The morning wind slipped in through the window crack, lifting one corner of the notice on the table. I sat in the Medicine Hut with a porcelain cup in hand, half an inch of spiritual elixir still left at the bottom. Afu brought a fresh portion every day, saying it was supplied exclusively by the City Lord's Manor for low-level cultivators to replenish their qi. I had always accepted it without refusal.
I raised the cup to my lips. Just as they were about to touch the liquid, the door was violently shoved open.
Hongxiu rushed in, her face pale. She slapped the cup from my hand, and the liquid spilled across the floor with a faint hiss, sending up a wisp of black smoke.
"You can't drink that," she said. Her voice was steady, but her fingers trembled.
I said nothing and looked down at the remaining liquid on the floor. The smoke rose halfway into the air, suddenly twisting into the outline of an insect. It struggled like some living thing for a few moments before being swept up by a crimson-gold flame and burned to ash.
Flames still danced in Hongxiu's palm. She stared at the pile of ash, her brows drawn tight.
"God-Corroding Gu Saliva," she said softly. "Mixed into the spiritual elixir, colorless and odorless, with only a trace of death qi left behind. Ordinary people will sleep unconscious for three days after drinking it. If a cultivator tries to force out the poison through cultivation, their meridians will be corroded until cracks open."
Supporting myself against the table, I rose and coughed twice, as though the smoke had choked me. Pointing at the traces on the floor, I asked in a panicked tone, "How did you know? Who let you in?"
Instead of answering,