted, having actually become just as wicked as she used to be.
The remaining ointment was stuffed into her hand. Xie Zhou stepped on the fallen plum blossoms and walked toward his own courtyard.
Leaning against the doorframe, Zhu Zhao raised an eyebrow as she saw her standing there dazed. “Do you need me to send you off?”
“...Thank you, Second Senior Sister, I can walk back myself.”
Before withdrawing her gaze, Song Yao glanced back at her Fifth Junior Sister's courtyard.
Strange.
Where were her Eldest Senior Brother and Fifth Junior Sister?
She had been back for so long, yet she hadn't heard any news of them.
Her Eldest Senior Brother was likely traveling abroad with the Sixteenth Elder to treat patients, but her Fifth Junior Sister was weak and had always stayed in the sect without running around.
How had she not even caught a glimpse of her yet?
Could it be that she had angered her too much back then, and she still hadn't recovered even now?
She opened her mouth, wanting to ask, but swallowed her words. Cupping her hands toward Zhu Zhao, she flew off on her sword.
The mountain breeze grew colder. Zhu Zhao stood for a while, then turned and walked to the outside of Xie Zhou's courtyard.
Without hesitation, she raised her foot and kicked the courtyard gate open with a loud bang.
Xie Zhou was sitting cross-legged in the center of the courtyard, surrounded by a dark red mist that was as thick as blood.
A circle of bronze-yellow paper talismans without eyes drawn on them held hands around him. Their eye sockets were empty, looking extremely eerie.
His fingertips held a weasel-hair ink brush, just about to put brush to paper to draw a talisman.
When he raised his eyes at the noise, the roiling demonic energy in his eyes hadn't completely dissipated. Pitch-black, it lent a touch of eerie demonic charm to his handsome face.
Zhu Zhao walked straight up to him and spoke coldly, “Did you harbor murderous intent toward Song Yao?”
Xie Zhou's long eyelashes slowly lifted, a lingering faint golden talismanic light condensing in his pitch-black eyes.
He curled his lips and said, “Why would Second Senior Sister think of me that way?”
Zhu Zhao sneered. “The one who caused you to suffer qi deviation back then was her. Your fall into becoming a half-demon now, looking like neither human nor ghost, is also because of her. Even your parents' remains were slightly damaged because of her. Do you dare say you don't hate her?”
Xie Zhou unhurriedly put down the ink brush, stood up, walked over to Zhu Zhao, and let out a chilly smile.
“If we're talking about hatred, Second Senior Sister probably doesn't hate her any less than I do, right?
“In the past, she opposed you at every turn. What you had, she wanted to snatch; what you didn't have, she also wanted to snatch. She ruined your breakthrough three times alone. Haven't you always wanted her life? Now that she is right before your eyes and can be crushed with a single hand, why hasn't Second Senior Sister taken action?”
Zhu Zhao's face darkened instantly. “Stop testing me. I have absolutely no interest in killing her.”
Xie Zhou smiled. “Absolutely no interest, yet you've run to Baicao Peak time and time again.”
Zhu Zhao: “I merely want to figure out why, since she clearly died in the Earth Realm, she returned to the Nine Saints Hall in disguise, pretending not to know anyone. What on earth is her intention!”
“...”
Xie Zhou caressed one of the paper talisman figures and asked casually, “So Second Senior Sister came to tell me all this to...?”
“To warn you, of course.”
Zhu Zhao flicked her finger, and the paper figure in his hand instantly burned to ashes. “Control your demonic energy. Before I figure out her intentions, if you dare lay a single finger on her, I will absolutely not let you off.”
The door slammed shut with a bang, leaving the courtyard in a complete mess after Zhu Zhao's disruption.
Xie Zhou's hands hanging by his sides suddenly clenched tight, and the dark red mist in the courtyard instantly became as thick as blood.
He closed his eyes, and a trace of bright red slowly trickled from the corner of his lips.
...
Back at Baicao Peak, Song Yao took out a small notebook and began calculating her accounts.
The nine hundred thousand from selling at Mingyan Pavilion, plus the two hundred thousand collected from Jiang Jin, made a total of one million and one hundred thousand.
Subtracting the one hundred and thirty thousand cost to be returned to the Elixir Pavilion, there was still nine hundred and seventy thousand left.
And she owed a total of one million, five hundred and five thousand, six hundred, leaving a deficit of five hundred and thirty-five thousand, six hundred.
No, wait.
There were also the three cauldrons she had blown up while refining pills.
Although the Seventh Elder had said she didn't need to take responsibility for those three cauldrons, the old man himself carried no small amount of debt. She still had to find a way to help him pay it back before leaving the sect.
If she estimated twenty thousand for each basic cauldron, then she would probably need to earn around six hundred thousand in total.
It was neither too much nor too little. If she found an opportunity to enter the demon realm a couple of times and got lucky enough to find some treasures, she could pay it all off.
However, demon realms were usually located in deep mountains and old forests. Unless there was a specialist to survey and lead the way, it was very difficult to find the entrance, and one could easily fall into a trap and find themselves in deep trouble.
Moreover, she was currently a pill cultivator, making it inconvenient for her to act alone.
But there was also good news.
With her current Golden Core cultivation, her monthly allowance had increased from two hundred spirit stones to a whopping one thousand spirit stones.
It wasn't enough to pay off her debts, but it was more than enough for eating and drinking.
After much thought, Song Yao decided to lie flat for the time being. Before leaving the Nine Saints Hall, she would focus on nourishing her body.
Once she left, there wouldn't be such abundant spiritual veins to nourish her.
Although she thought so, some people wouldn't let her have her way.
That very evening, the elders of the hall nearly wore down the threshold of Baicao Peak.
Before Song Yao could even put away her ledger, she heard waves of arguments rising outside, one louder than the last.
When He Yu dragged her outside, they saw the elders, who usually carried themselves with otherworldly grace, crowding the entrance in a dense mass. Every single one of them was red-faced and at each other's throats, already on the verge of coming to blows.
The Ninth Elder craned his neck and roared, “Didn't you all say to let nature take its course, without competing or snatching?! What are you running over here for now?!”
Rate on N.U.
