Chapter 174

“Damn it, that brat actually hurt her!”

Cheng Ying, an old senior who has lived for who knows how many years, vividly explained what it means to be disrespectful to the elderly. At this moment, he was so angry that his spirit body twisted and bared his teeth.

“If I had known this would happen, you should have twisted his leg harder and taught that brat a lesson!”

“Don’t touch.”

Pei Ji seemed a bit unhappy, casting a tall, lean shadow over Ning Ning, shading his eyes with a layer of gloom.

“Thunder and Fire Talismans?”

“Probably.”

His question made Ning Ning acutely aware of the scar on her face, making the wound seem to growl, twist, and throb painfully. She started to wonder if there was a mirror in the village to help her accurately apply medicine to her face. Just as she was deep in thought, she felt someone tugging at her sleeve.

Pei Ji still had a gloomy appearance, as if he had traveled through “Heartless, Cheerless“. He dragged her sleeve and led her forward without saying a word. Before Ning Ning could ask, he curtly said, “Let’s apply the medicine.”

(T/N: Heartless came from the Chinese idiom (“无心无气” is pronounced as méi xīn méi fèi), which means to be without thinking or scheming. It also refers to someone who is cold-blooded, cruel, and even treats relatives and friends in a vicious way, lacking emotion. Such people do not have the joys, sorrows, anger, and happiness of ordinary people, and they often have few friends around them. It comes from Lao She’s “Four Generations Under One Roof “. 

Cheerless comes from a Chinese idiom (郁郁寡欢,pinyin: yù yù guǎ huān), which describes feeling depressed and unhappy. It comes from “Nine Chapters: Chousi” by Qu Yuan of the Warring States Period.)

Ning Ning replied, “…Oh.”

His grip wasn’t strong, but his movements were efficient. Following him obediently, Ning Ning felt she had forgotten something, frowning in confusion. Soon, she rushed back with Pei Ji in tow, pointing at another injured sword cultivator shivering in the cold wind.

“He Zhizhou! We forgot He Zhizhou. He’s still lying on the ground!”

—————

Applying medicine to the wound on her face was tricky without a mirror since Ning Ning couldn’t see it properly.

“Are you going to help me apply the medicine?”

Seeing Pei Ji dip his hand into the ointment, Ning Ning was both surprised and nervous, sitting at the edge of the bed.

—How could she have such virtue and ability to make the sword-training machine in the original novel, who will rush all the way eastward across the river with the script of killing monsters and upgrading endlessly to pick up the small medicine bottle?

Pei Ji, always straightforward, sat in front of her with the medicine, asking, “Where else are you hurt?”

He had already decided.

Ning Ning, feeling her defiant attitude as a senior sister deflate, raised her right arm and rolled up her sleeve. Pei Ji’s expression darkened further.

He shouldn’t have just broken that talisman cultivator’s knee. He should have beaten him half to death before letting him go. Even if Bai Ye wanted to escape quickly, he could have stuffed the token back into that person’s mouth, ensuring no escape or death.

Seeing Pei Ji’s displeased look, Ning Ning thought he was angry because she lied. She poked his hand, saying, “It’s not serious. Look, there’s no blood, and I can still move my arm just fine—”

As she waved her arm to show her point, a sharp, bone-deep pain shot through her. The Thunder and Fire Talisman was indeed ruthless. Ning Ning’s expression stiffened from the pain. To avoid letting Pei Ji see her contorted face, she lowered her head, covering her cheek with her free hand, and let out a low, gasping sound.

“This, this, this looks painful!”

Cheng Ying whimpered, shivering inside Pei Ji’s mind.

“Pei Xiaoji, quickly put away that murderous look. Don’t scare her. Ning Ning is so nice; she didn’t want you to worry and has been enduring the pain in silence.”

Pei Ji didn’t respond to Cheng Ying, but his expression stiffened slightly. Awkwardly, he tried to soften the ferocity on his face, which only made his already unnatural expression even more rigid, like a stone statue.

Meanwhile, Pei Ji’s right hand held the medicine bottle while his left hand formed a spell. Something shattered with a flash of white light.

“What the F*ck?”

Watching the mystic mirror’s image suddenly go black, Tian Xianzi slammed the table in frustration.

“How could Pei Ji, that stinky brat, damage the Spirit Vision orb again!”

“Pay for it! Pay for it!”

After finally seeing some signs, they were cut off by that brat’s own hands. Lin Qian was like a mad rabbit, with bloodshot eyes as she fiercely crushed the white jade cake in her hand: “If I don’t make him lose everything, I – I will be so angry that I will die due to anger!”

Only He Xiaochen, wiping sweat from his forehead, remained calm. “Calm down, calm down.”

Zhen Xiao, startled by their madness, nodded gently after hearing this.

He Xiaochen was indeed a worthy opponent, able to remain rational even now.

But moments later, He Xiaocheng continued, “Pei Ji deserves a beating, but Ning Ning is innocent. If he loses everything and can’t afford to eat, won’t the little girl suffer as well? It’s inappropriate!”

Lin Qian and Tian Xianzi, enlightened, nodded in agreement. “As expected of He Xiaochen, he is remaining rational even now. Truly a kindred spirit!”

Zhen Xiao: …

Okay, that’s great. You guys should go and suck on the gorilla. It’s him who doesn’t deserve it.

While chaos erupted outside the secret realm, Pei Ji, the source of it all, sat quietly by the bed. For him, getting injured was routine—nothing to fuss over. But when such a common occurrence happened to Ning Ning, it inexplicably made him feel restless.

No.

It wasn’t “upset,” but more like “confused,” a suffocating, annoying feeling.

This unfamiliar sensation was very unpleasant.

Not only him, Cheng Ying is the same.