Xiao Han crouched by the river, staring at the unconscious woman in white before him, his mind racing.
She was still breathing.
That was the first thing he confirmed.
Her breathing was very weak, the rise and fall of her chest almost invisible, but when he leaned close, he could feel her breath, warm, puffing against the back of his hand.
Second thing: she was poisoned.
Lips purple, nails cyan, faint black lines as thin as hair visible on her exposed skin, spreading from her limbs toward her torso like a spiderweb.
Third thing…
The direction she floated from was exactly where he had used the tree trunk to block her.
If not for that big tree he had broken off with his elbow strike lying across the river bend, pinning her body, she would have been swept downstream into a rocky shoal.
In that place, the water was less than a foot deep, and the bottom was covered in sharp stones.
In her unconscious drifting state, hitting her head would have been fatal.
‘So her fainting… shouldn’t have anything to do with me, right?’
Xiao Han thought, looking seriously at the woman in white pinned by the tree trunk at the river bend.
She was poisoned first, chased by the snake first, drifted here later.
He was just practicing by the river and happened to stop her with the trunk.
So… he should be blameless.
She was lucky.
From another angle, if he hadn’t broken the trunk to stop her, who knows where she would have drifted.
He was actually doing a good deed.
Xiao Han nodded, satisfied with his logical reasoning.
Then he crouched down and began to carefully observe Luo Qingci’s condition.
Her skin was cool to the touch, but not the cold of hypothermia—a chill from within, carrying spiritual energy fluctuations.
At her dantian, there was a faint spiritual power reaction, like a lamp about to go out, the flame flickering in the wind, on the verge of dying at any moment.
Xiao Han placed his fingers on her wrist, attempting to probe a thread of spiritual energy into her meridians to check their condition.
The moment his spiritual energy touched her skin—
[Ding—Special event detected]
A semi-transparent panel appeared before him, visible only to him.
[Target: Luo Qingci (Ice Soul Fairy · Unawakened)]
[Current Status: Dying]
[Poison Type: Azure Scale Python Venom]
[Note: The target was supposed to awaken the first stage of the Supreme Yin Profound Body during this incident. Due to external interference (tree trunk impact), the awakening process was interrupted. The opportunity has deviated from its original trajectory.]
[Emergency Mission Issued: Reverse the Deadly Calamity]
[Mission Objective: Heal your fiancée Luo Qingci, bring her out of the dying state, and assist her in regaining the awakening opportunity for the Supreme Yin Profound Body.]
[Time Limit: Half an hour]
[Mission Reward: Skill “Swift as Fire”—flame spiritual energy envelops the whole body, significantly enhancing movement ability. Under the “Swift as Fire” state, some movements can carry striking and “burning” effects. Can be used in combination with Meteor Splitting Sky Elbow.]
[Failure Penalty: Deduct two thousand points, randomly erase one existing skill.]
[Mission Suggestion: The Supreme Yin Profound Body needs to be unlocked in a dying state.
It is recommended that after detoxification, the host use [Meteor Splitting Sky Elbow] to elbow strike the target.
Alternatively, hold her head and smash it into the ground.]
Xiao Han stared at that last “mission suggestion” and was silent for three breaths.
So… she was supposed to drift downstream and hit her head on the rocks to awaken her physique, and now he had stopped her?
And besides…
Elbow strike her?
With Meteor Splitting Sky Elbow?
That elbow strike with true damage effect?
Hit a dying, poisoned woman who looked like she could expire at any moment?
System, are you serious?
The system didn’t answer.
The system never answered that kind of question.
Xiao Han took a deep breath.
‘Fine, fine, I’ll do the elbow strike. Still better than holding her and performing a pile driver.’
He shifted his attention away from that outrageous suggestion and re-examined the unconscious woman in white before him.
Luo Qingci…
He knew that name all too well.
Before his transmigration, in the game called “Nine Heavens Immortal Path,” he had dealt with that name countless times.
Mid-boss, Ice Soul Fairy, guardian of the final stage in the “Cold Relic Instance” dungeon—a nightmare for all mid-game players.
Luo Qingci had delicate features, a flowing white dress, an icy expression.
She wielded ice magic with masterful skill, dealt ridiculously high damage, and had two lives.
After the first life was depleted, she would enter a frenzy state, doubling attack power and reducing defense to zero—a “one mistake and you’re dead” extreme design, a damn idiot boss.
Back when he was raiding her, he spent an entire night going at it with her, died more than a dozen times, and finally beat her only by using an exploit.
He accidentally discovered that the boss had no rear hit detection and no anti-air capability.
So he used an Invisibility Talisman, circled behind her, wedged himself in a corner, and scraped her down for half an hour until she died.
Later, he saw even more exploit methods on the forums: someone stood on a wall and shaved her hair for forty minutes, someone wedged her into a terrain gap and slowly wore her down with hidden weapons…
As a mid-boss, she was strong but not comprehensive.
No rear detection, no anti-air—so countless cheap tactics evolved.
Later, he saw some… other stuff on the forums.
“Ice Soul Fairy HD Illustration Pack,” “Luo Qingci Doujin MMD,” “Cold Relic Instance Boss Battle Compilation (with BGM),” “[AI Enhanced] Luo Qingci Full Story Cut”…
Although the backstory said she used to be a man, who cared about that?
She had changed at an age before puberty, and after more than a decade, she was likely no different from a normal girl.
He had also seen quite a few of those AI-made Luo Qingci little videos.
To sum up one sentence: very fappable.
But now, the woman in front of him—pale from being soaked in the river, lips purple, nails cyan, her face smeared with mud and water weeds…
Was she the same species as the Luo Qingci he remembered?
Xiao Han seriously compared.
The illustrated Luo Qingci had skin like snow, brows like paintings, a white dress, an ethereal aura—like a fairy in the heavens untouched by worldly dust.
The Luo Qingci in front of him had a swollen face, lips so purple they were almost black, three water weeds and a rotten leaf tangled in her hair, and her collar had been washed crooked by the river, exposing her collarbone and one shoulder.
Xiao Han silently pulled her collar back in place.
“Sorry for the intrusion,” he murmured, then reached to feel her neck for a pulse.
First, detoxify.
Xiao Han browsed the system store.
Universal Antidote Pill: one hundred twenty points.
His current point balance: one hundred thirty-five.
After buying the antidote pill, he’d have fifteen points left.
Xiao Han hesitated for less than a fraction of a breath, then clicked Purchase.
A green pill appeared in his palm, emitting a bitter medicinal scent.
He stuffed the antidote pill into Luo Qingci’s mouth, but she had no strength to swallow.
The pill lingered between her lips and teeth, refusing to go down.
Xiao Han hesitated, then took out a water pouch from his Storage Pouch, uncorked it, and carefully fed a little water into her mouth.
Still couldn’t swallow.
He thought for a moment, then gently pressed on both sides of her throat.
The pill finally slid down.
Luo Qingci’s throat moved, and she let out a faint, almost inaudible moan.
Then her brows furrowed.
Xiao Han sighed in relief.
Furrowing was good; furrowing meant she wasn’t dead.
The antidote pill was working.
Next up was—
His gaze shifted to the mission suggestion on the system panel.
[It is recommended that after detoxification, the host use [Meteor Splitting Sky Elbow] to elbow strike the target]
Xiao Han looked at the suggestion, at Luo Qingci’s furrowed brows, at the fading cyan from her nails, at the “half an hour” countdown on the system.
The Supreme Yin Profound Body needed to be unlocked in a dying state.
He had to knock her back into a dying state.
With an elbow strike.
Xiao Han was silent for a long time.
Then he stood up, lifted Luo Qingci from the ground, and found a flat spot covered in fallen leaves.
He sat her down.
He crouched beside her, his right arm bent at the elbow.
Closed his eyes.
Opened them again.
“System,” he said in a voice only he could hear.
“Are you messing with me?”
The system didn’t answer.
Xiao Han took a deep breath.
Meteor Splitting Sky Elbow.
He closed his eyes, silently calculating the force in his mind—not too heavy, or he’d really kill her; not too light, or it wouldn’t trigger the dying state.
Meteor Splitting Sky Elbow had true damage effect.
With his current peak Qi Refining cultivation, fifteen percent true damage hitting a peak Qi Refining cultivator who was just recovering from poisoning and had a special physique…
It should be just right.
He mentally went through that logic three times, confirming he wasn’t making excuses.
Then he opened his eyes and looked at Luo Qingci’s face.
Her brows were no longer furrowed.
Most of the darkness on her face had dissipated; her lips had gone from purple to pale cyan; her breathing was steadier than before.
The antidote pill’s effect was better than he had anticipated.
Maybe she would wake within half an hour.
If she woke up, the opportunity would be lost forever.
Xiao Han gritted his teeth, bent his right elbow, and aimed at the spot three inches above her dantian.
“Sorry,” he said.
Then he struck.
“Man!”
Luo Qingci’s body arched violently, like a shrimp stepped on its belly, flew backward, and slammed heavily onto the ground.
Her face turned deathly pale in an instant.
Her lips parted, but no sound came out.
Xiao Han withdrew his elbow and nervously stared at her face, already ready to pull healing pills from his Storage Pouch.
One second.
Two seconds.
Three seconds.
A trickle of dark red blood seeped from the corner of Luo Qingci’s mouth.
Then, her body began to glow.
Not the faint light of spiritual power circulating, but a glacial blue radiance bursting from deep within her, carrying an intense cold.
The light first brightened at her dantian, then rapidly spread through her limbs and bones, like a frozen tree sprouting roots in an instant, enveloping her entire body in a halo of glacial blue.
The temperature in the air plummeted.
Luo Qingci’s body trembled slightly in the light, as if something inside her was awakening.
The darkness on her face completely dissipated; her cyan-purple lips regained color; the black lines on her nails faded like water washing away.
Her aura was growing stronger.
From the near-death faintness, to stable early Qi Refining, to abundant mid Qi Refining, to thick late Qi Refining—
Then, she broke through.
She didn’t reach Foundation Establishment, yet she was no longer an ordinary peak Qi Refining.
Measured in layers, perhaps it could be called…
Qi Refining Eleven Layer?
Xiao Han felt that breakthrough aura—not his, but hers.
A faint but clear crack sounded from Luo Qingci’s dantian, like ice splitting.
‘It actually worked?’
The system panel popped up a new notification:
[Supreme Yin Profound Body First Stage Awakening Complete.]
[Mission reward has been distributed.]
Xiao Han dismissed the panel.
The glacial blue light on Luo Qingci slowly faded, and the surrounding temperature gradually rose.
Her breathing was steady.
Though her face was pale, it was no longer the pallor of death.
She was still unconscious, but no longer dying.
Xiao Han sat down beside her, leaning against the tree he had broken with his elbow, and looked up at the sky.
The sun was already setting; the horizon began to tinge with a faint orange-red.
He had spent nearly all his points to save a woman who was his fiancée, then elbowed her.
If she woke up and found she had broken through to beyond peak Qi Refining, would she think Heaven had helped her?
Probably.
After all, Qi Refining Eleven Layer was essentially invincible at the same rank; even a Foundation Establishment beginner could be challenged.
And who would guess that a stranger had given her an elbow strike by the river?
Xiao Han pulled a piece of dried food from his Storage Pouch, took a bite, and chewed slowly.
His gaze fell on Luo Qingci’s face.
The swelling from the physique awakening had gone down.
Mud and water weeds were still smeared on her face, her hair was a mess like a bird’s nest, and her collar had slipped again, exposing a bit of collarbone.
But he thought she still looked pretty…
Except… because of his elbow strike, there was now a very obvious bruise on her stomach.
True damage was brutal.
All other injuries from the physique awakening had healed, but the spot he elbowed hadn’t.
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