Chapter 204: The Demonic Touch
Chapter 204: The Demonic Touch
The night was filled with silence as Xiang Ling and the woman with her appeared at the outskirts of the Azure Misty Mountains. Both of them were out of breath as they stared at the vast expanse of woods standing in front of them.
"That was such an experience." The woman said while shaking her head from side to side. She didn’t look afraid even for the slightest bit, just exhausted.
Turning her attention toward Xiang Ling, she spoke with a huge smile playing on her lips. "It was so wonderful meeting you. I will not ask for your name today because I have a feeling you will not tell me even if I did. So, let’s wait and see if our fates will bring us together again in the future. If we did meet again, I will treat you to a meal and you owe me your introduction."
Xiang Ling was surprised by the woman’s words and found herself giving a little nod of her head even before she realized that she was doing it.
The two of them were silent for a few moments before Xiang Ling found herself asking, "Where will you go from here?"
The woman seemed confused by her question for a moment before she quickly answered. "I was actually on my way to Capital City. I have-"
Xiang Ling didn’t give her a chance to finish speaking and cast another spell to teleport the woman away to the Capital City. It was not a good idea for her to exhaust her powers when she still hadn’t returned to Chen Manor yet, but she felt like helping the woman for one last time.
As soon as the spell was complete, she felt exhaustion taking hold of her mortal body. After using teleportation spell too many times within a short span, she was left completely drained. The Azure Misty Mountains were located just as far away from the Capital City as they were from Dongzhi City, meaning it took a lot on her part to teleport that woman to the Capital City.
She tried to fight the exhaustion but soon realized that the main problem was not her draining her mortal body, but the poison that was currently making its way deeper into her body. The realization shocked her and she tried to recall exactly when she might have gotten poisoned. All that came in her mind were the infected vines and plants as the poison inside her body seemed more like a demonic touch.
She tried to enter her space so that she could detoxify herself but her body completely gave up and she found darkness surrounding her. The very next moment, her body was falling toward the ground.
* * *
Xiang Ling woke up to warmth that was surrounding her. As her consciousness returned to the real world, she recalled how she ended up asleep in the first place and her eyes immeditely flew open.
She was expecting to find herself sprawled on the cold ground, but much to her surprise, she saw a very familiar figure sleeping next to her on a very warm and comfortable bed.
With a lump in her throat, her eyes quickly scanned the area around her and she realized that she couldn’t recognize the room in which she was currently present. On her way to study her surroundings, her gaze landed on the person who was standing near the open window and was looking at the darkness outside with his back facing her.
"You are finally awake. How are you feeling now?" The man asked before he turned around and made his way to the bed where she had shifted into a sitting position while making sure not wake up Dao Ming.
"I... I think I’m fine now." The words came out in a mere whisper as she watched Xin Cheng closely as he poured her some water and handed her the cup.
She accepted it and quickly gulped down the water as she was feeling really thirsty. As if noticing that, he poured her more water and watched as she emptied four cups straight before finally returning the cup to him.
"What happened?" She finally asked once she got some control over her voice after drinking the water.
"You were infected by demonic energy. Though it was nothing to your divine self, it poisoned your mortal body. I have already taken it out. You just need to rest and return to health." Xin Cheng answered as he opened the lid of a bowl sitting on the bedside table and handed it to her.
A bitter smell greeted Xiang Ling’s nose and she realized that she was holding some sort of medicine in her hand. The bitter taste was the real reason she preffered pills over concoctions. But despite her distaste, she gulped down the medicine without making a single sound. However, she wasn’t able to stop herself from making the face when the bitter taste filled her mouth. She was ready to throw up everything.
Without saying anything, Xin Cheng took out a candy from his sleeve and unwrapped it before offering it to her. Though shocked by his actions, Xiang Ling accepted the candy and ate it to fight away the bitter taste in her mouth.
"Thank you."
She spoke in a small voice as she finished eating the candy. When the man didn’t say anything at all in response, she looked up and found him staring back at her. As their gazes collided, she felt her breathing becoming sharper. There was so much emotion in his eyes that she failed to catch even a single one properly.
The silence stretched out for a long time and when he finally spoke, it was nothing that Xiang Ling was expecting to hear from him.
"We shouldn’t have left you alone there."
There was almost a fear in his tone as he spoke those words and it left Xiang Ling too stunned to be able to say anything for a while.
"It... it wasn’t your fault exactly."