Chapter 14#
Coughing Blood#
“Do you care about him that much?”
Hearing Lu Yan’s words, Yin Yuheng lowered his long eyelashes and gave a soft “Mm” from his throat.
Lu Yan hesitated. “Is he good to you?”
Yin Yuheng stepped closer to Lu Yan, candlelight illuminating his fair, jade-like face.
“He is my teacher. He has taught me knowledge and answered my doubts; of course he is good to me.” Yin Yuheng tilted his head and looked at Lu Yan quietly, a faint smile in his eyes.
Lu Yan thought to himself that the man had been so cold when he saw you injured. How could he look like a master who truly cared for his disciple?
“Why do you care about him so much?”
Yin Yuheng’s gaze softened a little as he fell into memory.
“Five years ago, in order to break through to the golden core stage, I went out to hunt demons and train myself. I never expected to encounter a great demon and be gravely wounded, on the brink of death. At the crucial moment, a streak of sword light cleaved across the sky, and the great demon fled in panic. Only then did I survive.”
“Later I asked everywhere and learned that on that day, the Sword Lord of Penglai, Li Guanghan, had passed by nearby.”
“I thought, the one who could unleash that sword strike was probably only him.”
As he spoke, Yin Yuheng suddenly remembered something and hurriedly explained, “When I went to slay demons, I was killing evil demons that harmed people everywhere…”
Lu Yan laughed. “Evil demons aren’t liked even in the demon race, just like your human race’s murderers and monsters. They were always supposed to die. I’m not angry.”
Yin Yuheng let out a breath of relief.
“So there was such a story,” Lu Yan said helplessly. “Do you humans really have this tradition of repaying a life-saving favor with your body?”
“What are you talking about?” Yin Yuheng said, amused and exasperated.
Lu Yan was not too willing to keep talking about Li Guanghan, so he said, “Thank you for the Blood-Nourishing Pill. I’m much better now.”
Yin Yuheng said with relief, “That’s good. But there’s a poison in your body that’s very special. It’s entrenched in your blood and spiritual core. Even after using the Spirit Marrow Pill and the Blood-Nourishing Pill, it still won’t go away.”
Lu Yan smiled. “It’s a special poison from the demon race. It needs a specific antidote to cure it. I’ve been hunted all the way, so I really haven’t had time to look for the antidote. I had no choice but to drag it out.”
Yin Yuheng thought for a moment. “What’s the antidote? I’ll help you find it—if you treat me as a friend, don’t refuse.”
Lu Yan looked at Yin Yuheng seriously, his gaze a little helpless. “Yuheng, your personality will make you suffer losses very easily.”
Yin Yuheng didn’t care. “I just want to help you.”
Under Yin Yuheng’s sincere gaze, Lu Yan was at a loss for words. After a long pause, he gave a bitter smile. “…The antidote actually isn’t hard to make. It’s just that the materials are difficult to find. It needs Yellow Springs Flower as the medicinal guide, then qilin horn, heartless fruit, and jasper vine to refine it. You really don’t need to help me find the antidote; how could those things be so easy to come by?”
After Lu Yan finished speaking, he suddenly noticed that Yin Yuheng’s expression had changed.
“What’s wrong?” Lu Yan asked, a little worried.
“We have heartless fruit and jasper vine in the palace,” Yin Yuheng said in a low voice. “The Yellow Springs Flower is the troublesome part. I did have one…”
He had once had one, but he had given it to Li Guanghan.
As for the qilin horn, he had been preparing to look for it, but that too was clearly written in the plot as something meant for Li Guanghan.
Lu Yan didn’t think much of it and only smiled. “Yellow Springs Flowers grow in the Ghost River of the Demon Realm. They’re not hard to find, but once picked, they have to be fed daily with the blood essence of the person who picked them, so they can’t be stored for long. Even if you wanted to help me search for medicine, I wouldn’t bear to let you.”
Yin Yuheng didn’t answer. After a while, he said in a low voice, “Tomorrow I’m going to Chuyue Mountain in Quanzhou to look for a birthday gift for my teacher. Do you want to come with me?”
“…A birthday gift for your teacher?”
Lu Yan froze, thinking, why is it Li Guanghan again?
Just hearing that name made him feel a little stifled.
Lu Yan stood up and handed the small bowl on the table to Yin Yuheng. “Health porridge. Drink it and go to sleep quickly, or go meditate. In any case, don’t stay up late.”
Yin Yuheng almost thought he had heard wrong. “…Health porridge? You made this?”
…………
Quanzhou was not too far from Chaoge. With the Wusui horses that could travel a thousand miles a day, it took less than a day to get there.
“Quanzhou has beautiful mountains and clear waters, outstanding people and rich spiritual veins, with many famous mountains and great rivers. The Shen family, one of the four great families of Li Dynasty—Xie, Shen, Liu, and An—is based in Quanzhou.”
“Even more coincidentally, Chuyue Mountain lies within the Shen family’s jurisdiction. If you want to make a big show of searching for something here, there’s no way around the Shen family.”
As the morning sun rose, Yin Yuheng stood at the foot of the mountain, wearing a white silk robe.
Lu Yan curiously looked at the ancient green mountains and old city ahead, then draped the cloak in his hand over Yin Yuheng. “Your health isn’t good. Why are you wearing so little?”
Yin Yuheng: “…”
Ever since their relationship had gone a step further, Lu Yan was no longer restrained in front of Yin Yuheng.
Yin Yuheng had also come to see Lu Yan’s nature clearly.
First, he was extremely disciplined: early to bed and early to rise, cultivating on schedule. If not for waiting for Yin Yuheng, he would never stay up late.
Second, his personality was meticulous. The placement of things and the order in which tasks were done all followed his own standards.
He had a good state of mind and lived actively. He could make health porridge and brew heat-clearing tea. At a glance, he could tell whether Yin Yuheng was about to have a heart attack and cough up blood again, and he would remind Yin Yuheng to add clothing at any time.
Very few people knew about Yin Yuheng’s tendency to suffer heart pain and cough blood. No one knew how Lu Yan had seen through it, and after he did, he kept his brow furrowed for a full hour.
“You’re the crown prince of Li Dynasty, a golden-core genius. Unlike me, you didn’t suffer a sudden change and fall from grace. Why is your body so poor?”
Yin Yuheng had no way to explain, and then he felt himself being taken care of with meticulous attention.
On the night he drank the health porridge, Yin Yuheng lay in bed for a full half hour before falling asleep, confiding in Xiao Bai.
“I think Lu Yan’s personality is already so different from the original plot that it’s downright absurd.”
“It feels like a fake gentle soul has run into a real gentleman.”
“Even fooling him feels a little embarrassing…”
*
The Shen family moved quickly. By the time Yin Yuheng was helplessly tying on his cloak, they had already arrived.
Yin Yuheng lifted his eyes and looked at the slowly approaching carriage.
The curtains were made of white shark silk, decorated with glazed pearls. The luxury of this carriage was enough to make anyone gasp.
Even among the four great families, the Shen family’s power ranked among the very top.
Wrapped in his cloak, Yin Yuheng leaned close to Lu Yan and smiled softly. “How is it?”
Lu Yan only glanced once at the carriage before withdrawing his gaze. Hearing Yin Yuheng’s question, he lowered his voice and said, “The carriage uses South Sea shark silk. This kind of silk isn’t as soft as the shark silk from the Northern Heaven Pure Sea. When I was in the demon race, I usually didn’t use it.”
Yin Yuheng couldn’t help laughing even more happily. “Young Lord Lu, your standards are too high. I don’t have any Northern Heaven Pure Sea shark silk here. You won’t dislike it, will you?”
Lu Yan said seriously, “No. Whatever you use on me is good.”
Yin Yuheng laughed twice before continuing. “The person inside is Shen Liyuan, the most famous genius of the younger generation among the noble families.”
As he spoke, a maid stepped forward and lifted the carriage curtain, then laid a wooden board down in front of the carriage.
With a sound of movement, a servant pushed a wheelchair down from the carriage.
Sitting in the wheelchair was a richly dressed young man, with fine brows, black hair, and delicate features. Bathed in the morning light, he looked like an otherworldly utpala flower. Even seated in a wheelchair, every movement carried elegance.
Elegant, aloof, and noble—a textbook young master of an aristocratic family, untouched by worldly dust.
Shen Liyuan bowed and cupped his hands. When he spoke, his voice was as pleasant as a clear mountain spring.
“Greetings, Your Highness. Please forgive Liyuan for being unable to kneel and salute because of my inconvenient legs and feet.”
Yin Yuheng immediately stepped forward to support his hand, and said gently, “Young Master Shen need not be so formal.”
Shen Liyuan smiled faintly. His gaze fell on where the two of them were touching, deepening a little, and his voice also turned hoarse. “Since our parting three years ago, Liyuan has thought of Your Highness constantly.”
Three years ago, Yin Yuheng had promoted the Immortal-Ascending Edict, contended with the great families, and clashed with Shen Liyuan as well.
Yin Yuheng smiled slightly and withdrew his hand.
Shen Liyuan calmly retracted his own hand. With that movement, his sleeve slid down slightly, revealing a delicate silver bracelet on his wrist.
Yin Yuheng’s gaze swept over it without pausing, as if he hadn’t seen it.
“Is that so?” Yin Yuheng said with a smile. “Yuheng feels the same.”
Shen Liyuan stared at Yin Yuheng. “Has Your Highness come to Chuyue Mountain for the qilin horn?”
“…” Yin Yuheng said nothing.
Shen Liyuan lightly rubbed the place on his wrist where Yin Yuheng had just touched him, and said with a low laugh, “Counting the days, it will soon be State Preceptor Li’s birthday… Your Highness personally came to Quanzhou for State Preceptor Li. Truly a deep and righteous affection. It’s a pity I heard that some days ago, Your Highness gained a junior martial brother?”
Yin Yuheng lifted his eyes, his voice turning slightly cold. “What do you mean?”
“Nothing,” Shen Liyuan said with a smile. “If Your Highness wants the qilin horn, why bother coming to search in person? Just say the word, and Liyuan will certainly offer it with both hands.”
“Whether it’s the qilin horn or anything else…”
“If, one day, Your Highness no longer wishes to remain in Chaoge, you can always come to the Shen family in Quanzhou to find me.”
…………
Inside the State Preceptor’s residence, Zhu Angning sat under an oil lamp reading a book—the book was filled with cultivation insights, all notes that Yin Yuheng had made back then.
Zhu Angning was reading with a wandering mind.
Suddenly there was the sound of a door opening. Zhu Angning turned his head and saw Li Guanghan walking over holding a bowl of porridge.
Zhu Angning hurriedly stood up. “Master, this is…”
Li Guanghan awkwardly set the bowl on the table. He had never done anything like this before, so he seemed a little unnatural.
Zhu Angning stiffly said, “Master, how could I trouble you to do such things?”
Li Guanghan looked at Zhu Angning gently. “Back then when I was severely injured and unable to move, you took care of me every day. Now it’s my turn to care for you. What’s wrong with that?”
Zhu Angning became even stiffer. “Master, I don’t remember the matters from back then very clearly…”
“I know. It’s enough that I remember,” Li Guanghan said warmly. “Back then, I swore I would definitely find you.”
Zhu Angning wanted to say something but stopped himself. In the end, he couldn’t help asking, “Master, what was I like back then?”
He understood that he was merely an impostor, and he didn’t know who the real person who saved Li Guanghan was.
Zhu Angning couldn’t help rubbing the silver bracelet on his wrist.
…The person who arranged this fake identity for him should know, otherwise they couldn’t have made this matter so seamless that even Li Guanghan couldn’t see the flaw.
“Back then you were still young, and your cultivation wasn’t high. You ran over across mountains and rivers, afraid the food would get cold, and insisted on watching me eat it all,” the corners of Li Guanghan’s usually cold lips curved into a faint smile. “Your own body wasn’t good, yet you still kept worrying about others.”
“…Was my body bad back then?” Zhu Angning asked.
“Yes. In order to protect me, you were struck in the chest by a demonic beast in the mountains.”
Li Guanghan sighed softly. “Although I was badly injured at the time, I still had some cultivation left. I felt along and took your pulse.”
“That blow damaged your heart meridian by accident. It was extremely difficult to heal. If you didn’t rest well, you would suffer unending heart pain and coughing of blood.”
“The reason your body is poor now is probably the old injury left from that time.”
“…”
Zhu Angning said nothing, finally understanding why Li Guanghan cared so much about his health and would drop everything else to care for him whenever he said he felt unwell.
Zhu Angning gave a quiet sigh in his heart.
It was a pity… his spiritual meridians were fragile only because he had once been a blood slave as a child.
Li Guanghan had repaid the wrong person after all.
Unconsciously, Zhu Angning thought of his weak senior brother, lying by the bedside and coughing blood.