After Infusing Love Poison to the Cold Sword Sovereign - Chapter 12

In the room, the two slept in separate beds Wu Ruo insisted that Luo Qingyi take her own large bed, while she folded a small bed in an empty corner and placed a screen to provide some privacy, giving Luo Qingyi ample personal space.

Now, in the dead of night.

The moment the small vial split open, Luo Qingyi’s ears twitched, and the mystical aura between her senses abruptly vanished within her spiritual sea. She quietly retracted the spiritual energy around her and slowly opened her eyes.

A fleshy-pink, round bead had crawled onto her bed, landing beside her pillow.

And then, it slowly met her icy, piercing gaze.

In that split second, she did not strike, yet her eyes seemed to materialize into sharp blades, ruthlessly slicing into the audacious little insect!

A fierce aura condensed into a single point, pressing down on the gu worm, rendering it immobile. It writhed and struggled within an extremely confined space, as if trying to break free from this agonizing restraint.

Unfortunately, it had encountered Luo Qingyi, all its efforts were in vain.

Silently reciting an incantation in her mind, Luo Qingyi extended her fingers, now enveloped in an ethereal spiritual energy. She gently pinched the tiny, fleshy-pink worm between two fingers, holding it up before her eyes for closer inspection.

Earlier that day, when she had shattered the original vial, it was no accident but a deliberate act.

When she first arrived, she had not fully trusted Wu Ruo. Yet, over these days, this girl, the Holy Maiden of Miaojiang had shown her a side that defied her expectations.

Though she had lost her memories, she still retained some common sense.

The stereotypical image of a gu cultivator was one of cunning, ruthlessness, and unpredictable methods. But the Wu Ruo before her always wore a bright, innocent smile, clumsily trying to please her.

It was almost like the “silly sweet” characters from the storybooks Wu Ruo had shown her some time ago.

Wu Ruo was genuinely sweet and truly naive as the Holy Maiden, she should have long known that gu cultivators and righteous cultivators were diametrically opposed. Yet, she still wasted time on her, expending great effort to keep her company.

She didn’t understand, why was Wu Ruo so kind to her?

In her memories, all connections were bound by cause and effect. There was no such thing as unwarranted kindness, nor unwarranted hatred. The debt of saving each other’s lives had been settled. Wu Ruo had no reason nor should she, to accumulate further karma.

Perhaps she had noticed Luo Qingyi’s profound cultivation and wanted to keep her here to protect this Miaojiang tribe?

But if she ever recovered her past memories, she would not abandon her sect. She would only stay here briefly, and once her memories returned, she would leave.

By then, she would leave behind a spiritual imprint strong enough to protect the entire tribe, ensuring Miaojiang remained undisturbed by cultivators, living in peaceful seclusion, a way to repay Wu Ruo’s kindness in taking her in.

As for anything else, she had no further thoughts.

During her time here, she had also revised her impression of gu cultivators, even learning from Wu Ruo about some benign types of gu.

Occasionally, when she casually asked, Wu Ruo would eagerly explain, and she gradually understood some gu worm diagrams, learning to distinguish between various insects.

However, earlier that day, while searching for books on the shelf, Luo Qingyi’s wrist brushed against a small vial and in that instant, her breath stilled.

It carried the aura of a long-lost gu worm, one she had never seen in Wu Ruo’s collection before, a legendary gu.

She had never encountered such a bizarre insect gu before.

The small vial seemed to share an endless connection with her, as if it were calling out to her from the depths of her mind, over and over again: “Sister Sword Cultivator, look at me.”

The voice came again and again, sometimes halting, sometimes urgent. It was like the deep murmurs of a lover by one’s ear, or perhaps just the endless, obsessive longing of a lost soul.

Luo Qingyi’s hand paused briefly. As she pulled out a book, the vial rolled out with it, tumbling down from the third shelf of the bookcase.

In the keen and meticulous gaze of a powerful cultivator, it became a slow-motion descent to the ground.

Yet she made no move to stop it, didn’t reach out to catch it. She simply watched as it crashed onto the floor, the opaque glass bottle finally shattering into pieces, one of which grazed her wrist.

From the fragments, a fleshy pink worm slowly crawled out, coming to rest entirely within Luo Qingyi’s line of sight.

This form, it seemed to be.

Lowering her eyes, she called Wu Ruo back. Watching the other woman hurriedly clean up the mess and anxiously check if she was hurt, Luo Qingyi felt a flicker of warmth in her heart though she was long accustomed to such gestures.

Truth be told, if Wu Ruo sought her protection, she didn’t need to go to such lengths to please her. Still, Luo Qingyi didn’t dislike it.

Yet, there was also a hint of guilt. The wound on her wrist had been deliberate. She had often seen Wu Ruo feeding the gu worms with her own blood, and this strange, fleshy pink gu worm seemed to share some inexplicable bond with her…

She watched as the little worm drank the blood she had dripped onto the floor, then quietly waited for it to strike again.

Sure enough.

The pale moonlight of the deep night seeped in through the window, spilling silently onto the floor like a layer of frost. All was still, save for the gentle whisper of the breeze.

Holding the small worm between her fingers, encased in a swirl of qi, Luo Qingyi examined it carefully. This gu was vastly different in appearance from others not a typical arthropod, but more like a squirming, fleshy pink pill.

Once again, she heard the gu’s call.

“Sister!”

“Could you also.”

She applied a slight pressure with her fingers, and the worm fell silent, its movements twitching faintly before resigning itself to her control.

She had never encountered a gu that could project its voice directly into a cultivator’s spiritual sea, let alone one capable of influencing their mind.

Such a sinister worm, who knew what effects it might have? Out of sight, out of mind but now that it had fixated on her, she couldn’t simply ignore it.

Even if it were a peerless gu, she would deal with it decisively.

As she increased the pressure slightly, the gu suddenly began to struggle violently. Though its movements were small, it seemed to emit a soul-piercing wail.

“Don’t Sister.”

It was as if it were submitting to its fate, yet clinging to a shred of desperate resolve. But what startled Luo Qingyi wasn’t the worm’s ability to affect her consciousness, it was how its voice grew increasingly similar to Wu Ruo’s.

Like the sunlit girl of the past, her throat clenched tight, letting out a heart-wrenching scream.

Frowning, Luo Qingyi wondered if this gu was Wu Ruo’s life-bound gu. She stepped around the screen and approached Wu Ruo’s bed.

The girl’s small cot was tucked into a shadowy corner of the room, where no windows let in light. The moonlight was blocked by the screen, leaving Wu Ruo’s face obscured. All Luo Qingyi could hear was her steady, peaceful breathing.

“Wu Ruo,” she called softly. There was no response, the girl was fast asleep.

She once again channeled her spiritual energy around the insect gu in her hand. As she increased the intensity, Wu Ruo, who had been quietly sleeping, suddenly let out a soft “Mmm,” her breathing becoming rapid as if something was affecting her body.

Enough.

Luo Qingyi released her grip, tucked the pale pink insect back into its vial, sealed it, and returned to her bed.

She would test Wu Ruo again tomorrow.

Just as Luo Qingyi settled back onto her bed, Wu Ruo on the small cot experienced a fleeting moment of consciousness, her hazy eyes fluttering open from the depths of sleep.

Such a long dream.

Wu Ruo took a deep breath, turned over, and tried to coax herself back into slumber.

In the dream, she had felt like a cat with its throat clamped shut, struggling in vain. Just as the air in her lungs was about to fade, the grip loosened, and she was taken somewhere else.

It was as if she stood on a cliff bathed in the glow of dawn, thunder and rain roaring in her ears, the day she first refined the Love Gu. The pale pink bead crawled slowly across her palm, leaving a tingling sensation that struck straight to her heart.

A voice, indistinct yet familiar, as if her own, whispered: “A-Ruo, do you know the purpose of the Love Gu?”

“To make someone fall in love with me?” Wu Ruo hesitated.

The ancient texts were fragmented, with scant descriptions of the Love Gu. She only knew it was a gu meant for lovers and had wondered why such a seemingly harmless gu had been lost to time.

As if sensing her doubt, the voice floated to her ears again: “Do you know… what the consequences of the Love Gu are?”

Wu Ruo pondered for a moment before guessing, “Consequences? Once the gu is planted, the victim becomes obsessively devoted to the caster… Love is a mysterious force. If the caster stops loving them, the victim might descend into madness, trapped by unrequited feelings. Is that why the elders forbade it?”

“Not quite. You have restraint, that is good.”

The voice was ethereal, mournful and longing, like the lament of a bleeding divine bird.

“The Love Gu binds one to you unto death, in life and beyond.”

“Yet, once, a holy maiden used the gu but later grew distant from her partner. She devised a way to undo it, but the consequences were unbearable.”

“She lifted the gu, only to vanish soon after killed by her former lover. The moment the gu was undone, they seized a blade, desperate to destroy her, as if craving her flesh. They came to despise all Miao people, branding them as monsters. Rumors spread, and the Miao’s reputation crumbled, ostracized by the cultivation world.”

“Later, the next holy maiden declared the Love Gu forbidden, and it was lost to time.”

“Ah!” Wu Ruo’s eyes widened, frozen in shock. “Why did that former lover kill her?”

“Because love and hate are two sides of the same coin, inseparable.”

The voice sighed deeply. “If you undo the gu, their love will twist into boundless hatred. They will loathe you to the marrow of their bones, cursing you until the grave.”

Wu Ruo shuddered, wanting to ask more, but her lips felt sealed with wax, unable to part. She heard the voice fade into the distance, leaving behind an echo that etched itself into her mind.

“This price is one we cannot bear.”

The heavens and earth shifted, and her consciousness returned. She hurriedly opened her eyes to the dimly lit ceiling above, untouched by moonlight, the surroundings as silent as ever.

Luo Qingyi was still in her room, thank goodness.

Her heart pounded as she recalled the sorrowful words from her dream, a flicker of relief stirring within her.

It was for the best, she hadn’t planted the love gu in Luo Qingyi.

If one day the other came to like her, it would be by her own merit. If not, then they could remain friends. She wouldn’t cling shamelessly or use gu poison to harm the one she loved.

She didn’t want Luo Qingyi to hate her not even a little.

If her stubborn actions made Luo Qingyi despise her to the core, she might as well be dead. Perhaps tomorrow, she should seal away this love gu. What she sought was an honest love resorting to such underhanded methods was never her way!

She exhaled deeply and closed her eyes.

On the table, the love gu seemed to tremble faintly for a moment before falling still again, silent as the night.

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