Chapter 301: The Fire in Chang’an (3)

The city was almost fully restored.

Of course, it would never be the same as before due to the many lives lost.

But the fact that such flood damage was repaired in just a month was an amazing achievement in itself.

Of course, a large part of this was due to the Heavenly Maiden who always flew around like someone who didn’t know fatigue.

People couldn’t just play while the Heavenly Maiden was working, so they had to force themselves to move, thinking “She’s divine, but couldn’t she take it easy?”

So in just a month, the ruins were mostly gone and houses with roofs, though clumsy, had taken their place. The blood and sweat of that month would be a great work that the people of Nakryeong would take pride in for years to come.

“Aing. What’s this? I thought you were finally studying diligently. Where are you going?”

“Um, Elder? I’m not originally a nurse-“

“Tsk. If you learned medicine and cared for patients, aren’t you a nurse? Here. Carry this and memorize it in your spare time. I’ll ask later if you’ve memorized it all.”

“No, where is this ‘later’?”

“Hmph. Who knows a person’s future? With such a meddlesome girl, your face looks like we’ll meet again somewhere.”

The Wandering Great Man clicked his tongue and thrust a medical text into her hand.

In fact, though the Wandering Great Man didn’t say it, he was shocked at how quickly Qing learned medicine.

Originally, medical texts are full of difficult words, so when reading alone, shouldn’t there naturally be parts you don’t understand and need to ask about?

But she never asked once, so he thought this girl wasn’t looking at the medical texts and threw out questions, but she would answer immediately.

There was something the Wandering Great Man didn’t know – Qing was already one of the top masters of human anatomy in the martial arts world.

She already had a clear blueprint in her head of how the human body is structured, how muscles, tendons and blood vessels extend, how the internal organs are shaped and connected, so her comprehension when reading medical texts was 100 times better.

Of course, not knowing this fact, the Wandering Great Man thought “Ha, this one has exceptional talent, it would be a waste, so I should at least give her a medical text.”

If she were a man, he would have followed her around and properly trained her as a doctor, but it was heartless of heaven to make her born a woman.

No matter how excellent her medical skills, a woman could only be a nurse at best, and couldn’t become a proper doctor.

The Wandering Great Man suddenly became an average Central Plains man, but what could be done about the world’s perception?

Especially for an old man with a hardened mind from long years, he should be praised for the progressive action of readily giving a medical text to a woman.

If it were Ximen Surin, she would have thought this and started by ripping out all his beard, but Qing had no such thoughts.

She just learned because a respectable old doctor who had spent his life helping others taught her.

Then she got caught up in the atmosphere and ended up becoming something like a nurse apprentice, even though originally Qing was a martial artist, not a nurse.

“It’s all good, but get rid of your desire for fame. You have to take credit every time you do something. ‘This Ximen Qing will help,’ do you have to elevate your name like that?”

“Ah. That. I have my reasons for that too.”

Indeed, while helping with construction, distributing grain, and doing nurse work, this was the phrase Qing always had on her lips.

This Ximen Qing will pay, this Ximen Qing will specially examine you, house number one built by this Ximen Qing, number two, number three, number four…

However, Qing deliberately tried to take credit, no, she deliberately tried to take credit.

Because she had let quite a few bandits escape.

It would have been good if she had completely exterminated them without letting a single one escape, but one hand couldn’t handle the insects flying in all directions.

That useless Seol parasite was busy getting beaten up by the bugs instead of lending a hand.

On top of that, she left the young master’s corpse behind conspicuously.

It was already a decided future that the Green Forest or whatever would be jumping up and down vowing revenge.

So she went around clearly stating her name everywhere with the intention of saying your enemy is here, so don’t bother innocent people.

If Qing had known about the Green Forest, she would have at least hidden the corpse by throwing it off a cliff somewhere.

But Qing didn’t understand from the start that there existed an official bandit group that everyone in the world knew about.

Moreover, the bandits Qing had met were just ridiculous guys who disappeared as if time had reversed when she said she was a master.

Honestly, it’s because she looked down on them.

If the bandits cause trouble saying they’ll take revenge, isn’t that just bastards who need to be killed coming to her on their own?

Isn’t it great that bastards who need to be killed come looking for her even when she’s just sitting still? She thought.

But while it’s good for me, I should go around saying I did it so they can’t randomly bully other people, she thought.

Anyway, thanks to this, an almost religious, no, just a Heavenly Maiden faith was born in Nakryeong.

This was due to the efforts of the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult members belonging to Taecheong Company who went around fanning the flames.

Roughly speaking, it’s a doctrine of the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult twisted to imitate something like Maitreya faith, with the Heavenly Maiden leading the gathered sentient beings to a new era when the world breaks apart in the distant future.

It wasn’t Qing’s intention, but it was a terribly evil deed that laid the cornerstone, the great pillar, the solid bridgehead for the religious victory of those endlessly wicked Demonic Cult bastards.

As a reward for this, didn’t Qing’s righteous karma rise sharply by a huge amount?

She helped an evil plan and even gained righteous karma, so she’s truly a cunning and vicious woman.

“Aigo miss. When will these eyes be able to see such dazzling beauty that seems like it will blind me again? This Geol Taran, I feel like I know what the pain of separation is, with my internal organs breaking one by one.”

“Aing. Anyway, thank you. Thanks to you I stayed comfortably? Hmm? Did I stay comfortably?”

Come to think of it, she didn’t stay comfortably.

Because of the flood, she didn’t eat precious dishes-

It’s not that she couldn’t eat, but that she didn’t eat. Geol Taran wanted to hold banquets every morning, noon and night, but Qing stopped him saying how could she feast alone at such a time.

-From waking up until going to bed, she did construction work, took care of patients, looked after Seol Iri, and read medical texts late into the night before falling asleep.

Of course, the bed was very soft and excellent, so at least she slept very well in her tired body thanks to the good bedding.

“Anyway, thank you for treating me like a master even though I suddenly appeared.”

“Heuk, keuheup.”

At this, Geol Taran finally failed to hold back his tears.

“No, why are you like this again.”

“This lowly one, such excessive glory for this humble being, kuhup, thank you, thank you again…”

Geol Taran is all good, but the person is a bit strange.

It was a month of him tearing up whenever she said thank you, so Qing just thought he must be a strange person.

It’s so scary how people become accustomed, clearly strange but passing it off as that’s just how he is instead of thinking why it’s strange.

“Heu. Whew. You can stay at the Sun Moon Escort Agency in Chang’an.”

“Sun Moon Escort Agency? Is that place connected to the old man too?”

Geol Taran gave the answer he had prepared in advance.

“It’s not that, how can a company do business alone? Since Taecheong Company doesn’t have an independent distribution network yet, we have a contract with the Sun Moon Escort Agency that’s like sworn brothers. So if you go to the Sun Moon Escort Agency, they’ll treat you as an honored guest.”

“Mm. Well, that’s fine with me.”

What would Qing know about company business?

She doesn’t know other things, let alone company business.

She just thought they must be a friendly escort agency since he said they’re like sworn brothers.

In fact, the name Sun Moon Escort Agency is too blatantly Heavenly Demon Divine Cult-like from the start.

But Qing doesn’t know.

She doesn’t know a single thing about whether it’s the Divine Cult of Sun and Moon, Fire Worship Cult, Taiping Dao Bright Cult, or Heavenly Demon Divine Cult.

She’s not even curious.

Like that, all the residents of Nakryeong gathered to see off the Heavenly Maiden as she departed.

The carriage had changed to a very high-class one, and among the horses hitched to it, the left rump looked familiar – it was that clever fellow.

So Qing left Nakryeong.

Even before the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult officially raised the flag of Central Plains invasion through benevolent influence, the carriage business was their main work, so it’s a top-class product with extraordinary ride comfort from the start.

So Qing sat down, and Seol Iri climbed in and naturally took the seat next to her.

Huh? Why is she coming to the side?

Seol Iri’s purpose was very simple.

It’s now mid-August.

At the peak of the heat in hot weather, Seol Iri was one of the people who suffered most from the heat in the current Central Plains.

Since the coldest day in the Central Plains is similar to the warmest day in the Northern Sea, a hot day in the Central Plains feels like being trapped in a stifling steam room to Northern Sea people.

But Qing’s hands are cold.

Seol Iri wiped the waterfall-like sweat from her forehead with Qing’s hand, wrapped it around her wrist, and then placed it on the nape of her neck.

It was the image of an orthodox female expert (though useless) enjoying the cool with White Hand Demonic Arts.

However, if Seol Iri is cold, of course the sensation touching Qing is hot.

Qing was about to say something, but felt pitiful wondering how hot the child must be.

She’s sweating so much it’s hard to tell if she’s a person or a fountain or an artificial waterfall placed in a garden, no joke, if you tap her gently it sounds like water splashing.

“Hey. If you’re that hot, use Ice Arts…”

“I have to be prepared for attacks.”

“Come on. The person driving the carriage works for Taecheong Company. Just relax and use Ice Arts.”

“I can’t.”

Qing immediately gave up trying to persuade her.

Her stubbornness is like steel wire.

Am I having a hard time? She’s the one having a hard time.

She’s suffering so much from the heat but won’t use Ice Arts to preserve her inner force. Well.

Since Qing doesn’t feel the heat much due to the effects of the Blissful Maiden Arts, if she just opens the window and feels the breeze, hmm, the wind is hot…

If I use Ice Arts too it would be cooler. Huh?

Then suddenly she was curious about something.

What’s this? Why do you feel cool when you use Ice Arts? Ice Arts isn’t a martial art that makes me cool?

“Hey. Why do you feel cool when you use Ice Arts? Ice Arts isn’t a martial art that makes me cool, right?”

“It’s Cold Resistance Arts.”

“Cold Resistance Arts? How is the name of a martial art so pathetic?”

“Yes. Yes.”

Qing’s condescension is very natural.

Seol Iri had become accustomed to it at some point and was accepting it very naturally.

Cold Resistance Arts is a survival technique of Northern Sea people.

No joke, the Ice Palace is absolutely not a place where people can live.

Even residents of the Northern Sea don’t live on ice.

They live on frozen soil, go south when winter comes, and come back up when the weather gets a bit better, repeating this cycle.

But the bastards of the Ice Palace live on ice all year round.

It’s the basic technique of Northern Sea martial artists to endure that cold.

Originally it wasn’t used to make things cool, but to regulate body temperature to keep warm so you don’t freeze to death.

In Qing’s homeland terms, it’s like if you put a refrigerator in the Arctic, the inside would be warmer than outside.

“Hmm. Blue.”

At this, Seol Iri looked straight at Qing.

It meant “What are you saying?”

Qing pretended not to see as her answer.

It meant “Never mind.”

“But it looks good…”

“Should I teach you?”

“Huh? You can teach me?”

“Maybe.”

It meant she wasn’t sure.

“What do you mean maybe?”

“I’m still learning it all.”

“Want to speak a bit longer?”

The Northern Sea also calls itself a martial arts world in its own way, so it would be called the Northern Sea Martial Arts World.

It’s also a phrase that would make Central Plains people snort.

Aren’t you ashamed to call yourselves the Northern Sea Martial Arts World with just a few sects gathered?

Anyway, there are several sects in the Northern Sea besides the Ice Palace, and among them there’s no sect that doesn’t learn Cold Resistance Arts.

So it’s not particularly an Ice Palace martial art, and it’s hard to call it a Northern Sea martial art either.

From the start, it’s a very poor cultivation technique except for the ability to get warm, or cool in Central Plains terms.

You can consider it as barely accumulating any inner force.

No matter how high the realm, the output of Ice Arts is just lukewarm temperature, so it doesn’t have the original power of Ice Arts.

It’s just an essential education close to a survival technique.

“Hmm. Then, teach me. The qi circulation method too.”

“Yes. Yes.”

Seol Iri obediently taught the mantra and qi circulation method of Cold Resistance Arts.

Qing sat cross-legged according to it-

“Can you let go of my hand for a moment? If you’re that hot, just use that Cold Resistance Arts for a bit.”

“Yes. No.”

And so Qing learned Cold Resistance Arts!

Since it had a blue border, she raised it to 7-star achievement without much burden, and she could feel a truly tiny bit of inner force settling in her dantian.

They said it was terrible as an inner force cultivation technique, I guess it’s true.

Qing tried drawing up true qi as a test.

However, Qing’s entire body meridians and fine meridians were already wide and solid enough for two ox carts to run side by side thanks to the effects of the Yijin Cleansing Method.

Adding to that, she made up for the lacking true qi by drawing on Jade Maiden True Qi and Heavenly Ice Demonic Qi, and almost like a human air conditioner, cool air gushed out from her whole body.

“Haeueu…”

It was a refreshing feeling that made her moan involuntarily.

Of course, when cold air suddenly seeps inside your clothes and wraps around you fully in the sweltering heat of August, who in the world could hold back a moan?

The cold air seeping inside her clothes right away, wow, I really hate to use this expression, but it feels like I’m going to cum…

And there was one more person who couldn’t hold back.

“Haeu…”

Seol Iri clung tightly to Qing’s side.

The damp heat instantly made the discomfort index skyrocket.

The corners of Qing’s eyes sharpened.

“Why don’t you just use Ice Arts too? I’m hot too, you know?”

“I can’t.”

“No. Come on. Why? What are you saving your inner force for?”

“Next time I’ll protect you.”

So her answer was hmm.

Damn, why is this touching?

Is this what they mean by “our child has changed”?

To think she’s desperately enduring the heat to save her inner force saying she’ll protect Qing.

Well, it’s touching words.

Of course, with her skills she’d just get beaten up rather than protect anyone, but still, it’s the thought that counts.