Seven-year-old son

"don't want--"

Heart-wrenching cries echoed through the long night.

Ren Xiangxiang, who was in a dream, suddenly opened her eyes and sat up abruptly.

What was that sound?

Who is crying?

She didn't even bother to put on her shoes and ran barefoot outside. As soon as she rushed out the door, Mo You stopped her.

"Don't go over there."

"What happened? What happened? I heard my junior sister crying, isn't that her?"

Ren Xiangxiang struggled desperately, rushing towards the front yard while muttering to herself in a panic.

"What happened to my junior sister? What exactly happened?"

I was restless and trembling all over.

"Xiangxiang, calm down!"

Mo You grabbed her tightly, "Go over there now—"

He knew what had happened because Shu Huixin had come to see him.

—Please take good care of Xiangxiang for me.

"Let go of me!" Ren Xiangxiang ignored everything and, like a madwoman, bit down on Mo You's wrist while scratching and clawing.

"Hiss... Xiangxiang!!"

Ren Xiangxiang rushed to the front yard in one breath.

"Master..."

Guo Lanzhou wept bitterly and collapsed to the ground. Inside the house, the stove was glowing, but the silence was almost suffocating.

Master...

Ren Xiangxiang's pupils suddenly contracted; the flames seemed to instantly burn into her heart.

"Master, Master."

"Xiangxiang!"

Ren Xiangxiang's knees buckled, and she knelt down on the ground.

She could feel nothing anymore; there was no sadness, no grief, no despair. She couldn't even feel that she was still alive.

The night was utterly black, like ink spilled on the ground. She gasped for breath, trying to fill the emptiness in her chest. It was so cold. Why was it so cold? She wrapped her clothes tighter around herself, got up, and stumbled toward the alchemy room.

She had another dream.

In her dream, she was walking alone on a dark path, but as the sun rose, she saw the grass child walking behind her and the thunder god waving to her from afar.

She found herself surrounded by more and more people, and those were the happiest times of her life.

With her father and mother, friends and family, she can live a carefree life and travel around.

But one day, the setting sun disappeared, its last rays vanishing, and it never rose again.

One by one, the people around her left. She saw a white-haired woman sitting at the end of the road, stumbled and rushed over, but only touched the hem of the woman's clothes.

Even you don't want me anymore?

Master?

Even you are leaving me?

She stared blankly at the receding figure, and suddenly tears streamed down her face.

You said this road is very, very difficult, and that I must be strong and keep going.

But why is it so difficult?

I can't take it anymore.

Ren Xiangxiang sobbed softly, "I really can't hold on any longer. I regret betraying you, Master. I don't want to..."

"Xiangxiang, we have no way out."

Mo You's words were like a needle, suddenly piercing her heart, catching her completely off guard with pain.

"Many people have died trying to combat the demonic Gu... many..."

"Let's go quickly! Otherwise, I might regret it."

"If my life could save many, many people, I would give it to you, Xiangxiang."

"Senior sister, you did nothing wrong, I don't blame you."

...

The next morning, Guo Lanqiu groggily pushed open the door of the alchemy room and found the antidote that Shu Huixin had refined herself in the demon-refining furnace.

She fed the antidote to Shui Buyun, and the horrifying black blood on Shui Buyun's body turned red at a visible speed.

Today is another sunny day.

Guo Lanqiu gazed longingly at the sunlight outside and began to roll up her sleeves and sweep.

First, there were piles of fallen leaves in the yard, then the room where Shui Buyun and Shu Huixin usually spent their time, followed by the kitchen, the woodshed, and even a bunch of food that had been heated in a pot in advance.

By the time everything was tidied up, the sun was already high in the sky.

The autumn wind carried a chill. She wiped the sweat from her forehead and turned around to find that Ren Xiangxiang had woken up sometime earlier.

The lifeless eyes revealed a helpless weariness, pale and resigned.

Guo Lanqiu sat down with her back against the withered fruit tree and waved happily to Ren Xiangxiang.

"It's been a long time since I've done these things. It feels like I've gone back to the old days." Guo Lanqiu looked up at Ren Xiangxiang.

Ren Xiangxiang knelt in front of her, her voice barely audible, "..."

"What did you say? I can't hear you, Xiangxiang. Everyone has their own things to do. My purpose in life is to keep the Fruit Maiden Tree alive. But as a Fruit Maiden, I'm still not reconciled. Why can't I grow old with my lover like an ordinary woman? Why should I give my life for a seed?"

"Then why...why...did you still do this?"

Ren Xiangxiang stared at her blankly, trying to see even the slightest resistance or struggle in her calm and peaceful eyes.

Even the slightest tremor would completely shake her resolve, and she would do anything to push her back from the brink of death.

Just a trace.

But Guo Lanqiu was still smiling, smiling so calmly, so... resigned to her fate.

He had no will to live whatsoever.

"Senior sister! I also want to end all of this, you know? As a girl born with a fruit-shaped body, I cannot defy the fate I was born with, but I am also resisting. I don't want to continue."

As she spoke, she looked up at the withered jujube tree behind her.

"I don't want this seed to fall to the ground and give birth to a new fruit girl."

Guo Lanqiu grasped Ren Xiangxiang's hand and gently placed it on her stomach. "This is what I want to give you, Senior Sister. It's an immature fruit tree seed, also called the Seven-Year Seed."

"No--"

Ren Xiangxiang suddenly opened her eyes wide and struggled violently, trying to pull her hand back.

However, it was all in vain. Just as her hand touched Guo Lanqiu's stomach, half of Guo Lanqiu's body suddenly embedded itself in the withered fruit tree.

"No, no!"

Ren Xiangxiang grabbed her hand and tried to pull her off the fruit tree, but Guo Lanqiu didn't move and quietly shook her head.

"I don't want it anymore, I really don't want it anymore, Lanqiu... Lanqiu..."

"Senior sister, we have no way out."

A soft light emanated from Guo Lanqiu's belly. As her body gradually merged into the tree trunk, the soft light detached from her body and floated above the two of them.

The outline of a seed was faintly outlined within the ball of light, and finally it shrank to the size of a fist and landed in front of Ren Xiangxiang.

"Senior sister... thank you..."

Guo Lanqiu broke free from Ren Xiangxiang's tight grip on her hand and slowly closed her eyes.

When Qi Chengzi lay quietly in Ren Xiangxiang's hands, she felt a warmth emanating from her palm, which transformed into a surge of despair and grief in her heart.

"Lanqiu... Master... I'm not as strong as you all think. I really can't do it, I can't do it. I regret it. Why? Why is this happening?"

A gust of wind blew by, lifting a few fallen leaves from the ground, sending them swirling into the air before landing on the roof.

Ren Xiangxiang held Qichengzi in her arms, her cries turning from sobs to wails. It was as if she had exhausted all her strength. On this sunny day, her world had collapsed into ruins.

Mo You stood beside her, his lips twitching slightly, but the words he wanted to say were stuck in his chest, because no matter what he said, he could not comfort Xiang Xiang at this moment.

No matter what you say, what's lost will never come back.

...

Half a month has passed since that fierce battle. Inside the cave in Yanshi Ridge, the Gu Queen's injuries have mostly healed. During this time, she has been hunting down nearby lesser demons and using their demon cores to suppress the restless Gu within the Gu King's body.

The Gu King took a deep breath. His left shoulder, which had been almost severed, had healed by more than half, and the rest of his wounds were also mostly healed.

All that remained was to completely subdue the demons and demon masters of the perilous peaks, and then he would go to the Liuwu Forest to retrieve Shu Huixin.

Whether she likes it or not, they are the same kind of people.

A soft footstep echoed from the dark, deep cave.

The Gu King initially thought it was the Gu Queen returning, but as the footsteps drew closer, his brows furrowed involuntarily.

Not the Queen of Gu?

But there was a strong smell of blood and the scent of a demon core, and it was the core of a powerful demon.

The demonic gu within his body stirred restlessly. The Gu King suppressed the agitated gu and asked coldly, "Who?"

"It's me." The answer came quickly. As the figure approached, a wide gray robe wrapped around a emaciated body. Hu Sang walked over, clutching a bloody demon core.

The Gu King silently loosened his grip on the Hundred-Fold Scythe. He naturally recognized it as the Yue Shan Clan's Hu Sang, who had been initially implanted with the Puppet Gu by the Gu Woman.

And the demon core in his hand...

The Gu King narrowed his eyes, seemingly waiting for an explanation.

“Xiu Shen is dead. I thought the king would need his demon core, so I took it upon myself to send it over.”

Most of the demons controlled by the puppet gu have lost their self-awareness. Even if they can retain their consciousness, they cannot resist the gu. Therefore, the reason they do such things is most likely that the restless gu unconsciously issued orders, so the gu king did not think much of it.

He reached out and said, "Give it to me!"

The gaunt figure of the man was like a gust of wind, floating lightly to the Gu King. His face was so thin that it was unrecognizable, with high cheekbones and calm eyes that revealed no emotion.

When he reached out and handed over the demon core, the Gu King took it without hesitation and pressed it into his chest.

In that instant, Que Sang watched as the demon core disappeared into it in the blink of an eye, leaving not even a drop of blood behind.

Something was tearing at his mind with pain, driving him madly to leave, seemingly trying to forcibly control his body.

But he laughed.

Is that still not enough?

The thought flashed through his mind.

The Gu King was completely unaware of anything amiss. He took a deep breath, and the demonic Gu within him was satisfied, quickly calming down.

He woke up prematurely, and because he hadn't consumed enough demon cores, the demonic worms in his body were restless, preventing him from unleashing his full power.

He had no idea that the demon gu inside Shu Huixin's body didn't need that many demon cores at all. The reason why he couldn't satisfy the demon gu even after consuming so many demon cores was because, for the demon gu, it didn't actually consume those demon cores.

Noticing that Quesang hadn't left, the Gu King's eyes darkened. "Aren't you going to get lost?"

"Your subordinate obeys."

As soon as he finished speaking, Hun Sang took two steps back and suddenly reached for Shen Yun at his waist.

A scream instantly echoed in his mind, and the moment he was stunned, his mind went blank, leaving only his body moving instinctively.

The blade flashed, splitting mountains and shattering rocks.

"court death!"

boom!

The heavy clouds crashed down, sending rocks flying. The withered body was sliced ​​into three pieces by the Hundred-Bend Slice in the next second, blood splattering everywhere, and the puppet Gu on the back of the neck burst into blood flowers at the same time.

The man's fingers twitched, and his pupils, which were about to dim, held a smile that was hard for others to understand.

The Gu King stood unharmed before him, his brows furrowed.

How is that possible? A demon controlled by the puppet gu cannot disobey the gu's orders, but what about this demon that was controlled the earliest?

He couldn't understand it, nor was he willing to put in the effort to think about this anomaly. Instead, he skillfully flipped over the corpse, picked out its demon core, and fed it to the demon gu inside the body.

Blood mixed with silver powder flowed from those mangled demon cores, just like the demon cores that the gulls had brought before.

Even earlier, Lei Wan's demon core also contained the same silver powder.

That was a kind of medicine powder specially prepared for him by the Six Palace Immortals of Liuwu Forest to neutralize the residual demonic power that did not belong to him. It was called Demon Transformation Powder.

He experimented with it and it seemed to have a certain effect on neutralizing demon cores.

The Demon-Transforming Powder is not considered poisonous to demons; in fact, it can be seen as a medicine to purify the demonic power within their bodies. However, for the demon gu, it is a demon pill that prevents it from properly digesting and consuming, keeping it constantly hungry, driving it mad and out of control, but it is not a fatal poison.

He had waited so long, how could he possibly give up such an opportunity?

But this opportunity was never meant for a dead man like him.

What a pity! He won't be able to see it, whether he succeeds or fails.

What a pity! I wonder if Lei Wan is waiting for me.

What a pity...

As the light in his eyes completely faded, the Gu King set the corpse he loathed on fire.