Playboy: Medical and Martial Master

Above the endless jungle, Sun Zhe soared like an eagle on black-and-white wings, rapidly circling as he used his Yin Yang X-ray Vision to conduct a sweeping search of the ground below.

His perseverance paid off.

Finally, after nearly an hour of searching, he found Su Nanzhi.

She was in critical danger, tangled up with a Mountain Demon. The beast had her pinned down and was about to do something unspeakable.

Sun Zhe’s heart burned with anxiety. That bastard! He cursed inwardly as he swooped down.

* * *

”Nanzhi, are you okay?”

”Ah Zhe? How did you get here?” Staring at the familiar face before her, Su Nanzhi’s beautiful eyes trembled. For a moment, it felt like she was dreaming.

Sun Zhe glanced at her mangled shoulder, a sharp pain stabbing his heart, followed by a surge of towering rage. He looked up, glaring at the Mountain Demon as it climbed back to its feet. ”Beast,” he growled through gritted teeth, ”come and get me!”

The Mountain Demon snarled, its eyes blazing with fury. It pounded its chest with both claws and let out a furious roar at Sun Zhe. The rolling soundwave carried a foul stench, bending the trees and grass in the forest.

Man and beast were locked in a standoff, and the atmosphere instantly grew heavy and oppressive.

”Come on!” Sun Zhe’s gaze turned sharp as he let out a sudden, explosive roar. His entire body erupted in a violent torrent of lightning.

A deafening CRACK echoed through the forest, as if space itself were shattering.

The Mountain Demon visibly shuddered, its aura instantly crushed by his sheer presence. It let out one last, unwilling shriek before turning and leaping into the woods, vanishing from sight.

Seeing the Mountain Demon flee in terror, Sun Zhe secretly breathed a sigh of relief. Honestly, I’m completely spent. If we had actually fought, I might not have gotten away unscathed. In this perilous primeval forest, I have to stay in peak condition to have any chance of survival.

”Nanzhi, let’s go!” Worried the Mountain Demon might circle back for a surprise attack, Sun Zhe quickly scooped Su Nanzhi up from the ground, activated Witch’s Step, and vanished into the dense forest in the blink of an eye.

After running with her in his arms for nearly twenty minutes, Sun Zhe finally found the stream he had spotted from the sky. He gently set Su Nanzhi down on a rock by the water before squatting down himself. He took off his jacket, tore a strip of cloth from the t-shirt underneath, wet it, and wrung it dry before walking back to her.

”That big monkey shouldn’t be following us anymore. This place is relatively safe. I checked from above earlier, and there aren’t any large predators nearby.”

Hearing this, Su Nanzhi grew curious. ”You were ’above’?”

Sun Zhe nodded as he stood before her. ”Nanzhi, sit still and don’t move. I’ll help you treat your wound.”

”Okay.” Su Nanzhi looked up at him, her eyes gradually welling with tears. ”How did you get here? And how did you happen to save me at just the right moment?”

Sun Zhe gently wiped the blood from her shoulder with the wet cloth, smiling. ”I guess you could call it fate.”

She chided playfully, ”I’m being serious with you!”

Sun Zhe’s expression turned serious. ”I came here specifically to find you. I’ve been searching for a long time.”

At his words, Su Nanzhi turned her face away and fell silent.

As the blood was wiped away, Sun Zhe saw several deep fang marks on her shoulder that nearly reached the bone. A large chunk of her flesh had been torn away, and the sight was gruesome.

”It must hurt a lot, doesn’t it?”

Su Nanzhi bit her lip tightly, tears glistening in her eyes. ”It hurts.”

Sun Zhe gently squeezed the blackened puncture wounds with his fingertips. ”It’s infected,” he said, his expression grave. ”I need to squeeze the corrupted blood out first. This is going to hurt a lot. Just bear with it for a little longer.”

Her body trembled from the pain. ”Why did you come looking for me?” she asked in a quavering voice.

”Sister Qingli told me you’d come to Celestial Prison Mountain to find the herb-gathering team,” Sun Zhe said while continuing to squeeze the clotted blood from her wound. ”I was worried, so I came.”

”Nanzhi, why wouldn’t you tell me you were coming to such a dangerous place?”

Su Nanzhi looked away again. ”Why should I have to tell you? This is my business. It has nothing to do with you.”

”How can you say it has nothing to do with me?”

Taking a deep breath, Su Nanzhi endured the pain and said, ”This is something I promised you, so I will see it through. Don’t worry. As long as I, Su Nanzhi, am still alive, I will put that herb in your hands.”

”But you were gathering herbs for me,” Sun Zhe replied. ”When something happened to the members of the gathering team... I had to come.”

Su Nanzhi shot him a sideways glance, her voice tinged with jealousy. ”Weren’t you busy spending time with all your girlfriends? When would you have time to care about me?”

Sun Zhe caught the sour note in her voice. ”Even if our relationship can’t go to the next level, can’t we at least be friends?” he said, frustrated. ”Putting that aside, even if you don’t want to be my friend, we’re at least business partners, aren’t we? Didn’t we agree to sell medicine together and make a fortune? Besides, we never truly started anything. Neither of us owes the other anything, so you really don’t need to be like this.”

Her eyes glistened with unshed tears as she glared at him. ”It’s none of your business! You’re infuriating.”

Sun Zhe sighed, his eyes filled with guilt. ”Nanzhi, I’m truly sorry... If it wasn’t for helping me find the herb, you and the gathering team wouldn’t have gone through any of this. No one would have died.”

Su Nanzhi took another deep breath, the pain making her vision go dark. She changed the subject. ”Why does it hurt so much?”

”Just hang in there. It’ll be over soon.” With that, Sun Zhe steeled himself, leaned down, and pressed his mouth to the bite marks on her shoulder.

Seeing this, Su Nanzhi’s eyes widened in shock. ”Are you crazy? That beast’s saliva carries viruses, and you’re just...”

But before she could finish, he released her shoulder and turned to spit a mouthful of black blood onto the ground beside them. He wiped his mouth and said, ”This is faster. Squeezing it by hand is too slow.”

”That’s so unhygienic,” Su Nanzhi said softly.

Sun Zhe just chuckled and took a piece of Candle Dragon Stele from his pocket, handing it to her. ”Here, this will neutralize the poison.”

Su Nanzhi took it and recognized it instantly. ”Is this a Candle Dragon Stele?” she asked, surprised. ”How do you have this?”

”I got lucky and found it a while back. Put it in your mouth, but don’t swallow it.”

Su Nanzhi was clearly aware of the Candle Dragon Stele’s detoxifying properties and immediately tried to place it in her mouth. Unfortunately, the piece was too wide, and even when she opened her small, cherry-like lips as far as she could, it wouldn’t fit.

”It’s so big. How am I supposed to hold it in my mouth?”

Sun Zhe gave her a strange look. ”I suspect you’re making an innuendo.”

Her face flushed red, and she gave his calf a light kick. ”You’re incorrigible!” she chided.

Sun Zhe laughed heartily. ”Subtle innuendos are the deadliest.”

Hearing that, Su Nanzhi raised her foot to kick him again.

Sun Zhe quickly dodged. ”Just bite off a small piece and swallow that,” he said with a grin.

Su Nanzhi gently bit off a tiny piece, grimacing at the bitter taste as she swallowed. ”My foot is also injured,” she said.

”It’s injured and you’re still kicking me?”

”It’s the other foot!”

”Let me see.”

Su Nanzhi looked a bit embarrassed. ”Help me up first.”

A moment later, Su Nanzhi stood up with Sun Zhe’s support and slowly began to take off her cargo pants. When she did, Sun Zhe was surprised to see that she was wearing a pair of black silk tights underneath.

”Uh... Why are you wearing those?” he asked softly, his gaze drawn to the two slender legs wrapped in the dark fabric. His mind began to wander.

Su Nanzhi replied with a straight face, ”The temperature difference between day and night is huge out here. It can drop below freezing at night. How could one pair of pants be enough? I need to stay warm.”

”That makes sense.”

Sucking in a sharp breath, Su Nanzhi slowly sat back down on the rock, took off her shoes, and then began to tear the tights open around her right ankle. Sun Zhe looked closely and saw that her ankle was severely swollen.

”How did it get this swollen?”

”I twisted it when that Mountain Demon was chasing me.”

Sun Zhe quickly squatted in front of her, about to treat it. But as his eyes landed on the alluring ”V” shape outlined by her tights just above her thighs, he noticed his own ’little Sun Zhe’ had also become rather swollen.

”You’ve probably injured the bone,” Sun Zhe said, trying to keep his composure after a quick examination.

Su Nanzhi, however, had already noticed where he was looking. Her face reddened. ”It’s a good thing a certain Divine Doctor showed up, otherwise I really wouldn’t have known what to do.”

Sun Zhe took a slow, deep breath, trying his best not to look at the enticing shape. He took hold of her right ankle and quietly infused it with Pure Yang True Qi to numb the pain.

As she watched his serious, handsome face, Su Nanzhi couldn’t help but recall that annoying True Qi, and her cheeks gradually turned an even deeper shade of red.

”By the way, Nanzhi, how did you end up here?”

”...”