Chapter 26: Come Work Off Your Debt as a Laborer in the Medicine Hut

Chapter 26: Come to the Medicine Hut and Work Off Your Debt as Labor

So this was what Pei Zhi had been wanting to ask all along.

Xue Youtan had noticed Pei Zhi acting strange ever since the soul-summoning banner incident, and now he was asking again—could it be that the plague that had struck his village wasn't a natural disaster but a man-made calamity?

"It was just a cloud of mist, I didn't get a clear look." Xue Youtan tucked the demon core away and answered truthfully.

Without Yueli's Temporal Slash to speed things up, the journey back to Cangya Mountain was considerably slower. At night, the high altitudes were filled with cold air, and by the time he finished his Sword Flight, Xue Youtan's chronic cold-leg condition was flaring up. So the moment he got back to the mountain, he went straight to the kitchen, asked for several buckets of hot water, and had them set up in his room. He had just started undressing for a bath when a glimpse from the corner of his eye caught sight of Yueli sitting on his bed, having apparently appeared there without him noticing.

Xue Youtan paused mid-undress and raised an eyebrow. "Something on your mind?"

"Nothing." Yueli fanned himself, the smug look on his face enough to make Xue Youtan's teeth grind. "It's not me who wants you—it's the sect leader. He's got something to say."

"Whatever it is, it can wait until tomorrow. I'm tired. Good night."

With that, Xue Youtan moved to shoo him out, but before his hand could even touch Yueli, the air in front of him suddenly stirred. Realizing it was Feng Mingjue arriving, Xue Youtan immediately turned to flee, but Feng Mingjue materialized and snatched him by the shoulder.

"Youtan, that kid surnamed Yuan is the nephew of my old friend's nephew's brother. I sent you to deal with a demon for him, and you went and wrecked his house—fine—but did you have to cut the man down too?"

He knew the old man would come to chew him out, which was exactly why he'd snuck off to the North Courtyard to bathe the moment he got back to the mountain. But these two had zero sense of boundaries—barging in on him mid-bath!

"He was in cahoots with the Mist Demon to steal my golden core. I acted in self-defense and killed him by accident—totally justified, don't you think?" Xue Youtan spoke with complete confidence. "Besides, he'd murdered all those women. I gave him one clean strike instead of making him suffer—that's already more respect than you deserve, Sect Leader."

"What? He tried to steal your core?" Of everything Xue Youtan said, that was the only part Feng Mingjue actually heard. His stern tone did a complete 180 as he grabbed Xue Youtan and spun him around, checking him over from every angle. Only after confirming he was unharmed did he let out a relieved breath. "Then he deserved to die. I'll write my old friend a letter cutting ties tomorrow. What a piece of trash—trying to steal a golden core? Who does he think he is? Pah!"

"..."

No need to change your tune that quickly.

"You're not going to hold me accountable?" Xue Youtan asked.

"Hold you accountable? Of course I will. After I write that letter tomorrow, I'll update my social circle announcement and raise the bar for who I consider a friend, so people don't think the folks of Cangya Mountain are easy to push around."

Ugh, this old sect leader—still siding with him without question, just like in his past life.

Xue Youtan was so touched he was about to throw his arms around Feng Mingjue when Feng Mingjue suddenly spoke up. "Oh, by the way, when you get a chance, settle that five thousand taels you owe Yueli. Otherwise he'll nag me to death."

Xue Youtan blinked. "What five thousand taels?"

"The Temporal Slash. Five thousand per use. What, you don't know the going rate?"

"..."

He retracted everything he'd just said about Feng Mingjue.

That old man and that stingy fox Yueli were two peas in a pod. There's a song that goes, "Three people in this friendship, and I don't even get a name."

Ugh, all that sentiment wasted.

"I'm broke," Xue Youtan said with the shamelessness of someone who had nothing left to lose. "No money. If you want something, take my head—one life, one body."

"Then let's do it the usual way. That demon core you've got on you is decent—use that to settle the debt." Yueli, who had been silent until now, finally spoke up.

Yueli loved tinkering with medicinal herbs, and demon cores were a big help in refining certain medicines. He'd used demon cores to pay off debts to Yueli before. But this time was different—Brother Tong had said this Mist Demon's core could restore vitality and regenerate skin, and it could heal Pei Zhi's face.

Xue Youtan warily covered the pouch at his waist where he kept the core. "I have a use for this core. I can't give it to you. Pick something else."

Seemingly caught off guard by Xue Youtan's refusal, Yueli paused his fanning, a thoughtful look crossing his face. Then he snapped his fan shut with a *crack*, took a few steps over to Xue Youtan, tapped the bath bucket twice with his fingertip, and said, "Then work it off as labor. My medicine hut needs a guardian. You can serve for two days."

With that, before Xue Youtan could respond, he vanished into thin air.

"Tsk, leaving just like that without waiting for this old man." Feng Mingjue huffed. As he left, he passed by the bath bucket and said in a snide tone, "Youtan, this bucket of yours has great insulation. We've been talking this long and it's still steaming."

Hearing him say that, Xue Youtan was a bit puzzled too. "Yeah, it does keep heat well. Want me to send one over to you tomorrow?"

"No, no, I don't have that kind of luck."

??? It's just a bucket—what does luck have to do with it? Bizarre.

...

After returning from Jiangnan, Pei Zhi didn't see Xue Youtan for half a month straight.

Before, there would be personal demonstration lessons every few days, but now even those had stopped. Xue Youtan stayed holed up in Yueli's medicine hut for two full weeks.

The medicine hut was one of the three forbidden zones of Cangya Mountain. Without Yueli's explicit permission, no one dared set foot inside, let alone go looking for Xue Youtan there.

So the North Courtyard disciples' daily schedule for those two weeks was entirely managed by Xiao Yiheng.

Given Xiao Yiheng's attitude toward Pei Zhi, one could imagine what the treatment was like. Sweeping, dishwashing, hauling water, chopping firewood—all the grunt work was assigned to Pei Zhi.

But even without enough food, warm clothes, or proper care for his wounds, Pei Zhi was astonished to find that over the past half month, the whip wounds on his body had healed remarkably fast, and even the terrifying mark on his face had faded without leaving a single scar.

"What are you staring at?" A small flower dropped into the water vat in front of Pei Zhi, scattering the reflection of his face in the water.

Pei Zhi looked up to see Ling Yue sitting on a tree branch above the vat, swinging her legs as she watched him.

Ling Yue was the only female disciple among Xue Youtan's students, and with her pretty face, she drew attention wherever she went. Especially today—she was wearing a pale pink dress, and perched on the peach tree like that, she should have been quite a striking sight. But Pei Zhi only gave her a brief glance before looking away. Not only did he ignore her, but he also immediately used his ladle to scoop the fallen flower out of the water, then covered the vat.

What was that supposed to mean? She'd dirtied his water?

Ling Yue jumped down from the tree in a huff. "Junior Fellow Pei, I came all this way to see you, and you won't even look at me—are you mad at me? But it was Senior Brother and the others who bullied you, not me. I even scolded Senior Brother for you yesterday."

"Thank you for the kindness, Senior Sister. I'm not angry with you—I just have too much work and no time for idle chat. I hope you understand."

With that, Pei Zhi rolled up his sleeves and went back to chopping wood. The split logs piled up to the side, wood chips scattering to Ling Yue's feet. She stomped impatiently. "All you do every day is chop wood and haul water—what future is there in that? The Chief Disciple Assembly of Cangya Mountain is in a few days. With your skills in hauling water and chopping firewood, do you think you can become the Top Disciple?"

Pei Zhi didn't pause his chopping. "I never wanted to be the Top Disciple anyway."

"But Master only teaches his advanced spells to the Top Disciple. Everyone's fighting for the position—you don't want it?"

Only then did Pei Zhi stop his movements.