Chapter 20
The room was dark and the door was tightly closed. An invisible foul air climbed up the door lintel, completely locking the space.
Nian Qing bared his sharp claws and walked in with bated breath. The black gauze curtains appeared one by one. Nian Qing tore open one layer with his claws, and after a few steps, another layer appeared.
She walked straight to the small table with red-leafed flowers. The blood-red flowers seemed to sense her approach and quickly withered as she approached, leaving only a few empty branches in the vase.
Nian Qing jumped onto the table, crouched low, and let out a low whimper. Her pupils lost their roundness and became sharp. She looked into the darkness. Her two fox ears drooped, showing an attacking posture.
Suddenly, the expected person did not show up, but the black veil hanging around suddenly began to shake wildly, attacking Nian Qing like tentacles.
The cloth and velvet twisted together and became hard. In the darkness, countless snake-like shadows wrapped around Nian Qing's body. Her claws could scratch once, twice, three times... but there were too many "cloth snakes" around her, and she gradually became tired.
A sweet fragrance came at this time, and the black gauze and curtains swayed more softly. Nian Qing felt a little dizzy. She shook her head wildly, jumped up, and hung upside down on the beam.
The "cloth snake" chased after her and locked onto her tail.
The fragrance lingered, each breath making her feel even more dizzy. Nian Qing's claws gave way and she fell from the beam, whereupon the unruly velvet enveloped her.
The soft cloth wrapped around Nian Qing's neck, hands and feet, tightening little by little, trying to suffocate her and break her head.
A sharp laugh emanated from the darkness, and a giant insect-like body slithered around the floor. A pale, red face, smeared with putty, appeared out of nowhere. She examined the black bud wrapped in a satin curtain. She reached out a hand from the darkness, and with a flick of her fingers, the bud tightened even more.
The next moment, a fox rushed out from behind her, with a playful look in its eyes that glowed with blue fireflies. The fox bit the woman's neck and tore off a piece of flesh.
"Ahhhh!" Zu Qianjiao screamed. The foxy illusion was instantly broken. The flower bud wrapped with the "cloth snake" lost the support of the magic and instantly became a mess. Only a low table was shattered.
The fox ate the piece of meat. While Zu Qianjiao was covering her wound in pain, she took advantage of the situation and pursued her. Her body turned into a puff of smoke and teleported to the woman's side.
The blue in the fox's eyes turned to a hollow black, and from its blood-soaked mouth spewed human words: "Die!"
Zu Qianjiao's human-shaped upper body began to crack after Nian Qing said the word "death", and the next second it exploded, with blood and flesh flying everywhere.
The worm-like part hidden in the darkness also fell to the ground, appearing stiff and black.
The fox stood still, admiring the masterpiece before her. The fur began to recede, and she reached out her human-like hand, casually pulling a piece of dead black veil around her body, transforming completely into a human form.
Nian Qing laughed and was about to sneer, but the next moment he spat out a mouthful of blood.
The piece of meat she had just eaten began to wriggle in her stomach, as if it had come alive, forcing Nian Qing to kneel on the ground in pain, and she opened her mouth wide to watch the meat ball that had turned into a pile of maggots crawl out of her mouth.
Her spleen, stomach, liver, and stomach were bitten through. Nian Qing fell to the ground, and blood began to flow from all seven orifices.
The ball of maggots crawled forward until it reached the side of the giant worm. A small piece of worm stretched out from under the black and stiff shell and then merged with the maggot meat ball.
The deadly poison began to corrode Nian Qing's body, and dense eggs were arranged on the flesh that was burned by the venom and exposed.
Nian Qing fell to the ground, she was convulsing, her eyes staring fiercely at the fused "meat", watching it grow hands and feet, grow a head, and turn into a monster.
The head that grew out of the insect's body was roaring ferociously, with sticky blood threads attached to the black hair that grew out, like a newborn bird.
He turned his head towards Nian Qing, and before he could open his eyes, he heard a hoarse and rough voice coming out of his mouth:
"Die! Die! Die!"
The vicious words ignited the festering wound in Nianqing's body, and Nianqing vomited more blood.
The monster not far away kept using its little hands to tear at its own skin, just like shedding skin, peeling off the injured area layer by layer.
Nian Qing transformed into a fox, his fur on one side seared to the bone by the venom. The slender fox head twisted for a moment, looking at the healing monster, and once again conjured up Lan Ying.
“You can’t escape, you can’t get out of your shell.”
The skin from the monster's upper body, which had been torn off, was glued to his body alive. The blue spell appeared and disappeared, and each word was hidden on the monster's skin.
He screamed and tore his skin even harder, resulting in blood and flesh all over the place, causing him to writhe on the ground in excruciating pain.
The fox closed its eyes and lost its strength as if its body could no longer support it.
The blood flowing from its body was jet black, with some small insects swimming in it.
The monster not far away struggled, its bloody body scrambling around, its lower body segments still unable to shed their shells and grow new legs. He reached for the door, but it was locked shut, unable to push it open. He struggled to crawl up the beams, using his hands and feet to claw at the cracks, but he couldn't shrink any further, couldn't leave.
Then, filled with resentment, he turned back to glare at the unconscious fox, his hatred for it reaching its peak. The skinny figure scratched his wound even more frantically, causing more blood to flow and drip onto the ground along the beams.
He fell from the beam and crawled towards the fox.
The human-shaped head was raised high back, and mouthparts appeared at the neck. He wanted to eat the fox to restore some vitality!
The smoke of wormwood had seeped in through the cracks in the door and walls at some point.
Then there was visible flames coming from outside, which instantly burned the beams of the house, causing the room to collapse and turn into ruins.
The flames burned through the wooden planks, and the madam panicked, unable to move in the increasingly thick wormwood smoke. The flames pressed in. The high temperature melted the wooden house, and all the curtains and black gauze became food for the flames.
A paper bird suddenly flew in from outside a cracked wooden board, spinning in the flames and landing smoothly on the fox's chest.
The heat wave curled its wings made of wood pulp, revealing a yellow talisman inside. Then, as if released, a dense golden spell spread out, covering the fox's entire body.
The merciless fire burned the monster's body and could not be dispelled no matter what.
He screamed in pain, but was helpless.
Boom——
The flames crushed everything, and a whole block of the rooftop house fell down, landing on the madam and the fox.
In the blink of an eye, the only courtyard suddenly collapsed, swallowing the house and the flames into the ground.
"Come."
Guan Qing pinched his fingers, and the paper bird embers, which had turned into fragments and ashes, flew out from the collapse, pulling the fox, which was protected by golden light, out of the huge pit.
The ground swallowed the house and then peace returned.
The sunken ground healed itself, as if that were the case here. In the empty courtyard, someone scurried over and caught the fox, guided by a paper bird.
The magic spell dissipated, revealing the fox's body riddled with holes.
Gu Luoyan's hands holding the fox trembled for a moment. She knelt down carefully and held the fox close to her chest.
She gave the magic spell used to save her life to Nian Qing. She came to save her, but it was too late.
Gu Luoyan turned sideways to look at Guan Qing, she choked up and said, "Master, please save her."
Guan Qing ran over, felt her pulse, thought for a moment, and said, "She was poisoned by that monster."
"How do you solve it?"
"This monster feeds poison with its flesh and blood. It is not much different from the poison that Lord Leader was infected with. Unless it is killed, there is no cure." Guan Qing cast a spell and gestured with his palm to form a lotus flower. Then the fox's mouth opened slightly, and black blood shaped like a lotus floated out.
Guan Qing pointed at her forehead with two fingers, creating a crack on it. She closed her eyes, and at the same time the crack on her forehead opened, revealing her white eyeballs.
The white eyes swept across the fox's body, and black blood continued to condense and fly towards the blood lotus outside the mouth, taking away the insect eggs in the fox's skin fur.
"However, there is a way to delay the onset of this poison." Guan Qing said as he closed his eyes in meditation, the third eye on his forehead moving constantly.
"How?" Gu Luoyan asked anxiously.
"Feed it with blood."
After listening to this, Gu Luoyan pondered for a moment. She looked at the fox in her arms and said, "How should we do it?"
"Master Kuishou, just place a finger next to its mouth."
Gu Luoyan then reached out and placed her right index finger against the fox's mouth. Soon, beneath the lotus of black blood, a slender mouthpart extended from deep within the fox's mouth. It bit Gu Luoyan's index finger and sucked continuously, causing more black blood to flow from the fox's wound.
Qiu Niang squatted down and knelt beside Gu Luoyan. She looked at Gu Luoyan with heartache and said, "Miss, let this old servant take your place. Why do you have to suffer like this?"
Tears rolled down Gu Luoyan's cheeks. She kept looking down at the fox in her arms and said, "Qiuniang, I was wrong."
"I shouldn't have provoked her, knowing she was a kind-hearted person."
Her other hand reached over the fox's head, propping it up from underneath, her thumb gently stroking the fox's head.
"I shouldn't have let her get involved. What did she do wrong, Qiu Niang? It was me who was wrong."
Tears flooded her eyes, she closed them, and gently lowered her head to touch the fox's head with her forehead.
Qiu Niang leaned over and rested her hand on Gu Luoyan's shoulder, tears falling down her face and mixing with Gu Luoyan's tears.
At this time, the fox opened his eyes and Nian Qing woke up.
The greedy mouthparts shrunk back into the fox's mouth with satisfaction. Qiu Niang hurriedly grasped Gu Luoyan's injured finger and bandaged it with her own clothes to stop the bleeding.
Gu Luoyan called out to the fox in her arms with a trembling voice: "Nian Qing..."
Then two spots of light appeared in the fox's eyes, the fur began to fade away, the beast's form transformed into a human form, and the fox's claws turned into a festering hand, gently touching Gu Luoyan's face.
Nian Qing looked at Gu Luoyan, with heartache in his eyes: "Gu Luoyan, why are you crying?"
Tears burst out.
Gu Luoyan leaned over and hugged Nianqing's body. She kept saying and shouting, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry..."
The person who was nestled in Gu Luoyan's arms closed his eyes peacefully.
She murmured to herself, "Is it because of the injury I suffered?"
"It's okay, Gu Luoyan, it just hurts a little bit, that beast can't hurt me too much..."
"I do it willingly. Don't cry, Gu Luoyan." She raised her hands and hugged Gu Luoyan.
The white eye on Guan Qing's forehead closed. She opened her eyes and said to Gu Luoyan, "Master Kuishou, the poison in her body has been removed."
·
Beneath the ground lay the Red Pavilion Bodhisattva statue. The blood-soaked madam huddled on a pile of bones when she heard a strange noise. The woodlice had arrived and hurriedly pulled him up, licking the blood from his body with its tongue before carrying him to a room.
As she walked, she said to the person on her back, "Master, the boy is ready."
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