With every step Gu Junshi took, her soul condensed a fraction more; with every breath she inhaled, her spirit ascended a tier.
By the time she reached the stone platform, which was as high as her hipbones, the black deathly aura swirled around her like faint mist, and she had solidified into a tangible form.
After casually tossing the treasure-hunting rat guarding Liu Jiangfusheng out of the room, a surge of spiritual energy, swift as an arrow, shot towards her throat.
Without turning her head, she lightly blocked it with a flick of her sleeve, and it vanished.
She turned around, leaning over him. Her cool, dark tresses and the clothes, imbued with a chilling, clean fragrance, draped over Liu Jiangfusheng.
Two fingers, exerting no force, pinched his face, gazing into his moist, hazy eyes.
"You want to kill me?"
Her shallow breath accompanied a familiar, clear, and cold voice. Liu Jiangfusheng's dispersed gaze, scorched by the heat, gradually re-focused.
After a long stare, his Adam's apple bobbed.
"Ayi..."
Gu Junshi met his gaze indifferently, yet her hand gently caressed his flushed, hot cheek. Her lightly powdered skin felt different from her usual cool, jade-like flesh. Instead of the cool and sweat-free touch, it was akin to an ember beneath ice, melting away the hardened shell into warm, fragrant jade, passionate as fire.
"It's me."
His head reeled as if struck by a heavy blow, the surging blood pounding in his temples, rendering him unable to think clearly.
It was her?
It wasn't her?
Really?
Fake?
He mumbled "real or fake," then suddenly surged upright, driven by a brute impulse born of jealousy and pain, and bit down on her lower lip.
As his teeth met hers, there was still room between them; he hadn't used his full strength.
...In the end, he still couldn't bring himself to hurt her.
Even if she was a complete jilt.
Even if she was now... merely a phantom conjured by his extreme suffering.
He was too hot; the heat was about to incinerate his body to ashes. Every moment of scorching agony and burning intensity offered no relief, so he conjured a phantom image to soothe the pain throughout his body.
Gu Junshi knew his current state. Others afflicted by this poison might feel a desire to find an ice cellar or a cold cave to alleviate the symptoms. However, due to his unique physique, the raging inferno was uncontrollable. This "heat" could melt even the coldest caves and ice houses.
She had shed her mortal coil, neither ghost nor human. Her special cultivation technique had merely transformed her body into a Netherworld form, and her inherent coolness could alleviate his burning toxicity.
Therefore, she did not push him away and allowed him to draw closer.
She just hadn't expected him to make such a move.
Liu Jiangfusheng thought that if "she" was his hallucination, then she should act according to his wishes.
Liu Jiangfusheng's fever-addled mind suddenly conceived a desire to "turn the tables."
She had betrayed him...
She had always betrayed him...
He was her pitiable, discarded, commoner husband, and Tan Ya... The thought of that person made his head buzz. That person was naturally the shameless third party who stole his wife.
"I'm hot..."
He lay back on the stone platform, grabbing her hand and placing it on his burning face. Unlike the cold hardness of the stone surface, which could only soothe his skin externally, the coolness of her hand seemed to penetrate his flesh, reaching the hottest core of his body, rescuing him from his restless, parched thirst.
"You're overdoing it."
Why endure so much and burn his mind to a pulp when the "antidote" was right beside him?
He seemed not to hear what she was saying, completely immersed in his own "illusion."
His tear-filled eyes looked up at her, murmuring, "Your body is so cold."
He reached out and unbuttoned his own clothes. Gu Junshi thought he was trying to cool himself down, but then he reached to pull at hers...
"I've been poisoned."
"You're poisoned too."
She inexplicably repeated with amusement, "I'm poisoned?"
"Yes." He pulled her down to lie with him, his jade-like hand gently caressing her. "We have to embrace each other to cure it."
Gu Junshi: "..."
She understood.
Zi Ying was poisoned by a Yin toxin, leaving her body ice-cold, while he was poisoned by a Yang toxin, making his body scorching hot.
He had touched her earlier and found her cool, so his logic led him to believe she was also poisoned.
However, the one who was truly poisoned and had cried out begging him to detoxify together was now lying quietly outside.
She told him, "I'm not poisoned."
"You feel so cold... you must be." His long, flushed eyes were streaked with bloodshot veins, staring at her like a trapped beast. In the deepest shadows, a fierce, consuming madness flickered.
But his expression was so tender and innocent, his lips slightly pursed, a bright joy illuminating them. He pecked her lips discontentedly, speaking possessively, "Good girl, don't argue."
Gu Junshi froze.
The tone sounded familiar...
He was mimicking Gu Junshi's usual way of coaxing people.
She felt a hint of helplessness.
"...But you don't have to take off your clothes."
"We have to take them off to detoxify properly."
"..." Gu Junshi, who had originally only intended to alleviate his heat toxicity with the Yin cold of her Netherworld form.
So, what kind of understanding of "detoxification" had he twisted it into?
What happened next confirmed to Gu Junshi that she had indeed taken on the role of the female supporting character in a cheesy midnight romance scene.
—
After an unknown amount of time, Liu Jiangfusheng woke from his slumber. His first action was to look beside him, but no one was there.
His clothes were neatly put on, and there were no marks on his body.
Nothing at all.
So... was everything that had happened before merely his hallucination?
"Immortal Sword!"
He shouted uncontrollably.
The Immortal Sword outside the door transformed into a beam of light and arrived in the inner room. It saw only its master, Fusheng, alone, and no urgent situation had occurred.
However, where was the master's wife?
"Master Fusheng, you called me?" the Immortal Sword asked in its childish voice.
"After I was poisoned, were you guarding outside the whole time?"
"Yes."
His deep, dark eyes stared at it intently, filled with a profound depth: "Did no one enter?"
The Immortal Sword instinctively wanted to answer yes, but then it remembered the agreement it had made with the master's wife...
The master's poison seemed to have been cured.
And the master's wife had asked it not to tell the master that she had come, and it had agreed.
"No, no one."
Only a ghost had come.
So, it wasn't lying to the master, right?
The Immortal Sword reassured itself with a touch of unease.
"Then how... was my poison cured?"
Liu Jiangfusheng felt a flicker of impatience. He knew it was impossible, yet he still seemed to be grasping for straws, desperately seeking evidence to prove that her visit to him was not a pathetic hallucination born of self-gratification.
The Immortal Sword didn't know how to answer this. Fortunately, at this moment, Zi Ying was loudly banging on the stone door from outside: "Senior Brother, Senior Brother, are you alright?"
Liu Jiangfusheng frowned and got up. He opened the stone door and, upon seeing the unharmed Zi Ying, his expression became somewhat pale and dazed.
Zi Ying saw that Liu Jiangfusheng was also fine. Her apricot-like eyes flickered slightly, and then she said, "Senior Brother, the poison we contracted doesn't seem to be life-threatening. It dissipates on its own after a period of time."
Liu Jiangfusheng's gaze fell upon the quiet air, gradually burying the suffocating sense of loss and emptiness that had just filled his heart.
So, "she" was truly just his hallucination.