“Wen Liang and Wen Yan, my pair of twin children are the most masterful gu I’ve refined in my lifetime.”
“I named them the Twin Gu.”
Yin Ling gasped, “What?! Humans can also be refined into gu!”
Liao Zitu said indifferently, “Even lifeless things like stones can become stone gu, so why not humans?”
“My Yan’er was born weak, barely breathing at birth, almost dead. So I refined him into gu.”
“Now after all these years, he has become a Gu King.”
“His talent in witchcraft far surpasses mine.”
“So normally, Yan’er stays with me in the mansion learning Miao witchcraft, while Liang’er becomes a shining star in the outside world.”
“One in the light, one in the shadows, supporting each other mutually, they will become the most impregnable fortress in this world.”
“I just didn’t expect that little Gao Gusheng would have such power, entrancing my Liang’er so thoroughly that he made such a desperate move and was caught red-handed, sent to prison. I had no choice but to let Yan’er leave the mansion to replace Liang’er at school.”
“Liang’er represents the company’s public image—his reputation must be flawless.”
So only “Wen Yan” could be the name that went to prison.
Gao Shi narrowed his eyes slightly and asked, “Can Wen Liang and Wen Yan contact each other?”
No matter how detailed Wen Yan knew about Wen Liang’s affairs, it would be impossible to impersonate him perfectly, let alone that they had lived in completely different environments for the first twenty years.
Liao Zitu nodded and spoke frankly, “Correct, you’re right. Because they are twins, after the Twin Gu was refined, I accidentally discovered that they have a natural contract between them, somewhat like the contract between a witch and gu, yet not exactly the same. Their relationship is equal—as long as Yan’er agrees, Liang’er’s consciousness can enter Yan’er’s body.”
Gao Shi remembered Wen Liang’s constant fever and sleep recently—it was probably Wen Liang’s consciousness entering Wen Yan’s body, plotting against his son with all his heart.
He wondered how Lele was doing now.
Even knowing that both Ying Bujie and Kongmiao should have arrived, he still couldn’t suppress his anxiety.
At this moment, Zhuang Xiuxiu looked at Wen Shidai, who still stood beside his wife even in this situation, and asked, “Do you find this interesting? Even though Wen Shidai still guards by your side, it’s only due to the love gu’s effect. Does he truly love you?”
This question seemed to hit Liao Zitu’s sore spot. She gripped Wen Shidai’s hand tightly, “Of course he loves me. Even if I told him to die right now, he would do so willingly.”
Wen Shidai nodded, “Exactly, I definitely love my wife. I’m willing to brave mountains of knives and seas of fire for her. Don’t try to sow discord between us.”
Liao Zitu no longer concealed the fact that she had indeed put love gu on Wen Shidai, instead laughing lightly, “Ha! These years, how prosperous the Wen family has been, how well we’ve lived. No one noticed this because he still retains his reason. He’s no different from usual, just loves me more.”
Zhuang Xiuxiu looked at her with a trace of pity, “Whether this thought of loving you is his own idea or an idea you forced on him with love gu—can you guarantee that even if the love gu were removed, he would still love you?”
Liao Zitu’s hand tightened, “What difference does it make? His feelings for me now are real. He does love me. As long as the love gu never leaves his body in this lifetime, he will love me for this entire life.”
Gao Shi shook his head, “Is it interesting to manipulate a puppet to play house with yourself?”
Zhuang Xiuxiu took a deep breath, “You’re so beautiful and skilled. Even if you weren’t in the Wen family, you could still live well. There would be countless men willing to pursue you and give you their true hearts. Why must you hang yourself on this one playboy?”
Zhuang Xiuxiu mercilessly tore at her wounds. The little girl who usually blushed when speaking was now like a sharp blade.
“The medicinal formulas that made the Wen family prosper these years—you gave them to him, didn’t you? You gave him the opportunity to make his fortune, but when you became useless, he swept you aside. Then he went to find other women, even allowing those mistresses to come to your door pregnant and cause trouble.”
Gao Shi said indifferently, “If you knew you were just using him as a puppet to take revenge for his betrayal, making him play house with you, I could at least respect you somewhat.”
Zhuang Xiuxiu looked at Liao Zitu with frustration, “You have such abilities, yet you numb and deceive yourself, tricking yourself into believing he loves you, as if your life’s entire meaning is for this man. It’s ridiculous.”
She shook her head, “With all your skills, you’ve trapped yourself beside him.”
“A rotten person like this, and you still want to deceive yourself that he loves you.”
Zhuang Xiuxiu had thoroughly enraged Liao Zitu.
Liao Zitu lost her composure and shouted at them, “What do you understand?! He was the first man I met outside our village. He was injured at that time, and I saved him and cared for him until he recovered. We walked through every corner of the jungle around our village, we had so many memories, he promised me so much—how could he not love me?”
The white snake seemed to sense her emotions and changed from its previous docile appearance, opening its bloody maw with teeth gleaming with chilling light.
Gao Shi looked at the crazed Liao Zitu, stepped forward to shield Zhuang Xiuxiu behind him, and calmly summarized, “He loved you, but he only loved you at that time, loved only the you of that time.”
“He loves himself far more than he loves you.”
“You’ve been by his side for so many years—don’t you really understand? A leopard can’t change its spots. If you released the love gu’s hold on him, the first thing he’d do would be to kill you or imprison you to learn the art of refining gu from you.”
“You know his true nature, don’t you?”
“No! He loves me! He does love me!”
Liao Zitu’s long hair flew wildly like Medusa’s, while beside her, Wen Shidai hurriedly comforted her, “Darling, I love you, I love you the most, I’ll love only you for my entire life.”
However, the more passionate Wen Shidai’s words became, the more false they seemed, like a robot that could only execute commands, mechanically running its program.
The white snake, following its master’s emotions, became angry and mad. It spat out a breath of pale purple poisonous gas, and its massive tail swept violently toward several people. Yin Ling’s voice rang out in mid-air.
“Get away! Quick, get away! That’s not mist—it’s insects!”
That purple mist was actually composed of thousands upon thousands of small insects that would immediately burrow into skin upon contact. As for their effects, only Liao Zitu knew.
But even dodging had become difficult at this point.
Inside this house was Liao Zitu’s home field. The eerie nature of gu-refining arts lay not in overwhelming swarms of insects, but in the mysterious and unpredictable methods of applying gu—you never knew when you’d fall into their trap.
Clearly, Liao Zitu’s talent was unimaginably high. At only around forty years old, she could not only refine dead objects into gu but also use living humans to refine gu, making her virtually impossible to guard against.
No matter how fast Yin Ling was, he couldn’t avoid these omnipresent insects. The insects bit at his skin, then had their teeth broken and fell densely to the ground, but immediately more insects swarmed up.
These insects couldn’t harm him immediately, but he was more worried about Gao Shi and Zhuang Xiuxiu over there.
Those insects seemed somewhat wary of the smoke in Gao Shi’s hand. They surrounded the smoke around Gao Shi and Zhuang Xiuxiu but didn’t dare enter, only absorbing the smoke before falling to the ground one by one.
This suicidal attack gradually reduced the smoke, and the cigarette in Gao Shi’s hand gradually shortened, yet the insects seemed endless.
He only had one cigarette left in his pack. Once this one was finished, they would be covered by omnipresent insects.
“Damn it, forget it all!”
Yin Ling yanked off the bandage over his left eye. This eye was different from his golden right eye—it was blood-red, like a drop of blood.
Sealed within Yin Ling’s body was a ghost of strength exceeding level one.
As the bandages gradually fell away, his bandaged arm bore pitch-black runes that seemed to come alive, flowing across his body.
His figure suddenly grew taller, and he swung a punch at the swarm of insects. These insects fell like rain, pattering to the ground.
The cold, sinister aura of the powerful ghost made even the gu insects somewhat wary.
Yin Ling took the opportunity to relay the situation inside the space to the outside.
Guiyan continuously cut through space, drawing these insects into unknown realms.
But winning through numbers was the most basic, lowest method. What they truly needed to guard against wasn’t just these locust-like dense swarms of insects, but real witchcraft and gu arts.
The insects wanted to spread outward but were blocked by Xuanyu’s formation.
Upon receiving the message, Xuanyu maintained the protective formation outside while sending a support request to headquarters.
At this time, he received news that Huang Shan’s group at the Wu family estate had also come under attack, at almost the same time as them. However, the Wu family estate was much less dangerous than here—Feiyu alone had already eliminated all the Wu family members. The only trouble was that Huang Shan had been afflicted with gu.
From Chang Yang’s tone, Huang Shan’s condition was probably not optimistic.
Xuanyu knew that after Yin Ling unsealed himself, his rationality would decrease with the number of unsealed seals until he was completely assimilated by the evil ghost. He quickly contacted Gao Shi, “Captain Gao, Brother Huang is in trouble.”
Gao Shi softly hummed acknowledgment, “Don’t worry.”
Liao Zitu heard Gao Shi’s unguarded voice and fixed her gaze on his ear, “You have backup outside? But it doesn’t matter anymore.”
Because the smoke around Gao Shi was getting less and less, and the insects were about to touch their skin.
Actually, when they originally arranged the teams, they had thought very comprehensively. Whether it was Yin Ling, Xuanyu, or Guiyan, all three were unafraid of gu insect attacks. Guiyan could flash into parallel space, Yin Ling’s sealed ghost protected him from curses, and Xuanyu stood outside the formation where gu insects couldn’t reach him.
Originally their plan was that once they detected problems with Liao Zitu, they would simply capture her. Without the threat of gu insects, could three grown men not apprehend one woman through sheer physical strength? Who could have expected that Liao Zitu had a blood snake gu beside her, and that this blood snake gu, fed with countless human lives and flesh, had grown into an extremely terrifying existence.
Even more troublesome were those dense swarms of insects that overwhelmed them. While they wouldn’t be caught by these methods, they also had no energy left to protect Gao Shi and Zhuang Xiuxiu.
However, the NO.1 on the ranking of anomaly police that spirit police most wanted to collaborate with wasn’t just for show.
Originally already anxious knowing his son was facing something neither human nor insect, Gao Shi completely lost his temper after hearing about Huang Shan’s incident.
He had originally wanted to bite his fingertip directly, using blood as a shield to charge straight at Liao Zitu. But unexpectedly, the moment he bit his fingertip, he felt something and took out what looked like a keychain—a small axe hanging on his keys—before the last wisp of smoke dispersed.
“Let’s finish this quickly.”
When blood touched the axe blade, the small axe seemed to understand his words. It grew with the wind, expanding from less than palm-size, gradually becoming larger, larger, larger… until it was as long as an adult’s arm, even longer than before.
This axe looked perfectly ordinary, yet flowed with a faint golden light. All gu insects that touched this golden light immediately turned to ash.
Liao Zitu’s expression changed drastically.
“Pure yang constitution and a magical weapon?”
The moment he gripped the axe handle, it came alive and let out a joyful dragon’s roar.
Distantly, dragon roars seemed to respond in kind.
The gu insects immediately stopped moving, suppressed until they couldn’t budge, falling to the ground one after another.
Gao Shi’s heart followed his will as he brought this axe down into empty space.
As if laws were added upon it, a mystical feeling arose in his heart. At this moment, he intuitively knew that this axe could sever these gu insects, sever the blood snake before him, sever time, sever space, sever everything that deserved judgment.
One axe fell.
Time seemed to freeze along with space. Golden light flashed past the blood snake, exploding into myriad blood blossoms.
Yin Ling, who had been preparing to unseal his second layer, froze.
Liao Zitu, splattered with blood, froze.
Wen Shidai also froze.
Wen Shidai looked like a jammed puppet, turning his head stiffly to look at his wife.
He let out a scream.
“You, you venomous woman, what have you done?!”
He retreated backward, crawling and stumbling, even tripping over himself.
He looked utterly wretched.
Liao Zitu was covered in blood but paid no heed, only looking at Wen Shidai who avoided her like a snake or scorpion.
“A Dai…”
“Don’t come near me, you venomous woman, don’t come near! Stay away from me!”
“You all, help me, I was forced into this, I’m not with this venomous woman!”
“Young Master Gao, save me, I’ll give you half of the Wen family shares!”
Watching Wen Shidai desperately avoiding her, Liao Zitu slowly shed two lines of bloody tears.
“You clearly said… you’d love me forever…”
“Enough, enough. Save the reminiscing for later.”
Yin Ling forcefully and unreasonably interrupted the couple’s melodramatic dialogue.
He and Guiyan each grabbed one person, not giving this criminal couple a chance to display excessive emotions.
“Save whatever you want to say for when you’re in jail.”
Seeing both captured on the spot, Gao Shi didn’t shrink the axe but carried it out as is, striding with tiger steps and murderous aura like a god of death, making Xuanyu’s neck feel cold as he began recalling if he’d done anything wrong recently.
“Little Xuan, do you have any earth-shrinking or space-moving talismans? I need to find Lele.”
Gao Shi sneered coldly.
“I need to take a good look at that little bastard who laid hands on my son.”
***
