Sun Daoyuan looked at the unconscious Zhang Zongnian and said, “Don’t blame your senior brother. If I didn’t make you faint, you’d have done something foolish that would have cost you your life.”
“You should rest well here with your senior brother for now. Once I’m done with what I have to do, I’ll send you out of the city.”
He then turned to face Lin Xue, lowering his eyelids to avoid meeting her gaze.
From his sleeve, he took out a Wooden Box, inside of which lay several black Spirit Needles.
Sun Daoyuan picked one up and said, “Miss Lin Xue, these Spirit Needles contain the Corpse Poison that this old man drew out from your body last night.”
“I’m going to return these needles to your body, letting the Corpse Poison flow back into you. In about half a cup of tea’s time, you’ll die painlessly and become a walking corpse.”
“After that, I’ll hand you over to the Yang Family to claim the bounty.”
“The Yang Family’s bounty on you is one thousand Spirit Stones and a Middle-grade Barrier-breaking Pill.”
“This Middle-grade Barrier-breaking Pill is extremely important to me. I must get it.”
“I am a physician myself and can sense it—my life is nearly at its end. If I want to live longer, I must break through my current realm and reach the Qi Refining Late Stage, only then can I live another twenty or thirty years.”
“There are still important things I haven’t finished. I cannot die yet. I must continue living.”
“I’m at the sixth level of Qi Refining. If I want to break through to the seventh level and step into the Qi Refining Late Stage, I must use this Middle-grade Barrier-breaking Pill.”
“The Po Zhang Dan is in the hands of the Yang Family. There’s nothing I can do, so I have no choice but to exchange you for it with the Yang Family.”
“Miss Lin Xue, I truly am sorry. Just pretend you never came last night, that I never treated your poison yesterday. Imagine you already died last night.”
With that, he stood up, Wooden Box in hand, walked over, and rolled up Lin Xue’s sleeve, revealing her fair arm.
Lin Xue did not resist, coldly watching as Sun Daoyuan took out the black Spirit Needles one by one from the box and stabbed them into her arm.
In an instant, black veins spread across her arm, radiating outward from the needles.
Sun Daoyuan avoided her eyes, then lifted the still-unconscious Zhang Zongnian, slung him over his shoulder, hunched over, and walked toward the back yard.
Lin Xue watched Sun Daoyuan leave.
Once he was gone, she stood up, pulled out the needles that were still desperately injecting Corpse Poison into her, and tossed them to the ground.
Then, she began to circulate the Spirit Detoxification Art. Several new jade-green Spirit Needles appeared in her hand, which she stabbed into her own arm.
The Corpse Poison rampaging within her instantly stagnated, then collapsed and was drawn into the newly embedded needles.
Soon, her arm returned to its flawless whiteness, and there was not a trace of Corpse Poison left in her body.
Lin Xue removed the needles, held them in her hand, let down her sleeve, and let out a long breath.
Perhaps this was for the best.
Since her senior brother had already made a move against her, she could leave without any burden on her mind.
What he wanted was the Middle-grade Barrier-breaking Pill from her bounty, but the Lower-grade Barrier-breaking Pill for Zhang Zongnian’s bounty was useless to him.
And it was clear that her senior brother and Zhang Zongnian had a deep bond; he probably wouldn’t hand Zhang Zongnian over to the Yang Family for a bounty.
With Zhang Zongnian in his hands, there should be no real danger.
Now it was time for her to leave as well.
In her heart, Lin Xue said her farewell to Zhang Zongnian, walked toward the door, opened it, and prepared to leave.
As she pushed open the door, she saw a young man in black officer’s uniform standing at the entrance of the medical hall.
At his waist hung a jade pendant, engraved with the character “Yang.”
The young man hugged a Demon-Slaying Bureau saber to his chest, his eyes cold as he sized up Lin Xue from head to toe.
His gaze stopped at the Storage Pouch on Lin Xue’s waist.
He spoke coldly, “That’s a Storage Pouch of my Yang Family. Are you the demon who killed my thirteenth brother?”
A chill ran down Lin Xue’s back.
The man before her radiated danger.
In his eyes, she was nothing but a lamb to be slaughtered.
A name instantly flashed through her mind.
Yang Yuting!
The peak of the Qi Refinement Stage—someone on the verge of Foundation Establishment.
Lin Xue’s pupils shrank sharply.
She hurled the handful of Spirit Needles still tainted with Corpse Poison at the young man, and with a thought, the Blood Fiend in her ring appeared in her grasp.
“Ah—!” A shrill ghostly wail burst from the Blood Fiend, like a demon from hell, chilling the heart.
A glimmer of spiritual light flickered atop the Blood Fiend, and a faint bloody mist began to spread around.
Within the bloody mist, Lin Xue’s figure became ethereal.
She vanished from the doorway and, in an instant, appeared behind the young man.
At once, she executed the Swiftwind Sword Manual, unleashing a torrent of attacks at Yang Yuting’s back.
All this happened in a single instant.
The Blood Fiend’s speed was boosted by the bloody mist, and together with the footwork from the Swiftwind Sword Manual, Lin Xue’s figure became as elusive as a ghost—blindingly fast.
The tip of the Blood Fiend’s blade stabbed fiercely toward the back of Yang Yuting’s neck.
Yang Yuting moved.
His saber flashed from its scabbard, cleaving aside the flying, poison-tipped Spirit Needles in an instant.
The shrill wail from the Blood Fiend made him only furrow his brow slightly, seemingly unaffected.
Noticing that the demoness before him had disappeared, he heard the sharp wind behind his ear and immediately turned around.
Instead of dodging Lin Xue’s attack, he faced the blade head-on, taking a mutual-destruction stance as he slashed at Lin Xue.
Lin Xue’s blade stabbed into his throat at the same moment his saber cleaved down on her.
Spiritual light flickered at Yang Yuting’s throat; Lin Xue’s blade felt as though it struck iron, sending a jolt up her arm and stopping the blade dead.
Immediately after, Yang Yuting’s saber slashed straight down from the top of her head.
The blade sank into her body, cleaving down to her abdomen, slicing out between her legs.
Lin Xue’s expression froze—her enchanting body was split neatly in two, each half falling to the side.
Then, her body instantly thinned, turning to paper, and burst into flames.
Her true form reappeared ten paces away.
At the very moment the saber would have struck her, she used her demon power to bind a paper doll and performed the Paper Substitute Technique to take the blow for her.
Lin Xue looked at Yang Yuting, her face a little pale.
The Paper Substitute Technique had consumed more demon power than she’d expected.
With her current cultivation, she could at most use it five times in a row.
At the same time, she realized that her offensive techniques seemed to be ineffective against Yang Yuting.
As the Young Master of the Yang Family, he surely possessed protective magic treasures.
With only five uses of the Paper Substitute Technique, she likely couldn’t even break through his defenses.
Although her Daoist Robe also provided protection, it needed to be infused with demon power beforehand.
That wasn’t something that could be accomplished in a short time.
She had only just deciphered the Daoist Robe’s secrets today and hadn’t had time to fully infuse it with demon power—it couldn’t shield her yet.
The Protective Jade Talisman she had seized from Yang Yuhai worked the same way.
Lin Xue thought to herself: If I can escape from Yang Yuting’s hands this time, I must fill all these protective treasures to the brim and always keep them fully charged.
She glanced at the ring on her hand, considering whether to use a teleportation spell to escape directly.
But she soon dismissed the idea.
If she teleported away, Yang Yuting would certainly search Bai Cao Tang for Zhang Zongnian.
That would be sending Zhang Zongnian straight to his doom.
She immediately decided to use the Blood Fiend’s bloody mist and the Swiftwind Sword Manual’s movement techniques to escape quickly, drawing Yang Yuting away from Bai Cao Tang.
Demonic power surged swiftly through her body.
She gripped the Blood Fiend, turned, and her graceful figure became a phantom within the blood mist, rapidly fleeing toward the outskirts of town.