It was late at night, and the entire Luo mansion was silent, with only a few oil lamps casting a dim yellow light. The night watchmen outside the mansion gates had all fallen silent.
Inside the courtyard, two dark figures walked briskly towards the ancestral hall. The cool summer night breeze blew off one of their hats, revealing a face—it was Luo Chentian.
He entered the ancestral hall, turned the white candle on the incense table, and a hidden passage appeared before him.
Luo Chentian, holding a white candle, led the way. The man in black behind him turned around and looked around. Seeing nothing unusual, he followed him into the secret passage.
The passageway was long and steep, and the only light around it came from the candle in Luo Chentian's hand.
Not long after, Luo Chentian stopped and used a candle to light the kerosene lamp on the wall, which had become a small secret room.
The dim, yellowish light illuminated this small space. Yet, the sight of this secretly constructed dark room exuded an eeriness and unsettling atmosphere.
The floor of the dark room was covered with all sorts of strange and eerie blood-red runes, extending all the way to the very center.
In the very center, a small memorial tablet was built.
A line of small characters was carved on the memorial tablet, which read: "May Heaven bless me, and may my blessings never cease."
The most bizarre and fantastical thing is that instead of incense, there is a white porcelain plate placed in front of the memorial tablet, and on the porcelain plate is a night-blooming cereus.
The epiphyllum was nourished by a red liquid, and perhaps because it had absorbed the red liquid, the epiphyllum was also dyed a bright red. However, some of the petals of the flower were withered, showing a dejected appearance.
Luo Chentian stared at the strange memorial tablet with a fanatical look in his eyes, but bowed with a very devout posture.
The man in black behind him took off his veil, revealing himself to be the strange doctor who had examined Luo Jiu's pulse earlier.
He took out a black porcelain bottle from his portable medicine box and poured a colorful insect into the white dish of the night-blooming cereus.
The tiny insects, once inside the red liquid, seemed to have entered a vast ocean, swimming happily and contentedly within it.
Its belly seemed much larger than it had been in the morning, and its movements were a little clumsy.
After playing for a while, it stretched out its long beak and dipped it into the liquid. Immediately afterwards, its bloated belly visibly shrank and deflated.
The originally slightly brownish liquid turned bright red and full once again.
The insect then crawled to the outside of the night-blooming cereus, opened its mouth and slowly ate the withered petals, and the once desolate night-blooming cereus was brought back to life.
Luo Chentian looked at it for a long time, and a satisfied expression appeared on his face.
Suddenly, the insect remained motionless, hidden among the petals of the night-blooming cereus, and remained silent for a long time, something that had never happened before.
Luo Chentian was getting anxious. "What's wrong with these Gu worms? Is there not enough blood? I told you to suck more..."
"That's enough." A hoarse voice, as if his throat were cracking, came from the doctor's mouth. "Wait, it will come out soon."
As soon as the doctor finished speaking, the Gu worm that had been hiding deep inside the petals slowly flew out, floated to the outer edge of the petals, and used its sharp, long beak to peck at the red epiphyllum petals.
Immediately afterwards, red threads emerged from its mouth and were entangled together by its beak.
Before long, a petal seamlessly adhered to the outside of the epiphyllum. This worm was actually weaving petals for the epiphyllum!
The Gu worms wove quickly, and in no time, the withered and eaten petals were completely replaced, with no difference from the original.
Seeing this, the worry on Luo Chentian's face faded away.
"Master, why did the Gu worm appear to be in this state just now?"
Luo Chentian was extremely concerned about this insect, and worried about even the slightest abnormality.
"Maybe it's because summer is here and it's too hot, so I'm just being a little sleepy."
Luo Chentian remained silent for a while, unable to continue the topic. He changed the subject.
"This morning I wanted to ask the Taoist priest to let the Five-Colored Golden Cicada Gu suck more blood. Once Jiu'er marries into the royal palace, it won't be easy to get her blood again. Why did the Taoist priest stop me?"
Luo Chentian's seemingly calm statement was incredibly terrifying.
Using his daughter's blood to raise Gu poison and research this kind of evil and heretical practice, why does he still speak so confidently?
As a father, treating his children this way is inexplicably heartbreaking, yet he speaks of it coldly and indifferently, without any sense that there is anything wrong with his actions.
"No rush." The doctor, who was probably a Taoist priest in disguise, waved his hand and continued:
"This Golden Cicada Gu has its own daily routine. Allowing it to absorb so much holy blood at once is a great tonic for it."
"For it, drinking some is a tonic, but drinking too much is poison. This blood has a deadly attraction for it, and if it is not controlled, it will explode and die from drinking too much."
Upon hearing this, Luo Chentian's slightly wrinkled old face immediately furrowed, and he muttered, "What should we do?"
"Master, if this Gu worm fails to absorb enough blood within the stipulated time, is there any way to delay or remedy the situation?"
The fake doctor shook his head, then curled his lips into a smile: "If this Golden Cicada Gu doesn't receive fresh blood, the blood-red epiphyllum in its center will slowly wither and fall off. Even if it's replaced later, it won't help."
"And the fortune of your Luo family will slowly dissipate as the ephemeral flower withers. Moreover, because you have absorbed too much fortune from others, the dissipation of the Luo family's fortune will mark the end of your Luo family's career."
Upon hearing this, Luo Chentian's face lit up with fervor, and his turbid eyes widened with all their might, as if they were about to pop out of their sockets, which was quite frightening.
He opened his mouth wide and muttered, "No, you can't."
Suddenly, he shifted his gaze from the epiphyllum to the fake doctor, lunged at him, and grabbed his arm tightly, refusing to let go.
"Master, Master. There must be another way to delay it, right? I saved you back then, and you said you would repay me and the Luo family. You can't go back on your word."
Upon hearing this, the fake doctor frowned, clearly not wanting to be reminded of this. Then, he glanced at the bewildered Luo Chentian, patted his shoulder reassuringly, and slowly said in his hoarse voice:
"Don't be nervous. You just need to make sure that the Golden Cicada Gu can suck blood at this time every month, and then the thing you're worried about will never happen..."
The hoarse voice, accompanied by the eerie yellow light, sounded extremely strange. But miraculously, Luo Chentian fell silent after hearing it.
"You're right, as long as Luo Jiu comes back once a month, that's fine."
Luo Chentian muttered this sentence repeatedly, his eyes vacant, as if his soul had been stolen.
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