Yuan Shu decided to be helpful to the very end. She set up a complete isolation array for the disciples of the medicine garden and gave them some precautions before preparing to leave.
Amidst his busy work, Ji Qingyan looked up and cast a distant glance her way. Yuan Shu returned a brilliant smile, waved her hand, and left first.
The appearance of Chiyang Sand in the medicine garden was a major event for Medicine Cloud Peak.
As the deacon of Medicine Cloud Peak, Ji Qingyan had to coordinate and manage all affairs here, as well as report the situation to Yao Qianci and the sect master of the Falling Immortal Sect.
It was unlike Yuan Shu, who held a sinecure and only needed to exert a little effort occasionally.
It was getting late. Red clouds had already appeared on the horizon, glowing brightly under the setting sun's afterglow—a truly spectacular sight.
Yuan Shu looked up and lingered on the view for a moment.
Suddenly, a strange surge of energy pulsed in her chest.
Like a stone dropping into a lake, it brought a heavy, dull ache.
Yuan Shu frowned. Clutching her chest, she stopped and leaned against a nearby tree trunk for support.
It took a long while for the dull pain to slowly dissipate.
Yuan Shu took a deep breath and quickly inspected her body and the Acacia Divine Tree within her.
The meridians in her body were functioning normally, and the Acacia Divine Tree was still quietly sleeping. The dull pain from just a moment ago felt like a mere illusion.
She did not find anything abnormal.
She rubbed her chest and moved her limbs. Confirming that she was fine, she breathed a slight sigh of relief and continued on her way back.
The night grew darker. The small grove was completely silent, save for the sound of Yuan Shu's footsteps.
Suddenly, a strange rustling of wind echoed in the woods, and a breeze drifted over eerily.
Yuan Shu's eyes widened slightly. The moment she sensed something was wrong, she immediately held her breath.
But she was a step too late. The medicinal powder hidden in the wind had already drifted into her nose. Soon, Yuan Shu felt a wave of dizziness, her limbs growing weak and sore.
She stumbled a couple of times and fell back against a tree trunk, but because her legs lacked strength, she slowly slid down to sit on the ground.
"Hahahaha, hahahaha! I knew this newly developed muscle-relaxing powder would definitely work on you!"
A wild burst of laughter suddenly rang out from the woods.
Following that, a frivolous figure stepped out from behind a tree trunk at the end of the path.
Seeing the person clearly, Yuan Shu's gaze sharpened.
It was Ji Yun!
His tall and slender figure was clad in a bright purple robe. Intricate silver jewelry and chains adorned his forehead, shoulders, limbs, and waist.
Occasionally, small bottles and jars hung from them, jingling as he walked and reflecting silver light under the moon.
After learning his identity, Yuan Shu had casually asked others about him.
She knew that the hollowed-out jewelry hanging on him contained various unknown medicinal powders and poisons.
He usually didn't wear much of it, only occasionally carrying one or two items for pranks or self-defense.
Rarely did he wear them all over his body like he did tonight.
It was probably because of that night when Yuan Shu silently hit him with a paralyzing powder and boldly bullied him all night, leaving him with psychological trauma, right?
Yuan Shu raised an eyebrow; it seemed she had underestimated this Ji Yun a little.
At the very least, being able to accurately drug her in such an open space—and actually succeeding—was no easy feat.
Back then, she was able to silently make Ji Yun fall for her trick firstly because the paralyzing powder was colorless, odorless, and not a poison, making it hard to attract attention.
Secondly, it was because Ji Yun was highly focused on lifting her roof tiles at the time.
He completely failed to notice her approaching from behind.
But just now, upon sensing something wrong, she had already held her breath and gathered her spiritual energy to resist, yet she still fell for it.
Seeing Yuan Shu lose her ability to resist, Ji Yun was visibly excited.
His handsome face broke into a grin that nearly reached his ears, his brows and eyes dancing with joy.
He quickly walked up to Yuan Shu, pulled out a short dagger, placed it against her neck, and spoke viciously.
"So you have your day too? Don't think you're so great just because you can use a little paralyzing powder! My muscle-relaxing powder is not something your paralyzing powder can compare to!"
"Let me tell you, you are dead meat today!"
Ji Yun sneered coldly. The cold blade in his hand rested against the side of Yuan Shu's face, slowly and methodically rubbing against her skin with its flat side.
"However, if you beg me now, maybe I'll let you suffer a little less before you die!"
Yuan Shu tilted her head up slightly, ignoring the cold blade rubbing back and forth on her face, and looked straight at Ji Yun with a calm and indifferent gaze.
Suddenly, the corners of her mouth curled up into a wicked smile, and she whispered, "Ji Yun, that night... did it feel good?"
Hearing this, Ji Yun's hand trembled, almost cutting Yuan Shu's face.
Recovering his wits, his cheeks flushed red with humiliation and anger. "You, you, you! What nonsense are you spouting? Would I be that, that kind of person?"
This damn Yuan Shu, always bringing up the one thing he didn't want to hear!
What happened that night was the greatest humiliation of his life, and she actually dared to mention it?
Glared at fiercely by Ji Yun, Yuan Shu merely kept a faint smile on her lips, her expression nonchalant.
Glancing at the dagger that Ji Yun had moved away, she suddenly leaned forward a little, got close to his ear, blew a breath of air, and asked in a low voice.
"Was it not good? You were clearly so blissful that you made sounds, your cheeks were flushed, your eyes were hazy, and you were begging me..."
"You, you, you! Shut up!"
Before Yuan Shu could finish her sentence, she was interrupted by Ji Yun's stuttering voice.
A faint scent of pear blossoms drifted into his nose, evoking memories of that night.
Yuan Shu didn't take his primal yang, but she had pinned him against a tree and bullied him to the extreme.
He was just a poison cultivator without a Dao companion, one who kept himself pure and had never even held a senior or junior martial sister's hand.
The female creatures he interacted with the most were the poisonous insects of Ziyang Hall.
But that night, Yuan Shu had...
He viewed what happened that day as a disgrace and had made up his mind to settle this score.
This damn Yuan Shu, at death's door, still dared to provoke him!
Ji Yun glared at her viciously, but it only drew a smiling gaze from her, wearing an expression that said she had seen right through him.
"Ji Yun, if you beg me, maybe I'll help you one more time."
Staring at his reddened ear tips, Yuan Shu spoke faintly in a slow and ambiguous tone.
With her warm breath spraying against the side of his face, Ji Yun's already flushed cheeks now turned as red as blood.
"You, you, you! You're shameless!"
With those words, Ji Yun grabbed Yuan Shu's arm, summoned a spirit crane, jumped onto its back, and flew into the sky.
Yuan Shu cast a somewhat pitying glance at the gradually receding grove.
Well, saying all that was actually just her trying to stall for time.
She didn't know which formula of muscle-relaxing powder Ji Yun had used, but right now, she was testing antidotes.
She was having the Acacia Divine Tree feed the antidote powders she had stored in her spatial realm into her throat one by one, to see which one would work.
For the ineffective ones, she still needed to use her spiritual energy to dispel their effects.
This process required a bit of time.
But Ji Yun obviously didn't want to leave her too much time to react, so he dragged her onto the spirit crane.
The spirit crane flew over several courtyards below, brushed past a few forests, and then headed toward Ziyang Hall on Medicine Cloud Peak.
The reason Yuan Shu recognized it as Ziyang Hall was because the vegetation surrounding it was all a blue-purple hue, making it exceedingly easy to identify from the air.
