Since Long Feiye avoided the sword sect master’s gaze, he had no choice but to interact with Han Yunxi himself. Of course he was thrilled to see Cang Qiuzi suffer, but there was moderation for all things. Suppose the man really did die here today? Then his efforts to marginalize the chaos from earlier would have all been for naught.
After all, Cang Qiuzi might be at the top of Celestial Mountain, but there were plenty of renegades lurking below. The sword sect master didn’t want these peaceful peaks to devolve into internal strife. As he prepared to speak, Duanmu Yao suddenly broke into sobs. “Master, senior brother, won’t you save Martial Uncle Cang? This was all my fault, and Martial Uncle Cang’s suffering because of me. Yao Yao is willing to accept the punishment in Martial Uncle Cang’s place. If it really is pain for three days and three nights, Yao Yao will accept it for him as well.”
Duanmu Yao would rather Cang Qiuzi drop dead, but why was she begging for mercy now? Naturally, because the man himself had shot her a warning glance a few seconds earlier. She had no other choice but to beg!
Even so, she hoped in her heart that Long Feiye would remain unmoving, and that Han Yunxi would refuse to yield an inch. She never thought that the day would come when her arrogant self would place all her hopes on Han Yunxi instead.
Is this what you call losing? In the end, Duanmu Yao had lost the last remnants of her pride and backbone.
Seeing Duanmu Yao’s tears turned the sword sect master impatient again. Coldly he declared, “Han Yunxi, you were the one who poisoned him. No matter what, you have to cure it! You have no right to do as you like atop Celestial Mountain!”
Han Yunxi was helpless. “Senior sword sect master, there really is no cure for that poison. Moreover, even anaesthetics won’t numb the pain. The only solution is to have him forget the sensation of pain itself.”
“Forget? Han Yunxi, do you–do you take me to be a three-year-old child?” Cang Qiuzi fumed.
Han Yunxi was quick to clarify. “Actually, you can get rid of this poison even if it doesn’t have an antidote. Forgetting about it is the way to its cure. Naturally, there are methods to accomplish that.”
If this was any other day, Cang Qiuzi wouldn’t believe Han Yunxi a whit, but he was close to going insane from the pain. Harboring a hint of hope in his heart, he cried, “What’s the method, hurry up and say it!”
Han Yunxi began to prevaricate. “This…Elder Cang, the solution is actually…well, aiya, Elder Cang, how are you supposed to let me tell you?”
“Say it like it is!” the sword sect master had finally lost all patience.
Han Yunxi gave him an innocent look before saying in a rather pitiable voice, “The more the victim focuses on the source of poison–the stomach–the stronger the pain they’ll feel. If Elder Cang was calm enough of heart to sit in deep meditation until autohypnosis kicked in, you’ll forget about it naturally.”
Long Feiye, the sword sect elder, and Duanmu Yao all thought these words made sense. Deep meditation allowed one’s consciousness to drift, which was easy enough for practitioners of martial arts. But Cang Qiuzi only wanted to take off his shoe and hit Han Yunxi to death. Nobody could understand such a situation without experiencing it for themselves, after all. If even professional mercenaries died from the pain, how was he supposed to ignore it just like that? He’d been forcing himself to hold on ever since entering the hall, but now he was approaching his limit.
“If I could ignore it…would…would this old man need to waste more time here?” Cang Qiuzi’s attitude took a turn for the worse. “Han Yunxi, are you handing over the antidote or not?”
The sword sect master glanced towards Long Feiye, who ignored him again. The old man knitted his brows and used ventriloquism to throw his voice in his disciple’s ears. “Feiye, a dog forced too far will jump off the wall in desperation.”
Long Feiye replied with the same technique. “Yunxi’s walked enough dogs in the past to tie this one up too.”
The sword sect master immediately glared at Long Feiye, who only glanced back to tell him not to worry. When the old man didn’t buy it, Long Feiye added, “Master, shall we make a bet?”
Only then did the sword sect master look away and drop the issue.
Han Yunxi was never one to disappoint. She was three times as stubborn as Cang Qiuzi while crouched in front of him. “Elder Cang, I said there’s no antidote, which means one really doesn’t exist. I advise you not to lose your temper any further. Calm down and forgot about the pain in your stomach, or else…suffer the consequences!”
Terror seized Cang Qiuzi’s heart. He had already decided on the worse case scenario: use Duanmu Yao to threaten Li Jianxin so he’d force Long Feiye to hand over the antidote. But reality proved that Han Yunxi really had no antidote to cure this poison. Thus, even instigating internal strife would be useless. Even the position of sect head and leader of the martial arts circles wasn’t as important as his life! In other words, if he really died here, all of his efforts over the past few years would end up in someone else’s hands. Nothing could compare to a matter of life or death.
Finally, Cang Qiuzi grew afraid. “Is…is there any other way to let this old man forget the pain? Speak.”
“Fight pain with pain,” Han Yunxi said as she took out a slender acupuncture needle. “Elder Cang, I’ll help you.”
As she spoke, she took his hand and jabbed it viciously beneath his nail before the eyes of everyone present.
“Ahhhhh!” Cang Qiuzi shrieked. “Han Yunxi, I’ll kill you!”
Han Yunxi hastily moved out of the way. Fortunately, Cang Qiuzi was too wracked with pain to move, or else his strike might have really killed her in one hit. Han Yunxi’s jab seemed to have stabbed through his entire nail. Cang Qiuzi’s face broke out into sweat from the agony as he glared at her with enough force to kill. Han Yunxi simply stood at a safe distance with a slight smile, as innocent as an angel–or perhaps a demon. The sword sect master’s gaze was replaced by more curiosity than dislike as he focused on her again.
Cang Qiuzi was about to rage when he caught wind of something strange. His stomach didn’t seem to hurt as much as before. He stared at his bleeding fingernail, then at Han Yunxi in doubt. “How could this be?”
“Elder Cang, if you don’t have enough presence of mind to ignore the pain, then you can only combat it with other forms of pain. Each of the ten fingers is connected to the heart. Thus, the pain of a needle piercing through your nail far surpasses that of your abdominal pain. Pain caused by poison is enough to take a life, but pain from these external forces are only torments of the flesh when it comes to your tolerance levels, Elder Cang. I trust that Elder Cang will make it.” As Han Yunxi finished, she added, “A single stab can last you two hours. I’ll just leave you this one as a gift.”
She purposely placed her needle in Cang Qiuzi’s hand as the room fell silent. He too, was staring in hesitation at the tool. Both the sword sect master and Duanmu Yao were wearing differing expressions, while Long Feiye’s gaze rested on Han Yunxi with growing affection, unable to move away. Piercing a needle into one’s nails? That was nothing short of torture.
What “fight pain with pain?” It was simply using torture methods to stop the agony!
Cang Qiuzi didn’t want to believe Han Yunxi’s words, but the results were right before his eyes. His stomach was less painful than before. After some hesitation, he looked towards the sword sect master. “Master, I’ll trust her this once.”
In other words, he was looking to the sword sect master to shoulder the responsibility. Although the old man didn’t have faith in Han Yunxi either, he still nodded his head. “Someone come, send the head elder back.”
—
People from the Lockheart Courtyard were on hand to pick up Cang Qiuzi at the bottom of the peak. He immediately dripped a spot of blood on paper before wrapping it up with Han Yunxi’s needle and had someone deliver both to Northern Li via messenger hawk under Duanmu Yao’s name. Judging from the relationship between Duanmu Yao and Jun Yixie, the latter would certainly come to his aid.
However, he didn’t know anything about Bai Yanqing’s existence. In his eyes, only Jun Yixie was capable of dispelling Han Yunxi’s poisons. Although his pain had been relieved for the moment, it was still impossible for him to completely trust Han Yunxi. He wanted to know if this was truly incurable, and if Han Yunxi had hidden more poisons in her needle just then. Her poison skills were so remarkable that she could kill anyone without a trace if she seized the chance!
Once Cang Qiuzi left Nine Xuan Hall, the sword sect master looked coldly towards Long Feiye and Duanmu Yao. “The two of you, come with me.”
Secretly rejoicing, Duanmu Yao quickly stood up to follow. With Cang Qiuzi out of the way, master would definitely seek responsibility for Long Feiye injuring her. Private affairs like this meant Han Yunxi had no right to interfere.
“Wait for me,” Long Feiye murmured to Han Yunxi. She didn’t want to let him go after witnessing the sword sect master’s intense killing intent upon discovering Duanmu Yao’s ruined dantian. If not for Cang Qiuzi’s presence and his own self control, he might have succumbed to his insanity already.
Now the sword sect master had calmed down, but that didn’t preclude his anger. Heaven knows how he’d punish Long Feiye.
“I have a part in injuring her too. If the sword sect master is biased, I’ll shoulder the blame with you,” Han Yunxi muttered back.
“Don’t worry. Master has proper limits,” Long Feiye replied. Han Yunxi didn’t believe him, so he added, “If master wasn’t fair, I wouldn’t return to Celestial Mountain today.”
If the sword sect master was really unfair, then how would Long Feiye have the gall to bring Han Yunxi with him to Celestial Mountain after injuring Duanmu Yao? As long as he didn’t go insane, the sword sect master remained a master in Long Feiye’s heart.
Only then did Han Yunxi let him go. “I’ll wait for you.”
By now, the sword sect master’s figure had already vanished into the darkness. Still, he stopped to turn towards Han Yunxi with a curious tone. “Lass, does ‘fighting pain with pain’ really exist as a method?”
Duanmu Yao was startled. If she remembered correctly, master had only ever called her ‘lass.’ Now he was calling Han Yunxi by the same moniker too?
Han Yunxi had gotten used to Gu Qishao calling her “Poison lass,” but she didn’t like it when others did the same. After all, she was already a married woman. But hearing this from the sword sect master made her feel suddenly intimate. Smiling, she replied, “Fighting pain with pain was only me tricking Cang Qiuzi. There is an antidote to this poison, which I gave him with that jab just then. But the effects of the antidote act slowly, so all he’ll feel is the pain gradually ebbing away. Since Cang Qiuzi’s so afraid to die, he’ll keep jabbing himself for sure.”
Han Yunxi was quite confident when explaining her profession of expertise. In the darkness, her pupils gleamed with light that illuminated the entire hall. The sword sect master studied her for awhile before he remarked, “Besides this grandmaster and Long Feiye, only you have successfully tricked Cang Qiuzi.”
Was he praising her?
Han Yunxi hadn’t reacted in time before the sword sect master vanished from sight with Duanmu Yao. Long Feiye gave Han Yunxi a reassuring gaze before he too, disappeared into the darkness.
Han Yunxi waited…