Chapter 36: Family Tradition
Yun Wuxiang’s intuition suddenly spiked. He looked first at Little Black Tuft.
Finding nothing unusual, he looked toward Little Black Tuft’s mother. The Toad Envoy was lifting her hand to adjust her veil. The small portion of her face not covered by the veil happened to be blocked by her arm, concealing her expression completely.
After munching on the scorpion in his mouth, Little Black Tuft ran into the group of Gu Masters to find his next meal. Any Gu Master with the intention of fleeing was given a finishing blow by the red butterfly.
As more and more people lost their life-bound Gu, cries and curses rang out in succession.
“Toad Envoy! Why haven’t you acted yet?!” a Gu Master questioned in panic.
The Toad Envoy feigned surprise, covering her mouth with her slender, jade-like fingers. “Act? Why should I act? Don’t tell me you actually believed what I said earlier? Heavens, how can there be such naive people in the Poison Mist Swamp?”
The man’s eyes nearly split with rage. “You poisonous woman!”
“Thanks for the compliment.” The Toad Envoy smiled slightly, accepting the title.
Someone cursed Yun Wuxiang: “Sheng Yuming, acting so recklessly like this, you will face divine retribution sooner or later!”
Having been in the illusion for so long, this was the first time Yun Wuxiang learned “his” name.
The name didn’t match, so the lethality of the curse was zero. Even so, Yun Wuxiang rewarded that Gu Master with a wing-slap from the Baleful Butterfly, sending him to the west.
Some recognized the situation and knelt on the spot. “Holy Son, if all the Gu Masters here die, the Poison Mist Swamp will fall into chaos! Spare my life, and I will be your most loyal subordinate!”
Before the words fell, the expressionless boy flashed in front of him. His tender white hand pierced the man’s chest and pulled out a constantly screeching Gu insect.
Immediately after, he crushed the man’s throat, completely cutting off any chance to speak. As his consciousness faded, the Gu Master heard a childish voice with non-standard pronunciation echoing in his ears: “Beside him… only me.”
The boy’s pitch-black eyes were like bottomless pits, covered with a layer of deceptive harmlessness that only revealed a sliver of truth to the dead.
The pretty butterfly only needs to raise me. Anyone snatching food gets killed.
A fierce light flashed in Little Black Tuft’s eyes as he was suddenly lifted by the back of his collar.
“What did you say just now?”
Yun Wuxiang looked at the little thing in his hand, who blinked and put on a look of obedience. In his peripheral vision was the unnamed Gu Master dying with regrets. The little thing still had two drops of splattered blood on his face. This visage, paired with the act of playing cute, had a completely counterproductive effect.
Little Black Tuft tilted his head, raised the Gu in his hand, and said, “Eat?”
Yun Wuxiang stared at him for a while, his lips parting slightly to mock softly, “Playing dumb.”
He then let go, allowing the boy to free-fall.
Little Black Tuft landed on the ground and immediately ran to the Toad Envoy, adding another smear of blood to his mother’s skirt.
The Toad Envoy glanced at her bloodstained skirt with a calm expression. She had already given up. The thought of offloading her son climbed to a new level in her heart.
A son who can be kidnapped with just a bit of food—what’s the use of raising him?
After wiping his hands and completing the pre-meal preparation with Yun Wuxiang, Little Black Tuft took a crunchy bite. After eating, he gave a huge yawn and started rubbing his eyes, acting as if he were very sleepy.
Yun Wuxiang observed his post-meal behavior. Is he full?
The Toad Envoy approached slowly, the silver bracelets on her wrist jingling. She bent down and stuffed something from her hand into Little Black Tuft’s mouth.
The red flute extended, lodging between the gap-toothed jaws.
“What did you feed him?” Yun Wuxiang scanned Song Yilou’s mouth. The object the Toad Envoy had inserted melted instantly; he only saw a blur of liquid sliding down the throat.
After ingesting that thing, the little creature closed his eyes completely, hugged Yun Wuxiang’s leg, and fell asleep.
“Guan Yin Tears. A peerless poisonous herb hidden by the Grand Wu Zhu.” The Toad Envoy stood up as she spoke. She intended to smile, but upon seeing the handprint on her skirt while rising, her expression paused. The smile didn’t come out, twisting into a bizarre grimace that didn’t reach her eyes.
“With this, the little beast can turn into a true Gu Human.”
Hearing familiar words, Yun Wuxiang was about to ask when the Scorpion Envoy shouted first: “Gu Human! You’re actually using your own son to refine that kind of thing!”
The Toad Envoy seemed to just discover his existence. She said with mild surprise, “You’re not dead yet?”
The Scorpion Envoy’s face was ferocious. The Spider Envoy beside him pulled him back, looking at the Toad Envoy with a complex expression.
“Juanyu, your parents both died unnatural deaths because of refining Gu Humans. Why are you still doing this?”
“Why not? My parents succeeded halfway. And I gave birth to the seed most suitable to become a Gu Human.”
The Toad Envoy raised her hand and lifted her veil. The white gauze fell onto the blood-dyed red ground, gradually assimilating with it.
“Of course, I want to refine a true Gu Human.”
Upon seeing the Toad Envoy’s full face, the faces of the Spider Envoy and Scorpion Envoy showed a highly consistent look of shock.
“How can the Snake Envoy and Centipede Envoy’s Life Gu be on your body?” The Scorpion Envoy was astonished.
The Spider Envoy’s focus was elsewhere: “Your eye!”
Yun Wuxiang observed the Toad Envoy’s complete face. As he expected, this woman had two moles under her right eye. A green snake tattoo coiled in a bewitching arc on the right side of her face, the snake’s tongue connecting to the moles under her eye. A red centipede circled her neck, head and tail intersecting above the collarbone like a glamorous necklace.
And her right eye was entirely black with no white, as if a massive black pearl had been stuffed into the socket.
“Does it look strange?” The Toad Envoy, revealing her right eye, looked like a fallen Guan Yin, a ghost residing within a divine statue showing a flaw.
She raised her hand to touch the corner of her right eye. “There was a little accident when my mother was pregnant with me.”
“Family tradition?” Yun Wuxiang blurted out. He thought Song Yilou being born different was a mutation; it turned out to be heredity plus mutation.
Then, he looked at her with a look that said ‘I want to dissect you’ and asked, “I feel like you were lying to me earlier. Will you really die if your heart is dug out?”
Hearing this, the Toad Envoy smiled radiantly, opening her arms unscrupulously. “Little madman, do you want to try?”
“Don’t do it! If the Gu Master dies, the Gu Human will go berserk immediately!” Although the Scorpion Envoy felt he was mostly done for today, he didn’t want to be done for right now.
“Is that so?” Yun Wuxiang twirled the red flute in his hand. “I don’t believe it.” The Toad Envoy had been dead for who knows how many years, and Song Yilou was still alive and kicking, able to talk and act.
The red-clad youth moved swiftly and ruthlessly, raising his hand to stab at the Toad Envoy’s heart. The woman in white, covered in bloody handprints, didn’t dodge or evade.
The Scorpion Envoy screamed in terror, “Don’t!”
The Spider Envoy clutched her waist, struggling to stand up.
The attacking red figure paused. The jade flute stopped in front of the Toad Envoy’s heart. Yun Wuxiang’s expression changed slightly. “Your heart…”
A bizarre smile hooked up the corners of the Toad Envoy’s mouth. A black shadow sprang from her chest, crawled rapidly up the red flute, and landed on the back of Yun Wuxiang’s hand.
Yun Wuxiang’s true strength could naturally have dodged it, but the illusion decided he couldn’t dodge—just like his fake poisoned lip color.
Looking down, a black scorpion tattoo appeared on the back of his hand. Its shape was extremely similar to the tattoo on Song Yilou’s neck, just smaller.
It was the childhood version of Song Yilou’s Life-bound Gu.
There was movement from the creature leaning on his leg. Yun Wuxiang looked down and saw Little Black Tuft open his eyes, staring straight at him.
Recommended Reads
