Many children, many blessings: Stealing the offspring of powerful figures to cultivate immortality.

After things calmed down outside, Gu Qinghan finally took the pot of medicinal liquid, which should have been cooled down long ago, down completely.

His fingers were naturally very clean, and the famous sword that no one would dare to look at twice within ten steps was now lying on the foot of the couch.

The medicinal liquid was extracted and refined from the most tender cores of the medicinal root from the bottom of the icy plain. He held a porcelain spoon and sat in the only crack in the bed where light could reach.

Jiang Yining wasn't actually sleepy at all.

Although she had verbally abused the person, the coldness and weakness she had feigned after enduring severe injuries was still firmly ingrained in her bones. Her current arrangements were merely preparation for dealing with an even more complex situation tomorrow.

"Still pretending to be asleep."

Gu Qinghan neither exposed the truth that she was not actually so defeated that she could not move. Instead, he reached out to her waist and gently and steadily pulled her into the empty space in front of him.

He never bothered with those petty and sour questions, nor would he ever yell and shout at this woman like those little dogs outside. Gu Qinghan picked up the bowl filled with the strong aroma of Chinese medicine and took a big gulp, putting it into the tip of his tongue.

This medicine is so bitter it really goes straight to your brain.

But for the number one ghost immortal of Canglan, who was used to feeding on poison and testing medicines like eating, it was not an unbearable punishment at all.

He caught Jiang Yining off guard by this unexpected move, forcing her to open her dark eyes and look at his pass. With a swift movement, he hooked her head back, which was trying to retreat and hide behind her.

The medicine, carrying scalding hot and extremely pure yang energy, was directly poured into the deepest part of the throat by those long, thin lips that never exchanged a single word with the outside world.

His lips fell forcefully.

"Isn't it bitter?"

Gu Qinghan didn't even let out a breath, licking the two soft, still-hot lips all over them.

As he pressed down on those subtle rejections with his lips, his slender fingers precisely flicked and pressed his chin, ensuring that all the life-sustaining herbs were fed in.

A small trickle of bitterness, though not entirely swallowed, slid down her porcelain-white lips, forming a thin line that flowed down her slender, boneless neck, all the way to the back of her neck, where most of her back was hidden by her collar—a vast expanse of snow-white skin.

The sound of Gu Qinghan releasing his hand was very low, but at this critical moment, his two unfathomable dark eyes turned completely fiery.

He reached out and tore off half of the hem of her dress that was covering her back shoulder.

With a faint, long cracking sound as the fabric tore, the outline of the phoenix's fiery feathers, which still silently exuded an aura of raging flames, was fully revealed on the center of Jiang Yining's back.

Gu Qinghan glanced at the few unsightly golden feather trims, and his usually arrogant and aloof face fell into a deep sense of depression.

He gently lifted her from her numb lower back, tucking the entire sheet of dough, already damp with cold sweat, into his chest.

Before Jiang Yining could refuse, the man's lips, warmer than before, bit down hard on the very bottom of that crimson phoenix tail.

The sharp pain and the chilling, austere sword intent followed the neat and solid bloody tooth mark, penetrating inch by inch into the depths of the bone.

Using his pure and yang intent honed through countless cold nights of cultivation, he covered the skin and flesh, inch by inch, with the unique Daoist seal belonging to the Great Physician Immortal.

"Don't move."

Gu Qinghan pressed his chin against the small curve of her chin that almost made her cry out. The hands that had once dared to test the deadly aura of the divine medicine hundreds of times with their own bodies to remove the millennia-old demonic poison were now gently pressing around the wound that was just oozing blood.

The icy sword intent transformed into a gentle, protective Dao mark that would prevent the small wound from ever reopening in the future.

"You've been taking handfuls of medicine from me."

Gu Qinghan stared at the glaring blue blood clot mixed in with the crimson feathers, his low voice close to her ear, each word a sigh, brooking no resistance whatsoever.

"I wanted to bring all the world's most valuable possessions onto this giant ship, just to go along with you, but those filthy words scribbled on its back..."

Instead of unleashing his full barrage of threats, he pressed his fingertips against the ring of bloodstains below the newly branded neck and shoulder, carefully applying medicine to the marks.

"I absolutely cannot stand it."

This man, who spent his life atop the tower looking down upon all living beings, ultimately couldn't escape the clutches of this beautiful woman's calamity.

The ice in the corridor of the side courtyard had not yet melted, and a single door could not contain the sounds coming from inside.

Fan Chenxin never returned to his secluded Buddhist seat in the side hall where he had been meditating for many years.

The three Buddha bones that had been added over the past few months were slowly growing cold at the base of his spine. He stood at the corner of the back door where the wind was fierce, not even thinking of raising his hand to brush away a leaf that might fall on his shoulder and settle dust.

Medicine seeped into a person's lips through the crack in the door, accompanied by the soft rustling of torn clothes.

He didn't even need to use his divine sense to see these sounds.

Fan Chenxin gripped the 108 new Bodhi wood pieces he had brought from the ordination platform tightly in his left hand, his knuckles cracking under extreme self-control.

Inside, Gu Qinghan listened intently to the faint sound of the beads turning. He slowly wiped away the stains on Jiang Yining's body, his eyes dark and unfathomable: "I will wash away every trace of human scent that has settled on you, inch by inch."