Meng Qi glanced at the natal sword and suddenly said, “Fellow Daoist Qiao, the last two strikes…”
“Eh?” Qiao Ran paused, surprised. This technique involved integrating an array into the sword moves, a true legacy skill of the Duankong Sect only granted to the personal disciples of the elders. Regular disciples were only taught sword arrays that required multiple sword cultivators. His twelve strikes might not seem imposing, but if the opponent’s natal weapon hadn’t dodged at that moment, the positioning of the last two strikes, completing the array, would have surely destroyed it!
“Did they miss?” Meng Qi spoke while swinging her medicinal knife with her right hand. Although she was not as strong or swift in her movements as Qiao Ran, the spell cultivator was caught off guard by Qiao Ran’s attack and hadn’t recovered yet.
Meng Qi swung her medicinal knife, making two steady clanging sounds, striking the spell cultivator’s natal weapon. She already had a handful of spirit stones ready in her left hand, which she flicked at the last strike she made. The spell cultivator’s natal weapon suddenly lit up. Before he could react, it shattered into pieces.
“My weapon!” The spell cultivator screamed, lunging for his natal weapon.
Xue Chengxuan quickly intervened with his silver needle, piercing the man’s neck.
“Ugh—” The spell cultivator groaned, falling backward to the ground. His eyes were wide open; his aura was still abundant, but the moment the silver needle penetrated his body, he was utterly immobilized.
At that moment, the spell cultivator felt like crying—
Who says medical cultivators can’t fight?!
“!!!” Qiao Ran was utterly stunned; if his last two strikes had hit their mark, sending spiritual aura with the sword movements, the twelve strikes would have left marks on the natal weapon and formed a minor array, shattering the weapon completely. But because the last two strikes were misaligned, and since the opponent had a similar cultivation level—the peak of the Nascent Soul stage—it wasn’t so easy to destroy the natal weapon. Unexpectedly, Meng Qi was able to seamlessly complete the two moves he missed. Her cultivation was far below him, so she utilized a spirit stone to activate the array in the end.
She… Qiao Ran turned his head to look at Meng Qi, a flash of surprise in his eyes. Has Master already fully transferred the knowledge of arrays to her?
“Fellow Daoist Xue.” The blue-robed girl obviously couldn’t see the thoughts flashing through Qiao Ran’s mind. Standing beside Xue Chengxuan, she grabbed his arm: “Someone has been afflicted with the Withering Bloom Gu.” Her tone was calm, but her gaze was exceptionally bright. As Meng Qi looked intently at Xue Chengxuan, Qiao Ran felt he could hear a suppressed enthusiasm in her calm, bordering cold, voice.
“Withering… Bloom… Gu…” Xue Chengxuan’s eyes were bloodshot, and he stiffly turned to look at Meng Qi, vaguely repeating her words.
“Yes.” Meng Qi nodded firmly, boldly taking Xue Chengxuan’s left hand and writing on his palm: “Withering Bloom Gu.” She took out the Dream-Solving Incense Li Che had given her and lit it with a flick of her hand. The slightly bitter medicinal scent dispersed, and Meng Qi looked into Xue Chengxuan’s eyes, repeating, “Withering Bloom Gu, one of the legendary seven ancient Gu.”
Xue Chengxuan’s eyes still showed a bloodshot color. He raised his eyebrows slightly, his expression changing, “Withering Bloom Gu?”
“Yes!” Meng Qi nodded gravely, “A sword cultivator has been affected by Withering Bloom Gu, and Li Che is currently attending to him.”
“Let’s go there.” Xue Chengxuan finally spoke.
“Of course.” Meng Qi turned around and headed back the way they came, this time with Xue Chengxuan.
“Eh?” Qiao Ran paused, then quickly caught up with the two, “Wait for me.” As he spoke, his natal sword swept out, diligently clearing a path for them.
They quickly returned to the corner of the city wall. By this time, most of the cultivators on the wall, under the influence of the Thousand Emperor Bell, had lost their sanity. Otherwise, it would not have been so easy for Meng Qi’s group to make their way back and forth. “You’re back,” Li Che looked up as he heard their voices and brightened upon seeing them, “Fellow Daoist Xue.”
His eyes still bloodshot, Xue Chengxuan squatted next to the Duankong Sect disciple and pressed his fingers to his forehead. He quickly performed the same routine movements just like Meng Qi a moment ago and lifted the man’s eyelid: “Indeed, it’s Withering Bloom Gu.” He looked up at Meng Qi and Li Che, the bloodiness in his eyes slightly faded from before.
“We all know the origin of Withering Bloom Gu,” Meng Qi quickly explained.
Xue Chengxuan nodded, saying, “I’ve seen records about this gu in my family’s archives.” He paused, then added, “The poisons from the poison kings are complex, making this gu one of the hardest to counteract. Withering Bloom Gu entangles more deeply with the flesh, meridians, and spiritual aura for each day it remains in the body. If too much time passes, even if an antidote is found, the poison will have penetrated so deeply into the organs and spiritual sea that the victim would be permanently crippled even if saved.”
“I see,” Meng Qi and Li Che nodded together.
“Some poisons in the Three Thousand Worlds are incurable…” Meng Qi thought for a moment, then said, “We could try to unravel it like unwinding silk from a cocoon.”
Meng Qi’s eyes lit up, and then she pulled out the jade box from her storage space. The box contained several cocoons formed from Myriad Corpse Silkworm silk. Under the sunlight, the dark golden silk shimmered with a slightly eerie glow. “The silk of the Myriad Corpse Silkworm is impervious to water and fire and, besides being used to make gloves, it actually has another use…”
“Unraveling silk from a cocoon!” Li Che took over the conversation.
“We can try,” Xue Chengxuan said. “But how did you come by the silk of the Myriad Corpse Silkworm?” he asked casually.
“I and Li Che treated several injured people, and we extracted it from their bodies,” Meng Qi explained.
“Huh?” Xue Chengxuan furrowed his brow. “Was the silk also obtained here?” He suddenly thought of something and looked towards the distance. There, under the vault of the sky, the ancient mountains stretched on, as if time itself was frozen in this high mountain expanse.
“What’s wrong?” Meng Qi asked.
“The silk of the Myriad Corpse Silkworm, although not as rare as Withering Bloom Gu, is not something commonly found. To my knowledge, it is now only found in the extreme north of the Southern Realm, closest to the Devil Realm.”
He paused, then continued, “Because of its proximity to the Devil Realm and the perennial snow and ice, it is said that ordinary cultivators can’t survive in this place, so there are no sects within a thousand miles. Moreover, there is no known method to keep this silkworm alive once removed from its original habitat. There are many alternative materials for making gloves, and the silk of the Myriad Corpse Silkworm is not greatly needed. Even if medical cultivators occasionally seek it out for some specific purposes, they wouldn’t acquire so much. How could there be so many people injured by Myriad Corpse Silkworm silk in these Ten Absolutes Mountains?” Xue Chengxuan spoke slowly.
The bloodshot in his eyes, which had just faded, gradually intensified again, “And the Withering Bloom Gu… It’s too coincidental that the treatment for Withering Bloom Gu might also use Myriad Corpse Silkworm silk.” Xue Chengxuan stood up, his eyes so red they almost dripped blood. He nearly gritted his teeth as he slowly said, “There must be a conspiracy! This person, we cannot save!”
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