"Hello…? Hello?? Can you hear me??"
Snapping Vlad out of his reverie was Qing Yulan's soothing voice, which was a little reminiscent of Spring.
Fang Ting had also walked into the room, making googly eyes at Qing Yulan. Vlad ignored him and focused on the Healer, putting his top-tier acting skills to the test once more.
"Pretty miss, are you here… to help me…?" He asked, his innocence and unearthly appearance shaking Qing Yulan's heart a little.
However, with a head shake, her expression returned to neutrality. She already had another in her heart; there was no way something as superficial as the appearance of another man would make her waver.
'Ho?' Vlad inwardly smirked, suddenly finding something interesting to do. But on the outside, he was all worries and apologies, mixed together with a bit of confusion to really sell the act.
"Is it okay if I check your pulse?" Qing Yulan asked, her fair hands waiting at the ready.
"If… If you think it'll help you tell me what happened to me." Vlad may have spoken those words meekly, but his actions were anything but as he took the initiative to reach out and grab one of her hands, gently laying it over his other arm's wrist. "Well…? Can you sense anything, pretty miss?"
He knew she wouldn't, as his Mimic racial traits made it extremely difficult for anyone to see through him or his true nature, but it was still quite fun to see her reaction.
"You…" Qing Yulan's cheeks reddened, and she was about to get upset, but seeing the innocence in his expression, she decided against it. Plus, he was injured; how could she blame him?
Vlad pretended not to notice anything she was feeling. His gaze briefly turned over to Fang Ting, a mocking gleam forming as he sensed his unease and jealousy building up.
'This guy hasn't even touched her hand yet, has he? Bahaha! This truly is a Cultivation World,' Vlad burst out laughing inside his mind. 'Following the normal storyline, it might take this protag hundreds of chapters and reaching the peak of the Mortal Realm before he finds the balls to hold her hand. Taking things a step further might not even happen until after the Immortal Arc, haha!'
Since he needed some more information about this world and some good hotspots for farming Refined Energy and Size, Vlad decided to stay around these two for some time. While he's at it, he might as well brew some chaos and have a bit of fun.
[Five minutes later]
Having long since gotten past her initial embarrassment, Qing Yulan finished her full examination of Vlad and his internals. However, although she was emotionless during most of the examination, her façade slightly cracked when she observed the weapon of mass destruction that he was carrying around in his pants. Rather than his temperature being off point, it was instead hers that took a steep rise.
"Is something the matter, pretty miss?" Vlad worriedly asked, doing his utmost to conceal the pride he had in his manifested piece.
"N-No, it's nothing." Qing Yulan turned away from his smoldering gaze. She did all she could to get that 'thing's' image out of her mind, but the more she tried, the more its awe-inspiring posture came rushing back. She was beat-red, looking more like a cherry than a hottie.
'Not many can withstand my might, you're just another victim, sweetheart,' Vlad thought evilly, though outwardly acted more like a puppy concerned for its master.
Fang Ting watched the interactions between the two of them with a troubled heart. Every passing second, he regretted more and more bringing the handsome naked man back from the forest. When he first saw him, he too was surprised by that monstrosity; it was many times his own size after all. He should've just taken that as a sign to leave the scene and be on his merry fucking way!
Now it was too late, and his righteous heart couldn't exactly allow him to leave the injured man for dead.
I mean, just look at him – so innocent.
None of this was his fault, as he likely didn't even know what he was doing!
'But at the very least, I must get Miss Qing as far away from him as possible. Only then can I resolve this constricting feeling that's taken hold of me.'
With that goal in mind, Fang Ting inserted himself into the conversation, "Miss Qing, have you figured out what's wrong with my friend here?"
Qing Yulan didn't hear him at first, as that large bulge in Vlad's pants was ever so distracting. However, when she did ultimately realize he was speaking to her, she responded, "Although I don't see anything physically wrong with this patient, he shows all the signs that an amnesia patient would have. He has also repeatedly stated that he doesn't remember much of anything other than his name, so we can assume that his memory loss is on the more severe side."
Vlad pretended to take this news quite hard. His gaze shook as he balled his fists up on the bed.
"Is there… Is there nothing I can do to remember…?" He asked with much difficulty, his every word on the verge of falling apart.
Qing Yulan sighed, sympathizing with him. "Unfortunately, Mr. Vlad, unless you come into possession of the Rank 3 Spiritual Pill 'Mental Nirvana', there's virtually no other way to restore lost memory."
"The… Mental Nirvana Pill?" Vlad asked with genuine curiosity, as this was the first proof that there actually were magical Pills in the world. "How difficult is it to obtain?"
Qing Yulan didn't know how to break it to him, so she just told him straight up, "No normal Body Refinement Realm Cultivator will be able to afford a Rank 3 Pill, especially not a Mind one like the Mental Nirvana Pill. In fact, even most Profound Realm Cultivators can only dream of such a valuable Pill."
'Profound Realm.' Vlad made a mental note of this, as it was very likely the Realm that came after Body Refinement. 'Just like in that one Xianxia,' he gleefully added.
Faking a look of dejection, he mumbled, "So there's no way someone like me can obtain it."
Qing Yulan and Fang Ting both heard this, but with little to say on the matter and no real way to cheer him up, they could only remain silent.