Little Pink Starfish

The World’s Number One Warlock

Gu Xinglang didn’t even have time to pay attention to what Yu Xiaoxiao and Xiao Wei were doing. When he saw the doctor withdraw his hand, he quickly asked, “Doctor, how is he?”

The physician from the Zhuri royal family shook his head.

Gu Xinglang’s heart clenched. “There’s no cure for the poison?”

Xiao Wei caught the exchange and motioned for Yu Xiaoxiao to come over.

She walked to the bedside and stared intently at the doctor.

The elderly doctor grew nervous under her gaze and stammered, “Princess, I… my knowledge is limited.”

“Huh? What does that mean?” Yu Xiaoxiao turned to look at Gu Xinglang and Xiao Wei. Is he saying he flunked med school and shouldn’t be a doctor at all?

Xiao Wei asked, “Doctor, are you saying the National Preceptor is beyond saving?”

The doctor nodded solemnly.

“That’s impossible,” Yu Xiaoxiao immediately objected. “He was poisoned and still ran all the way here with me. How is he suddenly beyond saving?”

Gu Xinglang asked, “Do you know what kind of poison it is?”

The doctor replied, “I can’t tell.”

“You can’t tell?” Yu Xiaoxiao was about to lose it. Sir, if you can’t even identify poison, why are you a doctor?!

Just then, Tian Xingzi interjected, “How pitiful. Mo Wen’s poisons—only he can cure them.”

Yu Xiaoxiao turned to glare at him.

Tian Xingzi cautiously asked, “Princess, may I leave now?”

“No,” she replied flatly.

Now it was the Daoist’s turn to panic. “Why not?!”

Xiao Wei looked skeptical. “Princess, wasn’t he the crazy old man from Nanpu Street? Why did you bring him?”

“I’m not the crazy one!” the Daoist snapped at Xiao Wei. “What do you know, you brat?”

Yu Xiaoxiao muttered, What does ‘huangkou xiao’er’ even mean?

Gu Xinglang still addressed the doctor. “Is there really nothing you can do?”

The doctor shook his head—he was truly helpless.

Tian Xingzi glanced at Gu Xinglang and said, “Prince Consort, your face looks pale. Something bad happened to you, didn’t it? Let me tell you—your fate…”

Before he could finish, Yu Xiaoxiao grabbed him and flung him out the window like a sack of garbage. How dare this guy keep talking about my Little Gu’s fate?!

The doctor flinched at the sight of Tian Xingzi being tossed like a dead dog.

Xiao Wei ran to the window to check. Tian Xingzi had landed face-down in the flowerbed, motionless—dead or alive, who knew.

Just then, Jing Mo entered the room. The doctor quickly stood up and bowed.

“How is he?” Jing Mo asked.

The doctor answered, “Your Highness, I’m incompetent. I couldn’t help him.”

Jing Mo frowned and walked to the bed, looking at the masked Wuhuan. After a moment, he said, “Take off his mask.”

“No,” Yu Xiaoxiao objected. “Wuhuan doesn’t like showing his face. That’s his **, and we shouldn’t violate it.”

Jing Mo rubbed his temples—this girl’s logic was starting to give him a headache.

Gu Xinglang offered, “Wearing a mask all the time might make it hard to breathe.”

Yu Xiaoxiao found that reasonable. She poked two holes in the nose area of Wuhuan’s wooden mask. “There, all better.”

…

Everyone in the room fell silent.

The doctor gaped in disbelief and reached out to touch the mask. It was solid hardwood, not paper!

Jing Mo’s temples throbbed. He had to stay calm, or he might snap.

Gu Xinglang glanced at the mask now featuring one big hole and one small one. It looked absurd. Thinking that the face beneath it belonged to the dignified National Preceptor Wuhuan, he decided he’d rather forget he saw this.

Yu Xiaoxiao huffed. These guys don’t know anything. Wuhuan only has one functional nostril. If she made the holes the same size, she’d expose his facial disfigurement.

Jing Mo turned back to the doctor. “Even if the poison can’t be cured, can’t his injuries be treated?”

The doctor replied, “Yes, the wounds are treatable. But they’re not fatal. Without an antidote for the poison…”

“TIAN XINGZI!” Yu Xiaoxiao suddenly shouted out the window, “You can’t escape me!”

Tian Xingzi, who had just gotten up to run, froze. How the hell did she notice?! Princess Linglong really is a monster!

Jing Mo, Gu Xinglang, and Xiao Wei all paled.

“You mean that Daoist is Tian Xingzi?!” Jing Mo exclaimed.

Yu Xiaoxiao nodded. “Yeah. Wuhuan knows him.”

Jing Mo said, “How do you know him?”

Yu Xiaoxiao tilted her head. “He’s famous or something?”

“Don’t just stand there,” Jing Mo barked. “Go bring Daoist Tian back up here!”

‘Bring’? Yu Xiaoxiao sidled up to Gu Xinglang and whispered, “Is that old guy really that amazing?”

Gu Xinglang, still looking pale, muttered, “Rumor says he’s the greatest warlock in the world.”

Yu Xiaoxiao blinked. “You mean like a fortune-teller?”

Gu Xinglang nodded. That was one way to put it. If the Daoist really was Tian Xingzi, then everything he said that day on Nanpu Street suddenly carried a terrifying weight. Gu Xinglang felt cold all over.

Yu Xiaoxiao thought a moment and said, “Wuhuan said he’s from some Heavenly Secrets Sect or something. What does that ‘ji’ mean again?”

Xiao Wei replied, “It’s ‘ji’ as in ‘chance’ or ‘opportunity’—tian ji, heavenly secrets.”

“Oh,” Yu Xiaoxiao nodded. Not like chicken farming then.

Xiao Wei glanced at Gu Xinglang. Both of them remembered the ominous words Tian Xingzi had spoken back then. Destined to be wife-less, he’d said. Xiao Wei’s chest tightened. If their prince consort was fated to never have a wife, what about their princess?

Yu Xiaoxiao put a hand on Gu Xinglang’s shoulder and glanced at Jing Mo, who was now standing by the door to welcome the Daoist. “Ugh, seriously? If he’s number one in the world, why is he such a mess?”

Xiao Wei said, “Princess, Tian Xingzi really is powerful. I’ve heard—”

“You’ve heard,” Yu Xiaoxiao cut in. “And legends? They’re garbage. Plenty of people say I’m like my mother—virtuous, elegant, a master of the four arts. Pfft.”

…Fair point. Xiao Wei had to admit, legends were definitely unreliable.

“Don’t believe a word that old Daoist says,” Yu Xiaoxiao whispered in Gu Xinglang’s ear. “We’re already married. What ‘no wife’ fate?!”

Gu Xinglang finally smiled and said, “I don’t believe it.”

“Good boy,” Yu Xiaoxiao beamed. She gave him a kiss on the temple. She was confident—so long as she was around, no one could hurt her Little Gu.

Tian Xingzi returned to the room looking like a rat forced to stand before a cat. He was so nervous his snot was dripping into his mouth and he didn’t even wipe it.

Jing Mo found it nearly impossible to connect this sorry old man to the legendary Tian Xingzi. So much for a reclusive immortal… this is just sad!