Mu Qingxue was suddenly struck by a single thought: he might have already figured out who she was, and she had to silence him immediately!
Then, thinking better of it, she realized this was the very first human she had laid eyes on since she came into this world, aside from her parents. Killing him felt a bit of a waste.
So she had to pretend to be shy and asked, "Why are you looking at me like that? Is there something on my face?"
Realizing he had overstepped, Ling Yu hurriedly dragged his "greedy" gaze away from Mu Qingxue’s soul-stirring figure, coughing somewhat awkwardly.
"Nothing, nothing!"
He had a gut feeling that if Mu Qingxue knew he had been staring at her for so long, that pot of wild vegetable soup would undoubtedly be dumped straight over his head.
After that, Mu Qingxue didn't dwell on it. Holding a bowl of wild vegetable soup, she walked over to the bed, handed the bowl to Ling Yu, and said with a touch of embarrassment,
"Conditions here are crude, and there's only this wild vegetable soup to eat. I'm afraid you've been wronged."
Ling Yu chuckled, replying in a joking tone, "The soup made from the wild vegetables of this Forest of Ten Thousand Demons must surely be brimming with spiritual energy!"
Amused by his remark, Mu Qingxue laughed out. "Whether there is spiritual energy or not, you'll know as soon as you taste it, won't you?"
Gathering all his strength, Ling Yu took the bowl from Mu Qingxue's hands and, without the slightest hesitation, brought it to his lips to take a gentle sip.
With sparkling eyes, Mu Qingxue watched as Ling Yu slowly finished drinking. She then leaned right over, supporting herself with both hands on the edge of the bed, bringing her small face mere centimeters away from Ling Yu as she asked,
"Well, well?! How is it?"
After all, she couldn't remember how long it had been since she last cooked, and she was surely eager to know whether her culinary skills were still as good as they used to be.
Ling Yu savored the flavor carefully. The soup had a faint aroma upon entering the mouth, with a slightly bitter aftertaste. To his surprise, the soup actually contained spiritual energy.
Only... it was weak, extremely weak!
"Miss Mu's culinary skills are truly peerless..."
Before Ling Yu could finish, Mu Qingxue proudly interrupted, "Of course! With this lady's cooking, there isn't a single soul in the entire Forest of Ten Thousand Demons who can compare!"
Ling Yu smiled awkwardly. Right, because you're the only person here who knows how to cook...
Ling Yu gave an awkward laugh and went along with her words to flatter her, "Miss Mu is indeed peerless in this Forest of Ten Thousand Demons!"
After that, neither of them spoke. Mu Qingxue quietly watched as Ling Yu finished the soup, then took the bowl back, turned around, and said,
"I'm going down to the stream to clean up. Don't move around recklessly. The wound on your back still needs its medicine changed; wait for me to come back and change it."
"Alright, sorry to trouble you, Miss Mu!"
After Mu Qingxue left, Ling Yu carefully examined the interior of the wooden house. His bed was positioned against the far wall, set across the room, with a wooden table at the foot of the bed and a window right above the table. Next to the wooden table stood a bookshelf filled with volumes whose book covers had already turned yellow. Near the door was a stove built from clay and green bricks—though simple in materials, it was exquisitely crafted.
Aside from those, there was only a small wooden cupboard next to the stove used for storing bowls and chopsticks.
Ling Yu suddenly realized there seemed to be only this single bed. Where was Mu Qingxue going to sleep tonight?
After pondering for a moment, Ling Yu finally made a bold decision.
Since he was currently under someone else's roof, he had no choice but to sacrifice himself for the greater good, let Mu Qingxue sleep on the bed, and allow himself to be taken advantage of if it came to that. After all, who else was such a "good person"?
After a long while, seeing that Mu Qingxue had not yet returned and unable to walk around on his own, he began to ponder his future...
Yet the deeper he thought, the more his headache grew. His meridians were shattered entirely, and he might never be able to cultivate again unless he encountered a fortuitous opportunity—and a tremendously powerful one at that. Otherwise, he would spend the rest of his life unable to practice cultivation once more, reduced to a cripple.
Although the Ling Family's Scripture Pavilion contained records stating that miraculous medicines and beast spiritual cores still existed in the world which could rebuild and strengthen shattered meridians, such miraculous medicines were recorded to number only a little over a hundred in the entire world, and moreover, they grew in the vicinity of the Tianling Spring located deep in the center of the Forest of Ten Thousand Demons where he currently found himself.
Beast spiritual cores were even harder to come by, for such beasts were extremely rare, and even if one encountered them, they were exceedingly difficult to slay, as anything capable of nurturing a spiritual core was undoubtedly at or above the Fa-Yao Realm.
The realms of Demon Beasts were categorized as follows: Initial Demon, Spirit Demon, General Demon, Fa-Yao Realm, Demon King, and Demon Emperor, with each realm further divided into three tiers.
Thinking of this, Ling Yu racked his brains to no avail, unable to come up with any solution. For now, he could only slowly absorb spiritual energy, using it to reconnect a tiny fraction of his meridians so that he might at least be able to walk.
In the blink of an eye, evening arrived. Mu Qingxue opened the door, carrying a basket filled with numerous medicinal herbs. Placing the basket on the wooden table, she walked over to Ling Yu's side. Sensing someone approaching, Ling Yu slowly opened his bright eyes and let out a long breath of turbid air.
"How does it feel?"
Mu Qingxue looked at Ling Yu and asked.
"I'm currently trying to use spiritual energy to reconnect my meridians so I can support myself while walking."
"If you want to heal your injuries, you can actually use a beast spiritual core to rebuild your meridians," Mu Qingxue said calmly.
"I know, but how could obtaining a beast spiritual core be an easy task? With my current strength, slaying a beast at or above the Fa-Yao Realm would be as difficult as ascending to the heavens.
To make matters worse, walking freely is already a problem for me right now; how can I even speak of slaying a beast?"
Mu Qingxue considered this problem as well. It was indeed true.
Suddenly, a thought struck her, and she said excitedly, "You don't necessarily have to kill the beast. Actually, you can just make it hand over its spiritual core of its own accord. Losing a spiritual core does no major harm to a beast; it merely binds it in a contract with whoever absorbs the core!"
A beast spiritual core was a carrier of immense spiritual energy condensed at the Dantian over many years of cultivation by a beast that had reached the Fa-Yao Realm, and the vast spiritual energy contained within it was more than enough to rebuild shattered meridians.
If Tianling grass could be described as an extremely gentle medicine, then a beast spiritual core was a violently potent one.
Tianling grass reconnected meridians through gentle medicinal properties, making it comparatively mild.
In contrast, a beast spiritual core forced the regeneration of meridians, reconstructing them through sheer overwhelming spiritual energy, making it much more aggressive.
Ling Yu asked, "But how can one make a beast willingly hand over its spiritual core?"
"This..."
She truly hadn't thought of that point. Beasts and humans had stood as opposing forces for tens of thousands of years, incompatible as fire and water. Aside from twenty-three years ago, when a human Sword Sovereign and a demonic Demon Emperor fell in love and later retreated into seclusion in the mountains, that single instance remained the only one in ten thousand years.
When beasts and humans crossed paths over the millennia, they invariably fought to the death; how could one ever expect a beast to voluntarily hand over its spiritual core and bind itself in a contract with him?
After pondering for a moment, Mu Qingxue decided to stop thinking about it. She was foolish to begin with; if she thought any harder, she'd only become even more foolish!
"Lie face down, I'm going to apply medicine for you!"
Ling Yu complied, unafraid that Mu Qingxue might harm him, because in his current state, she wouldn't even need to waste effort on poison—she could just finish him off directly.
Watching Ling Yu flip himself over and lie flat on the bed, Mu Qingxue wore a look of slight shock. Could this human really not be afraid that she might use poison on him?
With that thought, Mu Qingxue unwrapped the bandages on Ling Yu's back.
As the bandages came off, three wide claw marks were shockingly revealed, though merely three days had passed, the wounds had already completely scabbed over and were nearing the point of shedding.
This made Mu Qingxue rather curious about what kind of physique this person had, possessing such a terrifying recovery ability.
She crushed the medicinal herbs and spread them evenly across the wounds. These were top-tier medicinal herbs that required extremely harsh growing conditions; if anyone knowledgeable in medicine were to see them, they would undoubtedly be utterly shocked!
Mu Qingxue pulled out a fresh bandage, preparing to wrap it around him, but the need to thread the bandage underneath Ling Yu's body left her in a dilemma.
Although it had been the same the previous few times, Ling Yu had been unconscious back then, and she hadn't felt embarrassed.
Now, however, Ling Yu was wide awake, leaving her with no way to proceed.
"Um... Ling Yu, could you prop yourself up a bit with your arms? I need to pass the bandage underneath..."
Hearing this, Ling Yu's weathered face flushed red. Without a word, he complied, keeping his arms flat and using his elbows to lift his upper body slightly.
Holding the bandage, Mu Qingxue reached across Ling Yu's chest to thread it through. As her hand inadvertently brushed against Ling Yu's chest, a layer of rosy blush slowly crept up her icy-crystal, jade-like face...