The Healer Demands Payment

On the Qingfeng Mountain, cloud and mist never faded. There was a simple and spacious hall at the peak of the mountain. Around one hundred cultivators dressed in blue robes stood in the hall, adding a bit of divine atmosphere to this otherwise empty space.

Meng Qi stood quietly behind the other cultivators. She was wearing the same blue robe as the others, and a dark blue belt circled her slender waist. Her long, black hair was bundled behind her head, clumsily held up by an old-fashioned hairpin. Her fair face was plain and bare without any makeup. Except for a touch of medicinal scent, there was no other fragrance on her body.

"Junior Sister Meng, do you know why we got summoned?" This young girl standing on Meng Qi's left side was her senior sister who entered the sect six months earlier than her, named Lan Zhuxuan. With a small voice, Lan Zhuxuan asked again, "Why did they call all of us to this hall?"

"I don't know." Meng Qi answered softly. Her right hand clasped a small bamboo slip. After casually answering her senior sister's questions, Meng Qi closed her eyes again and completely immersed herself in the world recorded by the bamboo slip.

Lan Zhuxuan, who still wanted to talk, pouted. Among all the cultivational sects in this Three Thousand Worlds, Qingfeng Valley was just a small sect. Their sect's disciples were generally cultivators at the Qi Condensation stage, with a few reached the Foundation Establishment stage. Only the sect leader and two elders had successfully formed their golden core.

However, Qingfeng Valley was a medical sect and had never lacked disciples. It's just that most of the disciples who came here have mediocre qualifications, and some of them couldn't even breakthrough after cultivating for ten years. Basically, they all came here just to learn some medicinal skills to survive in this Three Thousand Worlds.

"Look …" Meng Qi heard the senior sister quietly laughed at her with another person: "Junior Sister Meng Qi always works so hard."

Meng Qi's eyes still closed. The dark yellow bamboo slips in her palms softly shined, and even the hand holding the bamboo slips was coated with soft light. After a while, she slowly opened her eyes. A faint light flashed through her clear eyes before finally disappeared.

Although Lan Zhuxuan didn't try to speak with Meng Qi anymore, she still paid attention. Lan Zhuxuan watched the light on the bamboo slips dimmed with complex eyes: "Junior sister Meng, you already learned second-grade spell?"

—This was already the highest medical spell that ordinary disciples in Qingfeng Valley could learn.

This junior sister Meng entered the sect only half a year ago. Although she was also a weak Qi Condensation cultivator, her medical cultivation had progressed rapidly, leaving herself as her senior far behind.

Lan Zhuxuan looked at Meng Qi's delicate and pretty appearance with some envy: "You're really amazing! No wonder Elder Yan said that your talent in medical cultivation is second only to Junior Sister Lu Qingran." Elder Yan was one of the only two Golden Core elders in Qingfeng Valley.

Hearing the name 'Lu Qingran,' Meng Qi's eyes flashed slightly. Her cold and indifferent look finally rippled a bit. But her mind couldn't wander for long. There was a sudden noise from the hall entrance. Qingfeng Valley's disciples waiting in the temple all turned their heads at the door—a handsome young man in a black robe, holding an unconscious girl tightly in his arms, walking step by step into the hall.

"Ah—" Lan Zhuxuan's eyes widened, "He…. isn't he…"

A small clamor broke out around Meng Qi. Like Lan Zhuxuan, everyone's attention was on the black-robed young man. First, he looked very handsome. Although there were countless cultivators all around Three Thousand Worlds, there was never a shortage of good-looking faces. But the disciples of Qingfeng Valley seldom see a man with this kind of refined look, a young man that seemed to be favored by heaven.

Moreover, this person was also …

"Look at the symbol on his robe … He is from Fentian Palace!"

"Fentian Palace?! The sect that is on top ten in our eastern realm?"

"Is there any other Fentian Palace?! "

"Then he… "

"Chu Tianfeng, the Young Master of Fentian Palace! "

"The Young Palace Master from Fentian Palace who was said to achieved Qi Condensation stage at thirteen, Foundation Establishment stage at twenty, formed his core at twenty-two, and now already a Golden Core cultivator at a mere twenty-four?"

"I heard that even in the whole Three Thousand Worlds, he is a young genius with cultivation talent that only appears once in one hundred years."

"So he is Fentian Palace's Young Master! "

"He looks so handsome."

"But his face is so pale… Of course still very handsome. "

"Huh? The one he is holding…Junior Sister Lu Qingran?! "

For a moment, the whole hall fell into silence. All disciples' eyes fell eagerly on the black-robed young man.

The Three Thousand Worlds were divided into four major realms: eastern, western, southern, and northern. Inside those major realms, there were countless small realms and cultivation sects. Qingfeng Valley belonged to the Eastern Realm and was a tiny sect among the countless sects located in this realm. While the Fentian Palace was a great sect that ranked in the top ten.

The young master from Fentian Palace, for the disciples of small Qingfeng Valley who majority were a mere Qi Condensation cultivator, was no different from an immortal. Anyway, he was a person far above and had no intersection with themselves.

But now, this unreachable person was holding a Qingfeng Valley disciple while slowly walking into the hall. Countless complex gaze filled with envy and jealousy instantly fell into the face of the unconscious girl in the young man's arms.

Meng Qi retreated her gaze, still calm like unperturbed water.

Senior sister Lan Zhuxuan reached out and excitedly grabbed Meng Qi's arm: "Junior sister Meng! Did you see it? Junior sister Lu actually is brought back by Fentian Palace's young master!" With some incoherent speech due to excitement, she continued: "How romantic, ah!"

Meng Qi raised her gaze, the ripple in her eyes still didn't cease. Yet she calmly told Lan Zhuxuan: "Senior sister Lu Qingran seems to be unconscious."

Qingfeng Valley's sect leader already flew over to the hall. The personal disciple she valued the most was unconscious and was taken back into the sect by a stranger. Even if the said stranger has sent her a message in advance, the sect leader's expression still ugly. When she tried to take Lu Qingran over, her eyes swept the young man's face, and suddenly looked astonished.

Qingfeng Valley was a medicinal sect. As the sect leader, she also the person with the highest cultivation level and medical cultivation here. Fentian Palace's young master, the young man in the black robe named Chu Tianfeng who came back holding her disciple, has black lines in his eyes, which clearly meant that…

He was badly poisoned!

"You …"

The sect leader's eyes flashed, and after a sigh, slowly took over her own disciple. Chu Tianfeng, who just now stood firmly with a straight back, suddenly staggered. He seemed to be trying his best to keep standing. But his handsome face became even paler.

Meng Qi's heart slightly jumped. Numerous familiar images instantly flashed in her mind—senior sister Lu Qingran, who was unconscious, was brought back in the arm of a black-clothed young man named Chu Tianfeng. But the young man's wound was contaminated with the breath of devil beast. Even as the young palace master from high above Fentian Palace, he could only accept his own powerlessness. Every hour, the poison would attack, and he had to endure the pain of a thousand needles piercing his bones.