"How dare you..." Lei Ling'er shouted indignantly.
However, knowing that Qin Ze was just teasing her, she didn't react too strongly.
A short while later, she looked down and saw a layer of herbal paste applied to her fair shoulders.
Most of the previous scratches had already healed, and the black poison had been cleared away.
In just half a night, the wounds had healed to this extent.
The efficacy of this herbal medicine was astonishing.
Lei Ling'er was somewhat amazed, and she asked, "Are you an apothecary? You know how to detoxify poisons as well?"
Qin Ze shook his head. "Strictly speaking, I haven't cultivated my spiritual power yet, so I'm not an apothecary. I just happen to know a thing or two about the Dao of alchemy. Detoxifying you was no big deal."
Lei Ling'er perked up.
After all, apothecaries were exceedingly rare in the Bahuang Domain.
If someone this young could be recruited into the Domain Lord's Mansion, he would definitely be of great help to her father.
"Then how exactly did you detoxify me?" Lei Ling'er asked with a curious blink of her large eyes.
Qin Ze replied calmly, "Your poison wasn't too deep, so external application combined with oral ingestion was enough. But since I don't know how to refine pills yet, I could only find some herbs, chew them up, and apply them."
Chewed up and applied?
Lei Ling'er frowned. She suddenly noticed a faint herbal fragrance and a slight sweet bitterness lingering on her lips—evidently, she had just consumed herbs.
"Strange, I passed out just now. How did I ingest the herbs myself?" she muttered to herself.
"Of course you couldn't eat them yourself. I chewed up this ground vine leaf piece by piece and fed it to you mouth-to-mouth. I nearly chewed my teeth off," Qin Ze said without opening his eyes, continuing his cultivation.
Lei Ling'er froze.
Fed mouth-to-mouth after being chewed up?
How do you feed someone something after chewing it up?
Could it be that...
"You—you fed me with your mouth?" Lei Ling'er asked with a racing heart and wide eyes.
Qin Ze nodded with a nonchalant expression. "Yeah, these herbs had to be mashed up before taking them. Out here in the wild wilderness, where was I supposed to find a mortar? I had no choice but to chew them up and feed them directly into your mouth."
"It was only three or four mouthfuls, nothing major."
"You..." Lei Ling'er flushed red with anger. After thinking for a moment, she asked, "You're pulling my leg again, aren't you?"
"I am not! This time it's real." Qin Ze looked completely justified and confident. "Just now, I really did chew it up and feed it to you. Besides, if you had really been afflicted with that aphrodisiac poison, which requires Yin and Yang to unite, I definitely would have cured you."
"You..." Lei Ling'er was too angry to speak.
She gets poisoned, and as a result, her lips get kissed away.
And this guy spoke of it with zero hesitation.
Yet, after calming down and thinking about it, there probably wasn't any other way at the time.
Her situation was critical, and she needed the antidote immediately. Furthermore, the fact that he hadn't taken advantage of her while she was unconscious showed he was actually quite a gentleman.
Lei Ling'er covertly sized up Qin Ze a few times. Right now, he had his eyes closed, regulating his breathing and cultivating.
Earlier, things had been too rushed for a careful look, but stealing a glance now, this guy was actually quite handsome.
The morning light shone upon Qin Ze's face. With his sharply defined facial contours, long eyelashes, and high, straight bridge of the nose, he could certainly be considered a handsome man.
"How is it? Am I good-looking?" Qin Ze suddenly said.
Lei Ling'er's face instantly flared red.
"Who was looking at you? Stop being so vain."
This guy didn't even open his eyes, how did he know I was looking at him? Lei Ling'er muttered inwardly.
"Hey, who on earth are you?" Lei Ling'er asked.
"My name is Qin Ze, and I am your fa—"
Hearing this, Lei Ling'er flew into a rage. "You better speak properly, or I really won't be polite!"
Qin Ze coughed. "Can you let me finish my sentence? I said I'm the person sent by your father... to protect you."
"Oh! Is that so?" Lei Ling'er rolled her eyes slightly.
He could have finished it in one breath, but he deliberately paused just to take advantage of her.
By now, some of her strength had returned, and Qin Ze seemed to have finished his cultivation, opening both eyes.
The atmosphere between the two of them felt somewhat more relaxed than before.
After all, they had gone through danger together and fought side by side.
After sitting for a moment, Lei Ling'er asked, "By the way, what was the deal with you dragging that corpse over earlier?"
She remembered that right before she passed out, Qin Ze had dragged over a disgusting corpse from somewhere.
Her outer garment even seemed to have been draped over that corpse.
Even thinking about it now, her stomach still turned a little.
Qin Ze said earnestly, "Actually, the matter is quite clear. Their goal was to kill you. If you killed that Red-Eyed Heavenly Wolf, he would definitely come up with new ways to deal with you."
"Right now, the only way is to make him think you're dead so he'll call off his dogs. That way, you'll be safe for the time being."
Upon careful thought, Lei Ling'er realized it made complete sense.
A few days ago, she had seen her father lead men to kill a Red-Eyed Heavenly Wolf.
At the time, she thought her father was still angry with her and deliberately opposing her, so she ran off without looking back.
Who would have thought that just a few days later, another one would appear?
Now that she thought about it, if Lei Longhu hadn't arrived in the nick of time back then to kill that Red-Eyed Heavenly Wolf, she probably would have been in grave danger long ago.
"Actually, your dad sent me to find you precisely to tell you that he won't force you into marriage anymore. Leizi has been worried sick ever since you ran away from home these past few days," Qin Ze continued.
"Leizi?"
Lei Ling'er had been feeling a bit touched, but upon hearing this address, she couldn't help herself and burst out laughing.
"You dare to call my dad Leizi?" The mere thought of that high-and-mighty Domain Lord of the Bahuang Domain being referred to as "Leizi" by someone had her in stitches.
Qin Ze was somewhat speechless; he was just too used to calling him that in his past life and let it slip.
Still, it didn't really matter. What's in a name?
"Just for that 'Leizi' of yours, I've decided we're friends for life," Lei Ling'er said, giving Qin Ze a pat on the shoulder.
At that moment, the morning sun poured down fully, bathing the entire forest in a warm glow.
Lei Ling'er lazily stretched.
She stood up, facing the sun, her fair and pretty face seeming to be shrouded in a layer of radiance.
Lei Ling'er was very beautiful, with long eyelashes, a high bridge of the nose, and charming red lips.
Having practiced martial arts year-round, her physique was exceptionally well-proportioned, exuding a vibrant youthfulness.
It wasn't as if Qin Ze had never seen beautiful women, but this Lei Ling'er was definitely at a breathtaking, nation-toppling level.
Compared to that Ye Pianyu, she was by no means inferior.
"So, what do we do next?" Lei Ling'er turned to look at Qin Ze.
As their eyes met, she instinctively felt a trace of intense heat.
Qin Ze withdrew his gaze and said, "You'll have to suffer a bit these next few days and pretend to be my maid. After all, the person trying to kill you is very likely someone close to your father. If you rush back blindly, you'll still be in great danger."
"As for Leizi, I'll find an opportunity to speak with him alone. To the outside world, we'll just announce that you've gone missing."
Hearing this, Lei Ling'er also felt it made sense.
She was somewhat astonished by Qin Ze's meticulous train of thought.
She considered herself quite the standout among her peers, but compared to Qin Ze, she felt like a mere child.
The only problem was she had never been a maid before—it would be very easy to give herself away.
Just as she was thinking this, Qin Ze scooped up a handful of dirt and smeared it across her face.
"Hey..." Lei Ling'er cried out, dodging backward in fright.
"Being a maid doesn't need to be complicated. Just look a bit earthy and dress plainly, and no one will pay attention to you," Qin Ze said as he pulled a coarse cloth tunic from his pack.
Though extremely reluctant, Lei Ling'er still complied.
After some adjustments, Lei Ling'er looked precisely like a young village girl who had just fled from somewhere.
"Let's go. Follow me back to the Qin Family first, and I'll find an opportunity later to break the news about you to Leizi," Qin Ze said, leading Lei Ling'er in the direction of Yuelong City.
Tonight was the very day that Qin Hao intended to seize control of the Qin Family.
If they hurried back now, they would arrive just in time to attend his "celebration."