Section 86: Standing Up to Injustice Does Not Always Mean Drawing a Sword

With Danziya, that chirping little sparrow, chattering away in front of her, Ouxinlai was of course in no danger of boredom. No matter what Ouxinlai saw, Danziya would be there to explain it to her.

“Cai Cai, where exactly are you from? Are you one of us from the Vermilion Bird Kingdom?” Seeing that Ouxinlai had barely spoken, Danziya thought perhaps she disliked hearing all this and so simply began chatting with her instead. Only then did she realize she knew almost nothing about Ouxinlai.

Ouxinlai shook her head. “I’m not from the Vermilion Bird Kingdom.” Her soul belonged to another world, while the body she now occupied was from the Black Tortoise Kingdom.

“Then which kingdom are you from? How did you end up in the Vermilion Bird Kingdom?” Danziya looked at Ouxinlai with curiosity.

“I’m from the Black Tortoise Kingdom. I ran into a bit of trouble there, so I came to the Vermilion Bird Kingdom to lay low,” Ouxinlai said, thinking that she really was a very good child, never telling lies.

“You’re so nice. Whoever gave you trouble, I’ll help you get even,” Danziya said at once. Hearing that Ouxinlai was also from the Black Tortoise Kingdom, she was momentarily stunned. After all, she had only just been wronged in that very kingdom herself. What a coincidence that all the people she had met recently seemed to come from there.

“Forget it.” Ouxinlai glanced at Danziya’s slight frame and shook her head. Danziya’s little bit of skill was nothing in her eyes; could she really deal with the Demon Sovereign? Not to mention those who lurked in the Vermilion Bird Kingdom, waiting to strike at the Ouxin family. “Don’t worry about me. I know what I’m doing.”

“Cai Cai, may I ask where your medical skills come from? They’re amazing,” Danziya said, blinking. Ouxinlai might not have been especially curious herself, but Danziya was.

“Self-taught,” Ouxinlai replied in four words. Her teacher was no longer of this world, and her medicine differed greatly from the healing arts of this land.

“You’re such a genius!” Danziya exclaimed in astonishment. To think she had taught herself and still surpassed those with masters guiding them; then surely all those people were nothing but a pack of wastes. “Cai Cai, do you want to take on disciples? Count me in, will you?”

At the thought that Ouxinlai could decide life and death with a few words, Danziya also longed to taste that feeling.

“Not for the time being.” Ouxinlai looked at the busy street, as though searching for some target.

“Oh. What a pity.” Danziya pouted, looking crestfallen.

“Move aside, all of you, get out of the way!” Suddenly, a man shouted from behind Ouxinlai and Danziya. Along with that cry came the people’s startled gasps.

Ouxinlai instinctively seized Danziya and pulled her to the side of the street. No sooner had she moved Danziya away than a fierce gust swept past their ears, followed by the clatter of something being knocked over.

When the two looked closely, they saw that the horses pulling a carriage had been frightened and were rampaging wildly down the street.

There seemed to be two people in the carriage as well. The driver wore a face of utter panic, and from inside came thudding sounds; there ought to be someone else trapped within.

Seeing this, Ouxinlai faintly sensed that something was amiss.

“My heavens, riding a horse through the middle of the street? That’s suicidal—utter madness!” Danziya had barely recovered from her fright when she saw the carriage continue to charge recklessly through the street. Fortunately, no one had been injured yet, though many small stalls had already been overturned.

“If we don’t stop it, someone will really die,” Ouxinlai said calmly.

Sure enough, the moment her words fell, a man failed to dodge in time and was kicked by a hoof. His head burst open at once, blood splashing across the ground as he collapsed motionless. A child, terrified into screaming, was about to follow the man to his death beneath the horse’s hooves.

Just then, someone suddenly rushed out, swiftly scooped up the child, and leapt aside. Then his companion hurried to subdue the frightened horse.

But the animal had gone mad; no matter how it was pulled, it would not calm down.

So the man resorted to force, intending to kill the horse with a single blow. Strangely enough, the horse seemed almost indestructible. Even after being struck hard by his power, it merely bled from the nostrils and still moved about as before.

Ouxinlai observed that the horse’s eyes were bloodshot, its whole state unnaturally feverish. Combined with what had just happened, she immediately reached a conclusion in her mind.

In a blur, so quick that to Danziya it was only the blink of an eye, Ouxinlai had already flashed to the horse’s side. She drew out a silver needle; when the needle caught the light, a flash of silver stabbed at Danziya’s eyes.

Ouxinlai pricked the horse’s neck once with the needle, then drew a dagger and slit open a wound there. Hot blood gushed out, reddening the ground. She had moved too swiftly for it to splatter onto her.

As the blood flowed out, the frenzied horse finally grew gradually calm, stamping its hoof gently and standing still.

Seeing the horse blink its large eyes as a huge tear rolled down, Ouxinlai sighed and stroked its neck. “Don’t worry. I won’t let you die.” She took out medicine she had prepared herself. Once enough blood had been drained, she smeared the medicine on the wound, and soon the bleeding stopped.

Though the blood had ceased, the horse seemed to have lost all strength and suddenly gave way, collapsing softly to the ground.

Ouxinlai knew that after she had forced all the drug from the horse’s body, the effects had worn off, and the aftereffects of the power attack had immediately followed.

She took a pill and put it into the horse’s mouth. After swallowing it, the horse’s breathing finally became much smoother.

Of course, this pill was not one she had made herself. She had taken it from Li Chengpeng. Indeed, Li Chengpeng was worthy of being a dark guardian of the demon faction; the medicines he carried were beyond what ordinary people could ever compare with.

“Cai Cai, are you all right?” Danziya blinked. Only after the dust had settled did she truly come to herself and hurry over to Ouxinlai’s side to check on her.

“Relax. I’m not the one in trouble.” And besides, this one had been saved.

“Miss, please, save my master!” The driver, seeing Ouxinlai possessed such skill, hurried to kneel before her, begging her to save his master.

“Your master?” Ouxinlai raised a brow. “The half-dead one in the carriage?”

“Yes, yes, yes!” The driver, hearing that Ouxinlai knew of his master’s existence and even knew he was now half-dead, was overjoyed; his eyes lit up so brightly that he could not be bothered to fuss over her choice of words.

“Sorry. I won’t save him.” Ouxinlai frowned, shook her head, and refused to act. The person in the carriage had been so badly frightened and had not made a sound; clearly he was already so ill he could not even feel it, no different from the earlier Singleton West. He was already half-dead to begin with, and with the horse’s frenzy on top of that, Ouxinlai immediately judged him to be a problem within a problem. She would be a fool to take on such a burden.

“Miss, please, I beg you, save my master. Since you were willing to save this horse, why won’t you save my master? Could it be that a human life is not worth as much as an animal’s?” The servant grew angry.

Ouxinlai narrowed her eyes. The more aggressive the servant became, the more serene she appeared. “As far as I’m concerned, I would rather save a beast than save a person who is worse than a beast.”

With such bold honesty, Ouxinlai left the servant speechless.

She crouched down and stroked the horse’s head. The horse stretched out its long tongue and licked her hand.

Ouxinlai looked up at the servant. “See that?” She had saved this horse’s life, and it knew enough to be affectionate toward her. Yet this servant was truly exasperating. If she had not calmed the horse in time, he and that living corpse in the carriage would certainly both have turned into ghosts today.

“Miss, since you have this ability, please lend a hand. Mowqing was rude and ignorant; I apologize on his behalf,” said the man who had earlier stepped in to help, bowing politely to Ouxinlai.

At the sight of this, Ouxinlai immediately understood. So the only truly well-meaning one was herself; these two who had suddenly appeared to help were actually acquainted with the carriage’s owner.

“Sorry, I may be able to save a horse, but that does not mean I can save a person. You have mistaken me. If you truly do not want the person in the carriage to die, then find someone else.” Ouxinlai loosened the harness from the horse. “Earlier, you wanted to kill it, and I saved it. Therefore its life is mine, and I am taking it with me.”

The horse seemed to know she was its savior and followed meekly at her side. It was an extraordinarily beautiful white horse, rare and precious, with not a single stray hair upon its body, pure and snow-white all over. Under Ouxinlai’s treatment, a spark of vitality had returned to its eyes.

The horse nuzzled Ouxinlai as if greeting her.

Seeing the horse’s docile, flattering manner, Ouxinlai felt pleased. Indeed, saving a horse was far more rewarding than saving a person. She spoke to the horse as if bargaining, “I’m not very good at riding. If you’re going to follow me, you’d better be sensible and not jostle me, understand?”

Ouxinlai did not care about losing face in the least; she spoke quite openly of her inability to ride.

Oddly enough, the horse really did lower itself, allowing her to mount. Ouxinlai lifted her leg and sat astride it. The horse snorted once, its legs trembling slightly before it leisurely stamped a hoof and did not hurry off, as though waiting for her command.

“Good, good, good!” Ouxinlai said “good” three times in a row. She had truly never expected that a random act of hers would yield such a treasure.

“Miss, please wait!” Seeing Ouxinlai about to ride away, the two men called out. The one who had spoken earlier was a man in green, while the one now standing before Ouxinlai wore black. “Miss, we beg you to lend your aid!”

The black-clad man had a pair of eyes as sharp as an eagle’s. When he fixed them on Ouxinlai, she had the strange sensation that she had become prey in his gaze. One strike of those claws and her life would be severed. Dressed entirely in black, he radiated a cold, murderous aura, and Ouxinlai could even smell a faint trace of blood on him.

“If I refuse, what then?” Ouxinlai looked lazily at the black-clad man and said.

The black-feathered one gave a cold smile. “You must save him, whether you will or not!” A woman who could not even ride a horse surely had no other remarkable abilities besides healing. Thus, when Black Feather faced Ouxinlai, he was completely unconcerned.

Blue Ice did not wish to make matters so tense. He stepped elegantly before Ouxinlai and bowed to her, like a refined scholar of old, courteous and composed. “Earlier, it was Mowqing who was too brazen and lacked proper manners, offending the lady. That was our fault, and we should apologize.”

“You seem to have omitted one point: if not for me, allowing your little white to charge about as it pleased, the person in the carriage would have died even faster. Not to mention the one inside the carriage, but the people on this street would likely have suffered countless injuries as well.”

Ouxinlai felt that this green-clad man, though smiling, was no less cold than the black-clad one beside him. The black-clad man’s coldness was plain to see, but this green-clad man had already learned how to conceal his.

At once, Ouxinlai decided in her heart: the man in green was more dangerous than the man in black.

“Blatantly erasing another’s labor is an immoral thing to do.”

Blue Ice’s face stiffened. It was rare to find a woman who could still be so quick-tongued in front of him. He put on what he believed was his most charming smile and looked at Ouxinlai. “Indeed, I was neglectful. Many thanks to the lady for lending assistance just now. Since the lady is a person of kind heart, why not carry the good deed through to the end?”

Ouxinlai laughed. “So good people get no good reward? Though the person I wanted to save just now was not the one you wished to save, at least he is not dead now; I still deserve some credit. Yet you have latched onto me because of that, and after all this, you’re saying I saved the wrong person?”

She looked at the blue-clad man with amusement. “Who said that because I saved you once, I must save you a second time? Are you trying to tell me that if I don’t want trouble, I should absolutely never help anyone, and just stand by watching them die?”

Her words were nothing if not cutting.

Most of the people still standing in the street had in fact been saved by Ouxinlai. She had helped so many lives; people should have been thanking her instead. Yet a few of them actually latched onto her.

Those bystanders could tell that both the man in green and the man in black were not to be provoked. Even if they could not step forward to help Ouxinlai directly, their reproachful gazes still leaned in her favor.

“Little White, let’s go.” Ouxinlai felt she and anything white were fated. First the little white snake—no, it should be called a dragon—and now this horse. Put them together and you got a white dragon steed! Ha! She really did have the makings of a monk on pilgrimage.

Seeing that Ouxinlai was about to leave with the horse, Black Feather’s anger could no longer be restrained. If not for the fact that this woman had real ability, how could he tolerate others chattering and nagging before him so endlessly?

Thus Black Feather reached out, intending to yank Ouxinlai straight down from the horse.

Since she was already of no use, if he wanted to use force, could this woman possibly resist?

Ouxinlai lowered her gaze slightly, her eyes narrowing. The corner of her mouth curved faintly as though she had eyes in her back, and she gave an ambiguous smile.

At that very moment, Blue Ice seized Black Feather’s hand. He did not know what had come over him, but in that instant he had sensed danger, and it seemed to be aimed at Black Feather.

Before he could make sense of it, he naturally could not allow Black Feather to take the risk.

“What must the lady do before she will lend her aid?” Blue Ice blocked Ouxinlai’s path, making it clear that if she would not treat the patient, he would not let her go.

“I said it already: I can’t treat him.” Ouxinlai rolled her eyes. Her good deed had been ruined by this man in green, and she was even less inclined to help now.

“Please do us this favor, Miss. Whatever conditions you name, we will do our utmost to fulfill them,” Blue Ice said, making a final effort.

“Really?” Ouxinlai’s eyes lit up. “Have you ever heard of the Five Element Fruits? I currently need wood-type fruits, metal-type fruits, and water-type fruits. If you can bring me a whole tree of any one of those three kinds, perhaps I might think of a way to save your man.”

The moment Ouxinlai opened her mouth, she was already making an impossible demand.

What kind of treasure were the Five Element Fruits? Not to mention Ouxinlai wanting them, everyone else wanted them too. The difference was that others did not have her greed; asking for a whole tree was absurd. To obtain even one fruit would be an extraordinary stroke of luck.

Seeing the difficulty on Blue Ice and Black Feather’s faces, Ouxinlai gave a long sigh. “Looking at how arrogant you were just now, I thought you truly had great ability. It seems I was the one deluding myself again, expecting too much of you. That’s my mistake. I won’t disturb you two any longer. I’ll take my leave.”

She was truly disappointed. If these two could help her find even one of the Five Element Fruits, she would save herself a great deal of trouble.

“Miss!” Blue Ice could not endure it any longer either. Clenching his teeth, he looked at Ouxinlai. “I advise the lady that it would be best to save my master.”

If this woman still would not be sensible, then they should not blame him for turning rough.

“You really want me to help?” Ouxinlai tilted her lips, her eyes curving into crescents as she smiled like a fox.

Blue Ice’s body trembled. At once he understood the meaning beneath her words: how to save him, how to act, all of it would be decided by Ouxinlai. If Ouxinlai were to tamper with the treatment, then...