After Infusing Love Poison to the Cold Sword Sovereign - Chapter 60

Lan Ting had weakened to the point of losing consciousness, falling into a deep slumber. No matter how Wu Ruo called out to her, she could only barely flutter her eyelashes, lacking even the strength to open her mouth.

“Don’t,” she murmured, her vocal cords trembling faintly, the words unable to even leave her lips. “Don’t save me.”

“Don’t give up!” Seeing this, Wu Ruo released her grip on Lanting’s chin and swiftly pressed two fingers together, prying open the other’s mouth!

“…”

Crimson warm blood gushed from the ruptured vessels, pouring generously over Lanting’s lips. The weakened demonic cultivator’s lips parted and closed, moving unconsciously as if she had finally managed to swallow some of it.

Lanting had once said that demonic cultivators possessed strong vitality, and for them, the blood of immortal cultivators was a great tonic. If one was fortunate enough to consume the blood of a Mahayana-stage cultivator, it could even have the effect of rebirth and cleansing the three souls.

As for her, bearing Luo Qingyi’s immortal bones, her blood likely had a similar effect. It could serve as a substitute, perhaps enough to save Lanting’s life.

Wu Ruo smiled faintly in relief. The pain in her wrist connected to her heart meridian, flaring sharply with each surge of blood. She feared pain, dreaded it intensely. If not for the fact that gu techniques required blood as a medium, she would never wish to suffer even the slightest injury in her lifetime.

Yet she continued to smile softly, watching as Lanting’s pallid complexion seemed to regain a hint of color, her fading vitality finally stirring once more.

Du Chuncao had just endured severe torture in the first prison, leaving her low on energy and blood. Anxiously pacing, she finally found her role, channeling her spiritual energy into the golden needles in her hand and gently applying them to Wu Ruo’s body. Using the art of medicine, she helped protect the other’s heart meridian and reduce the loss of vital energy.

Wiping her tears, she said with a choked voice, “Teacher, I’m sorry.”

“Hmm?” Why the sudden apology?

With the infusion of spiritual energy, the pain in Wu Ruo’s heart meridian seemed to ease slightly. However, speaking would interfere with her circulation of spiritual power, so she responded with a hum.

Du Chuncao maintained her technique, the nimble flow of energy coursing through Wu Ruo’s meridians, gradually aiding her recovery. Not only was the loss of spiritual power from the bleeding being addressed, but also the emptiness in her inner core from overexerting herself with the Falling Snow technique. Everything was steadily restoring itself.

“I…” After channeling energy for a while, Chuncao was drenched in sweat. Overexertion had caused her meridians to reverse and become disordered, but she still completed a healing gesture for Wu Ruo before gasping for breath and stammering, “Back then during that incident. I resented you.”

“I know, you mentioned it earlier,” Wu Ruo said. “It’s alright. If I were in your place, I would have disliked my teacher too.”

Du Chuncao sat cross-legged, her palms forming a meditative gesture in the air, finally catching her breath. “I’m sorry. At the time, I thought you were too afraid to come. I thought you might have been deeply troubled, perhaps even nearby, but when you saw how ruthless the demonic cultivators were, you chose to protect yourself.”

“But you still risked your life to enter the demon realm to save me. When Lanting was severely injured, you didn’t hesitate to sacrifice yourself to heal her.”

Gu cultivators use blood as a medium; blood symbolizes their magic and life. No gu cultivator would willingly slit their arteries and use their purest blood to heal another without any hope.

And she had even shamefully thought that her own teacher was a coward who clung to life and feared death.

“So, I am ashamed of my selfishness.”

Chuncao, with tears in her eyes, said softly, “Teacher, let me do it.”

Wu Ruo glanced at Chuncao’s still-pale face, a sign that her qi and blood were still insufficient and replied, “Rest for a while, and we’ll talk later.”

Seeing that Lanting’s complexion had improved somewhat, she stopped her actions. The blood remaining on her hand dripped onto the brick tiles of the Red Temple, drop by drop, eventually forming a thread-like crimson trail that slowly seeped into the ground.

“The aura of the love gu.”

Wu Ruo suddenly turned around. “Who’s there?”

Du Chuncao looked at Wu Ruo in surprise. “I didn’t say anything, Teacher. What’s wrong?”

“Is it the Saintess from a thousand years later?”

Wu Ruo sprang to her feet and scanned her surroundings, but there was nothing.

Yet that sudden voice began to spread from her ears, one word after another, rising and falling like the tide, coming from all directions.

“The 357th generation Saintess of Miaojiang.”

“You carry a familiar aura.”

Wu Ruo suddenly froze.

In an instant, the surroundings transformed. It was no longer the serene wishing temple but a grand hall with towering pillars reaching to the sky, and an endless expanse of darkness before her eyes.

It was a familiar scene, as if she had dreamed of it more than once in her sleep, yet she had never actually seen it.

“To glimpse the art of the love gu from fragmented pages and to comprehend the method of breaking the gu on your own.”

The voice reappeared, this time shifting in tone within her mind, carrying a deep, elder-like expectation for a younger generation.

“You are a talented child.”

“Esteemed Senior,” Wu Ruo said, finding herself in this strange space yet feeling no fear. A subconscious intuition told her that the other party would not harm her in fact, they might even share a past connection.

Moreover, being praised by a senior, truly felt wonderful.

She bowed and said, “Please forgive this junior’s rudeness. I have lost a portion of my memories and have forgotten my acquaintance with you.”

“You’ve forgotten,” the voice drifted lightly, as if unable to recall its own past. “It doesn’t matter. Because, I was the one who asked that sword cultivator girl to do it. Such a cursed bond forgetting and starting anew is for the best.”

“?!”

Wu Ruo stood still, the surroundings still pitch black. She could see nothing; everything before her was reduced to the voice in her ears. Countless questions surged in her mind, one after another, overwhelming her.

Sword cultivator girl. Could it be Luo Qingyi? What does this wishing temple have to do with Luo Qingyi?

And how deep was this senior’s connection to her?

“May I ask, who are you, Esteemed Senior?” she decided to start with the most basic question.

“I am the first-generation Saintess of Miaojiang and also this temple no, I am not. A part of me is trapped here.”

“Which part of me. It seems to be my earthly soul, locked here by her, by that person, with heavy, heavy shackles. She was my lover, and also the one who killed me with her own hands. I broke the gu for her, never expecting she would come to hate me to the bone, even using a blade to tear apart my physical body, separating my three souls.”

“Oh!” The voice was faint, tinged with regret yet calm. Suddenly, as if recalling something, the speaker exclaimed in realization, “You’ve forgotten, the purpose of the love gu and its consequences, haven’t you?”

Wu Ruo listened with only partial understanding and hesitantly nodded. “Yes, I am unaware, elder.”

“Then let me tell you. The love gu can make someone devoted to you until death, inseparable in life and demise.”

“However, if you dissolve the gu, that love will turn into boundless hatred. The other will despise you to the marrow of their bones, until they journey to the underworld.”

The once-deep affection would all transform into future loathing. The depth of love determines the intensity of hatred.

If no genuine feelings had ever sprouted within, after dissolving the gu, the two would live apart without contact, becoming strangers who were once familiar. But if, during that time, the one under the gu had developed true feelings.

Wu Ruo’s breath hitched, her eyes clouded with complex, inscrutable emotions.

Sensing her low spirits, the voice shifted in tone, light as a breeze yet carrying a pain that seemed to emanate from the depths of the heart.

“Once, I fell in love with someone but she did not love me. So, I secluded myself in the Miao village for three full years, nurturing a flower with all the love in my heart and feeding it to my long-cherished life gu. I succeeded. The moment I laid eyes on it, I knew this was the love gu I sought. If I gave it to her, she would love me.”

“But later, I discovered her identity. Why was she a demonic cultivator? The Miao border had just gained recognition from those few immortal sects and couldn’t afford to be associated with demonic practitioners. So, I wanted to leave her, but she refused.”

“Thus, I told her the truth. I asked her, ‘Will you truly come to love me during this time?’ She said no, so I dissolved the gu. Who could have imagined.”

The elder fell silent, letting out a heavy sigh.

The whole story wasn’t hard to guess.

The first-generation saintess had crafted the ultimate love gu but severed ties with her beloved due to conflicting allegiances. The beloved, believing she felt no love, lost control after the gu was dissolved and tore the saintess’s physical body apart, scattering her three souls.

Wu Ruo bowed her head, unsure of what to say. Facing the despondent elder before her, she softly murmured, “Is it Elder Wu Juncheng? I’ve read about you in the texts. Later generations praise you as exceptionally gifted and brilliantly talented.”

“Thank you, dear child,” Wu Juncheng replied. “Later, she regretted it. She only found my earthly soul and imprisoned it in this temple. My life soul is already shattered, barely clinging to the remnants of the love gu texts. If any descendant sees them, I can only offer fragmented warnings about the dangers of the love gu.”

The voice grew slightly louder, as if approaching Wu Ruo through the dim, enclosed darkness.

Her mind throbbed, as if distant memories were quietly surfacing. Wu Ruo clutched her head, her temples swelling with a dull ache, as though something long-forgotten was brewing deep within her consciousness.

“Do you know the purpose of the love gu.”

“Love and hatred wax and wane, inseparable.”

“Do not dissolve the gu.”

Sentence after sentence of words surfaced in her mind, as if she had returned to that night over ten years ago, lying on the small bed behind the screen, clutching the tiny bottle in her hand.

Some memories seemed on the verge of emerging fragments of the past when she and Luo Qingyi were together in Miaojiang.

So, this was the story of her past.

Their first encounter was simply Luo Qingyi saving her from being harmed by a demonic cultivator. Later, she, in turn, saved Luo Qingyi after he fell off a cliff.

The karmic debt between them should have been settled, yet she ended up entangled by love, twisting the simple resolution of cause and effect into a tangled mess, plunging back into the mortal world and accumulating countless karmic ties.

However, the memories of her time with Luo Qingyi after they arrived at Zhiyuan Immortal Sect remained shrouded in a thick fog deep within her mind, unclear and indistinct.

“You once advised me, but I didn’t listen,” Wu Ruo said. “I’m sorry, Senior, I failed to heed your warning.”

Wu Juncheng sighed with a smile. “Yes, but you are different.”

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