Chapter 139: Visiting the Church

The moment Yan Lingxuan pushed open the bamboo door, she saw the girl curled up on the ground, her belly slightly swollen, her face pale as a ghost.

The Heartbreak Gu poison planted by Yan Tianyou is raging inside her body.

That idiot can't even use the most basic Gu technique properly, instead causing the girl more suffering.

"Don't be afraid."

Yan Lingxuan's trembling fingers traced across the girl's abdomen, and the Golden Cicada Gu emerged from her sleeve, transforming into specks of golden light that entered the girl's body.

The moment the poison was neutralized, the girl suddenly burst into tears, her clothes soaked with sobs.

"Thank you... thank you, sister..."

The girl's sobs were like a thunderclap, jolting Yan Lingxuan out of her dazed state of mind.

She began to understand Lu Yao's good intentions.

From that day on, Yan Lingxuan betrayed her family and ran away from home.

No longer obeying Yan Xiucheng's orders to harm people, she used her Gu magic to help others, and she had never felt so fulfilled in her life.

He also gained a new understanding of the Gu in his hands.

Every time the Golden Cicada Gu heals a patient, she can feel the Thousand Life Gu in her bloodline trembling with joy.

When I woke up in the middle of the night, there were no more nightmares of ants gnawing at my heart, only the lingering warmth of the rescued person in my palm.

May you sleep peacefully every night.

However, this peace was too short-lived.

When Yan Xiucheng and his clansmen tied her up and dragged her back to the ancestral hall, she realized how naive she had been.

In Miao areas today, women are not their own masters.

Her departure made Yan Xiucheng realize that this daughter was not easy to control.

"They've grown wings..."

We need to marry her off quickly.

Once you get married, you'll naturally understand what the "Three Obediences and Four Virtues" mean.

He locked Yan Lingxuan in the cellar and began preparing for the wedding himself.

On the day of her wedding, when the matchmaker lifted the iron door to the cellar, Yan Lingxuan thought it was just another meal delivery.

The bride was the last to learn the truth, only after being forced into a bathtub by four strong women and having her pale skin scalded red by the hot water.

"The Ma family's bridal sedan chair has arrived at the village gate..."

"I heard that the groom has already caused the deaths of five people before him..."

After being washed clean, Yan Lingxuan was pressed in front of the bronze mirror.

They used rouge mixed with sedatives to apply makeup to her, transforming her struggles and anger into the shyness of a bride.

The person in the mirror is becoming more and more unfamiliar to me.

The pale foundation looked like it had been coated with lime, and the blood-red wedding dress made it hard for her to breathe.

The old woman's silver comb snapped off a strand of Yan Lingxuan's hair: "Bride, don't cry, your makeup will be ruined."

Just before she was forcibly put into the bridal sedan chair, Yan Lingxuan coughed violently.

She pretended to bend over in pain, but in reality, while the old women were busy, she secretly slipped a note written in blood into the parrot's feathers.

"Go..."

She murmured softly in the Miao language, her fingertips gently brushing against the emerald green feathers.

The little creature tilted its head and rubbed against her fingers, then suddenly let out a shrill cry, startling the matchmakers who all covered their ears.

Taking advantage of the chaos, the parrot shot out of the window like an arrow.

Its emerald wings swept past the Ma family's grand wedding procession, through the smoke of firecrackers, and fluttered away towards Jinglan Mountain.

...

The rise of the Ma family can be traced back five hundred years.

In the chaotic world of dynastic changes, wars broke out frequently, the population plummeted, and corpses of the starved littered the wilderness.

The ancestors of the Ma family keenly sensed a business opportunity and quietly ventured into a sinister trade.

Corpse oil.

Traverse battlefields and disease-ridden lands to collect unclaimed corpses.

In the dimly lit workshop, the fire flickered and a pungent smell filled the air.

The extracted corpse oil is graded into three, six, and nine levels:

The newly forged corpses on the battlefield are refined into "Red Candle Tears," exclusively for alchemy.

The plague victims were boiled to make "blue ointment," which was then applied to the incense burners in brothels to bewitch people's minds.

The finest "beauty cream" was taken from young girls who died prematurely. After being gilded in porcelain, it was sent to the deep palace. Legend has it that a certain imperial concubine used it to preserve her youthful appearance.

Through this bloody and unknown business, the Ma family accumulated their first fortune in ancient times, but also bore the curse of countless wronged souls.

As time moved into modern times, the impact of technology forced the Ma family to seek transformation.

They resumed their old ways on the Yunnan border.

The Ma family mixed male corpse oil with chemical drugs to develop a new type of hallucinogen.

This drug, known on the black market as "Moonlight Beauty," gives addicts the illusion of walking on clouds, but unknowingly allows the body toxins to erode their bone marrow.

After removing the putrid smell with chemical reagents, the female corpse oil was disguised as an "active essence" extracted from deep-sea creatures.

These cosmetic injections, laced with cadaver poison, were quietly injected under the skin of wealthy women through a meticulously woven underground network.

Seeing their well-maintained faces glow with a porcelain-white luster in the mirror, the ladies beamed with joy.

However, they were unaware that for every day they used this cosmetic injection, their lifespan would decrease by ten days.

In the case of a celebrity's sudden death three years ago, forensic doctors found unmetabolized body oil in the subcutaneous tissue.

The investigation came to an abrupt halt due to the intervention of a powerful figure.

This is precisely the survival rule carefully woven by the Ma family.

To make the powerful and wealthy accomplices as well.

Yan Xiucheng's choice to marry into such a family demonstrates the path he has chosen for the Yan family.

Yan Lingxuan became a victim in this.

Inside the Ma family's wedding hall, the wicks of red candles were soaked in murky corpse oil, burning with bluish-green flames.

The entire hall was filled with the sweet, pungent smell of putrid fat.

Yan Lingxuan was escorted into the wedding hall by four old women.

Her wedding dress was specially made, with the lining soaked in corpse oil that could suppress the spirit, and the cuffs sewn with black dog hair that could ward off evil spirits.

She couldn't use her Gu poison at all.

"First bow to Heaven and Earth!" The master of ceremonies' voice was hoarse as if scraping bone.

Yan Lingxuan stood frozen, then was forced to kneel down by the old woman pressing down on the back of her neck.

His knee slammed into the floor tiles with a heavy thud.

"Bowing to the parents twice!"

Suddenly, a cold wind blew up her veil.

Yan Lingxuan saw Master Ma, Ma Hongshuo, sitting upright in a grand chair, with five shiny finger bone pendants hanging around his neck.

Her father, Yan Xiucheng, wearing a brand-new silk jacket, was handing her natal Gu jar as part of her dowry to the Ma family.

"Husband and wife bow to each other!"

Ma Yuankui grinned, revealing a set of uneven teeth.

Yan Lingxuan glared at him with disgust and hatred.

He leaned closer to Yan Lingxuan, lifted the bride's chin, and his stale breath smelled of rotting flesh: "This girl has quite the temper."

"Pah!" Yan Lingxuan spat hard in his face.

Ma Yuankui neither dodged nor evaded.

He let the bloody saliva hang on his face, a look of ecstasy on his face: "Good taste... more flavorful than the previous ones."

Ma Hongshuo turned to Yan Xiucheng with a forced smile: "My son is just too good-natured and useless. Women, well, they're like the heat for refining corpse oil; you have to simmer them slowly."

Yan Xiucheng nodded: "My in-law is right. Now that this girl has entered the Ma family, you can do whatever you want with her."

"Take her away." Ma Hongshuo waved his hand. "To wake her up."

After the wedding ceremony, Yan Lingxuan was carried out by her subordinates.

Bloodstained fingertips left five scratch marks on the door frame.