The needling technique Lang Jiuchuan employed was the Thunder-Fire Divine Needle method, paired with the Five Thunders Fire Incantation. When each needle sank into its acupoint, it was as if fire had been branded there. The incantation struck the needle’s tail, and the supremely yang and supremely forceful essence of Thunder-Fire energy pressed down upon those yin and sinister Corpse-Decay gu insects like their natural predator — they had nowhere to dodge, nowhere to hide, and scrambled frantically to escape the overwhelming force of that Yang suppression.

That frantic thrashing sent Song Yuedie screaming at the top of her lungs, jolting her awake from unconsciousness. Her eyes were bloodshot red, and had Lang Jiuchuan not already sealed her movement points beforehand, she would surely have launched herself off the bed entirely.

Song Niangzi’s face had gone ashen. She gripped her daughter’s hand tightly and stroked it in comfort: “Die’er, don’t be afraid. Once the Immortal cures your illness, you’ll be able to eat all your favorite foods. Bear with it, just a little longer.”

Even as she spoke, tears were streaming down her face.

Lang Jiuchuan watched as something swelled and receded beneath the surface of Song Yuedie’s forehead, and her lips continued murmuring the Thunder-Fire Incantation steadily. The gu insects no longer dared linger in the head, scattering and rushing down through the meridians.

Song Yuedie shook like a leaf in a storm, weeping as she cried out: “Mother!”

“Stuff a cloth in her mouth — she might bite through her tongue.” Lang Jiuchuan issued the instruction without pause and took up another needle, inserting it at the Wind Pool point to block the meridian pathways that the gu insects might use to double back.

Without thinking, Song Niangzi thrust her own hand into her daughter’s mouth. “Bite Mother. We’ll share the pain together.”

Song Yuedie’s eyes went wide and round, and she clamped down — hard. But that small, fragile body shook with ever greater violence, the tremors so powerful they sent the wooden boards of the bed thumping loudly.

Lang Jiuchuan took up longer gold needles and began inserting them around the heart meridian, preventing the gu insects from penetrating the pericardium.

Every needle she placed carried an incantation, an extreme drain on her spiritual power and her endurance. Sweat had long since broken out across her forehead, and her complexion had gone strikingly pale — yet her hands never faltered or slowed, not even when Song Yuedie passed out from the unbearable pain of ten thousand insects gnawing through her bones.

Once the needles were in, there could be no turning back.

Song Niangzi bit down on her own tongue again and again, swallowing the urge to speak, enduring the mingled pain and sharp copper-salt taste of blood. She shut her eyes, unable to watch any longer.

She was afraid she would not be able to stop herself from crying out for it to stop.

Large beads of sweat rolled down Lang Jiuchuan’s forehead, yet her gaze was fierce and unwavering — using the needles’ edge to pierce open the Great Abyss point, the Leg Three Miles point, the Three Yin Crossing point, and the Gushing Spring point.

Dark, viscous blood welled out in beads, carrying a suffocating stench — the reek of flesh long rotted, as of an actual decomposing corpse.

All twelve primary meridians had been threaded with gold needles. Lang Jiuchuan swayed, steadied herself, and fixed her gaze on the threadlike worms visible just beneath the skin, moving faintly within the blood vessels. Her eyes were cold and cutting.

By now, Song Yuedie’s face had turned the color of gold paper, her breath feather-thin and barely perceptible, the life barely clinging to her.

Lang Jiuchuan’s gaze darkened further. She formed the hand seals once more and swept them over the gold needles.

Hmmmm.

The needles rang out together.

The Yang incantation blazed like crimson flames, cleaving through yin, extinguishing the sinister.

“Ah—” Song Niangzi pressed her hand to her mouth in horror, watching as thread-thin worms began crawling out of Song Yuedie’s seven orifices — and the moment they emerged, each dissolved into ash.

And in that instant, Song Yuedie’s soul began to stir free, rising upward, on the verge of departing her body.

Song Niangzi felt the stillness descend over her daughter all at once. Her vision went dark, her hands trembling as she reached forward to check for breathing.

Lang Jiuchuan produced her Jade Bone Talisman Brush, pressed the departing soul back into place, and painted one more Soul-Anchoring Talisman directly upon Song Yuedie’s forehead. “I have not given permission. You will not leave.”

The Soul-Anchoring Talisman flashed gold and sank into the Spirit Court. That heart, which had already gone silent, began once more to rise and fall — the faintest flutter.

Song Niangzi’s legs gave way beneath her.

Lang Jiuchuan looked at the swellings pushing up beneath the pale skin of those thin, frail limbs and said, “Go to the kitchen and bring in the water for the bath. Bring the simmering medicinal broth as well.”

Song Niangzi forced out a hollow acknowledgment and crawled off the bed on all fours, her legs so weak they had no more substance than soggy noodles, refusing to carry any strength at all.

Seeing her state, Lang Jiuchuan called out to Fu Qi on the rooftop to summon help.

Moments later, the little water ghost wrung a full bucket of the medicine into the tub — the broth a deep, striking red, pungent with an overwhelming smell — and after a short while, brought in a bowl of medicinal soup to be taken internally as well.

Lang Jiuchuan personally dissolved the Supreme Calamity-Dispersing Soul-Settling Talisman into the bowl of medicinal soup, then lifted Song Yuedie and poured the medicine into her mouth. After that, she placed the pre-painted Gu-Dissolving Talisman into the bathing tub.

By this time, the gold needles on Song Yuedie’s body had fallen silent. Lang Jiuchuan stripped the child down completely and lifted her into the tub.

The medicinal liquid seeped through the skin, entering the body through the opened acupoints. In an instant, the gu insects — driven to a place with nowhere left to go — seemed to catch the scent of decay, and came rushing out en masse, pouring through the meridians and acupoints.

“AHHH—!”

Song Yuedie screamed in agony, the veins in her neck and forehead standing out sharply, her body trembling without cease as she fought to lurch upright — held down by Lang Jiuchuan’s full weight pressed firmly into the water.

Song Niangzi collapsed in weeping, sinking to the floor, then crawled forward on her knees trying to reach her child. She looked into the water — and instantly let out a shriek.

The red water was crawling with countless black insects, writhing and swirling — only to grow still moments later.

Song Niangzi shook like a leaf, her eyes wide with terror. This many. How had Die’er endured it? If it had been herself, she would never have lasted this long.

Song Yuedie’s face was contorted with agony, blood seeping from her seven orifices. Lang Jiuchuan held her down with both hands, eyes fixed without blinking on the water.

The gu king had not yet emerged.

As if unwilling to yield, it continued to thrash within its vessel — yet Lang Jiuchuan had sealed certain acupoints, leaving it with no way out.

After a time, the gu king finally squeezed its way out through the pierced Great Abyss point on Song Yuedie’s wrist.

Lang Jiuchuan immediately released Song Yuedie. One hand plunged into the water, caught it, and flung it out. Her foot came down on the gu king’s back; her other hand drew a divine talisman from her robes and slapped it down onto the creature.

Sssss—

A burst of brilliantly golden fire flooded the entire room with light. The gu king let out one piercing shriek — and went still.

The Solar Divine Fire Incantation Talisman: supremely hard, supremely yang. It could incinerate all things.

Lang Jiuchuan’s knees buckled. Both hands gripped the rim of the half-man-high tub as she reached in with trembling hands to pull the child from the water.

By now, the red water was thick with black threads floating on the surface.

Those were the gu king’s offspring — generations upon generations of them.

She lifted Song Yuedie out, then threw a Fire Talisman into the tub. With a heavy boom, flames erupted within.

Lang Jiuchuan held Song Yuedie in her arms, reached out to feel for her pulse, and said, “Carry her to the bed.”

Song Niangzi surged forward and gathered her daughter into her arms, placing her on the bed, then came to support Lang Jiuchuan. Seeing her complexion as white as paper, she asked, “Immortal — are you all right?”

Lang Jiuchuan produced a porcelain vial, her hands still trembling as she held it out. “Feed her two of these.”

Song Niangzi’s gaze passed over those shaking hands. She took the vial, tipped out two pellets, and placed them in her daughter’s mouth, then hesitated on the verge of speaking.

“The gu is cleared. From here on, it is only a matter of nursing her back to health.” Lang Jiuchuan said in a faint, exhausted voice.

Her constitution was not robust, and her soul was still incomplete. Performing the Thunder-Fire Needles had drained her spiritual power and pushed her endurance to its limit. But mercifully — the reputation had held.

Song Niangzi rose to her feet, then dropped to her knees with a heavy thud and pressed her forehead to the floor three times.

Lang Jiuchuan made a sound of mild protest, but had no strength left to pull her up.

So be it. Three full bows — she could accept those.

But Song Niangzi knelt again, pressed her forehead to the floor a second time, and spoke: “My daughter and I will keep the Immortal’s Longevity Tablet and offer prayers to it day and night. We will accumulate virtue and perform good deeds.”

Three prostrations. Nine full bows. To repay a debt of great grace.

Lang Jiuchuan felt the other woman’s fervent devotional energy wash over her, and was quietly, deeply pleased.

“Lang Jiu — that little witch has left the estate’s family shrine.” Jiang Che passed the message into her consciousness.