The imperial concubine is charming and coquettish, she crazily criticizes the tyrant for spoiling he

Chapter 535 Blue Cherry
Qing Sang and the others quickly followed the directions. As they approached, Qing Sang gave a signal, and everyone tacitly found a hiding spot.

“Finally, it’s dawn. This Hundred Miasma Forest is no place for humans!” A man removed the barrier and cautiously surveyed his surroundings while whispering to his companion beside him. His clothes were stained with blood several times, making him look somewhat disheveled. “More and more people are coming to the Hundred Miasma Forest to adventure now, and there’s less and less stuff on the outer edges, which is why we had no choice but to venture this deep. We’re almost out of supplies, and I have a feeling that something is watching us. Should we go back?”

"What's there to be afraid of? Fortune favors the bold. It's barely dawn; let's venture further in. Maybe we'll find some treasure." His companion, equally disheveled, wore an excited expression. He chose a direction and led the way, but after only a couple of steps, he suddenly stopped.

"Let's go! Why are we stopping?" the companion following behind asked in confusion, but received no answer.

He stopped asking questions, turned around in terror to run, but the instant he turned, his body suddenly stopped moving, and he collapsed limply. Strangely, after he fell, the terrified expression on his face slowly relaxed, and his wide eyes slowly closed, making him look as if he had fallen asleep.

The surroundings fell silent again. After a while, two figures, completely shrouded in black, suddenly jumped down from a tree in the direction the two were heading.

One of the shorter men took a red bottle from his pocket and placed it on the chest of the man lying on the ground. After a moment, a ruby-red worm, about the length of a finger, with clearly visible red veins under its skin, crawled out from the man's clothes and slowly crawled into the red bottle. Once the worm was completely inside, the shorter man in black quickly closed the bottle and carefully put it back in his pocket.

"Fortune favors the bold, but one must also be alive to seek it," the tall man said, watching the short man put away the bottle. "Indeed, only those who can enter this deep forest are truly useful. This time, we have a heart and a blood pack. It wasn't for nothing that we waited here for so long. We can go back and report to the Third Elder."

"Pah!" The short man spat at the dead man. "This kid was too cautious and had a keen sense of smell. He almost discovered us several times. Plus, he was carrying a bunch of random stuff on him, so my treasures couldn't get close to him."

The tall man scoffed, "What's the use of being cautious? A moment's carelessness can be fatal. Tsk, what a waste of his flesh. If it weren't for the toxicity of the Heart-Stealing Gu, he would have been devoured by my darlings until there wasn't a trace left."

"We don't need this much nutrition. After the elders ordered the outer perimeter to be cleared in advance, more people entered the forest this time than before, so the blood packs can be replenished."

“That makes sense.” The tall man took out a bottle and poured out a deep red worm, no bigger than a fingernail. Two tiny antennae slowly emerged from the worm’s head, danced in the air a few times, and then crawled onto his palm.

"Let's go." The tall man snapped his fingers in front of the man who had remained rooted to the spot, and the man, as if suddenly activated, automatically followed behind him. The three of them walked in the direction where the deep red insect had crawled, and their figures quickly disappeared into the forest.

Qing Sang and the others followed silently. The dark red worm that the tall man took out last should be the Madder Gu.

The two members of the Gu Clan kept checking their direction with the madder Gu from time to time, continuing their journey towards the Gu Clan without hunting again. It seems their mission this time was the "heart" and "blood pack" they mentioned.

The two people walking suddenly stopped, their expressions wary. After a moment, the woods ahead rustled, and a petite woman with a small braid, wearing a veil and completely shrouded in black emerged. Behind her were two men: one was tall and strong, the woman only reaching slightly above his waist; the other was thin, his face half-exposed, deathly pale, and also shrouded in a black cloak.

"Your Holiness." The two people, one tall and one short, bowed deeply upon seeing the newcomer. However, upon closer inspection, their bodies were trembling slightly.

The girl, referred to as the Saintess, wrinkled her nose and sniffed: "Wow, I smell the Heart-Binding Gu! Looks like you've completed your mission!"

Her voice was that cute, childlike tone, and she skipped over to the man who was being controlled, following behind the two people of different heights. She reached out her fair hand and stroked the man's chest, then stood on tiptoe and touched his face. "This blood pack is pretty good!"

"If... if Your Majesty the Holy Maiden likes it, then... then it will be offered to Your Majesty the Holy Maiden." The two who had been bowing their heads trembled even more violently, and the taller one began to stutter as he spoke, a stark contrast to his arrogant demeanor before.

"Really? How sensible!" The Holy Maiden jumped in front of the two, clapping her hands happily. "Which lineage are you disciples from? I'll reward you handsomely when I get back!"

"Thank you so much, Holy Maiden! We are from the lineage of the Third Elder," the short man quickly replied.

"Okay! I got it!" Seeing that the two of them kept their heads bent over and never looked up, she stomped her foot and said aggrievedly, "Why don't you ever look up at me? Do you think I'm ugly?"

The two men bowed even deeper in fright, and the shorter one quickly replied, "No, no, it's because we are of lowly status and dare not look directly at the Holy Maiden's talent."

"Hmph, men's words are the best liars. I don't believe them unless... you both look up at me." The saintess angrily put her hands on her hips. The two hesitated for a moment, then slowly raised their heads to look at the girl before them. But the moment they looked up and saw the saintess's eyes, their lives froze. A moment later, their bodies slowly collapsed, blood spurting from their necks.

The saintess turned around with her hands on her hips, angrily scolding, "Luo, what are you doing! You almost sprayed blood all over me!"

"I'll be more careful next time," the thin man in black said, stepping forward and taking out a handkerchief to carefully wipe the saintess's hand that had just touched someone. "Don't be angry, my saintess."

Luo's voice was clear and melodious; when she spoke gently, it was like a lover whispering in your ear. "You've taken a liking to him?"

The saintess hugged his neck and rested her head on his shoulder. "How could that be? I love you the most!"

"He's so disobedient!" As soon as Luo finished speaking, a large cloud of smoke suddenly burst from the man who had been standing still.

Luo lifted his cloak and wrapped it around the saintess. By the time the smoke cleared, she was long gone.

"This is boring. I was hoping to have some fun. Since you won't listen, I'll just kill you." The saintess raised her head, pursed her lips, and a bell appeared in her hand. She shook the bell gently, producing a clear, ringing sound. A heart-wrenching scream echoed from somewhere in the forest, then fell silent again after a moment.

"Shan, I'm tired." The saintess tilted her head, and the burly man behind her walked up and nimbly picked her up, letting her sit on his shoulders.

Luo took the red bottle from the short man's arms, put it in his own, and followed them. As they left, the saint, sitting on the mountainside, raised her right hand and flicked it a few times in the air. A rustling sound arose, and countless black ants crawled out from nowhere, quickly covering the two people on the ground. After the teeth-grinding sound, the ant swarm dispersed, leaving nothing on the ground, not even a trace.

The woods fell silent again. After a while, the leaves rustled gently, and Luo's figure landed silently on the spot. He looked around, then vanished again with a leap.

A while after he left, Qing Sang appeared, followed by the others.

"How are you?" Qing Sang asked Lan Suyu. The saintess had very keen senses, and when she left, she also made a move in Lan Suyu's direction.

Lan Suyu didn't reply, but opened her palm, revealing a tiny Gu worm the size of a mosquito trapped inside a glass sphere. "A Bewitching Gu. Once afflicted, it loses its mind and becomes at the beck and call of the one who cast it. There's no cure unless the caster dies, automatically releasing the Gu. However, I haven't been out there for nothing these past few years. This Glass Divine Essence Bead is a treasure I specifically sought out to subdue Gu worms. A Gu worm trapped by it will be cut off from its master, making it undetectable. After all, I'm a 'traitor' to the Gu lineage!" She smiled mockingly, but her eyes were filled with hatred.

"So, the person just now was infected with this kind of Gu? So when those two people with Gu lineage died, their Gu was automatically neutralized?" Song Tanxi asked.

"Yes. That person was clever too. After the curse was lifted, he pretended to be motionless, looking for an opportunity to escape. It's just a pity that he didn't know that when that little girl touched his chest, she had already placed a curse on him. As long as he escaped, she could make him die with his bones broken."

"Who is that saintess?" Qing Sang asked, looking young but ruthless.

"Lan Ying. At first, I only felt she looked somewhat familiar, but I didn't recognize her. But when I saw the bell in her hand, I confirmed it. That bell is called the Gu Soul Bell, which can be used to control one's Gu worms from a distance through the sound of the bell. It's the Grand Elder's treasure, and she's his granddaughter. When I left the Gu Clan, she was still young, and I only met her a few times. I heard she's very talented in Gu arts and is very much favored by the Grand Elder, but her personality is rather eccentric. It seems that Lan Qianxue has ruined her position as Holy Maiden, and Lan Ying has succeeded her."

"None of the past Holy Maidens of the Gu Clan are normal people," Qing Sang thought to herself.

“This little girl is truly talented. She probably didn’t notice us just now; she only sensed the aura of the Gu worms on my body, so she tried to test us,” Lan Suyu continued. “However, the Holy Maiden cannot leave the Gu Clan. She’s out here for training, yet she’s here. Moreover, the First Elder and the Third Elder’s factions have always been on good terms, but judging from her attitude towards the Third Elder’s faction just now, it’s obvious that something must have happened in the Gu Clan, causing internal strife.”

Lan Suyu chuckled lightly: "Isn't that our perfect opportunity! You have a way to catch up again, right?" The last sentence was addressed to Qing Sang.

Qing Sang withdrew her hand from the large tree beside her and nodded. "Okay, let's go."