23: Chapter 23: A string of lies? No, this is the self-cultivation of a villain with high emotional intelligence.

"Senior Sister, I didn't tell the truth just now. The Formation inside... actually wasn't set up for me."

Gu Yi deliberately lowered his voice, his tone tinged with a hint of heaviness and hesitation. His deep eyes stared straight at Senior Sister Mu Qingxue, brows knitted tightly, perfectly portraying the image of a loyal Disciple shouldering the pressure alone to keep a shocking secret.

Senior Sister Mu Qingxue's forward steps came to an abrupt halt.

In those eyes, clear as icy springs, a rare trace of astonishment appeared. Her fingers gripping the white jade sword hilt tightened slightly, and her cold, clear voice carried a hint of confusion.

"Not for you? This Guhan Cliff is a Sect Forbidden Ground. Besides you, who is being punished, who else would need to set up a Formation here to heal?"

Gu Yi did not answer immediately.

He turned his head, casting a complex look deep into the mist-filled hot spring, then took a deep breath, as if making an extremely difficult decision in his heart.

"This matter... I shouldn't have dragged you into it, Senior Sister."

Gu Yi gave a bitter smile, his shoulders slumping, his whole person exuding an irrepressible fatigue. "But since you have sensed the anomaly at the bottom of the cliff, if I continue to hide it, I fear it will ruin something major. The person healing inside... is Revered Master."

This sentence was like a heavy hammer, smashing hard against Senior Sister Mu Qingxue's pure Sword Heart, which only held space for the Dao of the sword and respect for one's Revered Master.

The cold Sword Intent around her nearly spiraled out of control, grinding a loose stone at her feet into powder.

"Revered Master?!"

Senior Sister Mu Qingxue's voice finally had a ripple of emotion; those eyes, usually as still as an ancient well, were filled with shock. "How is this possible? Revered Master was perfectly fine a few days ago; how could she be hiding in this Forbidden Ground for punishment to heal? What on earth happened!"

Gu Yi looked at the Senior Sister before him, usually as cold as frost but now flustered due to worry for Revered Master, and secretly marveled in his heart.

Although this emotional idiot didn't understand worldly affairs, she was truly top-tier in her purity regarding filial piety. Dealing with such a straightforward personality, a half-true, half-false secret truth was often more effective than any intricate scheme.

"The ten-thousand-year cold poison in Revered Master's body has completely erupted."

Gu Yi stepped forward slightly, lowering his voice, his tone so heavy it felt like it could drip water. "A few days ago, to suppress the cold poison, Revered Master lost all her cultivation and completely became a Mortal. To avoid detection, she could only use the excuse of 'personally supervising my punishment' to secretly sneak into the bottom of Guhan Cliff to hide."

"Lost all cultivation?!"

Senior Sister Mu Qingxue gasped, her hand gripping the sword trembling slightly. "Why not ring the Dragon Bell to notify the Sect Head and the Elders? By gathering the power of the entire Sect, surely a method to suppress the cold poison could be found!"

Gu Yi looked at her eager appearance and shook his head helplessly.

"Senior Sister, you are muddled." He sighed and asked rhetorically, "Revered Master is proud and arrogant, and holds the position of Peak Revered Master of Lanyue Peak. If outsiders were to know she had lost all her cultivation and was powerless, how would those Elders of other peaks, who usually covet the resources of Lanyue Peak, react? And how would those scoundrels of the Demonic Path outside the Xuantian Sect, who are always waiting for an opportunity, react?"

Senior Sister Mu Qingxue fell silent.

Although she only knew how to practice her sword, it didn't mean she was a fool. She understood the cruelty of Sect infighting and the opposition between the righteous and the Demonic Path. Once news of Revered Master's weakness leaked, Lanyue Peak would surely face a catastrophic disaster.

"Therefore, I could only keep it from everyone." Gu Yi continued to add fuel to the fire, molding himself into a lone hero enduring humiliation. "Last night, while Revered Master was asleep, I sneaked into the Forbidden Ground behind the mountain alone, and only after a near-death experience did I find a rare fire-attribute item of extreme Yang and intensity. The violent fluctuations you sensed on the cliff just now were not me suffering from Qi Deviation, but that item's overbearing fire Qi, which is engaged in a life-or-death struggle with the cold poison inside Revered Master's body!"

Senior Sister Mu Qingxue's breathing hitched slightly.

She finally understood where that fire intent, capable of burning the sky and boiling the seas, which she had sensed on the cliff earlier, came from. It was a rare treasure of heaven and earth capable of contending with the ten-thousand-year cold poison in Revered Master's body!

Thinking of this, the doubt in her eyes didn't completely dissipate; instead, she recalled the peculiar scent she had smelled outside the Formation, as well as the faint, elusive, and blush-inducing strange sounds mixed in the wind.

"Then... what about that strange, vibrant vitality in the air, and the sounds that vaguely came from..." Senior Sister Mu Qingxue frowned slightly, trying to use her limited vocabulary to describe the commotion she had just heard, "What about those strange sounds that vaguely came from inside?"

The look of pain on Gu Yi's face grew more intense. He squeezed his eyes shut, as if recalling some extremely tragic scene.

"Senior Sister, the pain of ice and fire clashing is something ordinary people cannot imagine. Revered Master's Meridians are almost being scorched dry by that fire poison."

Gu Yi opened his eyes, meeting Senior Sister Mu Qingxue's scrutiny with a frank and awe-filled gaze. "To protect Revered Master's heart Meridians from being burned, I could only stay at the eye of the Formation without stepping away, constantly overdrawing the Origin vitality of my Creation Immortal Body, forcibly channeling it into Revered Master's body for harmonization. The vitality you sensed, Senior Sister, was the aura emitted from my Origin."

Speaking of this, Gu Yi paused, his voice becoming even lower and hoarse.

"As for those sounds... those were the painful groans Revered Master let out when she couldn't bear the torture of the ice and fire shattering her bones."

Gu Yi cooperatively let his body sway slightly, putting on a weak posture of depleted True Qi and being at the end of his rope. Combined with his already disheveled clothes and slightly flushed skin, this explanation was simply seamless.

Dead silence. In the outer area of Guhan Cliff, only the howling of the mountain wind through the withered pines remained.

In Senior Sister Mu Qingxue's cold, clear eyes, the last trace of suspicion was completely dispelled, replaced by deep guilt and admiration.

She had always thought Junior Brother Gu was a perverse playboy, but she hadn't expected that at the critical moment of Revered Master's life and death, he would ignore his own safety, break into the Forbidden Ground alone to find medicine, and even go so far as to burn his Immortal Body's Origin to act as a Protector for Revered Master.

That disheveled appearance was not frivolous at all; it was clearly the wretchedness after experiencing a life-and-death struggle!

And she had actually been suspecting him of doing some unspeakable things at the bottom of the cliff just now.

"Junior Brother Gu... I wrongly blamed you." Senior Sister Mu Qingxue lowered her head, her cold, clear voice carrying a rare trace of apology and self-reproach. Her long, fair fingers released the sword hilt, she stepped back half a step, and solemnly bowed to Gu Yi while holding her sword.

Deep in the Sea of Consciousness.

[Ding!]

[Detected that the host has perfectly resolved the investigation crisis of the Daughter of Luck (Senior Sister Mu Qingxue) through superb verbal rhetoric and psychological maneuvering, successfully controlling the current situation!]

[Villain Points +300.]

The crisp System notification sound rang in Gu Yi's mind right on time.

Gu Yi chuckled in his heart.

This Senior Sister was simply as simple as a blank sheet of paper.

By just following her logic slightly, combining it with the objectively existing Spiritual Qi fluctuations, and fabricating a tragic script of "risking life and death to save Revered Master," she believed it implicitly and even apologized to him in return.

However, Gu Yi did not show a hint of triumph on his face.

He quickly reached out to support Senior Sister Mu Qingxue, his movements proper, without the slightest overstepping.

"Senior Sister, you are being too serious. We are both under Revered Master's tutelage; sharing Revered Master's worries is my duty."

Gu Yi handled that sense of anxiety and powerlessness just right, sighing as he said, "It's just that the healing process is truly too dangerous, and my abilities are limited. Although the fire poison inside the Formation has temporarily suppressed the cold energy, Revered Master's condition... is still not optimistic."

Hearing that Revered Master's condition was not good, Senior Sister Mu Qingxue's emotions, which had just calmed down, were ignited once again.

"How is Revered Master exactly now? Take me in to see her quickly!"

Senior Sister Mu Qingxue could no longer care about any impropriety between men and women or the obstruction of the Formation; she strode forward, intending to rush into the depths of the mist-filled hot spring. She had even secretly circulated her True Qi of the Golden Core Stage, ready to replace Gu Yi at any moment to suppress that so-called overbearing fire poison.

Gu Yi had already anticipated this. He knew that with Senior Sister Mu Qingxue's nature of respecting her Revered Master, once she learned Revered Master was suffering inside, it was absolutely impossible for her to wait outside obediently.

Gu Yi flashed, once again blocking the entrance to the mist like an insurmountable barrier.

"Senior Sister, wait!" Gu Yi extended his arm, blocking Senior Sister Mu Qingxue's path. The True Qi emitted from their fingertips collided slightly in the air, rippling out in a visible circle.

Senior Sister Mu Qingxue was forced to stop, her brows knitting even deeper, her eyes revealing a hint of confusion and impatience.

"Junior Brother Gu, why are you still stopping me? If anything happens to Revered Master, neither of us could atone for it even if we died ten thousand times!"

Gu Yi looked at the pure white lamb before him, who had completely fallen into the hunter's trap but was still desperately trying to push further in, and under the cover of the mist, the corner of his mouth curled into an unfathomable smile.

"Senior Sister, it is not that I am deliberately blocking you." Gu Yi took a deep breath, looking at Senior Sister Mu Qingxue with a heavy gaze, and said word by word, "It is just that the fire poison and cold energy inside Revered Master's body have completely reached a stalemate. Although my Cultivation Technique can condense a bit of Pure Yang Qi and provide vitality to protect the heart Meridians, it cannot completely neutralize that violent extreme cold and extreme heat."

He looked at Senior Sister Mu Qingxue's pretty face, which was slightly pale due to anxiety, and threw out his final trump card.

"The Formation just now is already on the verge of collapse; Revered Master's Meridians cannot hold on for much longer. To break the deadlock, relying solely on my Pure Yang Qi is far from enough; there must be an equally pure Extreme Yin Force to act as a bridge to reorganize and calm that chaotic Yin and Yang Qi."

Senior Sister Mu Qingxue's face instantly turned pale.

"Extreme Yin Force? What Heaven And Earth Treasure is needed? I will go to the Sect treasury to get it immediately! Even if I have to beg the Sect Head..."

"It's too late, and you can't beg for it." Gu Yi directly interrupted her, his deep gaze, as if tangible, staring fixedly at Senior Sister Mu Qingxue's clear eyes.

"Senior Sister, the Extreme Yin Force in this world that can act as this catalyst and save Revered Master's life is not far away, but right before your eyes."

Gu Yi's voice was so low it seemed to carry a certain bewitching magic. "You are the extremely rare Extreme Yin Sword Body. Right now, at the bottom of this Guhan Cliff, the only person who can save Revered Master... is you."