Inheritance of Imagination

Gu Yang took a step forward, his black cloth shoes crushing the ice crystals on the ground.

"Calculating the time, you have less than two months left before you can no longer suppress the backlash and are reduced to a Bliss Blood Pill for that fat pig of an elder."

Every word pierced the heart!

A flash of extreme horror finally crossed Zhao Yuelian's pale, paper-white face.

"How... how do you know?"

This illness, this deadline of death, was the highest level of classified secret within the Joyous Sect. Even Su Wanyin only knew the surface of it, not the core truth!

Gu Yang did not answer her shock, merely looking at her coldly.

For someone in despair, the most terrifying thing isn't death, but a sudden sliver of hope thrust into their hands.

In Zhao Yuelian's dim eyes, a faint, irrepressible flame ignited. But in just a moment, that flame was extinguished by an even deeper despair.

"So what if you know?"

She gave a miserable laugh, a scalding tear rolling from the corner of her eye, instantly freezing into an ice bead on her cheek.

"For the past ten years, I have secretly sought out all the 'famous doctors' and demonic path giants in the Eastern Region."

"The way they looked at me, it was either like looking at a dead person, or... like looking at a peerless, top-grade human cauldron."

Zhao Yuelian's fingers tightly gripped the fox-fur cloak draped over her, her knuckles turning white.

"It's useless. This condition is utterly incurable."

"Unless..." A trace of morbid desolation seeped into her voice, "Unless I can find the 'Ancient Concentric Gu' from the legends of the Southern Frontier, which has been extinct for three thousand years."

"But how could that possibly be found..."

She tilted her head back, her slender, fragile neck drawn taut like a bow drawn with despair.

"I once swore a Heart Demon Oath to the heavens."

"In this world, whether orthodox or demonic, whether human or demon, whoever can relieve me of this soul-devouring agony..."

Zhao Yuelian bit her lower lip fiercely until it bled. Her voice was kept very low, yet it carried a madness that trampled her dignity into the dust.

"I, Zhao Yuelian, am willing to offer up my life soul, even if it means becoming a flesh cauldron, I will absolutely have no complaints!"

The cold wind howled.

Gu Yang listened expressionlessly to this Core Formation Grand Cultivator's extremely humble oath of loyalty.

His heart did not even ripple in the slightest.

Cauldron? Karma?

Troublesome.

With a slight flip of his wrist.

A small ebony box, sealed with densely packed, complex array patterns, appeared out of thin air in his palm.

Clack.

Gu Yang casually tossed the small box onto the black ice in front of Zhao Yuelian. The box rolled twice, and the lid sprang open.

A small, entirely crimson bug, resembling a blood diamond, lay quietly inside.

The moment that crimson bug appeared, the baleful aura surrounding the cold pool seemed to encounter a natural enemy's purifying power, emitting a teeth-aching sizzling sound as it frantically retreated.

Zhao Yuelian's breathing completely stopped at this moment.

Her pupils contracted violently, staring fixedly at that Gu bug, the blood in her body feeling as if it would burst through her veins.

"The Crimson Child Gu of the... Ancient Concentric Gu?!"

How is this possible?!

How could this wondrous insect, created by the Shaman Gods of the Southern Frontier and extinct for three thousand years, appear in the hands of a Foundation Establishment rogue cultivator?!

Having read extensively through ancient demonic texts, how could she not know the background of this wondrous insect? The Ancient Concentric Gu is divided into a twin Mother and Child Gu. The white jade Mother Gu nourishes the mind, while this Crimson Child Gu, once it enters the body, will take root in the Dantian and assist the host in frantically purifying their spiritual energy!

It was exactly this heaven-defying effect of purifying spiritual energy that was the absolute nemesis of the stagnant baleful aura within her body!

But the only price for this Child Gu was—the host could never, for the rest of their life, harbor even a sliver of killing intent towards the one who refined the Mother Gu, otherwise their heart would suffer the excruciating pain of being bitten by ten thousand ants!

This was not a low-level love Gu that twisted human emotions, but a supreme, absolute suppression of hierarchy!

"Swallow it." Gu Yang's voice remained cold and hard, as if issuing an undeniable command.

Zhao Yuelian trembled violently all over. She practically scrambled and threw herself toward that ebony box.

But in the instant her fingertips were about to touch the Gu bug, she abruptly froze.

She looked up, her eyes, full of experience and vicissitudes, flashing with extreme vigilance and struggle.

"What... do you want?"

Zhao Yuelian's voice became fragmented due to extreme excitement and fear.

"I said, as long as you can cure me, I... everything of mine, is yours..."

"I don't need your everything."

Gu Yang mercilessly interrupted her words.

He looked down from above at this woman who had humbled herself to the dust, his eyes terrifyingly clear.

"One Gu, in exchange for your disciple using her Holy Maiden authority to bring me into the Yin-Yang Tomb."

"Once the transaction is over, we go our separate ways. I won't touch the Joyous Sect's karma, and you won't owe me anything."

Dead silence.

Zhao Yuelian stared blankly at Gu Yang, as if she had heard the most absurd joke in the world.

The priceless Ancient Concentric Gu, enough to make Nascent Soul old monsters fight to the death.

Exchanged for a qualification to enter the certain-death trap of the Yin-Yang Tomb?

Not wanting the loyalty of her, a Core Formation cauldron?

Asking for no other return?

How could there be such a purely, almost foolishly transactional deal in this world?!

But in Gu Yang's deep black eyes, she could not see even the slightest trace of greed or desire.

There was no time to hesitate.

The baleful aura within her body began its frantic backlash once again, the soul-tearing agony rendering her unable to think any further.

Zhao Yuelian grabbed the crimson Child Gu and tossed her head back, swallowing it into her stomach.

Boom!

The moment the Child Gu entered her body, it went straight down and took root in her Dantian's sea of Qi.

An extremely overbearing yet vibrant purifying power explosively bloomed within her body.

"Ah—"

Zhao Yuelian threw her head back, letting out an extremely suppressed, muffled groan.

That was not a howl of pain, but the ultimate release of finally finding relief after a long drought meeting sweet rain, having been tortured alive for ten years.

Her voluptuous figure arched violently on the black ice bed.

The heavy snow-white fox fur slipped halfway down her smooth, round shoulders, revealing a large expanse of cold, white skin drenched in sweat and flushed with an unnatural redness.

Below her delicate collarbones, her chest heaved violently.

The crimson Child Gu acted like a tireless furnace, frantically devouring and purifying the dried-up spiritual energy in her body. The threads of baleful aura that had plagued her for ten years and tightly entangled her soul melted away inch by inch under the Gu's purification, like snow meeting a blazing sun.

The spiritual energy that had been stagnant for ten years began to surge wildly through her dried-up meridians.

The aura of the early Core Formation stage was climbing at a terrifying speed!

An incense stick of time later.

Zhao Yuelian collapsed limply on the jade bed, panting heavily.

The illness and pain had vanished. Replaced by an unprecedented sense of ease and fulfillment.

She slowly pulled the slipped fox fur back together, covering the spring scenery that was enough to drive male cultivators across the world mad.

When she looked at Gu Yang again, a stormy sea had already surged in the depths of her originally dim eyes.

How could this really just be a transaction?!