“Senior Yun Jiu, can you really remove the mark from my sister's body?” Liu Tian'er's eyes lit up instantly after hearing her words.
“Perhaps Senior Yun Jiu is planning on asking his Thousand-year-old Living Corpse for help? But, the Thousand-year-old Corpse isn't exactly an amicable person… I wonder how Senior Yun Jiu will manage to persuade him?” Liu Tian'er thought to herself.
“The mark is deeply rooted in your bone marrow. The only way to get rid of it is to debone this area and cleanse it thoroughly. However, the entire process will be extremely painful. Can you endure the pain?” There was no need to rely on Zi Shang for something this trivial. Yun Jiuge could handle it all by herself.
The final decision was on Liu Mei'er. She had to decide if she was willing to bleed and experience pain just to remove the Cheap Slave Mark from her body.
“I can endure it,” Liu Mei'er said without hesitation. She was not afraid of any difficulty or pain as long as she could stop being a ‘Cheap Slave'.
“Alright then. Let's find a safe spot before we start making our preparations!” Yun Jiuge could not leave the Sect Leader's Peak for long.
“Okay.” The two sisters nodded their heads. They then started a fire and burned everything at the scene before they left with Yun Jiuge.
Yun Jiuge found a random cave nearby and she cleaned it up before making a simple bed out of stone. Thereafter, she let Zi Shang to stay outside and do whatever he wanted.
“Take off your top and lie on the stone bed,” Yun Jiuge instructed Liu Mei'er as she prepared the Spiritual Herbs that she was going to use to treat her later.
Liu Mei'er did not waver. She took off her top at once and gently lay down on the stone bed with only a pair of white pants on her.
Her flawless white back that was marred with red scars looked extremely beautiful against the gray stone bed. Any normal man would be attracted to the sight.
However, Yun Jiuge was a woman disguised as a man, and thus, she showed no interest in Liu Mei'er's beautiful, bare back. She focused all her attention into mixing the medicine.
Liu Tian'er waited by the side anxiously. She looked at her sister, then at Yun Jiuge, then back at her sister repeatedly.
“Use this medicine on your sister's back and rinse it off with water when you are done.” Yun Jiuge pa.s.sed a bottle of blue liquid over to Liu Mei'er.
“What does this do?” Liu Tian'er could not help but ask.
“It's a medicine that helps to get rid of internal heat and toxins from the body. You should hurry up and apply it on her back!” Yun Jiuge said without turning to look at Liu Tian'er. She then burned the Spiritual Herbs and poured its resulting liquid into a small bowl.
“Yes, I'll get started on it right away.” Liu Tian'er noticed that Yun Jiuge was very busy at the moment, and she did not dare to ask any further. She hastily poured the medicine onto a piece of white cloth before she applied it all over her sister's back carefully.
The medicine felt cold against Liu Mei'er's skin and it also gave off a pungent smell of alcohol.
Yun Jiuge waited for Liu Tian'er to finish applying the medicine before she put down the bowl that she held in her hands and walked towards them.
Thereafter, she made several hand gestures above Liu Mei'er's mark and said to the two sisters, “I will destroy the rune that is engraved within this mark first before I try to force out the source of the spell. Your sister's cultivation has not reached a point where she can force it out by herself, so I'll need your help later.”
“What do I have to do?” Liu Tian'er asked nervously.
“I want you to grab the soles of her feet and wait for my command. When I say ‘Go', I want the two of you to send your Spiritual Power over to where the mark is at the same time to force out the source of the spell. It's pretty much like what we did when we went to catch the Yin Moths previously.” Yun Jiuge had a lot of faith in the twins' ability to work together.
“Okay, I got it.” Liu Tian'er walked to the back before she reached out and grabbed the soles of her sister's feet. She then aimed her palms at her Yongquan Acupoints.
“There's no need to rush. We'll only start the whole process in two hours' time. I want you to take a seat and recover your Spiritual Power for now,” said Yun Jiuge.
Liu Tian'er had thought about giving her all earlier, and that caused her pulse to be a little erratic. She had to calm down and be at a state of peace first before they could continue.
“Okay.” Liu Tian'er also knew that she was not in a very good state right now. She obediently went to a corner and sat down with her legs crossed before she began to meditate.
While Liu Tian'er meditated, Yun Jiuge took out the Lightning Fire Needle and began destroying the Yin Spiritual Charm that was embedded in Liu Mei'er's Cheap Slave Mark.
Thanks to Zi Shang's constant nagging, she was able to have a much better understanding of runes now.
She was especially knowledgeable about the Yin Spiritual Rune that was engraved on the Yin Spiritual Charm. After all, most items at the Yin Corpse Sect made use of the Yin Spiritual Rune.
The Yin Spiritual Rune before her had a total of 108 veins. The key to destroying the Cheap Slave Mark was to find the source of the spell that was hidden under the 108 veins, and the only way to find it would be to destroy all the veins one by one.
Yun Jiuge calmed herself and focused all her attention on the Yin Spiritual Rune. She took a look at where she was going to hit, and the Lightning Fire Needle went towards it in one fell swoop.
The first vein snapped in half and led out a stream of light grayish Yin Qi.
Yun Jiuge did not stop there. She continued to destroy the second vein, then the third and the fourth…
In the beginning, Yun Jiuge was able to see the veins clearly.
However, when she reached the 50th vein, all she could see was a sea of gray.
Fortunately, the veins were immobile and they could not change their positions. Hence, Yun Jiuge was able to destroy the rest of the veins by relying on her excellent memory.
When she destroyed the last vein, the cloud of gray Yin Qi in the mark dissipated, and a thumb-sized insect emerged before her eyes. It was the source of the spell.
The insect was gray and slimy. It looked like it was covered in snot, and Yun Jiuge decided to name it the Snot Insect. The Snot Insect clung onto Liu Mei'er's shoulder bone tightly. It had countless feelers underneath its body, and all of them had fused with her shoulder bone's marrow.
“Go!” Yun Jiuge ordered at once.
Liu Tian'er had been grabbing onto the soles of her sister's feet this entire time. When she heard Yun Jiuge's command, she immediately injected all her Spiritual Power into her sister's body. Their combined Spiritual Power was channeled towards Liu Mei'er's shoulder where the mark was at.
The Snot Insect moved a little before it floated upwards by a few centimeters reluctantly. However, its feelers continued to cling tightly to Liu Mei'er's shoulder bone, pulling it upwards.
The pain caused Liu Mei'er to break out in cold sweat, and she immediately dug her fingers into the stone bed. It was clear that she was in immense pain at the moment, but Liu Mei'er did not even let out a single moan.
“Keep it up.” Yun Jiuge focused all her attention on the Snot Insect, and she watched the way it moved. She then told the Liu Sisters to continue pouring all their Spiritual Power towards the mark.
Liu Mei'er was in so much pain that her face was covered with sweat. Her nails had broken as a result of her grasping onto the stone bed, but she did not seem to have noticed.
A while later, her consciousness began to fade, and she stopped sending her Spiritual Power over to the mark as quickly as before.
“Senior Yun Jiu, what will happen if my sister isn't able to hold on?” Liu Tian'er felt a pang in her heart as she looked at her sister's hands that were speckled with blood. She also noticed that her sister was sending lesser and lesser Spiritual Power towards the mark as time went on.
“She has to hold on no matter what happens, unless she wants to carry the Cheap Slave Mark on her body for life!” There was no hint of sympathy in Yun Jiuge's voice as she continued to observe the Snot Insect keenly.
By now, the Snot Insect was floating in the air, and more than half of its feelers had been removed from Liu Mei'er's shoulder bone. Yun Jiuge was not going to allow anything to slip up at such a critical time.
“Sis, please bear with it a little longer. You'll be fine once you force the source of the spell out of your body.” Liu Tian'er decided to steel her heart, and she injected a lot more Spiritual Power into her sister's body.
Liu Mei'er felt as though someone was sc.r.a.ping her shoulder bone with a knife. The pain was so unbearable that her arms and legs began to convulse violently.
“Bear with it a little longer. It'll be over soon.” Yun Jiuge pressed Liu Mei'er down with all her might.
Only the biggest and thickest feeler remained on her shoulder bone at the moment. The Snot Insect was putting up its last, desperate struggle now.
Upon seeing that, Yun Jiuge raised her Lightning Fire Needle and used it to remove the last feeler from Liu Mei'er's shoulder bone.
The Snot Insect had lost its host, and it flew out of the cave as fast as lightning.
Yun Jiuge was just about to run after it when she heard Liu Mei'er shriek in pain. The Spiritual Power from her body disappeared in an instant, and she pa.s.sed out cold on the stone bed. There was no sign of a pulse on her body.
“Sis!” Liu Tian'er screamed as she pounced towards her sister to check on her.
“Move. Don't get in my way.” Yun Jiuge did not have the time to capture the Snot Insect. She hastily flipped Liu Mei'er over before she jabbed the Lightning Fire Needle onto her heart meridian. Thereafter, she made a series of hand movements, and in the next moment, a small bolt of lightning appeared in her hands.