In the dead of night, deep within the northwestern forest of the steppe, a faint rustling sound approached from the distance through the stillness. Judging by the sound, quite a few people were coming — and moving with considerable speed, too.
Xuanyuan Lige noticed the disturbance almost at once. He recognized it — this was the same group of disguised Xiongnu who had passed by his courtyard late one night before.
Carefully tucking the blanket around Ziqing, he rose and moved toward the window. But just then, a knock came at the door. “Thud, thud, thud!”
The light inside the room was clearly burning — there was no pretending no one was home.
Xuanyuan Lige hesitated. The knock came again. Judging by the weight of it, he guessed it must be some large man.
But when he opened the door, he was startled to find a tall, gaunt old woman standing there instead.
“Kind sir, we’re passing through with a shipment, escorting goods. Might we… might we come inside for a moment, just for some hot water?” the Gu Nanny asked pitifully.
“Wait here.”
Xuanyuan Lige moved to close the door at once, with no intention of inviting anyone in. But the old woman quickly reached out to stop him. “Kind sir, the wind’s fierce out here, and this old body of mine can’t take much more of it. Just let me step inside for some water, rest a moment, and I’ll be on my way — I won’t disturb your rest.”
“It’s not convenient. Wait outside.”
Though called kind, Xuanyuan Lige wasn’t feeling particularly charitable. He gripped the old woman’s wrist and, with a sharp shove, pushed her back outside.
Just as he was about to close the door, the old woman’s foot suddenly wedged itself in the gap. She laughed good-naturedly. “Kind sir, come now, be reasonable. I just want to warm myself by your fire for a bit. Have some pity on an old woman forced into such hard labor, won’t you?”
A flash of impatience crossed Xuanyuan Lige’s eyes. He drove his knee forward, shoving the old woman’s leg back out, and said in a low voice, “This is the northern steppe. You Xiongnu have no business acting so brazenly here.”
At these words, the old woman’s warm, kindly gaze turned sharp and cold in an instant. She braced her elbow against the door and sneered, “Good eyes, young man — shame about your manners. This old body just wants to sit in your house for a while. If you won’t let me in today, you’ll let me in anyway.”
“We’ll see about that.” Xuanyuan Lige wasn’t afraid. Though his body wasn’t as strong as before, dealing with these Xiongnu was still well within his ability.
But just as he moved to act, the Gu Nanny suddenly stopped, leaning toward the doorway and sniffing at the air.
Xuanyuan Lige, confused, was about to shut the door — when suddenly, a colorful lizard darted out from the old woman’s sleeve, slipping straight through the gap in the door!
Xuanyuan Lige was alarmed and rushed after it. The moment he stepped inside, he saw the venomous, multicolored lizard perched right beside Ziqing, hovering near her pale lips, its forked tongue flicking out again and again.
Without hesitation, Xuanyuan Lige unleashed a blade of wind at once.
“Don’t!”
The Gu Nanny cried out, and in a flash, she lunged forward, taking the wind blade’s full force herself, falling heavily to the ground.
“Mistress!”
The guards behind her rushed forward at once, while the startled, venomous lizard scurried back into the Gu Nanny’s sleeve.
“Who exactly are you people? I have no quarrel with you — what are you trying to do?”
Xuanyuan Lige demanded coldly, planting a foot on the Gu Nanny, ready to end her life at any moment.
Ziqing’s constitution was unusual, and that lizard had clearly been raised on poison — he couldn’t afford to let his guard down around these people.
“Kind sir, please… calm down, calm down. We really did just want some water!” the Gu Nanny explained hastily.
“Don’t lie to me!” Xuanyuan Lige said with contempt.
The Gu Nanny glanced back at the figure on the bed, then said quickly, “Young master, has your wife been unconscious for many days now, with no cause you can find?”
At these words, Xuanyuan Lige grew suspicious. “Why do you ask?”
“Oh, young master, she’s been poisoned! Someone’s applied poison to her lips. If you don’t draw out the poison, she’ll never wake up, not for the rest of her life!”
The Gu Nanny spoke with total certainty. She had studied poison since childhood — or rather, medicinal poisons, to be precise — and her sensitivity to such things rivaled anyone in the Poison Den.
And that multicolored venomous lizard of hers had been raised on medicinal poison all its life — its sensitivity to such poisons was even sharper than her own.
For someone immune to all ordinary poisons, the only truly effective way to cultivate a poison-gu creature to affect them was through medicinal poison.
Because ordinary venomous beasts and insects had no effect whatsoever on someone immune to all poisons — only creatures raised on medicinal poison could truly be cultivated into a human-targeting gu.
Hearing the Gu Nanny’s words, Xuanyuan Lige grew even more suspicious. He checked Ziqing’s pulse every single day — her body was weak, her inner energy hadn’t fully recovered, but there was no reason for her to remain unconscious like this.
“Young master, I’m not lying to you. If I’m not mistaken, the poison on her lips is a natural medicinal poison found in the snowlands of your northern steppe — one that can keep a person in prolonged unconsciousness. Take some charcoal ash, mix it with this girl’s fresh blood, and apply it to her lips. I guarantee she’ll wake by the third night,” the Gu Nanny said earnestly.
Blood?
A flicker of wariness crossed Xuanyuan Lige’s eyes. He had always been careful and meticulous by nature, never careless — and this concerned Ziqing, of all people.
An old woman capable of raising a multicolored venomous lizard was certainly no ordinary person — she had to be someone well-versed in the arts of poison.
And she wasn’t even from Nanzhao — she was Xiongnu.
This old woman’s background was well worth investigating.
How could he possibly let Ziqing’s blood be exposed before her eyes so easily?
What if she discovered something? Wouldn’t that put Ziqing in even greater danger? And what if she was here precisely because of Ziqing’s immunity to all poisons?
“You’re mistaken. She only fell unconscious yesterday,” Xuanyuan Lige said flatly.
The Gu Nanny laughed loudly at once. “Young man, you don’t believe me, and I won’t argue with you. Let her stay unconscious a few more days, and you’ll see for yourself whether I was lying.”
The Gu Nanny didn’t press the matter further, simply sitting where she was, pulling the startled, multicolored lizard from her sleeve.
The Gu Nanny had nearly reached Xiliang already, only to turn back — all because the person she was searching for had slipped away from her once again.
She had tracked her way here, hoping to use Xuanyuan Lige’s house to pinpoint the exact direction.
But to her surprise, the moment the multicolored lizard was pulled out, it didn’t wag its tail restlessly as it usually did — instead, it stared fixedly at Ziqing on the bed.
Animals were far more sensitive than people. The multicolored lizard seemed to sense that the woman on the bed carried more than just poison on her lips. It was terrified, yet couldn’t help itself — it wanted desperately to go toward Ziqing.
The Gu Nanny had no idea that the woman lying on that bed — whose blood was immune to all poisons — was the very person with the rare, yin-natured poison immunity she had been searching for all along.
She simply assumed the lizard was hungry, yanking hard on its tail and scolding it. “You useless little beast. It’s just a bit of medicinal poison — get to work, I’ll feed you properly soon enough!”
But the multicolored lizard remained restless, growing bolder by the moment, straining toward the bed, trying to get a clearer scent.