Snorting Beast looked at Hua Qian Gu's motionless body on the ground and became anxious. Its nose let out a snort. It circled her body, trying to think of a solution.
Hua Qian Gu's old injuries hadn't healed yet and she was getting new ones. With all the bumping and stumbling, bruises and open cuts, her body's self healing ability couldn't keep up with her anymore.
Snorting Beast hesitated for a moment and lowered down to lick her wounds. Its saliva had the ability to heal her wounds. But it didn't have confidence in itself; the smell of her blood can cause it to lose control. It was afraid one of these days it wouldn't be able to control itself and devour her and change from a demon beast to a holy beast.
After thinking for half a day, it held her in its mouth, took a few steps toward the forest, but suddenly stopped, hesitated for a while, it returned to the front of the cabin and pushed the door open.
The man didn't lift his head and continued to drink the tea on the table. Even though he was in the savage wilderness, his refinement had yet been stripped. He was dressed in a blue robe that had faded over time. His hair was loose but wasn't messy. Face, neck, hand, and anywhere else where his skin was exposed, had a layer of thin blue scars, even though his scars weren't as severe as the ones on Hua Qian Gu’s face, they were really fearsome. But the thing that made Snorting Beast most uncomfortable was that his forehead let out an evil presence.
Snorting Beast roared loudly at him, hot air blew his hair and robe around, but he still didn't lift his head.
As if threatened, it lifted its paw and slashed the table in front of him to pieces. The man nonchalantly caught his iron tea cup." humph…this is how you treat a person that you need help from?"
Snorting Beast didn't care; it grabbed him out of the cabin and placed him on the ground.
The man looked at it, his brows furrowed, he pulled out a dagger from his waist. They fought for a long time and finally, Snorting Beast took two steps back.
The dagger was an ancient holy instrument, soaked in many holy beasts’ blood, it didn't know where he found it, no wonder he could live in the forest by himself.
The man got up from the ground, turned around to repair his door; he didn't even look at the feeble Hua Qian Gu and walked back inside.
Snorting Beast found some herbs nearby, chewed on it and placed it on Hua Qian Gu's wounds, but its abilities were limited. The man seemed capable, if he was willing to help, Hua Qian Gu would definitely be able to get better.
Snorting Beast used its huge tail to make a furry soft bed for Hua Qian Gu, sat its bottom down in front of the cabin and refused to leave. It was hard for beasts and demons to come this close to the cabin, it was a wonder how they accidently found their way here.
The dignified Snorting Beast going as far as needing a human’s help was demeaning, but in order to save Hua Qian Gu, it couldn’t think so much. She was too weak to be moved anymore. It didn't matter if the man was good or bad, staying here was better than bringing Hua Qian Gu hiding every day, running from here to there, fighting with countless demons after her flesh.
So Snorting Beast made its own decision to stay outside the cabin.
Hua Qian Gu spent most of the time going in and out of consciousness. Even if she was awake, she couldn't move, see or speak, no difference than being dead. She never thought her situation now was painful. The most painful was when she was awake, thinking of the past, and when she was sleeping, dreaming of the past.
Teacher's smile, Teacher's hair, Teacher's fluttering robe; Teacher's words, Teacher's kiss, Teacher's hand that held the Duan Nian sword…
The past was like a burning flame, warming her and severely burning her. She was unable to explain and didn't have the ability to forget or the ability to escape.
The man didn't care about them, didn't chase them away, it was as if they weren’t there. Snorting Beast was not at ease from the start. Every time it looked for food, it would bring Hua Qian Gu along, then slowly after a while, it let its guards down, gathered some hay and lay her under the eaves of the cabin and left by itself.
There was one time it went far and it happened to rain heavily that day, Hua Qian Gu soaked in the rain for a whole hour. The man stayed in the house like he was the only one in the world.
When Snorting Beast got back, Hua Qian Gu began to have a high fever, she blacked out, and her wounds that started to heal became inflamed again. Snorting Beast became anxious, opened the cabin door, laid Hua Qian Gu on the floor and wanted to ask the man to help her, but the man coldly walked past her and went outside.
The cabin was too small, Snorting Beast couldn't go inside, but the outside was cold and damp, the fire in the house was good. The days Hua Qian Gu spent with Snorting Beast, all she had to eat was either wild fruits or raw meat. Snorting Beast chewed it first and then put it in her mouth. She couldn't taste anything so she ate whatever.
Back in the days, she could make the best dishes and now she couldn't even lift a spatula. Her tongue and throat had been burned, she couldn't speak, couldn't taste anything. Everything she ate had no taste, as long as she could continue to live, then it was fine.
The man came back; saw Snorting Beast sleeping in front of the door. It placed Hua Qian Gu on the bed in the house. He went inside, didn't say anything and coldly snorted, lifted her off the bed and lay down to sleep himself.
Snorting Beast glared at him, its fur stood up like needles again, but it calmed down and extended its tail into the house, fixed her covers, used its body to block the wind and slept on the ground outside.
On the second day, the man got up, looked at Hua Qian Gu and then at Snorting Beast by the door, went to the table and took a sip of tea. He took out his dagger and carefully cleaned it. Suddenly, he pulled up his sleeve, exposing the scars on his arm, as if they didn't hurt; he made a cut on his arm. The blood flow made him absentminded for a moment. Yes…he was still alive, then he couldn't give up hope.
Suddenly, his scar-filled face had an expression, a gentle and strange smile spread across his face.
He went to Hua Qian Gu's side and carefully looked at her.
From the first look, he knew she was exiled from Chang Liu. Her face had the same scars as his caused by water from the Pool of Three Lives.
She looked so young, so it turned out to be because of love——
He scornfully raised the corners of his mouth, tried to remove her Gong Ling but didn’t expect that even though she was sleeping, she had a firm grip.
When he finally got it, he looked at it carefully; the crease between his eyebrows became deeper.
What kind of crime did this little immortal commit that she was punished with Xiao Hun nails? Losing her immortal body wasn't enough and had to be banished to the savage wilderness?
This low rank girl, how did she cultivate the Gong Ling to be pure and transparent, with not even the slightest color? She mastered all 5 elements equally. If the person who taught her intentionally trained her this way, then that person must be really powerful. Her teacher wanted her to become a person with no flaw, weakness and shortcoming.
Who at Chang Liu has such capability?
The thing worth questioning most was, undoubtedly ten swords could have turned her into a disabled person, but she suffered over a hundred swords breaking all her tendons and blood vessels.
Had he left for too long? Or had the outside world been changing too quickly? The always conservative Chang Liu… when did they have a disciple with such high cultivation? What crime did she commit that her punishment was so many times harsher than his?
Interesting…
These past few days, he was actually keeping a close eye on her. At first, she was just a disciple exiled from Chang Liu. Since it would be useless to save a dying person, letting her stay was useless, and he wasn't in the mood to save a person. Furthermore, he was already kicked out of the sect, even if it's a Chang Liu disciple, what does it have to do with him?
But what he didn’t understand was, she was only a mere mortal now and injured to this extent, why hadn't she died? Even though it was slow, her wounds and broken tendons were healing themselves.
Snorting Beast suddenly woke up, saw the man took Hua Qian Gu from its tail and placed her on the bed. Nervously looking at his movements, if he was up to no good, it would kill him at once.
The man removed her raggedy clothes, put herbs on her inflamed wounds and cooked something for her to drink.
Snorting Beast didn't understand why he changed his mind to save her, worriedly pacing back and forth at the door, guarding the door and refused to leave.
Hua Qian Gu slipped in and out of consciousness, but her injury was healing significantly faster than before. She knew there was a person saving her but because she couldn't see and the person didn't speak, she didn't know who it was. She just knew the person was a man, not really gentle but was giving her attentive care.
Another month passed, her injury was almost completely healed, her tendons and blood vessels also gradually recovering, she could use her own hands to eat but was still very clumsy.
She was confused about her situation, never had she heard of broken tendons growing back together. She didn't know that it was her godly body and Demon God power that helped her heal quickly, she thought the man had used some rare medicine to heal her.
"Can you write?" one day this person asked her. His voice sounded nice, but it was very cold. It seemed like he had been alone too long, he spoke like he was speaking a foreign language, word by word, stiffly.
Hua Qian Gu nodded.
"What is your name?"
Hua Qian Gu used her finger, stroke by stroke and wrote on her quilt: Hua Qian Gu.
The man was silent for a moment, trying to jolt his memory, indeed he has never heard of the name.
"You're from Chang Liu?"
Hua Qian Gu nodded her head; this person should be an immortal in the past.
"Who is your teacher?"
Hua Qian Gu was silent for a long time, even though she was not expelled from the sect, but now that she was in this shape, would answering make him lose face? In his heart, she probably wasn't considered his student anymore.
— High Immortal of Chang Liu. She wrote honestly, he saved her; she had no reason to lie to him.
The man nodded, he guessed it right, she was Zun Shang's student. He knew Mo Yan and Sheng Xiao Mo's ways of accepting students. Only Zun Shang, his behavior would be unexpected. The 101 sword punishment must have been done by Zun Shang himself. What crime did this disciple commit that caused an always emotionless person to be so furious?
"My name is Zhu Ran, remember that."
He got up and went on with his own business. A round, chubby thing suddenly wiggled its way under the cover with her. *(Please note that Snorting Beast is only big when it's in a rage)*
—Snorting Beast.
Hua Qian Gu laughed, reached out and grabbed it.
Snorting Beast stuck its head out from the blanket, reached out its chubby little paws and scratched her face, with a happy face it let out snorting sounds.
Its appearance now was completely different from its real demon form. Its smaller form was like a chubby pig, with short legs, a nose that liked to sniff everything, and it ate whatever it saw. Like a kitten or puppy, its whole body was covered with warm white fur, mixed with beautiful flaming red flower pattern. Its eyes were big and black, when it looked at you with watery eyes, it could get you to give it anything delicious.
Snorting Beast had lowered its guard down around Zhu Ran, after knowing he had given his heart to heal Hua Qian Gu. There wasn't any danger around so it transformed into a little pig form to protect her every day by her bedside. Zhu Ran built another bed on the side for himself.
Sometimes, Zhu Ran would ask her about the matters of the six realms, it seemed like he had been in the savage wilderness for a long time, there were a lot of thing he didn't know. She would write on her quilt or the table, no matter how quickly she wrote, he would be able to read clearly.
"Do you want to see again?" Zhu Ran asked her one day.
She blanked out for a second and nodded her head.
"You're not really blind; it’s just the corrosion of your blood and flesh from the water of the Pool of Three lives. Your eyes must have been closed at the time, the corneas aren't injured. If you want to see, I can use a knife to cut open the skin over your eyelids, but it will be painful so think carefully."
Hua Qian Gu unthinkingly nodded her head.
Zhu Ran took out his dagger, burned it over a fire and started to cut open the scars over her eyelids. Hua Qian Gu did not cry or shout. She had been in pain for so long that she was numb to the feeling of pain.
Hua Qian Gu could tell he was a Gao Shou ( * like a ace in martial arts ) from his swiftness and precision.
On the day of taking the gauze off her eyes, Hua Qian Gu could finally see, it's just that the cut made her eyes look like two black caves. It was very scary to look at. At first it was like there was a white film covering her eyes, blurry and she couldn’t see clearly, but when she saw that Zhu Ran had the same blue scars as her, she couldn’t help but smile.
— Thank you, Senior brother. She wrote on the table.
Zhu Ran laughed coldly: "You're clever. But I've long been kicked out, I won’t be considered your senior. " He paused and said," Mo Yan…must've accepted a lot of disciples afterward."
Hua Qian Gu nodded and wrote: Three.
Seeing Zhu Ran's hate and resentment between his eyebrows, Hua Qian Gu shivered slightly.
She was injured by Jue Qing water; he was definitely injured by Tan Lan (greed) water .This was a person she needed to be on guard against.