With that lunge, Baili Weisheng actually grabbed hold of the Gu-nanny and rolled straight into the fire with her.
Everything happened too fast. The Gu-nanny hadn’t anticipated this at all—flames scorching her flesh, she shrieked over and over, “Let go! Beast, let go of me!”
But how could Baili Weisheng possibly let go? He’d always been the kind of man who never did things by halves—with a huge swath of his scale armor already ruined by poison, how could he possibly let the Gu-nanny go now?
Today, even if it meant burning the Gu-nanny alive with his own hands, he was determined to get hold of the three scrolls of ancient scripture she carried on her, to find the secret of opening the Poison Beast World.
Once fire caught on a person, it spread with terrifying speed. The Gu-nanny struggled desperately, her back pressed to the ground, rolling this way and that—putting out the flames on her back only for her hair, her limbs, both sides of her body to catch fire instead. The flames couldn’t touch Baili Weisheng, yet they caught on her with ease.
If this continued, she would surely burn to death!
Baili Weisheng had turned utterly ruthless, absolutely devilish in that moment. Ignoring the poison still spreading across his own scale armor, he pinned the Gu-nanny down with one hand while the other dug frantically through her sleeves and robes!
“Gu-boy, you ungrateful wretch—I raised you, didn’t I! Without me you’d have starved to death long ago!”
“Let go of me, beast, let go!”
“Are you letting go or not!”
“Aaah…”
At first the Gu-nanny had still been able to shout curses, but soon all her rage dissolved into shrieks of agony—being burned alive was truly worse than death! Her hair had burned away entirely, the flames now licking at her very scalp.
This couldn’t go on! If it continued, she would die!
“Baili Weisheng, I’ll tell you, I’ll tell you everything!”
“Let go of me, and I’ll tell you everything!”
“You won’t understand the scriptures anyway—let me go and I’ll tell you!”
…
Who in this world didn’t fear death? Faced with it directly, even the Gu-nanny was afraid, weeping and begging for mercy. But Baili Weisheng paid her no mind—clearly he hadn’t come only for the ancient scriptures, but for the Gu-nanny’s life as well!
Finally, his hand searching through her sleeve paused—he’d found it!
The three scrolls of ancient scripture, rolled together and bound to the Gu-nanny’s withered, bony arm. By now, most of the scale armor on Baili Weisheng’s chest had been destroyed by the poison, crumbling to ash as though burned by fire itself! And the poison was still spreading—but he didn’t care at all.
A cold, sharp glint flashed in his eyes as he ripped the three scrolls free!
But! Just at that moment, the Gu-nanny’s hand came free, and she immediately clawed straight at Baili Weisheng’s chest. He startled and spun away to dodge!
But the Gu-nanny’s claw-like fingers shot out several needles, all striking “clink, clink, clink” against Baili Weisheng’s shoulder!
Fortunately!
Fortunately the golden scales on that shoulder hadn’t been destroyed yet, blocking that potentially lethal strike for him—those silver needles of the Gu-nanny’s were poisoned, after all!
Of the few poisons effective against him, once poisoned there was no turning back—it meant certain death.
This was exactly why the Gu-nanny hadn’t used them before, resorting to poison only now that she had no other choice.
The golden scales on his shoulder had saved his life, but like the scales on his chest, they too soon began to burn like fire, slowly crumbling into ash.
Once Baili Weisheng dodged, the now-free Gu-nanny paid no mind whatsoever to the fire still consuming her body, both hands flinging poisoned silver needles at Baili Weisheng one after another!
And every single one aimed straight at the exposed areas of his chest and shoulders where the scale armor had already burned away!
“Give me back the scriptures, or I’ll kill you!”
The Gu-nanny seemed to have gone mad, needles flying endlessly from her hands as though they would never run out. By now, even the sound of footsteps and shouts of firefighters from outside couldn’t reach her attention.
Without the scriptures, she had no way to fix things—her lifetime of effort, her dream, all of it would go to waste. She’d thrown everything into this, cared about nothing else!
But Baili Weisheng, now in possession of the scriptures, couldn’t afford to stay calm. He knew he had to flee immediately.
If he didn’t flee now, he really would be throwing his life away.
He tucked the ancient scriptures beneath his scale armor, dodging needles while edging toward the window.
“Think you can just leave? Not that easy!”
The Gu-nanny lunged at him like a madwoman, but fortunately, just then, a burning roof beam suddenly crashed down, landing squarely between them!
Baili Weisheng seized the chance to dive through the window. The soldiers rushing to fight the fire outside all froze in place, watching from a distance as a golden, glimmering figure flew out of the scripture pavilion and landed in the courtyard.
“What was that?”
“Looked like a person!”
“No way, it looked more like a fish!”
“Are you two seeing things?”
“Hey, hey, quit standing around, hurry and help put out the fire! Quick!”
…
The blaze was enormous, and everyone had no time to spare for anything else. But Minhan Mude’er took notice, quietly instructing several nearby guards, “Go search that courtyard, find out exactly what happened!”
With that, he leapt urgently toward the scripture pavilion—whatever had happened, his aunt was still inside, and saving her came first.
Baili Weisheng had originally planned to flee directly, but the poison kept spreading across his scale armor. Though the armor had protected him, its destruction felt to him like a knife carving into his very heart.
He truly had no strength left to keep fleeing, and with the armor poisoned, he wouldn’t be able to return to human form for a while—he had no choice but to hide!
Thankfully, after all these years, nothing here had changed—the lake from his memory was still there!
Not long after he dove in, several guards came chasing after him!
Once in the water, he swam desperately downward—both to hide, and to wash the poison from his scales!
Only once he’d sunk down into the deepest depths of the water did he finally let out a great gasp of breath, his entire body suddenly going limp, enveloped in a faint golden glow.
But the poison on his scales wasn’t entirely washed away by the water—much of it had already seeped into the scales themselves, continuing to spread toward the unpoisoned scales nearby.
At this moment, Baili Weisheng’s face, lit by the shimmering golden water-light, looked unusually pale and grave.
He’d shed his usual cavalier air, his brow now solemn as though he were some ancient deity beneath the water.
He had only two choices before him—either let the poison spread through all his scales and destroy his true form, or tear out the still-uninfected scales, cutting a firebreak through his own layered armor, just as one would fight a wildfire.
Did he have any real choice?
He made his decision at once, tucking a lock of his golden hair between his teeth, gripping a still-intact patch of scale on his chest, and yanking it free with a violent motion!
The instant the scale was torn away, blood sprayed out.
However much it hurt, he lowered his head, eyes narrowed and steady, teeth gritted, showing himself no mercy at all, tearing them free one after another.
He had no idea how much time passed, but finally, every scale in a ring across his chest had been torn away. With no medium left to carry it, the poison in that central section could no longer spread—and once that ring of scale turned to ash, the poison vanished along with it!
The same went for his shoulder.
By now, Baili Weisheng leaned weakly against the rock wall, his entire body bathed in shimmering golden light, though a great swath of fish and shrimp around him had already been poisoned to death without his noticing.
His chest and shoulder felt as though the skin had been flayed off, raw and bleeding, agonizing.
He tilted his head back slightly, eyes tightly closed, one hand hanging limp at his side, the other pressed against his waist—where the three scrolls of ancient scripture were hidden.