Wong Qifu was telling the truth. If Ouyang Shuang had been thinking more clearly, Xu Ke would already be dead.
Xu Ke had spent four days before the life-and-death battle taking dicinal baths, cultivating True Qi, and training his physical strength. He had even worn the Fish Scale Inner Armor. Yet, under Ouyang Shuang's desperate strike, it was as if the armor didn't exist at all.
"But I'm still alive and well, aren't I?" Xu Ke managed to say.
Wong Qifu didn't speak, simply watching him in silence. Her stare made Xu Ke feel uneasy, and he could only manage a wry smile. "Alright, I'll be more careful after this."
In a way, the people who had been troubling him recently were all in hell now. From Siao Jia and Li Jun to Ye Chen, Huang Qi, and Ouyang Shuang—basically all of them had been sent to heaven. He wasn't in any hurry to fight another life-or-death battle.
"Okay."
Only then did Wong Qifu let him off the hook. However, she didn't believe for a second that her advice had actually gotten through to him.
She knew she was domineering and didn't listen to persuasion. And while Xu Ke seed gentle, he was also soone who wouldn't listen to persuasion—perhaps even more stubborn than she was. In fact, she knew that even if another life-and-death battle were to happen, she wouldn't be able to stop Xu Ke from participating. It was his own conviction. This man had been this way since they first t. Even if his persistence led to the wrong outco, he would still choose to persist.
"Co here." After settling the matter, Wong Qifu turned, walked to the table on the balcony, and sat down.
Xu Ke went straight to the seat opposite her. "What is it?"
"Tell the details of the car accident," Wong Qifu said after a mont of thought.
"It happened like this..." Xu Ke took a mont to recall before recounting the entire story.
After he finished speaking, Wong Qifu looked up, a hint of surprise in her eyes. "You really know dicine?"
"Yes," Xu Ke nodded. "Three years ago, I apprenticed myself to a mysterious old man. I learned dicine and all my martial arts from him during that ti."
He had no intention of hiding this from Wong Qifu. He planned to explain everything at once, including the matter of his previous "resurrection."
"Then what about before?" Wong Qifu was puzzled. If Xu Ke had truly learned a dical art capable of raising the dead and possessed the strength to kill Ouyang Shuang in a life-and-death battle, why had he ended up in such a miserable state?
"It's a long story," Xu Ke said. "When I finished my apprenticeship and left the mountain, I was ready to make my own way in the world. But a woman ca up the mountain with a girl who was on the verge of death, begging my master for help."
"But my master had already diagnosed that the girl's fate was sealed. She couldn't be saved."
Actually, that girl's situation was sowhat different from Xiao Jie's. Although Xiao Jie had stopped breathing on the spot, her condition was more like a state of suspended animation. As long as help was tily, she could be saved.
That girl's case, however, was different. Both Ren Gu and Xu Ke could see that soone had already paid a great price to keep her alive on the way up the mountain. They had used superior dicinal materials or the help of a Divine Doctor to barely sustain the girl's last thread of life force. Otherwise, even Xu Ke wouldn't have been able to save her.
The Heaven-Defying Fate Change Technique might sound intimidating, but it couldn't actually bring just any dead person back to life. That wouldn't be called the Heaven-Defying Fate Change Technique. That would be called creating sothing out of nothing.
"And then?" Wong Qifu asked.
"But among the dical arts my master and I learned, there is a technique called the Heaven-Defying Fate Change Technique," Xu Ke said slowly. "As long as the practitioner can withstand the backlash, they can save the other person's life."
"What's the backlash?" Wong Qifu's expression changed.
Heaven-Defying Fate Change Technique? If this dical art had been available when her father died, couldn't it have saved him?
"A light backlash would cause the practitioner to lose all their cultivation and mories. A severe one could lead to lifelong paralysis and a complete loss of life force," Xu Ke explained.
At his words, Wong Qifu stiffened, then slowly sighed, "Forget it."
The cost was too great. Even if her father could have been saved by soone using the Heaven-Defying Fate Change Technique, she could never force them to do it.
Seeing her reaction, Xu Ke knew she was probably thinking of her father. He sighed softly and subtly changed the subject. "I couldn't just stand by and watch, so I intervened."
"I was lucky. After performing the technique, I avoided the worst outco; I just lost my cultivation and all my mories of my dical skills. We call that kind of backlash a consequence of the Oath of the dical Path, which can only be lifted upon the practitioner's death."
Hearing this, Wong Qifu shook her head. "I knew you would save her." She didn't know what to say about Xu Ke's character.
Xu Ke touched his nose. "I was confident. The severity of the backlash from the Oath of the dical Path depends on the patient's condition. For a little girl like her, the backlash wasn't likely to be too severe. Otherwise, I wouldn't have done it."
This excuse was exactly the sa as the one he had used before the life-and-death battle.
"Was the technique you used on the mber of the Qin Family also the Heaven-Defying Fate Change Technique?" Wong Qifu asked quietly.
Xu Ke nodded. Fearing a misunderstanding, he quickly added, "But I only used one of its acupuncture thods. It won't cause any backlash for ."
Wong Qifu didn't speak; she just stared at him silently. Her expression had grown incredibly dangerous. The dical art was so risky it could be considered a forbidden technique. And here was Xu Ke, having just recovered, using it so recklessly?
Wong Qifu now wanted to hang Xu Ke up to dry.
Seeing her gaze turn as cold as a knife, Xu Ke chuckled awkwardly. He abruptly changed the subject again. "By the way, do you want to know why this consequence is called the backlash of the Oath of the dical Path?"
Seeing this, Wong Qifu said coldly, "I'm not interested. I just want you to promise that you won't use this dical technique again."
Originally, Wong Qifu had been curious about how Xu Ke learned dicine, but now her curiosity was gone. She just wanted him to stop using his dical skills altogether. After all, the cost of the backlash was completely unpredictable. It was like a ticking ti bomb. She'd have to worry about this hundreds of tis a day, wouldn't she?
"Okay," Xu Ke agreed hastily.
"I hope you really an it," Wong Qifu said, her tone frosty.
Xu Ke guiltily touched his nose and changed the subject once more. "So, you don't want to know where the na cos from?"
It was probably wiser not to discuss the Heaven-Defying Fate Change Technique for now.
Wong Qifu fixed her gaze on him. "You need to practice your subject-changing skills."
"So, do you want to know?" Xu Ke grinned sheepishly, deciding to just play dumb.
After spending so much ti with her, he knew that Wong Qifu's bark was worse than her bite. She spoke in a domineering and imperious way, but she never actually followed through on her threats.
Of course, this was only the case with Xu Ke. Others didn't receive such generous treatnt.
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