Young Master, Save Me...

"Young Master, although Li Qingzhe didn't touch me, he controlled my soul for three years."

"That feeling of being treated like a marionette... it was too disgusting."

"As soon as I close my eyes, I can feel those cold threads cutting into my flesh, severing my will, and manipulating my bones..."

She suddenly leaned forward, pressing most of her weight onto Gu Yang's arm, which was burning with golden fire.

"I want you, Young Master, to use your fire to burn all these traces clean!"

"I want to use the Young Master's brand to completely overwrite those disgusting memories, inside and out!" She tilted her head back, revealing the fragile and elegant lines of her neck, like a swan offering its neck to the slaughter, yet still carrying a hint of wildness.

"This is not repaying a debt of gratitude; this is a baptism. I want you to ruthlessly 'use' me, Young Master!"

"Let me know that this body now belongs to me!"

Inside the ruined temple, the howling wind whimpered.

A lone man and a lone woman, raging fire and deadly poison—the ambiguity and danger in the air almost condensed into something tangible.

However, Gu Yang just sat there quietly.

In those deep black eyes, there was no desire, no pity, not even the slightest ripple of emotion.

He just quietly watched Lan Caidie's tearful and alluring performance.

As if he were looking at a beautifully painted skeleton.

Because, just half an incense stick of time ago, midnight had passed. On his retinas, the faint blue light screen that only he could see had just finished refreshing.

[Ding! Today's intelligence has been refreshed.]

[Green Intelligence: What is inside the body of the Eastern Gu Sect's Holy Maiden, Lan Caidie, is not the innate 'Myriad Poison Heart-Devouring Physique', but the 'Myriad Poison Source Gu' forcibly planted by the Nascent Soul Patriarch of the Eastern Gu Sect before his secluded cultivation. Li Qingzhe was merely a Gu raiser acting as a proxy for the Patriarch, responsible for looking after this 'Gu Vessel'.]

[Blue Intelligence: The host possesses the Great Sun True Fire and the Nine Nether Soul-Locking Flame. If you seize this Gu Vessel and the Source Gu, and smelt them with the Great Sun True Fire, you can significantly increase your own poison resistance.]

[White Intelligence: The 'Myriad Poison Source Gu' within this Gu Vessel has completely matured. If it is not suppressed in time by being harvested through a high-level pure Yang cultivation method, in three days, Lan Caidie will explode and die, her soul will be utterly destroyed, and a radius of a hundred miles will be turned into a poisonous swamp.]

Looking at the cold text on the light screen, a very faint mocking smile tugged at the corners of Gu Yang's mouth.

He slightly turned his wrist. With a muffled bang.

The Great Sun True Fire suddenly erupted with a gentle yet irresistible pushing force, directly knocking the closely clinging Lan Caidie half a step back.

Lan Caidie swayed and stood firm, her face full of astonishment.

"Young... Young Master?" She looked at Gu Yang in confusion, a trace of panic even flashing deep in her eyes. Was she not beautiful enough? Or was her value not great enough?

Gu Yang slowly stood up, looking down at her from a commanding height.

"Myriad Poison Heart-Devouring Physique?" Gu Yang's thin lips parted, his voice three times more piercing than the cold rain outside the door.

"Do you really think that a rat in the gutter like Li Qingzhe could hold back from touching you for three years because he was afraid of your poison?"

Lan Caidie looked as if she had been struck by lightning, the blood draining completely from her face in an instant.

"What... what do you mean..."

Gu Yang took a step forward, his highly oppressive figure completely enveloping her in shadow. "He didn't dare to touch you, not because he was afraid of being poisoned to death. It's because you don't have some genius physique at all."

Gu Yang extended two fingers, pinching her sharp chin, forcing her to raise her head and look directly into his cold eyes.

"You are just a vessel."

"A human flesh Gu Vessel... planted with the 'Myriad Poison Source Gu' by the Eastern Gu Sect Patriarch himself, in order to break through his realm."

Boom!

These words were like a heavy hammer, smashing ruthlessly onto Lan Caidie's soul. "Impossible... this is impossible..."

Her pupils trembled violently, and she desperately shook her head, resisting this cruel truth. "The Patriarch... back then, he personally carried me back to the sect, he bestowed upon me the position of Holy Maiden..."

"Li Qingzhe is just a watchdog." Gu Yang mercilessly tore apart her last illusion, his tone as cruel as a butcher dissecting a corpse.

"The string that truly controls you has always been in the hands of your Nascent Soul Patriarch."

"Calculating the time, the Source Gu in your body has completely matured." Gu Yang released his hand, letting Lan Caidie stumble and fall to the ground.

"If nothing unexpected happens, three days." Gu Yang held up three fingers, his tone as plain as if he were broadcasting the weather.

"At most three days, even without Li Qingzhe, the Source Gu in your body will completely erupt. At that time, you will explode and die, your soul will be obliterated, and you will turn into the most nourishing blood medicine for the Patriarch when he comes out of seclusion."

A deathly silence. There was only the continuous sound of rain outside the door.

Lan Caidie slumped weakly onto the cold green bricks.

She thought she had killed the evil spirit that manipulated her, regained her freedom, and even delusionally hoped to use this dirty yet seductive body in exchange for the protection of a strong man.

But in the end, she was just a moth thinking itself clever.

Her so-called pride, her so-called desperate counterattack, in the face of absolute calculation and strength, were just a pathetic joke.

Even the "poisonous wine" she was so proud of was merely the dregs brewed by someone else.

That layer of false, aggressively morbid disguise was stripped away and crushed inch by inch under Gu Yang's cold gaze.

Cold. A bone-piercing cold spread from deep within her marrow, freezing her meridians.

She tremblingly lowered her head, looked at the body she had been so proud of, and suddenly felt a churning nausea in her stomach.

Her pride was completely shattered. All that remained was the most primal fear of death and being used.

"Thump."

Lan Caidie turned over, her knees heavily kneeling on the ground covered in mud and dust.

She no longer tried to show off her proud curves, nor did she use that seductive gaze. She merely pressed her forehead tightly against the tip of Gu Yang's shoe.

The silver tassels were stained with mud, and that proud spine bent into the most humble curve.

"Young Master..."

Her voice was so hoarse it almost shattered, carrying the deepest despair and pleading.

"Save me..."

"Save you?"

Gu Yang's voice didn't have a single fluctuation.

"Give me a reason. Or rather, what substantial benefits can you bring me?"

Lan Caidie's body suddenly stiffened. She raised her head, that breathtakingly bewitching face now covered in mud and cold sweat.

There was no room for bargaining.

In the face of life and death, her pride had been crushed into mud.

She crawled forward half a step on her knees, prostrating herself extremely humbly at Gu Yang's feet.

"The secret arts of the Eastern Gu Sect, the intelligence of the Southern Borders, all my savings..." Her voice revealed a suffocating despair, like the final wail of a trapped beast. "As long as the Young Master can help me extract this fatal Source Gu, Caidie... Caidie is willing to do anything."

She tilted up that stunningly beautiful face, complete submission igniting in the depths of her eyes: "I am willing to be the Young Master's slave, to be the most vicious blade in the Young Master's hand, to be... to be the Young Master's dog!"