Hearing Master's words, Luo Siyun's delicate body trembled with excitement.
Master had actually said it.
He had truly said that he would be together with her forever.
Yet Qingyu was unaware of what Luo Siyun was thinking at that moment.
With a gentle smile, he continued speaking.
"Yuner, you should focus on treating your injuries first."
"Don't let the medicinal efficacy go to waste."
"Your master will leave first. If the medicinal bath is not enough, remember to come find me again."
With that, Qingyu reached out his right hand and gently ruffled Luo Siyun's hair.
Luo Siyun nodded vigorously.
"Mm!"
Feeling Qingyu's touch, Luo Siyun wore an expression of supreme contentment.
After patting her head a few times, Qingyu turned around, pushed open the door, stepped out of Luo Siyun's small cottage, and went outside.
Thud.
The door closed behind him.
Looking at the shut door, Luo Siyun felt a profound sense of satisfaction in her heart.
She reached out and gently removed her garments.
Her exquisitely curved yet scarred delicate body was fully exposed to the air.
In the past, whenever Luo Siyun saw the injuries on her body, she would feel sorrowful and distressed.
But things were different now.
Looking at her wounds, Luo Siyun felt that it had all been worth it.
Master had recovered, and he had even said that he would be with her forever.
With those words from Master, her heart was completely at peace.
The corners of her lips curling upward, Luo Siyun smiled as she stepped forward with her slender, beautiful legs.
She stepped into the wooden tub.
Splash...
The moment she touched the medicinal liquid, Luo Siyun felt an intensely sharp pain.
Yet she did not hesitate at all.
She stepped directly and fully into the wooden tub, sat down, and let the medicinal liquid submerge her entire body.
Enduring the excruciating pain, Luo Siyun began to daydream about her future days with Master.
At the mere thought of these wonderful scenes, the pain in her body seemed to diminish significantly.
...
Outside, upon hearing the sound of water splashing, Qingyu instantly breathed a sigh of relief.
Only then did he truly begin to walk away from Luo Siyun's cottage.
He had been deeply worried that once Luo Siyun entered the medicinal bath, the sudden, agonizing pain might cause her to cry out or lead to some mishap.
But now it seemed all that worry had been for nothing.
His obedient disciple was as resilient as ever.
Walking in the evening breeze, Qingyu followed the path toward another lit cottage.
The cottage was not far away, merely a dozen meters or so.
That cottage was where Qingyu's second disciple, Su Liuli, lived.
At the mere thought of Su Liuli, Qingyu felt a wave of distress.
Because she was different from Liu Yashi and Luo Siyun.
Though those two obedient disciples had suffered severe trauma to both body and mind, their personalities had not drastically changed, nor had they developed any mental disorders.
Su Liuli, however, had truly suffered severe psychological damage because of him, her villainous master.
She had transformed from a gentle, soft-spoken girl much like Liu Yashi into an utterly deranged woman.
Just four months ago, simply because Su Liuli had wept in front of him, he had chased her away outright, forbidding her from coming to this small peak.
At that time, neither Luo Siyun nor the other grand elder was present; only Liu Yashi was there.
She had been completely unable to persuade her master.
Thus, for a full month, his second disciple Su Liuli had spent her days near the mountain peak.
With nothing to eat or drink, no cultivation resources, and only a tiny bit of healing medicine given by Liu Yashi, she had cried until she fainted countless times.
Had Liu Yashi not secretly checked on this second senior sister, using a host of well-intentioned lies to deceive her—such as claiming that Master was actually testing her—Su Liuli would certainly have taken her own life out in the wilderness.
Yet Qingyu, who knew the plot of the original story, was well aware that Su Liuli had seen right through Liu Yashi's lies.
She knew she had truly been abandoned by her master.
However, in order to force herself to stay alive, she had compelled herself to accept those lies, thereby twisting her own personality and mindset into those of a deranged woman.
Qingyu knew very well that the unhinged Su Liuli desired only one thing: to return to the side of the master who had cast her aside.
She was only twenty-one years old, yet she had suffered such torment and been reduced to this state.
The more Qingyu thought about it, the more painful it became.
If not for him, how could such an obedient and sensible disciple have ended up like this?
Fortunately, there was still time.
Taking a deep breath, Qingyu hurried to the outside of Su Liuli's cottage.
Just as he raised his hand to knock, he suddenly heard desolate sobbing coming from within the room.
"Sob, sob, sob..."
The clear, delicate, and soft voice entered his ears, letting Qingyu instantly know it was the voice of his second disciple.
This wretched crying felt as though someone were clutching Qingyu's heart.
Yet, as a powerhouse at Soul Formation Peak, Qingyu quickly forced himself to calm down.
Striving to wear a gentle smile, he knocked on the door and asked softly,
"Liuli, are you..."
Before he could finish his sentence, Qingyu abruptly heard Su Liuli's panic-stricken voice from inside.
"Master! I'm not crying! I'm not crying! Haha, hahaha!"
"Don't chase Liuli away..."
Seconds after hearing Su Liuli's voice, Qingyu saw the door open.
Su Liuli appeared before him, tear tracks still visible on her face.
At the sight of Su Liuli, Qingyu's gaze softened immensely.
This obedient disciple possessed long red hair, and beneath her delicate, pretty face were a pair of blood-red eyes.
Further down was her well-developed, graceful figure.
Her breasts were larger than Liu Yashi's, though slightly smaller than eldest senior sister Luo Siyun's.
Over her graceful form, she wore a translucent, blood-red gauze dress, from beneath which protruded a pair of snow-white, slender, and beautiful legs.
On her feet were a pair of red high heels.
Qingyu noticed that Su Liuli was currently flashing an exaggerated smile at him.
Coupled with the few lingering tear tracks on her delicate face, she looked like a scarlet female ghost—terrifying yet pitiful.
Swallowing hard, Qingyu began to speak.
"Liuli, you..."
Yet, just as before, before Qingyu could even finish speaking, he was interrupted by Su Liuli.
"Ah, haha! Master! Come in quickly, come in quickly, Liuli has brewed tea!"
"Doesn't Master love drinking tea? Come... hahaha..."
Laughing wildly, Su Liuli quickly reached out, grabbed Qingyu's right hand, and pulled him into the room.
Su Liuli knew that her master loved tea, so she brewed it thirty times a day—all so that, should the day come when he came to find her, she would be able to offer him the tea he loved.
The tea leaves were all relatively precious ones that she had personally gone out to gather.
A wave of fragrance drifted over. Feeling the soft, delicate hand of his second disciple, Qingyu did not react strongly to being interrupted.
In the original story, after allowing Su Liuli to return, he had only seen her twice.
Once, half a month later.
The other time, right before her death.
As for why they met so rarely, it was because Su Liuli, just like now, would constantly interrupt his speech and pull him into her room.
Yet the Qingyu of the original story had shown no sympathy whatsoever, first brushing away his second disciple's small hand and then striking her across the face.
He had demanded that she mind her manners.
Then he had immediately left the place where his second disciple stayed.
After that encounter in the original story, the next time they met was on her deathbed.
At this thought, Qingyu's brow furrowed slightly.
Everything from the original story must not happen!
He absolutely could not act like that!
He had to treat this obedient disciple properly!