After Infusing Love Poison to the Cold Sword Sovereign - Chapter 4

The moment the crimson pill touched her lips, it melted away without a sound, leaving behind only a thick, vivid red liquid like fresh blood smeared across a woman’s lips.

“…What will you think of?”

Luo Qingyi said no more, simply turning away and silently closing the door.

Leaving the solitary woman lying on the bed, eyes tightly shut, lips stained a striking scarlet.

Wu Ruo could actually hear the commotion outside.

From Xiao Yu’er’s sobbing as she clung to her, to the intermittent sniffles, to the shadow formless yet overwhelmingly oppressive, that fell upon her, and finally, the cold, ethereal woman’s conversation with Yu’er.

But she didn’t dare wake.

At first, she was trapped in a nightmare, and then she simply preferred to remain lost in the dream.

Yet the faint fragrance at her nose was still that familiar scentcarrying the crisp chill of snowy peaks, the dust of pinewood, and the fallen plum blossoms by a woman’s ear.

She didn’t dare see her. Couldn’t see her. Didn’t want to see her.

But she couldn’t resist those insistent hands. Something was placed in her mouth, some kind of pill. She had thought it might be some bone-corrosive poison, but the moment it dissolved on her tongue, a warmth seeped into her heart.

Her body grew warm too, her consciousness gradually scattering in the gentle heat, as if she had been pulled back to the past.

Not the Snowfall Peak that had once wounded her so deeply, but the very beginning, where it all started.

Thirty years ago, in the Miaojiang tribes.

Young girls sat in a row, laughing and playing among themselves as they listened to the teachings of the previous Witch Envoy.

“Medical Gu are tools for healing and saving lives. Before the first year, they can treat common ailments like mild colds. After one year, they can cure fevers and windborne illnesses. After two years…”

“Herbal Gu are guides for finding medicinal ingredients. Before the first year, they can locate ordinary herbs. After one year, they can seek spirit-growing grass…”

The girls all widened their eyes, their nimble little hands brushing charcoal ink onto bamboo paper. Only the girl in the middle blinked her large, lively eyes, raising a finger with a puzzled expression.

Silver bells chimed, jade ornaments tinkling. Wu Ruo chewed on the end of her brush, making circles and notes in her notebook, her childish face bearing an oddly mature air enough to make anyone who saw her chuckle.

After class, she lingered until the end, waiting until the teacher had seen all the other girls off before scratching her head and piping up in a naive, childlike voice.

“Witch Envoy, what we’re learning is clearly good for the world and the people… So why are people so afraid of us? Why do they call us evil Gu cultivators?”

The kind elder woman patted her head, leaving behind words of wisdom that would eventually fade with time: “Because… those who are not of our kind will always harbor doubts. The world knows little of us, and fear is born of the unknown.”

“Anuo, you must remember Gu is never an evil thing. It is merely a companion for us in this life. You must learn to wield it. For kind-hearted people, you use it to help. For those who seek to destroy our way of life, you use the might of insect Gu to deter and threaten… All of it rests on the scales within your heart.”

The innocent Wu Ruo nodded.

She was the most talented among the girls of her generation. If things continued this way, she would become the next Holy Maiden, inheriting the legacy of the village for generations to come.

From a child to a young woman, it seemed to happen in the blink of an eye.

Over the years, her life had been as monotonous as ever attending school, refining insect gu, singing mountain songs… receiving the blessings and gifts of the witch god on the altar alongside the Witch Envoy, and sitting amidst the thorny, overgrown jungle, listening to the intelligence brought by the Spirit Envoys from the outside world.

The Miaojiang tribes were isolated from the world, yet they existed on the fringes where the cultivation realm and the mortal world balanced each other. Recently, they had increasingly connected with spiritual energy, as if on the verge of being incorporated into the land of cultivators.

The Witch Envoy had also gradually become busier, frequently leaving the tranquil little tribe, sometimes disappearing for days at a time much to the distress of the last-minute cramming graduates.

The peace had been shattered, but this had nothing to do with Wu Ruo.

As one of this year’s graduates and a top student in Gu cultivation, regarded by all as exceptionally talented, she merely stood by her own altar, staring fretfully at her graduation project.

Her classmates’ gu insects grew increasingly advanced some for killing, like the Golden Demon Gu or the Poison Blood Gu, and one even refined the Five-Colored Divine Gu, an ultimate weapon capable of poisoning even mighty cultivators.

Only Wu Ruo, ever so self-assured, stubbornly insisted on challenging the impossible. When choosing her graduation project, for some inexplicable reason, she had selected the long-lost Love Gu from the library, a Gu that had been missing for a century.

And then… failure after failure.

She couldn’t understand why Gu like the Heart-Stealing Gu were so easy to cultivate, just a few drops of blood, and they’d be crawling all over the dish, growing enormous in no time.

But this tiny Love Gu, like a speck of red ink bleeding into lacquer, remained motionless in the center of its small gu bottle, unchanged for three whole months.

Graduation was the next day. She had boasted that she would refine the legendary lost gu, but now, she was about to be humiliated.

Wu Ruo sat on her little stool in a daze, thinking of the horde of half-starved gu insects in her room still clamoring to be fed. But she just hung her head, staring at her graduation project, and let out a heavy sigh.

“Ruo Ruo, just give up. The Love Gu is just a legend, isn’t it? You don’t even like men anyway, let’s not waste any more time on this.”

A girl with silver bell earrings ran over, her cheeks round and cheerful. “Ruo Ruo, you’re amazing! Don’t be so hard on yourself! You’ve refined plenty of powerful gu before, that Five-Colored Gu King you made last time could easily have won first place!”

“Mmm…” Wu Ruo plucked at the dirt on the ground, grinding the serrated edge of a small weed until it was smooth. “But… I feel like I was so close…”

“But I heard that if you don’t have someone you love, you can’t refine a Love Gu. This long-lost, powerful gu technique requires you to have a specific lover, an obsession before you can refine a unique gu…”

“Ugh.” Wu Ruo stood up in a huff, shoving the little bottle into her cabinet. “Fine, I quit! Come on, Xiang Xiang, let’s go play!”

She walked quickly, as if venting her frustration over three months of wasted effort. Ah Xiang panted as she chased after her, and before long, they reached the edge of their usual cliff.

It was said that on the other side of this cliff lay the spiritual lands of the cultivation realm. But the cliff was treacherous and deep, and the Miaojiang villages had reinforced it with the power of the witch god, ensuring that neither side encroached upon the other, each keeping to their own territory.

This had little to do with the two girls on the cusp of womanhood. To them, the cliffside was merely a bountiful source of wildflowers and medicinal herbs. Occasionally, they would climb down a few meters, using their cultivated insects to gather herbs clinging to the precipice.

Wu Ruo casually flipped her long skirt, the silver ornaments at her temples tinkling softly. Without a care for her appearance, she removed an earring and scratched a mark onto a large rock.

“Infuriating! I thought I could impress our teacher, but this stupid love gu requires having someone you actually like…”

Her fingers slipped, and the silver earring clattered down, bouncing off the rocks with a series of metallic chimes before rolling perilously close to the cliff’s edge, wedging itself between two stones.

“Hmph, clearly just a scam. Finding someone to like is way too hard. What does it even feel like to fall in love? I don’t know… How am I supposed to feel it? How am I supposed to complete my graduation piece?”

“Exactly! Falling in love is so difficult. No one is worthy of our Ruoruo!” A-Xiang sat beside Wu Ruo, unraveling her braid. “Hey, Ruoruo… have you ever thought about visiting the cultivation world someday?”

A-Xiang slowly undid her plaits, carefully laying out her hair ornaments on the rock. Her delicate fingers loosened the ribbons as her gaze drifted toward the vast, misty abyss beyond the cliff.

“I’ve heard… the people in the cultivation world, no matter what path they follow, are all extraordinary talents with unparalleled grace. In this tiny village of ours, we hardly meet anyone noteworthy. Why not go out and see the world? Maybe we’ll find the spark we need each of us crafting a legendary love gu!”

“……”

Wu Ruo stared at the distant clouds, her fingers absently tapping the rock. But the more she did, the more restless she became, as if a fire had been lit inside her, smoldering with an unquenchable pull.

She admitted she had no real interest in the cultivation world. But she was a perfectionist this damned love Gu. Hmph, she would make it happen.

“Ruoruo, I heard the greatest sect in the cultivation world is called the Zhiyuan Immortal Sect. The masters of its five peaks are all peerless experts. Falling Snow Peak, Moonwatch Peak, Such beautiful names. I’d love to see them with my own eyes.”

“Mmm…” Wu Ruo’s thoughts drifted, her eyes flickering as she murmured, “Then let’s make a plan. We’ll sneak a peek just one peek. But if you take a liking to any cultivator, you have to help me refine the love gu!”

“Deal! Absolutely!”

Even as night fell, Wu Ruo’s mind buzzed with plans for the next day. As usual, she fed her backup graduation project with a drop of blood, inspected her precious gu insects, and then climbed into bed, brimming with excitement.

Her head rested on the bamboo mat, but sleep eluded her.

Had she really just impulsively decided to run away from home? Tomorrow, after completing the graduation ceremony with A-Xiang, they would descend the mountain under the pretense of training. Maybe they could slip into the cultivation world, visit their cliffside neighbors, and see what life was like there…

Just from the names alone, she liked Falling Snow Peak.

She wondered if its master was a man or a woman. Probably a beautiful elder sister. If it was a man, she wouldn’t bother going.

The young girl drifted into sleep, her heart brimming with dreams of the future. Beside her, Ah Xiang was equally filled with anticipation. Beneath the table lay their carefully packed storage bags filled with dry rations, water, Wu Ruo’s ever-present notebook, and a glass vial.

Yet neither of them could have foreseen that plans would never keep pace with change.

At their graduation ceremony, along with Ah Xiang and the others, unexpected guests made an uninvited appearance.

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