Chapter 82: This Venerable One Can't Believe It

Outside the Fragrance Inn of Rainbell Isle stood the willowy innkeeper, all dressed up with pearl bracelets jingling on her wrists as she leaned against the door, eating snake gall-fried melon seeds.

Most people end up staying at her place whenever Xuanyuan Pavilion holds an action, since she was clever on top of being pretty, a flicker of those beautiful eyes and she could easily guess what it was her guests wanted.

It was just past noon, and the sun beamed brightly from overhead. The innkeeper spit out some melon seed shells, thinking that the auction should be over in another two hours or so. The inns at Rainbell Isle were all fairly expensive, and the visiting cultivators don't tend to stay, so she didn't expect to make much from rooms today. But that's alright, these cultivators, vigilantes, and whatnot still have to eat before leaving, and she fully intended to squeeze them for dinner.

She flicked some bits of fruit peel off her skirt, then turned to yell toward the waiter inside: "ErFu, wipe the tables and chairs down again, and fetch a basket of the melon seeds I fried, put a plate on every table. Gotta get ready for our guests tonight." "Alrighty boss, right away." The waiter jogged off.

Done bathing in the sun and snacking on melon seeds, the innkeeper grinned contently and was just about to head inside to supervise the work when she suddenly noticed a black-white silhouette at the end of the road and approaching fast. Once close, she saw that it was a handsome cultivator dressed in black and holding someone in his arms, just as he burst into her inn at full tilt in a burning panic.

"A room, room room room!!" "..." Maybe because of how suddenly he had bust in and how strangely he was acting, but the waiter only stared at him in bewilderment with his mouth hanging open.

Mo Ran roared angrily: "I said I want a room! What are you, deaf? Where's your boss!!" "Aiyo xianjun." The voice of a young woman sounded from behind him, a little simpering and a lot apologetic, hard to be mad at a voice like that. Mo Ran turned around and came face to face with the innkeeper's agreeable smile, "My apologies for the wait, he's new. I am the innkeeper, please feel free to come to me if you need anything." With his dark, handsome eyebrows raised, Mo Ran hurriedly repeated: "Give me a room!" The innkeeper looked him over quickly and discreetly: he was wearing a cloak, so probably an attendant at the Xuanyuan auction, but the hood had fallen off in his haste to reveal his handsome face that yet had a trace of the tenderness of youth; but that wasn't important, what was important was the brocade pouch embroidered with a giant tortoise that was tied around his wrist— it was a qiankun pouch[2] from Xuanyuan Pavilion, specifically gifted to its patrons to carry purchased goods in.

He has money.

The innkeeper's eyes gleamed.

Lots of money.

She glanced at the person in his arms next. He was covered in a cloak and his face was turned inward, so she couldn't see what he looked like, but the innkeeper's eyes were sharp as a hawk's, sweeping quickly over those snowwhite robes made of high-quality silk before zoning in on that hand peeking out from the wide opening of a sleeve.

Long and slender, porcelain-fine skin, delicate fingertips, shapely joints.

A beauty.

The innkeeper understood immediately.

Sure, it's a beautiful man, but it's not like dual cultivation between men is unheard of in the cultivation world, nothing to bat an eye at.

"DaFu, open a room." The innkeeper wasted no time and asked no questions, ordering briskly with a snap of her fingers, "Get the best one we have."   Chu Wanning's sickness came suddenly and without the slightest sign. It was a good thing they were at Guyue'ye's domain, where good medicines physicians were readily available.

The sage doctor's eyes were closed as he took Chu Wanning's pulse with lightly calloused fingertips on his wrist, not uttering a single sound for a long time.

Mo Ran couldn't wait any longer: "Doctor, how is my Shizun?" "It's not a big issue, but..." Mo Ran seriously couldn't stand people that talked in circles and beat around the bush like this. He pressed, eyes wide: "But what?" "But it's quite strange; your master's cultivation is remarkable, achieved by few in this world. Yet my careful examination just now revealed that his spiritual core is exceedingly fragile, even more so than that of a fledgeling cultivator." If cultivation is water, then the spiritual core is the vessel holding the water.

One's spiritual core is inborn, while cultivation is built up slowly over time. It's easier for someone with an innately powerful core to cultivate, but once one's cultivation reaches a certain point, it would begin to bolster the spiritual core, so generally speaking, the cultivation and the core are interdependent and complementary.

An eminent zongshi like Chu Wanning would certainly have an extremely robust core, so physicians don't generally bother to check when taking his pulse.

Mo Ran was shocked: "How is that possible?!" "I thought the same. But I checked time and again, and it was the same every time." "My Shizun's spiritual core is weaker than a fledgeling cultivator's? H-how could that be, there's no way! Could you please take another look, maybe there was a mistake somewhere?" "I have always been most cautious in my practice, and have never said anything I am not absolutely certain of. If the young xianjun doesn't believe me,

then feel free to get a second opinion on his core, it will be the same." Mo Ran was stunned.

The doctor continued: "Precisely because your master's spiritual core is so fragile, and he appears to have received communion from a powerful weapon just now, one that has some sort of resonance with him yet does not belong to him, so he suffered rebound as a result, and then lost consciousness because his core could not take it. I will prescribe some medicinal decoctions, have him take it and get plenty of rest, he will be fine."   Mo Ran saw the doctor off and came back to sit by Chu Wanning's bed with his cheek propped up in one hand, watching him in a daze.

A weak core?

How is that even possible...

But the old man just now couldn't possibly have known what happened at Xuanyuan Pavilion, yet correctly surmised that Chu Wanning had encountered a powerful weapon earlier, so he likely wasn't spouting nonsense.

And also, that "Bu'gui"; Mo Ran had only just released a tiny bit of spiritual energy at Xuanyuan Pavilion earlier when Chu Wanning collapsed all of a sudden, so he didn't get a chance to see if that long blade was indeed his holy weapon from the past life. But if so, then why would Bu'gui resonate with Chu Wanning? And cause a rebound?

He stared at Chu Wanning, spacing out while his thoughts tied themselves into a big knot. He didn't know how long had passed when Chu Wanning's brows started scrunching up, his eyelashes quivering like he's having another nightmare.

He had no idea what compelled him to, but Mo Ran reached out and gently smoothed out his brows: "Shizun..." "..." "Shizun... Chu Wanning... I've already lived two lifetimes, but could it be that there are still secrets about you that I don't know?"     The innkeeper finished boiling the medicine in the inn's kitchen in short order, and came upstairs to deliver it.

Mo Ran tasted it—ridiculously bitter as expected; Chu Wanning hated bitter things. Mo Ran sighed and called back the innkeeper who was just about to leave.

"Innkeep, do you have anything sweet?" "Aie... we make fresh sugar candies, but today's batch is all gone already.

I can send someone to go buy some if xianjun would like?" Mo Ran looked at the steaming medicine and shook his head: "Nevermind then, the medicine will be cold by then, it has to be taken hot to be effective.

Thanks though."

"Ah, no problem, please feel free to call on me if you need anything else." Having said that, the innkeeper left tactfully, closing the door on her way out.

Mo Ran carried the medicine over and set it down by the bed, then sat at the edge of the bed with one hand on his knee, reaching out with the other to help Chu Wanning up: "Shizun, it's time for your medicine." Mo Ran had plenty of practice feeding him medicine from the last lifetime;

holding Chu Wanning in one arm so that he was leaning against himself, he scooped up a spoonful of the medicine with his other hand, blowing to cool it,

and then slowly fed it to him.

Thinking about it now, this is already the second time since his rebirth that he's taking care of Chu Wanning. He dislikes this person, yet feels such unease whenever he gets sick; he really couldn't understand it.

"Bitter..." The person in his arm tasted it despite being still unconscious, pulling his eyebrows together and turning away, refusing to drink any more.

Mo Ran was already used to him acting like this; holding another spoonful,

he tugged him back around and coaxed patiently: "One more, you'll feel better after, here." And fed him another spoonful.

Chu Wanning coughed up half of it, eyebrows furrowing even more.

"So bitter..." "It's sweet, the next one is sweet, come come." "Nngh..." "The next one! Promise! It's unbelievably sweet! This Venerable One had people go out and find the sweetest syrup in all the land!" Mo Ran was so distracted coaxing Chu Wanning into drinking the medicine that he forgot himself for a moment, absentmindedly running his mouth on words from the past life,

"It's delicious, you'll regret it if you don't open up~" Just like that, he managed to sweet talk Chu Wanning into drinking the whole bowl. Mo Ran let out a breath after the last spoonful, and was just about to get up and tidy things up when there was a sudden flash of white, and a slap landed soundly on his cheek before he could even react.

"You liar, get the hell out!" Chu Wanning snapped, then his head dipped and he went right back to sleep, leaving Mo Ran with his mouth hanging half open, holding his cheek pitifully. He was just about to get mad when the person in his arm groaned softly like he was dreaming about something distressing, his face blanching.

Seeing him like this, Mo Ran couldn't even get mad anymore. He didn't have any candy, but his gaze landed on the qiankun pouch sitting at the head of the bed, and, struck by a sudden idea, he took out a bottle of Tapir Fragrance Dew.

He tapped Chu Wanning's cheek with his hand, not too gentle but not too hard,

and let that count as revenge.

"Wait here a bit, I'll go make you some sweet dew water to drink." "..." Chu Wanning didn't respond, so Mo Ran moved to lay him back down. But when he leaned closer in the process, he heard a low exhale, and then a slurred mumble: "It...wronged you..."

Mo Ran froze: "What?" Chu Wanning's eyes were tightly closed, his eyelashes trembling incessantly as if going through something excruciating, the blood draining from his face bit by bit. He seems to have fallen into another dream, one that was even more frightening than the last. He shook his head minutely, an uncharacteristically sorrowful expression appearing on that habitually impassive face.

"I...it was I..." For a split second, Mo Ran felt his heart stutter erratically, a strange feeling flooding his chest as if there was a secret right in front of him, separated by only one last layer of haze, a secret he was on the very verge of unveiling. Staring fixedly at Chu Wanning, he asked quietly: "You what?" "It was I...who wronged...you..." He felt dazed all of a sudden; he didn't know if the dim light of the candle was making him see things, but he thought he saw a glimmer of wetness in Chu Wanning's thick eyelashes.

It was I who wronged you.

The words left his lips light as mist, but sounded to him like the crashing of thunder.

Mo Ran shot up abruptly from the bed and then immediately went stiff, pupils contracting into tiny pinpoints as he stared disbelievingly at the person on the bed. His expression changed instantly, heart pounding like a stampede of horses and hands clenching tightly into fists, feeling the blood in his body catch on fire in one moment and then freeze over in the very next.

"What did you say? …...Wh..." After a moment of being frozen in shock, Mo Ran suddenly seized Chu Wanning by the throat, his eyes flashing with danger, the guise of guileless naivety that he had worn since rebirth vanishing into thin air, "Chu Wanning,

what did you just say?" "Say it again! SAY IT AGAIN!!" It was I who wronged you; I won't blame you, in life or in death.

It was a curse he could never forget, a nightmare that had haunted him for two lifetimes.

How many times had he closed his eyes only to hear these words sighed by his ear, though the speaker was long gone from the world.

But these were words that Chu Wanning had spoken in the past life only as he lay dying; why would he, now——why would he—— Unless Chu Wanning was also reborn?!

[2] 乾坤囊 pouch of heaven and earth/yin and yang/the universe; basically the xianxia bag of holding