amaotonovel Chapter 170 To Save or Not to Save
Chapter 170 To Save or Not to Save
"What exactly do you want! My junior brother died at your hands, are you going to destroy my sect now? You will be doomed forever, Demon Lord Wangchuan!" Qiao Qingzi slumped to the ground, shouting in a daze.
She clutched a blood-stained storage bag tightly in her hand, containing the gift she had given Xu Xiaoli upon entering the sect—a ninth-grade recovery herb, and the refreshing flower Lin Xi had given Xu Xiaoli. The spiritual herb was still there, but the person was gone, and the murderer was none other than the Forgotten River Demon Lord Wan Xun before her.
Looking at the Hundred Herbs Valley disciple lying unconscious on the ground and her master, who was beaten so badly he couldn't stand up, a deep fire of hatred ignited in Qiao Qingzi's heart.
Xie Wanxun's scarlet eyes were devoid of emotion. The disciples who used to study alchemy with her had become so unfamiliar. Xie Wanxun could no longer remember her days in Hundred Herbs Valley.
She suddenly grabbed Lin Xi's arm. Unable to resist, the unconscious Lin Xi let Xie Wanxun pull her in front of her. The silver bell on Lin Xi's head made a clear and melodious sound.
Xie Wanxun conjured a purple dagger in his hand and pressed it against Lin Xi's neck. A bloodstain quickly appeared, and the blood stained Lin Xi's clothes red.
"Let go, let go! Please, don't hurt her." Qiao Qingzi's voice trembled as she reached out, trying to grab Lin Xi. Unfortunately, she had been drugged. Even though she was poison-resistant and could reduce the effects of the drug, it was still extremely potent. Other disciples collapsed upon smelling it, and she too was affected, unable to stand up.
Xie Wanxun ignored Qiao Qingzi's struggles. She was surrounded by demonic energy, and surprisingly, red stripes began to appear on Xie Wanning's body. The stripes spread from her arms to her face, and blood spilled from the corner of Xie Wanxun's mouth.
"I've been poisoned," Xie Wanxun said coldly. "You will treat me."
"Don't even think about it!" Qiao Qingzi instinctively resisted. How could she possibly heal a demonic cultivator, especially one as wicked as him? If she were to heal the Demon Lord of the Forgotten River, what would become of her righteous heart as a disciple of the righteous path?
"As a medical practitioner, are you going to stand by and watch someone die?" Xie Wanxun smirked and mocked.
She tightened her grip on the dagger, deepening the wound on Lin Xi's neck, and blood flowed all over the ground.
Qiao Qingzi's face turned pale. She clenched her fists, but after a moment, she relaxed them.
She couldn't just stand by and watch her junior sister Lin be killed; she had to do something.
"Fine, I'll heal you, but on the condition that you release Junior Sister Lin," Qiao Qingzi said through gritted teeth.
"I promise you." With that, Xie Wanxun put Lin Xi down, and Qiao Qingzi quickly moved over to stop Lin Xi's bleeding.
Xie Wanxun felt a sense of familiarity as she watched Qiao Qingzi treat Lin Xi.
She covered her head, suppressing the sudden headache.
Xie Wan found a chair and sat down, while Qiao Qingzi could only slowly get up by holding onto the wall and move closer to Xie Wan.
Xie Wanxun did not make things difficult for Qiao Qingzi. She extended her hand and asked Qiao Qingzi to check her pulse.
Although reluctant, Qiao Qingzi still placed her hand on Xie Wanxun's wrist to feel his pulse. The pulse was erratic, and combined with the deathly pale face of the Demon Lord of the Forgotten River, it indicated that the person before her was deeply poisoned and would not live much longer.
Qiao Qingzi had seen these symptoms before; they were the same symptoms she had seen on Xia Mengqi not long ago. This was a manifestation of severe demonic poison. Although demonic cultivators have a natural resistance to demonic poison, they are still flesh and blood. Once exposed to too much demonic poison, they will also suffer greatly and eventually die from the poison.
Qiao Qingzi didn't know how to treat the demonic poison before, but her junior brother told her how. The person in front of her was the culprit who killed her junior brother.
A murderous intent flashed through Qiao Qingzi's mind. She looked up and met Xie Wanxun's scarlet eyes.
"How is it? Is there any hope?" Xie Wanxun's voice was completely flat, without fear or expectation, as still as a stagnant pool.
Qiao Qingzi could not see any desire to survive in those eyes, as if the Demon Lord of the Forgotten River had long since become indifferent to life and death.
A nameless fire ignited in Qiao Qingzi's heart, and she managed to squeeze out a few words: "There is hope."
She couldn't possibly say there was no cure, otherwise this madman might take his anger out on the disciples of Hundred Herbs Valley.
However, Qiao Qingzi was angered by Wan Xun's indifferent attitude. She hated people who did not respect life, and she loathed the demon lord in front of her who had the blood of countless people on his hands.
"Oh, how do we save him?" Xie Wanxun asked calmly.
Qiao Qingzi was speechless.
She certainly knew the prescription for curing the demonic poison, but she didn't want to tell the person before her. Wan Xun was the Demon Lord, the enemy who killed her junior brother, and a ruthless monster. As a disciple of the righteous path, she was irreconcilably opposed to the demon race, so she had no obligation to save such a scourge. However, as a healer, should she categorize people into different classes, focus on their thoughts and morals, judge the good and evil of their actions, and then use this to decide whether to treat them?
Seeing the confusion in Qiao Qingzi's eyes, Xie Wanxun naturally understood her thoughts.
She wasn't in a hurry; she would wait for Qiao Qingzi's answer.
"If you can't cure me, just say so. As a demonic cultivator, I've long been prepared to face my death," Xie Wanxun said indifferently.
Suddenly, anger flashed in Qiao Qingzi's eyes. She grabbed Xie Wanxun's shoulder, stared intently into her eyes, and said, "Wanxun, do you want to live or not? Or do you not care at all?"
Qiao Qingzi's mind went blank for a moment. Her poisonous constitution wasn't acquired. Even as an infant, she was severely poisoned and physically weak. To save her, her parents sought out renowned doctors and squandered their fortune, all for the sake of curing their daughter. Finally, Qiao Qingzi's parents brought her to Hundred Herbs Valley. After the valley master, Tang Zhang, determined that Qiao Qingzi was born with a poisonous constitution, and only by refining poison could she suppress the toxins within her body.
So Qiao Qingzi joined the Hundred Herbs Valley, learning poison and medicine concoction from Tang Zhang. All of this was to suppress the poison in her body, in order to survive. Her childhood was one of constant torment by poison, teetering on the edge of life and death.
However, whenever she felt desperate, she would pick up her family letters and read them word by word. Her parents hoped that she could suppress the poison and live peacefully. How could she be defeated by poison? So, she drank a lot of medicine, worked day and night to concoct poisons and study medicine, and struggled to survive.
Until she learned that her parents' town had been struck by a sudden plague, and that both her parents had died overnight, leaving only their cold corpses. Her home had been destroyed by disease.
Qiao Qingzi was in despair. She couldn't sleep for days and nights, holding her family letters and recalling the days she spent with her parents. She had sought medical treatment so that her parents could see her healthy self, but both her parents were dead. What was the point of her living?
Qiao Qingzi wanted to commit suicide. She swallowed all the refined poison in one gulp and stayed in her room, waiting for death. Until her master burst into the room and slapped her: "Your parents exhausted all their efforts to let you live. You casually give up your life and don't care about your own life or death. If your parents knew, they would be heartbroken for you."
Qiao Qingzi remembered how her parents had sought medical treatment for her everywhere, exhausting themselves for her sake. Their hair had turned white prematurely, and their bodies had grown increasingly frail. What sustained them all was her survival. Yet she had chosen suicide. Wasn't this betraying her parents' love and expectations? Qiao Qingzi survived. She studied medicine to save others and concocted poisons to save herself.
In Hundred Herbs Valley, she met many people with similar fates. Her second junior sister, Lin Xi, was deaf from a young age and abandoned, yet she still strived to experience the world, learning to cultivate herbs and studying medicine; her junior brother Qian's family perished in a fire, leaving him with a deep scar on his abdomen, but he remained dedicated to herbal research, crafting a beauty cream that healed the scars of many disfigured and burned victims, allowing them to confidently step out with smiles…
Therefore, she also wanted to learn medicine to treat the wounded. She accidentally came across a storybook, not only attracted by the sweet romance in it, but also because the male and female protagonists both knew medicine and would heal the sick when they traveled the world. She always longed to become a character like the protagonist in the storybook, whether it was the male or female protagonist, they were all her role models.
She is a healer, and she will do her best to provide treatment according to the patient's wishes.
Xie Wanxun was somewhat frightened by Qiao Qingzi, but she still nodded: "I want to live."
Qiao Qingzi's voice carried a hint of laughter, and her tone softened: "Alright, to cure your illness, you'll need a Grade 9 Rejuvenating Herb, a Grade 9 Regeneration Flower, and a Ten-Thousand-Year Mad Demon Herb."
As soon as he finished speaking, a clear bell rang out.
"Ring ring ring!"
A smile finally appeared in Xie Wanxun's eyes.
"Got you."