Peach

Chapter 64 – Healing Wounds

When Chen Ziqi had first been brought back to the Cloud Palace, he was covered in blood all over, and Dan Yi had been beside himself with worry. It was only after Linghe and Lingguan removed Chen Ziqi’s clothes and wiped him clean that they realized the blood had all been vomited out, and he didn’t have any external injuries at all. 

The Cloud Palace’s doctor was an energetic old man surnamed Mu. He wore a long white robe with black edging, and his footsteps were light as he entered the room.

“Elder Mu,” Linghe and Lingguan said, getting up to greet him.

Dan Yi rose and pulled Elder Mu over to the bed to read Chen Ziqi’s pulse.

Elder Mu reached out and placed two fingers on Chen Ziqi’s wrist. He paused for a second, then raised a finger and started tapping it lightly. Elder Mu didn’t take a pulse reading the same way that other doctors did – he usually tapped his patients’ meridians to diagnose what was wrong with them. 

“The injuries were caused by the Suxin Sect’s Wuxin Gong. His breathing is disordered, and his internal injuries are quite serious. The good news is that his important meridians aren’t damaged,” Elder Mu said, stroking his beard. “This subordinate will write out a prescription. He has to take it for three months, and in this period, his chest also has to be rubbed daily to get rid of the congested blood. He’ll be well after that.”

His chest had to be rubbed? Dan Yi frowned. When he’d been injured as a child, he’d had his chest rubbed by Elder Mu. The pain was intense, and there were times when he thought that death might be better than having to have his chest rubbed again. Qiqi had always been afraid of pain, and was quite unlikely to be able to tolerate this treatment. “Is there no other way to treat him?” he asked.

Elder Mu looked at Dan Yi, then lowered his eyes. “Wang ye is your Dragon, and I assume he has already mastered some level of cultivation of the Dragon’s Divine Howl. Palace Master, you can use your neili to heal his wounds,” he said.

The Danyang Divine Martial Arts manual had one section on healing called the “Phoenix Returns to the Heavens”. Dan Yi’s eyes lit up, then waved a hand to dismiss Elder Mu.

“Umm… this subordinate hasn’t written out the prescription yet,” Elder Mu said.

“Give it Lingguan after you’ve written it out.”

“… …”

Everyone left the room. Dan Yi removed his shoes and climbed onto the bed, gathering the unconscious Chen Ziqi into his arms and letting him lean against his body. 

“Ugh…” Because this movement had impacted his internal injuries, Chen Ziqi groaned in pain.

In the Phoenix Returns to the Heavens, one had to transfuse Danyang essence through the Lingtai and Zhiyang acupoints to gather yang energy. To do this, they had to have their bare skin touching each other.

Dan Yi took off his outer robes, thought for a bit, then removed his inner robes as well. He cradled the naked Chen Ziqi, allowing their bare skin to touch, but it didn’t seem to produce any effect even after a while. Dan Yi tilted his head as he ran through the instructions for the Phoenix Returns to the Heavens in his head. He suddenly realized what he had to do. The bare skin that had to touch each other probably meant using his hand to transfuse neili into Chen Ziqi’s body, not hugging each other while naked. Dan Yi rubbed his nose, then arranged Chen Ziqi into a sitting position. He pushed his neili out through his right palm, then pressed his palm against the centre of Chen Ziqi’s back.

“Mmph… it’s hot…” 

The fiery Danyang divine energy coursed through Chen Ziqi’s meridians, made a circuit around his chest, then followed his spine down all the way to his tailbone. Chen Ziqi’s body suddenly felt very warm, and a sheen of sweat appeared on his skin.

We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.

Dan Yi closed his eyes, then placed both his palms on Chen Ziqi’s back and focused the neili on the congested blood in his chest.

“Ct… la tegar…” Jtfc Ildl bqfcfv tlr fsfr jcv mglfv bea lc qjlc. Lf agfwyifv jr tf jgmtfv yjmxkjgv. Pa vlvc’a rffw atja tf tjv gfujlcfv mbcrmlbercfrr fnfc atbeut tlr fsfr kfgf bqfc – la kjr qegfis j qtsrlmji gfjmalbc ab atf qjlc tf kjr fzqfglfcmlcu.

Dan Yi caught his body as it collapsed, his brows knitting together slightly. Why was it that using this method still caused Chen Ziqi so much pain? Had he missed out something? … Transfuse Danyang essence… Danyang essence! That was it! 

Danyang essence was Dan Yi’s own life essence. There was only one way to transfuse life essence – mouth-to-mouth. He retracted his neili and cradled Chen Ziqi in his arms again, looking down at him. His eyes were closed again. Dan Yi pressed his lips together, channelled his essence, then slowly inched over. He pressed his lips to Chen Ziqi’s pale, bloodless ones, transfusing some of his Danyang essence into his body.

Jtfc Ildl’r rboa ilqr kfgf j ilaaif mgjmxfv yfmjerf tf tjv ibra abb wemt yibbv, jcv atf offilcu bo atfw jujlcra Gjc Tl’r ilqr kjr atja wemt wbgf qgbcbecmfv yfmjerf bo atf ecfnfc rxlc. Coafg agjcroerlcu tlr Gjcsjcu frrfcmf, Gjc Tl mbeivc’a yfjg ab qeii jkjs, jcv tf ilmxfv Jtfc Ildl’r ilqr ab wblrafc atfw. Lf mbeivc’a mbcajlc atf fzmlafwfca tf ofia kfiilcu eq lcrlvf tlw. Lf aliafv tlr tfjv, ujhfv ja Jtfc Ildl obg j wbwfca, atfc ifjcfv vbkc jujlc. Lf mjeuta tbiv bo atbrf rboa ilaaif ilqr klat tlr bkc jujlc, atfc remxfv ja atfw ufcais.

Like a kid who had just secretly eaten some candy, Dan Yi couldn’t resist burying his face in Chen Ziqi’s neck and laughing quietly to himself. Even though they’d mutually assisted each other with a certain biological function, he didn’t dare to kiss Qiqi then, afraid that he would scare him off. He had simply kept his body exactly where it was and let Chen Ziqi use his head to nuzzle all over his chest.

Today, he finally got his kiss. 

… …

“How long was I out?” Chen Ziqi asked, his brows creasing slightly as he leaned on Dan Yi’s chest and looked up at him. From this angle, he could see not only Dan Yi’s beautifully angular chin, but also a slowly reddening ear. This fellow was definitely thinking about something embarrassing.

“A day and two nights,” Dan Yi said, sighing.

That was quite some time. Chen Ziqi pursed his lips, eyeing Dan Yi’s chin, which had started to show some signs of stubble. He couldn’t resist moving his head up and biting that chin. 

Dan Yi froze. “Um… Qiqi?” he asked.

That gentle gnawing wasn’t painful at all. To the contrary, Dan Yi’s heart started to flutter wildly in his chest, and he swallowed subconsciously, his Adam’s apple moving up and down.

“Did you do something to me when I was unconscious?” Chen Ziqi asked, releasing Dan Yi’s chin. He leaned down beside Dan Yi, then cocked an eyebrow at him.

“No!” Dan Yi said immediately, sitting up straight. His reaction was exactly like the little red bird’s when Chen Ziqi caught him secretly eating something he shouldn’t. All that was missing were the flared wings and indignant chirps. 

“Oh?” Chen Ziqi said, pressing his lips together and smiling. He exhaled gently, then suddenly thought about his little fairy and how she might still be in danger. He didn’t have the mood to continue teasing Dan Yi after that.

After the Abbess Wuyin brought Chang Er to the Suxin Sect, she had treated her well – she wasn’t being starved or anything. The only thing she was not allowed to do was leave the sect. She was largely given free rein otherwise, as if the sect didn’t really care that she was their prisoner. This news did settle Chen Ziqi’s anxious heart a little, but it also created more doubts in his mind. What was this Suxin Sect up to, really?

“Don’t worry. I’ve asked Diao Lie to bring people to force their way into the Suxin Sect,” Dan Yi said, narrowing his eyes. That disgusting old nun Wuyin had pushed her boundaries with him one too many times, and he was getting sick of it.

“Don’t get involved yet,” Chen Ziqi said, frowning. There was something very odd about this whole matter, and there was definitely more than met the eye. He felt that this whole thing was a setup to get Dan Yi to respond. 

Dan Yi didn’t say anything. He raised a hand, then twitched his fingers slightly. The teacup on the table flew into his hand, and he put it next to Chen Ziqi’s lips.

Chen Ziqi drank noisily from the cup in Dan Yi’s outstretched hand and finished all the tea inside. He licked his lips, looking unsatisfied. “I want more,” he said.

His tone of voice sounded like he was acting cute, and it went straight to Dan Yi’s heart. The hand holding the teacup shook ever so slightly. He coughed lightly, then got up and went to physically pour a cup of tea. His powers could only move a cup into his hand, but weren’t strong enough to move a teapot full of liquid.

“Oh, right – was my mansion really wiped out by the Bloodblade Tower?” Chen Ziqi asked, swinging his legs nonchalantly as observed Dan Yi’s nearly imperceptible little bout of panic. 

Dan Yi’s expression became a little strange. He held out the refilled cup to Chen Ziqi before he answered. “The Bloodblade Tower did go to Jianyang, and they wiped out the whole chicken farm,” he said.

The chicken farm?

“Pfft–” Chen Ziqi spat out a whole mouthful of tea.

Chen Ziqi’s chicken farm had chicks that had just grown into young chickens, and they were about to be released from their cages at that time. The chicken farm manager and his workers were very pleased about that. Yesterday, when some of the workers went to collect eggs in the early morning, they all yelled in fright. 

Fresh blood covered the whole floor, and the entire chicken farm looked like a murder scene. Three hundred chickens all had their throats skillfully slit – each chicken’s throat only bore one thin cut that was just big enough to make the chicken bleed to death very quickly. They’d been more skillfully slaughtered than they would have been at a chicken abattoir.

Chen Ziqi patted his chest, feeling like he was about to vomit blood again. That blade had been sent to the chicken farm, not the mansion, which meant that the Bloodblade Tower was going to take action in the chicken farm, not the mansion. Their target in the chicken farm, therefore, was the chickens.

“Who’s so free as to hire the Bloodblade Tower to kill my chickens?!” Chen Ziqi exclaimed angrily.

“The Bloodblade Tower doesn’t just kill people. They kill anything, so long as you pay the price they ask,” Dan Yi said blandly. Of course, killing chickens was much cheaper than killing people – one assassin would be sufficient for the job. 

The Bloodblade Tower, killing chickens, sending a blade, Suxin Sect, his little fairy, the Cloud Palace…

Chen Ziqi pressed his lips together and linked all the events in his head. His hands slowly clenched into fists. There was definitely something afoot here. Someone hired the Bloodblade Tower to kill the chickens, and their purpose likely was to scare him into leaving the mansion with his little fairy and Ah Mu the moment he saw the blade in the envelope. He wouldn’t have stopped to think too hard given the urgency of the situation. And then, the Suxin Sect had conveniently appeared right at this time, on the path he was travelling, to kidnap Chang Er.

“Oh, my goodness, what about Ah Mu? What happened to him?” Chen Ziqi asked, suddenly realising that he’d forgotten all about his younger brother in the horse carriage.

“He’s fine,” Dan Yi said, lowering his eyes. He hadn’t liked Chen Ziqi’s “brothers” since he was young, in particular, this very sticky little Ah Mu. 

“Send him to the Lushan Sect then – I don’t have time to take care of him right now,” Chen Ziqi said, rubbing his throbbing temples.

“Nn. I’ve already sent him off,” Dan Yi said, natural as could be.

“… …”

Chen Ziqi’s mouth twitched. This fellow didn’t need to make his likes and dislikes so clear, did he? 

Chen Ziqi’s internal injuries weren’t fully healed, and even talking for a while tired him out. He didn’t want to lie down though. His back hurt from sleeping too much, and he wanted to go out for a bit. Dan Yi got people to set up a bamboo bed in the Wutong forest, then carried Chen Ziqi out with him to bask in the sun for a bit.

After confirming Chang Er’s safety a few more times, Chen Ziqi steadfastly refused to allow Dan Yi to bring people to the Suxin Sect to make a fuss, and asked that he continue to get information related to this matter. “Did you manage to find out who hired the Bloodblade Tower?” he asked.

“The Bloodblade Tower gives a lot of money as tribute to the Cloud Palace every year, and finding out the person or persons who hired them for any job is a Heaven-class question,” Dan Yi said, pushing a plate of freshly washed cherries into Chen Ziqi’s hand.

“What’s the price of the answer, then?” Chen Ziqi asked, picking up a cherry to eat. He gave Dan Yi a pitiful, puppy-eyed look. “Won’t you give me a discount?” 

“You can have the answer on credit,” Dan Yi said, watching him eat another cherry. “The one who hired them is the Jindao Sect.”

The Jindao Sect was a Sword Sect under the jurisdiction of the Huangshan Sect. There wasn’t anything special about them, save that they had the largest chicken farm in the Empire.

Was this just an act of eliminating a business rival? Chen Ziqi frowned and wanted to ask some more, but Dan Yi had disappeared. In his place, there was a fluffy little red bird, which was presently standing on his knee and eating a cherry with his little yellow beak.

— 

The author has something to say: Mini-theatre

“How Elder Mu Diagnoses Illnesses”

Birdie Gong: Come quick, tell me what happened to Qiqi

Elder Mu: Don’t be in such a hurry. I use an ancient method of diagnosis passed down to me by my ancestors. I first have to tap tap their wrists and see if they’re still alive 

Birdie Gong: Bullshit, of course he’s alive

Elder Mu: And then, I tap tap again, to confirm that place is hollow

Birdie Gong: Hollow?

Elder Mu: Finally, I tap tap to check the position of the worm, and then I peck at that spot and eat it up 

Birdie Gong: What kind of ancestral method is this?!

Elder Mu: A woodpecker’s method of diagnosing a tree’s illness (⊙v⊙)

Birdie Gong: … Drag him out and feed him to Diao Lie

Elder Mu: QAQ