254: Little fans (˵¯͒♦¯͒˵)

【2025.6.07 — Ten years of hard study, now the blade is tested. May the pen fall and startle the wind and rain, and the name be inscribed on the Golden List. The Dragon Gate is near, success is in sight!】

She raised her hand to adjust her glasses frames, and a burst of laughter drifted over from the Yao Zui Cliff territory.

There was no need to think twice; it was surely Hei Jing and the others stirring up trouble again.

Most likely, it was Underworld Marshal Ma Sanqiang and the others, having been tricked by Niu Mengmeng into trying the insect banquet.

They were probably bickering across the whole venue right now.

Just as she was thinking this, an anomaly came from her sleeve.

The Malice Heart Talisman trembled violently as if scorched by fire, and even through the fabric, she could feel its scorching temperature.

Ling Qi's expression turned cold: "Everyone, be on guard!"

A mass of scarlet demonic energy exploded in the southeastern sky, causing the ghost fire within the "thirty-five" lanterns to dance wildly.

"Form ranks..."

Ling Qi's voice was cut off by the rustling of shrubs.

Jiao Xiao stumbled out of the woods, her original ink-colored ru skirt torn like a tattered fishing net.

The exposed skin was covered in bite marks from sacrificial Gu insects.

In her hand, she was still carrying a bloody, mangled head.

The head's eyeballs were still rolling around, and blood bubbles that hadn't been swallowed hung from the corners of its lips; it looked as horrifying as could be.

Tudor drew his long blade and blocked the path in front of the Secretary-General, his voice beneath the golden mask taut.

"What is this act, Clan Leader Jiao? Wasn't it just a moment ago that you were risking your life to escape?"

Jiao Xiao grinned, revealing blood-stained teeth, and slammed the head onto the ground.

The head rolled to Ling Qi's feet, still emitting an indistinct gurgle from its throat.

"To pay my debt to the Underworld."

"This is the Yin Jiao Clan elder Jiao Tang, and also one of Jiao Rong's secret lackeys."

She wiped the bloodstains from her face. "I used a forbidden technique to break the brand, chased him to the deepest part of Zhangwei Mountain, and finally managed to slaughter this beast of an old thing."

Ling Qi stared at the strange blue spots on Jiao Xiao's wrist, then looked at the still-twitching head; her fingers unconsciously rubbed the red mole on her forearm.

How much of what this demon said was true, and how much was false?

She couldn't tell for the moment.

She simply turned her head and said to Tudor, "Take two squads to clean up the mess at Yao Zui Cliff, and the others, come back to the Underworld with me."

She kicked the head again. "Throw this thing into Fierce Dog Ridge to feed His Majesty's Iron-Haired Dog."

"Lest it soil the ground of the Netherworld."

"Understood—"

Just as she was about to turn, Jiao Xiao suddenly coughed violently, black blood seeping through her fingers. "Secretary-General... wait..."

She pulled open her collar, revealing web-like Gu poison patterns on her chest, shimmering with an ominous blood color under the lantern light.

Ling Qi's pupils constricted—it was actually a Blood Demon Gu!

Her fingertips trembled slightly; the records in ancient books regarding this Gu pierced her brain like ice picks.

The Blood Demon Spider is carefully raised using the heart blood of young demons, and when it matures, it transforms into a blood-colored web that infiltrates the Host's meridians.

Those infected with the Gu first experience skin and flesh withering, then bones and tendons breaking inch by inch, and finally, they wither like firewood and die.

What's even crueler is the symbiotic curse seal—once a cultivator below the seventh rank is infected.

The Gu master and the Host's life souls are bound together.

After the Gu master dies, no matter how agonizingly you cut out the Gu insect, it is merely being buried with the caster.

The blood threads on Jiao Xiao's chest were still writhing, gnawing at the tissue beneath the flesh.

She fell to her knees on the gravel-filled ground with a "thud," the Gu poison patterns having already crawled to her cheeks.

Her lips trembled so much she almost bit her tongue. "Secretary-General... I won't survive."

"Could you... bury me back in the Yin Jiao Clan territory?"

Her nails dug deeply into the dirt, the back of her hand still stained with Jiao Tang's brains.

Ling Qi frowned, looking at the surging blood color on her chest, faint flickers of light flashing in the depths of her eyes.

"Why didn't you say so earlier? If you told the Underworld the details, His Majesty could save you."

"Save?"

Jiao Xiao laughed, the coughed-up blood foam splattering on the hem of her skirt. "Ever since I realized the truth, I never intended to live alone."

She tremblingly lifted her sleeve, wiping away the white frost ointment covering the bite marks, revealing the dense, packed tooth marks on her forearm.

"They are all marks from the young Yin Flood Dragons scratching and biting before they died."

"Every year during the festival, it was I who personally fed those children the mute medicine. They said it was for the survival of the clan, but actually..."

She suddenly lunged forward, grabbing the hem of Ling Qi's qipao, the scales on her fingertips tearing the fabric.

"Later, when Jiao Rong wanted to take knives to the adult Yin Flood Dragons, I realized there was no such thing as 'dragon nature is inherently lecherous'; it was all made up to trick fools."

"To trick me, this big fool of a Clan Leader!!!"

Her forehead pressed against the cold ground, her voice muffled as if squeezed out from her throat.

"The so-called dragon transformation is nothing more than using the piled-up bones of the entire clan as a ladder for Jiao Rong."

Ling Qi was silent for a moment, then bent down and swatted her hand away.

Half a scale from a young Yin Flood Dragon was still embedded in Jiao Xiao's fingernails, shimmering with a mother-of-pearl luster.

That should have been something used to decorate the hair of the children in the clan.

The cries of carrion crows echoed in the forest, and the thirty-five lanterns swayed in the wind.

Stretching Jiao Xiao's shadow long, like a melting wax figure.

"The Yin Jiao Clan territory has already collapsed," Ling Qi said softly.

"The young Yin Flood Dragons you pushed down back then have now become piles of white bones, and were then sacrificed to be refined into the dragon transformation pill."

"Oh! It's even a semi-finished product, the kind with pill poison." Ling Qi used the gentlest tone to twist the knife into Jiao Xiao.

She shuddered, reaching out to claw at her own scales, blood dripping down her chin.

"Then hack me into ten thousand pieces and scatter me into the Gu pool."

Her eyes were wide open, but unfocused. "Let those children see... what kind of thing their Clan Leader really is..."

"Sss—"

The lantern popped, and ghost fire splattered onto her hair, scorching a few strands of black silk into ash.

Ling Qi narrowed her eyes and turned her back.

She saw Tudor using his sword hilt to crush a Blood Demon Gu trying to escape.

The sound of the carapace shattering was like the tolling of bells at the Yin Jiao Clan festival back then.

"Tudor, one more trouble for you." She looked at the wreckage covering the ground, her tone as flat as if she were talking about the weather today.

"Hack Jiao Xiao into ten thousand pieces and scatter her into the core area of Zhangwei Mountain to serve as fertilizer for the spiritual plants."

"The corpse of a sixth-rank Yin Flood Dragon is enough for those things to gnaw on for a while."

Tudor scratched the back of his head under his helmet.

"Secretary-General, isn't this too cruel? The deceased should be respected..."

"Heh, the deceased?" Ling Qi sneered, the corners of her eyes lifting slightly, her smile steeped in ice.

"When she pushed the young Yin Flood Dragons into the Gu pool, she didn't think about 'the deceased should be respected.' To those children, she should have died long ago."

She tapped her glasses frame with her fingertip.

"The Underworld's iron laws are written clearly: an evil demon like Jiao Xiao should be sent to the Eighteen Levels of Hell to serve a thousand-year sentence and be reincarnated as livestock to be slaughtered in the next life."

"It's a pity that now that the Gu poison has entered her brain, even her soul has rotted through."

"Tsk, it really is~ too easy on her."

Tudor smiled ingratiatingly. "I saw you say earlier that His Majesty could save her, and I thought you had developed a sense of compassion."

"Stupid." Ling Qi glanced at him.

"That's called a technique for getting information. I only said there was a way, I didn't say I would definitely save her."

"Besides, only a living demon can atone for their sins, but now there is no chance."