The Poison Cultivator Married the Crippled Heir novel · Chapter 18 of 24

Chapter 18: The Ninth Thorn

"Hou's captain dipped the ninth dart himself," Bao said through the door.

"I put nothing in it but what the page told me. I swear it on my life."

"We believe you," Yuhang called back. "Go and boil water."

It was the night before the Gathering, and the lamp in the bedroom was turned all the way down.

Wanqing had laid out the needles in a row.

Her hands were steady, and she hated how steady they were.

"Here's what's wrong with the ninth," she said. "The thorn sits on the point over your heart.

"When I draw it, it goes into me, and the Heart-Still goes with it.

"I can take Heart-Still. I took six drops of it at our wedding.

"But it passes through you first, for as long as it takes me to pull."

"And if my heart stops."

"It won't, if you hold it."

She put two fingers on his sternum.

"Your Core is awake. Wrap your qi around the point, the way you'd hold a formation still while it dried.

"Don't let go until I tell you."

He looked at his own hand.

"I haven't held anything with qi in three years."

"You held a chair in the air for ten minutes."

"The chair doesn't have a pulse."

"It has one tonight," said Wanqing, and bent her head.

The drill was the ninth, the longest of all.

She set the needles, one over the other, in a small circle above his heart.

She laid her palms flat on his chest and felt the beat.

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