Qin Yi couldn't sleep; he was still busy preparing medicine. Liu Su claimed to have many herbs to borrow from the Moonlight, which forced him to work through the night.
“Red Fire Grass, just take the tip, one inch; Cold Bamboo Flower, only the center of the flower. Then add three drops of Golden Toad's pus and mix it with Moonlight dew, pound it repeatedly… Qin Yi, don’t use me to crush the medicine!”
“I’m lucky I didn’t feed you toad poop! What’s this Golden Toad’s pus? If I add that in, it won’t be body refining liquid but itching powder!”
“What do you know? This is called the Emperor and Ministers working together, balancing Yin and Yang…”
“Cut the nonsense! Last time you taught me to make Stone Skin Water, you added some weird rock powder, and I ended up itching for three days! And the time before that…”
Liu Su interrupted confidently, “To refine your body, you have to endure what others can’t. Do you think practicing martial arts is just eating and sleeping?”
“I can’t believe your nonsense!” Qin Yi angrily added three drops of pus, grabbed the wolf fang club, and smashed it into the stone mortar, imagining smashing someone’s head in there, with their legs kicking outside the mortar, which gave him some comfort.
“Qin Yi, you jerk!”
“Shut up, you stinky stick!”
He had been studying pharmacology and alchemy for a while now, and as his knowledge deepened, Qin Yi began to suspect that some of these things weren’t necessary. It felt like this annoying stick was purposely making him add useless but harmless ingredients to get back at him for ruining its possession. Even the so-called Moonlight borrowing sounded unreliable; he wondered if that was fake too.
But as an intern, he didn’t have the confidence to overturn his mentor’s advice, so he had to keep following Liu Su’s prescriptions, getting tricked day after day.
Right now, Qin Yi was refining body strengthening medicine.
Although he hadn’t learned any cultivation methods, he was studying martial arts.
The martial skills didn’t come from Liu Su but were inherent to the original owner of the body, who even had a manual. However, it seemed he wasn’t practicing it correctly, so he wasn’t that good. Liu Su, on the other hand, knew many advanced techniques, even how to use a club…
The original owner was just average at martial arts, but his blood could open Liu Su's strange space. Qin Yi knew there was something odd about it; even the villagers probably didn’t know the whole story. Liu Su should know something, but no matter how he asked, Liu Su would always change the subject.
There were a lot of secrets hidden away, and trusting this stinky stick was a joke.
“Pound it repeatedly eighty-one times to make the medicine uniform and a light red paste, then start refining?”
“Uh… refine, refine my foot… uh…” The wolf fang club was moving in and out of the mortar, struggling, “You’re only refining the medicine base for now; you still need a piece of Purple Lotus Root as the main ingredient!”
Qin Yi was taken aback: “Purple Lotus Root…”
“Do you think this broken mountain has all kinds of herbs? Even in the county town, there’s hardly anything good. You need to get out of here, kid, go to a better place, to the land of immortals. What future can you have in this broken place? Dreaming of refining medicine?”
Qin Yi stopped pounding the medicine, pursed his lips, and fell into thought. After a long while, he said, “Let’s deal with the mountain problems first.”
He didn’t say anything more, picked up a bucket of water, sprinkled it with the Stone Skin Water he had made before, and mixed it into a batch of body refining liquid. Then he stripped down completely and slowly soaked himself in the water in the courtyard under the moonlight.
Not long after he soaked in, before the medicine’s power could spread, the courtyard door was kicked open with a loud bang. Li Qingjun came in, holding a gun in one hand and a wild rabbit in the other, shouting, “Cheater…”
Before she could finish, a water bag above her suddenly burst, and a strange milky white liquid poured down on her head. Li Qingjun instinctively tried to dodge forward, but how could she escape from such a short distance? She got completely drenched, her face and hair soaked.
And that wasn’t all; as she stumbled forward, her foot stepped on something, and a vine wrapped tightly around her ankle. Li Qingjun tried to use her strength to break free, but the water she was drenched in was strange, making her feel weak, and the vine seemed specially made; her weakened energy couldn’t break it.
With a “whoosh,” the vine pulled her up, and with a scream, she was lifted upside down, hanging from the door frame, swaying back and forth.
At the same time, two more vines came from the sides, wrapping her hands tightly.
“Qin…” Li Qingjun gritted her teeth, just about to speak, when the liquid that had splattered on her chin poured back into her mouth, leaving her making muffled sounds.
Her eyes were also covered in the mess; looking upside down, she could vaguely see Qin Yi seemingly shrinking in the bucket, staring at her in shock.
From the moment she burst in to being hung upside down, it took only a breath. Qin Yi didn’t even react before a girl was hanging at the door…
Yes, it was clearly a girl, especially with her slender waist, which couldn’t belong to a boy. Her hair had come undone, cascading down like a waterfall, and her face was flushed with anger, her silver teeth clenched, eyes blazing with fury, looking like a fierce woman…
“What are you looking at me like that for?” Qin Yi hugged his shoulders, shrinking in the bucket. “This is my home; you barged in to see me, okay?”
Li Qingjun glared at him angrily, biting her teeth and saying nothing.
In her fifteen years of life, she had never felt so embarrassed; she was afraid that if she spoke, she would burst into tears.
Qin Yi also fell silent; the situation was a bit awkward… Li Qingjun was facing the yard, directly in front of his bath bucket. He couldn’t get up, but he also couldn’t stay down.
The two stared at each other for a long time, and finally, Li Qingjun gritted her teeth and said, “Let me go!”
Qin Yi had no choice but to say, “You first close your eyes.”
Li Qingjun was alert: “What are you going to do?”
“…” Qin Yi slowly lifted the wolf fang club resting against the side of the bucket. “Do you see the club?”
Li Qingjun: “?”
Qin Yi slowly said, “As a young lady, please behave yourself, okay?”
Li Qingjun felt both shy and angry; she hadn’t cried even when hanging upside down, but this time, she really cried, tears welling up in her eyes and rolling down as soon as she closed them.
Qin Yi heard Liu Su laughing in his mind: “This girl is fun.”
Qin Yi ignored it; he didn’t know how to communicate with souls yet.
After a while, there was a sound of water splashing, and footsteps approached, as if someone was standing in front of her. Li Qingjun tightly closed her eyes, waiting for a long time but didn’t see Qin Yi let her go. Imagining his gaze wandering over her made her feel uneasy. She couldn’t help but panic: “D-Don’t do anything reckless! My brother is coming; he will kill you!”
Qin Yi tilted his head, admiring the sight of the girl hanging upside down. The gun she was tightly gripping highlighted her inner panic.
Li Qingjun suddenly opened her eyes, glaring fiercely.
Upon opening her eyes, she saw Qin Yi fully dressed, standing two feet away from her, which calmed her down a bit. She angrily shouted, “Let me down!”
Qin Yi suddenly reached out and pressed on Li Qingjun’s acupoint.
Li Qingjun was shocked: “You!”
Qin Yi, however, slowly began to untie the vine: “If I don’t use some tricks, what if you come down and give me a hole? I can’t afford that. Don’t take offense.”
Li Qingjun held back what she wanted to say and coldly asked, “Did you add Soft Muscle Powder to that water? Do you still need to press my acupoint?”
“Being careful doesn’t hurt.” Qin Yi pushed her shoulder and pulled at her ankle. Without any inappropriate movements, he easily turned her body upright.
Li Qingjun had braced herself for someone taking advantage of her, but Qin Yi’s actions surprised her. A seemingly flirtatious person turned out to be quite respectful? Her anger and embarrassment were somewhat eased by his behavior.
As soon as she landed, the vines that had wrapped around her disappeared with a whoosh, making the scene feel a bit dreamlike. Li Qingjun silently observed, rubbing her wrist, but said nothing.
At least this person was definitely not an ordinary villager; an ordinary villager wouldn’t set traps at their own door, nor could they create traps that incorporated some kind of formation.
Qin Yi casually pulled a chair for her and said leisurely, “You barged into my courtyard; can you now tell me why?”
(End of Chapter)