"Hahahaha..."
Yu Konghou's black hair was disheveled, his entire body drenched in blood. With great effort, he pulled the "Xianglan Xiao" from his chest and tossed the venomous object aside. The heavy "Xianglan Xiao" clinked faintly as it hit the ground and rolled away. From his blood-soaked clothes, Yu Konghou fished out a small bundle saturated with fresh blood.
The bundle was rough and crude, as if made from dried plant leaves.
Unwrapping the yellowed leaf package, inside lay a translucent, golden silk-woven egg sac.
Faintly visible within the sac were tiny, crystalline eggs of some creature. Beside the sac, some of the hatched offspring were already crawling slowly.
They were minuscule spiders.
Each bore a faint golden-green hue on its back.
They climbed onto Yu Konghou's fingers and bit through his skin.
These were Gu Pearls.
Yu Konghou sat by the table, allowing hundreds of tiny Gu Pearls to pierce his flesh. The translucent specks sprayed fine venom and silk threads, which, under the candlelight, seemed to form a shimmering, multicolored mist rising from his bloodstained hands.
As the tiny Gu Pearls expelled their minuscule venom, rustling sounds emerged in the secret chamber. Common underground crawlers approached Yu Konghou but perished one after another beneath his bloodied robes. His pallid face flickered with shifting hues of poison—blue and purple—as the Gu Pearl venom seeped deeper into his organs. Gradually, his expression shifted from one of agonized fury to numb tranquility, and finally, to a semblance of serenity.
He could not be the one who kills.
But he could be the blade that kills.
After all, Yu Konghou would rather be ground to dust than live beneath another.
Whoever looked down on him would die.
Bai Suche and Tang Lizhen—these two must die in the most excruciating manner.
At that moment, a clatter sounded as a small hole, just large enough for a hand, opened in the secret chamber's door. A shadowy figure flitted past outside, pushing in some food and water, among which was a bottle of "healing medicine."
What kind of medicine it truly was, Yu Konghou no longer needed to ponder. The Gu Pearl venom coursed through him, rendering even food and water unnecessary.
As the small hole opened and closed, a few of the tiniest Gu Pearls drifted out on elongated silk threads, silently settling into the dim passageways of the Wandering Eyebrow Garden.
Qing Yan hurried ahead, unaware of why Bai Suche had invited Yu Konghou into the secret chamber. The order claimed it was to treat the Revered Master Yu's injuries. Though she didn't entirely believe it, she didn't care. Her loyalty lay solely with Sister Su Su. Whether it was Revered Master Yu, Revered Master Liu, or any other Revered Master, it made no difference to her.
Only Sister Su Su cared for the lives of her sisters, managed their daily needs, arranged their shifts and rest, and tended to them through winter's chill and summer's heat.
She knew the Frivolous Shop was no good place, and that Sister Su Su was no saint. But what did it matter? Though young, she understood that life was short, and to meet someone willing to care for you through the seasons was rare.
Qing Yan moved swiftly, her skirts stirring a faint breeze. The delicate silk threads of the Gu Pearls clung to her hem, following her into Bai Suche's bedroom.
The encampment of the Central Plains Sword Assembly.Tied up with multiple ropes and having seventeen or eighteen acupoints sealed, Wang Lingqiu lay in a dirt pit outside Cheng Yunpao's tent. The old man was covered in poison, and his "Summoning Lantern" technique was unpredictable. Thus, the Red Maiden ordered his outer robe removed, leaving only his undergarments, binding him with iron chains, sealing his acupoints, and tossing him outside the tent of Cheng Yunpao—the strongest martial artist in the Central Plains Sword Assembly—as a precaution.
However, Cheng Yunpao and Gu Xitan had failed in their assassination attempt on Yu Konghou and had since gone missing, never returning.
Wang Lingqiu was left abandoned outside the now-empty tent, guarded by Dongfang Jian and Yu Furen.
At midnight, the motionless Wang Lingqiu suddenly opened his eyes.
A frenzied fervor surged in his dull, lifeless pupils.
The Gu spider stirred.
Far away, thousands of miles distant.
An old spider the size of a bowl abruptly died, its eight legs curling inward as it dropped from a pale golden web.
Someone sat in the darkness, lifting a pair of ivory-carved chopsticks to pick up the dead spider. Holding it over a candle flame, they burned it repeatedly until a still-wriggling black Gu worm emerged from the spider's abdomen.
They soaked the Gu worm in a cup of strong liquor.
The wine was crimson as blood, thick and murky.
They swallowed both the liquor and the Gu worm in one gulp.
The Gu spider stirred.
The child lives, the mother dies.
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