Rescuing the Blue Butterfly

Li Qingzhe suddenly stopped in his tracks.

In front of him was a seemingly ordinary blue brick wall.

But without any hesitation, his withered fingers quickly formed a hand seal, forcing a drop of pitch-black essence blood from his fingertip and pressing it onto an inconspicuous bulge in the corner of the wall.

"Buzz—"

A faint sound of mechanisms clicking rang out.

The blue brick slowly sank inward, then slid to one side, revealing a hidden compartment only the size of a palm.

Inside the compartment quietly sat a coarse black clay jar.

The jar's surface had no patterns, only sealed at the mouth with a type of red clay, faintly exuding a cloyingly sweet fragrance that made one's heart palpitate.

That was... the scent of the Concentric Gu.

"Hehe... hehehe..."

"Found it... finally found it..."

"The ancient Concentric Gu... that not even the Miao frontier managed to pass down."

His breathing became rapid, his throat making a wheezing sound like a bellows.

He turned his head and looked at the dull-eyed Lan Caidie behind him, the corners of his mouth splitting into an extremely exaggerated curve, revealing a mouthful of teeth blackened by the erosion of poisonous insects.

"Caidie... my sweet baby..."

"Do you know what this is?"

Li Qingzhe pulled Lan Caidie's slender waist into his arms, bringing his face, which emitted a rotten stench, close to hers, almost obsessively sniffing the faint, cold maidenly fragrance on her body.

"With this, I won't have to use this damn 'Puppet Thread Play' anymore."

"I will plant the mother Gu in your heart, and the child Gu in mine."

"From now on, you will be my Life Gu. Every heartbeat, every breath you take will synchronize with mine. You will fall in love with me without reservation, you will kneel on the ground and beg for my favor, you will kill everyone for me..."

"From then on, you will no longer be some Holy Maiden."

"You will be my, Li Qingzhe's, sole... Life Gu Slave."

"We will truly... merge into one!"

Li Qingzhe grew more and more excited as he spoke, his murky eyes covered in bloodshot lines.

Lan Caidie remained expressionless.

But perhaps out of a biological instinct of fear, a trace of trembling flashed extremely quickly deep within her hollow pupils.

For some unknown reason, a crystal-clear tear slid from the corner of her eye.

That hot and alluring body also trembled slightly in Li Qingzhe's embrace.

That was the final struggle and despair from the depths of her soul.

This fearful trembling stimulated Li Qingzhe even more.

"Scared? Don't be afraid... it will feel good very soon..."

Li Qingzhe let out a weird laugh and reached out to grab the black clay jar.

His fingertips were only half an inch away from the jar.

That was half an inch leading to heaven.

That was his final step to counterattack from a lowly branch disciple and become the Gu King of the Southern Frontier.

However.

Just at the moment his fingertips were about to touch the cold clay wall.

"Let go of that jar."

A voice without any fluctuation suddenly exploded at the entrance of the gloomy tomb.

It didn't sound like a warning, but rather like stating an established fact, as indifferent as the blue bricks on the walls of this tomb.

Li Qingzhe's withered hand froze in midair.

His fingertips were only a hair's breadth away from the clay jar exuding a cloyingly sweet fragrance.

"Who?!"

Li Qingzhe violently retracted his hand, his body arching like a startled venomous snake, staring dead at the gray-robed figure at the door.

That was a man wearing a bamboo hat.

Under the shadow, a face covered in knife scars was revealed, along with a pair of eyes—eyes that looked at a dead man.

Gu Yang flicked the dust off his cuffs, his gaze passing over Li Qingzhe and landing on the inconspicuous black clay jar.

"Who I am is not important."

"What's important is that this thing is mine now."

He paused, his line of sight shifting to land on Lan Caidie, who stood blankly to the side like a doll.

"By the way, I'm taking this woman too."

His tone was flat, as if he were casually picking out two cabbages at a vegetable market.

"Ha... haha..."

Li Qingzhe acted as if he had heard the greatest joke in the world.

His pale face twisted from extreme anger, the ghost fires in his eye sockets dancing madly.

"Robbing my fortuitous encounter?"

"And robbing my Gu Slave?"

"Are you even worthy?!"

"Kill him!"

Li Qingzhe's finger violently hooked.

Snap—!

The faint sound of taut silk threads came from the air.

A trace of struggle instantly flashed through Lan Caidie's originally hollow eyes, but it was immediately swallowed by a deeper darkness.

She moved.

Her movements were stiff and bizarre, yet astonishingly fast.

That soft, boneless body, pulled by the threads, instantly folded and launched itself in a posture that violated human mechanics.

Her silver fringed skirt exploded in the air, revealing a snow-white long leg tattooed with a crimson little snake.

"Hiss—"

The shadow of her leg was like a whip, carrying a nauseatingly sweet and bloody gale, sweeping straight toward Gu Yang's temple.

That was Gu poison.

Just touching a tiny speck would cause even a Foundation Establishment cultivator to melt into a puddle of bloody water in an instant.

Gu Yang stood in place, merely raising his right hand slightly.

"A crooked path of playing with bugs."

"Don't you know that fire counters wood, and yang counters yin?"

Boom—!

A ball of golden flame instantly burst into combustion in his palm.

That was no ordinary spiritual fire, but the utmost yang, utmost unyielding, and peerlessly domineering Great Sun True Fire!

Gu Yang grabbed backhanded.

Not only did he grab Lan Caidie's long leg that could shatter metal and stone, but he also let the true fire in his palm explode instantly.

"Sizzle sizzle sizzle—!!"

It was the sound of boiling oil splashing into ice and snow.

It was also the wail of evil encountering its natural enemy.

"Ah..."

On Lan Caidie's expressionless, exquisitely beautiful face, a look of pain appeared for the first time.

The invisible silk threads wrapped around her joints, even penetrating deep into her meridians, instantly snapped and burned under the terrifying high temperature of the Great Sun True Fire!

At the same time.

The invisible silk threads wrapped around her joints, even penetrating deep into her meridians, instantly snapped and burned under the terrifying high temperature of the Great Sun True Fire!

At the same time.

"Sizzle sizzle sizzle—"

The Great Sun True Fire spread madly along the invisible puppet threads. The air was filled with the burnt stench of protein being instantly carbonized, mixed with a nauseating corpse miasma.

"Ah!!"

Li Qingzhe let out a shrill, miserable scream. His originally paper-pale face was now twisted into a livid purple due to severe pain.

His hands, which he was so proud of and which had manipulated countless resentful souls and withered bones, were now emitting black smoke. The flesh at the tips of his ten fingers had rolled back and blackened, revealing grim white bone.

Pain!

A pain that pierced the bone marrow and burned the soul!

"You... what kind of fire is this?!"