Her voice was like paper dragging over cobblestones:
"You. Boy. You work here?"
A lump rose in Qiu Yunru's throat. He opened his mouth, then closed it. He was in shock.
It wasn't that he was shocked by her beauty, or appalled by her sickly appearance--no, no!
Did the game system suddenly decide to bless me and smile down on me?! Holy shit! Is this real? Game menu, are you cooking something up? What's going on here?
After years in this world, was he finally being shown a bit of mercy? Had a noble demon ended up here so soon? If he was a Daoist, he would prostrate and thank the Primeval Lord of Heaven a thousand times!
Wait, wait! He shouldn't get relieved too soon, right? What if it was a trick? What if she was here to kill him, or assign him some other pointless days-long quest?
He quickly bowed his head, clasping his hands together. "Welcome, My Lady. Have you been to the Three Herbs Apothecary before?"
As he did this, he placed sideways and called up the game menu. To his surprise, no new dangerous quests had been administered yet. Holy shit! Though, he wasn't out of the woods yet. Of course he wasn't! That stupid game menu could assign a new quest whenever it wanted. Required, Extra Hard Level, Time-Sensitive--there was no end to the things it could put him through! He closed it quickly, shaking the thought off. He could curse that evil god of a menu later!
The noble demoness had taken a long drag off her pipe. She blew out a puff of pale blue smoke. The smoke rose in spirals like a snake, winding this way and that.
Sighing, she leaned back against the wall and closed her eyes. The way she spoke was short and hoarse, with few words. Though there was a wealthy lilt to her speech, it seemed as though she was too tired to say much at all. "Haven't been before. Encountered your salesman on the street corner. I thought I'd come and take a look."
"Ah!" Qiu Yunru brightened. "You did? That's great! What made you come here?"
The demoness waved her hand carelessly. "Curiosity, perhaps. Or some foolish hope."
How mysterious!
She sighed and sat up, twirling her pipe disinterestedly. "I've been ill for a long time, you see."
At that moment, there was a ding!
Qiu Yunru thought he was going to die of rage.
The game menu just had to go and drop a quest now!
However, it seemed it wasn't anything too difficult. All it said was:
Easy Level Quest Assigned! Listen To the Demoness' Story. Please continue to work hard!
Internally wiping sweat off his forehead, Qiu Yunru nodded politely as the demoness went on:
"There is no cure. For a millennia, I have rotted and shriveled within. Each day, I wake with the feeling that I haven't slept in ten years. Each night, I toss and turn with headaches. My body grows thinner and thinner; my bones break more easily. I have nightmares..." She shivered, a fearful look crossing her bony features. Looking up at him with those piercing black eyes, she went on: "I've seen every healer in the Demon Realm, and every healer in the Mortal Realm. It's a curse, you see."
After this, she took a long drag on her pipe. It seemed she wasn't going to go on. Qiu Yunru cleared his throat awkwardly.
"Ah...a curse, you say, my lady? What kind of curse?"
She sighed, smoke trailing from her lips. "A Soul Exchange Curse."
Qiu Yunru paled. "Oh."
There was really nothing he could do to help with that kind of thing!
A Soul Exchange Curse--one of the most feared and reviled curses in the cultivation world. In it, a person could steal the unique spiritual powers of another by exchanging parts of their souls. One person would be rendered crippled forever, while the other would thrive with newfound abilities. It had been used countless times among cultivators, only ever causing strife and conflict. Ambitious disciples would steal the powers of their revered masters, and jealous masters would steal the powers of prodigy disciples. There was an age in which this curse had run rampant in this world, unregulated and disastrous. In fact, it had been a Soul Exchange Curse incident that had started the Great Cultivation War five hundred years ago--the very war where Baohu Mountain Range's alliance began.
What's more, there was only one way to resolve it.
"I assume it isn't possible to find the one who cursed you...?" Qiu Yunru said weakly. He knew it was a useless questions. After all, she'd said she'd been cursed for millennia. She'd surely already tried everything!
"Evidently not," the demoness murmured. She massaged her temples, wincing. "The one who cursed me is long dead."
"But...shouldn't the curse have ended?" Qiu Yunru muttered, rubbing his chin. He'd read about many occasions of the use of Soul Exchange Curses in the Jade Clouds Sect library. In every case, when the one who perpetrated the curse died, the one who was cursed returned to their former state.
"Unfortunately, it didn't," the demoness said flatly. "I have any idea of what might have happened, but it won't be of any use to you. You're only an apothecary, after all."
Qiu Yunru felt a little wounded, but he kept his mouth shut. It wasn't as if he could say, Well, I'm also a human cultivator! No, he'd rather not have his head chopped off, so he shut up.
"I believe the curse was transformed," she muttered. Twirling one hand through the rising smoke of her pipe, she examined her frail fingers. "My soul fragment has been preserved. Removed from the first owner, and onto a second, and a third."
"Like...ah, like a clothing patch." Qiu Yunru coughed. He had almost remarked, Like Frankenstein. Even after spending so much time in this damn game, he still sometimes slipped references.
"Mm. A clothing patch...perhaps. Anyways, it's not your concern. I'm here fore another reason." She sat up, resting her chin on her hand and blinking at him slowly. "As I've no cure, I've come for drugs."
Qiu Yunru blinked. "...Drugs?"
"Aren't you an apothecary? That's all you do here, right? Drugs?"
"Ah...well...I guess you could say that, haha...It's more like potions and medicines, but--"
"Potions and medicines are drugs. I'd like your best drugs for head pain. And something to help me sleep."
"Oh!" Qiu Yunru lit up. This was something he could certainly do! "Right away, my lady! I have some mixtures pre-brewed, so it will just take me a moment to bottle them. I'll be right back!"