"I told you, you are no match for me. You haven't even stepped into the Heaven Mystic Realm; what are you using to fight me?" Moyang released his palm as he spoke, yet at the exact instant he let go, he flicked the edge of the sword lightly. The longsword hummed, and Xu Xin was forced back step by step, her sword nearly slipping from her grasp.
Xu Xin's face flushed. She did not steady herself until she reached Su Fei'er's side, staring at Moyang in shock and uncertainty, a tempest raging in her heart.
Just now, Moyang hadn't even circulated his true qi. How could he possibly possess such terrifying strength?
On the blade of the longsword, five distinct fingerprints were clearly visible; the metal had actually been pinched somewhat out of shape.
"Senior Sister Xu, what happened earlier was a misunderstanding! It's not Moyang's fault!" Knowing that this Senior Sister Xu had a fiery temper, Su Fei'er hurriedly spoke up, terrified that another fight would break out.
"Junior Sister, you're actually still defending him? I think you've been bewitched by his soft words!" Xu Xin looked at Su Fei'er with a mixture of exasperation and disappointment.
She felt as though Su Fei'er had turned into a completely different person. In the past, the girl would certainly have stood on the sidelines cheering her on.
"No, Senior Sister, you really can't beat him!" Su Fei'er said, her face red.
Lowering her voice, she added, "This guy is really powerful now. You don't know—his cultivation has almost reached the Heaven Mystic Realm!"
Xu Xin had still intended to press the attack, but upon hearing Su Fei'er's words, her body froze in place. She shot a glance at Moyang first, then hurriedly turned back to question Su Fei'er. "What did you say?"
"Half a month ago, he was already at the Earth Mystic Realm - Stage 3 Mid-phase! The Supreme Elder said so himself!"
Hearing this, Xu Xin raised her head to look at Moyang. After a moment of silence, she said, "It seems Senior Brother Qi was right. You really do hide your depth!"
Moyang let out a helpless, light sigh and said, "I'm not hiding anything. I just want to cultivate in peace and don't want to be disturbed by others!"
"Hmph! Refined on the outside, utterly despicable on the inside. Just you wait, I'll come looking for you again!" Giving Moyang a cold glare, Xu Xin turned on her heel and strode out of the courtyard.
With such a vast gap in cultivation—a full major realm—she knew that staying behind would only invite humiliation.
Yet, upon reaching the courtyard gate, she turned back around and, looking exceptionally annoyed, demanded of Su Fei'er, "Are you still not coming?"
Without waiting for an answer, she grabbed Su Fei'er and dragged her bodily out of the courtyard.
"Senior Sister, I have business with him!"
"You're still young, don't let him trick you. This guy doesn't look like anything good..."
"Senior Sister, I'm not that young anymore. He's actually not a bad person..."
"Why didn't you tell me sooner that he has Earth Mystic Realm - Stage 3 cultivation?"
…
Listening to the fading sounds of the argument, Moyang was left entirely speechless.
Was he not extraordinarily handsome, dashing, elegant, and brimming with righteousness?
How did he not look like a good person?
Could there possibly be a man more outstanding than him?
"Sigh... The world is pure; it's people who are complicated..."
Moyang shook his head helplessly, then resumed his cross-legged meditation to regulate his breathing.
Not long after, however, Su Fei'er returned. She sneaked back into the courtyard, leaned against the gate, and looked at Moyang with wide, curious eyes.
"Come in, stop acting so sneaky," Moyang said as he opened his eyes. He added, "Just in time, I have something for you."
With an excited look, Su Fei'er trotted over to Moyang and asked, "What good thing?"
Moyang produced two white jade bottles and handed them over. "One bottle of Beauty Pills, and one of Marrow-Cleansing Pills. Take one Marrow-Cleansing Pill daily; it purges impurities and filth from the body...!"
Upon hearing this, Su Fei'er's large eyes curved into crescent moons. She eagerly snatched the two bottles, stowing them away carefully without even bothering to look inside. Then, she spun around in front of Moyang a few times and asked with bright anticipation, "Do you see anything different about me compared to before?"
Moyang desperately wanted to say that this young lady's brain seemed to have short-circuited lately, but he forced the words back down.
"Didn't you notice that I look even prettier than before?" As she spoke, a trace of shyness crept onto her face.
"Uh..." A shiver ran through Moyang's entire body. Seeing the bashful blush on Su Fei'er's face and hearing that honeyed, affected tone made his scalp tingle and a cold sweat break out across his back. He hurriedly nodded.
He wasn't afraid of Su Fei'er's fiery temper at all; what terrified him was when she didn't have one—like right now, which genuinely unnerved him.
"Brother Moyang, I want to follow you in cultivation..."
Moyang shuddered violently. He could no longer sit still, scrambling up and retreating a few steps as another series of chills wracked his frame. "No, please! I like cultivating alone and in peace. Junior Sister, you should head back quickly, it's getting late!"
He then instinctively wiped his forehead and muttered, "The sun is really scorching today!"
Chapter 15: Poisoned
"Brother Moyang, then cultivate in peace, I'll come see you tomorrow!" With a cheeky grin, Su Fei'er turned and skipped out of the courtyard.
Moyang kept wiping the cold sweat from his brow, staring in bewildered shock at Su Fei'er as she popped back into view, leaning against the gate to wave at him. He felt as though his entire world had gone off the rails.
"Brother Moyang, I'm really leaving now!"
Moyang nodded frantically. Only when the courtyard fell completely silent did he let out a long, heavy breath.
He felt like crying without tears. If Su Fei'er had acted like her usual self, she'd have been easy to handle, but right now, he was utterly helpless.
He rushed back inside, slammed the door shut, and fled into the Stone Tower to concoct pills.
Yet Moyang never imagined that because of the Marrow-Cleansing Pills he gave Su Fei'er, the entire Lingxu Sect would be turned completely upside down by that very evening.
After leaving Wood Peak, Su Fei'er had returned to the Main Peak. Unable to wait a moment longer, she had swallowed the entire bottle of Beauty Pills in one go, and then polished off the whole bottle of Marrow-Cleansing Pills as well.
When Moyang explained the effects of the Marrow-Cleansing Pills back on Wood Peak, Su Fei'er hadn't listened at all; she had simply assumed they were for skincare and beautification, just like the Beauty Pills.
Within breaths, she felt her entire body go haywire. Her consciousness grew murky while an endless, blazing inferno raged inside her. Those thirty pills combined had transformed into two violent, rampaging forces tearing through her limbs and bones.
Let alone thirty pills, even ordinary cultivators would find two pills taken simultaneously almost impossible to endure—let alone two completely different kinds of medicinal pellets.
Fortunately, it happened to be the time when Xu Xin went looking for her. The moment she laid eyes on Su Fei'er, Xu Xin was scared out of her wits.
Su Fei'er's face was as red as a ripe apple, bulging veins throbbing across her forehead as beads of sweat the size of soybeans poured down unceasingly. Her clothes were soaked through in the blink of an eye, and her consciousness seemed to be fading away.
Seeing Su Fei'er in such a state, Xu Xin panicked completely, her only instinct to rush and bring her before the elders of the Lingxu Sect.
In an instant, every elder in the Sect Main Hall was alerted.
The Supreme Elder and the Sect Master rushed forward to examine her immediately, but Su Fei'er's condition was terrifyingly severe, leaving many of the elders at a loss.
"Supreme Elder, what on earth is going on here?" Even the Sect Master was entirely at a loss. Most critically, seeing the agony etched across Su Fei'er's face made him burn with anxiety.
The Supreme Elder's first reaction was that Su Fei'er must have accidentally ingested something toxic, as these symptoms bore no resemblance to anything that occurred during normal cultivation.
"There are two massive forces rampaging wildly inside her. Her true qi is completely out of control. If we can't suppress it, I'm afraid..." The Supreme Elder's expression turned grave. Without hesitation, he struck, channeling his own internal energy directly into Su Fei'er's body.
Yet the result made his expression shift drastically: those two forces refused to be controlled, scattering unchecked through every corner of Su Fei'er's body, utterly impossible to suppress.
"What in the world happened?" The Supreme Elder raised his head to look at Xu Xin. Since Xu Xin had brought her in, and such a crisis couldn't happen for no reason, there had to be a cause.
"I... I don't know..." Xu Xin's panic had reached its peak. Everything had been fine when she and Su Fei'er went to Wood Peak, so how could this...
However, she recalled that after they left Wood Peak, Su Fei'er had slipped away midway under the pretense of having business. She remembered the direction Su Fei'er had headed seemed to be back toward Wood Peak.
"Junior Sister seemed to have gone to Wood Peak... but..." She didn't dare say it with absolute certainty; after all, she wouldn't dare frame Moyang without concrete proof.
"Wood Peak? Moyang... Could he have drugged Fei'er?!"
The First Elder's face twisted with rage. The moment Wood Peak was mentioned, anyone would naturally think of Moyang, given that he was the sole resident there. Coupled with the rumors circulating throughout the sect recently and Su Fei'er's current condition, his mind instantly leaped to a certain kind of illicit substance.
The expressions of the other elders, including the Sect Master, darkened dramatically in unison.
A group of powerful figures instantly drew the same conclusion, because Su Fei'er's symptoms were undeniably the result of drugs—and a massive dose at that.
Though the Supreme Elder's expression remained grim, he refused to believe Moyang would pull such a stunt.
Yet he also knew that Moyang had recently been tinkering with all sorts of medicinal herbs, consuming them at a prodigious rate. This matter likely did involve the youth, and with no other options left, he wasted no time on thought. Scooping up Su Fei'er, he plunged down from the Main Peak at breakneck speed, rocketing toward Wood Peak.
The reason the Supreme Elder took this step was that he had already prepared for the worst-case scenario. If it truly was *that* kind of drug, then perhaps only the harmonization of yin and yang could neutralize it.
The other elders hurriedly trailed behind him, abandoning the main hall in a swarm as they rushed toward Wood Peak.
Chaos gripped the Main Peak; a piece of news this explosive could never be contained, instantly triggering a massive uproar.
Yet when the anxious group of powerhouses arrived at Wood Peak, they discovered that Moyang was nowhere to be found in the courtyard. The Supreme Elder nearly cursed aloud in frustration.
"Go find Moyang! No matter what he's doing, drag him back here immediately!" the Supreme Elder ordered the First and Second Elders.
Then, turning to the rest, he snapped, "The rest of you, help me channel our qi to protect Fei'er's meridians, or she'll burst apart from the internal pressure before long!"
However, the First and Second Elders searched the entire Lingxu Sect without finding a single trace of Moyang. They even made a special trip to the back mountain, but Moyang was nowhere near the Fourth Elder's cenotaph either.
Soon, every disciple in the sect was mobilized, turning the place upside down as if trying to dig three feet into the earth, yet all their efforts yielded nothing.
It wasn't until half an hour later that Moyang finally stepped out of his house.
The moment he emerged from the Stone Tower, seeing his front door hanging crookedly off its hinges and the obvious signs of a frantic search inside, a bad feeling hit him. Stepping across the threshold, he froze dead in his tracks.
"What the hell is going on here?"
Before he could even take in his surroundings, a barrage of furious glares locked onto him. Though the elders couldn't figure out how Moyang had materialized from an empty house, there was no time to question it now.
"Moyang, you damn scoundrel! Just how much aphrodisiac did you feed Fei'er?!" the First Elder roared first, the pent-up fury within him boiling over.
"You wretched brat! What on earth did you do to Fei'er? Fix this right now!" the Supreme Elder bellowed as well.
Moyang frowned, completely baffled. Naturally, he could see something was terribly wrong, but with no time to reply, he flashed forward.
At that moment, a layer of dark, viscous grime began seeping out all over Su Fei'er's skin, accompanied by a foul, nauseating stench.
"It's over... she's beyond saving..." The Second Elder muttered upon seeing this sight. Just moments ago, though Su Fei'er had been in pain, her body had still appeared normal, but now...
Moyang rushed to her side and understood the situation instantly: she had clearly taken Marrow-Cleansing Pills.
Only, judging by her current state, the dosage she had ingested was far too excessive.
He hurriedly grabbed one of Su Fei'er's arms to check her pulse, and his own expression fell. Two violent forces were tearing through her body like a pair of wild horses without reins.
Because Moyang had consumed one pill earlier just to test if his Beauty Pill brew had succeeded, he immediately deduced that Su Fei'er must have taken an overdose of the Beauty Pills as well.
"Damn it... This girl didn't swallow both full bottles I gave her in one sitting, did she?!" Moyang was dumbfounded, though he vividly remembered giving her explicit instructions.
Chapter 16: You Really Did Drug Her
Hearing Moyang's muttered realization, the Supreme Elder could scarcely believe his ears: it really *was* Moyang who had drugged her!
And two whole bottles at that!
"You beast! How could you do such a thing? Two bottles... you really are a beast!" The Second Elder looked ready to march over and slap Moyang across the face.
"Wretched punk! You've been messing around with herbs lately, think of a solution right now!" The Supreme Elder kept his head relatively level. Although Moyang's actions were far too reckless, if worst came to worst, he could just let the two of them sleep together; as long as Su Fei'er's life was spared, he could accept that outcome.
Moyang's face turned grave. This wasn't a game; given Su Fei'er's current condition, if her symptoms weren't alleviated, her life would be in genuine danger.
Ignoring the elders' fierce reprimands, his mind raced, desperately searching for a solution. To fix this, he had to force the medicinal potency out of her body, but conventional methods wouldn't work.
Moreover, the elders' well-intentioned efforts to channel their qi for suppression were achieving the exact opposite effect, making the medicinal power even more violent and volatile.
"Old men, stop what you're doing right now! Do you actually want to kill her?!" Moyang frowned and snapped coldly.
"Moyang, I don't care about anything else right now. As long as Fei'er's life is saved, get her inside that house immediately!" the Sect Master said in a deep voice. Though his expression remained dark, he knew that panicking would only make things worse and solve nothing.
Things had already reached this point; he had no other choices left.
Though Moyang found the phrasing rather strange, he had no bandwidth to dwell on it. He indeed intended to take Su Fei'er indoors, because his plan was to bring her into the Star Emperor Pagoda.
After turning it over in his mind, he concluded that the only viable path was to treat the potency of the Marrow-Cleansing and Beauty Pills like a lethal poison, and brew an antidote known as the Poison-Cleansing Pill. It was the only method he could think of.
"Nobody step foot within half a step of this door while I'm inside!" Moyang didn't have time to explain. Scooping Su Fei'er up in his arms, he bolted straight into the house, tossing the warning over his shoulder to the elders outside.
Outside, several elders looked ready to tear Moyang limb from limb, yet none of them had any alternative.
Watching the heavy wooden door slam shut, the Supreme Elder trembled, consumed by anxiety and rage. What in the heavens was this mess?
With a helpless sigh, he turned to the others. "Everyone, leave the courtyard. Wait a bit further away!"
Naturally, with the potency of those drugs, the commotion inside wouldn't be small. For a bunch of old men to hang around here staring at the door was entirely inappropriate.
His primary concern was simply whether Su Fei'er could hold on.
Since Su Fei'er's consciousness had completely faded, Moyang had no fear of the Star Emperor Pagoda being exposed, bringing her straight up to the second floor of the Stone Tower.
He swiftly pulled the seven required medicinal herbs from his Spatial Ring. Concocting this specific pill was far more difficult than any he had attempted previously, and he had no guarantee of success; he could only try.
"What a handful... You're practically forcing your Grandpa Moyang to use you as a test subject..." Moyang muttered in total exasperation.
Gathering his focus, he cleared his mind and began tossing the herbs one by one into the Cauldron of Creation. As a thick, rich medicinal fragrance billowed out, it finally began to mask the foul stench leaking from Su Fei'er's body.
...
Back on Wood Peak, the group of elders had all withdrawn from the courtyard, retreating several hundred feet away.
"This little beast... actually..." The Second Elder gnashed his teeth. The more he thought about it, the angrier he grew; he had never liked Moyang to begin with, and now the brat had struck gold, getting the rice cooked into porridge for free.
"I never expected him to pull something like this. I even tested him beforehand, thinking..." The Supreme Elder's expression was exceptionally grim. As he spoke, his gaze drifted back toward the courtyard before he let out another helpless sigh.
The Sect Master's face was dark as thunder. After a long silence, he declared, "This matter must never leak out. Once this crisis passes, we'll find a time to hold their wedding!"
Time trickled away. Inside the Star Emperor Pagoda, Moyang finally finished concocting the Poison-Cleansing Pill. The instant the pill solidified, he let out a long breath of relief, sweat beading heavily on his forehead—the sheer variety of herbs and the complexity of the refining process had drained his mental energy.
Since he had barely managed to condense a single pill, its efficacy remained entirely untested, and he had no choice but to use Su Fei'er to find out.
Not daring to delay, he propped Su Fei'er up and flicked the pill directly into her mouth, then concentrated entirely on monitoring the changes within her body.
Outside, the group of elders paced back and forth incessantly. As time dragged on, their anxiety mounted because the courtyard remained dead silent—not a single sound came from within.
The Supreme Elder was deeply perplexed, yet he dared not sweep his divine sense inward to investigate, leaving him completely in the dark regarding the situation inside.
Half an hour, an hour...
Fully two hours passed before a creak finally echoed from the previously silent courtyard—the sound of the door being pushed open.
The Supreme Elder and the Sect Master rushed toward the courtyard instantly, only to find Moyang standing in the doorway, lazily stretching his arms.
"How is Fei'er?"
The two men fired off the question simultaneously.
"The medicinal potency hasn't completely cleared yet, and she hasn't regained consciousness. Let her rest in bed for a while!" Moyang answered lazily.
Hearing this, the Sect Master and the Supreme Elder finally felt the heavy boulders in their chests drop, though their relief instantly gave way to furious glares directed at Moyang.
"Hey! Old man, what kind of look is that? You aren't thanking me, and yet you're glaring?" Moyang immediately threw a fit. If he hadn't been smart enough to cook up an antidote, Su Fei'er would probably be cold in the ground by now!
"Thank you? You drugged Fei'er, let her gorge herself until she's overflowing, and you expect us to thank you?!" the Supreme Elder snapped coldly.
The thought of this incident made his blood boil; he had always believed Moyang's character was pure and kind, but he never imagined the youth was capable of this.
The Sect Master was also on the verge of exploding, murderous intent flickering in his eyes.
Moyang blinked. He hadn't wanted to explain himself, but if he didn't clear this up, he could jump into the Yellow River and still never wash off the taint.
"Old man, your Grandpa Moyang isn't as despicable as you think! I merely gave her two bottles of pills out of the goodness of my heart, and I specifically warned her to take only one pill at a time. Furthermore, what I gave her were Beauty Pills and Marrow-Cleansing Pills, not some kind of aphrodisiac!"
"If you want to blame someone, blame her for ignoring advice and swallowing so much at once! It's a miracle she isn't dead already!"
"What? Not an aphrodisiac? Then... brat, what did you two just..." The Supreme Elder was left completely bewildered.