Chapter 88
Chapter 88: Awakening
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“Time to wake up~”
An unfamiliar female voice sounded in Lin Muyu’s mind, gentle and tender, carrying a few traces of childlike indulgence.
Lin Muyu struggled to lift her heavy eyelids, but they felt as if they were filled with lead, refusing to open no matter how hard she tried.
Her body felt even worse, as if it had been run over by a large truck. Every inch of muscle, every bone was utterly powerless, making even moving a finger feel difficult.
“Lin Muyu, are you awake?”
Suddenly, a familiar voice rang sharply in her ear. Though this voice carried gentleness and guilt, it still struck like thunder in Lin Muyu’s mind, causing her spirit to shake violently.
Hearing this voice, her heart was instantly filled with infinite terror, as if she had returned once again to that desperate cave.
“She’s awake?”
Another unfamiliar female voice spoke up, different from the childlike and indulgent voice that had called her to wake up.
This female voice sounded more steady and mature, carrying a kind of reassuring strength.
As this voice rang out, a warm current slowly flowed through the depths of her body.
Like gentle hands softly caressing the places of severe pain on her body, wherever it passed, the pain visibly diminished at a rapid pace.
Her strength gradually returned as well.
Slowly, Lin Muyu found that the weakness and pain in her body had almost disappeared, leaving only her eyelids still terribly heavy.
She began struggling earnestly to open her eyes, trying again and again.
Gradually, a piercing light appeared before her eyes, light that she had almost forgotten after staying in the dark cave for so long.
It formed a sharp and intense contrast with the previous darkness.
And this ray of light temporarily dispelled her fear of the darkness.
“You should leave first.”
The mature female voice seemed to be speaking to someone beside her, her tone calm yet carrying an undeniable authority.
“But…”
The familiar voice wanted to say something, but seemed to be blocked by something, ultimately saying nothing at all, leaving only a barely audible sigh.
“Wake up quickly, the bad person has already been driven away~”
“The bad person… has been… driven away?”
Following the gentle call of the mature female voice, Lin Muyu finally used all her strength to open her eyes just a crack.
But her heart was filled with confusion, why was the world before her eyes in black and white?
“This is bad.”
Seeing Lin Muyu’s condition, Qingyao’s heart couldn’t help but skip a beat, a bad premonition rising within her.
Though the girl before her had opened her eyes, her gaze was empty and unfocused, without the slightest bit of focus.
Like a soulless rag doll, she showed no signs of life at all.
“How do you feel right now?”
Qingyao suppressed the worry in her heart, softening her voice as she carefully called out to Lin Muyu, hoping to get some response.
Fortunately, she still had reactions to external stimuli.
“Ah… cough cough…”
Lin Muyu struggled to say something, but her throat felt as if it had been roughly scraped by sandpaper, burning with pain. She couldn’t even produce the weakest breath of sound.
She laboriously lifted her eyelids, and through her blurred vision, she could only see Qingyao staring at her with tightly furrowed brows.
Then Qingyao reached into her sleeve and took out a lustrous and plump pill, carefully bringing it toward her mouth.
“Be good, eat this.”
Lin Muyu looked at the hand getting closer and closer to her small mouth, seeming to remember something. Instinctively terrified, she naturally resisted anything trying to enter her mouth from outside.
But that pill, gently lifted by the soft spiritual energy swirling around Qingyao’s fingertips, slipped effortlessly past her pale lips and into her mouth.
In just a moment, the pill dissolved into a clear, warm current on her tongue, flowing down her throat.
But before Lin Muyu could recover, a strong itching sensation suddenly surged from deep in her throat, like countless tiny feathers gently scratching.
“Cough cough cough…”
This sudden itching made Lin Muyu cough violently, her chest rising and falling with each cough.
Her thin shoulders also trembled slightly, and this series of movements quickly caught the attention of Su Wanqing outside the door.
Su Wanqing hurriedly peered into the room, but the moment her gaze touched the scene inside, she was fiercely glared back by Qingyao’s cold, stern look.
She instinctively shrank her neck and retreated outside the door.
But in the instant of retreating, she couldn’t help but glance into the room once more. When her gaze fell on Lin Muyu, her eyes were filled with undisguisable heartache.
Lin Muyu at this moment had long lost her former lively and spirited appearance. Her face was pale to the point of being almost transparent.
Her lips also lacked any color, and her entire body was shrouded in a faint layer of death energy, looking extremely weak.
“I…”
After a long while, Lin Muyu finally managed to make a sound, though her voice was terribly hoarse, carrying a rough, grating quality.
Compared to her previous clear and pleasant feminine voice, she seemed like a completely different person.
“I… where… am I? And who… are you?”
She slightly raised her eyes, gazing at Qingyao with a somewhat vacant look.
Her voice was also intermittent, each word seeming extremely difficult to say, as if it exhausted all her strength.
“This is the pharmacy, and I am the master here, named Qingyao.”
Qingyao’s voice was especially gentle, like comforting a suffering little girl.
“You just woke up, your body is still weak. Rest well here for now, don’t think about other things.”
Lin Muyu blinked her eyes blankly, looking at Qingyao’s calm and gentle face.
After a long while, she slowly nodded, appearing exceptionally obedient.
Seeing that she didn’t show any major emotional fluctuations, Qingyao’s tense nerves relaxed slightly, and she turned to walk toward the door.
“Senior Sister, Muyu she… when can I go in to see her?”
As soon as Su Wanqing saw Qingyao come out, she immediately stepped forward.
She was now full of anxiety, showing none of her previous image as a cold fairy.
Because Lin Muyu had awakened, she really couldn’t just stand outside watching like this. Even if she could just go in and apologize to her, that would be good.
At least that way, it could ease her guilt…
“Don’t be anxious.”
Qingyao turned around to look at her, her tone unhurried.
“Though she seems relatively calm right now, your appearance might very well stimulate her and could easily trigger a stress response in her. Let’s wait a bit longer.”
“But…”
Su Wanqing wanted to say something more, but was interrupted by Qingyao raising her hand.
“You should go back and practice the Heartless Curse first. When her condition stabilizes a bit more, I’ll let you know.”
“…Alright then.”
Su Wanqing fell silent for a moment, but ultimately nodded.
She carried a trace of helplessness on her face as she turned dejectedly to leave.
But just as she had taken only a few steps, a familiar female voice suddenly came from the distance.
That voice carried several traces of urgency and questioning, clearly reaching Su Wanqing’s ears:
“Where is Lin Muyu?!”
Su Wanqing looked in the direction of the voice, and seeing who it was, her heart couldn’t help but skip a beat.
“Why is she here?!”