Bao Sheng said nothing in answer. She simply stared at the Gu worm in the bowl with a face full of terror, watching it swell larger and larger until in the blink of an eye it was the size of a fist. She let out a shrill, despairing scream and scrambled toward Qing Xuzi on all fours, crying, “Reverend, save me! Save me, Reverend!”

Before her words even faded, the worm’s body burst open with a snap. In the next instant, a blood-red moth came flying out, making a beeline straight for Bao Sheng.

Bao Sheng had already gone white with terror. The blood moth flew nearer and nearer, yet Qing Xuzi merely watched her with cold eyes — with no intention of intervening. In despair she shoved him aside and, clinging to one last thread of hope, fled toward the exit.

But however fast she ran, how could she outpace that moth, swift as lightning? In an instant the blood moth had caught up and flew straight into her body.

Qing Xuzi shook his head and said with a sigh, “Heaven’s retribution may yet be forgiven — but the retribution one brings upon oneself is inescapable. The moment you used Gu Poison to harm another, you should have foreseen this day!”

Though the Golden Gu had entered her body, it had not yet taken full effect for the time being, and the hope that had died in Bao Sheng flickered back to life. She crawled on her knees to Qing Xuzi’s feet and kowtowed heavily, again and again. “Reverend, I know I was wrong. I did not intend to harm anyone. It was that maidservant who had accidentally witnessed me placing the Gu upon Young Master Lin the Fourth and threatened to expose me, extorting money from me again and again without end. I had no choice — no choice but to act against her. I have been racked with remorse ever since. Reverend, I know I was wrong. Your cultivation is profound and your heart is full of compassion — please, have mercy. Please save me!”

Yun Shao, who had been stunned speechless by the scene before her, heard these words and spoke in a daze. “So… you placed a Gu on Young Master Lin the Fourth… to steal him for yourself…”

Bao Sheng immediately spun around and looked at Yun Shao with venomous hatred. “What right do you have to accuse me? If it weren’t for you, how would I have come to this? Last Mid-Autumn Festival, we strolled the streets together — it was clearly I who encountered Young Master Lin the Fourth first. Why did you deliberately try to win his favor in front of him? What were your intentions? I know you have always been sharp and competitive, always wanting to outdo me in everything. In the past I never quarreled with you over it, but why did you have to go after Young Master Lin the Fourth as well?”

“So you placed a Gu on him to take him back?” Qing Xuzi fixed his cold gaze on Bao Sheng. “Even resorting to such a vicious Gu technique to harm the innocent — and all for your own selfish desires?”

The Gu poison within Bao Sheng’s body was beginning to take effect. Threads of blood had started to seep from the corners of her eyes, and within her abdomen something akin to the force of a thousand pounds churned and ground. She grew increasingly panicked and, enduring the pain, clutched at Qing Xuzi’s sleeve. “Reverend, please save me quickly — I will never harm anyone again! I was simply confused for a moment. You are a compassionate soul — can you bear to watch me die a wretched death at your feet?!”

Qing Xuzi inwardly sighed. He had originally only intended to use the Gu worm to identify the host. He had not anticipated that the Gu poison would be this fierce and would turn against its host so violently. Seeing the state Bao Sheng was in, it was likely even a deity could do nothing to save her.

He used a mind-calming spell, attempting to help Bao Sheng suppress the Gu poison within her body — but Bao Sheng’s color grew more and more withered and darkened, increasingly ashen and black. She was already beyond saving.

He sighed, then asked Bao Sheng quietly, “Do you know who the other two hosts are? Where are they now?”

The color of Bao Sheng’s face suddenly brightened with the glow of a final fleeting spark. “If I tell the Reverend — will you save me?”

Qing Xuzi only remained silent. He could not bring himself to deceive a dying person.

Bao Sheng still refused to give up hope. She endured the bone-devouring agony and forced out only a few fragmentary words. “There is a host… who is at… the Great…”

The last glimmer of light in her eyes dimmed and went dark — like a candle flame in the wind, extinguished without a sound — and she sank into endless darkness.

Qin Yao watched as the face that had still been as lovely as a flower just a moment before instantly withered away. Though it was entirely of her own making, she could not help but feel a sorrowful desolation rise within her.

A silence like death filled the room. After a while, someone began to sob softly, and gradually the sound grew into a whole chorus of quiet weeping. Qin Yao looked up and was astonished to find that the one weeping most bitterly of all was Yun Shao.

Qing Xuzi recited a passage of a rebirth sutra for Bao Sheng, then rose in silence with a furrowed brow. “The worm body within Bao Sheng is dead. The second worm body will soon impel its host to act. I fear it will not be long before another innocent person dies an unjust death. Time is short — we must find the second host as quickly as possible.”

On the way back to Qingyun Temple, Qing Xuzi sighed and said, “The Eternal Bond is truly a formidable and sinister thing. By rights this Gu technique should have vanished from the world over a hundred years ago — and yet here we are. I don’t know where Bao Sheng could possibly have acquired it.”

Qin Yao asked with puzzlement, “Master, why would a perfectly ordinary Gu technique be given such a name as ‘Eternal Bond’? Is there some lore behind it?”

Qing Xuzi stroked his beard and said, “This Gu technique was originally brought to Central China from the Miao territories a hundred years ago. They say it was created by a sorceress queen who wished to bind the heart of the one she loved. If a woman plants it within herself, it can not only bewitch a man’s heart but also be used to harm others — it is a rare dual-natured Gu technique, one that can both attract and destroy. When it spread to the previous dynasty, certain palace concubines risked planting the Gu in their bid for imperial favor, bewitching the emperor. The empress of that dynasty, upon learning of this, was consumed with revulsion and hatred. She secretly gathered extraordinary talents from across the realm, broke the concubine’s Gu technique, and the emperor, upon recovering his senses, was deeply ashamed. He thereupon issued a decree banning all Gu sorcery, decreeing that violators would have their families wiped out to the last person. Within little more than a decade thereafter, the Gu technique had gradually vanished from the world.”

“So it was made in order to win the heart of someone she loved? No wonder it is called the Eternal Bond.” Qin Yao let out a sound of astonishment, then could not help but sigh. How utterly hopeless that love must have been, for that sorceress queen to have been driven to devise a Gu technique so harmful to others and to herself alike.

Qing Xuzi seemed moved by something in this, and wore an expression of contempt as he said, “And even if one achieved what one wished for — what would one have? Nothing more than a husk that has been stripped of its true nature. When all is said and done, it is nothing more than the Gu practitioner’s own wishful thinking — self-deception, nothing more.”

As they spoke, the carriage arrived at Qingyun Temple. Just as they reached the gate, a young novice Daoist boy named Fu Yuan came running up to the carriage and said, “Reverend, you’ve finally returned! A moment ago an urgent express letter marked with an official seal arrived from Luoyang — it must be something of great importance.”

“An official letter from Luoyang?” Qing Xuzi exchanged a puzzled look with Qin Yao and A’Han, then stepped briskly into the temple.

When he unsealed and read the letter, Qing Xuzi’s brows drew themselves into a tight, deep furrow. It turned out that two days prior, a strange case had arisen in Luoyang — a headless corpse that had been dead for many days had risen on its own two feet and made its way to the Luoyang prefectural office to strike the drum in appeal for justice. The local magistrate was both startled and terrified. Having heard that the Reverend Qing Xuzi of Chang’an possessed formidable supernatural abilities, he was now requesting that Qing Xuzi travel to Luoyang in secret to assist in solving the case.

The letter further emphasized: the Reverend was requested to depart at once without delay, and upon arrival would be most generously rewarded.

“Master, shall we go?” Qin Yao, who had been standing behind Qing Xuzi and reading the letter, asked him.

Qing Xuzi stroked his chin and considered for a moment, then turned back to Qin Yao and said, “The letter describes things as quite urgent and dangerous. Your master must set out immediately. You have only just returned from Mangshan — if you were to follow your master on another night-long journey, it would be far too exhausting. You had better not come this time. A’Han, hurry and help your master pack his things — we shall set out at once.”

A’Han was momentarily startled. He quickly glanced at Qin Yao, and seeing that she showed no sign of displeasure, he relaxed and rose. “Yes, Master.”

Half an incense stick later — Qin Yao, Qing Xuzi, and A’Han loaded into the carriage. Qing Xuzi said to Qin Yao with a look of concern, “During the time your master is away from Chang’an, if there are any developments with the other two hosts, you must absolutely refrain from acting rashly on your own. Wait until your master returns from Luoyang before doing anything.”

He knew that Qin Yao was measured and careful by temperament, reliable and composed in how she handled things — but she was, after all, still very young, and her cultivation was still shallow. If she were to encounter the one who had planted the Gu, he feared she would not be able to cope, and might end up injuring herself instead.

Qin Yao saw how earnest Qing Xuzi was in his warning, and quickly nodded. “I understand — Master, please don’t worry.”

Lin Xiao had just come out of the Hall of Grand Brilliance when a crowd of civil and military officials swiftly surrounded him, every face wreathed in spring-warm smiles as they offered their congratulations. “Congratulations, Young Lord, on being personally appointed by His Majesty as General of the Southern Guard Forces.” “His Majesty has always had an unerring eye for talent — the Young Lord is indeed a man of remarkable achievement in his youth.”

The stream of congratulations rose and fell in a clamorous din. Lin Xiao patiently returned each courtesy in turn. When he finally managed to break free of the crowd, Jiang Sanlang clapped him on the shoulder and said with a low laugh, “All right — tell me. What did you go out of Chang’an to help your imperial uncle do? You must have made him extraordinarily pleased, that the moment you returned home he made you General of the Southern Guard Forces.”

Lin Xiao turned a half-smiling look on Jiang Sanlang. “You want to know?”

Jiang Sanlang paused mid-step and waited for the rest.

“Give me that fine Ferghana purple-mane horse of yours, and I’ll tell you!”

Jiang Sanlang let out an exasperated laugh. “You can keep your little secrets. If I truly want to know, I’ll find out one way or another!”

Seeing Lin Xiao turn to walk away, he had no choice but to give it up and said, “Fine, fine. We won’t speak of it then. Today my little brother has been promoted — your elder brother here will play host. Let’s go to Risheng Tower and have a proper drink.”

Lin Xiao said with disdain, “If we’re drinking, we’re drinking. What is this about putting gold on your own face? What manner of elder brother are you to me—”

Chang Rong followed behind the two of them, shaking his head with helpless sigh after helpless sigh. The day that these two masters of his could spend time together without bickering and squabbling would truly be the day the sun rose in the west.