"It felt otherworldly… almost as though I was floating in the starry sky beside a river of stars…"
"The way his hands touched my back… it was like his hands had melted and submerged itself into my back, reaching the deepest parts… it was a feeling to die for..."
"I hate to admit it, but he… he made my body submit with his very hands."
Zhou Xuan spread her experience with Su Yang like a wildfire to all her friends like a kid who had just bought a new toy. In addition, she did not stop at just 10 people and spoke to all of her friends, hoping that her efforts would allow Su Yang to see her in a favorable light.
"Really? Could that Su Yang really have such talents?"
"How is that possible? He's infamous for being useless and retarded… Even many sect elders have given up on him…"
"I am serious! Go to him for his service and you'll instantly know whether my words are true or not!"
Despite not fully convincing everybody with her story about her experience with Su Yang's massage service, Zhou Xuan was able to arouse the curiosity and interest in their hearts – enough to make them want to pay more attention to Su Yang – exactly what he wanted.
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Mere seconds after Zhou Xuan left Su Yang's house, Tang Hu and his partner Meng Jia emerged from their own room, their face red and heart racing from cultivation.
"S-Su Yang? You're back?" Tang Hu looked at him, who was standing by the door and looking outside with a slight smile.
"Un." Su Yang turned to look at them and his smile widened: "Congratulations on your breakthrough," he chuckled.
His words startled the duo, and the redness on their faces deepened.
"Su Yang…" Tang Hu scratched his head, looking like there was something on his mind.
"There is nothing to be embarrassed about. You are a man, and your woman is right beside you. Hold your head high with pride." Su Yang walked out of the living quarters after his sentence. The duo inside the house could only stare at his disappearing with a dazed face, their mind boggled by Su Yang's change in behavior.
"As I thought… he looks way more handsome than all the other times I have seen him before…" Meng Jia said in her daze.
"..." Tang Hu recalled the Su Yang who couldn't even finish a sentence without stuttering inside his head. How could someone change so much in so little time? Did that injury startle his soul awake from some sort of slumber?
–
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After leaving, Su Yang went back to the training grounds and opened up his sign again. He intended to accept more than just one customer a day.
"That Su Yang is back already? He hasn't even been gone for an hour yet."
"Perhaps that girl had decided to change her mind, after all?"
What happened an hour ago repeated itself. Nobody wanted to have anything to do with Su Yang, so they only watched him from afar with suspicious gazes, like pedestrians watching a sketchy street performer.
However, this time around, Su Yang didn't have to wait as long before someone approached him – a little girl who was limping.
"Are you the one who helped senior apprentice-sister Zhou relieve her back pain?"
Su Yang nodded in acknowledgment.
"Um… senior apprentice-sister Zhou said that your skills are real and seem to trust you… so… um…" The little girl who seemed a few years younger than Zhou Xuan fidgeted around as she tried to speak her mind.
"You want to know if I can help you with your left leg, correct?"
The little girl nodded vigorously.
"During the day, your left leg would be numb. At night, it would spasm constantly. How long since it started?"
"One week ago." The little girl was amazed at how Su Yang saw through her issues with a mere glance. She felt as though there was nothing she could hide from his overwhelming gaze like she was naked to the bones when standing before him.
"C-Can… you heal me?" Her eyes sparkled with hope when looking at him: "The sect elders have tried, but none of them had the ability to help me…"
"..."
After a moment of silence, Su Yang started rolling up the sign. "The three conditions… are you aware of them?"
"Yes."
"Do you accept?"
"Yes."
"Then, follow me."
The disciples there watched with wide mouths as Su Yang led the little girl away from the place.
"That creepy bastard Su Yang is going to take advantage of a girl as little as her…"
"Shouldn't somebody stop them?"
"It will be a good learning experience for her. Maybe she will think twice before trusting someone like Su Yang the next time she needs help."
"Just because we are fellow disciples does not mean we have to help each other."
In this world where the strong devour the weak, being naive and inexperienced is not an excuse but a weakness. If one cannot overcome that weakness, they will only be devoured by the strong.
The disciples there did not like the sight of a small girl getting taken advantage of, but none of them have any real reason to stop them either. In this sect, disciples are more like rivals to each other than friends. The fewer disciples there is to compete for the sect's resources the better it would be for everybody else, so without any real benefits, nobody there was willing to risk themselves for a stranger.
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Su Yang directly led the little girl into his room after returning home. Fortunately, neither Tang Hu or Meng Jia were there to witness him bring home a little girl who looked no older than 13, or else there would have been a chaotic scene the moment he entered the front doors.
The little girl did not stop fidgeting once since she approached Su Yang. No matter how much positive Zhou Xuan had spoken of him to her, she was still not entirely comfortable to be here. Approaching a handsome young man such as Su Yang and entering his room where they'll be alone would be too much for anyone else, let alone a young girl like her who has only recently joined the sect.
"Your stockings, take them off." Su Yang said after closing the door, leaving them alone inside this sound-proof room.
"…"
"You were bitten by a colorful snake with red, yellow, and green scales around a month ago, right?"
"Eh? How did…"
"That snake is called a Three Season Snake and it lodges a deadly poison within its body that will slowly kill whatever it bites. Unlike other poison that takes at most minutes, even seconds to spread throughout the body, the Three Season Snake's poison will take weeks before one would see any symptoms. Within the first month, the victims would lose the ability to use their legs, then the rest of their limbs within the second month. By the third month, the poison would have spread throughout their entire body, giving them a slow and painful death that could last up to 7 days."
Su Yang's explanation caused the little girl to tremble in horror, her robes soaked in cold sweat. Such a terrifying poison would frighten even the coldest killers, let alone a small girl like her.
"Luckily, it has only been a month since you were bitten, so you are not in danger."
"R-Really…?"
"Really." Su Yang wiped the tears from her eyes and said in a confident tone: "If I was only a mere massager, then I wouldn't be able to help you. But lucky for you, my hands can do more than just making others feel good."
"Un…"
The little girl pulled off her white stockings, revealing her smooth and pale legs.
"You are?" Su Yang suddenly asked.
"Qi Yue, 12 years old."
"12…? And you are in this kind of sect? You mortals are really something else..." Su Yang sighed despite already knowing that fact. He has not visited the mortal world for thousands of years in his past life, so he was unaware of their lifestyle. But looking and living in the mortal world now, he could not help but question the morality of those a part of this mortal world.
"Although I have been accepted into the sect, I am not allowed to participate in dual cultivation until I become an adult at the age of 16." Qi Yue explained in a bashful tone after seeing the disappointment on Su Yang's face.
"That makes more sense…" Su Yang said in a relieving tone: "Alright, lay down on your stomach. I'll loosen up the muscles around your legs before I deal with the poison."
Qi Yue obediently laid on the bed and silently waited as Su Yang prepared himself.
"Then… your ten minutes starts now." His hands quickly grabbed her legs, causing a cute voice to escape her lips.
Soon, the muscle in Qi Yue's legs loosened up, and the numbness began disappearing at a very noticeable rate.