The black-clothed woman froze. That golden scorpion looked extremely fierce—clearly not a benign creature. Waves of sharp pain transmitted from her shoulder, but it quickly disappeared. She raised her arm and discovered no abnormalities. This didn’t make sense. This wasn’t right. This kind of sensation was wrong.

When she turned back to look for Xiao Wu, she discovered she had already dove headfirst into the small room. The door was tightly shut, and she was lying at the window, smiling cheerfully while watching her with an extremely proud expression. The swaddling on the ground had already come undone, and an exquisite cloth doll lay face-up on the ground, its two black gemstone eyes coldly watching her.

The illogical was the most logical. From Fox Charmer’s mocking smile, the black-clothed woman clearly understood that today she was definitely going to die. Facing Fox Charmer and Bin Meiren, she shouldn’t have been so careless in the first place. Last time she had been injured by their vicious hidden weapon and lost an arm. Now she had once again fallen into their trap.

Xiao Wu lightly parted her vermillion lips and giggled at the black-clothed woman, saying: “Say whatever you need to say now. For the sake of us both being the same type of people, I will definitely carry out your last words.”

The black-clothed woman said coldly: “This is the rule to begin with. Do you dare not follow it?”

Hearing these words from the black-clothed woman that clearly acknowledged defeat, Xiao Wu laughed even more happily, shaking a finger white as a scallion: “It’s not the same. You still have half a two-hour period. You can make more requests. Let me warn you though—iron plates are embedded in the walls of this room. You won’t be able to break down this room within half a two-hour period, so don’t waste your energy. Hurry up and say your last words. If you don’t speak, I have quite a few things I want to ask you.”

“What strange species is that scorpion?” The black-clothed woman still began asking questions.

“That thing looks like a scorpion but actually isn’t a scorpion. Actually, you can call it a gu.” Xiao Wu couldn’t help but correct her. Although this thing no longer had any toxicity, it truly was a monster that Huo Zhu had fed with his own blood for six years to cultivate. Calling it a gu insect wasn’t wrong in the slightest.

“Gu?” The black-clothed woman struggled to spit out this word from her throat. “Why is it golden colored?”

Xiao Wu naturally wouldn’t say she had always treated the scorpion as a pet to amuse the child. Having this thing by the child’s side meant no poisonous insects, mosquitoes, or flies dared approach. Being reddish would frighten the child, so she had painted it golden with gold powder.

“This is hard to say. A few days ago it was still red. Becoming golden is a recent development. Ask about important matters. Don’t get entangled in these minor details. Look, the incense has already been lit. I’m very worried it will become even more formidable and shorten the time.” Xiao Wu drew her body back a bit and looked at the black-clothed woman with a pitiful expression.

The black-clothed woman’s body swayed. After barely steadying herself, she gritted her teeth and asked again: “What are the consequences of being poisoned by the gu?”

Xiao Wu rubbed her hands together, very embarrassed: “It’s a bit hard to say. You always call me Fox Charmer, so I have to turn you into a wanton woman to be satisfied. You must be extremely beautiful. Although you’re missing an arm, my master said this kind of incomplete beauty is even more soul-stirring. Master also said that in the distant West there’s a statue called Venus that has no arms, which is why it’s breathtakingly beautiful. By the way, that statue isn’t wearing clothes. In at most half a two-hour period, you’ll become Venus, a goddess of beauty from the Eastern world. The gu poison will only erase your spiritual intelligence and can preserve your beautiful shell. At that time, I’ll invite our family’s Elder Tianmo Ji to teach you a special dance called—the Heavenly Demon Dance. You shouldn’t be unfamiliar with this dance, right?”

“Heavenly Demon Dance!” The black-clothed woman spat out these three words one by one. Although she had been secluded from the world for a long time, during this period in Chang’an she always heard these three words. She still knew about how Gaoshan Yangzi had once captivated Chang’an with the Heavenly Demon Dance. When people mentioned Yun Ye, they would inevitably mention his story of resisting the Heavenly Demon Dance. It was hard not to know about it.

The black-clothed woman was extremely angry. The black gauze dress covering her entire body moved without wind. Seeing things were not good, Xiao Wu carefully closed the window, leaving only a small crack to peek outside.

A white light flew from the black-clothed woman’s sleeve and struck the window frame with a clang. The steel window frame as thick as a child’s arm was actually cut by her with a groove two fen deep.

Seeing that the black-clothed woman’s single strike had such might, Xiao Wu’s heart secretly trembled. She was very worried the window couldn’t withstand this crazy woman’s chopping. She had only wanted to force her to commit suicide.

After the black-clothed woman viciously chopped several times, the steel longsword in her hand broke in the middle with a clang. The centermost window bar had already been chopped by her until it looked like raised fish scales.

Seeing the black-clothed woman had finally stopped, Xiao Wu’s heart that had been raised high finally settled. Hiding behind the window panel, she said: “If you’re capable, chop a few more times. Once your vital energy surges, it will only accelerate the gu poison spreading through your body. How about it, do you feel numbness in your shoulder now?”

The black-clothed woman’s complexion changed drastically. With a leap she was about to leave the courtyard. Xiao Wu laughed loudly and said: “You’d better stay here. Once you wander into the wilderness and are picked up by those village men and wild fellows, who knows, they might marry you as a wife. You’d only be able to keep giving birth to children for them, bearing one after another, giving birth until you die. I only want to have you dance the Heavenly Demon Dance. As the same type of people, I won’t excessively humiliate you. After you’re old and withered, I’ll kill you with one sword and leave you an intact corpse.”

The black-clothed woman suddenly took out a handful of silver needles from the leather pouch at her waist and with one hand stabbed them into her own shoulder. There was already a look of determination in her eyes. How could she allow others to violate her pure body?

Just as she was stabbing the needles into herself, a short crossbow bolt silently flew from the window and embedded itself in her waist and ribs. The black-clothed woman looked uncomprehendingly at Xiao Wu lying at the window watching her. She was clearly about to die already—why would Xiao Wu still do this? But waves of tingling sensations rose from her waist and ribs. Only at this moment did she understand—Fox Charmer was worried she would run away.

Seeing the black-clothed woman softly collapse to the ground, Xiao Wu happily clapped her hands. She opened the door and walked out. She had always been full of confidence in Sun Simiao’s anesthetic.

The black-clothed woman struggled to try to get up. Xiao Wu grabbed and tore off her veil, looked at this face of unparalleled beauty before her, and lightly scraped it with her finger, saying: “What a beautiful woman! It would be such a pity not to dance the Heavenly Demon Dance.”

The black-clothed woman bit down hard on her lip. Relying on the force of pain, she barely made herself lucid for an instant. From her bleeding mouth she suddenly spat out a sentence: “Primordial infant child, my heart’s lamp. Primordial infant child, my heart’s lamp! Primordial infant child…”

Xiao Wu looked at the black-clothed woman strangely, not understanding what she was doing. She watched wide-eyed as anger, hatred, and regret flowed through this woman’s eyes, slowly changing into an innocent look like a baby’s. Very naturally, she put her thumb in her mouth and began sucking on it with smacking sounds.

She actually hadn’t passed out. She dared not pass out? Grandpa Sun’s anesthetic never made mistakes!

This was too absurd. Xiao Wu kicked the black-clothed woman heavily. She heard the black-clothed woman cry “wah” and burst into loud crying, tears and snot flowing freely, extremely aggrieved.

She’s pretending—this was Xiao Wu’s first reaction. She lifted the woman’s garment and viciously pulled out the crossbow bolt she had smeared with anesthetic. “Wah, wah!” The black-clothed woman’s crying became even louder, echoing far away in the forest.

How was this possible? Xiao Wu was all too familiar with these eyes. Her own child’s eye expression was exactly like this. How could she not be familiar? Such eye expression would only appear in two types of people—one was children, the other was idiots.

It couldn’t be, could it? The scorpion had no toxicity. Xiao Wu hurriedly ran to the pile of rocks and dug out the scorpion that was already sleeping. She held its tail hook and observed it carefully.

Impossible. No matter how she looked, this thing had no difference from usual. Other scorpions’ tail hooks were all dark yellow. This fellow’s tail hook gleamed with a semi-metallic luster. Holding the tail hook, she stabbed it into the tree twice more. Two dents appeared on the bark. Indeed no venom was discharged.

“Wah wah”—the child cried. This time it was Xiao Wu’s child crying. Xiao Wu casually tossed aside the scorpion and hurriedly returned to the room. She took the child from the hidden compartment, changed the diaper, and seeing the child was still crying, pulled open her garment and stuffed her nipple into the child’s mouth. The child ate with smacking sounds, extremely sweet and content.

She suddenly felt someone peeping. Xiao Wu angrily raised her head and only then discovered the black-clothed woman lying on the ground, looking at her full breast with a face full of longing, as if she very much wanted to eat.

This made Xiao Wu’s head grow three times larger in an instant. Did this mean she not only had to nurse her own child but also nurse this adult big child?

The large copper bell in the room rang with a jingling sound. Who was this? Randomly ringing the bell—Grandpa Li Gang only rang it four times, yet this person dared to disregard the rules and ring it dozens of times.

Holding the child, she left the small courtyard and poked her head out to look toward the end of the small path. She was startled. She saw Zhangsun standing at the end of the small path, pacing back and forth with her hands behind her back. Behind her followed Princess Zizi. Duan Hong was bowing at the waist, serving at the side. This couldn’t be neglected. Xiao Wu hurriedly returned to the courtyard, grabbed the scorpion that had returned to its nest again, held its tail hook, and went toward the end of the small path to greet them.

The first thing Zhangsun asked when she saw Xiao Wu was whether that black-clothed woman was dead.

“Not dead yet, but…”

Zhangsun let out a long sigh of relief, patting her chest and saying: “Good that she’s not dead, good that she’s not dead. Being injured doesn’t matter—Master Sun will heal her. As long as she’s alive, it’s good.”

Hearing these words left Xiao Wu completely confused. Could it be that this black-clothed woman had some entanglement with the imperial family? Her heart was raised high once again.

“Take me in.” Zhangsun gave Xiao Wu no chance to think. She stepped forward and walked toward the forest. Duan Hong’s two eyes widened like copper bells, and the robe on his body seemed to billow up. He saw that everywhere here were terrifying poisonous creatures.

Xiao Wu hurriedly threw the scorpion she was holding to the ground. She saw the poisonous creatures on both sides of the path disappear without a trace almost instantly. A centipede that ran slightly slower was pinned to the ground by the scorpion’s tail hook. Only after being clamped in two by the scorpion’s large pincers and gradually devoured did the scorpion’s fury seem to subside. It led Zhangsun’s group toward the small courtyard.