Guo Jiahui’s decision to take care of a cripple like Li Qiye truly perplexed her fellow sect members.

A few gossipped and criticized her while most thought that she was too kind-hearted, throwing her precious time away in the process.

Cultivators truly valued their time; none would want to waste a single second, let alone on a crippled mortal like Li Qiye.

Her innate talents weren’t exceptional either so she should put in more effort and time for cultivation. Otherwise, her peers would surpa.s.s her, even the juniors who joined the sect after her too. At that point, she would be abandoned by the sect.

Some have convinced her to forget about Li Qiye and take him down the mountain then pay a regular household to take care of him.

Alas, she continued on her stubborn way. In the beginning, he looked similar to her late brother. But now, after spending some time together, the resemblance ended long ago. Nevertheless, she still didn’t want to abandon him for she slowly started considering him as a family member.

Her mood and state of mind improved when he was around. She had few close friends in the sect and even fewer confidants. Li Qiye was the only person she opened her heart without needing to hide anything.

Though Li Qiye never answered back or even opened his eyes to look at her, she was still more than willing to chat with him about her daily life. 

She thought about curing his ailment. Though Mountguard was no longer the same as before, it still had plenty of capable medical masters and alchemists.

It might be possible for a powerful alchemist to cure a crippled mortal so she tried asking them.

“Impossible, his six veins are done for. He’ll be bedridden forever.” Alas, one alchemist took a look and shook his head.

“Is there no other way?” She held on to hope.

“Try using true energy to ma.s.sage him each day to open his energy channels. There might be hope later down the line.” The senior said with uncertainty before adding: “But don’t waste time on a mortal. The right thing for you to do is focus on your own cultivation.”

The senior left after saying this, thinking that it wasn’t worth it to do this over a mortal.

From then on, Jiahui had a new task. She would ma.s.sage him every day and pour her true energy into him.

Unfortunately, this proved to be futile because her energy couldn’t move through his hardened veins.

How could her weak energy actually activate the veins of such a monster? Simply impossible.

This didn’t stop her since she continued onward while hoping for a miracle. This sheer determination showed that she viewed him as a family member.

All of this still didn’t warrant a response from Li Qiye. As time pa.s.sed, his suppression successfully weakened the monstrous being.

“Sigh.” She lamented during a sun-bathing session one day: “I can’t finish my mental law, even Master scolded me for being stupid, maybe it’s really true. I’m not suitable for cultivation…” 

“You’re not the only stupid one, your master is stupid beyond help too.” A faint voice interrupted her reflection.

“Ah!” She jumped from being startled and started looking around, thinking that there was a ghost.

However, only Li Qiye was with her in this courtyard.

“Who, who is it?!” She shouted after not finding anyone; fear loomed in her mind.

“Next to you.” Li Qiye finally opened his eyes to look at her.

“You…you’re up!” She was astounded since this was his first time reacting outside of moving his eyes when they found him the first time.

She looked into his eyes and saw a look of disdain as if he found himself superior to her and everyone else. However, why would a mortal have this type of glare? 

Li Qiye said his part then closed his eyes again, seemingly asleep.

She calmed down and realized that she had told him everything in the past so she became embarra.s.sed, wanting to dig a hole and jump down on it to hide.

“I, I’ll make you something to eat.” She came up with an excuse to run.

“No, your cooking is terrible, find someone better.” Li Qiye said flatly. 

Jiahui didn’t know how to react and moved her arms around awkwardly. This person woke up and didn’t bother thanking her, only criticizing her cooking.

“You trained the Desolate Mind Scripture incorrectly and were silly enough to take your master’s teachings as facts instead of learning on your own. Then again, your idiotic master made the simple scripture so complex. If the old man were alive, he would go crazy after witnessing this level of stupidity.” Li Qiye spoke again while she stood there in a daze.

“How can you be so rude?!” She became angry after hearing this criticism of her master.

Her master didn’t mistreat or punish her despite her mediocrity. She wasn’t angry when he called her stupid, but insulting her master was a different story.

“Buzz.” Li Qiye pointed at her forehead with a speed too fast for her to react. A tiny law entered her brain.

“Boom!” A complete version of the Desolate Mind Scripture emerged with amazing profundity and transformations. She could hear the chants now.

The difficult scripture suddenly couldn’t be any simpler for her. She understood the mysteries right away.

More importantly, she found her previous cultivation of the scripture to be full of mistakes and holes. The scripture fully drew her attention. This was her first time finding out the beautiful grand dao. It wasn’t as dry and confusing as she thought.