The closer you get to the center of the Hongxiu Forest, the more vibrant the colors become, as if they’ve been dyed with bizarre and dazzling paints, so vivid that it’s almost nauseating. The miasma grows thicker and more suffocating, and within the vibrant purplish-red mist, illusions follow you like shadows, making it hard to discern reality. It’s difficult to tell if the illusions are accompanied by the high-level Hongxiu trees’ thorn-covered, poisonous tendrils, or if they’re people or beasts who’ve lost their minds.
What’s even scarier is that the inner area of the Hongxiu Forest can be said to have no safe zones. This is the hunting ground of the Hongxiu trees, where streams are absent, beasts are forbidden, and the omnipresent miasma and attacks make it necessary to set up barriers and assign guards at night to rest and recover safely.
However, the night watch has nothing to do with Lou Shuangzui, because Li Jiyun doesn’t trust him, so he won’t take risks on such matters, and Lou Shuangzui is happy with that.
He is currently treating the last injured person of the day, which is Ying Qi—this is the first time Lou Shuangzui has seen this young master injured. Li Jiyun was injured on the first day they entered the Hongxiu Forest. He doesn’t trust Lou Shuangzui, but if the wound isn’t treated, the situation will worsen, making it difficult to continue fighting in the following days.
Ying Qi turned his head, his expression cold as he watched the spiritual power ripples on the barrier caused by external attacks. His leg was placed on the stone slab in front of Lou Shuangzui, with a deep cut on it. The poison from the Hongxiu tree made the wound appear in a strange purplish-red color.
In fact, it would be very painful after being poisoned, but Ying Qi seemed indifferent. Instead, Lou Shuangzui couldn’t help but study the wound for a while—he was researching the poison of the high-level Hongxiu tree.
There are differences between poison attributes. The poison of the Demon Clan often targets the soul. Tiandao Sect has a disciple with a fire spiritual root and a mutated poison attribute, whose poison causes excruciating pain, but unless it’s intended to kill someone through pain, it generally doesn’t threaten life.
Lou Shuangzui’s poison, as tested by Wen Shunian, targets vitality and has a certain corrosive nature. The poison appears to consume and erode vitality, and it’s one of the rare poisons not affected by dosage. Once the poison enters the body, it rapidly devours vitality, growing and multiplying like a virus, making it difficult for any living being to escape unscathed.
What’s more terrifying is that his poison is also corrosive, and it’s controllable. If Lou Shuangzui wants, it can lie dormant; if not, it acts like sulfuric acid pouring into the body, instantly overturning the flesh.
But the Hongxiu tree is different. It seems somewhat like the poison of the Demon Clan, yet also like the power of the Netherworld targeting the soul, very peculiar.
It gave Lou Shuangzui inspiration for a breakthrough—the closer to the center, the more his poison vines struggled against the Hongxiu trees because his absolute power wasn’t enough, given that his cultivation is only at the early Golden Core stage.
Actually, Lou Shuangzui is already not holding back much while helping Ying Qi and the others with their injuries. It’s just that Shiyang has always been unrelated to wood spiritual roots, and while the elders have been to battlefields, the young ones truly don’t recognize the talent gap between wood spiritual roots. But even without holding back, completely healing is still a bit difficult. If the poison can’t be suppressed, it can only be purified, but the purification ability at the early Golden Core stage is still not quite enough.
However… is purification the only option?
In the midst of it all, it seemed like some inspiration flashed through his mind. Lou Shuangzui thought, plants are organisms with excellent survival abilities. Grafting techniques can only be used on plants, and they can devour another weaker gene, making their fruits gradually bigger and sweeter.
…Devour?
As he pondered, by the time Lou Shuangzui came back to his senses, his power had quietly changed. The spiritual power of the poison wood penetrated the flesh, completely devouring the purplish-black power of the Hongxiu tree.
His mind suddenly plunged into emptiness, with human wails, distorted and shattered illusions, the unwillingness and pain of beasts before death… countless torrents flooded into his mind.
The world spun before his eyes, and even though Lou Shuangzui was good at pretending, he couldn’t help but reveal a flaw for a moment. Ying Qi turned his head unexpectedly, grabbing his hand and asking in a deep voice, “What did you do?”
Lou Shuangzui didn’t speak because he couldn’t hear what Ying Qi was saying. He just forced himself to gradually calm down, steadying his breathing, almost immersing himself in those illusions.
So that’s how it is, so that’s how it is!
He understood what the poison of the Hongxiu tree was. The Hongxiu Forest relies on flesh and blood to survive, with the obsessions of countless vengeful spirits after death converging here, forming a terrible, hard-to-remove curse.
But such a curse… such a curse…
His hollow gaze pierced through the void, meeting the eyes of a powerful and cold woman with a long tail from hundreds of yuanhui ago.
In the Nuwa Secret Realm, Hongxiu Forest, is slaughter really a sin? No, it’s not. Monsters and demons all live for survival, and to survive, one cannot be weak, cannot give up competing for resources. In the prehistoric era, slaughter was not a sin at all.
Only actions that destroy the world and disrupt the order of the Heavenly Dao can incur karma, and karma will attract the pursuit of the Heavenly Dao. As long as one grasps that degree, what does resentment and vengeful spirits matter? As long as one can steadily and slowly control it, that’s the best and most useful poison!
So the pink-haired beauty suddenly laughed. His appearance was gentle and enchanting, but his smile was not. That kind of oozing, lingering poison, like a twining snake, made it hard to breathe, so mismatched with his appearance.
Lou Shuangzui suddenly reached out, and Ying Qi, caught off guard, was pulled by him, slipping and having to let go of his grip on Lou Shuangzui.
“…What are you doing?” The young master’s expression was dark, propping himself up with his elbow, looking at Lou Shuangzui with a wary gaze.
But the beautiful healer still didn’t answer. He curled his lips into an almost mad smile, then Lou Shuangzui brushed aside his hair, lowering his head, his cheek resting beside the injured calf.
His fingers had already, when pulling the person just now, deeply embedded into Ying Qi’s wound due to force, and the blood was slowly gathering on the texture, staining Lou Shuangzui’s pale hands.
Too dangerous, really too dangerous, the battle instinct was frantically warning Ying Qi, his hair standing on end, instinctively tensing his spine, “What exactly—”
Before he could finish speaking, Ying Qi let out a muffled groan, as Lou Shuangzui grabbed his freshly cleaned but once again bloodied calf, and his sharp canine teeth bit into it.
After the slight pain came swelling and itching, the young master was so shocked he forgot what he originally intended to do, just staring blankly at Lou Shuangzui, at those blood-stained lips, like a vibrant otherworldly flower.
A scream came from not far away, from another Shiyang disciple who had just heard the commotion. The outer disciple who had been pestering Lou Shuangzui for the past few days was watching not far away, his expression seemingly a bit lost.
Li Jiyun glanced suspiciously at Lou Shuangzui, but seeing that Ying Qi was fine, he quickly pulled the outer disciple and the only inner disciple who came this time, Li Xibai, away, leaving the space for the two in their strange posture.
Yes, strange posture.
It looked too intimate, with Lou Shuangzui almost half-lying on Ying Qi, his long, beautiful hands tightly gripping Ying Qi’s well-defined calf, and Ying Qi seemed to be staring at Lou Shuangzui, not even resisting.
Lou Shuangzui had his back to them, so they didn’t see the beauty’s blood-stained lips and that mad smile.
But Ying Qi could see clearly, he could even feel it, feel that cold hand, almost sensually caressing the fragile, torn skin of his leg, bit by bit.
“…Stop!” Ying Qi finally couldn’t bear it, adjusting his posture, reaching out to grab Lou Shuangzui’s hand, “What’s wrong with you? What did you just do? Why did you suddenly go crazy?”
Lou Shuangzui seemed a bit calmer, the beauty putting away that creepy smile, gently withdrawing his hand, but in the next second, he forcefully pushed Ying Qi back to the ground.
The ground was moist soil, with a bloody smell, and a slight warmth from the earth veins. Ying Qi, having a slight cleanliness obsession, couldn’t take it anymore, reaching out to grab Lou Shuangzui’s shoulder, “Are you going crazy again?! Do you think I won’t resist?”
But unexpectedly, his resistance had no effect, Lou Shuangzui’s strength was surprisingly great for his appearance, Ying Qi couldn’t push him, so he could only grit his teeth and move his hand to Lou Shuangzui’s neck to threaten him, “Let go of me!”
The pink-haired rogue cultivator glanced at Ying Qi’s hand, suddenly laughing, his smile teasing. The beauty didn’t try to pry those hands away, instead, he pinched Ying Qi’s cheek with a smile—cultivators have no dark impurities, the skin feels quite nice.
“Really cute,” he praised in the face of the young master’s dark expression.
Really cute, he thought. Originally, he thought these days would be a boring pastime for Lou Shuangzui, but he didn’t expect such an unexpected gain.
Entering the Nascent Soul stage requires condensing the Primordial Spirit, and the cultivation path will be vastly different from the Golden Core stage. Lou Shuangzui had planned to go into seclusion for decades or centuries to find inspiration, but with this unexpected event, he had already touched that path. If nothing unexpected happens, his Nascent Soul will steadily ascend, incredibly smoothly.
Outside the secret realm, the newly replaced stone table was once again shattered by Xi Ming, who let out a sharp explosive sound, “Ahhhhh, Wen Shunian, what is your successor doing to my disciple? Let him go! Qi’er is still a child ahhhhhhh!”
Sect Leader Wen had long since flashed far away, hearing this, he was speechless for a moment, “Shuangzui Shizhi is a few hundred years younger than your disciple, okay?” But then he couldn’t help but darken his face, “But honestly, I don’t mind what he does, but can he not do it with my face?”
Wen Guyue comforted him on the side, “It’s okay, Shixiong, Shizhi is quite different from you, no one will mistake him for you.”
Wen Shunian sighed faintly, “I hope so…”
In the secret realm, Ying Qi finally got up from the ground, his face not looking good, but after glancing at Lou Shuangzui twice, he ultimately swallowed his anger reluctantly.
Without looking back, he tossed a clean handkerchief to Lou Shuangzui, golden in color, with a few runes embroidered on it, “Wipe your mouth clean before going back.”
With that, he hurriedly wanted to leave, as if unwilling to stay here for even a moment longer.
Lou Shuangzui didn’t stop him, instead lazily sitting on a stone, watching the blood soaking Ying Qi’s pant leg, bright red, not purplish-red, the poison completely gone.
As for where the disappeared poison went…
He curled his finger, and the vine, like a probing cobra, grew from the loose soil, its dark green color slightly changed, with purplish-red patterns appearing on it, looking particularly vibrant.
Author’s Note:
Lou Shuangzui didn’t have any particular intention, he was just stimulated and released his nature, going a bit crazy.
And Ying Qi’s temper isn’t very good, the reason he didn’t settle the score is because Lou Shuangzui was too crazy, he didn’t react in time.
However, even someone as slow as Ying Qi won’t believe Lou Shuangzui is harmless anymore.
Also, if there’s no stockpile, updates will be around six o’clock.