Chapter Thirty-Four: No Need for Pity

In the study, Master cast a spell to seal the wound on Baize’s leg.

“Wounds inflicted by Netherfire are prone to festering. You must take care while moving around. You don’t need to serve me tea these next few days. Reapply medicine and rebandage it yourself,” Master instructed.

“Thank you for your concern, High Deity!”

“Clear this away,” Master said, then sat at his desk, opened a scroll, and began recording something with quick, practiced strokes.

Baize’s brows knitted tightly. As he cleaned up, he reported, “Divine Lord, Yu Fei has been truly unruly, repeatedly endangering Your Excellency.”

“Mm,” Master replied.

“Yu Fei’s reputation is already ruined in the Netherworld. She has brought shame to our sect,” Baize continued.

“Do you have evidence for this?” Master put down his brush and looked up at Baize’s grave expression.

“Yu Fei’s appearance in the Netherworld was clear enough—she has obviously been defiled by those ghosts. She left the mountain without permission and shamed her teachers. If Your Excellency does not punish her severely, I fear she will not mend her ways, nor will it serve as a warning to others.”

“And how do you think it should be handled?” Master poured a cup of tea, the jade-colored porcelain brimming with clear, light-green liquor.

“She should be expelled from the sect.”

“Hmm. You’ve always known I prefer purity. What water was used to brew this tea?” His sharp gaze fixed on Baize’s face.

“It is Heavenly Spring water from the Jade Purity Realm.” Baize had prepared the tea himself and knew exactly what had gone into it.

“Is it pure?” Master pressed further.

“Utterly clear, spotless,” Baize answered with composure.

“Then after using Heavenly Spring water to brew tea, is it still pure?”

“It is! This is Snow Summit Cloud Tea, a rare treasure from the immortal mountains, the purest of the pure.”

“And where is Snow Summit Cloud Tea grown? Why is it considered a treasure?”

“At the summit of Kunlun, on perilous slopes. Its rarity makes it precious.”

“Is the summit of Kunlun more dangerous, or is the Netherworld?”

At this, Baize understood but could no longer choose his answer. Nowhere in heaven or earth is more perilous than that ghostly hell. He hesitated, then answered, “The Netherworld.”

“So, is the Snow Summit Cloud Tea, grown to satisfy the palate on Kunlun’s peak, pure? Or is Divine Lord Yu Fei, who risked her life in the Netherworld to save others, pure? Which is rarer?”

Baize was left speechless, and bowed deeply: “Your Excellency is magnanimous! Compassionate and broad-minded!”

“Purity or impurity is for one’s own heart to judge. You may go,” Master said, eyes deep with meaning.

Carrying a heart full of shame and anxiety, I headed for Master’s study. In the corridor, I ran into Senior Brother Baize. His leg was wounded and bandaged, causing him to limp. He carried a tray with a heap of bloodied cotton, probably to burn in the backyard after changing his dressings.

The moment he saw me, Baize’s expression turned to disgust and he hurried a few steps, but his injury betrayed him; he stumbled and the tray tipped, spilling the cotton onto the floor.

“Senior Brother, how did you hurt your leg?” I rushed to help him gather the fallen things.

The faint scent of healing salve, tinged with sweetness, drifted to my nose…

“Out of the way! This is none of your business!” Baize snapped, shoving my hand aside. He looked at me as if I were a filthy fly.

His hand struck mine so hard I nearly fell, stunned, as he snatched up the bloody cotton and strode off.

I had snuck down the mountain to catch a flower thief, only to be caught instead. A disciple of the God of Enlightenment, younger brother to the Emperor of the Nine Provinces—such disgrace would surely become the laughingstock of the immortal mountains. Senior Brother Baize had not insisted on punishing me, which was already showing me mercy. Besides, he always felt guilty toward Lady Lu Xue, and since I repeatedly “offended” her, he was never glad to see me. I felt ashamed, not angry, and by now I was used to it.

Standing outside Master’s study, I twisted my sleeves in indecision. How was I supposed to explain that little “spring dream” to him? I didn’t know myself…

“Fei’er, come in,” came his steady, gentle voice. Master had heard my anxious pacing outside the door.

He sat at his desk, gently closing the scroll he often read, and set it aside. The study was filled with a faint, sweet fragrance—just like the scent in my dream last night…

So Senior Brother Baize had carried the study’s scent with him. What incense did Master use to make it smell so good? I wondered.

The smell brought back memories of last night, and I blushed. “Master! Your disciple was wrong!” I confessed outright, lowering my head and not daring to meet his gaze.

“Oh… Your wounds… Are you still in pain?” My forthright confession made Master’s tone unusually gentle, touched with hesitation.

I moved my legs, then rubbed my lower back and abdomen where I’d been kicked. It didn’t hurt much when still, but pressing on the bruises produced a dull ache.

“There’s still some pain in my abdomen,” I answered honestly.

“Take these pills for now. I will prepare a more suitable remedy for you soon.”

Hearing his gentle, fatherly concern, I failed to notice the deep worry and pity in his eyes as he looked at me.

Clutching the bottle of medicine, I felt even more remorseful. Yesterday, Master had been furious at first sight, but later, like now, he was full of concern—he must have thought I’d been frightened in the Netherworld and couldn’t bear to blame me further.

“Your disciple is clumsy and has brought shame to the Jade Purity Realm. Please punish me, Master!” Eyes brimming with tears, I knelt to kowtow and beg forgiveness.

Master hurried over to help me up from behind the desk. “Fei’er, don’t let it trouble you…”

Standing before him, looking down at the little bottle of pills in my hand, my feelings were conflicted. I had studied medicine with Master, knowing that pills could save lives, but never that some were made by killing others. If not for Master, I would have become a pill inside someone else’s belly.

Tears streamed down my cheeks…

Master stood in silence.

After a while, I wiped my eyes, lifted my chin, and looked into his eyes with resolve. “Master, all the women I met this time were turned into pills…” Bringing up the subject, I wanted to tell him every last detail of the evil I had witnessed in the Netherworld.

Lifting his hands behind his back, Master listened as I recounted everything—the events, the lechero