At the very moment that unfamiliar consciousness beyond her control appeared in Ziqing’s mind, a faint pain also stirred in her chest.

The pain felt familiar — Ziqing quickly recognized it as the same pain that had come from whatever the Gu Nanny had shot into her chest, back in the tornado.

Because of this pain, her attention scattered somewhat, and it was in that very moment that the unfamiliar consciousness in her mind suddenly grew sharp and clear.

“Submit to my will. Only I can help you break free from the shackles of your fate.”

“Great Gu God, forgive the foolishness of your child. I shall guide this girl onto the righteous path in your stead!”

…

The voice carried the solemn weight of a high priestess of some religious order. Setting aside what it actually said, the voice alone was so grave, so dignified, that it inspired an inexplicable sense of awe.

But Ziqing had never been someone easily awed by anyone. To this day, aside from Jun Beiyue, no one in her heart had ever earned the right to be called “awe-inspiring.”

Ziqing wasn’t shaken by it in the slightest, though she listened carefully all the same — she wanted to understand exactly what was going on.

Why, after all this time since she’d crossed over into this world, was someone only now trying to seize control of this body?

Over these years, she had inherited everything that came with this body, had borne everything that came with it — the two had long since become one and the same.

If someone thought they could contest that, could seize control of her heart — they could think again.

She was, after all, someone who had crossed over from another world — before that, she had been the most iron-willed mercenary that world had ever known.

A mercenary whose soul lived on even after her body had died!

If this had still been the original owner of this body — that timid, cowardly concubine’s daughter of the Han household, utterly lacking in willpower — perhaps that consciousness could have seized control with ease.

But the Han Ziqing of today was no longer that same Han Ziqing!

No one — no one at all — would ever be allowed to control her.

That voice echoed on in Ziqing’s mind, growing louder, each word coming through more and more clearly.

“Little one, have you ever been bullied? Have you ever crouched cowering in some corner, weeping in fear?”

“Little one, from the day you were born until now, have you ever once known happiness? Has anyone ever once sheltered you?”

“Come, come into my embrace. I can protect you. I can make sure you never cry again, never, ever again!”

“Come into my arms. Here, with me, you will fulfill every bold dream you’ve ever had, do everything you’ve never dared to do. Little one, belong to me, and I will avenge you in your stead — I will hunt down every wicked soul who ever made you weep, and see that they never, ever find forgiveness.”

Ziqing listened to all of this in silence, feeling as though every word had been crafted specifically for that other Han Ziqing — the true, original one, the unloved concubine’s daughter of the Prime Minister’s household.

She could easily imagine that if the timid, cowardly Han Ziqing had heard these words, she would have thrown herself forward without hesitation, desperate for shelter and protection.

People, in truth, fell into only two kinds — those who, when wounded, could heal themselves, and those who, when wounded, needed someone else to tend to them. No one existed who was simply incapable of being wounded at all.

As it happened, Ziqing belonged firmly to the former kind. And so, all this honeyed talk, all this seductive coaxing echoing in her mind, sounded to her like nothing more than empty nonsense.

She didn’t need it!

She pressed her lips tightly together, and in her heart, word by word, delivered a resounding counterattack.

“I, Han Ziqing, need no one’s protection — I can protect myself!”

“I, Han Ziqing, need no one’s comfort — I never shed tears!”

“I, Han Ziqing, need no one’s backing — I have always taken full responsibility for my own actions!”

Trying to buy her heart? Impossible.

That voice, unmistakably her own, rang out powerfully in her mind, and in an instant it shattered that unfamiliar voice entirely. At the very same moment, something in her chest seemed to burst apart with a sudden “crack,” and the faint pain stopped at once.

Ziqing’s pale little face was drenched in sweat, but her tightly pressed lips gradually began to loosen.

Her consciousness was finally beginning to return — it seemed she might wake at any moment.

And at almost that exact same instant, high above on solid ground, hidden behind a dune, the small black Gu worm clutched in the Gu Nanny’s hand suddenly shattered into pieces, as if some force had erupted from within it, shaking it apart until nothing remained but its shattered remains!

The Gu Nanny stared, stunned, gazing in disbelief at the ruined corpse of the heart-devouring Gu worm in her hand, taking a long, long moment to recover.

How could this be!

“No, no, no — it’s not possible!”

She refused to believe it. How could this possibly have failed?

That girl had already been drawn down into the underground world by the poisonous energy of the poisonous-beast realm — she was, without question, a genuine yin-natured being immune to all poisons. How could she possibly have broken free of the heart-devouring Gu’s control so easily?

The Gu Nanny stared at the wreckage in her hand, her face draining of all color.

The heart-devouring Gu worms came in pairs — one implanted into the heart of the person to be controlled, the other kept in the master’s own possession. The two worms lived and died as one!

So long as the master retained control over the worm in her possession, she could nurture the heart of the one being controlled, dominating their will, bending them entirely to her command!

Even if that person were at the very ends of the earth, so long as she remained alive, control could still be maintained!

A yin-natured being immune to all poisons was, in fact, the ideal target for this kind of heart-cultivation — for while such a person possessed an extraordinarily resilient body, their soul tended to be correspondingly fragile: timid, easily frightened, prone to tears, eager to avoid conflict, accustomed to submission.

After all, a person’s physical constitution could be altered through medicine — but a person’s soul was far, far harder to change.

“How could this be…”

The Gu Nanny shook her head slowly, unconsciously, staring at the lifeless heart-devouring Gu worm in her hand. Suddenly, a thought struck her, and the word burst from her lips before she could stop it — “Dead?”

Could it be that the girl herself had died?

And so the other heart-devouring Gu worm had died right along with her!

But that seemed impossible, too!

That body of hers, frail as it appeared, was in truth far more resilient than any ordinary person’s — death wouldn’t come to her so easily.

And besides, she had only entered the poisonous-beast world a few days ago at most — how could this possibly have happened so quickly?

The Gu Nanny turned the matter over and over in her mind, unable to make sense of it, but one thing was beyond doubt — she had lost all control over Ziqing entirely. In other words, the cultivation of the Gu had failed.

“No, no, no… this can’t be happening, it mustn’t be like this!”

The gravity of the situation was beginning to dawn on the Gu Nanny — all her efforts, undone at the very last step. She had paid such a tremendous price for this, had defied the direct decree of the Xiongnu royal house, had refused to return all this time — all of it, for the sake of this human Gu.

But now, even she had lost all contact with that girl, with no idea whether she was alive or dead, no idea what had actually happened to her.

How could this be happening!

If she returned to the Xiongnu now, she would face nothing less than the most brutal execution!

“No, no, no!”

The Gu Nanny murmured “no, no, no” over and over, her hands trembling as she flipped frantically through the thick scriptures once more, desperate to find where she had gone wrong, to search through every page with painstaking care.

Everything had been so carefully calculated — how could it possibly have failed?

And even as the Gu Nanny spiraled toward the brink of madness and collapse, out across the vast desert of West Jing, people were still searching everywhere — Yelu Qianqian, Yingzi, none of them had given up the search yet…