Chapter 33: The Swift Saber
Lately, her thoughts had been in disarray because of Li Yanchu, to the point where she’d even forgotten the warnings her master had given her about traveling in the jianghu. On top of that, now that she held an official post in Wei City, she had grown a little complacent. She hadn’t expected that her carelessness would land her right in the trap of these scoundrels.
Li Yanchu, on the other hand, suddenly had a bright idea. With a flicker of intent, he cast a spell, Telekinetic Retrieval.
“Come!”
Then, a bundle suddenly appeared in his hand. Fang Qinglan’s eyes widened in shock. Where did that come from?! It just… appeared out of thin air!
Looking more closely, her expression turned even more astonished. The bundle looked incredibly familiar.
“That’s my bundle?!” Fang Qinglan exclaimed.
Li Yanchu nodded. “That’s right. It’s a Daoist technique. I didn’t know what your medicine looked like, so I just retrieved your whole bundle.”
He said it as if it were a trivial matter.
Hearing this, Fang Qinglan was stunned. She suddenly began to wonder if she was truly worthy of someone like Li Yanchu, and it felt like her love was slipping even further out of reach.
“Which one is the wound-healing medicine?” Li Yanchu asked as he opened the bundle and saw several small porcelain bottles inside.
Fang Qinglan answered softly, “The white one. The red bottle is the hemostatic powder. Use the powder first, then the medicine for the best effect.”
The hemostatic powder and wound-healing medicine from her sect were known for their remarkable efficacy.
Following her instructions, Li Yanchu began applying the medicine and dressing her wounds. In the process, he inevitably touched her skin and body, causing a faint blush to rise on Fang Qinglan’s cheeks.
Meanwhile, Li Yanchu’s expression remained calm. He didn’t know about others, but as for himself, he had absolutely no stray thoughts when faced with a blood-covered, injured body like this.
Inside Fang Qinglan’s bundle were also a few pieces of her undergarments, which Li Yanchu casually rummaged through while looking for medicine. Seeing this, Fang Qinglan’s face flushed an even deeper red.
“Whoa, this wound-healing medicine of yours really works. Your complexion is already looking rosier!” Li Yanchu said in surprise.
He didn’t think anything of it. The undergarments of this era were far too modest in his eyes. Back in his previous life, many girls on the street wore less than this.
Fang Qinglan grew even more embarrassed at his words. But just then, her internal aura suddenly faltered, and a thin line of blood slipped from the corner of her lips.
“What’s wrong?” Li Yanchu asked.
“It’s nothing. My internal organs suffered some hidden injuries earlier. I’ll need to recuperate properly once we get back,” Fang Qinglan replied.
Upon hearing this, Li Yanchu pondered for a moment, then placed his hand gently on Fang Qinglan’s pale wrist.
“Let me try regulating it for you.”
With that, he said no more and focused on channeling his spirit qi into her body. The spirit qi cultivated through Daoist cultivation, also known as innate life essence, was a special kind of energy, far more refined than the acquired true qi used by worldly martial artists. It could be used to heal injuries, clear meridians, and invigorate the internal organs.
The spirit qi Li Yanchu possessed now was far more potent than when he had removed yin energy from Head Constable Wang’s concubine. As the energy flowed into her, Fang Qinglan’s complexion immediately improved. She felt a warm, gentle power enter her body, stimulating the vitality of her internal organs and even beginning to repair her injuries.
Compared to just moments ago when her serious injuries would’ve left behind lasting internal damage, her current state was like night and day.
The contrast was stark, so much so that Fang Qinglan couldn’t help but let out a soft moan. The moment the sound escaped her lips, she realized something was off and immediately blushed.
This is too embarrassing.
Li Yanchu, however, didn’t think anything of it. He remained fully focused on healing her.
What he never understood was this: in TV dramas and wuxia novels, why was it that when the male lead treated anyone else's injuries, he could do it over their clothes; but when it came to treating the female lead, or any other woman, her clothes always had to come off?
The innate life essence of his Daoist cultivation had no such limitation. Though, that also meant he’d missed a “chance” to see Fang Qinglan up close and personal.
As Li Yanchu’s spirit qi continued flowing into her, all of Fang Qinglan’s injuries steadily improved, and even some hidden internal damage was fully healed. However, Li Yanchu had completely exhausted his spirit qi, and not a drop remained.
Fang Qinglan, being a martial artist, could naturally sense the subtle changes within her body. She said sincerely, “Thank you.”
He had saved her life and healed her wounds, after all.
Seeing her injuries stabilizing, and the wounds on her arm and leg beginning to close and stop bleeding, Li Yanchu finally let out a sigh of relief.
He joked, “So, how are you going to thank me?”
Fang Qinglan froze; she didn’t know how to respond to that. She was just about to speak when Li Yanchu cut her off.
Li Yanchu chuckled and said, “They say that in the jianghu, when a young heroine is saved by someone, and if her savior is handsome, she’ll say, ‘Such a great kindness, I have no way to repay it… I can only offer myself to you in marriage.’
“But if the rescuer is old and ugly, she’ll say, ‘I can never repay you for saving my life… In my next life, I’ll be a beast of burden to serve you, repaying your kindness till death.’
“So it’s better if you don’t say anything. If you end up saying you’ll be a beast of burden in the next life, doesn’t that mean I’m hideous?”
Fang Qinglan let out a soft laugh, and it felt as if her cold demeanor had melted, like ice and snow giving way to spring. It was utterly enchanting.
This joke, though long overused in his previous life, was the first time Fang Qinglan had heard it in this world, and she laughed with genuine delight.
Li Yanchu stood up and walked toward the corpse of the middle-aged man he’d just killed.
Seeing this, Fang Qinglan asked in confusion, “What are you doing?”
Li Yanchu gave a faint smile. “Looting the body.”
Then, with practiced ease, he searched the man and pulled out a silver note worth three hundred taels, a handful of loose silver, and a token.
“Hah, this guy really only brought money out with him, huh?” Li Yanchu said with a touch of amazement.
He examined the token in his hand, his expression thoughtful.
“What kind of token is this?” he murmured.
Fang Qinglan took a glance and said, “That’s a Five Lakes Gang token, only the higher-ups in the gang carry those.”
Li Yanchu was taken aback. “The Five Lakes Gang?”
The name wasn’t unfamiliar to him. Wei City had docks and a thriving river trade, and the Five Lakes Gang controlled those docks and commanded a large number of followers, many of whom were skilled martial artists.
“Then this guy must have held a pretty high rank in the Five Lakes Gang,” Li Yanchu said.
To casually carry three hundred taels’ worth of banknotes while out and about… This gang was seriously loaded.
Fang Qinglan nodded. “If I’m not mistaken, this man was probably the Five Lakes Gang’s second-in-command.”
“Never heard of them…“ Li Yanchu nodded slightly.
He was just a Daoist, after all. Strictly speaking, he didn’t even count as part of the jianghu.
“Could it be related to that wanted criminal you executed a few days ago?” Li Yanchu’s mind worked quickly.
Fang Qinglan paused in thought. “It’s possible.”
Suddenly, something occurred to her. She said, “This is bad, there were two other jianghu fighters. Both had decent martial skills. One used a spear, the other an axe.”
Li Yanchu smiled. “One’s dead, the other’s crippled.”
Fang Qinglan looked concerned. “The one with the spear, his technique looked like the Xue family spear style from Jin City. That style’s notoriously difficult to deal with... Wait, what did you just say?”
Only now did she fully register what Li Yanchu had said. He had already dealt with both of them?!
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