The woman in red in the quiet hall was Huangfu Xin’er. The female disciple outside heard her cold voice and could not help but tremble, and her voice quivered as she said, “It’s Xiao Chen… Master Xiao. Now he’s over in the Fragrant Bamboo Pavilion…” Her voice was getting softer and softer.
“Boom!” Several skeletons and bones beside Huangfu Xin’er were shattered into pieces, and she bellowed, “Such audacity! Who permitted you to bring him in?” In the end, she looked up at her ten blood-red nails, and with a wave, she shattered another bunch of skeletons.
The female disciple outside was so frightened that she could not stop shaking, and she said in a quavering voice, “Empress, don’t be angry. We saw that Master Xiao was unconscious, and was in danger, that’s why we…”
“What did you say?” Huangfu Xin’er suddenly stood up, her fingernails slowly receded, and her pupils gradually changed back to her original color. The female disciple trembled and said, “We found him 1,500 meters northwards from the valley entrance. Master Xiao is unconscious, and he may have been severely injured by someone…” Before she finished speaking, the door of the hall shook and Huangfu Xin’er was already gone.
There was a bamboo forest in the south of Falling Flowers Valley. In addition to many mottled bamboos, there are patches of snow wattle flowers. When the summer solstice, the breeze blew, the bamboo leaves fluttered, and the flowers fell into the pond. The view would be scenic. This was the Fragrant Bamboo Pavilion of Heartless Palace. A bamboo house was built next to the pond at the end of the bamboo forest. It was newly built by Huangfu Xin’er a year ago. In every full moon of the month, she would come here alone to play the zither.
At this moment, in the bamboo house, Xiao Chen was still unconscious, his breath was getting weaker and weaker, and even a trace of wrinkles appeared in the corners of his eyes. The two female disciples of Heartless Palace stood in the house, both helpless and afraid to act lightly.
Suddenly, a red shadow moved in instantly, and the two female disciples immediately stood upright and said respectfully, “Empress!”
Huangfu Xin’er lifted her hand. She looked at Xiao Chen who was lying on the bed and could not help but trembled. She immediately walked over. Looking at his white hair and wrinkles at the corner of his eye, she bellowed, “How did this happen!”
The two disciples trembled, and one whispered, “The Koo-chee beast suddenly ran into the valley and pulled us there, and when we went over, we saw Master Xiao fainted under the tree. Then we brought Master Xiao in… We have made the decision without Empress’ authorization, and we’ll accept your punishment!”
Huangfu Xin’er stretched out her hand and said, “Forget it; you can step down first.”
“Yes, Empress.” The two disciples stood upright and went out. Huangfu Xin’er put her fingers on Xiao Chen’s pulse, felt his heartbeat, frowned, and turned to look at the Koo-chee beast on the bamboo chair and asked, “Who hurt him?”
“Koo-chee… Koo-chee, Koo-chee.” The Koo-chee beast shook its head.
Huangfu Xin’er frowned. “You don’t know? Or was he not hurt by someone?”
“Koo-chee…” The Koo-chee beast continued to shake its head. Huangfu Xin’er sighed. “Forget it. You go out too.”
The Koo-chee beast hummed and looked at Xiao Chen with its pair of big eyes, and finally jumped off the bamboo chair and walked out the door.
Huangfu Xin’er flicked her sleeves, closed the doors and windows, and turned her head to look at the unconscious Xiao Chen. She gently picked up his white hair, swiped it between her fingers, and touched the wrinkles on the corner of his eye with her fingertips. Her eyes were inexplicably red, but this little heartache hurt her began to take its toll on her. Her chest started to hurt violently.
It took a moment before the pain slightly eased. Huangfu Xin’er immediately lifted Xiao Chen, then she sat cross-legged behind him, her palms pressed against his back, and sent in a burst of True Qi. She immediately detected the injury. The injury was not serious, though there was still some congestion, and the internal organs did not suffer much trauma, but they seemed to be slowly failing…
“How could this be…”
Huangfu Xin’er frowned deeply and was particularly puzzled. Suddenly she remembered something. A long time ago, when the two were in their teens, there was a birthday party for Xiao Changfeng, the owner of the Xiao family. That afternoon, at about the same time as the present, the two ran to the back mountain behind the Xiao family to play, Xiao Chen went to pick flowers for her, and accidentally fell off the hillside.
At that time, Huangfu Xin’er already had some basic martial arts skills. When she inserted an internal strength into Xiao Chen’s body, she noticed that there were two special Qi in his body, alternately slowly repairing his damaged internal organs, but just now, she could not feel those two Qi.
At this moment, Huangfu Xin’er’s frown was getting deeper and deeper. She was not proficient in medicine, and she did know what was going on. She gritted her teeth and injected another True Energy into Xiao Chen’s body again to take up the roles of those two Qi and repaired his failing internal organs.
In this way, Huangfu Xin’er healed Xiao Chen’s wounds in the most stupid way, which lasted until sunset. Xiao Chen’s mouth was stained with blood as the bruised blood was forced out. Naturally, Huangfu Xin’er’s mouth was stained with blood as well and she did not look great.
When it was getting dark, Huangfu Xin’er helped him to lie on the bed and watched him for a while before she left the bamboo house and went to the entrance of the bamboo forest. When Huangfu Xin’er came out, the Koo-chee beast was outside and the two female disciples who were still guarding the entrance immediately respectfully said, “Empress.”
Huangfu Xin’er nodded and said, “Go and guard the night; I will come back tomorrow.” After that, she walked towards the direction of the Heartless Temple, after about more than 10 meter’s distances, she turned around and asked, “Right, what about Chu Lingjiao? Haven’t found her yet?”
The two disciples froze, and one bowed her head and said, “We will surely find this rebellious thief as soon as possible!”
Huangfu Xin’er did not speak, but her eyes gradually became cold, making the two disciples as quiet as a mouse. After a while later, she said, “By the way, this person acts carefully. Before she fully understands the fourth volume of the mind cultivation method, she will not show up.”
Speaking of this, she paused for a moment, and said, “If she has fully understood the fourth volume of mind cultivation method, you will never be her opponents. This time in the Wuyue Mountain Wind and Cloud Meeting, she will definitely be there. If you found her by then do not fight her, just send me a message.”
“Yes, Empress!”
Huangfu Xin’er nodded, turned and walked towards the direction of the Heartless Temple. Under the night, a woman in a red dress drifted away, and her back view looked a little lonely.
After she had gone far, the two female disciples were relieved, and one frowned, and whispered, “The Empress is too anxious to succeed, and she has started to practice the fifth step of mind cultivation method before she gets the fourth step of it. I’m afraid she will if…”
“Shh…” The other one immediately made a shush gesture and shook her head.
In the early morning of the next day, Huangfu Xin’er still came to treat Xiao Chen in the most stupid way. By the third day, Xiao Chen’s complexion was then barely better, and the wrinkles on his eyes were gone, but these days, the look on Huangfu Xin’er was getting worse.
At the end of the day, Xiao Chen finally moved. Huangfu Xin’er immediately supported him, but Xiao Chen still could not open his eyes, as if he was trapped in a nightmare and was in a state of confusion. In his current state of mind, he somewhat saw Li Muxue’s destiny turned by Red Sleeve and disappeared into the smoke…
“No… Muxue…” Xiao Chen moved his lips and frowned, but his eyes still could not open. He could not see the person who was helping him at this moment, and his consciousness was still not clear.
It was just two words that were being spoken out lightly, but when Huangfu Xin’er heard them, she felt as though her heart was cut with a sharp blade, her hands shook slightly, and two red radiances flashed in her eyes. The look in her eyes was seemingly colder.
There was a sudden pain in her heart, and suddenly she spat out a mouthful of blood. She blackout, her hands immediately lost their strength, and she fainted by the bedside. Xiao Chen lost her support and fell back. Together, they passed out.
In the early morning of the next day, Xiao Chen finally woke up and smelled a faint fragrance. He opened his eyes but did not know where he was. He moved his arm and felt something soft, he turned his head and saw a woman in red lying beside him. He immediately recognized that it was Huangfu Xin’er at a glance.
“Xin’er!”
Xiao Chen was startled and immediately lifted Huangfu Xin’er. He saw that her mouth was stained with blood and her face was pale and ugly, and he was even more startled. Then he condensed a True Energy in his palm and passed it through her shoulder.
Huangfu Xin’er groaned and woke up. The moment she opened her eyes, she pushed Xiao Chen away. Then with a wave of sleeve, she was already at the door. Xiao Chen rubbed his chest and whispered, “Xin’er, you…”
Huangfu Xin’er gave him a grievous look, and then her eyes were colder, and she said coldly, “One life for one life, we are cleared now. Please leave if you are fine.” Then she moved and went towards the end of the bamboo forest.
Xiao Chen froze for a while, and then murmured, “Now… you don’t even want to give me another look?” Then he gave out a long sigh. He looked at the table in the room and saw a small bowl on the table that was filled half with lotus seeds soup that was already cold.
“Koo-chee! Koo-chee, Koo-chee!”
The Koo-chee beast ran in suddenly, Xiao Chen smiled lightly, and naturally could guess what had happened. He asked, “Brother Koo-chee, how many days have I slept?”
Koo-chee beast blinked, stretched out its front furry paws, and opened it up, indicating five days. Xiao Chen leapt lightly and got out of the bed. He was exhausted that day from rushing the journey, so he had heatstroke and fainted. Now he felt refreshed and as if his skill had recovered a bit.
Then he went outside and saw that bamboos were planted nearby, the breeze was blowing, the bamboo leaves fell into the pond, and the scenery was quite quiet. Then he strolled around at random and left in the afternoon to reach a flowering forest near valley entrance where he could hear the sound of zither coming from the bamboo forest in the distance.
Xiao Chen walked over and saw that it was Huangfu Xin’er who playing the zither, but the Jade Zither was not the one he had gifted her. Huangfu Xin’er stopped playing and said coldly, “Why haven’t you left?”
“I… I came to say goodbye to you; how have you been?”
Huangfu Xin’er said nothing and continued to play the zither, neither did she look up at him. Xiao Chen smiled to himself forcefully, and said, “So… I’m leaving now. Farewell, Huangfu… Empress Huangfu.”
When the words “Empress Huangfu” were spoken, his heart suddenly burst into a violent pain, like a heavily pierced heart by millions of arrows. To cover up the pain, he immediately hurried out of the valley. The zither sound of Huangfu Xin’er stopped, but her face remained blank. Then she started to play the zither again.
However, the sound of the zither was getting faster, and her hands were moving faster and faster, and more and more forceful. The wind rose suddenly, howling and screaming, and the sound of bamboo leaves rattling was heard. The leaves fell off and flew everywhere. In the end, “Zing, zing, zing” was heard, and the sound of the zither finally stopped, and its seven strings were broken, as well.
The wind had also dispersed.