Chapter 142 Reinstating Ancestral Instructions

Yan Xiucheng had already quietly retreated to the door when the corpse-driving bell shattered.

His fingers had just touched the latch when You Qing slapped him in the face with a shovel.

Bang!

His vision went black, and the crisp sound of his nose breaking accompanied by excruciating pain followed. Warm blood immediately smeared his face.

"You bitch! Do you know who I am?!"

He struggled to open his swollen eyes and spat out a broken tooth.

You Qing sneered and swung the shovel again, striking hard: "That's exactly what I'm doing, you old beast!"

The shovel slapped him unconscious, and his body went limp on the ground like a broken sack.

As Lu Yao led Yan Lingxuan out of the ruins of the Ma residence, the budgie excitedly flapped its wings and flew over: "Master!"

But just as it was about to land on Yan Lingxuan's shoulder, it suddenly stopped, tilting its head to the side: "Ugh—it stinks!"

It flapped its wings and flew away again.

Yan Lingxuan awkwardly touched her nose.

No wonder, she had rolled around in a mountain of corpses and a sea of ​​blood, and had been drenched in corpse oil. At this moment, her whole body was emitting a stench of rotting flesh mixed with blood.

In contrast, Lu Yao remained dressed in pristine white, her hair spotless.

"Give."

Youqing tossed over a cleaning talisman and a set of sportswear with a look of disgust, saying, "Don't let the stench bother our Grand Preceptor."

The talisman ignited upon touching Yan Lingxuan's clothes, instantly purifying her of all impurities.

She couldn't wait to tear off her blood-stained wedding dress and throw it far away.

The wedding dress spontaneously combusted in mid-air, burning away the last traces of the Ma family.

The three men turned their gaze to Yan Xiucheng, who was bound like a rice dumpling.

You Qing had already stripped him of all the Gu worms, and now those poisonous Gu worms were trembling and lying at Lu Yao's feet.

There were emerald green bamboo vipers, blood-red centipedes, and several golden silkworm gu were desperately hiding behind their companions.

You Qing smiled and said, "Be good, the Imperial Advisor will take good care of you."

...

Yan Xiucheng slowly woke up and found himself facing Zhu Yeqing, who was lying on his chest.

They stared at each other, his curse stuck in his throat, and he stopped abruptly.

When Lu Yao's gaze swept over them, these poisonous insects trembled as if they had seen their natural enemy, completely ignoring their former master's secret summons.

The bamboo viper rubbed against his chin, and the venom from its fangs dripped onto his Adam's apple, immediately corroding a small pit.

Yan Xiucheng's pupils widened, and large beads of sweat appeared on his forehead: "You... what did you do to my Gu?!"

"They simply made a choice."

Lu Yao said softly, and with a flick of her finger, the bamboo viper raised its tail in a friendly gesture, and the blood centipede crawled affectionately on her palm.

Upon seeing this, Yan Xiucheng suddenly let out a scream that sounded inhuman: "That's my natal Gu! I've been raising it for forty years... Ah!"

"The Yan family has been a family of Gu practitioners for a thousand years..." Lu Yao looked coldly at the disheveled man, "and almost ruined it all because of you."

"Yan Lingxuan!" Lu Yaoqing shouted, "Do you still remember your Yan family's ancestral precepts?"

Yan Lingxuan was stunned.

In this materialistic age, the Yan family, under Yan Xiucheng's leadership, has long been reduced to a tool for making money.

What ancestral precepts?

Lu Yao lightly tapped her fingertip, and a golden light outlined the ancient Miao script in the air:

"The art of Gu (poisoning) begins with medicine and ends with benevolence."

Using poison to save one person is an act of kindness;

To harm one person with poison is a sin.

The descendants of the Yan family should use witchcraft to save the world…

Each word shimmered with a faint golden light, reflected in Yan Lingxuan's suddenly contracting pupils.

Lu Yao's gaze passed through her, as if looking back a thousand years.

That story was told to her by Yan Lingxuan herself a thousand years ago.

A thousand years ago, the tragic state of the southwestern border region emerged in the golden light.

The infected villagers were covered in festering sores, wailing as they turned into pus and blood.

The doctors, at a loss, collapsed one after another.

A young Miao woman knelt by the stream and discovered a black, malevolent aura swimming in the water…

"This is impossible..."

Yan Lingxuan murmured to herself, her fingers unconsciously tracing the floating words.

When the scene shifted to the Miao woman venturing deep into the swamp to feed the Gu poison with her own body, Yan Lingxuan shuddered.

"This is... our ancestor..."

Yan Lingxuan suddenly burst into tears.

These images and words, like a key, suddenly unlocked memories deep within her bloodline.

In a daze, she seemed to see countless scenes of the Daiyan family gathering herbs to treat illnesses, saw the babies they delivered using Gu magic, and saw the golden silkworm Gu light shining through the plague...

Yan Lingxuan's lips moved uncontrollably, and ancient Miao incantations flowed out naturally like a clear spring.

She was startled to realize that these words did not come from memory, but from a resonance deep within her blood, and every syllable made her heart tremble.

"...Descendants of the Yan family should use Gu to save the world, but must not rely on Gu to do evil. Those who violate this rule will be rejected by Heaven and abandoned by Earth, and the Gu will also turn against their masters."

Lu Yao nodded.

"Good, you finally remembered."

Yan Lingxuan stared at her hands in disbelief.

Those ancient admonitions that Yan Xiucheng considered useless were now coursing through her veins.

What shocked her even more was that this metaphysical streamer in front of her actually knew more about the origins of the ancestral teachings than the direct descendants of the Yan family.

Who exactly is Lu Yao?

The internet only came online a thousand years ago... What if this username wasn't a joke, but the truth?

She always knew that You Qing was calling for the Imperial Advisor, but she found it absurd, so she jokingly called him "Master Chengshi"... Could he really be the Imperial Advisor?

Lu Yao looked at Yan Lingxuan calmly, "Your ancestors understood that true power lies not in controlling life and death, but in revering life and death."

"I hope you will not let her good intentions go to waste."

Yan Lingxuan took a deep breath and looked at Yan Xiucheng firmly, "He is no longer fit to be a father. Whether he is killed or tortured is entirely up to you, sir."

Lu Yao suddenly stared into her eyes: "If I were to put you in charge of the Yan family, what would you do?"

Yan Lingxuan suddenly knelt down, her forehead slamming heavily against the bluestone slab: "Please, Imperial Advisor, bear witness!"

She bit her finger, drawing a bloody mark between her eyebrows, "Yan Lingxuan reaffirms her blood oath today, vowing to bring Gu magic back to the right path!"

"Remember your words."

Lu Yao lightly tapped Yan Xiucheng's direction with her fingertips.

Suddenly, the worms sprang up. The Seven-Step Intestine-Severing Gu bit his throat, the Golden Silkworm Gu burrowed into his ear canal, and the Bamboo Leaf Green tightly wrapped around his neck.

Yan Xiucheng's body convulsed, veins bulging, yet he still roared, "You beasts... I am... your master... ah!!!"

“You…rebellious woman…” He struggled to point at Yan Lingxuan, his rotting lips still moving, “You will…regret this…”

Before he could finish speaking, the poisonous insect had already pierced the root of his tongue.

The rate at which the toxins corrode the body is astonishingly fast.

His skin hissed as if it had been splashed with strong acid, first turning bluish-purple like lividity, and then peeling off in large patches.

The exposed muscle tissue rapidly carbonized, revealing the stark white bones.

Most horrifyingly, the bones were also turning black at a visible speed, as if they were soaked in ink.

When the last breath of life dissipated, his body was twisted into a bizarre bow shape.

His bulging eyes were fixed on the Gu worms, refusing to close until his death, his turbid pupils filled with unbelievable fear.

These natal Gu, which he had fed with his life essence for decades, were now devouring his remaining flesh and blood.

You Qing kicked the corpse in disgust: "Tsk, even the bones are black."

She turned to Yan Lingxuan and raised an eyebrow, "New patriarch, what should we do with this pile of garbage?"

Despite feeling nauseous, Yan Lingxuan retrieved the family head token from Yan Xiucheng's body and held it in her hand.

Lu Yao took out the bronze patriarch seal of the Ma family from her sleeve; the Yazi beast head on the seal knob gleamed with a ghostly light.

"Although this seal is stained with blood, it is still a handy tool."

She turned her wrist slightly, and the seal flipped over in her palm.

Suddenly, two eerie green lights appeared in the beast's eyes, flickering like will-o'-the-wisps.

Where the green light swept, Yan Xiucheng's blackened corpse began to crumble and decay.

Flesh turned into wisps of smoke, bones shattered into dust, and even the bloodstains that had seeped into the floor tiles seemed to be wiped away by an invisible hand.

Not far away, the piles of corpses in the ruins of the Ma residence simultaneously emitted a phosphorescent glow, like thousands of fireflies rising up.

You Qing covered her mouth and nose and took a half step back: "Wow, this is much more environmentally friendly than a crematorium."

The drifting dust did not disappear, but seeped deep into the soil.

Next year, the most lush vegetation will grow here.