/
“How could I leave my wife and run off on my own?” replied Zu An grimly.
Looking at Chu Chuyan’s pale face and blood stained dress, he felt a bitter feeling in his chest. He quickly took out some recovery medicine and fed it to her. “Quick, eat this. While it isn’t as miraculous as the medicine I gave you earlier, it’s still medicine concocted by Divine Physician Ji. It’ll do wonders to your recovery.”
Many of them were given to him by Ji Xiaoxi. Considering how much Ji Dengtu doted on his daughter, he wouldn’t scrimp on this.
“It’s no use. My ki meridians are already ruined.” Chu Chuyan shook her head. Her voice was incredibly calm despite her plight, as if she had already resigned herself to fate.
“Who says that it won’t work! There’s definitely a way out of this! We’ll look for Divine Physician Ji afterward. I’m sure that he’ll be able to figure something out!” Zu An insisted vehemently as he stuffed the best medicine in his possession into Chu Chuyan’s mouth.
As perverted as Ji Dengtu was, his medical skill was the real deal. Besides, even if he couldn’t do anything about it, surely there would be something in this huge world of cultivation that would work!
And even if there was nothing in this world that would work, he still had the Keyboard with him! The items from its lottery might just be able to create the miracle required to treat her!
“Cough cough~” Chu Chuyan had never been treated so crudely before, and it made her both embarrassed and agitated. However, she didn’t even have the strength to move right now, let alone fight against him.
“It looks like you’re on good terms with Ji Xiaoxi.” Chu Chuyan noticed that the sachets holding the medicine bottles had been embroidered with flowers, and there was even a faint fragrance coming from them. It was clearly meticulously prepared by a woman.
“I told you that your husband is popular with women,” Zu An teased. However, he suddenly recalled that she was already in a bad condition and that it would be bad to anger her. So, he quickly changed the topic and said, “We encountered an army of zombies in a valley a while ago. I told her to escape and seek help while I lure them away, and out of worry, she gave these to me.”
Chu Chuyan sighed softly and said, “Why are you explaining this to me?”
“I’m just afraid that you’ll be jealous,” replied Zu An sheepishly.
Chu Chuyan didn’t respond to him anymore.
By then, Shi Kun and the others had already turned their sights over. Shi Kun’s face was so dark that it looked as if it was going to drip ink. “Young miss Chu, you really do impress me. I didn’t think that you would have such a powerful move that allows you to even deal with the Devouring Kun. However, you ended up crippling yourself for that. Was it worth it?”
He viewed Chu Chuyan as his ideal wife and did everything he could to attain her, only for her to be crippled right before his eyes. There was no way his clan would allow him to marry a cripple like her.
With her beautiful appearance, even if she had lost her cultivation, he would still have been more than willing to bring her in as a concubine to serve him. However, her injuries were so severe that it was unlikely that she would survive this ordeal.
Years of planning had gone to vain just like that. He had even resorted to using his greatest trump card, but it all ended up for naught. How could he possibly not be disappointed?
Qiao Xueying had a complicated look on her face. While she had entered the Chu clan with ulterior motives, the years she had spent together with Chu Chuyan had made the two of them as close as sisters. She honestly hoped that she could marry the young master.
In her view, only the Sixth Young Master of the Shi clan was worthy of becoming the young miss’ husband. No matter how she looked at Zu An, he wasn’t worthy of her in any way.
She never thought that Chu Chuyan would rather cripple herself than to give in to Shi Kun. It made her feel deeply guilty, for she knew that she was responsible for forcing Chu Chuyan to this point too. She reproached herself for the decisions she had made.
Meanwhile, Chu Chuyan gazed into the sky despite having heard Shi Kun’s question. She wasn’t interested in answering him at all.
Zu An noticed that there was hardly any focus in her pupils at all. He realized that she wasn’t looking at the sky but blanking out. Her heart had succumbed to despair—she had already given up.
Her body temperature was frighteningly cold. Holding onto her felt like hugging a piece of ice that had been frozen for over a thousand years, chilling Zu An down to his bones. If even hugging her was enough to make him so uncomfortable, it was hard to imagine just how cold she must be feeling at the moment.
During this short period of time, Zu An had already inspected her body with his ki. An ordinary person’s ki meridians should have been overflowing with vitality, but Chu Chuyan’s looked like the aftermath of an explosion. It was tattered and suffused with an air of desolation.
She was even weaker than an ordinary human in her current condition, let alone regaining her cultivation. The devastation of her meridians had crippled her, leaving her body almost paralyzed.
Zu An even suspected that she might have died right away had she not consumed ‘Faith in Brother Spring’ prior to using the forbidden art.
Shi Kun didn’t seem too displeased even though Chu Chuyan wasn’t answering his question, Instead, he murmured to himself, “You were the number one prodigy of Brightmoon City. Even if we look at the entire world, there are very few of our age who can compete with you. You stood at such a high and lofty position, only to be reduced to a cripple now. No, you are even less than a cripple. In your current state, you wouldn’t be able to tend to your daily life…”
“Shut up! No one will think that you’re mute if you don’t speak!” Zu An bellowed in frustration. He was already worried about Chu Chuyan’s dying spirit, and yet Shi Kun still continued running his mouth. Based on his limited knowledge regarding medicine, he knew that the effectiveness of any treatment had a huge part to do with the will of the patient.
If the patient had already given up hope, it would really be all hopeless.
“Hmph! Lowly trash like you would never understand the troubles we prodigies face!” Shi Kun looked at Zu An coldly. “People like us are born superior to the masses. We have our own pride and dignity, and we won’t allow ourselves to be looked down upon or pitied. Even if you managed to save her life, it’d be nothing more than torture to her if she has to live her life as a cripple.”
“I don’t object to you calling my wife a prodigy, but how is the like of you considered a prodigy too? You can’t even defeat my wife despite her injuries, and you had to bring out reinforcement like a loser. That Devouring Kun was a ninth rank cultivator or something, right? He still got destroyed by my wife in a single hit. What about you then? What are you capable of? What rights do you have to be spoken on equal terms with her?” Zu An was already feeling terrible just by looking at Chu Chuyan’s state, but this fellow still had to continue buzzing around like a pesky little fly, challenging the limits of his tolerance.
“…” Shi Kun.
Being told by a good-for-nothing whom he looked down upon that he wasn’t a prodigy was a humiliation to him. But he was indeed lacking compared to Chu Chuyan, making him unable to refute Zu An’s words at all.
You have successfully trolled Shi Kun for +314 Rage!
What are you acting so smug for? It’s not you who is formidable but Chu Chuyan!
Shi Kun could only console himself in such a manner. He reminded himself that it was beneath him to bicker with people of Zu An’s caliber and calmed his emotions before carrying on, “I might be lacking, but I have a huge clan behind me. Even at birth, I’m already at a height where you can never hope to reach no matter how you struggle. I don’t say these words with the intention to brag; I’m just conveying the truth to you. The resources I have at my disposal far surpasses yours. It’s unlikely that you’ll ever be able to treat her no matter how you struggle, but it’s different for me.
“Not only can I preserve her life, but I can reconnect her ki meridians too. If you truly love her, hand her over to me instead of selfishly keeping her by your side. You’ll only be stalling her future.”
Qiao Xueying nodded in agreement too. “Indeed, the Shi clan has a lot of connections in the capital and the physicians in the imperial court. They also have innumerable treasures at their disposal. Their means definitely far surpassed what the Chu clan is able to do. If you hand the young miss over to the Shi clan, the young master would definitely figure out a way to treat her!”
Seeing that Zu An had fallen into deep thought, a hint of a smile curled on Shi Kun’s lips. For someone of his position, there was no need to resort to violence all the time. Sometimes, he could get things done just by appealing to a person’s morality and utilizing some of the advantages he was blessed with.
He would try his best to cure Chu Chuyan upon receiving her, but admittedly, the chances of her making a full recovery were unlikely. That being said, it should be easy to sustain her life, which meant that he would be able to keep her as a concubine by his side.
It was just a pity that she wouldn’t be able to move, so he wouldn’t be able to do a lot of fun stuff with her.
Thinking that Zu An had really been persuaded, Chu Chuyan’s eyes glazed with fear. She feebly muttered, “D-don’t hand me to anyone else.”
Even though she didn’t like how lackadaisical and boastful Zu An was, at this very moment, she only felt at ease being by his side. She was afraid that he would be moved by Shi Kun’s words and hand her over to that scoundrel.
Zu An directed a smile at her and said, “Honey, what are you saying? How could I possibly hand you to another man? I was just thinking of another problem.”
Shi Kun’s face darkened. “Zu An, are you really intending on foiling young miss Chu’s future over your own selfishness?!”
Zu An rolled his eyes. “Please, I’ve watched far too many dumb protagonists falling for such tricks on TV that I think that it’s an insult that you even think that you can fool me with something of this level. You’re trying to stand at a moral high ground to criticize me just so that you can conceal those depraved thoughts in your mind. I must really look gullible in your eyes, huh? I’ll take responsibility for my own wife’s condition. An outsider like you can scram!”
Shi Kun’s face turned completely cold. “What arrogant words! You can’t even protect her well, and you still dream of treating her? Young miss Chu, you might blame me right now, but I’m certain you’ll understand my intention in the future!”
With a wave of his hand, he ordered his lackeys to kill Zu An. While he figured that there were some restrictions to the ‘Knock-You-Up Eyes’ skill, the pain he had suffered earlier was not something he would want to experience twice. He wasn’t willing to take the risk once more, so he ordered his lackeys to do the job instead.
Meanwhile, he would just wait patiently for an opportunity to leap in and end Zu An’s life for good!
“W-wait.” Chu Chuyan spoke up feebly.
Shi Kun’s face lit up in delight. He raised his hand to stop his subordinate and asked, “Young miss Chu, have you thought things through?”
Ignoring him, Chu Chuyan turned to Zu An and said, “Kill me.”
“???” Zu An was dumbfounded.
It was so abrupt that he was taken off guard.
However, Chu Chuyan got even more anxious upon seeing that Zu An wasn’t reacting. She quickly added, “I’m already a cripple now, and you aren’t a match for them. Are you intending to watch as I get humiliated by another man? You should flee after killing me and inform my parents about what happened here. Get them to avenge my death. That’s all you can do for me now.”
Zu An exhaled deeply. He slowly raised his sword up.
Chu Chuyan closed her eyes. A peaceful smile appeared on her face as she waited for the descent of the sword that would claim her life.
“Zu An, you dare!” bellowed Shi Kun.
Even though Chu Chuyan had spoken softly, he was still able to hear everything loud and clear. He would rush over to snatch Chu Chuyan over if he could, but he was afraid that a sudden move from his part would end up agitating Zu An into making a reckless move.
Zu An ignored him. He pulled his sword downward, but the trajectory caused his stab himself in the chest instead.
Shi Kun and Qiao Xueying were dumbfounded. They didn’t expect Zu An to hurt himself. What is that man up to?
Qiao Xueying even wondered if Zu An was trying to commit a lovers’ suicide for Chu Chuyan. Even though he’s hateful, I didn’t think that his feelings for the young miss would actually run this deep.