The Calming Medicine

"Sooo... What do we do with him now?" Meng Li asked, unsure of what to do with this situation, which escalated beyond what he thought possible.

Ye Jian stared in silence at the young man on the bed and the burly man at the floor for a few seconds before replying.

"I'm not going to get anymore ideas just thinking like this. I'm gonna wake them up." Ye Jian announced before taking out a rope from his bag of holding. Meng Li had a strange feeling about the matter, and his suspicions were confirmed after Ye Jian used the rope to tie up the burly man with a strange proficiency. Meng Li had no time to gather his bearings before Ye Jian stabbed his finger in the burly man's neck once again, this time in a different spot. The burly man's body seemed to shake slightly, and his closed eyes opened suddenly.

Immediately after he regained consciousness, the man tried to jump up, and failed miserably due to the fact that he was tied up. While tying him up, Ye Jian also placed him slightly to the right of the bed, and allowed the man to see the young man on the bed. Ye Jian didn't seem to care about the burly man's infuriated face and started his interrogation while Meng Li stared in befuddlement from behind his canvas.

"Who the fuck are you and why did you barge in my room?" Ye Jian asked aggressively. Meng Li almost wanted to chime in to correct him that it was, in fact, his room, but he realised the context before he said it out loud, and in the end, he said nothing.

"Who are YOU and why did you kidnap young master?" The man seemed angry, but Meng Li saw a sliver of fear under his mask of bravery.

"I'm Ye Jian, and I'm trying to help your stupid young master because my friend somehow managed to give him an inner demon, and here you are, barging in and jumping directly at that young man! 'Young master'? How do I know you're not some freak who wants to kidnap an unconscious young lad?!" Ye Jian answered the question before presenting his own.

"You!... That's my young master! If anything, you're the one who kidnapped him!" the man argued indignantly. Meng Li couldn't help but agree - what Ye Jian did was awfully like kidnapping the young man.

"Cut the crap!" Ye Jian slapped the man, seemingly with force. However, he didn't use Qi, and thus, only left a red mark on the burly man's face. Still, the man's face instantly turned so red from anger the palm mark disappeared. Ye Jian continued, seemingly not noticing the man boiling in his restraints. "Now, who are you and who is that young man."

The burly man could only swallow his anger and answer when Ye Jian stared him down with piercing eyes.

"My young master comes from the Wu Clan of the Full Moon City. Now release me and young master and maybe we'll forget this ever happened!" the man continued to put on airs, but still revealed his clan. At least that was what Meng Li thought - Ye Jian simply narrowed his eyes and slapped the man once again, this time a bit harder.

"Don't lie to me! Which clan do you belong to?!" he shouted. Meng Li noticed that before he did, Ye Jian also placed a small barrier around the room in order to prevent the sound from alerting other people in the inn.

In the next fifteen minutes, Meng Li was shown a basic course on how to interrogate people. Fortunately, Ye Jian didn't resort to torture, and instead simply insinuated that he would harm the young man on the bed if the burly man didn't speak up. However, it was still very educational for Meng Li, though he couldn't say he enjoyed it. Such a task was far too social - Meng Li preferred to stay alone, as seen from the fact that he could stay in the mountains without any human contact for eight years straight.

In those fifteen minutes, Ye Jian managed to draw a confession from the burly man which he finally thought wasn't a lie. It turned out that the young man laying on the bed was actually a real prince from the Tang Dynasty! Of course, he wasn't a direct descendant of the current emperor - he was actually the grandson of the emperor's brother, so the current emperor's grandnephew.

This was the reason why he had such a strong cultivator following him - at least strong by this world's standards. The man was actually a third layer Qi Sea cultivator, and yet, Ye Jian managed to take him down so easily. This was only another testament to how skilled Ye Jian was, and Meng Li could only sigh in amazement. If he had to fight someone with a higher level than his, he would inevitably lose - he was far too weak, and in a real fight, he would be able to defeat only a person with a lower cultivation than his. If he encountered a person as strong as him with at least some battle experience, he would inevitably lose, though it would be a bit hard to find someone with the same cultivation realm considering his unique cultivation path.

With the information he extracted, Ye Jian returned to sitting in silence while staring at the young man. Meng Li couldn't help but remind him after a couple minutes.

"Hey, didn't you say something about waking them up? What about the young guy?" he asked.

"If I wake him up, there's no guarantee that the inner demon won't flare up again, especially with you in here." Ye Jian replied. "And I still don't know how to solve it..." While saying so, he sighed slightly. He felt a bit annoyed - this was something Meng Li caused, and yet, here he was, trying to solve the outcome. However, it was his idea to try and help the young man, after all, so he couldn't really blame Meng Li.

Meng Li sat still, not knowing what to do. His experience was extremely low compared to Ye Jian, so he didn't know how to help. While thinking randomly, he couldn't help but want to slap himself at some point. He had remembered his system - maybe it would have a solution? With this in mind, Meng Li asked the system a question.

[Inner demons are relatively common on the path of cultivation, and are usually results of flaws in one's heart. For example, a dissonance between one's thoughts and actions, or traumatic events can all become inner demons. In this case, the young woman seemed unusually annoyed by your gaze, and the dissonance between her usual demeanor and how she acted was what created the inner demon. Fortunately for her, it isn't a deeply rooted one, and can be solved by simply thinking about it calmly. As such, the best options is to give her calming medicine.] the system helpfully replied.

What the system said made sense to Meng Li, and while thinking, he actually didn't hear how the system referred to the young 'man' on the bed... At least for the first few seconds.

'Wait, young woman?!' he practically shouted mentally.

[Yes.] the system responded, even though Meng Li didn't ask. Meng Li didn't even hear it, staring at the young... person laying in the bed. After examining the young... person, it all started to make sense slowly... The white skin, the unusually long hair, even the slightly feminine hairpins, it all made sense. And Meng Li even noticed that the last detail he had added to his painting was the slight curvature of the breast area... He didn't quite understand the meaning of this small detail since the burly man barged into the room just as he finished.

This revelation instantly cause Meng Li a large amount of discomfort. Even on earth, he wasn't good at talking to girls... Well, it was due to the fact that he wasn't good at talking to people in general, but the fact that the young 'man' was actually a young woman made this situation extremely awkward. It was also probably the fact why the burly man was so frantic when he burst into the room - he was worried that... They might... Do... THAT. Meng Li was uncomfortable even thinking about the fact, so the man's worries were unfounded, but that didn't make the situation any less awkward.

Meng Li silently relayed the situation to Ye Jian through Spiritual Sense. Ye Jian's face changed greatly, and he too, couldn't help but grow embarrassed.

After a few more minutes of awkward silence with the burly man angrily glaring at both of them, Meng Li spoke out.

"Brother Ye, I have some calming medicine here. This inner demon shouldn't be that bad, if he calms down and thinks about it a bit without me around, he would probably be fine." Meng Li said and summoned a pill in a small bottle. He summoned it into his hand while it was in his robes, to hide it from the burly man. He threw the bottle of medicine to Ye Jian and promptly headed out of the room. When he closed the door, he quickly teleported away.

He didn't go far, only a few kilometres, but it was enough to get away. He flew up to one of the extremely large trees in the forest and found a nice spot to sit.

This situation was extremely awkward for him, and he didn't want to be around when Ye Jian solved it... Not to mention it would probably be detrimental to the young woman if he was there, too.

Meng Li left the painting he had done of the situation in the room while flustered, but it wasn't a big deal. To relax, he summoned a blank canvas and took out a brush from his bag of holding and started painting.

The night passed, and at some point in the night, Meng Li stopped painting and started practicing the sword. Those two activities were incredibly relaxing for him, and after the night, he felt calm once again. When the sun rose, he returned to the city on foot.

Fortunately, the guards changed rather regularly, so they weren't confused to see him never go out and only return on foot. After all, it was far easier to disappear without a trace than to appear, at least in Meng Li's opinion. Thus, he preferred to teleport out when no one saw him, and return into the city on foot.

The return to the inn didn't take long, even though Meng Li was walking the whole way like a mortal. He crossed the distance in a few minutes, and stood before the door with a conflicted expression. The young woman was probably already woken up, and so, there was a slight chance that they would meet. And on top of that, the room they occupied was his, so there was still a chance that they were there... Meng Li was so conflicted he unsealed his cultivation and used Spiritual Sense to scan the inn. To his relief, the young woman and the burly man were nowhere to be found - he could only see Ye Jian training in his room, and his room was left empty, with the bed in disarray. However, the painting he created was missing.

It was a bit of a shame, since Meng Li considered it to be one of his best works, definitely in the top five. Of course, the first was the painting he had created during his brush with the Dao, which remained his goal through all those years, and yet, he couldn't achieve it. Recalling it made Meng Li a bit sentimental, but he shook his head and entered the inn.

The servants gave him incredulous stares as always, but he ignored them and hurried to Ye Jian's room. Although Ye Jian was cultivating, he wasn't at an important point, so there was no danger in disrupting him. Meng Li opened the door after knocking quickly. He couldn't be bothered to be polite to Ye Jian - he considered the man his brother, and they had passed the point of being polite to each other a long time ago.

Ye Jian was sitting on the bed with a frown on his face, but it dissolved when he saw that it was Meng Li who entered. He opened his mouth, but Meng Li spoke before he could say anything.

"So, what happened?" Meng Li wanted to know.

"Nothing much. I woke up the girl and gave her the calming medicine you gave me. It was quite effective, on a side note. She managed to resolve her inner demon in less than an hour, and confirmed that the stupid bull was her protector. After that, they left rather quickly." Ye Jian explained concisely. Meng Li didn't know what to expect really, but it seemed like the whole thing ended at a positive note. But there was one thing still bugging him...

"From curiosity, did you reveal that you knew she was a woman?"

"Nope." Ye Jian answered. It was a good decision, really - there was no good way to reveal they knew it without making the other party think they have done something immoral. Thus, Meng Li was relieved.