Chapter 32: Ch 32 - Is this ointment of yours legitimate?
"Nonsense! I haven't ascended to heaven yet!"
Jinyue descended from the sky with the intention of making a graceful landing, but her weak legs caused her to stumble and fall square in front of Yino.
If Jinyue's previous feigned death was intentional smearing blood on herself to test Yino, this time she was actually wounded and bloodied from head to toe.
"Where... where did you come from?"
Yino had been resting against the dead worm's body.
When he saw Jinyue appear out of nowhere, a cold sweat broke out on his back, and his previously calm demeanor changed.
The reason was simple: when Yino had first teleported into the dungeon, he had already extended his senses to search for any presence in the entire area.
Except for the large bloodstains on the floor and the breeding worm's scales, there was no other trace of Jinyue's presence!
So, Yino had reasonably deduced that Jinyue had been swallowed by the breeding worm after a battle.
But unexpectedly... Jinyue had been hiding on the ceiling all along!
He had truly underestimated the survival skills of an illusion prodigy.
"You didn't use illusion techniques to conceal your presence and hang upside down from the ceiling watching me the whole time, did you?"
Yino's lips twitched, and his face paled as he questioned with a strained voice.
This twist was so bizarre that Yino even forgot to help the foxy woman up from the ground.
"Can you help me get up first? I think my leg is broken; I can't stand..."
Jinyue didn't answer his question, instead pleading for help.
"Oh, right."
Yino finally came to his senses and hurried to lift the limp fox spirit.
He sat on the ground, leaning against the breeding worm, with Jinyue resting beside him, her head drooping on Yino's shoulder like a lifeless doll.
"Don't lean on my shoulder."
Yino spoke softly.
Upon hearing this, Jinyue obediently lifted her head, looking at Yino with a pitiful expression on her small face.
She bit her lip, wanting to say something. But in the next moment, Yino sat up and crouched by her legs:
"Didn't you say your leg was broken? Let me see if I can set it for you."
"You know medical skills too...?"
Jinyue's previous disappointment faded as she blinked her beautiful eyes and looked at Yino in amazement.
Her face rarely showed a genuine look of admiration and gratitude.
This was a scene Yino had never witnessed in the game; it seemed he had truly been set up by the Pleasure Demon tonight.
"Well, you saw the battle earlier..."
"At this point, I have nothing to hide from you."
Yino murmured quietly, taking out a small vial of essential oil from his pocket.
"To be honest, I do know some medical skills, and I happen to have some medicine with me."
As he said this, Yino used the conversation to divert attention and suddenly lifted Jinyue's injured jade leg.
Jinyue was in so much pain that she couldn't talk, her delicate hands grasping her garments and only letting out soft moans.
Her leg was held firmly, and she looked at Yino with an uneasy expression on her face. She didn't know what Yino was going to do, but the position and situation made her imagination run wild...
"Are you... are you really just doing medicine...?"
Jinyue restrained her shame and asked softly.
Because ever since her leg was lifted in front of Yino, although his facial expression remained that of a gentleman, his hands, covered in strange essential oil, were moving back and forth on Jinyue's milky leg, touching almost every inch of skin from her upper thigh to her ankle.
Although Jinyue respected him as her savior, his touching was so blatant that she couldn't help but wonder if he was really examining her injuries or taking advantage of the situation.
In just a moment, her beautiful leg had been touched until it was flushed and warm.
"Stop touching, it's making my heart flutter..."
Jinyue felt more sensitive and pleaded with a red face.
She wanted to pull back her heated left leg, but the already injured Jinyue had no strength to do so. She could only allow Yino's soul-stirring hands to roam her jade leg...
Yino just looked up at her once, then said calmly:
"Don't move, bear with it."
"But... mmph~!"
Jinyue tilted her flushed face back, gritting her teeth and panting like a small cat, she was too sensitive to argue or resist anymore.
Jinyue gradually felt as if all of her senses were focused on one leg, and the meridians in that leg were linked to all of her other senses. This made every inch of skin Yino stroked seem crystal vivid in her imagination, as if he were touching her entire body!
And just as Jinyue was swallowing hard, enduring with difficulty—
*Crack!*
A crisp bone sounded.
Yino's previously gentle caressing suddenly applied force.
Jinyue quickly closed her eyes in terror, all of her muscles tensing up in a straight line.
But, after a long stillness, Jinyue did not experience the anticipated pain.
She just felt the warmth and touch of Yino's hands on her leg, which was soaked in essential oil, as well as a mild tingling and cooling feeling.
Jinyue opened her eyes, surprised to find she could move her left foot.
"Look how scared you were."
Yino raised an eyebrow, glancing at her while gently massaging her still reddish knee.
After another moment of observation, Yino patted her fair thigh: "Quickly wipe your tears, I didn't really hurt you."
Seeing Jinyue much more at ease, Yino continued touching her thigh, explaining calmly:
"You didn't actually have a fracture. It was just a joint dislocation from a severe impact. I've already set the bone back in place... I was touching your leg earlier because I was afraid you'd cry and scream in pain, so I used the medicine to confuse your nerves and distract you."
"I... I didn't know there was such a painless medical technique..."
The fox lady tried to move her leg back and forth, her eyes filled with surprise.
Yino's unique and gentle treatment strategy appeared to completely alter her previous views on physicians.
Jinyue suddenly felt satisfied.
-Thinking back, the tingling sensation when he touched my leg earlier was quite pleasant.-
-No, wait...-
-It wasn't my imagination!-
- Yino is still touching me, even now-
"Isn't the treatment over... do you... do you need to keep touching?"
Jinyue gently bit her lip, reminding him somewhat awkwardly.
Hearing this, Yino didn't push his luck and cleanly put her leg down.
Yino didn't say anything, but his gaze turned to Jinyue's right leg.
This time, Jinyue had already tasted the sweetness of the treatment.
She no longer had any worries and, despite the pain, she intentionally lifted her right leg and placed it in Yino's lap, allowing him to apply the essential oil.
"My right leg is a bit better than the left. Although I can feel it, it hurts a lot when I move it now..."
Jinyue wagged her tail, obediently reporting her condition.
After applying the essential oil ointment, Yino didn't continue touching in a way that made Jinyue's heart jump like he did with the previous leg.
This time, he changed his approach. Combining two fingers, he started from the thigh, checking the pulse at different acupoints, and finally pressed his fingertips onto the swollen ankle of her milky foot.
As soon as Yino's fingertips touched, Jinyue let out a soft moan.
"It seems this is the root of the problem."
"Is... is it a sprained ankle?" Jinyue asked weakly.
"For a mortal body, yes. But the breeding worm's scales were poisonous, and this involves your spiritual energy and meridians. I'll first apply some medicine to clear your meridians, and then..."
Yino stopped mid-sentence.
But his hands weren't idle. He naturally removed the blood-stained white embroidered silk stockings, revealing the swollen and purplish delicate flesh of her jade foot.
"Will... will this poisoning make me a cripple in the future...?"
Jinyue asked quietly, her tail tucked between her legs, her beautiful eyes clearly tense with fear.
Yino gazed at her, confused, unsure whether she was acting or actually this timid.
After all, in the game, Jinyue's later stages involved more than just a lame leg. She even went blind from peering into the abyss, yet wearing an eye patch didn't temper her villainous nature as the Pleasure Demon.
-But now... She was this scared just from some poison in her foot-
-It seemed the crazy demon woman from the game didn't become that way overnight-
"If you behave and cooperate from now on, say a few nice things about me, I might be willing to sacrifice myself to help you detoxify... Otherwise, once this poison penetrates your meridians and acupoints, spreading up your leg, forget about being lame, you might have to amputate the entire leg."
Yino pretended to be mysterious as he frightened her.
This was also a test, because at this stage, Jinyue couldn't even defeat the breeding worm. Her display of strength clearly didn't match Yino's stereotypical impression of the Pleasure Demon from the game.
Struggling with the fact that Jinyue played the role of a junior sister in the early stages of the story, with little combat interaction, Yino wasn't sure about her early background or how she gradually became the crazy character she was in the middle and later stages.
"As long as this injury can be healed, I'll do whatever you say!"
"Please save me... I don't want to be lame for the rest of my life..."
The fox lady's face paled as she gripped Yino's arm.
It seemed she was frightened by his words. Even Yino felt her pitiful act was like something out of a science fiction movie.
But he couldn't rule out the possibility that she was still pretending to test him.
So, Yino didn't dare to take advantage of the situation and nodded seriously, saying:
"Alright, let's apply the medicine first."
"Mm..."
As the cool ointment touched her foot, Jinyue's body tensed up again, her face gradually turning red once more.
She stopped chattering and just watched the young man, obediently stretching out her leg, allowing his palm and the ointment to be evenly applied to every inch of skin on her foot.
"This ointment seems different...?"
Feeling the gradually increasing burning sensation on her reddening jade foot, Jinyue anxiously tucked her tail and pressed her legs together.