Hidden Shadow – CH 137

Chapter One-Hundred-Thirty-Seven: A Bond Forged in Life and Death, Unwavering in This Life

Even with the bruises around his eyes from An Jiu’s blows, his handsome, otherworldly appearance remained undeniable.

He had grown even more handsome in the past six months, but An Jiu, looking at his smile, could not help but feel he harbored ill intentions.

“Ugh.” An Jiu felt a sharp pain in the delicate skin of her inner thigh, which quickly spread throughout her body.

At first, it felt like a bee sting, but the pain intensified, as if thousands of needles were piercing and tearing at her skin. She gritted her teeth and endured the pain, veins bulging on her forehead, and within moments, her face and head were covered in sweat.

Mo Sigui initially felt a sense of schadenfreude, but seeing her so resilient, he could not laugh. He tucked his fan behind his neck and took a mirror to examine the injuries on his face.

He applied a layer of ointment, then lit a lamp and sought out a medical book.

These twenty-odd volumes of medical books represented Elder Qi’s life’s work. Before joining the Konghe Army, he secretly returned to Mei Mansion to dig them up and brought them with him.

Mo Sigui’s reading style was peculiar. A copper basin and candles were beside him; he would tear off a page and burn it after each reading. By the time he finished, the entire book had been reduced to ashes.

While he was engrossed in his reading, An Jiu was in excruciating pain. Her flesh felt as if it were being corroded by the medicine, the pain shooting from her skin to her very marrow. She had never experienced being doused with sulfuric acid, but at this moment, even bathing in sulfuric acid felt like a nightmare. Immersed in the medicinal water, her flesh felt as if it were melting away!

She bit her lip until it bled but felt no pain, not even noticing the blood spreading in her mouth.

After finishing a book, Mo Sigui felt drowsy. He got up, took a shower, and changed into a dry white robe.

He bent down, holding a lamp, to check on An Jiu’s condition. His long, dark hair fell loosely over his shoulders, and his face, shrouded in mist, appeared almost unreal.

An Jiu opened her eyes, which were bloodshot, as if blood might spill out at any moment. Her mind was numb from the pain, but because her mental strength was too high, she could not lose consciousness. Instead, the pain in every inch of her body became increasingly clear, making her want to die immediately.

“Fourteenth, if you cannot hold on, I will administer a drug to knock you unconscious.” Mo Sigui wiped away the water droplets from her eyelashes with a handkerchief. “But you must know, this kind of pain is rare; it is beneficial for tempering mental strength.”

No matter how carefree he was, he would not allow himself to be negligent in his medical skills. Therefore, his face was expressionless, displaying a coldness and seriousness beyond his years.

“Get lost.” An Jiu’s ears were ringing with pain. She opened her mouth, and a stream of blood slid down her lips, making her look ghastly and gruesome on her pale face.

Mo Sigui smiled, wiped away the blood for her, straightened up, and carried the lamp to the couch to continue reading medical books. When he encountered something he did not understand, he would even experiment on himself with the needles.

Mo Sigui was a legendary martial arts prodigy whose Ren and Du meridians were naturally connected. His meridians belonged to the wind element, and wind was most prone to generating momentum. As long as even a tiny bit of internal energy was generated in his dantian, his meridians could propel that energy to circulate within his body constantly. Even without much effort, his skill would deepen over time. An ordinary person’s efforts, even a hundred times greater, could not match his innate advantage. Furthermore, wind was intangible and could manifest in countless forms, which allowed him to easily learn Elder Qi’s decades-long research on pulse diagnosis and true qi distribution.

He possessed such innate advantages, yet he did not care much for martial arts, focusing entirely on medicine. Sometimes he would not even remember to practice for ten days or half a month. Otherwise, he would not have only reached the seventh level so far.

“Mo Sigui,” An Jiu’s voice was hoarse.

Mo Sigui turned his head and looked at her. “What is it?”

“Go sit somewhere else. Seeing you so obsessed with medicine makes me even more uncomfortable.” She was now only managing to stay awake through sheer willpower. Seeing Mo Sigui like this reminded her of her father, who used his wife as a guinea pig for medicine. She could not even maintain the most basic peace of mind.

Mo Sigui put down his book and asked curiously, “What unpleasant experiences have you had in the past?”

An Jiu lowered her eyes. It was not just unpleasant; it was a lifelong nightmare. She did not know why she was gradually becoming less repulsed by Mo Sigui, but seeing him use himself as a guinea pig for acupuncture still made her irritated and disgusted.

Deep down, she disliked being close to people who were too obsessed with anything, and she herself had never been too obsessed with anything. Everything was dispensable to her, even life and death.

Seeing that she did not want to answer, Mo Sigui stopped asking. Aside from matters of medicine, he did not like to force others to do anything else, but he also could not stand others criticizing his pursuits.

His words were cold and sharp: “No matter what you’ve been through, An Jiu, I am nothing to you. Even if I owe you a favor, that does not give you a reason to interfere with me.”

When An Jiu rushed out to save Mo Sigui, she realized how much she valued this friendship. She was never one to meddle in other people’s business; if she did not value it, what would it matter to her if the whole world were full of people like her father? Before, Mo Sigui would always shamelessly pester her with smiles, offering to help her cure her illness, never showing this cold side. But when he became ruthless, no one could match him.

“That’s true.” An Jiu closed her eyes, her heart heavy with pain, and coupled with the excruciating pain throughout her body, her face grew even more pale.

Mo Sigui knew he had spoken too harshly and suddenly felt a pang of guilt. He looked at her bloodless face in the lamplight, his lips slightly pursed. An Jiu used to dislike him, avoiding any contact with him except for malicious teasing. Later, however, her attitude changed without her realizing it.

When the Mei family was attacked, and the Grand Madam suspected him of being a spy, while her cousins ​​and siblings all harbored doubts, only she believed him. When he was on the verge of death, she rushed to his aid without hesitation. Her swift action told him it was An Jiu, not Mei Jiu. Although Mei Jiu later died in her place for some unknown reason, it could not erase the gratitude for her selfless rescue.

This woman, seemingly cold-hearted, was actually someone who would go to great lengths for her friends…

An Jiu’s mind buzzed; the pain in her body seemed to pierce her heart, causing her usually calm heartbeat to convulse.

Just as she was suffering, a cool hand suddenly touched her forehead. A gentle, spring-like flow of true qi penetrated her body from the palm, easing some of the pain.

“I was wrong just now,” Mo Sigui said softly. “We are sworn brothers; I will never betray you in this life. However, I cannot abandon my passion for medicine. In my heart, medicine comes first, love second.”

An Jiu opened her eyes, only able to see his drooping white sleeves. “What about your life?”

Mo Sigui smiled. “Without life, what is the point of medicine or love? But if there is no medicine, what use is this life?”

He lowered his hand, his eyes merging with mist and shimmering light, beneath which a faint but sincere smile brewed.

“To hear Mo Sigui say ‘I will never betray you in this life,’ I am truly willing to risk everything!” An Jiu endured the pain, a slight smile playing on her lips.

“Someone like you who lives on the edge will understand how precious this promise is later,” Mo Sigui said seriously for a few moments before losing his composure again, lazily leaning back on the couch, propping his head up with one hand.

“I am just not cut out for romance; it is awkward and boring.”

“Hey!” Seeing that she could still speak so clearly, Mo Sigui asked curiously, “Are you not in pain?”