Liu Xiange

Three days later, Fang Huai exchanged his full Sha Qi bottles for contribution points and bought some Antidote Pills, finally clearing most of the spider venom from his body.

Over the next few days, whenever Fang Huai entered Miasma Valley to gather Sha, he kept a constant watch for any Pei Family disciples following him.

But instead of Pei Family disciples, he noticed two unfamiliar women and one man always trailing behind him.

These few seemed to have figured out that Fang Huai had a method for locating Sha Sources, and they stayed not far behind him, collecting the residual Sha Qi after he had taken his share.

Though somewhat annoying, they only picked at his leftovers and kept a respectful distance, so Fang Huai let them be.

Three days later, as he was about to return to Servant Valley with a full bottle of Sha, the three called out to him.

"Stop right there!"

Fang Huai pulled out the Stone Blade from his chest, adopting a defensive stance, and halted them.

"Senior brother, no need to be tense." One of the women spoke up. "I am Liu Xiange, and beside me are Zhang Zhu and Shen Yuan. The three of us have been in the Corpse Sha Sect for over a month now."

The woman's voice was clear and crisp, her figure delicate, her face pretty. A carved stone hairpin adorned her bun, and her brows and eyes carried a lively spirit.

In comparison, the man and woman behind her looked utterly ordinary.

"State your business or get out of my way."

After the Jin Xiaoxiao incident, Fang Huai was extremely wary of beautiful women in the demon sect and had no desire to deal with them.

Liu Xiange blinked her eyes and spoke: "Senior brother, your complexion is dark and gloomy, with a knot in your chest. It seems you still have lingering poison afflicting you."

[Liu Xiange] [Mortal] [Poison Resistance (Gray)][Gu Poison Body (Black)] [Poison Resistance: Anti-toxin] [Gu Poison Body: Innate affinity for Gu poisons]

"Speak!" Fang Huai grew interested; this woman seemed to have some skill.

Liu Xiange's head gently swayed, and a Red-Headed Centipede about a foot long emerged from her hair bun, crawling along her skin into her clothes. Soon, it poked its head out from her sleeve, curiously looking at Fang Huai.

[Blood Gu Centipede] [Gu Insect] [Docile (Gray)][Immune to a Hundred Poisons (Red)] [Docile: Only docile toward its master] [Immune to a Hundred Poisons: Can withstand a hundred types of poison, but perhaps not the hundred and first]

"Its name is Little Red. It's good at detoxifying and can remove the lingering poison from senior brother's body."

Without waiting for his consent, she grabbed his hand and brought it to the centipede.

The centipede raised its fangs high and bit down.

Fang Huai was startled and tried to pull his hand back, but Liu Xiange held his wrist: "It's fine, it's very gentle. It won't hurt you."

As the centipede sucked, Fang Huai felt his body indeed lighten, and he relaxed.

But as he stared at the centipede, he felt a strange, inexplicable hunger.

Half an hour later, the centipede let go and crawled back into Liu Xiange's sleeve.

"See? I didn't lie to you!" She squinted her eyes and said playfully.

"I haven't earned this favor. What do you want from me?"

Having received their kindness for nothing, Fang Huai couldn't bring himself to chase them away.

"It's embarrassing to say. Though we've been in the sect for a while, we know nothing about finding Sha Sources."

After Liu Xiange spoke, Zhang Zhu continued:

"Last month, we barely scraped together five bottles of Sha. After turning in the task, we didn't even have enough contribution points to buy Miasma-Clearing Pills.

If not for Junior Sister Liu's Little Red driving away the miasma poison, the three of us would have already died here."

Shen Yuan's eyes reddened as she heard Zhang Zhu say this: "We thought we could achieve something here, but before we could even cultivate immortality, we're about to die.

Following senior brother these past few days, we realized you are a master who knows where the Sha Qi is thickest. So we shamelessly came to ask if you'd team up with us to gather Sha."

So they had come to seek Fang Huai's patronage.

Gathering Sha alone wasted a lot of resources, and after the Black Death Spider incident, Fang Huai also wanted someone to watch the Pei Family for him.

These three had detoxification skills, and keeping them around would be useful, but he couldn't let them freeload.

"I can team up with you, but I have a few conditions."

"No problem!" The three answered in unison without a second thought.

"Don't agree so fast. These conditions require you to swear by your Dao Heart that you will fulfill them.

First, no matter how much Sha you gather each month, each of you must give me one bottle of Sha Qi."

"This..."

Zhang Zhu wanted to say something, but Liu Xiange stopped him, signaling Fang Huai to continue.

"Second, the four of us must take me as the leader and follow my commands. If I encounter danger, you must not abandon me."

As Fang Huai spoke, he observed the expressions of the three. If they showed no hesitation at all, they were surely planning to deceive him.

In that case, he would simply turn and leave.

Seeing their hesitant looks, he instead believed they were sincere in cooperating and continued:

"Third, you must not tell anyone else our mutual secrets, nor reveal our whereabouts. As for other matters, I'll add them when I think of them later."

Fang Huai finished speaking and didn't rush them to agree, just quietly watching them.

When no one spoke, he turned and said, "It's getting dark. Since you all have no sincerity for cooperation, let's part ways here."

"Senior Brother, I agree!"

Before he had taken a few steps, Liu Xiange called out to him: "I swear by my Dao heart—unless Senior Brother betrays the three of us, we will surely follow by your side."

With Liu Xiange taking the lead, Zhang Zhu and Shen Yuan also agreed in turn.

"Tomorrow at the Chen hour, wait for me at the entrance."

After parting with Liu Xiange and the others, Fang Huai hurried back to Servant Valley, gathering some wild vegetables and millet along the way for his evening meal.

For some unknown reason, he inexplicably picked a few poisonous herbs.

In the pot, the mixture of wild vegetables and millet simmered, giving off a crisp, refreshing aroma. On any normal day, it would have stirred his appetite greatly.

But today, Fang Huai had no appetite at all.

"Strange. Normally I could eat an entire ox, so why does this pot of food make me feel sick just looking at it?"

His chest felt stifled and uncomfortable, as if countless ants were scratching at his heart. He grew irritable and restless, his gaze falling on the poisonous herbs by the stove.

He grabbed the herbs and tossed them into the pot, and the agitation in his heart seemed to ease slightly.

He ladled out a bowl of greenish, oily vegetable soup, his heart uneasy: "It's only mildly toxic, it should be fine, right?"

"They say poison fights poison. I just expelled the spider venom, and that Red-Headed Centipede bit me for a long time. Eating some poisonous herbs to counter the poison should be reasonable..."

He downed it in one gulp.

Delicious!

The prickling sensation in his chest also lessened considerably.

After sitting quietly for fifteen minutes and feeling no discomfort in his body, Fang Huai ladled out another bowl.

After finishing the entire pot of wild vegetable soup, Fang Huai's belly was round and taut. He suddenly thought of Pei Hu, who had died from overeating, and broke out in a cold sweat.

"I'm not getting addicted to poison, am I?"

Fang Huai paced back and forth: "Why does drinking poisonous soup make my body feel more comfortable instead?"

He couldn't figure it out, so he could only attribute it to the Body Forging Technique's merit, thinking that as long as that Red-Headed Centipede was there to draw out the poison, it should be fine.

But this Body Forging Technique hadn't progressed in a long time.

"Bang! Bang! Bang!"

Just as he was thinking, urgent knocking came from the door, accompanied by a woman's sobbing: "Senior Brother, open up, save me!"

Sigh.

What can I say, I'm too kind-hearted.

Fang Huai, supporting his bulging belly, shuffled to the door. The moment he opened it, a tearful woman fell into his arms.

"Thank you, Senior Brother, for saving me..."

[Body Forging Technique Initiation: 67/100]