The Healer Demands Payment!

“I-I’ll pay it.” With an aggrieved look, Chu Tianfeng took out the number of spirit stones he promised before and handed it to Meng Qi.

“Thank you, young palace master Chu.” Meng Qi saluted politely before turned around and left.

Qin Xiumo smiled triumphantly. He didn’t care about Chu Tianfeng’s ugly expression and quickly followed Meng Qi.

“I want to go to Qingfeng Town first.” Meng Qi said: “After that, we need to go back to Qingfeng Valley.” She glanced at Qin Xiumo: “To completely heal your injury, I have to refine some special medicine. I’ve asked people to find the ingredients for me. But it probably will take some time before they arrived.”

“No hurry.” Qin Xiu said leisurely: “Take it slowly. Anyway, I still owe you so many…” He prolonged his tone slightly: “…spirit stones. Moreover, my cultivation is still in the third to the fourth realm of Golden Core, so I am very cheap. It will take me a long time to pay back my debt, don’t worry.”

Meng Qi: “…” She never knew that someone could show such….a somewhat smug expression when saying that his labor was very cheap.

Meng Qi shook her head, too lazy to worry about these two strange men. Anyway, between her and them, there were only spirit stone transactions!

Meng Qi returned to her tent. Xiao Qi had already returned to the beast house and was carefully put back into her storage bracelet.

Qin Xiumo waited right outside the door. He saw Meng Qi took out a paper crane from her storage bracelet. “This is my only flying magic tool.” She told him: “What do you do?”

“Oh.” Qin Xiumo replied: “You can make it bigger to accommodate two people.”

In fact, a Golden Core cultivator could fly using their sword. But the current Qin Xiumo was only a half-baked Golden Core. He could use his power for a short time, but utilizing spiritual aura to fly himself back to Qingfeng Valley would only be detrimental to his injury.

Meng Qi nodded. “Then let’s go.” She placed the paper crane in the air and embedded a second-grade spirit stone on its head. The paper crane instantly became longer. Meng Qi sat on it, and Qin Xiumo also followed casually.

“Go to Qingfeng Town first.” She had stopped associating with other disciples of Qingfeng Valley. After making up her mind to leave the sect, those people’s conduct and opinion no longer affected her.

The paper crane couldn’t fly fast, but its speed was better than Elder Lu’s paper boat that accommodated dozens of people. Meng Qi used three second-grade spirit stones and finally returned to Qingfeng Town that afternoon.

She asked Qin Xiumo to wait at one of the teahouses in the town and went by herself to Beyond The Heaven relay station to fetch the array materials she ordered. After that, she went to the Cloud Immortal Pavilion and bought a bigger storage space. Her original storage bracelet was no longer enough for her. She immediately transferred the contents of the old storage bracelet, including the beast house with Xiao Qi in it, to the new storage space.

After finishing her business, Meng Qi went to the teahouse to pick Qin Xiumo. She didn’t use the paper crane but just walked towards Qingfeng Valley.

Meng Qi joined Qingfeng Valley for more than half a year. Even counting the previous life, her time in the sect was only one year. Even so, it was wrong to say that she had no emotion towards this place.

Meng Qi walked on the mountain road leading to Qingfeng Valley’s main gate in silence. In both her life, she had stepped on this same path countless of times.

“Are you feeling reluctant?” Qin Xiumo seemed to have guessed her mind. He followed all the way in silence, but suddenly asked: “Why?”

“People are not plants, we have emotion.” Meng Qi said, “Qingfeng Valley took me in and taught me cultivation. Here, I learn the foundation of my knowledge.”

“Heh——” Qin Xiumo sneered. He straightened his back and moved his gaze towards the south. “Do you know why I appeared at the bottom of the cold pond?” He asked.

Meng Qi didn’t reply. She wasn’t good at lying. But in fact, she knew the whole story. Not only how Qin Xiumo was betrayed by his best friend, but also how he later enacted his vengeance. The nickname of Little Devil Lord, together with his coldness and cruelty, had spread throughout the Southern Realm.

“I was betrayed by a best friend who injured me when I was facing a tribulation. I fell into Qi deviation and almost died.” Qin Xiumo stretched out his hand and stroked his arm. Once, there was a wound left by his best friend’s sword here. But after Meng Qi’s treatment, it didn’t leave any trace. However, he would forever never forget the pain and coldness he felt at that moment.

Later, he faced the indifference of his sect, the cruelty of his master who raised disciples as if raising gu1 and saw the woman he wholeheartedly loved changed her affection…

In the end…

When everyone thought that he was beyond saving and gave up on him, only one person still hurried over. It was a slender figure in a blue robe, carrying a faint smell of medicine…

“Meng Qi.” Qin Xiumo smiled, “You should always remember one thing.” He turned to look at Meng Qi: “If someone betrays and wrongs you in the future, don’t try to talk reason, just kill them.” He paused for a moment, then slowly said: “I know you can do it. As long as you don’t feel soft-hearted.”

Qin Xiumo took a step towards Meng Qi. The mountain wind stirred his black robe, but he kept staring at her eyes. With a low whisper, he softly spoke every word: “Including me…if one day I betray you, bring you harm, just kill me without hesitation.”

“Junior sister! Junior sister Meng Qi!” An anxious call suddenly came from a distance, breaking the weird silence between the two.

A young man in Qingfeng Valley’s blue robe sprinted along the mountain road. When he saw Meng Qi, he rushed forward as if seeing a savior. “Junior Sister Meng Qi, I finally found you!” The disciple breathed a sigh of relief, “Quickly go back. The seniors who were injured by the immortal devouring vine are now rolling on the floor in pain. And they…their condition…look so scary!”

Gu: A kind of curse that uses poisonous insects to infiltrate a victim’s body. One common method to raise gu is by confining poisonous insects in one place, then let them kill and devour each other until the last one left.