“Xiangfu…” Holding the flying sword broken into several pieces in his hands, Pill Elder of the Yunxiao Sect’s expression was terrifyingly dark.

But just then, a scream suddenly erupted behind them.

Agonized wails rose one after another—something had gone wrong with breaking the gu formation!

Su Zhuyi caught sight of what was behind them from the corner of her eye, immediately feeling her scalp tingle. She directly executed the Great Grasping Technique, drawing that azure dragon-scale robe into her hands, then pulled the robe over her head and charged outward while wearing it. Qin Jianglan’s dragon-scale robe was an immortal treasure! Though the aura on this robe seemed off, she couldn’t worry about that now. While they were distracted, she’d take it first and worry about the rest later.

As she made this series of movements, the Pill Elder had already attacked. He raised his hand and struck out with a palm, spiritual energy like vast ocean waves with shocking momentum.

Su Zhuyi neither dodged nor avoided, directly forcing her way through and darting away! She didn’t dare delay even a moment!

The Straw Man in her hand instantly shattered while she spat out a mouthful of bloody foam, shouting: “If you care about my life or death, see if you can lead these people away from so many gu insects!”

Behind them, the gu formation had been broken. The jade bottle beside the female corpse’s left side swayed in a circle before toppling over. The wooden cork at the bottle’s mouth popped out with a click, and a wisp of dark yellow gas poured out like green smoke, accompanied by a sickly sweet fragrance.

Immediately after, her corpse instantly shriveled, and countless gu insects poured out from within. These gu insects were extremely formidable—even the Miao Gu Village elder couldn’t manage himself, his long flute playing intermittently with little effect. Dense swarms of gu insects covered his body until he had become a human cocoon.

The flute sound seemed to be crushed by the gnawing sounds of the gu insects. Elder Cang wanted to escape at this moment, but discovered there was no way out. A silver light flashed—his natal gu…

His natal gu had been devoured!

Elder Cang was still struggling desperately while his three subordinates who had gone to break the formation were gnawed into white bones in the blink of an eye. More gu insects surged toward Su Zhuyi and the others.

Except for Pill Elder, the other Yunxiao Sect disciples were all severely injured due to sword dao damage and had almost no mobility. One of them stood up, trembling, reaching out to pull up a companion beside him. Unable to lift him, he nearly fell over himself. His gaze focused with terror—if caught by those gu insects, he would probably become white bones like the Miao Gu Village people.

“Master!”

“Run!” Pill Elder sacrificed a magical artifact, then without regard for Su Zhuyi, used the Grasping Technique to pull several disciples onto the magical treasure. His speed when circulating spiritual energy for full-power flight was actually faster than driving the magical artifact, so Pill Elder wasn’t flying on the artifact but was dragging it forward while flying, also executing the Earth-Shrinking technique.

Ahead, when Su Zhuyi passed Su Qingxun, she heard her raise her head and shout in a shrill voice: “Save me!”

Su Zhuyi’s steps didn’t pause in the slightest. She executed Shadowless Traceless and leaped out, already running several zhang away in the blink of an eye. With that terrifying swarm of gu insects behind them, whether she could escape was still unknown—save someone else? Don’t even think about it!

Her divine sense detected that Pill Elder behind her had also started running. His Nascent Soul stage cultivation made him faster, using Earth-Shrinking to transform into a streak of light, moving faster than her. However, a silver gleam followed closely behind him, as if it had specifically targeted him.

Su Zhuyi instantly understood. During their conversation earlier, Pill Elder had revealed he possessed a high-grade gu insect that he planned to trade with the Miao Gu Village elder. That silver gu insect was chasing him, very likely because it was attracted by the gu insect on his body. Thinking of this, Su Zhuyi breathed a sigh of relief. Great that the old thing was being pursued—now she had a chance to escape.

However, she then noticed the silver gu insect spit out a thin thread that landed on Pill Elder’s shoulder! Pill Elder had originally been dragging all the Yunxiao Sect disciples on one of his magical artifacts, but at this moment he suddenly gritted his teeth, released his grip on the artifact, abandoned the other disciples and even the magical artifact itself, grabbed Hua Yining with one hand, and crushed a paper talisman with the other.

High-grade Escape Light Talisman! The refining method for this type of talisman had been lost—it could instantly transport one and was extremely rare. Su Zhuyi could draw talismans, but she didn’t know this Escape Light Talisman. She hadn’t expected Pill Elder to possess one.

Pill Elder vanished into thin air. The silver gu insect, having lost its target, suddenly changed direction and crashed toward Su Zhuyi. Su Zhuyi gripped the Broken Sword and directly slashed out at the gu insect. That azure sword gleam made the silver gu insect restrain itself slightly and dodge to one side. However, after she swung her sword, her movement stagnated slightly. After that momentary pause, Su Zhuyi felt the dense mass of gu insects behind her drawing ever closer…

At this moment, a low voice slowly rang out, the tone extremely low, deep and weathered, appearing even more mysterious in this mist. As the tune shifted, it seemed like sobbing, mournful and plaintive, as if making one’s heart fall to the bottom of a valley.

Ahead, Cloud Hidden Mountain was shrouded in mist that even divine sense couldn’t penetrate clearly, but her eyes could see a faint golden point and two small red dots within the mist.

Her heart leaped with joy, but the next moment she felt pain in her back—a gu insect had entered her body. Su Zhuyi immediately swung her sword, cutting away the flesh and blood where the gu insect had burrowed. Then she rolled on the ground, hiding her body behind Miaoshe Shiqi.

However, Su Zhuyi didn’t relax. She immediately used gu techniques to seal the flesh around the wound and gave herself a Rending Flame Palm strike. Without even treating the wound, she cupped her hands together at her mouth to form a hand ocarina and began playing along with Miaoshe Shiqi’s ocarina music.

Miaoshe Shiqi’s hand holding the ocarina paused, then continued playing. As he played, a gu insect also flew out from within his body, rampaging through that dense mass of gu insects for a while. Wherever it passed, large numbers of gu insects disappeared. Before long, only a scattered few remained, causing the silver gu insect to flap its wings and call all the remaining gu insects to its side. At this moment, Miaoshe Shiqi’s gu insect immediately returned to his vicinity and began fighting with that silver gu insect.

The silver gu insect was very small, looking only slightly larger than a needle’s eye, while Miaoshe Shiqi’s gu insect was plump and fleshy. Su Zhuyi had never seen it before—she guessed this gu insect was Miaoshe Shiqi’s natal flesh gu. Flesh gu were very weak, yet now it could fight with that silver gu insect?

The flesh gu’s fighting method was also strange. Even when poked full of holes by the needle-eye-sized silver gu insect, it showed no blood, its body transforming into various shapes. More than once, it wrapped around the silver gu insect like making dumplings in the mortal world. However, that silver gu insect was extremely fierce, piercing holes many times to burrow out, and the flesh gu would continue wrapping…

The flesh gu was his natal gu. Now being poked full of holes everywhere, Miaoshe Shiqi couldn’t keep this up either. Su Zhuyi remembered the tune Miaoshe Shiqi had played when controlling the gu in her previous life. That tune was similar to the current one but also somewhat different, more powerful than the current one. It could not only replenish spiritual energy for one’s gu insects but also suppress other gu insects.

Seeing his face growing paler and paler, she simply changed the melody.

Su Zhuyi also knew gu control. When she changed the tune, Miaoshe Shiqi’s harmony weakened, and the silver gu immediately felt reduced pressure. It excitedly tried to charge forward but felt a strange new pressure on its body. Miaoshe Shiqi suddenly turned to glance at Su Zhuyi, then closed his eyes and began playing along with her melody…

Controlling Gu was extremely mentally taxing. Before long, Miaoshe Shiqi’s forehead was covered with beads of sweat, but the effect was also obvious. The other gu insects all became motionless as if dead, and the silver gu insect’s resistance also weakened. After a while longer, the flesh gu finally completely wrapped the silver gu insect, pinching it into what looked like a meat dumpling. The flesh gu became round and plump, though with some pits and bumps on its surface, looking greatly injured.

In an instant, the flesh gu burrowed into Miaoshe Shiqi’s body. His body trembled, and he nearly fell. Seeing this, Su Zhuyi even reached out to support him.

At this moment, Miaoshe Shiqi suddenly shook herself off and staggered forward.

With this crisis resolved, Su Zhuyi also wanted to see what the final outcome was and whether Su Qingxun had died. She followed two steps forward, only to see Miaoshe Shiqi suddenly turn around with a ferocious expression and roar at her: “Scram.”

His face was deathly pale, the area under his eyes was blue-gray, and blood trickled from the corner of his mouth—he looked extremely terrifying.

Su Zhuyi’s eyes narrowed as she immediately stopped, not only stopping but even backing up several steps.

She watched Miaoshe Shiqi stagger forward and stop in front of a Yunxiao Sect disciple.

Pill Elder of the Yunxiao Sect had originally planned to save everyone, but later discovered he couldn’t take them all. He abandoned the other disciples and escaped using the Escape Light Talisman. The disciples left behind had already broken their flying swords and were severely injured, unable to run away at all. Though gnawed by the pursuing gu insects, they hadn’t died immediately. After Miaoshe Shiqi appeared, his flesh gu devoured many gu insects, causing the silver gu insect to summon all other gu insects to its side and stop continuing to gnaw these disciples…

The disciple in front of Miaoshe Shiqi was riddled with holes, quite horrifying, but he wasn’t completely dead yet—he still had a breath left. One eye socket was already empty, and he stared at Miaoshe Shiqi with his remaining eyeball, that eye probably showing a glimmer of hope.

However…

Miaoshe Shiqi broke off his arm and brought it to his mouth…

His internal flesh gu was out of control!

Su Zhuyi didn’t continue watching. Though she had killed countless people and even clawed out hearts, she still found cannibalism somewhat hard to accept. She hadn’t seen Miaoshe Shiqi eat people in her previous life—she hadn’t expected that when his flesh gu lost control, he would even eat human flesh…

Su Zhuyi was severely injured, but she didn’t stop. After taking a pill to gather her spirits, she flew out and quickly hunted a spirit beast, dragging it back. Without lighting a fire to roast it, she directly used Rending Flame Palm combined with Tiangang Five Thunder Technique to blast the entire spirit beast until cooked, then ran over and tossed it not far behind Miaoshe Shiqi.

At this moment, she saw Su Qingxun.

Su Qingxun was still alive.

She had also been bitten by many gu insects, but was in better condition than the others. Could it be because when the gu insect swarm flew over, she had been lying motionless on the ground, so fewer gu insects landed on her since they all went chasing the Yunxiao Sect group? But Su Qingxun was missing an arm—whether it was eaten by gu insects or by Miaoshe Shiqi was unclear.

Would Miaoshe Shiqi still kill Su Qingxun?