zChapter 942 - This subordinate has a duty
Chapter 942: This subordinate has a duty
Han Yunxi was already angry, but Gu Beiyue didn’t budge. Instead, he said, “This subordinate hid my identity and committed the offense of lese-majeste, may princess mete punishment.”
Han Yunxi already knew from experience that it was useless to waste words with him, so she simply left him with harsh words. “Gu Beiyue, I punish you to treat my injuries. If I can’t walk by today, then do as you see fit!”
As Gu Beiyue prepared to speak, Han Yunxi stopped him. “This is an order, no more nonsense! Hurry and get up!”
With a sigh, Gu Beiyue rose to his feet. “Don’t worry, princess. You’ll be able to walk before night falls.”
Gu Beiyue’s words were definitely trustworthy! He started treatment on Han Yunxi’s legs right at Fragrant Pine Garden. Injuries like broken bones weren’t healed until the bones grew back in place. Simply using acupuncture wouldn’t do much, but Gu Beiyue was also applying medicine as well. With a mixture of acupunture and moxibustion, the medicine was able to react and take effect. Of course, he was the only one capable of producing such quick results, while it’d take others half a month or more. Han Yunxi had already been healing for a while, enough for her to stand steady on her feet, so this posed no challenge to Gu Beiyue at all.
In the silence, she remained lying down while Gu Beiyue applied his needles. Occasionally he’d ask her questions. Meanwhile, Long Feiye sat on one side to keep watch. Time flew, but none of them took a break. By the time Gu Beiyue finished his acupuncture treatment, it was already approaching dusk.
“Princess, you can walk now.” Gu Beiyue didn’t even bother saying “try,” but simply had Han Yunxi start moving. He cleaned up his medicine chest and retreated beyond the folding screen, eyes refusing to linger a second on Han Yunxi’s slender shins.
Although Han Yunxi knew she could recover, she still felt excited. Her hand tightened unconsciously around Long Feiye’s as their eyes met. Long Feiye was feeling even more nervous than she was. He carried her upright and Han Yunxi said, “I want to walk.”
Long Feiye carefully set her on the ground, but didn’t let go of her hand. Han Yunxi looked askance at him before breaking free herself and taking a single step forward. Perhaps it’d been too long since she walked, but the first try felt a little awkward. Han Yunxi took another step with Long Feiye following close behind in case she fell. The second step was still a bit strange, but Han Yunxi risked it all and kept walking a few more steps with Long Feiye in tight pursuit. Just like that, the couple ended up walking all around the bedroom and folding screen, then back again. Gu Beiyue looked at them with a serene smile before silently slipping away. He made sure to shut the door behind him before he was gone.
Very soon, he heard Han Yunxi’s exclamations behind him. “I can walk! Long Feiye, I can walk now!”
Long Feiye must have picked her up then, because her laughter rose. Gu Beiyue didn’t turn back at the sound nor still his steps, but kept walking to the entrance of the courtyard. There, he told Xu Donglin, “When His Highness emerges later, tell him that the princess has just recovered from her injuries. She shouldn’t walk too much in the next three or four days because she still needs to nurture her body.”
Xu Donglin was thrilled. “Princess’s injuries are really well?!”
Gu Beiyue nodded. As he prepared to leave, Long Feiye’s startled cries rang out in the air.
“Gu Beiyue! Gu Beiyue!”
If it was anyone else, Gu Beiyue could stay calm, but Long Feiye’s shouting could only mean something critical had occurred! Before Xu Donglin could react, Gu Beiyue vanished from sight. Despite just recovering from his own internal injuries, the man had used his paltry 20% of internal energy to activate the shadow arts, which costed massive energy. Heaven knows how many days it’d take him to replenish his stores again. It seemed as if his facade of calm would be shattered at any instant. Unfortunately, Han Yunxi couldn’t see it, because she had lost consciousness. By the time Gu Beiyue rushed into the room, Long Feiye was already sitting on the ground with Han Yunxi lying in his lap. She had just been walking fine a moment ago, so Long Feiye was only watching to make sure she didn’t fall. He never expected her to faint away.
Hearing Long Feiye describe the situation, Gu Beiyue knitted his brows as he took Han Yunxi’s pulse. His pale face only grew more ashen.
“What’s wrong?” Long Feiye couldn’t help but interrupt.
Gu Beiyue only shook his head and kept taking Han Yunxi’s pulse. Then he checked on her eyes before answering, “Her pulse is normal. There’s no sign of illness, it’s the same as the last few times I examined her.”
“Could it be the poison storage space?” Long Feiye asked tensely.
Gu Beiyue had his suspicions, but he was quite strict as a doctor. “Possibly, but it’s impossible to ascertain.”
He didn’t even know whether Han Yunxi felt discomfort anywhere, now that she was unconscious.
“Then when will she wake up?” Long Feiye didn’t even realize his own words were superfluous in such a situation.
Gu Beiyue helplessly shook his head. The thorniest case he’d encountered in his lifetime were Han Yunxi’s fainting incidents. “We can only wait.”
Long Feiye fell silent. If even Gu Beiyue had no answers, then there was no one in the world who would. He picked Han Yunxi up and instructed, “Stay in the side rooms. Come over whenever there’s new developments.”
A complicated look flickered through Gu Beiyue’s eyes. Although he didn’t want to do it, he had to coax the man. “Your Highness, we don’t have time to tarry. With the letter of challenge issued to Hundred Poisons Sect, all of Cloud Realm is watching for the outcome. It’ll be troublesome if you miss the appointment.”
“No matter how important things are, everything waits until she wakes!” Long Feiye said coldly.
Han Yunxi had told him that she’d already cultivated to the second level of the poison storage space and was working on the third, but without much progress. She knew that the third level was used for fighting and allowed her to freely absorb any poisons in the world, but nothing more than that. Moreover, each time the poison storage space upgraded, it needed conditions to set it off before beginning the breakthrough. The first time had come because of the Water of Ten-Thousand Poisons, then after Lil Thing recovered. So if this was the third upgrade, what was making up level up? Han Yunxi hadn’t been cultivating the poison storage space during their trip or ran into any poisons. Long Feiye had doubts that her fainting was caused by the space at all.
Perhaps it was stupor caused by the poison storage space itself, or a problem that came from within? How could Long Feiye not worry? And of course, how could Gu Beiyue not understand his thoughts? But he still coaxed, “Your Highness, don’t forget. This isn’t just a matter between you and the princess, but East and West Qin Dynasty. From what this subordinate understands, the princess took great pains to convince Myriad Merchant Hall’s Council of Elders for the sake of this collaboration.”
He’d struck the nail on the head. It wasn’t just Long Feiye and Han Yunxi hurrying their way to Hundred Poisons Sect, but the high level ecleons of East and West Qin. The Baili Army of East Qin had already sent out its Young General Baili Yuqi to advance in secret, while the Ning Clan troops of West Qin had sent someone called Deputy General Luo Qing in turn. Supposedly, Western Zhou and Tianning had sent their share of people as witnesses, too. And as Hundred Poisons Sect dealt in mercenaries and murder, the medical community had long seen them as a tumor upon the Earth and had sent envoys from both Medical and Medicine City in support.
Once the day of the challenge arrived, it was unclear what would happen at Hundred Poisons Sect. If Long Feiye and Han Yunxi didn’t show up, then they wouldn’t be able to explain anything to the East and West Qin troops, much less the people of the world! Furthermore, their goal this time went beyond killing Bai Yanqing–they were going to uncover the truth about the civil war that tore apart the Great Qin Empire.
Seeing Long Feiye remain silent, Gu Beiyue took a step back and bowed. “Your Highness, think thrice! The princess wouldn’t want to miss the appointment either.”
At this, Xu Donglin couldn’t help exclaiming from the door, “Doctor Gu, if the princess doesn’t wake by then, we won’t be able to deal with Hundred Poison Sect, either!” Here was the thorniest problem of all. Naturally, Gu Beiyue had thought of it too.
He said, “At least wait until then before we make a move.”
Everything was still uncertain, so they had to make it to Hundred Poisons Sect first. Whether or not they showed themselves and how they deal with the fallout could be adjusted then. Long Feiye looked at Gu Beiyue and realized his own loss of self-control. Before Xu Donglin could protest some more, he wrinkled his brows and stated, “Xu Donglin, make arrangements to rest for tonight. We leave first thing tomorrow morning.”
Once Xu Donglin left, Long Feiye remarked, “You’re rather self-possessed, all things considered.”
The modest Gu Beiyue only bowed again. “This is the duty of a subordinate.”
That’s right!
As a subordinate, he had to keep his cool. It was his responsibility. Losing control and acting impulsive was its own right and power, of which he had none. Long Feiye didn’t do much else, but he leveled Gu Beiyue with a long look.
“This subordinate will be in attendance in the side room. If anything happens, please summon me at will,” Gu Beiyue said before casting Han Yunxi a glance and withdrawing.
It was certain that everyone would have a sleepless night.
Long Feiye sat on the bedside and watched Han Yunxi’s quiet face as he reviewed all of the other times she’d lost consciousness. They were laughing and so happy until the moment she fell asleep. Faced with this woman, he experienced the first time how extreme joy begot sorrow. How could he not lose control? When he thought of the things she’d told him last night from 3,000 years later, how could he not lose control?
They’d laughed and talked until she fainted today, so would there come a day when she disappeared completely, too? This was one worry he hid deep in his heart…
—
Late night, Gu Beiyue sat on the steps to Han Yunxi’s quarters instead of in the room allocated to him. He missed Lil Thing. Despite probing Bai Yanqing for answers, he couldn’t find any sign of its whereabouts. Now that he was certain Lil Thing wasn’t with the princess either, he knew the creature must be in Bai Yanqing’s hands. Originally, he wanted the princess to rejoice a bit before telling her about Lil Thing tomorrow, but who knew this happened instead? It’d be better if Lil Thing was around, because it could enter and exit the poison storage space at will. It would know what was the matter with the princess.
In the past, Lil Thing had been his companion through multiple sleepless nights. Gu Beiyue sighed. “Little fellow, are you doing well?”
—
Lil Thing wasn’t doing well at all.
Ever since Mama Yunxi reached the second level of the poison storage space, it could feel everything about her and now knew she was unconscious. Lil Thing had been trapped in a scary place that was filled with a foul stench. Its surroundings were like a fermenting pool, flooded with all sorts of putrid, rotting, toxic corpses. If not for the fact that it couldn’t die, it would have rotted away here too. This seemed to be a poison storage space, but it was a little different. Though it couldn’t tell where it differed, what else but a poison storage space could keep it trapped inside?