Miaoshe Shiqi sat on the ground, having recovered considerably by now, his movements still elegant even while eating. However, he elegantly spat out a pale white bone—clearly a human cultivator’s finger bone. Not a trace of flesh remained on the bone; he had gnawed it completely clean. The bones of cultivators were all pure white and smooth, making that bone look as if they were carved from jade. After spitting it out, the bone fell beside Su Qingxun’s head, brushing past her cheek.

Su Qingxun’s gaze was already somewhat unfocused, but she forced herself to stay alert and not completely lose consciousness. Her long eyelashes trembled, teardrops hanging from them as she stared straight at Miaoshe Shiqi. But when he spat out the finger bone that brushed past her cheek, Su Qingxun could no longer hold on and directly fainted.

Miaoshe Shiqi acted as if he didn’t see Su Zhuyi at all. He reached back and dragged over the spirit beast meat behind him, sitting upright on the ground to slowly eat. Before long, he had gnawed an entire spirit beast down to its skeleton. Then he stood up and walked straight ahead.

The elder from Miaogu Stronghold and his several subordinates were all dead as well.

The elder hadn’t been completely devoured yet—there were still several gu insects drilling around inside his body. Miaoshe Shiqi walked forward two steps and picked up the overturned jade bottle. Then he lightly rubbed his fingers together twice, producing some pale yellow ash at his fingertips. At the same time, Su Zhuyi caught a whiff of a clear fragrance.

Su Zhuyi suddenly remembered that Miaoshe Shiqi controlled gu using incense and an ocarina. What was his relationship with this female corpse?

She watched as the gu insects all emerged from the corpse and flew into the jade bottle on their own. Then Miaoshe Shiqi walked over to the female corpse’s side. He stood quietly for a moment, then suddenly turned around and beckoned to Su Zhuyi.

“Come here!”

What does he want? Su Zhuyi immediately became alert, though she didn’t show it on her face—she just stood there without moving. She was currently weak; the injuries from the sword formation hadn’t healed properly, and later she’d been struck by that old man from the Yunxiao Sect. If not for the Straw Man substitute, she would have lost her life. She’d also been invaded by gu insects and had only roughly treated her wounds. If Miaoshe Shiqi wanted to attack her now, her chances of winning weren’t good.

Seeing that she didn’t move, Miaoshe Shiqi said nothing. He suddenly struck out with his palm, creating a large pit in the ground, then said: “Put her in and bury her.”

You won’t touch her yourself? The female corpse now looked like nothing but a layer of skin. Though Su Zhuyi wasn’t afraid, she would still find it quite disgusting.

“My father and mother.” He turned his head and looked at Su Zhuyi with a pair of black, somewhat terrifying eyes. The pupils in those eyes seemed to have become vertical slits, and the black irises were very large, making the whites appear very small, causing one’s heart to palpitate.

He blinked once, and when he opened his eyes again, they had returned to normal.

There was only one female corpse—why did he say it was his father and mother?

He raised his hands. “I’m dirty. Since you could pass through my mother’s sword formation, your character shouldn’t be too bad.”

Sword techniques that were masculine, upright, and unyielding could break through that feminine and malevolent sword formation. Such sword cultivators were hard to find, yet unexpectedly, she had managed it.

Su Zhuyi: “…”

Her ability to break the formation might have been due to Sword Ancestor’s influence. Though her swordsmanship had indeed improved, in the end, it was still the flying sword that was formidable. Otherwise, she might not have been able to cut through those bamboos. Most importantly, she understood her character too well. Even though she’d recently been doing heroic deeds and good works, it was all under duress. She felt that being a villain was much more satisfying.

Killing was efficient!

Saving people was troublesome!

Scanning the female corpse with her divine sense and finding nothing amiss, Su Zhuyi thought for a moment, then wrapped herself in a layer of spiritual energy. She still used the method for catching gu insects, drawing talismans with her hands to prevent gu invasion, before walking over to lift the female corpse with both hands and place it in the pit. In her previous life, she’d never heard Miaoshe Shiqi mention his father and mother, but since they were his parents, and since he felt his hands were dirty, he presumably held deep reverence for his father and mother. So Su Zhuyi’s movements were also devout. She carefully placed the female corpse in the pit, then, after thinking for a moment, rummaged through her storage treasure and pulled out a plum blossom branch.

Little Skull used to like placing flowers in her room, putting them there every day, and changing them every day. After he left last time, no one changed the flowers in her room anymore. Su Zhuyi was too lazy to deal with them herself and too lazy to throw them away, so she’d directly stuffed the flowers into her storage treasure. Taking them out now, they surprisingly hadn’t withered and were still a branch of plum blossoms in full bloom.

After burying the person, Miaoshe Shiqi said, “Back to the cave.”

He turned and walked away. When passing by Su Qingxun’s side, Miaoshe Shiqi picked her up like grabbing a broken rag doll, just carrying her in his hand like that.

“Are you planning to…”

Not kill her, but save her?

“Useful.” He glanced down at Su Qingxun. “To survive being gnawed by so many gu insects without dying—her primordial spirit is resilient, suitable for raising gu.”

He planned to use Su Qingxun to raise gu?

Su Zhuyi’s expression shifted.

In her previous life…

In her previous life, hadn’t Miaoshe Shiqi also planned to use her to raise gu?

Or rather, had there been gu insects in her body in her previous life? After all, Miaoshe Shiqi had returned to Miaogu Stronghold, which was isolated from the world. He’d said before that he wouldn’t come out again, so how did he know she had died and something went wrong? Unless he had left clues in her body?

She actually couldn’t remember many of the details from their time together back then, but she also felt that she and Su Qingxun had similarities. They had both come out of Xueluo Sect, people who had survived through constant killing, naturally with resilient wills. And she had indeed been bitten by gu insects without dying—encountering gu insects was very common when mixing around in the Southern Border.

“What, want to kill me?” Seeing Su Zhuyi standing silently without moving, Miaoshe Shiqi said coldly.

“She’s an assassin from Xueluo Sect who’s killed so many people, and I have some grudges with her too… But since you want to raise gu, then do as you please.” Finding a suitable gu mother wasn’t easy. Since Miaoshe Shiqi wanted to take Su Qingxun away, it wouldn’t be easy for her to get him to kill Su Qingxun. However…

Su Zhuyi still wanted to try. After all, in her previous life, had Miaoshe Shiqi loved her? Perhaps…

Originally, Su Zhuyi had been quite confident in herself, but thinking about gu mother, she felt that Miaoshe Shiqi’s contact with her in the previous life probably hadn’t been very pure either. Maybe he had planned to raise her as a gu mother, but all of this could no longer be verified—it could only be her speculation.

“I think it would be better to kill her.” Su Zhuyi suggested.

“Hehe.” Miaoshe Shiqi let out a cold laugh, glancing at Su Zhuyi from the corner of his eye while moving his fingers slightly.

Su Zhuyi: “…”

She took a deep breath. “I’ve made enemies with people from the Yunxiao Sect, so I won’t wander around outside anymore. I’ll notify my sect’s elders to come pick me up. Shiqi, until we meet again.”

Since that was the case, she wouldn’t play with him anymore. Su Zhuyi was now seriously injured and planned to temporarily find a place to recover. She hadn’t wanted to call her senior brother over to help before, but calling him to pick her up now wasn’t a big problem. She still had formation plates on her—at her senior brother’s speed, she just needed to hold on for two days.

As for Yunxiao Sect, she wasn’t afraid. That Elder Hua had lost his disciple and fled. She wasn’t worried about them exposing this incident, but she was now exposed in terms of location and feared that Xueluo Sect’s death warriors might track her down.

“Until we meet again?” Miaoshe Shiqi turned around and looked Su Zhuyi up and down. “Don’t you plan to resolve the gu you’ve been infected with?”

Su Zhuyi was immediately stunned. Are there gu insects in my body?

Despite being so careful, she’d still been infected with gu insects?

“That sharkskin robe is on you, isn’t it? That garment has Netherworld Gu on it. Now the gu insects have entered your body. If you don’t remove them…” He didn’t continue speaking.

Netherworld Gu—colorless, odorless, and formless. This type of gu generally parasitized objects, and the older they were, the more powerful the gu insects became. Therefore, Netherworld Gu was also called Time Gu. After entering the human body, it would lie dormant for some time. By the time a person discovers something wrong with their body, it will be too late.

It would devour a person’s lifespan, causing them to rapidly age, beauty turning to withered bones.

Seeing Su Zhuyi’s abnormal expression, Miaoshe Shiqi laughed twice. “It seems you also know about Netherworld Gu.”

“Netherworld Gu can only be resolved by Longevity Gu, also known as Lifespan Gu.” Miaoshe Shiqi’s voice suddenly lowered several degrees. “Among the gu insects my father left me, there’s one Longevity Gu.”

Yes, Miaoshe Shiqi possessed Longevity Gu. Su Zhuyi had already known this point previously.

In her previous life, this sharkskin robe had been obtained by Qin Jianglan. Had Qin Jianglan broken the sword formation together with Miaoshe Shiqi and obtained his parents’ inheritance together? Unfortunately, Qin Jianglan no longer remembered past events, or she could have asked him about it.

Netherworld Gu was colorless, formless, and odorless. Su Zhuyi’s divine sense circulated through her body once, but she didn’t notice the presence of any gu insects. However, she knew how formidable Netherworld Gu was—if she could detect it, she would already be close to death.

Miaoshe Shiqi extended his hand, revealing a gray-brown gu insect covered in wrinkles. He pinched the gu insect’s belly with his finger, and it made a sound like a cicada chirping. The next moment, Su Zhuyi discovered that her body was also producing insect chirping sounds, as if responding to those cicada calls.

She did have Time Gu in her body!

Miaoshe Shiqi put away the gu insect and turned to leave. This time, Su Zhuyi didn’t consider anything else—she hurriedly followed, obsequiously trailing behind Miaoshe Shiqi.

What a joke—if Time Gu wasn’t resolved, within a year she’d be as old as tree bark. The problem was that Time Gu could only be resolved by Longevity Gu, and Longevity Gu was also a rare gu insect. Since Miaoshe Shiqi had one, she could only rely on him.

She had spent several days recovering from her injuries, not far from the female corpse, and had carefully observed that sharkskin robe without finding anything wrong. She’d only felt that the bottle was very strange, and because there was a formation ahead, she hadn’t dared touch it. When the people from Miaogu Stronghold broke the formation and attracted the gu, she’d taken advantage of their distraction to fish in troubled waters and grab the garment. Who would have thought she’d be infected with Netherworld Gu? Su Zhuyi felt heavy-hearted, but when she followed him, she still contacted her senior brother. If Miaoshe Shiqi pulled any tricks later, she could only rely on her senior brother to maintain the situation.

When she sent the transmission, her senior brother didn’t respond. Su Zhuyi was startled, then thought that her senior brother might currently be in the pit. She left a strand of divine sense transmission in the communication talisman, hoping her senior brother could hear it early and come over sooner.

Following behind Miaoshe Shiqi, Su Zhuyi anxiously conversed with Qin Jianglan.

“Old Dog Qin, you remember your sharkskin robe, right?”

“Mm, immortal treasure, Qinghua.” The Zhuxin Curse had just acted up again, and Qin Jianglan was very worried. His cool eyes seemed to have developed turbidity. Little Skull beside him watched nervously, wishing he could immediately tell little sister, but when little sister’s divine sense came in, he couldn’t find an opportunity to speak. Seeing little uncle’s eyes become much clearer, he felt slightly relieved.

Just now, little uncle looked a bit frightening. He was too worried about little sister…

“Do you remember how you got it? I obtained that robe, but it’s somewhat different from when you wore it.” She had originally wanted to say she’d been infected with gu, but the words stopped at her lips and she held them back. Better not to mention it.

“Don’t remember.”

“Qinghua is an immortal treasure. Obtaining it is a good thing—it can protect you completely.” Thinking of the robe he’d worn in his previous life now being on Su Zhuyi, Qin Jianglan’s face even showed a trace of a smile. But the next moment, his brow furrowed slightly.

That sharkskin robe’s color was too dark and somber. Though the robe had a faint luminous halo, he imagined Su Zhuyi still wouldn’t like it. Though he temporarily couldn’t go out, he could refine a real dress for her. There were many things here, and items personally refined by him would suffer less damage when taken out. It was just that there might not be much time left before Little Skull had to leave, so there wasn’t enough time to refine a very good dharma robe.

But if he started refining now, someday he could personally give it to her.

He very much looked forward to that day’s arrival.

“Just now, cultivators from your Yunxiao Sect gave me trouble. What kind of master are you!” Su Zhuyi cursed: “I’m going to recover from my injuries. You’d better reflect properly.” Before withdrawing her divine sense, she even lightly touched Qin Jianglan. Only after her divine sense completely withdrew did Su Zhuyi feel her head was about to explode from pain.

Already weak, she’d forced herself to stay alert and divide her divine sense to communicate with him—she could barely hold on.

Upon reaching that hidden cave, Su Zhuyi collapsed in her usual spot. She leaned there with her back against a slanted smooth stone platform, using her hands to rub her temples, starry eyes half-closed, very weary.

“You’re not afraid of me?” Miaoshe Shiqi walked to Su Zhuyi’s side and kicked her away with one foot, then placed Su Qingxun on the stone platform.

Su Zhuyi: “…”

“Afraid, afraid, afraid! Shiqi, give me a quick death, will you?”

She extended her hand and thrust the Broken Sword into the ground one foot away from herself, looking at Sword Ancestor: “Old Ancestor, I’m counting on you to protect your master.”

Because she really couldn’t hold on any longer.