Marry First, Love Later With The White Cat Princess - Chapter 101

Lianyi naturally couldn’t watch Si Yangshen collapse. She hurried to catch her, moving her to the side of a tree so she could rest against the trunk.

Jin Fei had entered in her spiritual form, yet injuries to the spirit are far more difficult to treat than physical ones. Lianyi was no doctor, she could do nothing for Jin Fei’s wounds except fetch water to wipe the blood from her face.

Liu Fenyun was still performing surgery on Meng Nie. After setting down the medicinal herbs, Lianyi stepped out, summoned the feathered demons, and left the battlefield to continue their journey.

With the system’s assistance, the surgery proceeded smoothly. An hour later, Liu Fenyun stepped out of the research lab, temporarily converted into an operating room to collect the spirit medicine Lianyi had left behind. Suddenly, she noticed a familiar face in the herb garden.

Jin Fei had woken up, but she remained immobile. She coughed up blood intermittently, staining her lips and lapel crimson.

“Why are you here?” Liu Fenyun asked, her voice filled with shock. “And how did you get so badly hurt?!”

Jin Fei shook her head slightly, her voice weak and airy. “Don’t… worry about me. I just need a place to rest… cough…”

Liu Fenyun wasn’t about to ignore her. But once she had the system scan Jin Fei’s injuries, she truly understood the weight of that “don’t worry about me.”

“You’ve always been cautious and respectful of the High God. How did you trigger a Heavenly Punishment?!” Liu Fenyun asked, puzzled, as she wiped the blood away.

Wounds from Heavenly Punishment are complex; they are branded into the spiritual consciousness. If a deity attempts to treat them, they risk becoming entangled in messy karmic backlashes.

“You’re still such a mother hen, just like before…” Jin Fei muttered under her breath. “That child’s clan was doomed. I’ve protected them for so long. I had to do something… cough… but the adults… they all faced death calmly. They couldn’t be saved, forcing it would cause an even greater backlash… Only that child… didn’t want to die…”

Though her speech was fragmented, Liu Fenyun understood.

As the guardian deity of the Meng family for generations, Jin Fei had received much faith. She had the means to defy fate for Meng Nie, but since it involved reversing a death sentence and violating the laws of the Heavenly Dao, she had to pay a corresponding price.

Moreover, the result of defying fate might not have met her wishes. If Liu Fenyun’s group hadn’t passed through the battlefield, even if Meng Nie had been saved, it would have only delayed the inevitable. She wouldn’t be like she is now, trading a leg for a life.

She remembered that Meng Nie originally had no obsessions. Like the rest of the Meng family, she had been indoctrinated since childhood to die for her country; that was their purpose.

But on this journey, Meng Nie had met Qi Ran and made a promise to reunite. Even if she believed she might never see Qi Ran again, Meng Nie held that reunion in her heart.

If Meng Nie hadn’t met Qi Ran, she wouldn’t have developed an obsession with reuniting, and she certainly wouldn’t have survived the war.

“The Meng family’s fate wasn’t supposed to change… That woman… perhaps she glimpsed the secrets of heaven and purposefully brought Meng Nie out…” Jin Fei mentioned Madam Chong. “Without her, Meng Nie wouldn’t have met… the little leopard… or you all.”

Liu Fenyun pondered for a moment. “I’m heading to Qingmu Immortal Mountain; I should see Madam Chong again.”

Cultivation is, by nature, an act against the heavens. Cultivators of a certain level can peer into heavenly secrets and predict fate. However, such glimpses inevitably affect the mortal realm. Therefore, cultivators and the demon race are forbidden from interfering in court politics.

“Go see her, talk to her…” Jin Fei sighed and closed her eyes again.

“But if it’s just one person surviving, it shouldn’t matter much, right?” Liu Fenyun asked.

Jin Fei’s eyelids flickered. “This time it doesn’t matter… but the future is uncertain…”

She returned to her rest. Deities have ways to repair a damaged consciousness, but it requires entering a meditative state otherwise, the recovery is painstakingly slow.

Liu Fenyun wanted to move her and couldn’t help saying, “Why don’t you rest somewhere else? It’s uncomfortable leaning against a tree.”

Healing while propped against a trunk wasn’t efficient.

Jin Fei didn’t respond, likely having already entered meditation. Liu Fenyun had no choice but to lay down soft cushions around her and adjust her into a slightly more comfortable position.

After settling Si Yangshen, Liu Fenyun started the medicine decoction. Checking the system time, she hurried out of the herb garden.

Lianyi remained alone on the back of the feathered demon. When Liu Fenyun emerged, the sky had darkened, and the wind had grown cold.

Seeing the cat-girl shrinking into herself for warmth, Liu Fenyun quickly summoned a thick outer robe to wrap around her, pulling her into her arms.

“Winter is coming to the mortal realm,” Lianyi said, pulling the robe tighter. “I always feel like the winter months here are colder than in the demon realm.”

“It’s a geographical issue,” Liu Fenyun explained. “The spiritual energy in the demon realm is denser, making it easy to regulate temperature.”

As she spoke, she drew in the surrounding spiritual energy to form a protective shield against the freezing wind. Lianyi snuggled into her embrace, tucking her cold hands inside Liu Fenyun’s clothes for warmth.

“How is General Meng?” she asked suddenly.

“Not great, but I can guarantee she’ll pass the critical period,” Liu Fenyun replied. “The issue is how to settle her. She can’t go back to Liuzhi Country, and I don’t know if she has any plans of her own.”

Liuzhi Country was in decline, it would likely fall within two years. Furthermore, considering Meng Nie’s state when they found her, the returning soldiers would have assumed she was dead. With primitive medical technology and no antibiotics, her survival would have been a matter of pure luck.

After saving Meng Nie, silences between the two of them became more frequent. Liu Fenyun was surprised that the “cat” wasn’t jealous and didn’t resent the time spent caring for Meng Nie, this was quite different from most yandere behavior.

However, after repeatedly checking the still-high Blackening Value, Liu Fenyun couldn’t let her guard down.

Aside from her leg, Meng Nie had various other wounds. On the battlefield, swords have no eyes, it’s kill or be killed. Under the harsh test of life and death, everyone had seen red.

Knowing they might not be able to enter the herb garden freely once they reached Qingmu Immortal Mountain, Liu Fenyun asked the feathered demons to stay outside the mountain region for a few more days so she could focus on Meng Nie’s recovery.

She cut some bamboo to make a temporary pair of crutches. She was considering asking the Fate God to make a wheelchair for Meng Nie when she heard the general sigh.

“When I was on the brink of death, I ‘saw’ the guardian deity of my family.”

Liu Fenyun paused, looking at her in shock.

“I told Qi Ran before that Lord Si Yangshen’s protection is very effective. Every time I went to war, I returned safely thanks to her,” Meng Nie said, her lips twitching into a smile. “But a deity must be busy, right? So many people believe in her, my family alone has over a hundred members. We aren’t even stationed together in battle. She isn’t a God of War, so she wouldn’t look after everyone. Most of the time, I thought my survival was just luck, not divine protection.”

Liu Fenyun was stunned. She had always thought Meng Nie was a devout believer, she hadn’t expected her to voice such doubts.

Meng Nie paused. “But in that moment, I truly ‘saw’ her. We have her statue at home; I recognize her demon form. She carried me through a field of red spider lilies and slowly moved me toward the light.”

“It was Lord Si Yangshen who saved me,” she said with certainty. “But I remember that defying fate brings heavenly retribution. Even for a god, there are no exceptions, right?”

Liu Fenyun nodded silently but didn’t mention that Si Yangshen was currently resting in the herb garden.

Meng Nie’s eyes dimmed. “But why did she save me? I have nowhere to go. After all these years, I know nothing but fighting. Now that I’ve lost a leg, I doubt anyone would even take me in for manual labor…”

Liu Fenyun thought for a moment but decided against playing the life coach. A general who had survived so many wars had strong capabilities. She was just in a temporary state of confusion due to the collapse of her old beliefs. Once she moved past this period, she could start a new life.

As Meng Nie’s injuries improved day by day, Liu Fenyun prepared to enter Qingmu Immortal Mountain.

Lianyi had stayed outside these past few days. She and the feathered demons didn’t plan to interfere, so they looked for ways to kill time. Not far from the mountain was a small city where they stayed while Liu Fenyun tended to Meng Nie.

The entrance to the herb garden space was linked to the locations of Liu Fenyun and Lianyi. When Liu Fenyun was inside, Lianyi’s location became the exit.

When Liu Fenyun stepped out of the garden, Lianyi was wandering the streets. She had paid a small amount of money to a “semi-immortal” junior cultivator to read her palm.

The “semi-immortal” was a woman disguised as a man, so Lianyi didn’t mind her holding her wrist. The cultivator looked at her hand for a long time, chin in hand and brow furrowed, remaining silent.

Lianyi wasn’t in a hurry and waited patiently. Finally, the cultivator spoke: “Miss, you…”

Before she could finish, she stopped abruptly.

Lianyi felt a familiar presence beside her. She turned and smiled. “A-Yun, you’re finally out?”

Liu Fenyun nodded. She glanced at Lianyi’s hand being held, then at the stunned cultivator. Without ceremony, she pulled Lianyi’s hand back into her own. “Let’s go.”

“Hey, wait! I haven’t finished!” As they walked away, the junior cultivator chased after them, her face serious. “Little cat demon, I won’t lie to you, you have a very deep ‘Immortal Affinity.’ There is a Qingmu Immortal Mountain three hundred miles from here. If you go now, you’ll definitely be accepted into the sect!”

Liu Fenyun thought to herself: The cat is already with a God; of course her affinity is deep. She simply smiled at the cultivator and continued leading Lianyi away.

Lianyi, however, seemed curious. She pulled Liu Fenyun back and asked the cultivator with interest, “Since you’re so familiar with it, do you have a connection to Qingmu Immortal Mountain?”

The junior cultivator coughed, dusted off her sleeves, and said solemnly, “I am ashamed. I am merely a disciple down the mountain for experience. I don’t deserve the title of ‘Taoist Master’!”