As the transmission talisman turned into a final wisp of green smoke at her fingertips, Su Li's face, which had been tense all day, finally relaxed, and a faint smile appeared.
She paid no mind to the fine ashes of the talisman slipping through her fingers and staining her fair skin. As if talking to herself, or perhaps whispering to the vermilion bird resting its wings on her shoulder, she murmured, “It seems luck really does balance out. Just after suffering a setback with that old man Bai today, I turn around and stumble upon such an unexpected surprise. The Ten Thousand Formations Sect...”
As if thinking of some mouth-watering delicacy, Su Li instinctively stuck out her pink tongue, lightly licking her dry red lips as she whispered, “If I can get my hands on the inheritance of the Ten Thousand Formations Sect, my Beast Taming Sect will never have to live under the Sword Sect's thumb again...” Her gaze gradually grew fanatical and sharp. “It seems I must make this trip personally. I absolutely cannot let those two slip away. When the time comes, with both the Glass Sword Body and the Formation Dao inheritance in hand, why should I worry about the Beast Taming Sect not rising to greatness?”
The more Su Li spoke, the more excited she became. Her breathing quickened, her chest heaving violently, and a look of pure greed flashed in her eyes. In the white jade plate beside her, several calamity seeds used to divine heavenly secrets had long since lost their luster, looking like stones drained of life. Beneath the celestial light invisible to ordinary eyes, within the golden fortune hovering over Su Li's head, a streak of murky blackness grew silently thicker, like dark ink dropped into clear water, quietly spreading.
The house issue was never resolved, but Lu Yan decisively took Jiang Ci down the mountain anyway. There was actually not much to pack—just a few ordinary daily necessities, some emergency pills and medicinal herbs, plus the bronze elixir furnace he had spent a fortune on. Everything could fit into his storage bag. Traveling light, he only needed to carry Jiang Ci on his back.
However, a new problem quickly arose.
Jiang Ci was still wearing his oversized outer robe. She did not even have the most basic undergarments. He could not let a young lady go into town wrapped only in a man's robe. But this matter was truly tricky for the two of them—one was a martial fanatic whose head was filled only with sword moves, and the other was a “blind man” who usually only groped around to patch up cracks in formations. Who among them would think about what kind of undergarments to buy for a woman?
Ultimately, Lu Yan had to bite the bullet and head out. After finishing his odd jobs at the Abandoned Guest Hall, he looped around the streets three times to make sure no one was watching before slipping into a tailor shop. Amidst the proprietress's enthusiastic, almost deafening recommendations, he paid for the items with a red face and a bad stutter, walking away with three undergarments of poorly estimated sizes. The entire experience left him dying of shame and embarrassment.
Returning to their lodging, he stuffed the cloth bag into Jiang Ci's arms, sat down at the table with his head lowered, and began chugging mind-clearing tea. Going from a cold first pot to a boiling hot second pot, he managed to drink his small, treasured jar of mind-clearing grass until it lost all its flavor.
Jiang Ci glanced at the fabric inside the bag—one was a plain cotton white, while the other two had rather tacky floral patterns. Without thinking much of it, she untied her outer robe and began trying them on.
The rustling of fabric was right beside him. Lu Yan froze completely, nearly choking on the tea in his mouth. He swallowed the tea in a flurry and cried out in frustration, “I'm still in here! Couldn't you wait until I went outside to change?”
Jiang Ci paused, as if only just realizing the issue. She looked at Lu Yan, whose ears were completely red, and asked in pure confusion, “But you can't see, right?”
Lu Yan took a deep breath, feeling the veins on his forehead throbbing. Not being able to see was one thing, but he wasn't actually blind—besides, it wasn't like he hadn't seen... Cough, that was besides the point. Of course, he only dared to let those thoughts swirl in his mind. In Little Jiang's mind, he had probably been an honest, duty-bound old blind man from the very beginning. He simply stood up, ignoring the light drizzle still falling outside, and took a few steps out the door, plonking himself down on the threshold.
Jiang Ci realized he was embarrassed, and a light blush spread from her cheeks all the way down her neck. She couldn't help but curl her lips slightly, but when she looked down and saw the tightly wrapped bandages around her chest, her smile quietly faded. She pursed her lips, an inexplicable sourness rising in her heart. Sitting on the edge of the bed in silence for a moment, she finally began to put on the plain white undergarment.
“I'm done,” her voice called out from inside. “You can come in.”
Lu Yan let out a long breath from the threshold, feeling as though he had recited the Heart-Clearing Mantra so many times he was about to achieve enlightenment. The atmosphere in the room was a bit awkward, so he forced himself to strike up a conversation. “Um... is the size okay? I bought it on the larger side, so it might be a bit loose...”
“It's a bit tight,” Jiang Ci said after a pause. “But it's wearable.”
Lu Yan froze. What do you mean, a bit tight? It wasn't as if he hadn't caught a glimpse when he first brought her back and bandaged her up. He had clearly estimated the size based on a large. How could it still be tight?
“Then... just make do with it for now,” he said, rubbing his temples with a helpless sigh. “Once we get to the city, I'll take you to get a replacement.”
“Oh,” Jiang Ci replied flatly. She didn't mind the tight fit. In fact, she preferred it—it made it easier to move, and there would be no excess fabric to get in the way when she swung her sword. Back when she was in the Sword Sect, the undergarments they distributed were always excessively loose, and she always had to sew on a strap herself to bind them tight.
Once the rain stopped, Lu Yan carried Jiang Ci on his back again and set off. The mountain path was slippery, with puddles of varying depths. Clinging to his back, Jiang Ci would occasionally tap his shoulder to guide him: a mud pit on the left, a loose rock ahead, three steps to the right to avoid a hidden puddle. Although he was carrying the weight of another person, Lu Yan found it much easier than walking blindfolded on his own.
The only thing that made him a bit uneasy was her faint fragrance—a crisp cedar scent mixed with a subtle hint of jasmine, made even more distinct by the damp post-rain air. It wrapped around him like a dense net. The soft sensation against his back didn't feel like carrying a person, but rather like carrying a quilt thoroughly warmed by the sun.
Jiang Ci was quite considerate, asking every now and then if he was tired or if he wanted to rest, offering to get down and walk with her staff for a bit. Lu Yan rejected her flatly every single time with righteous indignation. What a joke, how could a man say he couldn't do it? These were nothing but restless, stray thoughts. If they dared to creep into his head again, he'd chop them right off!
Upon arriving at Black Mountain Fort, Lu Yan first settled Jiang Ci in an inn, then began to plan for their lodging. It wasn't that he hadn't looked at houses over the past couple of days, but no matter the world, housing prices were always an immovable mountain. For a common, single-courtyard house, they dared to demand a thousand spirit crystals—which was equivalent to a hundred thousand spirit stones. Was this highway robbery or extortion? But the problem was that Black Mountain Fort was indeed safe. Not only was it close to Beizhou City, but the continuous mountain ranges around it also formed a natural barrier, preventing those unintelligent Ice Spirits from ever reaching this place.
He weighed his options but couldn't make up his mind, so he decided to try his luck at the property agency first. If all else failed, there was actually a cheaper option—he could take Jiang Ci to live in the Abandoned Guest Hall. There were several vacant rooms upstairs, and it wouldn't cost any spirit stones. But the place was disguised as a brothel. Letting Jiang Ci live in a brothel? Lu Yan immediately extinguished that thought, deciding that taking on a few more jobs was no big deal.
Having made up his mind, he returned to the inn first.
“A premium room? You got it!” The inn waiter wore a welcoming smile, but his eyes darted between the two of them several times. A blind man carrying a woman wearing an ill-fitting outer robe, with bandages faintly visible around her neck—it was a truly bizarre combination. However, Black Mountain Fort was a mixed bag of all sorts of people, and the waiter had seen enough of the world. Tactfully refraining from asking questions, he turned to lead them upstairs, speaking briskly, “Take your time, customer. The stairs are right here. There are nine steps in total, you can count them as you go—”
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