Gu Qianying walked over and helped Duan Xifeng up, "Are you dead yet?"
Duan Xifeng chuckled, "You're disappointed."
"Mm."
Gu Qianying replied indifferently.
Duan Xifeng coughed heavily and then laughed, "Your Uncle Master will eventually be angered to death by you, girl."
"Mm, then your little niece will wait..." Gu Qianying paused. After steadying Duan Xifeng, she took a pill from the small medicine pouch she kept close, pried open Duan Xifeng's mouth, and unceremoniously threw the pill into his mouth. She then continued, "Wait to collect your corpse."
Duan Xifeng: "..."
If it were before, Duan Xifeng would never have taken anything from anyone. He trusted no one, not even Gu Qianying.
But after what had just happened, his wariness of Gu Qianying had lessened considerably, so he didn't ask what kind of pill Gu Qianying had given him.
If Gu Qianying had wanted to do anything to him, she wouldn't have bothered saving him just now.
Master Yixiu was dead, and Master Yuanji was severely injured.
Gu Qianying and Duan Xifeng were both heavily injured, their conditions no better than Master Yuanji's.
"Only one old man left, are we still killing him?"
After swallowing the pill, Duan Xifeng seemed to regain some strength. He picked up the sword that had fallen to the ground.
"Kill!"
A cold glint appeared in Gu Qianying's eyes.
Being soft-hearted towards enemies is being cruel to oneself!
Having killed his companions, she didn't believe that this master before her would mercifully let her and Duan Xifeng live.
Since the outcome was either they died or he died, why should she court death?
"Duan Xifeng, don't you think our actions today were a bit too grand? We only came here to retrieve my mother's remains, not to kill any important figures. Yet we encountered two great figures at the Martial Venerable level. Isn't that a bit..."
Gu Qianying was very puzzled, but her confusion only lasted for a moment. Her primary goal at the moment was to retrieve her mother's remains; she didn't want to inquire about anything else.
But Duan Xifeng winked at her, "Little niece, do you know that there is a medicine in this world that can bring the dead back to life? This medicine requires Ice Spirit Grass and the blood of the Lotus Emperor as its medicinal guide. Then, with true qi, this medicine is delivered into the patient's abdomen. Finally, using acupuncture to unblock the Ren and Du meridians, and after being concocted in medicinal soup for forty-nine days, one can be brought back to life.
In the martial world, it is rumored that precious spiritual herbs like Ice Spirit Grass grow one plant every ten years, and they are found in places covered in ice and snow. However, they cannot grow in snowy weather..."
Before Duan Xifeng could finish speaking, Gu Qianying interrupted him, "You mean this is where Ice Spirit Grass is grown?"
Duan Xifeng nodded, "If it were before, perhaps I wouldn't have believed it, but judging from all the signs, it truly is."
Gu Qianying sized up Duan Xifeng, "So, your purpose in coming here with me was to obtain the Ice Spirit Grass, and who do you want to save?"
When she learned from Duan Xifeng that there was a spiritual medicine in the world that could bring people back to life, she was extremely excited. However, at that moment, she also knew that when seemingly coincidental events occurred, the experiences were not coincidental but deliberate.
Just like Duan Xifeng, who had been following her for no apparent reason.
Gu Qianying absolutely did not believe that someone like Duan Xifeng, a smiling tiger, would help her because he found her beautiful?
If that were the case, why would he come to her with ulterior motives and "kindly" give her an antidote?
In her previous life, she clearly remembered that Duan Xifeng, the Pavilion Master of Xifeng Pavilion, would years later, through a formidable poison army he secretly cultivated, raze a small enemy country and establish his own small kingdom.
And that poison army, cultivated for many years, consisted of living dead poisoned and obeying him.
How could someone with such cunning and methods be a simple person?
Duan Xifeng looked at her and smiled, "Originally, I wanted to keep it for myself, but now I'm giving it to someone, as a life for a life."
Duan Xifeng said it very casually, as if the Ice Spirit Grass were already in his hands.
Gu Qianying looked at him.
Duan Xifeng suddenly leaned his face closer and chuckled, "Little niece, if you don't appreciate it, then forget it. Your Uncle Master will pretend he never said that."
Gu Qianying withdrew her gaze, no longer looking at him. Then, snatching the long sword from Duan Xifeng's hand, she held the sword with both hands and pointed it at Master Yuanji. Her voice drifted past Duan Xifeng's ear, "Kill him, and the Ice Spirit Grass will be mine. If you want to snatch it, I can kill you too!"
"..."
Duan Xifeng chuckled twice and fell silent.
Gu Qianying, holding twin swords, moved directly towards Master Yuanji.
Although Master Yuanji was injured, he was still able to deal with Gu Qianying with ease. However, he had not expected that the swords in Gu Qianying's hands and the silver needles she flicked at him were all feints during their fight.
Her true killing weapon was a silver hairpin. In close-quarters combat, she didn't use any internal energy.
With her hand gripping the silver hairpin, she stabbed out one of Master Yuanji's eyes. In pain, he grabbed Master Yuanji's shoulder with one hand and, with an over-the-shoulder throw, slammed him heavily onto the ground.
When Master Yuanji was injured earlier, his internal energy had already dissipated completely. While dealing with Gu Qianying, he had only retained the ability to protect himself. However, he had not expected that Gu Qianying would kill him using the most ordinary, most common, and even unpredictable close-quarters combat techniques.
Blood stained his robes. With only one eye able to see, the figure of the young woman walking towards the house gradually faded into the distance. The arm that had reached out into the air slowly fell, his pupils widened, and he was no more.
Inside the thatched hut, in the center, stood a transparent coffin made of glazed beads. The coffin was covered with thick wooden boards, on which several talismans were pasted. A chilling aura emanated from all around the coffin.
Beneath the coffin were some ancient books, and these books placed below were frozen by ice and snow.
Gu Qianying saw the person lying in the coffin as she approached from afar.
The moment she tore off the talismans and pushed open the wooden boards, her eyes welled up with tears, "Mother, your daughter is late."
Gu Qianying carefully lifted the First Madam from the coffin.
"Mother, let's go, we're going home."
Because she had placed a youth-preserving pill in her mother's mouth when burying her, her mother's appearance remained so exquisite.
The moment Gu Qianying lifted her mother's remains, suddenly, all the furnishings in the hut began to shake violently. The coffin, placed in the center, collapsed under the shaking.