The youth spoke a lot in one breath, and Li Yin listened carefully.
When she heard that the Valley Master had sent him out to provide medical services, the Player felt a sense of relief settle in, as if everything finally made sense.
As for Ci Yuan also asking him to handle the aftermath, the simple and kind-hearted youth thought it was because he was valued. After all, out of so many disciples, the Madam had singled him out with just one glance.
It only made sense, so Wen Xunzhu was willing to bow to the Madam’s memorial tablet. He didn’t understand the Valley Master’s deeper intentions, and the Player was even more clueless.
The Purple Butterfly flickered in the shadows, relaying the view to its master.
Purple Eyes turned cold as he watched the youth’s bright and cheerful demeanor. He felt the same disgust as always, yet he still didn’t show himself to interrupt. Only he knew his own intentions.
The lifebound Gu could sense its master’s unsettled emotions, and the butterfly flew restlessly as a result.
There was a pavilion for sheltering from the rain beside the Effigy Tomb. There was a seat inside the pavilion. Wen Xunzhu cast a spell to dust it off and invited the girl to sit down and rest.
His fingers stroked the stone table as he smiled faintly and said, “Little Madam, you may not know this, but the Valley Master often comes here to drink alone. Sometimes, he even drags me along.”
Li Yin also touched the cool surface of the table, and her doubts grew even more.
The Player couldn’t figure out why the target of her strategy was acting this way. He clearly refused dual cultivation, and his favorability stayed lukewarm, forcing her to restart. So why did he get drunk at her “gravesite” and lie to her about their “loving marriage”?
They say that wine reveals the truth, so Li Yin probed, “Does he talk drunken nonsense?”
Wen Xunzhu shook his head. “The Valley Master drinks wine like it’s water. Unlike me—I can’t handle more than a few cups before I need sobering medicine.”
He continued, “But after the Valley Master drinks, he often talks to me about the Madam.”
Li Yin leaned on the cool stone table. “So, what does he say about me—er, about the Madam?”
Wen Xunzhu looked down at her, his smile warm and gentle. “The Valley Master told me that opening the valley was the Madam’s idea. He also said her heart is too kind. Not only did she save him back then, but she was always thinking about other people too.”
Hearing this, the Player felt something was off.
Li Yin looked up. The youth’s ink-black eyes were clear and moist. Faced with her scrutiny, he showed a bit of confusion, not understanding why she was looking at him like that.
The Little Madam’s gaze was a bit strange.
Had he said something wrong?
Wen Xunzhu touched his lips. But what he said was the truth—the Valley Master had indeed said those things.
A bit of panic rose in his heart. He feared he had upset the girl with his words, but he hadn’t yet sorted out whether he was afraid of upsetting the “Madam” or her.
“Little Madam, what’s wrong?” Wen Xunzhu leaned forward slightly, half-squatting by the table to meet the girl’s eyes at her level.
His reaction was overly intense, his posture awkward. At this point, Li Yin had a clear sense of the youth’s temperament—it was soft and mild.
Looking at his innocent and panicked expression, the Player couldn’t help but ask, “When the Valley Master said those things, was he staring at you?”
Her heart is too kind. Not only did she save him back then, but she was always thinking about other people—
Pointed out like this, Wen Xunzhu looked surprised. “It seems like he was.”
Valley Master Ci Yuan’s purple pupils were the strangest, and anyone he stared at would remember it. Yet the youth was so pure, even obtuse, that he didn’t feel the chill creeping down his back at all.
Li Yin couldn’t help but laugh out loud. Only after she finished laughing did she realize it wasn’t good, and she quickly suppressed her smile.
Wen Xunzhu asked curiously, “How does the Madam know?”
Li Yin coughed lightly. “I guessed. After hearing so much from you, I suddenly got that feeling.”
No matter whether she truly had memories from her past life, were these people going to search her soul to verify it?
In any case, the final say belonged to the Player.
Whatever she said, Wen Xunzhu believed it completely. He even followed along with her analysis. “Maybe it’s because this is a familiar place, stirring up some faint impressions of the Little Madam…”
His eyes sparkled. “Perhaps if the Madam stays here for a while, she might remember everything.”
The girl nodded vaguely, but in her heart, she thought it was unlikely she’d stay for long.
Although Medical Poison Valley had no dangers, with demonic cultivators causing chaos outside and peace and serenity within the valley, for the Player, Valley Master Ci Yuan might be the greatest danger.
The second greatest danger was the Player’s own curiosity.
Curiosity killed the cat, but her heart itched unbearably. She wanted to make up for the “regrets from the game,” and she grew even more curious about why the strategy target had refused dual cultivation with her back then.
As she pondered what she wanted to do, a white-and-purple spider crawled onto the table. The Player watched it scuttle around.
The most pressing problem right now was how to retreat unscathed. If a Mahayana cultivator was determined to keep her here, she probably couldn’t leave.
She could either use an item or call people from the Demon Domain to get her out of Medical Poison Valley. But since she’d made enemies in the previous confrontation, she worried that people from Calamity Birth Mansion might catch wind of it and come.
In her distress, in a secluded spot, the butterfly flapped its wings.
In the quiet chamber, a pale finger lifted, and the containers on the rack popped open one or two at a time. Several sealed cocoons flew out and landed in the man’s hand.
Trace Back Gu, Reincarnation Gu, Dream Seeking Gu… Gu species that could restore memories to a reincarnated person.
While sharing the view from his lifebound Gu, Purple Eyes scanned them one by one, only to pass over these and take two others into his palm.
There were millions of Gu poisons, and among them was a type called Purification Gu. As the name implied, they could neutralize poisons, but each Purification Gu could only counter a specific one.
The one in his hand had been nurtured and refined with his blood, allowing it to neutralize the poison in his body.
A Gu Person tested poisons on his own body over the years, becoming a supreme poison himself. His blood, even his bodily fluids, contained lethal spiritual toxins.
The Gu body gleamed like a silver moon, reflecting a cold chill that fell into the man’s condensed purple pupils.
The young Valley Master who had just killed his way to the top stared at the small Purification Gu in his palm, fiddling with it back and forth with his slender fingers.
The Gu had been successfully refined, and it was of excellent quality, but he didn’t look happy. He merely toyed with it in his hand, his expression distant and cold. With his eyes downcast, his long lashes hid his gaze, concealing his thoughts.
A dagger lay beside his hand, along with a silver chain adorned with a silver vessel that could hold a Gu insect.
The young Valley Master’s purple eyes shifted slightly, lingering for a long time on the silver chain. If he put this Gu insect inside and gave it to that person, she would surely be delighted.
After all, for a long time now, she had wanted to be intimate with him.
But his body carried poison, and she was just a mortal girl. Being intimate might cost her her life.
Once she wore this Gu, however, she could do whatever she wanted to him.
Moreover, this Purification Gu had been refined with his blood, which was extremely toxic. Once worn, it would allow her to pass through the valley’s poison barrier without issue, and the poisons below his level wouldn’t harm her either.
But suddenly, the man picked up the dagger beside the silver chain with one hand and held it before him. The smooth blade reflected his eye color and his less-than-pleased expression.
The knife tip plunged furiously toward the Gu body, only to suddenly slip from his grasp and stab into the desk instead.
Madam, his Madam…
That utterly infuriating Madam.
Lustful, fickle, and promiscuous.
Once she got his body and fulfilled her wish, she would probably grow bored and go find other men.
He had known it all along. He should have realized it sooner.
Back when his appearance had just recovered, that person had stared at him unblinkingly and even directly proposed marriage.
Lustful wretch.
Lustful wretch!
–
[Loading Complete!]
【Have fun gaming!】
–
The mountain spring water was usually crystal clear, but today, something was wrong. Downstream, the water was mixed with other colors, and even the fish in the creek were floating belly-up.
This area belonged to Medical Poison Valley. Although the cultivators there were sometimes labeled as evil cultivators, they hadn’t gone mad enough to poison the water.
By the creek, a figure walked upstream against the current and finally found the source.
The youth wore the common purple robes of the valley’s people, without any fancy silver ornaments, suggesting an ordinary status. His clothes were now tattered as he lay collapsed in the water. The wounds had been washed by the current, diluting some of the blood, leaving him as pale as a corpse.
When he escaped, the valley people had released toxins that paralyzed his body. But given a little more time, he could neutralize them.
Just then, however, the youth clearly heard footsteps slowly approaching.
Had the valley sent people to capture him?
There were many Gu People in the valley, but he was the most special one because the person testing poisons on him was the Valley Master. Those rare supreme poisons had gradually seeped into his bones and blood over time, granting him some strange abilities—
Ordinary poisons no longer affected him. He himself had become a supreme poison.
Perhaps in a little longer, he could cultivate his own Poison Dao.
But the Valley Master wouldn’t allow it. A Gu Person was best used as spiritual material for refining Gu—anything else was wasteful. How could he be allowed to form his Dao?
So he had seized an opportunity to escape. While poisoned, he jumped into the rapids and floated downstream, fleeing the valley. In the end, he collapsed heavily wounded in the creek.
The approaching footsteps were light—only one person, seemingly a woman.
The icy creek water washed over his body, but the youth lay as if unaware, motionless, his breathing faint as he listened closely to the intruder’s movements.
She seemed to have seen him.
She stopped.
She paced on the bank.
She seemed to have found something.
She stepped into the creek.
The water parted around her, disturbed by the flow. She waded toward him.
The patter of water was incessant and rhythmic, step by step. The person wasn’t stupid; she even positioned herself upstream, letting the creek wash away the toxic blood from his body.
His plan to use his toxic blood for protection and buy time had failed. The paralyzing toxins hadn’t worn off yet, and the youth still couldn’t move.
He could sense that she held something in her hand.
Perhaps a knife.
The youth thought coldly.
Icy water droplets splashed onto his face.
Perhaps she had lifted the knife from the water.
Perhaps he was about to die.
Fool. Even if she took his head to the Valley Master, it wouldn’t fetch much. Once he died, the Valley Master would lose a key spiritual material for refining Gu and wouldn’t spare the killer.
The “knife” suddenly dropped, and the youth felt silence near his ear.
He didn’t die.
That “knife” was extremely blunt, soaked by the creek water, icy and cool…
As it poked his face.
It wasn’t a knife—it was a wooden stick.
“Are you still alive…” The woman’s voice muttered, but of course, there was no response.
Only the creek babbled between them.
The man lying in the water had many visible wounds on his body, and his clothes were ragged. But… the tattered fabric couldn’t cover him properly, revealing a lean, powerfully built frame with pale skin.
He had a good figure.
The wooden stick poked and parted the long hair covering his face, revealing a countenance full of scars. Beneath the pale flesh, bluish veins lurked—it was a disfigured face.
Not good-looking.
The youth sensed all her actions and felt a gaze linger on his face for a moment.
His body was sensitive, and soon he felt that gaze shift away, moving to scan his waist and body repeatedly.
This person’s behavior was truly bizarre.
Looking at his face made sense—perhaps the valley had issued a wanted notice.
But why look at his waist?
After another moment, the person finally acted. She actually grabbed his clothes and dragged him onto the shore.
She had no spiritual power fluctuations about her—likely a mortal. But her strength was decent. She found some cloth to wrap him in and hauled him back home, dragging, pulling, and even carrying him on her back.
This should be her home. He could sense a small courtyard with some poultry in one corner.
It was cramped all around—not a large place.
She placed him on the ground, with cloth padding underneath.
Moments later, after some rustling sounds, she bent down to pick him up again.
After all the tossing along the way, the creek water on his body had dried long ago, and his wounds had stopped bleeding.
Soon, the sensation beneath him turned soft. It seemed… she had put him on the bed?
The earlier sounds had been her making the bed for him.
She adjusted his limp arms and legs into place. Her warm fingers grasped his cold ones, and she tucked a thin blanket over him.
Unfortunately, his body had ingested all sorts of strange poisons over the years and had long lost a normal person’s temperature—it wasn’t hypothermia.
She seemed unconvinced and grabbed one of his hands, her fingers pressing along his knuckles, rubbing back and forth…
An ignorant mortal with little worldly knowledge.
…Stop touching. It won’t warm up.
【Favorability +30】
The person’s movements suddenly paused. Soon after, she went out again. From the sounds, she seemed to be rummaging for something.
Moments later, the youth smelled a bitter fragrance—medicinal herbs.
Was she going to feed him medicine?
Subtle air currents stirred. Her footsteps came and went—it was definitely a mortal who couldn’t rely on spells, making everything so troublesome as she moved about. Until water sounds reached his ears again, deepening his doubts.
Was she brewing medicine?
What was she trying to do?
Soon, she returned to his side.
She reached out her hand.
…She was stripping off his clothes.
…
Bastard.