Green mountains hidden in mist, green waters stretching far.

Fragrant grass luxuriant, beauties radiant.

Su Zhuyi wore a thin gauze dress of deep red with a jade belt at her waist. Her waist was slender as a willow, barely enough for one hand to encompass.

She stood on the Songfeng Sword, gazing into the distance, while Qin Jianglan stood behind her. She only needed to lean back slightly to rest against him.

Su Zhuyi remembered the route to Quicksand River and wasn’t too worried about whether they could break through the array barrier jointly controlled by several sect masters when the time came.

Back then, Qinghe had directly broken in, and now Qin Jianglan’s strength was unfathomable. Though she couldn’t say for certain who was more powerful compared to the evil Longquan Sword, Su Zhuyi instinctively felt they wouldn’t encounter obstacles at the array.

On this journey, the biggest challenge would be finding the Jianmu Tree and extracting the Breath Soil. Similarly, if the Jianmu Tree had spiritual intelligence, persuading it would certainly be simple—after all, it had always wanted to help the Liuguang Mirror. The fear was that the Jianmu Tree had already lost its spiritual intelligence. In that case, even cutting branches would probably be difficult.

She would envision troubles they might encounter along the way and how to respond, so when they reached their destination and faced problems, they wouldn’t be caught off guard. Therefore, though Su Zhuyi appeared to be gazing into the distance, immersed in the distant scenery, she was thinking through problems.

After flying for a short while, she felt something moving within her body.

Not the elusive, well-hidden Breath Soil.

But…

A Gu worm!

The resilient Love Gu within her body, after going through the Rebirth Pond, hadn’t died but was refined along with the pond water, still quietly merged within her body.

Deep affection and intense longing, lovesickness to the bone.

That Gu worm was fused with her body, in her bones and blood, devouring her emotions, essentially one with her.

She looked down, spreading her divine consciousness. Her gaze pierced through verdant treetops, through layers of green leaves, to see the man leaning against a tree trunk, holding a stone ocarina and playing.

Though he was playing the ocarina, Su Zhuyi heard no music. His strength seemed to have increased considerably. If not for the Love Gu’s movement, Su Zhuyi flying overhead would have had difficulty discovering Miaoshe Shiqi hidden in the large tree below.

With Miaoshe Shiqi, the one who planted the Gu, below, no wonder the Love Gu reacted.

The moment Su Zhuyi looked down, Miaoshe Shiqi seemed to sense it and looked up. The silver circlet on his head was quite eye-catching, the golden cicada on his forehead sticking to his excessively pale face like a living thing, while those ruby red eyes appeared even more demonic, emitting soul-stirring light.

Miaoshe Shiqi saw Su Zhuyi in the air. He grinned and even waved at Su Zhuyi. At this moment, Su Zhuyi saw a dim red line on his wrist. Looking carefully, it wasn’t a red line but a Gu worm called the Red Thread Worm. The Gu worm resembled a thin red thread. Following the red line with her gaze, she saw the person bound by the other end of the Red Thread Worm at the base of the large tree.

Su Qingxun.

Miaoshe Shiqi sat on a branch in the tree crown, while Su Qingxun sat at the tree’s base, back against the large tree.

She sat with disheveled hair, her clothes barely covering her body. The skin exposed outside her garments was still fair and tender, but at her neck and wrists, some places showed protruding blue veins, crisscrossing her skin like earthworms, and within those blue veins, Gu worms could faintly be seen crawling.

Miaoshe Shiqi had made Su Qingxun into a Gu mother? What kinds of Gu worms was he raising? Back then, the flood dragon that had harmed many mortals was also raised as a Gu mother by him, but now it was replaced by Su Qingxun. This was somewhat unexpected, since in her previous life, she, Su Zhuyi, had never been used as a Gu mother by Miaoshe Shiqi.

Though Su Qingxun had taken her place being captured by Xueluo Sect, their fates had ultimately diverged—they were different.

Su Zhuyi instinctively glanced at Qin Jianglan beside her.

Su Qingxun was the disciple he had carefully taught for so many years. Though they hadn’t interacted after rebirth, they had a deep relationship in their previous life. Now, Su Qingxun was clearly in poor condition, looking quite pitiful. What would Qin Jianglan do?

She saw Qin Jianglan frown. He said quietly, “Miaoshe Shiqi.”

They hadn’t found Miaoshe Shiqi before, but unexpectedly encountered him here. Removing the Love Gu was related to the one who planted it, so Miaoshe Shiqi couldn’t be killed directly—he had to be controlled first.

His pressure directly enveloped below, while the Songfeng Sword simultaneously shot out thousands of pine needle-like sword intents, forming a human-shaped cage around Miaoshe Shiqi with sharp sounds.

Miaoshe Shiqi’s face originally bore a faint smile, but now that smile froze. When the pressure was applied to him, his already pale face became even more bloodless, his eyes bloodshot, blood trickling from the corners of his mouth.

He pursed his lips and spoke with difficulty, “Su Zhuyi, this man…”

He forced out a smile. “Your lover?”

At this moment, Su Qingxun, who had been sitting under the tree with her head lowered, also looked up. The moment she saw Qin Jianglan, bright light suddenly burst from her dim eyes. She called out hoarsely, “Young Master, save me.”

When Su Zhuyi had acted chivalrously in the Southern Border, she had used Qin Jianglan’s appearance.

At that time, Su Qingxun had shown great fondness for him. Now seeing Qin Jianglan appear, Su Qingxun saw hope. She struggled to stand, but the moment her body moved, the red thread on her wrist cut bloody marks into her wrist. With the smell of blood, the Gu worms under those blue veins on her body immediately became agitated, and a Gu worm even crawled out of her mouth, making Su Zhuyi frown tightly—it was quite disgusting.

“I didn’t expect you to be such a deeply affectionate person, able to give the Love Gu opportunity and awaken it so quickly.” When Miaoshe Shiqi had planted the Love Gu in her, it was also done casually. He wasn’t quite certain what his motivation had been then—probably some interest in her. But actually, Miaoshe Shiqi had never thought that Love Gu would mature so quickly.

After all, he had only secretly planted an egg then. Immature eggs separated from the Gu mother wouldn’t be discovered by her, but the conditions for maturation were also extremely harsh. He hadn’t expected this careless act to succeed.

He hadn’t seen Su Zhuyi during this period.

Too far from her.

So much so that when she flew overhead just now, Miaoshe Shiqi only then realized the Gu worm had matured. He had originally wanted to directly activate the Gu worm, but discovered Su Zhuyi’s strength had advanced further. Activating it wouldn’t have much effect, so he hadn’t been so impulsive. Now seeing this man’s manner, Miaoshe Shiqi understood what they sought. Since they had something to seek, even though their strength exceeded his and they had completely suppressed him from the start, he wasn’t afraid.

Therefore, he looked at Su Zhuyi and smiled, “I misjudged.”

I thought you were a heartless person, but unexpectedly, you’re someone with feelings. To make the Love Gu mature so quickly, your affection runs quite deep.

Thinking this, his eyes darkened, seeming somewhat regretful. “Too bad the Love Gu has already fused with your body. Do you still feel affection now?”

After saying this, he had no more strength and couldn’t help coughing up a large mouthful of fresh blood. At this moment, perhaps because his serious injury reduced his suppression of Su Qingxun, the Su Qingxun bound by the Red Thread Worm stood up and rushed directly to Qin Jianglan’s side, opening her arms wanting to embrace him.

She sobbed, “Save me.” Su Qingxun was quite pretty, with a fresh and sweet appearance. Even disheveled and barely clothed, her face was still beautiful when crying. Crying beautifully also required practice—back then, Su Zhuyi had practiced countless times, deeply understanding how to make herself cry beautifully, cry in a way that made men’s hearts ache.

She had been Qin Jianglan’s disciple.

His the only one. If Su Zhuyi encountered people she’d had good relationships with in her previous life, when in a good mood and without harming herself, she might help them. Evil as she was, when not threatened, encountering people she’d had some relationship with in her previous life, she felt she might also lend a hand—having more friends was better than having more enemies.

But Qin Jianglan was unmoved.

He didn’t even turn to look at Su Qingxun once and used the rebound force of his spiritual energy barrier to push Su Qingxun away.

He only stared coldly at Miaoshe Shiqi, his gaze sharp as a blade.

Should Su Zhuyi feel happy?

No, at this moment, her heart suddenly sank.

She knew she had some changes, but she was still herself. What she persisted in, what she cared about, still existed.

But Qin Jianglan—he seemed to no longer be himself.

Had Qin Jianglan become someone whose heart and eyes held only her? Did he only care about matters related to her?

This wasn’t normal.

Rather, it was like gradually sinking, falling into demonic obsession.

“Remove her Gu,” Qin Jianglan said, looking at Miaoshe Shiqi. His hand gripping the Songfeng Sword trembled slightly, blue veins protruding on the back of his hand, his knuckles pale, showing he was using great force.

“She doesn’t love you anymore?” Miaoshe Shiqi could barely keep his eyes open, looking barely alive. “Are you very afraid?”

“If I die, this Gu worm can never be removed.” He chuckled twice. “I think I might not make it.”

After saying this, his body tilted, and he fell directly from the large tree.

The tree was very tall. When he fell, he didn’t use any techniques, had no defenses on his body, and was already barely alive—falling would certainly be bad for him.

Miaoshe Shiqi temporarily couldn’t control the Love Gu to affect her emotions because she was now also at the Core Formation stage, with equal cultivation, so his soul’s influence was weak. But weak didn’t mean completely absent—like now, seeing him fall from high altitude, Su Zhuyi felt a bit nervous.

She used a grasping technique to catch Miaoshe Shiqi, but just as she raised her hand, she saw Qin Jianglan act. His flying sword shot out and pierced Miaoshe Shiqi’s shoulder, passing by his shoulder clothes without injuring his body, but pinning Miaoshe Shiqi entirely to the tree trunk.

Qin Jianglan walked expressionlessly to the tree base. “I guarantee you won’t die.”

“If you don’t remove the Gu,” he looked at Miaoshe Shiqi and said flatly, “you’ll wish you were dead.”