Chapter 280: The Truth About the Blood Gu Worm!

Li Qingluo curiously stared at Zayina sitting under the corridor.

In less than an hour, half of her hair had already turned white.

Moreover, her skin seemed to be continuously aging...

The Blood Gu Worm kept her appearance unchanged.

However, once the Blood Gu Worm died, she seemed as if her covering had been pulled away, and was about to fully reveal her true appearance and age.

But at this moment she seemed not to care what she would become.

She simply sat quietly, gazing at the tightly closed door before her...

Old Duke Pei still lay inside, alive or dead unknown.

Although Prince Su always had a doctor by his side, today's doctor happened not to be the most skilled Doctor Du.

So even until now, no news has been transmitted.

The pigeon post had already flown back to Jinling City, but Li Qingluo also had her own motives.

After reporting to Prince Su, she also sent a flying letter back to the Xiuli Jiangjun Fu.

Hope that grandmother and Doctor Luo Shen will arrive quickly.

After sitting a while, Li Qingluo couldn't resist her curiosity and walked over to Zayina, asking directly: "Actually, your Blood Gu Worm isn't for your own immortality, is it?"

Zayina raised her head and silently gazed at the young lady who had appeared before her.

She asked: "Your grandmother, is she Xiuzhen?"

Pei Lao Furen's maiden name was Pei Xiuzhen, which originally only close ones would know, but because of her title as DaLiang's first female general, her name is known throughout the world.

Moreover, Zayina had once followed the Old Duke onto the battlefield; although she and the grandmother didn't get along well, they were at least old acquaintances.

Li Qingluo nodded: "Yes, my direct paternal grandmother is indeed General Xiuli."

Zayina sighed: "No wonder, your blood drives the mother worm wild."

"In this world, the blood that makes Pei Lang unable to restrain himself and go completely mad belongs only to his closest blood‑related female—his daughter or sister."

"Your grandmother's bloodline, to him, is indeed sweeter and more delicious than that of other sons of the same clan."

Upon hearing this, Li Qingluo shuddered involuntarily all over.

"Could it be that the maternal great‑uncle has deliberately kept his distance from the grandmother all these years for this reason?"

"Actually, he doesn't truly hate the grandmother absolutely?"

Zayina gave a bitter smile: "Hate?"

"Pei Lang did indeed hate before—he hated himself for being unable to protect his two brothers' lives, so he could only take out his anger on your grandmother. But actually, even that resentment has long been let go."

"He has already lost two brothers; if it weren't unavoidable, how could he bear to completely push away the only sister who followed him onto the battlefield and endured so much hardship?"

"Because he knows that, had he not done that back then, your grandmother would surely have died by his hand already."

Li Qingluo's heart was tremendously shaken.

If grandmother knew the truth, I don't know whether she would be happy or sad.

Happy that her brother actually hasn't truly hated her all these years.

Sad that her brother, while living in the mortal world, endures a hell‑like existence.

But what exactly is all this about?

"You just mentioned the mother worm—what exactly is a mother worm?"

Zayina looked at Li Qingluo; matters having come to this point, she could no longer conceal anything.

So after a moment's thought, she replied again: "Do you know about MiaoJiang gu poison?"

Li Qingluo shook her head.

She truly lacks experience; even though she has started reading and writing over the past half year after returning, the time is really too short, so what she has studied remains superficial and scarce.

This thing, she has not yet read about it in books.

But she harbors a heart eager to learn.

"Could the Blood Gu Worm be the MiaoJiang gu poison?"

Zayina: "More or less."

"MiaoJiang gu poison is the most wicked poison in the world. MiaoJiang poison arts are even more extraordinarily toxic."

"Have you ever heard that a person infected with gu poison, before death, endures the utmost pain imaginable in this world?"

"You should know how this gu poison is refined: a hundred insects are placed in a jar to devour each other; whatever survives becomes the gu."

"A surviving snake becomes a snake gu, a surviving centipede becomes a centipede gu, and so on. Gu poison is extremely domineering and lethal; an ordinary gu poison will kill its host within a year of infection."

Li Qingluo: "But the gu poison inside the maternal great‑uncle has been there for over thirty years, right?"

Zayina: "So, the gu poison inside Pei Lang is not an ordinary MiaoJiang gu poison."

"Gu worms are divided into mother and child types. Where there is a mother, there is a child; where there is a child, there will be a mother."

"To infect a person with gu, one must first place the child worm inside the infected person's body."

"And the holder of the mother worm can then control the person harboring the gu poison."

"The Bone Blood Worm is the mother gu. And you should have seen before—I vomited a puddle of white worm larvae; those are the child worms."

Li Qingluo realized something was wrong: "Wait! How could you have the child worm inside you!? Isn't the poisoned person supposed to be the Old Duke?"

She finally knew where the problem lay!

Because she had always thought the poisoned person was the Old Duke, but now Zayina says she herself is the one harboring the child worm—she is the controlled victim!

What on earth is going on?

Zayina lifted her head with an empty gaze toward the sky and slowly said: "Back then, during the final battle against the Western Regions tribes, your grandparents and Pei Lang were trapped in a formation that disturbed the mind."

"Pei Lang said that in that formation, not only would one hallucinate and see ghosts, but there were also several pitch‑black big dogs staring at them covetously."

"Although, given their three abilities, jointly escaping that formation would not be difficult, those several mad dogs were quite troublesome."

Pei Lang cut his own arm to help your grandmother escape, not thinking much about it at the time. Who would have thought that the scent of blood would instantly draw those ghostly black shadows and the black dog straight to him.

Names: Pei Lang (Pei Lang? but we need to decide translation: it's a name? It's a nickname? "Pei Lang" likely a courtesy name or nickname for a male. According to rules, we should keep the person's name in pinyin, not translate its meaning. So "Pei Lang" is a name used for a person. Should we romanize it as "Pei Lang"? The surname is Pei, the given name is Lang? Actually "Lang" is a suffix meaning "young man" often used as a nickname. But it's a habitual name used for the person. So we should output pinyin: Pei Lang. However we need to check if there is any glossary entry for Pei Lang? Not provided. So we must romanize it as Pei Lang.)

Also "your grandmother" refers to the grandmother of the listener (Li Qiongluo?). Not a name.

Although your grandparents promptly rescued Pei Lang, and the three of them eventually escaped, after Pei Lang returned he nevertheless burned for three days and three nights in the tent.

Names: Pei Lang again. Also maybe "your grandparents" is not a name.

At that time, your grandmother thought your great maternal uncle was merely suffering from a common illness, not knowing that Pei Lang had already been hovering on the brink of life and death.

Since then, Pei Lang's health has never been good. Sometimes when he practices martial arts, he can't muster any strength in his limbs, which is a crushing blow for a warrior.

Names: Pei Lang, warrior (title, not a name). Not needed.

However, besides me, no one else in the world knows about this.

However, no one else in the world knows about this except me.

No names.

After returning to Jinling, since I had always lived in a residence outside the duke's mansion, Pei Lang would often come out to see me. On one dark, windy night, Pei Lang encountered an assassination on his way to see me.

Pei Lang's health was already not what it used to be, and the assassins he encountered that time were determined to take his life.

Pei Lang came to see me for the last time, dragging bloodstains all over his body; when I opened the door, he had only one breath left.

He fell into my arms, tears of blood streaming down, and asked me why His Majesty wanted to exterminate the Pei family completely.

Clearly, the Pei family had only him left as their son!

But the emperor feared the military power in the Pei family's hands; the Pei family still had descendants who would produce countless generals and heroes. What's more terrifying is that the Pei family of those days had already surpassed the sovereign in merit!

In the end, the Pei family had earned glorious military achievements in defending the home and country, yet the emperor actually wanted to discard the mill and kill the ox, not sparing a thought for any of the Pei family's sacrifices, intending to completely purge the Pei Duke's mansion.

Watching Pei Lang gradually fade and grow cold in my arms, how could I not hate in my heart?

For Pei Lang, I betrayed my master, left my only relative, my elder sister; I would rather be an unnamed concubine for him, I gave up so much, I love him as I love myself, I could not bear to watch him die!

So, I administered the blood worm to myself.

The blood worm is different from other MiaoJiang poisons; it is a rare poisonous insect I discovered in a village back then.

If an ordinary person accidentally ingests its eggs, they will contract a raging blood disease; the symptoms of this disease are exactly those of your maternal great-uncle—gradual madness and dementia, requiring human blood to sustain.

I am originally a shamaness. Although I am a Western Regions woman, I and my sister were adopted by the MiaoJiang people since childhood, so I inherited the MiaoJiang school and also know poison techniques.

After obtaining the blood worm while wandering the martial world back then, I have always treasured it, raising it with my own blood.

Moreover, during the years I followed your maternal great-uncle, I have continually used it in an attempt to refine poison techniques; accidentally, I crafted a method that sustains appearance with life.

I never imagined that one day I would use this method on Pei Lang.

Although it is a life-for-beauty method, only the one who has been poisoned can regain youth and retain an unfading visage; to save your maternal great-uncle, I needed to bind my life to his forever in this life and the next.

I first swallowed the larval worm, that is, the eggs of the blood worm. Then I let my blood flow out bowl by bowl from my wrist, using my school's unique blood-exchange method to transfer all my blood to Pei Lang, and finally I let his blood out and exchanged it for mine.

Thus the mother-child worm bond between us was established.

Although the blood-exchange method is extremely perilous, a single mistake could cost both of our lives.

But at that time, I had no other recourse.

I could only treat a dead horse as if it were alive, gambling my own life to save Pei Lang's life.

At least we succeeded in the blood exchange, and Pei Lang lived on. Henceforth, the one suffering from the raging blood disease would be Pei Lang; this disease causes him immense suffering, but he is at least still alive.

To stay alive, he needs to ingest human blood or take pills made from human blood to prolong his life.

Due to the nature of the blood worm, he is yang and women are yin; therefore he can only consume blood pills made from women's blood.

However, each time he consumes a woman's blood pill, I grow younger by one year, until I ultimately retain eternal youth and an unfading visage.

Zayina spoke while touching her face, bitter and bewildered.

"What good is that? I would rather face aging and decline openly with Pei Lang as an ordinary couple..."

"To live forever unaging, like a monster—how could that not be a punishment? Or to sustain this appearance with the life of one I love dearly… no wonder… I am that larval worm."

Li Qingluo understood many things.

"Your fates are intertwined, so in recent years your maternal great-uncle has lain in bed unable to rise, and you have become unable to speak or move?"