77. I’m on the First Level
The night was quiet outside, but under the cover of darkness and the dormitory’s walls, Gong Yiling and Yan Chuyue had already snuck into the puppet’s room.
“Phew.”
Yan Chuyue blew out the knockout incense, placed it on the table, and nodded at Gong Yiling.
With this, everything should be fine.
Gong Yiling nodded in return, then turned to her puppet. “Are these people all infected with Gu?”
“Yes.” Sheng Qiuyun bowed. “There are eight people in this dormitory building with the same Gu poison, all from two different dormitories. This one is for Shangxi Daoist Mountain, and the other is for Fuzhi Daoist Mountain.”
Although the person before him, with her face hidden by a veil and a strange forehead sticker, was not what he imagined his master to be…
Hearing this, Yan Chuyue grabbed his wrist and took his pulse.
Then, she frowned, pulled open his clothes, and with a few palm strikes, a black and white striped glow appeared on his chest.
“This is…?”
“This is the original form of the Soul Abyss Gu,” Yan Chuyue explained. “The original form is used to cultivate a sufficient number of Soul Abyss Gu larvae.”
“Those infected won’t feel anything unusual, just like they weren’t poisoned at all. But once the original form has enough nourishment, it will burst out of the body, a truly gruesome death.”
Gong Yiling immediately understood. These people… were just breeding grounds.
But then again…
This was how they operated. Other people’s deaths were none of their concern.
“Can you remove the Gu poison?” Gong Yiling couldn’t help but ask.
Yan Chuyue pouted and shrugged. “If I had that ability, the Mingjue Sect would be carrying me back on a sedan chair and worshiping me.”
“As if you’d be willing.”
“A fool and his money are soon parted. It’s just a matter of playing both sides. I learned that from you.” Yan Chuyue winked at Gong Yiling, then tossed a small box to her.
Gong Yiling had thought of this.
So, after obtaining the Nine-Tailed Min, she immediately brought Chuyue here. The first step was to remove the Gu from these people.
“But Youyuan,” Yan Chuyue said after taking out the Nine-Tailed Min, “if you remove the Gu from them, and they find out, won’t they immediately suspect us?”
“Even if they trust you now, once they discover the situation has changed, the person who has had the most frequent contact with them and is most likely to possess the Nine-Tailed Min is you.”
However, Gong Yiling had already considered this.
“That’s why I left a little something behind,” Gong Yiling smiled and shrugged. “As long as they think someone else did it, we’ll be fine.”
“You mean…”
Gong Yiling gently patted her shoulder, then turned to Sheng Qiuyun. “From now on, you will remember every word I say and replace your original memories with them. Do you understand?”
She lifted the note on her face, and a black glint flashed in her eyes, a glint that seemed to reflect in Sheng Qiuyun’s eyes like a mirror.
“…Y-yes.”
“Good.” Gong Yiling nodded. “The day after tomorrow, at night, you were suddenly stopped by two women. They used a strange technique and said you were in danger, asking you to take them to your room to perform a ritual to ward off disaster. But after they entered, you don’t know what happened.”
“When you came to your senses, they were gone. So, you don’t know what they did. You only vaguely heard one sentence.”
Yan Chuyue continued her sentence, “Is it… with this, everything will be fine?”
This way, the blame could be shifted quite logically.
However, who would have thought Gong Yiling would shake her head. “Chuyue, you’re underestimating these people.”
“Ever since I came to this place… ahem, I mean, after I came out here, I’ve discovered an objective law,” Gong Yiling said. “And that objective law is, these days, everyone thinks they’re on a much higher level. So let them think that. I’m in the basement anyway.”
“Huh?”
Gong Yiling continued to Sheng Qiuyun, “What I want you to say is, if anyone asks, you tell them they said, If those fools knew how their Nine-Tailed Min was being used, they’d be furious with you, Yiling.”
“That’s it?” Yan Chuyue was completely surprised. She never expected Gong Yiling to say such a thing.
Wasn’t that the same as directly telling them, It was us?
“Let me keep you in suspense for a bit. I’ll tell you why later.”
Her confident words clearly held a deeper meaning. In terms of scheming, Gong Yiling was undoubtedly much stronger than her.
Since she said so, she must have a reason.
But… even so, for the next few days, Yan Chuyue was still worried about this matter, even changing her disguise every day to scout around the stone plaque.
In contrast, Gong Yiling was much more carefree.
She had been having fun these past two days.
Perhaps because of wearing that stupid note all day, Miss Gong cherished every happy day.
She would wake up early and take the three girls for a morning run, although only Qiu Shui would follow her. Chun Lian and Little Heehee would usually lie down and go back to sleep after a few laps.
After the run, they would take a nice hot bath in the public bathhouse, followed by breakfast.
Qiu Shui’s cooking skills had improved significantly after a day of training with her mother. Gong Yiling loved her shrimp dumplings, which had the flavor of classic Cantonese dim sum.
After breakfast, it was time to supervise the three’s cultivation. And at noon, Gong Muzhi and Auntie Pei would show off their skills.
—Well, of course, most of the edible dishes were made by Auntie Pei. The strange Palace Master was only good for assisting. The dishes she cooked herself weren’t exactly inedible, just… a bit strange.
Banana stir-fried beef, apple stewed ribs, and so on. According to her, Yuan’er (Ling’er) liked sweet things, so…
Of course, Miss Gong would eat everything, seemingly encouraging her mother’s journey into the world of dark cuisine.
And so on, and so on.
She was getting sidetracked.
This was a typical day for Gong Yiling, as seen from Yan Chuyue’s perspective. And it was quite a shock.
This woman… was slacking off all day!
And it was like this every day.
