Light of Hope
Murong Mo watched Wen Ciyuan coughing up blood and Ruan Yunsheng's frightened and desperate look with amusement. The dejection and madness on his face were gradually replaced by an almost cruel interest.
"With Lord Wen's intelligence," Murong Mo's voice was hoarse with a hint of playfulness, breaking the dead silence brought by Ruan Yunsheng's fear, "you wouldn't have guessed it by now, right?"
Wen Ciyuan forced himself to suppress the anger surging in his throat, his face gloomy enough to drip water. He tightly grasped Ruan Yunsheng's cold, trembling hand, shielding her slightly behind him. His gaze shot towards Murong Mo like a sharp arrow: "This so-called 'plague'...it really was caused by you. Why? What good will it do you!"
"Why?" Murong Mo chuckled, and the laughter sounded particularly harsh in the depressing hall.
Then, in front of everyone's incredulous gazes, he supported himself on the armrests of the wheelchair with both hands and stood up slowly and steadily!
He stood up straight, his slightly hunched and frail posture gone, and he was even slightly taller than Qi Xiuming. He looked down at everyone who were speechless due to shock, including Wen Ciyuan and Qi Xiuming, whose faces changed drastically.
"Of course it's for...eternal life."
Murong Mo opened his arms, as if embracing an incomparably bright future, his eyes gleaming with a fanatical and twisted light. "Everything was almost coming true! A perfect immortal body, infinite power and time... I never thought those idiots from the Southern Kingdom would be so incompetent, and it would be exposed so easily!"
His tone suddenly became sinister, but then turned into a kind of arrogant indifference: "But it doesn't matter. My immortality plan has also completed the most crucial step."
His eyes swept across the monster on the chair, then across the dark lines on Wen Ciyuan's chest, and finally fell on the horrified faces of everyone, with a hint of regret but cruel amusement.
"It's a pity... the final result still has a small flaw."
He said, as if commenting on an imperfect work of art, "But..."
He raised his eyebrows, his eyes suddenly becoming cold and murderous, and he slowly scanned everyone present: "As long as you all die here, who will know my secret?
By then, I will find a better place and start over! And you are just a few insignificant stepping stones on my road to eternity, or in other words, the defective products of failure."
He stood there, no longer the frail prince who needed a wheelchair, but an ambitious man exuding danger and madness, completely tearing off all disguises.
After Murong Mo finished speaking, he no longer looked at the desperate or angry expressions of the people in the room, but turned around and walked out the door.
He ordered his confidants who were guarding outside: "Watch closely, don't let anyone out."
The confidant bowed his head and accepted the order: "Yes, Your Majesty."
The heavy wooden door slowly closed with a suffocating creaking sound. Just when the door was about to be completely closed, Murong Mo suddenly stopped, looked back, and a smile that was almost pitiful appeared at the corner of his mouth.
"A kind reminder,"
His voice came through the crack in the door, tinged with a leisurely cruelty. "Don't waste your energy. The poison you were poisoned with was carefully prepared by me. It's different from the poison used by the group outside. Although the incubation period is long, once it takes effect, the effect is extremely fast. Enjoy this... final peace."
"Bang!"
The door was completely closed, and the sound of the lock was clearly audible, blocking out all hope.
The room fell into dead silence, with only Gu Nanzhi's occasional meaningless roars as the only sound.
Shen Yunzhou took a deep breath, suppressed the panic in his heart, walked quickly to each person, held their wrist and carefully felt their pulse.
His fingers grew colder and paler as he probed. Finally, he dropped his hands helplessly, his voice dry and raspy, "What he said... is true. We've all been poisoned. It's a strange poison, hidden deep within our meridians, barely noticeable on a normal day. But once it's activated..."
His gaze fell on Wen Ciyuan: "Ciyuan has used his internal energy many times, causing disorder in his meridians and accelerating the spread of the poison, so it attacked first."
On the other side, Qi Xiuming seemed to have lost all perception of the outside world. He simply hugged the struggling and screaming Gu Nanzhi tightly, burying his face in her messy hair. His voice was low and gentle, with a heartbreaking calmness: "Nanzhi, don't be afraid. I won't abandon you alone in this world. Let's cross the Naihe Bridge together, forget everything, and start over. Okay? Okay..."
His despair of giving up completely and only wanting to die together spread, almost freezing the air.
Shen Yunzhou turned around abruptly, unable to bear to watch any longer. He rushed to the pile of messy herbs and utensils, his hands trembling slightly with anger and anxiety.
"No! There must be a way! There must be an antidote!" He growled almost through gritted teeth, and buried himself in making medicine again, vowing to find a solution before his life ran out.
Time passed slowly in the anxious silence and Gu Nanzhi's intermittent roars. Shen Yunzhou worked tirelessly, trying countless known antidote prescriptions, combining all the methods he could think of, feeding the medicine to Wen Ciyuan, who was in the most critical condition, again and again, or trying to calm Gu Nanzhi's frenzy.
However, time and time again, he only saw the blood Wen Ciyuan spit out getting darker and darker in color, while Gu Nanzhi's struggle did not weaken in the slightest.
The already limited herbal supplies in the pharmacy were rapidly depleted and soon ran out, but there was still no improvement.
Despair was like the coldest tide, gradually drowning everyone's heart. Even Qi Xiuming's whispers of death seemed to become weaker.
Just when everyone was at their wit's end and had almost given up struggling, Ruan Yunsheng, who had been guarding Wen Ciyuan closely and wiping the blood for him, suddenly raised his head.
Although her eyes were still filled with tears, a faint but strange light flashed in them.
Her voice was soft and uncertain, like a stone dropped into stagnant water. "Do you think this strange poison could be... made from a Gu worm?"
The elixir of immortality is so unrealistic. Why does Murong Mo insist that this medicine exists? It is completely impossible based on existing pharmacology. The only explanation is this strange and changeable poisonous insect. The Southern Kingdom has been destroyed and has lost their assistance. Perhaps this is the reason why Murong Mo has failed again and again. The magic medicine has turned into poison.
Shen Yunzhou suddenly raised his head, as if struck by lightning!
These two words were like a key, instantly unlocking a neglected corner of his mind! He suddenly remembered that when he was trying to prepare the antidote before, the "Wan Gu King" he carried with him was always unusually restless. At the time, he just thought it was a crazy insect and never thought about it deeply.
Could it be that... this poison is actually a Gu? Therefore, conventional detoxification methods are completely ineffective!
"The King of Ten Thousand Gu! Yes! The King of Ten Thousand Gu might be able to control it!"
Shen Yunzhou's eyes lit up with a glimmer of hope. He hurriedly turned around and searched among the broken pieces of medicine bottles scattered on the ground. "Where's the Myriad Gu King I brought with me? Maybe it can..."
His voice stopped abruptly.
The movements were completely frozen.
His eyes were fixed on the ground, where the small jade medicine bottle that originally contained the King of Ten Thousand Gu had broken into several pieces, and the bottle was empty.
The King of Ten Thousand Gu, whose body was completely red and who could command the group of Gu, and who might be their only hope... was gone.
Shen Yunzhou's face instantly turned as pale as paper, and the last trace of blood faded away completely. He staggered a step, almost unable to stand, and muttered to himself, his voice filled with endless despair:
"How could it disappear? Is the last hope gone..."
Hope was like a candle in the wind, and heavy despair once again crushed everyone's backbone.
In the dead silence, even Gu Nanzhi's roar seemed to fade away.
At this moment, a very subtle rustling sound, like a mouse gnawing, came from a corner of the room filled with discarded medicinal herbs and sundries.
The sound was particularly clear in the extreme silence.
Everyone was startled almost at the same time and subconsciously looked in the direction of the sound.
A glimmer of light flashed in Shen Yunzhou's eyes. He staggered over and frantically pushed aside the debris that was in the way.
I saw a little red insect that was round and plump after eating so much, lying safely on a pile of "antidote" residues of suspicious color.
From time to time, it twisted its chubby body comfortably, then "ah" and swallowed a small pill with a strange smell next to it, and even rubbed the "mat" under it with satisfaction, looking like it was enjoying the delicious food and didn't want to leave.
If it’s not the missing King Wan Gu, then who else could it be?
Shen Yunzhou held his breath, carefully stretched out two fingers, and with lightning speed, accurately pinched the middle part of the fat insect.
"squeak!"
King Wan Gu was enjoying a feast when he was suddenly caught. He immediately struggled frantically at his fingertips, and his chubby body twisted into a pretzel.
Ruan Yunsheng took a closer look, then looked at the so-called "antidote" that had been gnawed to pieces. Suddenly, he realized, "It seems our guess was right! Murong Mo's medicine is indeed made from special poisonous insects! The King of Ten Thousand Poisons feeds on the most exotic poisonous insects in the world. I guess we locked it up for too long, and it must have been starving, so it sneaked out and took these 'poisons' as snacks!"
The medicine... came back in such an unexpected way!
Shen Yunzhou tightly grasped the twisting Wan Gu King, and with his other hand, he tremblingly picked up the few remaining precious medicinal herbs nearby. His hands were shaking violently, and beads of sweat oozed from his forehead, but he did not start to move.
"What's wrong?" Wen Ciyuan asked in a low voice, enduring the coldness and severe pain spreading inside his body.
Shen Yunzhou's voice was choked with sobs and filled with immense fear. "What if... we fail again? There's only one King of Ten Thousand Gu. If it doesn't work this time, then there really... is no hope at all."
The tears he had been holding back for so long finally fell from the corners of his eyes. "I can't bear it again..."
He thought of the countless failed attempts before, and of the lives that might have been hastened by his misjudgment.
Wen Ciyuan raised his hand with difficulty and patted him on the shoulder. His voice was low and weak, but it was full of unquestionable strength: "What are you afraid of? You are the heir of Medicine King Valley, which is rare in a century."
Shen Yunzhou laughed bitterly at himself, "The heir who caused countless lives to be lost at his hands?"
At this moment, everyone who was sitting or lying down slowly gathered around.
Qi Xiuming gently settled Gu Nanzhi against the wall and walked over. Ruan Yunsheng stood closely beside Wen Ciyuan with a firm look in his eyes.
They didn't speak, but a silent, warm belief was clearly conveyed to Shen Yunzhou's almost frozen heart through their surrounding figures.
He looked into those pairs of eyes, which contained pain and fear, but more of a desperate trust and resolute support. A strange, warm current began to flow back from his cold fingertips and gradually flowed to every part of his body.
A strong sour feeling rushed into his nose and his eyes turned red instantly.
So... this is what it feels like to be trusted without reservation.
It turns out... he wasn't struggling alone.
"Heh..." Shen Yunzhou suddenly chuckled and wiped the tears from his face with his sleeve. When he looked up again, all the hesitation and fear in his eyes were replaced by a sharp determination to burn his boats!
He said no more, turned around abruptly, and devoted himself to the final process!
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