In the end, Chang Boning still took a box of Purifying Heart stones from Jing Sanchai's storage and exchanged his own spirit stone bracelet, which was worth a fortune, for the original Purifying Heart stones.

After mixing the crushed Purifying Heart stones with several medicinal pills on a clean inkstone, Chang Boning held a fine wolf-hair brush, soaked it in the transparent medicinal liquid, and stroke by stroke, sealed the enchanting red lotus on Feng Rugu's waist, restoring it to its original state.

After putting down the brush, just as Feng Rugu was about to get up, Chang Boning said, "Don't move."

Feng Rugu: "Isn't it done?"

"It's done, but don't move." Chang Boning poured the clear liquid into the jade bottle he carried with him, "You used spiritual power not long after leaving the mountain and broke the Seven Flowers Seal, right?"

Feng Rugu buried his face in his arms and denied: "No, no."

Chang Boning sat back on the bedside and grabbed his arm: "You can't seal the Seven Flowers Seal completely by yourself. After the spiritual energy leaks out and runs around, it conflicts with... that thing. You must have been uncomfortable and haven't had a good night's sleep for several days, right?"

Feng Rugu turned his face to the side, revealing a bright, smiling eye: "Then I'll make it up now. Please help me cover the quilt, senior brother."

Chang Boning said solemnly: "Don't act cute."

"Acting cute works. If it doesn't work, of course I won't do it anymore." Feng Rugu grinned, "Senior brother, does it work or not?"

Chang Boning really couldn't do anything about him. He pulled over the quilt and carefully wrapped him from the waist down, then covered his upper body with the clothes he had taken off, only exposing his lower back where the medicine was half dry.

He knelt solemnly by the bedside: "I came out in such a hurry this time, originally intending to check on you and then take a look at the situation of the Mizhi Mountain God Stone. I have to go back tonight, but..."

Chang Boning glanced outside: "...I thought he would take better care of you. ...Otherwise, I'll order junior sister Yan to return to the mountain to manage the affairs, and I'll accompany you instead."

"You?" Feng Rugu almost laughed out loud, "Senior brother, you've been in the mountain for more than 20 years since entering. How many times have you come down from the mountain?"

Chang Boning thought for a moment and couldn't help but smile first: "Including this time, a total of four times."

Feng Rugu said, "Senior brother, your cultivation is too strong and your heart is too kind. If you could have come down from the mountain during those four years, I would have been more at ease..."

At this point, Feng Rugu stopped.

If he and Chang Boning hadn't exchanged those four years, perhaps neither of them would be the way they are now.

But if he and Chang Boning hadn't exchanged, the one who would have fallen into the "Forgotten World" during that Eastern Emperor Ceremony would have been Chang Boning.

Thinking about it this way, Feng Rugu felt much more relieved.

Chang Boning chatted with him for a while. Fearing that he would exhaust his energy, he was about to get up and go to Mizhi Mountain when Feng Rugu tugged at his sleeve.

He pleaded in a low voice, "Senior brother, go see him and talk to him."

Who "he" was, they both knew clearly.

"Rugu, don't make things difficult for me." Chang Boning smiled apologetically, "You also know what senior brother is good at and not good at. I can still handle correspondence, but face-to-face conversations, I really..."

Feng Rugu also knew the importance of the matter. After thinking for a moment, he gave up on this idea: "Senior brother, take care."

Chang Boning patted the back of his head and left, holding his sword.

As soon as Chang Boning left, Feng Rugu, who had just been told to rest well, immediately got up, put on his clothes, picked up his belt, and walked out of the room while tying it. He looked up and saw Hai Jing and Sang Luojiu, who were guarding the door and had just sent off his senior uncle, but Ruyi was nowhere to be seen.

He loosely tied his belt: "Where is our little Ruyi?"

Hai Jing first saw the two Fengling martial brothers enter the room and close the door tightly for nearly an hour. When they came out, Chang Boning was in a hurry and Feng Rugu looked like he had just undressed. He couldn't help but feel his heart surging. Hearing Feng Rugu ask him, he collected his thoughts and silently recited a Buddha's name: "Junior martial uncle, he..."

After breaking his vow of silence, Ruyi left with a flick of his sleeve and went to the side courtyard in the east. When Chang Boning left, he didn't come out either.

Feng Rugu lowered his eyelashes, pondered for a moment, lightly touched the small mole on the tip of his nose, turned around and walked towards the side courtyard.

Hai Jing was about to follow, but Feng Rugu, as if he had eyes on the back of his head, pointed casually and ordered, "Don't follow me."

He thought that Ruyi's current state was not suitable to be seen by others.

There was only one locked room in the side courtyard, so it was not difficult to find.

Feng Rugu came to the door alone and knocked: "Little Ruyi, the Lord Yunzhong is here to see you!"

His tone was as intimate and familiar as a little squirrel coming to borrow winter food from a neighboring squirrel's house.

There was no sound inside.

Feng Rugu, holding a smoking pipe with wisps of smoke, laughed and said, "There's no need to be so depressed after breaking the precepts. I've read some Buddhist scriptures. As long as those who break the precepts have a heart of repentance and sincerely repent, Buddha will not easily blame them. Let me put it this way, Buddha is like your father. If a son makes a mistake, he just needs to correct it. At most, he'll get a beating, but there's no reason to immediately kick him out of the house. Don't you think so?"

Ruyi inside was still unmoved.

Seeing that he couldn't get the door open, Feng Rugu took two steps back and sighed exaggeratedly, saying, "Okay, my words are not effective, so I'll ask senior brother to come and talk to you."

As soon as Feng Rugu turned around, the door behind him opened, and his belt was hooked by the "Nature of All Beings". He took a step back, tripped over the threshold, and fell backwards.

Ruyi didn't expect Feng Rugu's lower body to be so unstable. He subconsciously reached out to hold him.

When Feng Rugu fell into his arms, Ruyi, who was holding him tightly, stiffened for a moment, and his hands didn't let go in time.

Therefore, when his wrist was grabbed by Feng Rugu and his sleeve was lifted, he didn't have time to react.

On Ruyi's left forearm, there was a fresh ring-shaped blood mark, about half an inch deep, and the blood had not yet dried.

Hanshan Temple had strict management and special thorn whips for self-punishment of those who broke the precepts. When self-punishing, one could wrap the thorn whip around the punished area and embed it into the flesh, replacing the whipping.

Whether to use the thorn whip or not depended entirely on one's determination in their cultivation.

Ruyi wanted to withdraw his forearm, but Feng Rugu, with his upper body leaning against his chest and exerting force to hold him tightly, raised his eyes and looked at Ruyi.

He raised the corners of his mouth and, without saying a word, slowly blew a puff of bamboo breath that he had been holding in his mouth onto Ruyi's face.

While Ruyi was stunned, Feng Rugu said in a low voice, "Are you really happy torturing yourself like this?"

If it were before, Ruyi would have been extremely annoyed by Feng Rugu's deliberate provocative posturing.

But now, Ruyi knew that the smoke he inhaled contained pain-relieving corydalis.

In an instant, the pain was greatly reduced, but he became flustered, staring only at Feng Rugu, unable to take his eyes off him.

Feng Rugu leaned against Ruyi's embrace, too lazy to get up on his own. He thought he would be angrily pushed away, but unexpectedly, Ruyi just lowered his head and stared at him, motionless.

At close range, his blinking frequency was very low, and his eyelashes were very thick and long. Being stared at by him like this actually gave the illusion of deep affection.

Feng Rugu had always been good at teasing others, but not good at dealing with being teased. After staring at each other for a few moments, he couldn't take it anymore and coughed softly: "...My waist."

Ruyi blinked, looking slightly flustered, but the change was so fast that Feng Rugu couldn't even capture it.

He used his elbow to prop Feng Rugu up, helping him stand steady.

Feng Rugu pretended to hold his waist, moved it a couple of times, and then knocked on the already open door: "Excuse me, Master Ruyi, may I come in?"

Ruyi glanced at Feng Rugu's feet that had already stepped into the room and naturally wouldn't throw him out again.

Feng Rugu persisted and knocked on the door again, asking, "Then, Master Ruyi, may I come in and apply medicine for you?"

Ruyi looked at him as if considering whether to throw him out.

But he endured it and still turned to walk inside, which was tacit permission.

Since Feng Rugu had already instructed the young disciples to wait in the main house, he assumed no one would come to the side courtyard and didn't bother to close the door.

Entering the inner room, Feng Rugu said as a matter of course, "Take off your clothes."

Ruyi's face stiffened, seemingly looking for an appropriate response.

Now that his vow of silence was broken, if he didn't respond, it would seem a bit unreasonable.

In the end, he took off his clothes and said coldly at the same time, "Thank you."

Feng Rugu laughed inwardly, thinking this kid was too reserved and cared too much about face.

But after seeing the scars on Ruyi's body clearly, Feng Rugu's expression changed slightly.

-- The thorn whip scars on his body crisscrossed, old and new wounds overlapping each other, most of which were scars left by previous self-punishment.