Did she need to take off her clothes to remove the Yin Corpse Gu?
Hearing this, He Sui’an’s eyes were filled with confusion. She touched her well-worn dress, unsure of where to place her hands. After touching her dress, her hands hung stiffly at her sides, and her earlobes quickly turned red.
It wasn’t that He Sui’an didn’t trust Qi Buyan, but undressing in front of someone else, especially a boy around her age, was a hurdle she found difficult to overcome.
He Sui’an opened her lips but didn’t make a sound.
She wanted to ask if there was another way.
But without asking, He Sui’an could guess that there probably wasn’t. Otherwise, Qi Buyan wouldn’t have directly asked her to take off her clothes.
Qi Buyan stood by the window. The morning breeze blew through his long hair, the sound of silver ornaments falling among them. His features, outlined in the backlight, were very distinct and beautiful. It was unclear if he resembled his father or his mother.
He didn’t urge He Sui’an to hurry, leaving the choice to her.
Although he didn’t know what she was struggling with.
He Sui’an asked if Qi Buyan could close the window first. He removed the wooden stick supporting the lattice window, and the window leaves automatically closed.
Seeing Qi Buyan close the window properly, He Sui’an went to check if the door was locked. Only after confirming it was locked did she walk to Qi Buyan’s side. She raised her hand to the ribbon at her waist but still couldn’t pull it down.
She murmured, “What happens after the Yin Corpse Gu enters the body?”
Qi Buyan responded with a question, “Do you remember the people who went mad the day we arrived in Fengling Town?”
He Sui’an remembered clearly.
She felt enlightened but also cold all over: “So the reason they went mad was that the Yin Corpse Gu entered their bodies?”
He nodded, “On the third day after the Yin Corpse Gu enters the body, people go mad and start biting others. They can no longer be considered human. When encountering someone fully controlled by the Yin Corpse Gu, they must be killed, or there will be endless troubles.”
The third day after the Yin Corpse Gu enters the body means the Gu and the host have become one.
Once they are one, it can’t be removed.
Just like the Heavenly Silkworm Gu in his body.
The Heavenly Silkworm Gu was placed in him by his mother when he was a child. The reason was that she was afraid of him, afraid of him even as a child, afraid he was also a monster in human skin.
It was said that his father took great pleasure in killing, especially enjoying the suffering of others, a complete monster.
Qi Buyan still found it laughable to this day.
What did it have to do with him?
He only killed a soft rabbit in his childhood… The rabbit accidentally stepped on the young Gu he had raised for a long time, so he broke its bones and cut its flesh with a sharp blade.
What’s wrong with that?
However, when the blood splattered onto Qi Buyan’s face and body, he felt an unprecedented excitement. A fine current of electricity surged through him, bringing a sense of pleasure and thrill that made his spine tingle.
Qi Buyan’s hand holding the sharp blade trembled.
So this is what it feels like to take a life.
It’s indescribable, yet it brings an unusual satisfaction in an instant.
In the darkness, droplets of blood dripped from his chin. Some blood splashed into his sensitive eyes, making them redden. He lifted his head and met a pair of terrified eyes—it was his mother.
She was shaking violently, barely able to stand. Her voice was filled with both sobs and fear as she questioned why he killed the rabbit.
Qi Buyan answered truthfully.
The woman became even angrier and more disgusted. She stared at him in a daze, suddenly feeling as if his father was standing right in front of her. She let out a sharp scream, like a madwoman, muttering something incomprehensible.
Her beautiful face gradually twisted and deformed. She regretted marrying a madman, regretted being with a madman, and regretted giving birth to another madman.
But his father had hidden it too well.
No one could see through him.
Many years ago, the man disguised himself as a gentle and refined gentleman, claiming to be an ordinary swordsman wandering the Jianghu of the Great Zhou. She, leaving the Tianshui Village of Miaojiang for the first time, was seduced by his gentleness.
She was deceived; she was the innocent victim. The woman admitted that the first year of their marriage was indeed very happy.
But soon everything changed.
It changed beyond recognition.
The man killed again, and she accidentally witnessed it. She tried to escape, but he gently brought her back, wiping away her uncontrollable tears with his blood-stained hands, sighing softly.
He touched her slightly swollen belly, soaking her clothes with blood: “What are you afraid of? You are my wife, after all.”
The woman wept in agony.
In utter despair.
A Miaojiang woman who knew how to use Gu and only made others afraid had fallen to such a state.
He lowered his head and kissed her, like a mad dog biting its prey, reluctant to let go, holding it in his mouth, occasionally tasting it.
The woman was horrified.
That night, he poisoned the Gu she carried, eliminating any chance of her using it against him. After that, he enjoyed holding her after killing someone, whispering about his killing methods as if he were talking sweet nothings.
Whenever the woman thought of those past events, feelings of shame, disgust, and darkness overwhelmed her. So now, having rarely escaped that hell, she cursed Qi Buyan incoherently.
To vent her anger.
She called him a madman too.
She cursed that Qi Buyan would grow up to be just like his father, inheriting the same bloodline. She believed he was destined to remain incorrigible, becoming a monster who takes pleasure in killing, inevitably falling into the deepest pits of hell.
The woman didn’t choose to patiently guide Qi Buyan, to tell him that wanton killing was wrong, even if it was just a rabbit, and to correct his misguided path. Instead, she believed he was innately like this, beyond redemption.
She hated his father.
She wished to eat his flesh and drink his blood.
She also hated Qi Buyan, whose veins carried that madman’s blood. To her, he was nothing but a vile spawn.
In the cold moonlight, the wind was chilly.
The woman stared fixedly at the blood-stained bone in little Qi Buyan’s hand. He was exquisitely beautiful, with rosy lips and white teeth. Even with his face covered in blood, he looked like a bullied child.
His appearance was innocent, but his methods were extremely cruel and vicious.
Killing rabbits as a child, what about when he grows up?
Disgusting creature.
The woman suppressed her pounding heart, her expression icy, bone-chilling. She gritted her teeth and asked Qi Buyan if he would kill a person if they stepped on his Gu instead of a rabbit.
His answer was, “I would.”
In a child’s innocent voice, if an uninformed person heard it, they would only want to pick him up.
But upon hearing this answer, the woman nearly went mad. She snatched the sharp blade from Qi Buyan’s left hand and stabbed it fiercely into his small body. If the blade moved half an inch further, he would have died.
Qi Buyan didn’t cry.
He glanced at his bleeding, spasming abdomen, then tugged at the woman’s sleeve with his small hand and asked, “Mother, did I step on your Gu too?”
Upon hearing this, the woman let go in terror. She had almost, almost become a murderer, killing her own son.
She didn’t want to become the kind of person she despised. She stumbled and ran away.
That night, Qi Buyan naturally didn’t die.
But a hideous scar remained on his waist and abdomen, permanently with him.
Shortly after, something else was added to Qi Buyan’s body—the Heavenly Silkworm Gu placed by the woman.
*
At this moment, He Sui’an was still intently watching him. Meeting her gaze, Qi Buyan pulled himself out of his thoughts and focused on her clear, bright eyes, which reflected his image.
He Sui’an urgently asked Qi Buyan if he could definitely remove the Yin Corpse Gu from her body.
“You haven’t gone mad, so it can be removed,” Qi Buyan smiled. “But if you are controlled by the Yin Corpse Gu and go mad, I will personally kill you, because I can’t stand having someone else’s Gu in your body.”
He Sui’an shivered at his words.
No, she thought. She didn’t want to become a mindless creature, biting everyone she saw. She had to remove the Gu. Her hands trembled with fear at the thought of going mad, and she failed several times to untie her skirt ribbon.
Her palms were sweaty.
Finally, she managed to untie it. Holding the ribbon, He Sui’an timidly raised her neck to look at him, her collar slightly loosened, revealing her delicate, white collarbones. “Can you cover your eyes?”
Her neck was long and graceful, as white as jade, seemingly fragile.
Qi Buyan’s fingertips twitched unconsciously.
Before he could respond, her face flushed again. But this blush was purely from the embarrassment of undressing in front of someone, not from any romantic feelings or other intentions.
He Sui’an didn’t want Qi Buyan to think she was being too difficult, so she awkwardly added, “If it will hinder you from removing the Gu, then you don’t have to cover your eyes. I was just asking, you don’t need to take it to heart.”
“Alright,” he replied.
Once the Yin Corpse Gu enters a person’s body, it finds a place to nest and hatch. It is almost invisible to the naked eye, and can only be found by touch and feel to determine its exact location.
He Sui’an couldn’t find a piece of cloth to cover his eyes, so Qi Buyan suggested she use her skirt ribbon. The width was perfect, though it was a bit long.
The length didn’t matter; it could just hang behind him.
Not wanting to delay any longer, the sooner the Gu was removed, the sooner she would be free. He Sui’an stopped hesitating, stood on tiptoe in front of Qi Buyan, spread out the light blue ribbon, and covered his eyes, tying a knot at the back of his head.
With everything in place, He Sui’an led Qi Buyan to sit on the bed. “It’s done.”
“Hmm.”
Blindfolded, Qi Buyan touched He Sui’an’s body, causing her shoulders to rise involuntarily. He was so close that his breath fell on her bare skin, creating the illusion of feathers lightly brushing over her.
Qi Buyan’s fingers slid down from He Sui’an’s face, over her shoulders, and towards her back, meticulously tracing the prominent contours of her shoulder blades and the line of her spine.
He Sui’an’s breathing was soft.
He seemed to sense an abnormal protrusion on her back and leaned closer.
But since they were sitting face-to-face, Qi Buyan’s long hair, adorned with silver ornaments, brushed against her body as he leaned in, making her itch. Nervously, He Sui’an clenched her hands into fists at her sides.
With his eyes covered by the skirt ribbon, only the lower half of Qi Buyan’s face was visible. He pressed on the protrusion on her back. “Does it hurt?”
She blushed, “It itches.”
Qi Buyan’s hand paused. “Itches?”
He Sui’an awkwardly moved Qi Buyan’s long hair that had fallen in front of him to his back and said, “It doesn’t itch anymore, you can continue.”
Since He Sui’an wasn’t in pain, the small protrusion wasn’t where the Yin Corpse Gu was hiding. Qi Buyan calmly moved his hand away. After checking her back, he prepared to examine her front.
Soon, his fingers touched a soft spot.
He Sui’an’s breath hitched.
