She regretted it the moment she said it. Surely Little Dragon Girl wouldn’t agree—maybe she’d even get upset.
After all, Little Dragon Girl was a Saintess of the Jade Pool, massaging feet was servant’s work. How could Linglong accept it?
“Sure.” Linglong nodded naturally, shifted her position, and placed Hua Jian’s feet on her lap.
She actually agreed?!
Hua Jian was stunned, but before she could say anything, a comfortable kneading sensation spread through her sore feet.
Not only that, but a faint tingling ran through her soles, as if a mild electric current were pulsing there.
“How are you so skilled?” Hua Jian couldn’t help but ask.
Linglong’s massage technique was anything but clumsy—how did she learn this?
“When I was little, my Mother used to massage my legs and feet. I learned it from her.”
Linglong replied as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
Not everyone was like Hua Jian, lacking a mother’s care.
Although Linglong’s mother was sometimes less than motherly, most of the time she did everything a mother should.
After a hard day, she’d massage her daughter’s feet and shoulders to help her relax, then throw Linglong into a pre-prepared medicinal bath to strengthen her body—that was Linglong’s childhood routine.
“Too bad we don’t have enough ingredients here, or I could prepare a medicinal bath for you, too.”
As she gently stimulated Hua Jian’s acupoints with her lightning-attribute spiritual power, Linglong added.
After she’d grown a bit, she learned these skills from her Mother, and later prepared her own medicinal baths, eventually mastering them.
After such intense training, using a medicinal bath to relieve fatigue and consolidate cultivation results was classic—most geniuses had gone through this.
It was just that Hua Jian had been too poor before to even try a medicinal bath.
“What’s a medicinal bath feel like?”
“Not great.”
“Then I’ll pass. Right now I just want a good night’s sleep so I can—”
Before Hua Jian finished, her room was opened once more, and the Lingcaifeng Master stepped in with a smile.
She’d overheard Hua Jian and Linglong’s conversation, and now there was a faintly odd look to her smile.
It made Hua Jian’s scalp prickle…
“Master, what brings you…”
The Lingcaifeng Master beckoned, and a large wooden tub, surrounded by petals, floated in from outside.
In an instant, the room was filled with a faintly bitter medicinal aroma, overpowering even Hua Jian’s own floral scent.
The Lingcaifeng Master looked at Hua Jian, half-smiling. “Come on in.”
Hua Jian gulped. “You’re not going to boil me for soup, are you?”
That made no sense on any level, but she still said it.
“I think it’s just a medicinal bath…” Linglong quietly reminded her.
Giving the Lingcaifeng Master an opening, she explained the bath’s ingredients to Hua Jian—they were all safe, classic herbs.
Since she didn’t know Hua Jian’s tolerance, she’d kept the first medicinal bath mild—just to let her try it out.
“Right here?” Hua Jian looked at Linglong, then at the Lingcaifeng Master, her face flushing red.
Seeing this, the Lingcaifeng Master understood: the girl was shy—perfectly understandable.
“I’ll wait outside,” she said, turning to leave.
Linglong, on the other hand, just kept looking at Hua Jian, making no move to go.
After nearly a minute of staring, Hua Jian finally couldn’t help but ask, “Why aren’t you leaving?”
Only then did Linglong realize that Hua Jian was embarrassed in front of her, too.
“I thought we were close,” she said, a little disappointed.
Though she wasn’t sure exactly why she felt that way.
“No matter how close, I can’t get naked in front of you!” Rubbing her forehead, Hua Jian spoke helplessly.
If you could strip down in front of a friend and bathe without shame, that was beyond just being close—that was practically a relationship.
Clearly, there was no such thing between Hua Jian and Linglong.
Hua Jian had always kept herself proper, with no intention of developing any romances for now.
Though, from a certain angle, one could say she and Linglong had already shared something intimate—but that was forced by circumstances.
If Linglong hadn’t acted then, they would’ve perished in the spatial tunnel. Hua Jian understood Linglong’s motives and didn’t hold it against her.
“Go, go!” Hua Jian shoved Linglong out and firmly shut the door.
With the room to herself, Hua Jian took off her clothes one piece at a time and folded them neatly—after all, her elders would be coming in later; she couldn’t let them see a mess.
After all that, she slipped into the bath for her very first medicinal soak.
The water was just the right temperature, warm without being scalding.
Submerged, Hua Jian closed her eyes and focused on the feeling.
A warm current seemed to flow into her body, washing away the day’s fatigue.
Her pores opened in the herbal warmth, and she felt a bliss she’d never known.
So this is what a medicinal bath feels like…
Just before her thoughts faded, that was her last realization.
Click—the door reopened, and the Lingcaifeng Master returned with Linglong.
Seeing Hua Jian dazed, her multicolored eyes unfocused, she looked puzzled.
How had it come to this? She hadn’t added any powerful herbs to the bath.
Linglong hurried over to Hua Jian’s side, trying to pull her soul back, but no matter what she did, Hua Jian just stared blankly, like a girl completely wrung out by hardship.
As time passed, Hua Jian’s unique floral fragrance began to replace the herbal scent in the room, and even the pale green bathwater started taking on a rainbow sheen.
The Lingcaifeng Master dipped her fingers into the water, finding the medicinal power nearly gone.
In its place was something indescribable—but it came from Hua Jian, and smelled wonderful.
“Let’s get Hua Jian out and dried off. She’s reacting unusually to the bath—I need to discuss this with Fenghua.”
She beckoned gently, lifting Hua Jian out of the tub and passing her into Linglong’s arms.
Linglong quickly held Hua Jian close, not caring if her Spiritual Garment got wet—it was self-cleaning, anyway.
As for any improper thoughts, there was nothing to worry about.
Linglong was an upright person and would never do anything inappropriate to an unconscious Hua Jian.
“All right. I’ll take good care of her!” Linglong nodded solemnly, hugging Hua Jian even tighter.
The Lingcaifeng Master gave her a satisfied look and left with the bath tub.
After she’d gone, Linglong realized a problem: there weren’t any towels here.
Towels were useless to cultivators—in the Hudaosi, where everyone was a big shot, they were practically nonexistent.
Even if a cultivator wanted to take a bath, one burst of spiritual power would shake off all the water.
If Hua Jian were conscious, she could do the same.
But now she was out cold—completely oblivious.
So Linglong’s only option was to help Hua Jian dry off with her spiritual power.
“Sorry about this.” Linglong took a deep breath, placing her palm just above Hua Jian’s skin.
As her spiritual power flowed, Hua Jian immediately reacted.
If it had been any other spiritual energy, Hua Jian wouldn’t have reacted so strongly, but Linglong’s was lightning-attribute, with an inherent tingling quality.
And in Hua Jian’s current odd state, a strong reaction was only natural.
Listening to the little murmurs escaping Hua Jian’s lips, Linglong blushed slightly, forcing herself to remain calm as she dried Hua Jian and dressed her before tucking her under the covers.
Once done, Linglong finally exhaled in relief, sweat beading on her brow.
In just a few short minutes, she felt more exhausted than after fighting the Spirit King!
Hua Jian really was a little minx, always able to wear others out in the strangest ways!
……
“Aren’t you supposed to be giving Hua Jian her medicinal bath? Why are you here watering flowers?”
Fenghua Venerable found the Lingcaifeng Master watering a small potted plant with a little watering can.
Fenghua Venerable’s brow furrowed, and soon grew even more tense.
Right after the Lingcaifeng Master finished watering, the plant burst into seven-colored blossoms.
But it was far too early for this plant to bloom!
After blossoming, it withered almost instantly, its beauty lasting but a fleeting moment.
As the petals fell, the plant lost all life.
The Lingcaifeng Master blew lightly on the pot, and the once-thriving plant silently turned to ash.
Catching the falling colorful petals, her expression grew even graver.
“What kind of weird thing did you just do?” Fenghua Venerable asked, baffled by what she’d seen.
The whole thing was just too strange—why would the flower-loving Lingcaifeng Master do such a thing?
Could she have been driven mad by her unrequited feelings for Hua Jian and started torturing plants out of spite?
“I just finished giving Hua Jian a medicinal bath.”
“Right, but you were only gone a short while. How did you get back so soon?”
From Fenghua Venerable’s experience, medicinal baths took time to work—at least an hour, if not more.
Yet the Lingcaifeng Master had barely left for half that.
Knowing her, she’d never have left before Hua Jian finished the bath.
So… the problem must be with Hua Jian?
“The bucket over there holds the liquid from Hua Jian’s bath. Go take a look.”
The Lingcaifeng Master gestured at the wooden bucket in the corner, indicating for Fenghua Venerable to check it out.
Fenghua Venerable’s gaze grew odd—she was starting to suspect what the Lingcaifeng Master had just used to water the plant.
Could it have been the water from that bucket?
She approached and took a look—the bathwater was an unnatural swirl of colors, and where the liquid touched the wood, a long vine dotted with tiny flowers had sprouted.
Tormented by the little flowers, the wooden bucket was on the verge of collapse.
If not for the Lingcaifeng Master’s spiritual power holding it together, it would already have been in pieces.
“All the medicinal power is gone? How is that possible…” Soon, Fenghua Venerable noticed the anomaly.
Usually, you could only absorb most of the medicinal power from a bath—never all of it.
No cultivator in history had fully absorbed a bath’s medicine.
But today, Fenghua Venerable witnessed the impossible.
If the Lingcaifeng Master hadn’t told her, she’d never have guessed the water’s origin.
“All the medicinal power is gone—replaced by these things.”
After Fenghua Venerable had seen enough, the Lingcaifeng Master waved her hand, and the bathwater quickly evaporated, leaving a palm-sized blob of rainbow-colored liquid at the bottom.
Compared to when it was diluted in water, the fragrance was now even richer, almost intoxicating.
She transferred most of the liquid into a jade bottle, then lifted a small drop on her fingertip, inviting Fenghua Venerable to observe what this drop could do.
She’d already tested it on plants—now it was time to try it on animals.
“Let’s go try it on a Spirit Beast.”
As a Venerable of the Right Path, the Lingcaifeng Master would never use humans for experiments—but she had no qualms about testing on Spirit Beasts.
Low-grade Spirit Beasts were everywhere; experimenting on a few was nothing.
There was no Spirit Beast protection organization in this world.
The two Venerables headed out to the wilderness outside Tianbei City, where they found some mice foraging in the night.
These little fellows, not even Spirit Beasts, could never have expected to be caught by Venerables.
In their excitement, they eagerly gulped down the rainbow droplet offered by the Lingcaifeng Master.
She hadn’t forced them—the moment she produced the droplet, the mice swarmed toward it, forgetting even their instincts for fear.
After swallowing the droplet, the mice quickly calmed down, laying on the ground with faces of utter contentment—as if they could die without regret the next instant.
“Watch closely—something’s about to happen,” the Lingcaifeng Master said after about half an incense stick’s time.
Bulges appeared on the mice’s bodies, and soon, thin vines burst through their skin, each one blooming a tiny, rainbow-colored flower.
The mice, obviously, had lost all life—the vines had hollowed them out.
When the vines withered, only a scattering of colorful petals and a few mouse-shaped ashes remained.