The Dragon Bone Sword quietly pulled itself out of the soil and had just entered the great hall when it saw the black-haired young man holding that little spy in his arms.

The Nine Yin Profound Baleful Energy Formation was an ancient grand formation specifically designed to restrain sinful dragons. Having suffered heavy damage yesterday, at this very moment the sinful dragon should have been in such pain that not a single instant passed without agitation. Yet now he could actually sit there quietly, allowing the little spy to lie against him. This made the Dragon Bone Sword seriously suspect that while it had been buried in the dirt, Ji Wushu had been swapped out.

The young man quickly sensed the Dragon Bone Sword’s arrival and coughed as he gave a few instructions.

The Dragon Bone Sword understood his words. Just as it leapt up in shock, the sinful dragon had already closed his eyes. His attitude and expression vividly illustrated a simple and crude meaning: “You can get lost.”

The Dragon Bone Sword got lost. It even drifted outside to take a look at the Nine Yin Profound Baleful Energy Formation in the sky, only feeling that this dragon must have had his brain muddled by the fiendish qi.

Otherwise, why would this dragon order it to protect the little spy during the time when the Nine Yin Profound Baleful Energy Formation was activated?

Just half a month ago, when it had proposed going to protect the little spy, this sinful dragon had taken on a stance as if saying, “If you dare go, I’ll snap you in half and use you as firewood.” How was it that after one night, this sinful dragon had completely changed his attitude?

Although the Nine Yin Profound Baleful Energy Formation could absolutely not kill Ji Wushu, the pain was real. Even buried in the soil, the Dragon Bone Sword had felt it unbearably. One could imagine that Ji Wushu was definitely not as at ease as he appeared.

Looking at Ji Wushu’s pale complexion, the Dragon Bone Sword thought, You’re already like this, and you’re still worrying about the little spy?

But the Dragon Bone Sword did not dare disobey its master’s orders. It merely spun somewhat unsteadily in midair, drifted out in great confusion.

Strangely enough, before, it had thought the little spy looked very weak. Whenever it saw the sinful dragon casually wanting to slice her into hundreds and thousands of pieces, it would say again and again, “You mustn’t, you mustn’t.”

But now that the little spy was truly being treated differently by Ji Wushu, the Dragon Bone Sword’s vigilance and guard immediately rose.

Looking toward the formation in the sky that had yet to disperse, the Dragon Bone Sword felt it could not stray too far from the sinful dragon. No matter how dog-like the sinful dragon was, he was still its master.

The Dragon Bone Sword knew very clearly that its master had a streak of madness in him. This thousand-year calamity, even if it ended in another miserable victory, would not allow the so-called righteous path to succeed. But with the Nine Yin Profound Baleful Energy Formation set up with such grand momentum, how could it be resolved in just one or two attempts? What followed would inevitably be fiercer each time.

The existence of this little spy always made the Dragon Bone Sword somewhat uneasy.

After all, she was a spy sent by the Tianji Sect. The Dragon Bone Sword only felt that it needed to keep a close watch on this little spy.

The little spy certainly harbored ill intentions. Though her martial strength was low, what if she used a beauty trap!

﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌

Shu Tiantian’s memory only remained at the sight of that cold pool.

Half-dreaming and half-awake, she vaguely felt herself fall into a warm embrace, and so she was no longer cold. Probably having been frightened by the cold, even after recovering she refused to let go, lying in the person’s arms like a koala, hugging him.

Beneath the black cloak, the collar slightly revealed firm and beautiful musculature, like a creation of Nüwa¹Nüwa: A creator goddess in Chinese mythology who repaired the broken heavens and restored the world after a cosmic catastrophe. She is especially famous for mending the sky using colored stones.. The young man sat upon the seat, propping his chin, long hair hanging down, motionless as he looked at the little girl in his arms, not knowing what he was thinking.

When he finally closed his eyes in exhaustion, if not for his overly pale lips, no one would have imagined that this man who looked extremely terrifying and powerful had actually fallen into a brief coma.

In her half-dreaming state, Shu Tiantian only felt that the embrace carried a pleasant scent, warm and comforting. She vaguely sensed that she seemed to be holding someone; the broad embrace made her feel very secure.

Who was it? She did not know why, but in her half-dream she only felt that the person was a bit like… like that beautiful great demon.

In her muddled state, Shu Tiantian thought to herself that she must be dreaming beyond the heavens.

She opened her eyes. The one she was holding was indeed not the great demon, but that black dragon.

She was also no longer in that cold pool, but at the foot of the mountain.

It was just that the giant dragon’s body had shrunk considerably, no longer the enormous creature it had been at first—at least now it was of a size that allowed Shu Tiantian to hold onto a section of it while sleeping—

Of course, as for who was holding whom while sleeping, that was still a very debatable question.

And Shu Tiantian, whom the Tianji Sect elder had concluded would “certainly not dare approach a giant dragon because she was afraid of snakes,” after waking up felt no fear at all. Instead, unable to resist, her hands itched, and she touched both the dragon horns and the beautiful dragon scales.

At this moment, the black dragon seemed to have fallen into a deep sleep. The black-gold dragon scales did not feel rough to the touch, but rather warm and comfortable, so much so that when Shu Tiantian had been sleeping, she had even mistakenly thought she was holding a person.

So yesterday she went to find the dragon and fainted, and then the dragon brought her back?

You have to know, that little black cat—Shu Tiantian fed it for a full month before it reluctantly let her touch it once. But this dragon had, yet again, let her hug it while sleeping!

Shu Tiantian could keenly sense this dragon’s wariness and hatred toward humans, yet this black dragon, which looked ferocious on the outside, unexpectedly liked her very much. Not only did it let her rub against it, it was even willing to let her hold it while sleeping.

Such a ferocious creature showing such a gentle side in front of her—clearly this dragon liked her very much too. Wouldn’t that mean her grand plan of secretly raising a dragon was going extremely smoothly right from the start?!

Shu Tiantian stroked the majestic black dragon scales and felt as if her whole person was floating, wanting nothing more than to hug the dragon and rub against it wildly.

However, after the brief surprise, Shu Tiantian, as a medical cultivator, quickly realized something was wrong.

She circled the coiled dragon’s body and examined it carefully, only to see that the wounds that had not changed for a thousand years had, because of the presence of fiendish qi, actually worsened.

And the black dragon, whose body temperature had already been high, now radiated a heat that was somewhat frightening. If not for Shu Tiantian’s Heavenly Yin constitution—a walking refrigerator—she probably would have noticed something abnormal from the start.

Could the dragon be… running a fever?

Although there were no records on how to scientifically raise a dragon, Shu Tiantian was a doctor. She quickly realized that this was very dangerous.

The external injuries caused by that day’s yin-fiend qi had accelerated the invasion of miasma.

Shu Tiantian probed inside and was startled by the surging miasma within. A little anxious, she rummaged through her storage pouch, pulled out the Qingxin Xu Ming Pills she had refined last time, and fed them all to the dragon in one go.

Profound-rank pills were sufficient for cultivators, but who knew whether they would work on a giant dragon. If this fever continued, Shu Tiantian did not know whether something might happen.

But fortunately, once the Qingxin Xu Ming Pills were fed, they quickly formed a thin barrier, continuously emitting vitality. The miasma that had been raging and surging into the dragon’s body finally calmed down.

Although the high fever did not subside, the condition stabilized and did not worsen further.

Yet Shu Tiantian felt slightly troubled.

The problem was that the pill’s rank was not high, and this dragon was not something ordinary medicine could handle. Based on common sense, Shu Tiantian estimated that this should be a Heaven-rank or higher spirit beast. At the very least, Earth-rank pills would only begin to be effective.

She used Profound-rank Qingxin pills to construct a barrier to block the miasma from entering the body—it probably would not last long, and the miasma here was far too dense.

The best barrier against miasma was actually the dragon’s own scales and flesh. It was probably precisely because of this that someone had used yin-fiend qi to deal with the giant dragon.

Fiendish qi was formed from the resentment of those who had died unjust deaths—humans and spirit beasts alike. If the dragon itself was strong, all evils would not dare approach; but once the dragon weakened, this fiendish qi became the perfect means to deal with such an auspicious divine beast.

Miasma was usually abundant, yet it could not penetrate the indestructible dragon body. But yin-fiend qi could carve many openings in the dragon’s body, allowing the miasma to take advantage and invade.

Once Shu Tiantian understood this, she felt the method was so sinister it made her spine turn cold. Wasn’t it like letting someone be bitten into countless wounds by ants, then releasing leeches onto the wounds to suck them dry of blood?

She did not know who had done this, but she already felt chilled to the bone toward whoever had come up with such a method.

No matter what, the most urgent task now was to treat the giant dragon’s external injuries.

Old wounds were actually manageable, but the newly inflicted wounds were caused by fiendish qi, making them extremely troublesome. The golden-red blood seeping from beneath the dragon scales had almost all turned black.

Shu Tiantian rummaged through the Medicine God Bell until she turned it upside down.

Coincidentally, the Medicine God Bell contained pills that could dispel fiendish qi, but it was an Earth-rank pill formula called the Jing Sha Pill, and it came from the Buddhist sect. For this kind of fiendish qi, it could not be more suitable.

Actually, Shu Tiantian could not currently refine Earth-rank pills, but she was not worried. Her way of solving problems had always been simple and direct—if she could not produce Earth-rank effects and the result was discounted, then she would just stack quantity.

Fortunately, the spirit herbs Poison Lady had bought for Shu Tiantian were plentiful. Even though two ingredients were missing, Shu Tiantian could find substitutes—though the spirit herbs’ grades were somewhat low, so the effects naturally were not as good as described in the Earth-rank pill formula.

However, if quality was lacking, she would make up for it with quantity.

Yes, Shu Tiantian was preparing to boil several pots of Profound-rank pill paste.

Although the quality was not high and could not achieve the immediate cure of Earth-rank pills, Shu Tiantian could smear the paste all over the dragon’s body. No matter how much fiendish qi there was, Shu Tiantian believed that as long as the Jing Sha pill paste covered the entire dragon, even dogs wouldn’t sniff it… no, rather, all fiendish qi would be unable to approach!

As long as the fiendish qi on the surface of the wounds was removed, healing would be very fast.

To save time and effort, Shu Tiantian directly took out the small cauldron from inside the Medicine God Bell.

The small cauldron looked unremarkable, but on its base were written the two characters “Medicine God.” Shu Tiantian was well-informed, yet she could not tell what grade the cauldron was. She only knew that this medicine cauldron had the effect of accelerating pill refinement, and the pill formation rate was extremely high. After using it once, Shu Tiantian had treated it as a treasure.

But Shu Tiantian did not know that when the medicine cauldron, smooth and gleaming, was taken out, the Dragon Bone Sword—floating behind her and observing secretly—trembled along its blade—

A Heaven-rank medicine cauldron!

Strictly speaking, it was a Heaven-rank medicine cauldron still in the process of growth, which meant that it had the possibility of becoming a divine artifact.

The Dragon Bone Sword was formed from the Dragon God’s bone; it had been a divine artifact from the moment of its birth. Yet in the cultivation world for hundreds and thousands of years, it had never seen a treasure of the same rank as itself. Only this medicine cauldron had the potential to grow into a divine artifact. How could the Dragon Bone Sword not be shocked?

It was just that the Medicine God Cauldron’s artifact spirit was incomplete at this time and could not communicate with the Dragon Bone Sword.

The Dragon Bone Sword stared thoughtfully at the little spy, only feeling that her background might not be simple, yet becoming even more confused: Tianji Sect sent a spy—how did the little spy also come with a buy-one-get-one-free Heaven-rank medicine cauldron?

It was, well, quite generous.

However, very soon, the Dragon Bone Sword watched helplessly as this medicine cauldron which in the past had shaken the cultivation world and caused countless people to fight over it—

Was, through Shu Tiantian’s exquisite methods and superb techniques, filled completely with spirit herbs, refining a full cauldron of medicinal liquid mass from Profound-rank high-grade Jing Sha Pills.

If successful, it would have been a furnace producing nearly twenty pills—something that could be called a miracle! But Shu Tiantian did not shape them into pills. With a slap, she patted the medicinal mass into a suspiciously shaped lump of paste.

Shu Tiantian repeated the process of adding herbs and refining semi-finished products, forcibly turning this lofty pill refinement into bubbling, witch-like soup brewing.

The sword behind her cast a sympathetic gaze toward the Medicine God Cauldron.

Yet at this moment, the Dragon Bone Sword still did not know what Shu Tiantian was about to do to its master. It only saw the little spy take out a knife, gauze, and even set up a fire.

Thus the Dragon Bone Sword watched helplessly as Shu Tiantian wiped her sweat, sat cross-legged by the wound, and took out the knife.

Yes, Shu Tiantian was preparing to scrape away the blackened wounds that had been eroded by fiendish qi.

But in the Dragon Bone Sword’s eyes, its pupils shook violently.

Could it be that this little spy’s dreams were so ambitious that she intended to slice Ji Wushu up and roast him to eat?

Just then, that pot of dreadful-looking medicinal soup was bubbling vigorously.

The Dragon Bone Sword recalled in horror—yes, that manner of dumping in spirit herbs all at once, how did that look like pill refinement? It clearly looked like adding side ingredients, preparing to boil dragon meat soup!

Heavens!

Footnotes

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  Nüwa: A creator goddess in Chinese mythology who repaired the broken heavens and restored the world after a cosmic catastrophe. She is especially famous for mending the sky using colored stones.