The ground soaked in blood, Ziqing and Situ Haonan both collapsed flat on their backs, gazing up at the deep, brilliant blue sky.
They both knew Jun Beiyue must be worried sick by now.
But they truly needed to rest—just a little longer, just a little longer!
Situ Haonan kept telling himself this—just a moment more and he’d be fine, and even if he had to carry Ziqing on his back, he’d get her before Jun Beiyue. Ziqing, her hands limp and powerless, had to admit that at this moment, what she wanted most was for Jun Beiyue to appear before her, to give her a warm embrace, to let her nestle in and sleep for a while.
Exhausted to the point where the pain throughout her body had gradually gone numb, yet the pain in her hands, rather than easing, only grew worse and worse.
In the deep blue sky, the warm red sun was slowly moving toward its zenith, signaling that noon was approaching!
Hiding nearby, Nanny Gu was filled with barely containable joy and excitement, and at this moment, she too was watching that red sun in the sky.
As a priestess, she not only presided over various ceremonies but was also well versed in astronomy, and she could tell at a single glance that something was off about this sun.
Including this deep blue sky—too clear, too pure a blue—this was the calm before a coming storm!
She knew that once the red sun reached its zenith, everything would change!
The great day recorded in the scriptures had arrived!
“Heh heh heh!”
Nanny Gu could barely contain herself, touching this, touching that, spinning in circles again and again, sitting down only to stand right back up—not restlessness, but sheer excitement!
Truly, unbearably excited!
Having finally caught someone immune to all yin-type poisons, she couldn’t allow herself the slightest mistake—she had already prepared everything.
According to the scriptures, this was the most primal, most ancient method of raising gu, and also the method guaranteed to succeed one hundred percent!
As long as she seized today’s opportunity!
The Jiazi year, Jiazi month, Jiazi day—precisely the time for raising gu, precisely the day the gates to the world of venomous beasts would swing wide open!
As long as she planted the gu worm she’d prepared into that girl’s body before the gates to the world of venomous beasts opened, then no matter where the girl went, her mind would be completely under her control!
And thus, the raising of the human gu would begin!
To raise a yin-type human gu, one must first cultivate the mind, because cultivating the mind was the easiest part—a yang-type human gu possessed the most unyielding willpower, the hardest to control, while a yin-type human gu was the complete opposite!
Her temperament, her willpower, was the most fragile—her very soul was born that way!
But her body, though it appeared fragile, had in fact been tempered through countless trials and was actually remarkably strong!
Once she implanted the gu worm and gained control of the girl’s spirit, that would complete the mental cultivation.
In truth, cultivating the mind was so simple it barely counted as cultivation at all—the real trouble lay in cultivating the body!
Cultivating the body was the truly troublesome part—it required confining her for a long time, at minimum a hundred days, at most a full year, locked together with poisonous, venomous beasts, killing and devouring each other, until whatever survived at the end became the human gu!
Perhaps what survived would still be this girl; perhaps what survived would already be some twisted, monstrous fusion of beast and girl!
Either way, it would be called a human gu, and it would forever be under her control!
The more Nanny Gu thought about it, the more excited she became!
She waited, forcibly suppressing her excitement and thrill, crouching beside the blood lizard, waiting together with it!
According to the scriptures, on the Jiazi year, Jiazi month, Jiazi day, when the red sun hung directly overhead, the northwest wind would topple Mingsha Mountain, bury Akbachu, and open the gates of hell!
This was the greatest secret recorded in the scriptures!
It was also the greatest secret among all the secrets of Solitary Island!
Even the Nanzhao royal family had never been able to fully decipher the scriptures—they only knew that beneath Mingsha Mountain lay an entrance to the world of venomous beasts, but had no idea that Mingsha Mountain itself was fated to one day collapse!
In truth, there were two secrets to Solitary Island!
One was the secret of Mingsha Mountain; the other was the location of Solitary Island itself, hidden within the secret of Lishang!
Even Nanzhao couldn’t distinguish between these two secrets, unable to tell which clues pointed to the secret of Mingsha Mountain and which pointed to the location of Solitary Island!
The secret the Nangong royal family had guarded was the secret of an underground world beneath Mingsha Mountain, yet they had no idea that certain clues pointed to Mingsha Mountain itself—they could only cast a wide net, preferring to make mistakes rather than miss anything!
And all of this, Nanny Gu and Baili Weisheng understood clearly—the only difference being that Baili Weisheng didn’t know Mingsha Mountain would collapse!
While Nanny Gu had figured it out completely!
Raising a human gu was no easy feat—only a naive, inexperienced girl like Yanzi would so readily believe in secrets passed down from ancestors.
Raising venomous beasts, then using those venomous beasts to raise a human gu—that was essentially impossible to achieve.
Only truly natural, genuine venomous beasts, and in vast quantities, could produce a formidable human gu!
Which meant only the world of venomous beasts beneath Mingsha Mountain could provide what was needed!
“Little girl, little girl, turn around and let this old nanny get a good look at what you look like!”
“After today, in another hundred days, your appearance might just change… heh heh…”
“Little girl, don’t blame this old nanny for being so cruel. Whose fault is it that you’re an orphan of Solitary Island, that you’re immune to all poisons? Whose fault is it that you had to come at exactly this moment, no earlier, no later?”
…
Nanny Gu chuckled low and eerie, terrifying and strange, carefully pulling the blood lizard back into her sleeve to hide it away, glancing up at the sky before breaking into sinister laughter once more.
At this moment, Ziqing and Situ Haonan, exhausted to the point of nearly falling asleep, remained utterly unaware of the danger surrounding them!
Meanwhile, within Akbachu City, Jun Beiyue was practically on the verge of madness. The moment he reached Yelu Qianqian’s chambers, he kicked the door open at once, demanding coldly, “Where is Situ Haonan!”
Yelu Qianqian stared, dumbstruck. She’d been desperately trying every way she could think of to get out, turning things over and over in her mind, feeling that something was terribly wrong, thinking she absolutely had to tell Jun Beiyue!
Yet she never expected this man would come kicking the door down like this!
Seeing Yelu Qianqian frozen in shock, Jun Beiyue had no patience to wait, his tone terrifyingly fierce. “Speak!”
Yelu Qianqian startled, instinctively stepping back in fear. “I… I…”
What she’d meant to say got tangled up in her fright, her lips and teeth trembling, her words incoherent.
“Where is she!” Jun Beiyue’s entire body shook with fury, nearly on the verge of coughing up blood.
“Mingsha… Mingsha… Mingsha Cave! Haonan tricked her into going…”
Before Yelu Qianqian even finished speaking, Jun Beiyue had already vanished. Many skilled fighters were present, yet truly, none of them knew how he’d disappeared.
Mingsha Cave!
Mingsha Cave!
Jun Beiyue was, of course, rushing toward Mingsha Cave, but the moment he left the palace, he suddenly stopped dead in his tracks!
What was happening?
Wasn’t he in a desperate hurry? What could possibly make him stop?
He saw—he saw that the once deep blue sky had, without anyone noticing when, suddenly gathered storm clouds, growing dense and dark!
Just moments ago everything had been perfectly clear, yet now the sky had darkened all at once—no one knew where these clouds had gathered from!
What was happening?
Not only had the sky changed—standing at the palace gate, Jun Beiyue felt the northwest wind too, no longer its usual gentle breeze but a howling gale growing stronger and stronger, on the verge of raging out of control!
An ominous premonition surged through his heart. With no time to spare, he turned and headed toward Mingsha Mountain, but the wind grew fiercer and fiercer, so fierce that even he couldn’t employ his lightness skill…
…
A word to readers:
Ahem, if updates stay on schedule this time, we’ll be back to normal! Special thanks to fan “Qinwang” on the fan ranking board—everyone go check them out! Also, don’t forget to vote for Poison Pampered Mercenary Consort—every account gets a vote each day.