Chapter 150 The Fool's Obsession

In the Jade Parasol Courtyard, the young couple sat side by side beneath the parasol tree.

Gazing at the dancing shadows of the foliage spread across the ground, Yu Youwei took a sip of clear tea. The fragrance and taste of the tea slipped down her throat, climbing into her heart like lingering vines. With a touch of emotional resonance, she remarked, "Sipping tea in one's leisure is truly one of life's greatest pleasures."

Ning Mofei twirled his teacup and asked with a puzzled look, "Last time, you said that tasting tea is like tasting life: bitter upon first entry with a lingering sweetness, its fragrance hidden in the shadows, endlessly profound. Why is what you said today different?"

"You still remember after all this time?" Yu Youwei asked in astonishment.

Under his wife's intense gaze, Ning Mofei's face flushed red once more. He lowered his head, speaking with the timid vulnerability of a child who had done something wrong, "I was afraid I would forget, so I wrote it down."

Lifting his chin, Yu Youwei let out a seductive, low chuckle. "Mofei remembers my words with such care; I am deeply moved. Shouldn't I give you a reward?"

Was it the bewitching allure in her gaze, or the soul-stirring melody of her voice? As Ning Mofei looked at her, what filled his mind instead was the memory of her naked body beneath the hot spring waters. Feeling as though a fire were burning within his belly, he instinctively pulled her into his embrace, eager for a kiss. She tilted her head back to evade him, but he seized the moment to plant a trail of passionate, crimson marks along the curves of her exquisite jade neck.

A soft moan escaped her lips, and Yu Youwei felt her entire body melt into a languid softness under his clumsy caresses, leaving her powerless to push him away. "You bane of my existence," she panted, "do you not want to reach the Foundation Establishment stage?"

"Can't I reach Foundation Establishment if I kiss you?" Ning Mofei asked in bewilderment. Without waiting for his wife to reply, he declared firmly, "Then I don't want Foundation Establishment anymore."

Giving the blockhead a light flick on the forehead, Yu Youwei scolded playfully, "You fool, once your cold poison is purged, you will be able to reach Foundation Establishment in no time. By then, kissing—or playing that game of immortal spirits fighting—will be entirely up to you, alright?"

"Playing the game of immortal spirits fighting is allowed too?"

"Mm-hmm."

"Then hurry and help me purge the cold poison." Ning Mofei sprang abruptly to his feet.

Yu Youwei was yanked up along with him, ending up practically hanging from his body—a posture of the utmost ambiguity. She hurriedly pushed him away to stand properly, smoothed down her robes, and said, "Purging the cold poison requires thunder-attribute spirit crystals, and I don't have any."

"I do." Jingling the storage bracelet on his wrist, Ning Mofei said triumphantly, "Last month, Fire Ancestor helped me clear some of the cold poison. He said too much could not be cleared at once, so he gave me this bracelet. Inside, it's packed with plenty of thunder crystals and medicinal herbs."

Yu Youwei took Ning Mofei by the hand and led him into the bedroom, instructing him to take out the items from his storage bracelet.

The blockhead dumped a massive pile of thunder crystals and medicinal herbs onto the bed.

A Fire-Spectre Flower emitted a faint, ethereal glow, creating a dreamlike ambiance. While Yu Youwei's mental fortitude was strong enough to remain unaffected, the blockhead and the maids serving in the room quickly grew hazy and dazed. She estimated this Fire-Spectre Flower to be at least five hundred years old, making it an earth-grade spiritual medicine. She knew the herb's primary function well, so she merely picked it up for a glance before setting it down.

There were also various wood-attribute spiritual herbs meant for replenishing vitality, nourishing qi, and strengthening meridians. She inspected them and put them aside as well, pausing only when she picked up a stalk of Netherworld Orchid, falling into a daze. This particular herb possessed a chilling, yin-natured attribute. What use could there be in having the blockhead carry it around?

As Yu Youwei sat there deep in concentrated thought, the blockhead and the maids continued in their dreamy stupor.

Late into the night, Yu Youwei suddenly clapped her hands together and laughed, "The Netherworld Orchid is the catalyst! It provokes the cold poison into acting up, so we won't have to wait passively for the cold poison in the blockhead's body to flare up on its own."

Ning Mofei and the maids had been mesmerized merely by inhaling the fragrance of the Fire-Spectre Flower, and Yu Youwei's sudden exclamation startled them back to wakefulness.

When the maids stepped outside and discovered that the sky was pitch-black, they felt rather puzzled. Ning Mofei, however, paid it no mind whatsoever; he leaned sideways on the bed, watching Yu Youwei's face tinted purple by the glow of the thunder crystals.

"How many petals did the Ancestor tell you to eat?" Yu Youwei asked, picking up the stalk of Netherworld Orchid.

"Youwei, you're so smart! How did you know I didn't eat a whole flower?" After shouting in exaggerated surprise, Ning Mofei uttered a line that made her want to vomit blood: "Fire Ancestor told you to guess."

"You blockhead! This is treating your illness. If you eat the wrong amount and something goes wrong, you're the one who will suffer!"

"Ah! I can't remember if it was two petals or five?"

"Good grief!" Yu Youwei felt like cursing. After some thought, she first had Ning Mofei swallow two petals of the Netherworld Orchid. After a short while, seeing that he showed no particular reaction, she tore off three more petals and made him consume them.

Pushing the thunder crystals aside to the inner part of the bed, she lowered the canopy woven with ink-wash water-orchid patterns. Not long after Yu Youwei and Ning Mofei undressed and got into bed, the cold poison within his body was triggered. His body temperature plummeted drastically, turning him as cold as a block of ice with bone-chilling frost, and thin layers of ice began to form across the surface of his skin.

Yu Youwei made him swallow the entire Fire-Spectre Flower. The medicinal juices melted into a torrent of flame-like heat that slid down his throat and surged straight toward his heart.

Ning Mofei's body began to convulse, and an eerie red glow broke through his frost-bitten, bluish-grey skin. The look in his eyes—a mixture of deep attachment and trust, now mingled with utter helplessness—tugged painfully at her heartstrings.

Snatching up a thunder crystal, she pressed it firmly into his palm. Pressing her left hand over the crystal in his hand, she channeled her spiritual energy. The thunder crystal melted, enveloping itself in her magic power as it poured through his palm and surged rapidly along the circulation pathways of the *Flame-Derivation Scripture*.

A series of sharp, crackling explosions echoed wherever the thunder-lightning energy passed, shattering and melting the cold poison that had frozen the meridians within Ning Mofei's body into freezing mist that vanished into nothingness. The excruciating pain twisted his facial features out of shape, his eyes bulged, and blood seeped from his facial orifices.

With her right hand, she cast the "Minor Rejuvenation Art" to repair his ravaged internal meridians.

After completing a full cycle of circulation, the lightning energy contained within the thunder crystal was completely exhausted. A second, third, fourth, fifth—after the energy of five consecutive thunder crystals was entirely depleted, the cold poison lingering around Ning Mofei's dantian was swept completely clean, though some residual chill remained within the dantian itself. Thankfully, this time he did not suffer from bleeding from his seven orifices as he had previously.

Yu Youwei, on the other hand, despite her greatly advanced cultivation—and though she had not needed to rely on the power of spiritual medicine to cast the "Minor Rejuvenation Art" as she had during the previous treatment—found her dual-attribute magic power completely depleted. Limp as mud, she collapsed directly onto his chest and fell fast asleep.

The blockhead Ning Mofei was exhausted as well, yet he could not sleep. The image of her naked body immersed in the hot spring waters kept flickering before his eyes. Feeling that her garments were soaked through, he muttered to himself, "Wearing wet clothes will make you sick."

Armed with this logical justification, the blockhead righteously stripped his wife of her remaining garments. Her snow-white, flawless body lay fully exposed before his eyes, yet he was left completely at a loss. Clasping his knees, he sat there in a daze until dawn.

As the first pale grey rays of dawn pierced the sky, Yu Youwei woke up to find herself completely naked. Startled, she initially thought a flower-picking bandit had broken into the room, and was just about to strike when she caught sight of Ning Mofei's bloodshot, heavily ringed eyes. A sudden wave of guilt washed over her, making her feel terribly unfair, almost as if she had been bullying a naive child. Pulling his hand over to press against the softness of her chest, she murmured softly, "Mofei, let's wait until you reach Foundation Establishment, alright?"

Ning Mofei blinked, nodding with a vague, half-comprehending expression as he obediently replied, "Alright, we'll wait for Foundation Establishment." Seeing her smile, he grew bold once more, leaning in to pull her tightly into his arms.

Nestled in his embrace, listening to the steady, powerful rhythm of his heartbeat, Yu Youwei was suddenly overcome by a profound sense of fulfillment. Even if there were so many things he did not understand, what did it matter? At the very least, no other man would have gone out of his way to write down her words simply out of fear that he might forget them. Across past lives and this one, there would never be another man for whom she was the entire world.