It wasn’t out of pity for the Taiqing Sect—Lu Mingyi realized the Demon Sect’s brazen gu assault on the righteous sects’ fresh blood meant war was imminent.
Pushing open the inn’s doors, Lu Mingyi realized the situation was graver than she’d imagined.
The Spirit-Devouring Gu primarily devoured the host’s spiritual power without other bodily harm during feeding.
Yet in the lobby, disciples in assorted sect robes lay in misery: faces ashen, some haggard and spent, others weeping silently or wailing outright.
“Fellow Daoist, is there really no way to deal with this Spirit-Devouring Gu? Could it be something else wrong with me? Might there be some mistake here?”
“How many spirit stones do you want? Please, just name a price! My family can afford anything to save me!”
“Let me see my mother! Waaah… I want to see my mom!”
The joy of making their debut at the Nine Provinces Grand Competition and earning fame had now turned into overwhelming terror.
Those infected with the Spirit-Devouring Gu faced a future of helplessly watching their spiritual power drain away, until the gu worm finally shredded their Dantian!
“Fellow Daoist Guan, is there truly no way to handle this Spirit-Devouring Gu?” Lu Mingyi saw the miserable state of these young juniors and felt a flicker of sympathy stir in her heart.
“The gu worm parasites in a cultivator’s Dantian. To survive, one must shatter the Dantian and extract it,” Guan Du shook her head. “But for a cultivator, what difference is there between shattering one’s Dantian and death?”
“Most of those infected are geniuses from sects and noble families. Their pride and self-respect far exceed that of ordinary people, so they can hardly accept losing their Dantian and being exiled to the Mortal Realm.”
Yet Lu Mingyi looked into the vacant eyes of those young disciples and couldn’t help wondering: Was losing one’s spiritual power truly more terrifying than death?
In her previous life at the Taiqing Sect, she had watched her own spiritual power dissipate bit by bit over three years. There had been frustration and sadness, but those days hadn’t seemed entirely bleak.
Not until the final two months.
Lu Mingyi closed her eyes briefly, cutting off her thoughts, and asked Guan Du to take her to Qi Yinxue.
As the current Peak Lord of Taiqing Sect’s Sword Peak, Qi Yinxue had been placed in this inn after her infection with the Spirit-Devouring Gu was discovered.
When they pushed open the door, she sat on the bed, cultivating with the Quiet Heart method.
“Junior Sister.” Guan Du called out.
Qi Yinxue opened her eyes at the sound. Seeing the tall, slender figure behind Guan Du, her eyes widened slightly before she asked tensely, “Senior Sister… Is Fellow Daoist Jing alright?”
“I’m fine.” Lu Mingyi nodded. Seeing how much more haggard Qi Yinxue looked compared to the past few days, she thought the Spirit-Devouring Gu was truly terrifying.
“You weren’t infected?”
“No.”
“That’s good…” Qi Yinxue nodded, visibly relieved.
Seeing how concerned she was, Lu Mingyi’s emotions grew even more complicated. She wondered why this woman cared so much about a stranger.
Could she suspect my identity too?
But I clearly died—why does everyone think I’d come back? I’m not the type to seize a body!
Lu Mingyi said, “Fellow Daoist Qi, I came to ask you something. It might help us figure out how the Demon Sect pulled this off.”
Qi Yinxue replied, “Please ask.”
“When did the Spirit-Devouring Gu in your body start acting up?”
“The second day after leaving the secret realm.”
On the way there, Lu Mingyi had already learned the symptoms of the Spirit-Devouring Gu in detail.
Typically, after the gu worm was planted, it would begin devouring spiritual power within 1-3 days, depending on the cultivator’s strength. Once it started, the cultivator would notice their cultivation dropping.
Qi Yinxue was at Golden Core Mid-Stage. Working backward, she must have been infected on the last day in the secret realm.
And that day happened to be when she’d run into Lu Mingyi. That was also why Guan Du had sought her out.
Everything clicked in Lu Mingyi’s mind. She asked further, “That day, aside from running into me, did you encounter anyone else or any demon beasts?”
Qi Yinxue paused for a moment. “Aside from you, the only one I saw in the secret realm was… Senior Sister Xiao.”
Lu Mingyi’s gaze dropped briefly at the name, but her expression remained calm.
She then asked Guan Du to bring in two other disciples infected with the Spirit-Devouring Gu and questioned them: “Though you encountered the Realm Eyes at different times, you all met them on the great plains in the central part of the secret realm?”
“Exactly.”
“How many of you worked together to slay the Realm Eye?”
“About ten or so… After all, Realm Eyes have profound cultivation—at least Nascent Soul Stage or higher.”
After these questions, Lu Mingyi had reached her conclusion. Guan Du, seeing her grave expression, took the initiative: “Jing Yao, we’ve already asked those same questions. It seems the Demon Sect prepared the Spirit-Devouring Gu on those plains, luring the Realm Eyes and cultivators from various sects there. Then, in the chaos of battle, they planted it in them.
“The key now is you and Junior Sister…”
“No, Fellow Daoist Guan. While the Demon Sect did deploy it on the great plains, it wasn’t planted amid the chaos.” Lu Mingyi let out a heavy sigh. “The true vector for spreading the gu worms was blood!”
“Blood?!”
The room erupted in shock. Everyone stared intently at Lu Mingyi.
“How so?” Guan Du’s face paled in astonishment.
“The Spirit-Devouring Gu feeds on spiritual power. Once implanted in a cultivator, to slow its devouring, the host must draw on massive external forces—like a Spiritual Spring—to sate it and preserve their Dantian’s energy. The same logic applies to demon beasts.
“During the Nine Provinces Grand Competition, the Realm Eyes infected with the Spirit-Devouring Gu encountered hordes of human cultivators—walking reservoirs of spiritual power in their eyes! So, Realm Eyes that should have stayed dormant in their territories swarmed to the crowded great plains, clashing with the humans.
“And those bold enough to fight Realm Eyes were the top young geniuses from the major sects. If they succeeded in killing one, the Realm Eye’s blood—laden with the gu—would infect them. If they failed, they died in its jaws, thinning the righteous path’s fresh blood anyway!”
Lu Mingyi’s rapid deduction left everyone dumbfounded.
But as soon as she finished, a medical cultivator asked in horror, “Since when can the Spirit-Devouring Gu spread through blood?!”
“Traditionally, transferring a gu requires pressing wounds together, with one using vast spiritual power to draw it out and host it themselves.”
Someone else quickly added, “But the foundational gu arts course Gu and Medicine mentions that some gu worms can parasitize both humans and demon beasts, with different traits depending on the host. The Spirit-Devouring Gu had never appeared in demon beasts before. Now, per this fellow Daoist, it seems the version in demon beasts spreads via blood.”
“Then the spread is way too fast!!”
Qi Yinxue’s face shifted through several emotions as she asked Lu Mingyi, “So I got infected because…”
“That day, we reached a ravaged stretch of the great plains and encountered the Golden-Haired Fox locked in a deathmatch with an Icefield Wolf.” Lu Mingyi’s eyes darkened. “That fox flung its blood at both of us.”
That day on the plains, Lu Mingyi had noted the chaotic, desolate battlefield and realized it wasn’t from a single battle. Likely, several Realm Eyes had sensed the crowds and converged, sparking chain reactions of fights.
Guan Du’s face changed upon hearing the fox had splashed them with blood. She grabbed Lu Mingyi’s arm. “Fellow Daoist Jing, you were splashed too—then why…?”
“This is what puzzles me. I wonder if it’s because that fox bit me…” Lu Mingyi frowned uncertainly.
In truth, she had a hunch that the Golden-Haired Fox wasn’t just any demon beast.
Its reactions seemed almost… more than animal.
“Bit you?” Guan Du furrowed her brow, about to press further, when the inn’s door burst open.
A Taiqing Sect disciple hurried to Guan Du’s side, slightly panicked. “Senior Sister Guan, word from the sect: News of the Jiangxia Secret Realm has spread across the Nine Provinces. The medical families and sects in the southwest region are prepared. They want you and the other leaders to bring the severely afflicted disciples to Tianyan Sect for treatment.”
“Southwest? Tianyan Sect?” Guan Du blinked in surprise.
For ages, sects and families in the Nine Provinces handled only their own territories, boundaries strictly drawn.
Why was the southwest now volunteering to take in the infected?
But the sect’s order had come, so Guan Du accepted it.
The disciple didn’t leave, instead panting rapidly as if steeling herself for dire news: “And… one more thing…
“Senior Sister Guan, Senior Sister Shen—she’s infected with the Spirit-Devouring Gu too!”
“What?!!”
Shocked cries rang out. Even Guan Du blacked out for a moment.
Shen Mingzheng, young mistress of the Nine Provinces’ foremost Shen Family, bearer of countless protective artifacts—infected during the Grand Competition?!
Never mind the morale blow; how to even explain this to the Shen Family!
“But, but Senior Sister Shen seems…” The disciple had more to say, but louder arguments erupted at the inn’s entrance.
“I said I’m fine—let me go!”
“Senior Sister Shen, these are the rules right now. Since you’re infected, you must stay here for centralized quarantine.”
“Tch, they just detected it in the check—I…”
A figure in red robes, a slender golden sword on her back, stormed in impatiently. Shen Mingzheng’s striking face showed clear irritation as she opened her mouth to argue.
But as she looked up, her gaze pierced through the crowd to the person standing upstairs.
That ethereal, otherworldly beauty gazed down expressionlessly from afar, through layers of people—as if seeing her, yet as if she weren’t even there.
Just that one glance made a spark ignite in Shen Mingzheng’s chest, burning her throat dry, her wrist wound itching faintly.
She hadn’t expected to run into Lu Mingyi here.
Her initial agitation eased for an instant, only for the flame to scorch her with pain.
Why is Lu Mingyi here? She shouldn’t have the gu anymore… No, why is she looking at me like that? Coming here proves I’m infected!
Lu Mingyi sees me—she should, she should…
Flashes of memory flooded Shen Mingzheng’s mind.
She’d always been robust, but when sick, it was always severe.
That year, kidnapped by the Demon Sect Saintess and rescued, she still suffered endless nightmares, burning with fever for days.
Lu Mingyi, famed for repelling the Demon Sect—courted by every sect and family—had instead stayed day and night in Jin Que Pavilion, brewing medicine, feeding it to her, tending with utmost care.
In her feverish haze, Shen Mingzheng clutched Lu Mingyi’s scalding hand and murmured, “What are you doing here all the time? Servants can handle this—don’t waste time on those invitations.”
Lu Mingyi just laughed softly, cooling the steaming medicine before feeding it spoonful by spoonful. “What fun are those? Taking care of you here puts my mind at ease more than anywhere else.”
In her blurred vision, Shen Mingzheng saw only Lu Mingyi’s eyes, warm with gentle laughter.
As if it were yesterday.
So even with their rift, Lu Mingyi would… knowing she had the gu…
Shen Mingzheng didn’t know what eager expression she wore as she stared up fervently.
Yet that person seemed truly not to see her.
Just a casual, fleeting downward glance, then calmly withdrawing her gaze.
Amber eyes reflected the scene: Guan Du tensely placing a hand on Lu Mingyi’s shoulder, whispering in her ear—intimate, close—before they entered the top-floor room together.
Shen Mingzheng stared blankly as the figure vanished completely, her heartbeat nearly stalling.
Those cherished memories now sliced into her like the sharpest blades.
