After waiting for a while, his stomach growled even louder, but Senior Sister had yet to return.
As someone playing the role of the heavily injured, Fang Xuan couldn’t exactly run around or sit up to meditate and cultivate. Just waiting there was incredibly dull.
The warm sunlight basked over him, and waves of drowsiness began to wash over him.
Forget it, I'll just squint for a bit to recover some energy.
The faint, cold fragrance of Ning Xian still lingered on the quilt, and it was surprisingly helpful for sleep.
Before long, he drifted off.
His consciousness sank into darkness, then slowly bobbed back up......
Fang Xuan felt as if he... had woken up again?
But the surrounding environment was wrong.
There was no dilapidated bamboo hut, and no windows filled with sunlight.
As far as his eyes could see, everything was a dizzying shade of red.
Beneath him was a bed laid with a bright red brocade quilt, and the air was thick with a warm, heavy fragrance.
He tried to move.
But his entire body was soft and weak, lacking even a shred of strength as if his bones had been removed.
Specifically in his lower back, waves of soreness and aching pain radiated outward. That feeling......
What was going on?
Alarmed, Fang Xuan tried to prop himself up to assess the situation, but his arms were too weak to hold his weight.
At that moment, a slightly cool, small hand pressed against his shoulder, pinning him back down into the bedding.
Fang Xuan looked up and met a pair of familiar, cold eyes.
Ning Xian?
But the Ning Xian before him seemed different from the cold senior sister he knew.
She wore a thin, red gauze robe, her ink-black hair cascading down with a few strands brushing against his face.
Those eyes, which were usually calm and placid, were now veiled with a layer of watery mist, and the corners of her eyes were even stained with a faint, rosy tint.
Her breathing also seemed more rapid than usual, her warm breath brushing against the side of his neck.
"Senior... Senior Sister?"
Fang Xuan’s throat felt parched.
This scene and this atmosphere felt wrong no matter how he looked at it.
Ning Xian didn’t answer. She only watched him silently with those mist-shrouded eyes. Then, she leaned down and began to use her teeth to gently pull apart the ties of his inner robes.
"Wait, Senior Sister! What... what are you doing?"
Fang Xuan panicked and tried to struggle, but his meager strength was useless under her seemingly gentle yet firm restraint.
"Training you......"
His lapels were easily pulled open.
What happened next completely exceeded the boundaries of Fang Xuan’s understanding......
His aching waist was tightly restrained, and his body became as soft as a puddle of mud......
His train of thought fractured......
After an unknown amount of time, everything finally came to a temporary halt.
Fang Xuan lay paralyzed in the messy red brocade bedding, his eyes staring blankly at the swaying red gauze curtains above.
He felt as if his body no longer belonged to him, especially his waist... it felt like it was about to break.
Before he could even catch his breath, that cool hand stroked his side again.
Fang Xuan’s entire body stiffened. Using the last ounce of his strength, he turned his head in horror.
Ning Xian lay on her side next to him. One hand moved to his neck while the other was rhythmically kneading his waist with moderate pressure.
Seeing Fang Xuan look over, she tilted her head slightly.
"Are you rested?"
Fang Xuan was speechless!
No more!
His protest was ineffective.....
A second time, a third, a fourth......
He felt like he was about to break.
Finally, during the seventh interval.
Fang Xuan felt a sliver of strength return to him.
Taking advantage of the moment when Ning Xian seemed to have temporarily relaxed her guard, he grit his teeth and used his trembling arms to inch toward the edge of the bed.
His fingers tremblingly touched the floor.
He reached it. As long as he moved a bit more, he could roll off the bed and then......
But just then.
A cool, small hand gripped his ankle.
Fang Xuan’s heart instantly plummeted.
He turned his head back inch by inch.
Ning Xian had sat up at some point and was watching him silently. A trace of extremely faint displeasure seemed to flicker in those cold eyes.
Then, she gave a gentle tug.
His entire body was dragged back into the center of the soft, red bed......
.......
"No......"
Fang Xuan bolted upright in bed.
He opened his eyes wide, looking around in a state of lingering fear.
The familiar bamboo hut, the familiar plain bed curtains, the familiar cold medicinal fragrance... and the bright, almost piercing sunlight outside the window.
Thank goodness... thank goodness.
It was a dream.
"That scared the life out of me......"
He let out a long sigh of relief. He felt as if the lingering soreness from being repeatedly kneaded still remained in his waist, causing him to raise a hand to rub it.
Was it really a case of 'dreaming at night what one thinks of by day'?
It must have been that demonic prompt from the system yesterday about "craving the master's body" and "requesting union" that had planted an evil seed in his subconscious.
And that damned training progress.
.......
However... the senior sister in the dream... that final look she gave him when she dragged him back......
Now that the dream had ended, he actually felt a bit of a loss......
At that thought, he shivered and quickly shook his head, tossing those dangerous images out of his mind.
......
Composing himself, he looked out the window.
The sun was already high in the sky; it looked like noon.
It seemed he had slept for quite a while.
A faint aroma of food drifted in from outside.
Was Senior Sister cooking?
Just as he was thinking this, the bamboo door was pushed open.
Ning Xian walked in carrying a tray. On the tray was a bowl of steaming soup that was... a bit deep in color.
She saw at a glance that Fang Xuan was sitting up. His complexion seemed better, but his eyes were still a bit dazed, and there was even sweat on his forehead.
Her fingers tightening around the edge of the tray before she loosened them again.
"Eat... eat. You don't need to get out of bed."
Fang Xuan waved his hands hurriedly, struggling to get up while his voice sounded weak: "I don't want to trouble Senior Sister, I can do it myself......"
He propped one hand on the edge of the bed and placed his feet on the floor. Just as he tried to stand, his legs went soft, and his body swayed as if he were about to fall at any moment.
Ning Xian put the tray down almost instantly and steadily supported his arm.
"Go back to bed," Ning Xian’s tone was slightly heavier than before.
Fang Xuan gave a submissive "oh" and obediently let himself be guided back to sit on the edge of the bed.
After settling him, Ning Xian turned to pick up the soup bowl from the tray.
Only when her back was turned to Fang Xuan did she lightly bite her lower lip.
Was her tone too harsh just now? He was so heavily injured, yet she acted like that...... she shouldn't have.
She steadied herself and walked to the bedside with a bowl of pitch-black soup, handing it to Fang Xuan.
Fang Xuan took the bowl; it was warm to the touch.
He looked down at the thick black liquid and the few equally dark, unidentifiably shaped... chunks of meat floating inside.
Wait, why was the meat still moving!
"Senior... Senior Sister, this soup smells quite unique. What kind of meat is this?"
Ning Xian stood by the bed. Hearing this, a flash of embarrassment crossed her cold face, but she quickly regained her composure and explained in a matter-of-fact tone.
"The consciousness of the black tai sui in the wine jar yesterday was wiped out by you. It would be a waste to throw away the body."
"Although this thing is... unsightly, it is the best for nourishing one’s origin qi and has miraculous effects on healing."
Fang Xuan was speechless.
Black... tai sui? So that was the thing haunting the jar yesterday.
But how did she manage to stew it so that it was... overflowing with charred fragrance?
It... probably... maybe wouldn't move around inside his stomach, right?
And it wouldn't... give birth to a daughter or something... right?
Rate on N.U.
