“Since we’re going to be friends, you know so many of my secrets, yet I know nothing about you at all. Isn’t that unfair?” His movements while eating the meat were leisurely but quite fast. By the time he finished speaking, a large piece of spirit beast meat had already disappeared, leaving only a few drops of oil on his fingertips as proof the meat had ever existed.
Who was she?
Why did she understand him so well? Whether it was his deeply hidden secrets or his preferences, she was almost perfectly accurate. The aura emanating from his body should have been frightening and repulsive to others, yet she remained completely natural, as if she were very familiar with him…
Miaoshe Shiqi took the third piece of meat that Su Zhuyi handed him, his expression appearing much more natural now, though his wariness had only deepened further.
Having someone who knew him so thoroughly while he knew nothing about her created a disparity significant enough to warrant maintaining the highest level of vigilance. However, since she had done this, he couldn’t simply kill her outright. This location was too special—if they fought, his secrets would be exposed to the Miao Gu Village. At the same time, he wanted to know how she had learned these secrets. Since they were going to be friends…
Miaoshe Shiqi sneered inwardly while a smile appeared on his face. After eating the meat, his skin wasn’t quite so ghastly pale anymore. His pallid face even showed a hint of color, making his smile appear much more genuine. “You cultivate demonic methods, yet you keep claiming to seek revenge for the villagers. Isn’t that rather strange?”
“Demonic methods? I don’t practice demonic cultivation.”
“Heh, the Soul-Extracting Flesh-Rending Technique—you used it so skillfully. You’ve killed quite a few people, haven’t you?” He had already settled naturally beside the fire pit, waiting for the third piece of spirit beast meat to reach that perfect golden-brown, eighty-percent doneness. As he spoke, his tone carried a hint of frivolity. In the firelight, that pale face had lost some of its sinister air and made him look like a boy next door, though the ruby on his forehead still glowed with an enchanting, scorching malevolence.
Ah, he was referring to how she had used blood curse techniques at the end, inserting soul threads into the demon flood dragon’s body and tearing its flesh apart. When her prolonged attacks proved ineffective, she resorted to techniques from her previous life—indeed, demonic methods. However, Su Zhuyi merely smiled lightly. “Whether techniques are righteous or evil depends on how they’re used. When I use them to kill, they’re evil techniques. When I use them to save people, would you still call them unrighteous?”
She raised both hands above the fire pit, the bright yellow flames dyeing her mutton-fat jade-like hands with rosy light as she turned her palms up and down twice. “If I had killed many people, the resentful malevolent energy couldn’t be hidden in your presence. Look—do I have any?”
Those hands were indeed beautiful—they looked white and tender with spring onion-like fingers, skin like congealed cream, appearing as delicate as soft tofu, making one feel…
Quite appetizing. Hehe…
Shifting his gaze away from those hands, Miaoshe Shiqi sneered inwardly and asked, “Then how did you master the Soul-Extracting Flesh-Rending Technique?”
Su Zhuyi lowered her hands and spoke complete nonsense with a straight face: “Cutting radishes.”
Knowing he wouldn’t get any truth from her mouth, Miaoshe Shiqi said, “I can’t leave the Miao Village for too long right now. Since we’re friends, friends should help each other. I found a secret realm on Cloud Hidden Mountain. That secret realm is protected by a sword formation. I see you’re also a sword cultivator—why don’t you help me break the formation? When the time comes, we can split the secret realm’s treasures equally between us.”
Cloud Hidden Mountain had a sword formation? She had no recollection of this. In her previous life, after killing people at this time, she had fled back to the Xueluo Sect. If this secret realm was discovered by Miaoshe Shiqi but he had secretly obtained its treasures without spreading word, it was quite possible no one else would know.
“Now?”
“I still need to return and make some preparations. We’ll contact each other in a month.” After speaking, he handed over a golden cicada gu made of silver. “This is my communication talisman. When the time comes, I’ll use this to contact you.”
Su Zhuyi had possessed such a communication talisman in her previous life as well.
She appeared to glance at it casually, but examined it very carefully with her divine sense. Then, using a special technique, she took the communication talisman and said, “Good.”
Seeing her technique, Miaoshe Shiqi’s suspicions deepened further. He felt as if he were standing naked before someone. With so many doubts, he simply decided to stop worrying about them for now. He continued, “In that case, I’ll return to prepare first. I’ve been sneaking out these past few days and can’t delay too long. However, being able to make a friend like you, young lady, makes it worthwhile. Isn’t that right…” His voice was very low as he spoke. “Qin Jianglan?”
Su Zhuyi had given this name when introducing herself in the village. She had used the name Qin Jianglan throughout her journey of heroic deeds. Being called by this name by Miaoshe Shiqi now didn’t surprise her, and she nodded reservedly.
Since she already knew, Miaoshe Shiqi didn’t hide anything either. He headed directly back to the Miao Gu Village from this cave. However, when he reached the formation, he suddenly stopped. Without turning around or looking back, he said flatly, “Recently, someone came to the Miao Gu Village seeking gu.”
He placed his hand on the formation mechanism, his fingertip lightly tracing circles without pressing down. After a moment of silence, he added, “Beauty Gu.”
“Since we’re friends planning to cooperate, I’ll give you a warning. The person who came has great strength and has reached an agreement with our Miao Gu Village’s High Priest and Gu King. They will indeed breed this Beauty Gu. I don’t need to say more—you should understand, right?”
“Beauty Gu?” Su Zhuyi had heard of it before. Hearing Miaoshe Shiqi’s warning now made her heart skip a beat. She cupped her hands in salute and said, “Thank you.”
Miaoshe Shiqi didn’t respond. He pressed the formation mechanism and disappeared into the cave, while Su Zhuyi felt somewhat worried.
She had some confidence in dealing with Miaoshe Shiqi, but if she truly faced those old monsters of the Miao Gu Village, her current Golden Core stage strength still felt rather insufficient.
Beauty Gu was an extremely sinister and toxic gu insect. This type of gu insect favored beautiful people, regardless of gender—the more beautiful their appearance, the more it liked them. After secretly parasitizing within a beauty’s body, it would leave the person with only a layer of skin within a short time. After the gu insect matured, it would molt like a cicada. This molted skin would be used as a medicinal catalyst, refined into gu medicine. After consumption, the user would possess a face of stunning beauty. Exactly how beautiful depended on how beautiful the original beauty used as the catalyst had been.
If they were going to breed Beauty Gu, Su Zhuyi felt that whether she used Qin Jianglan’s face or her face while out and about, either would qualify as Beauty Gu’s most beloved catalyst. In other words, regardless of which face she used while wandering around, she might be targeted by people from the Miao Gu Village.
Although Su Zhuyi understood gu insects well, every gu master had different techniques. She was only familiar with Miaoshe Shiqi’s methods of applying gu. Even with the utmost caution against others, she might still fall victim. Therefore, Miaoshe Shiqi’s warning had truly been of great help to her.
Who could this cultivator of great power be—someone capable of negotiating with the Miao Gu Village’s leaders yet only requesting a flashy and impractical Beauty Gu?
A series of people flashed through Su Zhuyi’s mind, and she immediately thought of Hua Yining.
Hua Yining of the Yunxiao Sect, daughter of the sect’s Pill Elder. That Pill Elder was a grandmaster of pill dao. Pills and gu insects had similarities, so he could speak as equals with the Miao Gu Village and possessed things they wanted, thus being able to commission them to breed a Beauty Gu that required tremendous effort and resources yet had little practical use.
Hua Yining had been disfigured by her back then and would likely care greatly about such a gu insect. If she knew Su Zhuyi was also at this Miao Gu Village, she would probably stop at nothing to make a move against her. However, another problem arose: while her cultivation was high and her primordial spirit strong enough to deceive ninety percent of cultivators in the world, she couldn’t hide from great powers like the Yunxiao Sect’s Pill Elder. If only she had an immortal-grade concealment treasure, she wouldn’t have such a headache now.
Whether it was the Yunxiao Sect’s Pill Elder, she could find out by going out to inquire. If Yunxiao Sect disciples also appeared near this southern frontier, it would prove the high likelihood that Hua Yining and the others had come.
Thinking of this, Su Zhuyi extinguished the fire pit. She stood up and carefully examined the fixed location where Miaoshe Shiqi used to stay for a while. Finding nothing suspicious, she left. Perhaps she was overthinking it—there was nothing strange about that place. His habit of staying in a fixed position was simply that, a habit?
Leaving the cave, Su Zhuyi walked while maintaining divine sense contact with Qin Jianglan. “Your Yunxiao Sect claims to be the foremost righteous sect, yet that Pill Elder would seek out southern frontier Miao Gu Village cultivators to breed Beauty Gu for his daughter. How ruthless indeed.”
They didn’t capture and refine people into gu themselves, merely trading items for a Beauty Gu pill. But who didn’t know how Beauty Gu pills were made? He didn’t kill directly, yet people died miserably because of him, even having their faces taken by others in the end. Although consuming gu pills wouldn’t make one’s appearance completely identical to the catalyst, at least sixty to seventy percent similarity could be achieved.
“Beauty Gu?” Qin Jianglan’s memory loss had been slightly slower these past few days—he could sense it himself. He had no impression of Beauty Gu either, but he still remembered the Pill Elder. After all, when he was on the Wangtian Tree initially, he would occasionally visit the Pill Elder to get herbs. In his memories, the Pill Elder was a very kind old man. As for his daughter, Qin Jianglan had no recollection.
“In my previous life, I didn’t have much impression of Hua Yining either, but she likes Qin Chuan now. In her previous life, she liked you. You don’t remember?”
Qin Jianglan shook his head. The memories he currently possessed were from when his cultivation had already reached great achievement, when he was revered as a master teacher in the Yunxiao Sect. Sect disciples showed him extreme respect and reverence, always keeping their heads lowered in his presence. He didn’t remember many faces. Only Su Zhuyi neither respected nor feared him, never treating him as a lofty immortal, only thinking of getting handsy with him.
“I had planned to make a big splash in the southern frontier, but I didn’t expect to encounter such an annoying matter. When will Little Skull be able to return?”
If Little Skull were here, he could wrap her in spiritual energy better than any concealment treasure. Should she avoid this for now, or perhaps ask Qinghe? It seemed she was developing some dependency on that malevolent god of a senior brother. No, he was already struggling to manage himself—she couldn’t call Qinghe to such a chaotic place. There was much bloodshed and killing here. If it triggered Qinghe’s evil nature, the losses would outweigh the gains.
Qinghe and Luo Ying living well was also very important to her—it was a key point in her mind for contending with the Heavenly Dao for life itself.
“Should be soon,” Qin Jianglan said.
“Big sister, do you miss me?” Little Skull was so happy he nearly jumped up. He was currently flying a kite, but unfortunately, everywhere far away was like death itself, with not even a trace of wind. So Little Skull ran in circles around Qin Jianglan, the kite flying crookedly. When it was about to fall, Qin Jianglan would give it a lift with spiritual energy, keeping the kite swaying unsteadily in the air without dropping.
Big sister always spoke privately with Little Uncle, which made him a bit resentful. But now that big sister mentioned him, Little Skull immediately became so happy he almost jumped up. “Little Uncle says soon! I miss you too, and Xiaoxiao, Silkworm, Big Sister, Brother Qinghe, Uncle Sect Master, and everyone…”
“So you must be bored out of your mind and wanting to run away early, right?”
Unexpectedly, Little Skull shook his head. “No, I want to keep Little Uncle company.”
In Wu’er’s understanding, Xiaoxiao had Silkworm and the others to play with, and everyone else had companions. That world was rich and colorful, while Little Uncle only had himself. He thought that if he left, Little Uncle would be very lonely here alone.
In such silent scenery, if he were alone, he would cry from morning to night, feeling extremely frightened and extremely unhappy.
“When will Little Uncle be able to come play at our house?” he asked.
But no one could answer this question.
After a long while, Qin Jianglan said, “It should be soon.” The same words, yet hearing them in Su Zhuyi’s ears carried a different flavor.
She walked somewhat distracted and accidentally slipped, nearly twisting her ankle. Supporting herself against a large tree by the roadside, Su Zhuyi suddenly felt an azure light flash from her palm and fly directly forward.
“Oh dear, Sword Ancestor, why did you run away?”