The Healer Demands Payment!
chapter-41-2

Ch.41 Part 2 – Farewell and Departure (II)

“Xiao Qi, be careful!” Meng Qi suddenly opened her eyes. The abundant aura she absorbed swept throughout her body in an instant, expanding her spiritual sea and raising her cultivation from the Qi Condensation to Foundation Establishment. At the same time, the aura inside the array began to lose control, quickly rushing towards all directions with Meng Qi as the center.

Without a second thought, Meng Qi rushed forward and hugged Xiao Qi. Her body leaned over protectively, covering the little white tiger’s soft body inside her arms.

“Ugh——” Meng Qi groaned again. Cultivating was an act against heaven. When a Qi Condensation cultivator broke through into the Foundation Establishment, they wouldn’t have to undergo a tribulation. However, the surrounding aura would rampage into a spiritual storm.

Meng Qi, who had just broken through into the Foundation Establishment stage, wasn’t much impacted. The aura inside her automatically rushed outside, enveloping her body with a layer of protection. Even if she was struck by the chaotic spiritual storm, apart from severe pain, it didn’t do her any harm. It was the moment of eruption that made Meng Qi’s face turned pale.

The room gradually became calm again. Meng Qi finally sighed in relief and let go of Xiao Qi. She carefully examined the little guy’s body, especially the wound on his front paw.

“Are you okay?” Meng Qi asked. She reached out to touch Xiao Qi: “Didn’t I tell you to not come over?” She rubbed his fluffy fur and squeezed his small, semicircular ears. “What if you get injured again?”

Xiao Qi didn’t move. He stared at Meng Qi dazedly. It was merely a breakthrough from Qi Condensation to Foundation Establishment. Even if his injury was ten times heavier than now, such a small spiritual storm wouldn’t be able to harm him in the slightest.

“What’s wrong?” Meng Qi squeezed Xiao Qi’s ear again. The little guy suddenly reacted. He realized that he was still lying in Meng Qi’s arms, the girl’s soft body protecting him carefully. A light medicinal fragrance surrounded his nostrils, unfamiliar yet soothing.

Xiao Qi suddenly turned around, his small body struggling desperately in Meng Qi’s arms.

“Eh?” Meng Qi was startled. As if fleeing from her, Xiao Qi jumped to the ground and quickly ran back to the bamboo bed.

From a safe distance, the little tiger stared at Meng Qi in shock. This feeling was similar to that time at that valley when Meng Qi did such unspeakable action at the heavily injured him. However, she obviously didn’t do anything this time, yet he still felt a shudder swept through his back.

——This kind of feeling, he never had it even when facing the most terrible enemy.

Meng Qi tilted her head in confusion, but didn’t take it too seriously. She once again sat cross-legged, diving into her spiritual consciousness. Compared to before the breakthrough, her spiritual sea has expanded three times larger and now was full of aura, as if going to overflow at any time.

——She successfully entered the Foundation Establishment stage.

Meng Qi slowly sighed in relief and opened her eyes. She was in a good mood and started cleaning up while humming a song. She carefully erased the array’s trace from the floor and put back the remaining materials and other personal items in the room into her new storage space.

After she finished, Meng Qi looked around. She has lived in this room for more than half a year in this life, plus another half year in the previous life. In fact, in cultivators’ long life, one year was merely a short time.

But Meng Qi has gone from life to death, then from death to life. When she thought her life was over, she opened her eyes to see this familiar yet unfamiliar room. That kind of mood couldn’t be described by words.

“Xiao Qi.” Meng Qi walked towards the little guy. She took out the beast house and placed it on the bamboo bed, then reached out to rub the little tiger’s fluffy head: “We are leaving now.”

Xiao Qi stared at the beast house, then dazedly turned his gaze at Meng Qi. Every breath he inhaled was filled with a faint medicinal smell from the girl’s body. It was as if his own body was going to be filled with the same scent.

“Let’s go.” Meng Qi picked Xiao Qi up and put him into the beast house. She then put the house into the storage space and looked around the room for the last time. Afterward, she turned around and walked to the door.

With a small creak, the door opened. The sun hit her face instantly, showering her body with a soft and warm light.

Not far away, Qin Xiumo and Chu Tianfeng were chatting in a low voice. Hearing the door creaked open, they instantly turned their head.

“Are you leaving now?” Qin Xiumo asked with his lazy, somewhat casual tone. Meng Qi even almost had a wrong impression: as if she and he were old friends who had known each other for many years and was just exchanging casual greetings.

“Yeah.” After a momentary daze, she nodded.

“Let’s go.” Qin Xiumo handed Meng Qi a small brocade bag. She took it and looked at its content. Inside, there was a huge amount of cold sky herb and several medicinal plants that grew around Qingfeng Valley.

Qin Xiumo raised his jaw, “Just in case. It might be useful.”

Those were the things the injured Qingfeng Valley disciples had picked under his command. The water inside the cold pond was so cold. Even disciples in Foundation Establishment stage almost couldn’t bear it. After they jumped in for a while and came up again, their lips became white with cold, their teeth chattered uncontrollably, and they were shivering so hard that they couldn’t speak.

Qin Xiumo coldly supervised their work. Although the disciples had agreed to pick up the herb to pay for the five elements blue crane’s blood. However, the hardship was higher than they expected. Especially the three female disciples, after diving twice, they cried and refused to go into the water again. The male disciples were actually equally miserable, but they all volunteered to do the work in the girls’ stead and begged Qin Xiumo to let the girls go.

Qin Xiumo didn’t say anything. He stood indifferently by the edge of the cold lake. His mind wandered to Meng Qi, who didn’t hesitate to dive into the icy water time and time again to pick the cold sky herb for his treatment.

Thinking about it now, Qin Xiumo couldn’t help but sigh. Children who cry would get candy. But Meng Qi, she always looked calm and composed, even cold, and rarely speak for herself. She was truly…