Even after coming to terms with the fact that the hag wasn't any ordinary old woman, Yun Jieshi feared that making some mistake when she was this vulnerable would be dangerous. He couldn't even be sure that she wouldn't choke on the sap he fed her if he wasn't extra careful.
After giving Qui Tian what he considered to be a sip, Yun Jieshi laid her back down on the bedroll, his face taut with tension. He couldn't even switch expressions.
'Come on. Come on,' he thought, paying close attention to Qui Tian.
Her face continued to contort and started getting restless again. Yun Jieshi had to – as gently as he could – hold down her shoulders. At this point, if he wasn't careful, she'd roll into the grate.
Hope bled from the little monkey as the seconds ticked by. Qui Tian didn't seem to improve at all. In fact, her fever mounted, threatening to make her as hot as the sun.
'Did it do nothing then?' Yun Jieshi agonized, his heart sinking. He might have imagined it, but the hag's condition seemed to worsen still when a minute passed after he fed her the sap.
Her strength dwindled so much that she could no longer shiver. Even her voice withered to obscurity; her groans turning to purrs. The little monkey could see her mouth gaping.
'Why isn't it working?!' Fury snatched him and he rushed to make some more soup to feed Qui Tian. He turned to her every second he could, somehow convinced that if she wasn't under his watchful eye, she would slip out of life and die.
Thankfully, the hag hung on until Yun Jieshi managed to make the soup. He supported her head and fed it to her. The lack of resistance caused his anxiety to soar.
When the hag turned limp, Yun Jieshi's soul might have turned into a block of ice.
Panicking, he shook Qui Tian.
"Qui Tian! Qui Tian, wake up!" he cried, spittle flying from his mouth.
Laying the old woman's head down, Yun Jieshi felt for her neck and forehead. His breath caught in his chest.
"…What?"
…
The hag's temperature had plummeted. It was normal now. Her breathing had picked up pace too. Colour slowly started to return to Qui Tian's skin.
Yun Jieshi's tensions loosened and his head fell on the hag's belly. He took deep breaths, calming himself.
"You are alright. You are alright." He wasn't sure whether he was saying it to the hag or to himself. He would have let go of Qui Tian's hand if his mind didn't create the horrible illusion of the old woman starting to tremble again once he did.
For the next six hours, Yun Jieshi didn't leave Qui Tian's side.
He only slipped away from her when her tossing and turning in deep, comfortable sleep became a norm. She was recovering.
Yun Jieshi took her usual resting spot, under the beautiful cloak and watched her.
Worries about whether or not some berserk beast would rush towards the cabin now were deleted from his head. He took a look at the sealed wineskin in his hand and sighed with a smile.
'It really worked. It really cured her. I don't know what I would have done if she…' he thought, gulping hard. Indeed, he didn't know.
But Qui Tian was alive!
The sap in the wineskin must have been a potent cure to all Disharmony. It must have been!
The memory of someone else taken from him by this elusive Disharmony rose from the depths of his mind. He couldn't have forgotten how he had failed to save Feng Jie Hong even if he wanted to.
He had had a cure for the ghost all along and he hadn't known.
He grimaced, and his resolve ripened like a peach right then.
'I can't keep accepting this complete lack of knowledge I have towards Disharmony. I have to understand it,' he thought. 'Qui Tian wasn't willing to tell me – and now she probably can't right away – but I know someone who might be able to. At the very least, they could give me clues.'
The ghost the little monkey and the hag had seen in the cabin was the answer.
Because he remembered Feng Jie Hong vividly, Yun Jieshi also remembered how the ghost had behaved when they met. He coupled what he remembered from their interaction with what Hua Dongmei and Honghuo had said about the phantom.
Yun Jieshi's presence altered how the ghost interacted with everything around him – a side effect of the little monkey being a Sage.
If the ghost in the ruined cabin was similar to Feng Jie Hong, then it stood to reason that Yun Jieshi could convince it to cease its weeping and answer a few questions.
'But I can't approach it the same way I did with Feng Jie Hong, otherwise it'll just end up disappearing,' the little monkey thought.
Well, he didn't know if disappearing was the correct word to define Feng Jie Hong's fate. The ghost had turned into the pit revolving within Yun Jieshi as well as the wisps of Xun he had now.
At first, Yun Jieshi had considered these things curses left behind by the phantom clad in brigandine armour, but as he soon learned, they were more like gifts; rewards for failing to help the ghost.
He grimaced, recalling the memory. He couldn't allow himself to fail again.
If he managed to learn more about Disharmony, perhaps he could prevent what had happened to Qui Tian. After all, even if the sap from his wineskin had worked this time around, Yun Jieshi wasn't sure he wanted to use more portions of it for the hag.
'Yeah. There's no way around this,' Yun Jieshi thought.
But as eager as he was to leave, he spent the next day making sure Qui Tian's condition didn't suddenly worsen, and watching for any odd creatures that might have been drawn by the sap. He only began his preparation to leave after Wei Fang's eight-prongs of light appeared in the sky.
While Qui Tian didn't wake up, it became easier to feed her. It was a delight seeing her in comfort.
Just in case she woke up while he was away, Yun Jieshi prepared some food for her. And indeed, because the rations were already low, he didn't eat much himself. He didn't imagine that his little journey back to the ruined cabin would take that long.
While he cooked, Yun Jieshi had hoped Qui Tian would wake up because of the alluring scent of stewed meat and rice, but alas, even though her condition her improved, she was still unconscious.
Shrugging, Yun Jieshi covered all the food with other bowls and placed it next to the grate.
He then collected everything he thought he'd need – bow, arrows, ruan – and sat in front of Qui Tian. He watched her for a few minutes before rising.
"I'll be back very soon. I promise," he said.
As he reached the door, the voices spewing from the urn beside it made him feel melancholic. Why did they always have to sound so sombre and disjointed?
"Stay…"
"Do not…"
"Root…"
"Away…"
"Anger…"
"…Forget."
Yun Jieshi didn't stick around to listen for long. He had a mission in mind, after all.