“Bugs… chasing you?”
Hou Linghua froze for a long while before she finally reacted.
So, she wasn’t frightened by her face, but by the bugs.
That set her mind at ease… wait! No! Wouldn’t she associate her face with those bugs from now on??
Hou Linghua only hated herself for being too impulsive and not understanding Wu Ming’s preferences beforehand.
Now everything was ruined!
The sensual scene she had painstakingly prepared had turned into malicious intimidation in Wu Ming’s eyes. She estimated it would be difficult to ever gain Wu Ming’s favor again!!
It was all over!!
Since her original form was now loathed, was she supposed to struggle on with this current child’s body? There was simply no hope left!
Since effort had become futile…
Rather than constant disappointment, she might as well… endure the disgust, ignore the fact that the other person had someone else in their heart, and directly turn her into a Gu-man to stay by her side!
“Wait!”
Just as the thought rose in Hou Linghua’s mind and she prepared to strike, Wu Ming tossed her aside.
“What’s wrong…”
Could she have recognized the facial tattoos and guessed her identity?
“The tattoos on your face… You wouldn’t happen to be a Gu Master too, would you?”
Wu Ming’s face was deathly pale as she stared at Hou Linghua in panic.
If the other person was also a Gu Master… Gu Masters carried bugs on them. Didn’t that mean she had been in close contact with bugs the whole way?
It was… too terrifying!!
“Big sister, do you see any bugs around me? I’m still young; I can’t practice that kind of technique that damages the body yet.”
With Hou Linghua’s skill, she could naturally conceal the Gu insects around her, and… she herself was the most powerful Gu insect.
This was something Wu Ming must never know.
But… was there still a need to hide it and coax her?
Hadn’t she already decided to turn the other into her own Gu-man?
All of this… including Wu Ming’s own wishes, no longer mattered.
“That’s good… that’s good… By the way, are all you Gu Masters staying at the City Lord’s manor? Is there a… cousin of the Hou family head inside?”
Hou Linghua’s movement to attack paused again.
Why did she mention Hou Danxue?
How did she know about the relationship between Hou Danxue and herself?
There was only one explanation… she was the runaway wife who had broken Hou Danxue’s heart!
She had actually fallen for the same woman as Hou Danxue!!!
Suddenly learning of this, Hou Linghua was slow to react. Seeing her silence, Wu Ming picked her up.
“Good baby… think carefully, okay? This matter is very important to me.”
Good baby… she called me “good baby”…
Hou Linghua’s face flushed with intense emotion. She pressed her tongue hard against her teeth to stop herself from making sounds that would make the scene awkward.
However, her surging emotions soon cooled down.
This intimacy was meaningless because Wu Ming wasn’t directing it at her true self.
Calling a young woman “good baby” was flirtatious, but calling a little girl “good baby” was perfectly normal.
“You care about that person that much?”
“It’s important! Because she… she wants to harm me!!!”
Harm her?
“You don’t even know her, how can you be sure she’ll harm you!”
Hou Linghua’s dislike for Hou Danxue grew even stronger. Without thinking, she could guess that Wu Ming’s terrible impression of her came entirely from Hou Danxue.
“She… she accepted a commission to plant bugs inside me!”
Uh… if that counted as harming her in Wu Ming’s eyes… she indeed had to admit to it.
Moreover, she was the one who had guided that event.
She had deliberately lured Hou Danxue to find her, commissioning her to plant a “Lover’s Gu” in her beloved wife so they would never be parted.
However… in reality… she was the largest and most powerful Gu insect, the Mother of all Gu. If Hou Danxue and Wu Ming were planted with her Gu, they would both fall under her control!
Back then, she hadn’t met Wu Ming yet. Her thoughts were simple; she just wanted to play a trick on them.
Now… her thoughts were not simple at all.
But then again, the Lover’s Gu really was a good thing…
Planting the Lover’s Gu in her… then she could have the love she craved but couldn’t obtain…
That way, she wouldn’t need to turn her into a boring Gu-man to possess her…
As Hou Linghua remained silent, Wu Ming felt uneasy.
She saw flashes of light in Hou Linghua’s eyes from time to time. What was this child thinking?
What could she be thinking about that made her so agitated and excited?
The tattoos on her face glowed because of her flushed complexion, making Wu Ming hallucinate those brilliantly colored bugs. Wu Ming almost threw her away in fright.
Just as they were in a standoff, the sound of breaking air came. Wu Ming barely managed to dodge the arrow while holding Hou Linghua.
Her agility was far inferior to Hou Linghua’s, but thanks to her sturdy body, the arrow grazing her skin couldn’t wound her.
“Who is it?!”
No one appeared, but the arrows shot at them became more numerous and dense; Wu Ming couldn’t dodge them all.
Fortunately, the attackers had some reservations—perhaps afraid of starting a forest fire and attracting attention—so they didn’t use fire arrows.
As for whether they were poisoned… this small impact wasn’t enough to break Wu Ming’s defense and let the toxin touch her flesh. Wu Ming wasn’t panicked at all.
However… she was fine alone, but she worried about the small person in her arms.
Her frame was solid, but this child looked very fragile. One hit from an arrow might kill her.
She could only tuck the other person tightly into her embrace, using her own body as a shield to protect her.
Enveloped in warmth, even though the outside world threatened her life, Hou Linghua felt an unprecedented joy fill her entire being. She smiled foolishly, wishing this moment would last until the end of the world.
This warmth… was it the same as the warmth a young child feels being nurtured by a mother?
The arrows were useless against Wu Ming, so the people in the shadows were forced to reveal themselves and engage Wu Ming in close combat.
It was obvious these black-clad men were after Hou Linghua in Wu Ming’s arms. Their sharp weapons were all aimed at Hou Linghua as they shouted repeatedly: “Demoness! Die!”
Hou Linghua realized too late that her act of using the City Lord to call for Wu Ming’s service had exposed her whereabouts, leading to this pursuit.
A demoness… she indeed was a demoness.
Bai Yingqiu was restrained, not wanting to fight unless necessary; but she was extremely flamboyant, wishing to throw the whole world into chaos just for her own amusement. There were plenty of people in the martial world who wanted her dead.
The Wuyun Sect wasn’t exactly a righteous power to begin with, and she was the worst among the wicked, traveling the world to spread their less-than-upright sect style and “bewitching” countless “lost” women.
If they wanted to kill her, they should just come and do it. Why wear black to hide their identities? Were they afraid she would hold a grudge and involve their relatives?
How laughable. If their actions weren’t upright, how could they be called heroes? Their pursuit of her couldn’t even be called “eliminating evil.”
But… they had to die quickly!
Right now, they were only shouting “demoness,” but if they called out her actual name… Wu Ming would definitely throw her away!
Everyone knew the Wuyun Sect demoness, Hou Linghua, liked to disguise herself as a young girl to toy with people. Only this silly Wu Ming didn’t know, even praising her tattoos as beautiful and buying her candied haws.
Hou Linghua jumped onto Wu Ming’s shoulder. She nimbly dodged various weapons, her fingers dancing as she released invisible Gu insects.
They all turned into her Gu-men. The situation was under her control, yet Hou Linghua secretly manipulated the Gu-men to continue the attack, keeping Wu Ming busy.
As for her, she jumped back into Wu Ming’s arms to continue enjoying the warm embrace.
Originally, with Hou Linghua dodging on her own, the pressure on Wu Ming had significantly decreased. Now, the opponents had become stronger, and the little person in her arms was “slacking off.” Wu Ming’s pressure increased greatly; she was finally experiencing the hot-blooded combat she used to seek.
“Kid! Pull yourself together!”
It was hard to protect her like this!
And the opponents were quite strange. She had clearly snapped someone’s neck, yet even with their head dangling, they could steady their body and continue attacking!!
Too eerie! Too eerie! Everything was too eerie!
“Mother…”
“Mother… what’s wrong with you? Where is your mother? I’m protecting you just fine, you couldn’t have been hit and become dazed, right?”
“Big sister, your embrace reminds me of a mother… it must feel like this to be held by a mother…”
“…As long as you aren’t sick and hallucinating.”
Given Hou Linghua’s history of “cultivation deviation,” Wu Ming felt a bit creeped out by this cry of “Mother,” but because of her own orphan status, she could empathize with her.
When she was little, she had also craved a mother’s embrace more than once.
She knew what a “mother” meant to a child without a mother’s love.
Thinking of this, Wu Ming held Hou Linghua tighter.
The Gu-men were hard to deal with, so Wu Ming tore them all to pieces. The fragmented corpses finally stopped being a threat, and only then did Wu Ming relax.
Hou Linghua secretly felt it was a pity. Her Gu-men still couldn’t withstand much tossing, unlike that old fellow Bai Yingqiu’s stalks and leaves, which could control a person to the maximum extent.
“Whew… finally safe. Kid, how did you provoke such eerie people?”
“Mother—”
“Wait! You can’t call me mother! This… won’t do!”
Even though the other was just a child, being called mother by a child felt very strange! She didn’t want to become a child’s mother!
“Big sister, can’t you be my mother? I was born but not raised by a mother. Just take pity on me…”
“Didn’t you say we were friends? Friends are friends, mothers and daughters are mothers and daughters! How can your friend be your mother?”
“But… I really want to have a mother to love me. Just be both a friend and a mother…”
Listen to that! What kind of talk was that! Did she fight off those difficult enemies just to become her mother?
That’s not how you repay a debt of gratitude!
Wu Ming knew the child’s words were nonsense, but she…
“Fine, call me whatever you want.”
Hadn’t she approached this child in the beginning precisely because of her uniqueness?
She… was so much like her younger self.
Being good to her was like satisfying that distant self in her memories.
The goal was actually achieved so easily!
Hou Linghua licked the corner of her mouth, smiling cunningly.
The prerequisite for the Lover’s Gu to work was that both parties must have feelings. It didn’t have to be romantic love; as long as it was a deep, heavy emotion, it could trigger the Lover’s Gu.
Mother-daughter affection should work too…
Well, even though being friends would have worked, this was entirely out of her own selfishness.
Hou Linghua only now realized she… had a mother complex.
Her lack of love made her particularly attached to the warmth Wu Ming gave her… a motherly warmth.
“Alright, good baby, now you should tell me everything you know. The whereabouts of the Hou family head’s cousin and why those people were chasing you.”