The Mirror of Startling Beauty: Her courtiers are everywhere

Where did Zhizhi learn her medical skills?

Xie Jinlian's voice was like jade that had been soaked in a cold spring, warm yet clear.

Once upon a time, on the snowy peaks of Kunlun Mountain, amidst the sea of ​​golden lotus blossoms, in those dreamlike moments of morning flight and evening twilight, he taught her to sweep away the flowing clouds with a sword and to play the zither while rustling through the pines. Little did he know that this little disciple, whom he held in the palm of his hand, was also well-versed in the arts of traditional Chinese medicine.

After all, most of their encounters in those years happened in hazy, dreamlike moments—she would lift her moon-white skirt, walk barefoot on the steps formed by moonlight, and call out "Master" in a crisp, clear voice, like icicles falling gently from the eaves.

"I learned it from an old man in the Valley of Divine Medicine."

Tang Xixue lightly touched his wrist with her fingertips, carefully discerning the faint, slightly hesitant pulse beneath his skin, her voice as soft as the first thaw of spring water.

"Didn't Master know? Back then, my elder brother sent me to the Valley of Divine Medicine to recuperate."

That time, the emperor used the last remaining imperial edict to summon the reclusive old medicine master.

That token is the highest symbol of the Divine Medicine Valley, passed down for thousands of years. It is carved from black jade and is said to grant one the chance to defy fate.

During the three years she recuperated in Shenyao Valley, she watched peonies bloom all over the mountains and valleys in spring, and listened to the crisp sound of snow breaking bamboo branches in winter.

With nothing else to do, he read every single book in the old medicine god's three-story library, from the "Shennong's Classic of Materia Medica" to the "Records of the Nine Provinces' Strange Poisons".

When the old medicine god noticed her, she was sitting under a waterfall of wisteria blossoms, frowning as she looked at a long-lost scroll of the "Golden Needle Crossing the Calamity Technique".

"Little girl, can you understand these ancient seal script characters?" The old man's hair and beard were all white, but his eyes were as sharp as an eagle's.

"The order of acupuncture on the third page is wrong," she looked up, her eyes clear. "You should needle Tian Shu first, then Qi Hai, otherwise your internal energy will easily flow backward."

The old medicine master stared at her for a long time, then suddenly burst into laughter, tears streaming down his face: "It's fate! It really is fate!"

He immediately insisted on taking her as his last disciple.

She integrated the medical classics of various schools of thought in the valley.

It was often several senior brothers, whose temples were already gray, who would come to consult her, their junior sister, with files on difficult and complicated diseases.

She would casually offer her solution while munching on wild berries from the mountains, the small, purplish-red fruits bursting with sweet and sour juice between her teeth.

"Can Zhizhi heal people?" Xie Jinlian asked gently.

Tang Xixue rested her chin on her hand and thought for a moment, her long eyelashes fluttering like butterfly wings: "I've healed over a billion patients. I'm very capable."

What she didn't say was that the first time the old medicine god took her out of the valley, it was to a city in the southern border region where the Red Plague had broken out.

She was only twelve years old at the time. Standing on the city wall, she looked out and saw that the entire city seemed to be soaked in blood mist.

She stayed up for three days and three nights, tasting thirty-seven kinds of poisonous herbs, and finally wrote down the antidote at dawn.

The old medicine master's hands trembled as he held the prescription: "Little Zhizhi, with your talent... you're bound to be envied by the heavens."

Later, every time she took action, it was against the most intractable plagues and the most insidious serious illnesses in the Nine Provinces.

She saved the herders of the entire tribe in the northern Yanlan Xuezhou who were afflicted by methamphetamine, and she also fought against the coral plague that spread for hundreds of miles in the Donghai Biluo Yunzhou.

The people knelt by the roadside calling her "Heavenly Physician," but she always hurried past, her skirts stained with dust from various places—sometimes the moist red soil of Jiangnan in the Floating Cloud Dream Continent, sometimes the golden sand of the Western Flowing Firefly Moon Continent and the Divine Kingdom on the Other Shore.

"Those on the path of the underworld all respectfully address me as the Heavenly Physician!"

She raised her little face, her tone carrying a hint of charming smugness, like a sparrow showing off its feathers.

Xie Jinlian couldn't suppress the smile on her lips.

Even though he couldn't see her, he could imagine what she looked like at that moment—her eyes were bright and sparkling, and her cheeks were flushed, like a crabapple just beginning to ripen on a branch, vibrant and tempting.

"Master, please rest assured," she leaned closer, her breath brushing against his ear, "With Zhizhi here, I will surely bring you back to the pinnacle."

His voice lowered, filled with deep affection.

"My master is forever unparalleled in heaven and earth!"

"Zhizhi is so cute."

His voice was like a spring breeze in March brushing across the melting ice, forever giving her the fullest tenderness.

"The esteemed Heavenly Physician," his tone softened, tinged with a deliberately feigned pitifulness, "could you have pity on me and save this wretched patient?"

In truth, he was afraid—afraid that she would be saddened to see him like this, afraid that those scars would sting her clear eyes.

Tangxi Xuexin felt as if she had been gently pricked by a fine needle.

How could she not hear the unease hidden beneath that relaxed tone?

"Hmm—" she deliberately dragged out the last syllable, her fingertips lightly lifting his chin, "For the sake of your handsome appearance, young master, this celestial physician will reluctantly grant you a chance to save you."

Her fingertips traced his thin profile as she spoke with a hint of mockery.

"However, young master, you must remember, according to the rules of the martial world, how should one repay this life-saving grace?"

Xie Jinlian chuckled softly, the sound resonating in his chest, causing even the white jade wheelchair beneath him to tremble almost imperceptibly.

"I will obey the orders of the Heavenly Physician."

Tang Xixue reached out and untied the white silk covering his eyes.

The movement was extremely light, as light as brushing away the night dew from flower petals.

The layers of white gauze slipped away, finally revealing the eyes she had longed for through countless dawns and dusks—still clear silver-gray, yet seemingly shrouded in an ever-present mist, losing all focus.

He sat quietly, letting her examine him.

A light snow began to fall outside the window, and a snowflake clung to the windowpane, refusing to melt.

She slowly approached, so close that she could count each of his eyelashes.

One glance at Tangxi Xue and my heart felt as if it had been pierced by icicles.

The meridians in those eyes... were completely severed.

It was neither harmed nor poisoned; it was shattered by the overwhelming power of divine punishment.

Every tiny crack is a testament to the excruciating pain of that time.

To save one person, the Kunlun Sword Immortal used his own body as a sword to defy the laws of heaven.

When divine punishment descends upon the world, nine layers of thunderbolts strike upon him.

He was already incredibly lucky to have survived. The fact that he looks like this now is all because he saved her.

Tears welled up suddenly, but she bit her lip tightly, not letting a single drop fall.

You mustn't cry, not now.

Master doesn't need pity; what he needs is... to see the light of day again.

"Zhizhi?" Xie Jinlian keenly noticed the slight change in her breathing.

"It's nothing, I'm treating Master's illness right now."

The next moment, a kiss as soft as a feather landed on his left eyelid.

Xie Jinlian trembled slightly, and half of her body felt a tingling sensation.

A throbbing sensation that spreads up from the bone marrow.

It felt as if frozen limbs were suddenly immersed in a warm current, or as if a dried-up riverbed welcomed the first rain.

Her lips were soft, carrying a faint fragrance like winter plum blossoms, which fell upon her eyes that had once been filled with stars and moon, but now were filled only with eternal night.

"So...it won't hurt so much anymore?"

Her voice was slightly hoarse as she pressed her lips to his right eye and gave him another kiss.

The kiss was lighter, yet it carried a resolute tenderness.

It was as if through this touch, all the missed years and unspoken sorrows could be transferred to him.

Xie Jinlian's Adam's apple bobbed slightly.

He wanted to say something, but all his words vanished when she kissed him for the third time.

This time, her target wasn't his eyes, but his lips.

When those two soft pieces covered her, Xie Jinlian's entire world suddenly collapsed.

He cannot see, but his other senses grow wildly in the darkness.

He smelled the scent of begonias in her hair—a unique fragrance that he could never mistake for her, whether in dreams or in reality.

He tasted a faint sweetness lingering on her lips, as if she had just secretly eaten some candied fruit.

He felt her trembling eyelashes brush against his cheek, tickling him like a butterfly struggling on the snow.

Then her tongue gently probed inside.

It was very light, with a tentative feel, like the first fawn to break through the thin ice in early spring.

He instinctively opened his lips to meet her, in that instant—

He tasted the flavor of berries, like the small red berries ripening in the morning dew on the back mountain of Divine Medicine Valley. A gentle press between his teeth would release a sweet and sour flavor that made him tremble.

His breathing became erratic.

Tang Xixue wrapped her arms around his neck and pressed herself close to him.

Her straddling position made the kiss even more intimate.

The coolness of the white jade wheelchair seeped into the skin through the fabric, only to be quickly covered by the heat that rose from the seams.

The wind and snow outside the window are getting heavier.

She could hear the wind carrying snowflakes, whistling against the window paper; the sound was distant, fading into a blurry ink painting in the background.

In her world, there was only him—his rapid breathing, the sensation of his slightly sweaty palms against her lower back, and his awkward yet increasingly passionate response.

The kiss was deep, so deep it felt like it was reaching the most secret corners of each other's souls.

She tasted a faint medicinal fragrance in his mouth—the trace of the countless pills he had taken in recent days, a bittersweet aftertaste.

She gently traced every line on his lips with the tip of her tongue, as if that could soothe all the pain he had endured alone.

So kissing makes a sound.

Both of them were panting, their lips and tongues passionately intertwined.

She heard the soft rustling of snow falling on the eaves, the crackling of charcoal in the stove, and the gradual merging of two heartbeats into one rhythm.

"Thump, thump, thump!"

Like seeds buried deep in the ground during the deep winter, quietly waiting for the moment to sprout.

After a long while, she stepped back slightly.

A silver thread was drawn between their lips, shimmering with tiny sparkles in the candlelight, before quietly breaking apart.

She breathed softly, her forehead pressed against his, and saw that his originally pale lips had turned a crimson like that of a begonia, and his unfocused silver-gray eyes were covered with a layer of watery light, making him breathtakingly beautiful.

"Master..." Her voice was soft and hoarse, like melted honey, "So sweet."

Xie Jinlian was speechless for a moment.

My senses were still immersed in that kiss—a kiss made up of the sweetness of berries, the fragrance of crabapples, the coolness of snow, and the anticipation of a storm.

He raised his hand, his trembling fingertips touching her cheek.

Her skin was warm, flushed from the kiss, like the first plum blossom blooming in the snow.

"Zhizhi," his voice was terribly hoarse, as if it had been sanded, "you are the one who is... sweet."

Tang Xixue smiled, her eyes curving into crescent moons.

She leaned closer again, this time lightly pecking at the corner of his lips, like a bird pecking at berries on a branch.

"Then Master must remember this well," she said, touching his heart with her fingertip, "From now on, this sweetness of yours can only be tasted by Zhizhi alone."

"Yes," Xie Jinlian's cool voice was imbued with tenderness and determination, "I belong only to Zhizhi."

"Master—you're being naughty..." Tang Xixue drawled, sensing the change in his body, a hint of cunning in her voice, "Is this... pushing your luck?"

"Zhizhi..." Xie Jinlian called out in a hoarse voice.

Before the words were finished—

"Bang!"

The dormitory door was slammed open with a palm strike, and a wave of air swept in.

"Zhizhi," Yun Boyan's voice rang out through gritted teeth, each word dripping with icy coldness, "Is this how you... conduct your inspections?"

He stood at the doorway, completely covered by a silver-white cloak, with only his face showing.

But that usually aloof and restrained face was now flushed with an intoxicating blush that spread all the way to his ears.

His eyes were red-rimmed as he stared intently at the two people inside the room.

His brother's shared feelings just now made him feel as if he had fallen into a fiery hell.

If it had been a moment later, he was truly afraid that his brother would have... taken up a gun and gone into battle from his wheelchair.