The Healer Demands Payment!

Meng Qi instantly forgot all the things that were troubling her mind. She dashed to the edge of the pond at the fastest speed and looked toward the swarm of lotuses. Because she still couldn’t use her aura, Meng Qi could only stretch her neck further to look at the lotuses from a distance, murmuring in excitement, “Zilan lotus by itself cannot be used as medicine. I heard that it blooms every ten years and takes another ten years to produce a pod. After another ten years, the seeds in the pod matured, which have the effect of curing every fire and flame poison in the world.”

Meng Qi looked at the lotus pods swaying in the wind. There was pure amazement in her eyes. Among the lotus pods, some had much darker seeds, obviously mature.

“There are a lot here… how nice!” Meng Qi murmured again, and then turned to look at Yun Qingyan. Zilan Lotus was a spiritual flower she had only seen in books, as it had long since disappeared in Three Thousand Worlds. It was said to still exist in the Devil Realm, but only in the dark ponds at the bottom of Thirty-third Heaven, which was the most dangerous territory in the Devil Realm.

However, the barrier separating the three realms was very strong and formidable, not to mention that Meng Qi didn’t have the ability to venture to the Devil Realm by herself, let alone reach the Thirty-third Heaven. What’s more, it was also said that the dark pond was extremely dangerous, and one drop of its water was enough to take the life of a Nascent Soul cultivator.

Meng Qi pursed her lips and pondered in envy — there were so many lotuses here; could she take one pod, please? She really, really wanted it!

Meng Qi turned her eyes to the other side of the bridge, looking at Yun Qingyan with eyes full of longing and anticipation. At this moment, the white-robed man’s expression grew more complicated than before, and his deep gaze kept staring unblinkingly at her.

Seeing his gaze, Meng Qi blushed slightly, finally realizing how shameless she was. Not only was she asking for Yun Qingyan’s thing for nothing, but the object of her desire was also an extremely rare and precious Zilan Lotus.

Too embarrassed to meet the white-robed man’s eyes, Meng Qi turned her eyes slightly. “Huh?!” Her breath suddenly stagnated, and her eyes instantly widened in disbelief. The big tree beside Yun Qingyan was tall, with green leaves and lush foliage. In addition, there were also cute little red fruits hanging between the leaves. The fruits were round and tiny, about the size of Meng Qi’s knuckle, and clustered together, looking very adorable.

“Pho-phoenix fruit?!” Meng Qi rushed to the big tree and quickly raised her head to look at the fruits above. The verdant leaves of the tree were bigger than her palm, hanging from the branches like phoenix feathers, surrounding the small and bright red fruits.

Meng Qi took a deep breath and couldn’t believe her eyes at all: “It’s really a phoenix tree!” She was stunned. How many were these fruits?!

The phoenix fruit was the main ingredient of the Nirvana Pill, whose name alone already showed its miraculous effect. A Nirvana Pill was potent enough to bring a seriously injured person back to life. As long as there was a breath left, it could pull the person back from the gate of the underworld, almost like a revival from Nirvana.

Besides… Meng Qi’s eyes fell on Yun Qingyan. When the five aura went out of control, the spiritual consciousness would loosen and become chaotic, risking a qi deviation. A nirvana fruit also had the effect of re-bind the loosening spiritual consciousness.

In other words, if Yun Qingyan encountered the previous situation again, consuming a nirvana fruit would protect him from the risk of a qi deviation.

Unlike the Zilan lotus, which was practically extinct, as far as Meng Qi knew, phoenix fruits still occasionally appeared in the Three Thousand Worlds. Rumor had it that the phoenix clan of the celestial demons had in their possession a single phoenix tree that had been growing for tens of thousands of years. Like the blazing feather, an item that originally was the feather of a phoenix demon, the phoenix fruit also occasionally appeared in Three Thousand Worlds.

Of course, at an outrageous price! After all, the phoenix fruit was the main ingredient of the Nirvana Pill, a miraculous life-saving medicine that gave a cultivator the second hope of life. The formula to refine Nirvana Pill was actually not complicated, and any practitioner of medicine with adequate experience would be able to refine one. The problem was that the pill formula was not easy to find, and the phoenix fruit was even rarer.

Needless to say, Meng Qi had never seen so many phoenix fruits before, enough to dazzle her eyes. There were at least a few hundred fruits on this tree — that is, a few hundred of Nirvana Pills!!!

Meng Qi subconsciously swallowed her saliva. The Heaven Auction House of Beyond The Heaven occasionally sold a nirvana fruit, but its market price started from ten profound-grade spirit stones. Compared to the already outrageously expensive blazing feather, the nirvana fruit was even more expensive. After all, the blazing feather’s usage was more limited, such as to upgrade a fire-based magic weapon or to solve a tricky cold poison, while the Nirvana Pill… could give you another life!

Meng Qi’s hands hung by her sides, trembling slightly.

—Really wants it!

She really wants it!

For the better or worse, it was probably fortunate that Meng Qi was now unable to use spiritual aura; otherwise, even under Yun Qingyan’s eyes and before he gave his permission, she might not be able to control herself and already run to pick up a few nirvana fruits!

Oh, and also a pod of Zilan Lotus!

Or maybe two!

While thinking about it, Meng Qi’s eyes fell to the lotus pods swaying gently in the pond…

Alright, she decided! She must find a reason to stay here longer!

At least, until she recovered and could use aura again!

“Want them?” Yun Qingyan’s expression had turned cold again, and his eyes finally fell on Meng Qi’s face.

Since this girl came out, had her eyes stayed on him? Yun Qingyan’s gaze darkened.

“Yeah!” Meng Qi nodded immediately, totally throwing her manners out of the windows.

Yun Qingyan stayed silent and just looked at her quietly.

Facing his gaze, Meng Qi was a bit embarrassed and awkward. She quickly turned her eyes away and murmured, “I won’t bother you, Sovereign Qingyan. I can pick the fruits myself after my aura recover. I only need twelve…” Meng Qi pursed her lips. There were so many nirvana fruits on the tree, so it shouldn’t be too presumptuous for her to ask for twelve, right?

Yeah, it should be alright. With twelve fruits, she could refine twelve Nirvana Pills: ten for Yun Qingyan, with her keeping the remaining two.

“Yes.” Yun Qingyan said, “I can give you more.”

Meng Qi’s eyes lit up. Overwhelmed with excitement, she quickly turned her head and suddenly took a look at the handsome white-robed man. Yun Qingyan was a natural stunner; even in the Three Realms where handsome men and beautiful women were common, his look was still very extraordinary. Dressed in his usual white, his black hair was tied up by a small black jade headdress, and there was not a single flaw in his appearance — Yun Qingyan was so perfect that Meng Qi sometimes found it hard to comprehend why such a perfect man existed in reality.

Yun Qingyan looked straight into Meng Qi’s eyes, and his voice slightly hoarsened: “You can take as many as you want.”

Meng Qi: “!!!”

In Meng Qi’s eyes at this moment, Yun Qingyan must be the best man in the history of Three Realms!

“Kiss me.” Yun Qingyan said hoarsely, “Then you can pick as many as you want.”

“Huh?” Meng Qi was stunned and widened her eyes in surprise. She understood every word Yun Qingyan had just said, but when they were connected together, Meng Qi found that her mind had turned totally blank, making her unable to decipher the meaning.

“K-kiss you…” Meng Qi could only repeat blankly. Her head tilted slightly, and she asked subconsciously, “Where to kiss?” Her gaze slowly swept across Yun Qingyan’s beautiful eyebrows, down to his eyes, and then to the bridge of his tall nose before finally — it landed on his thin lips.

Chaotic memories rushed back to Meng Qi’s mind, some were details that she unexpectedly remembered too well. Inside Yun Qingyan’s blood-red eyes that day, she remembered seeing a blaze burning so madly, as if about to devour her completely.

—She also remembered the feeling of his domineering and hot kisses on her lips.

Originally, Meng Qi had made up her mind to regard everything as never happened, or at least to treat the incident no differently from the other dangers she had encountered in the process of saving people. Yet, her conviction seemed to be shattered at this moment. She and Yun Qingyan were fully sober now, facing each other in this beautiful garden.