"That's right." Huang Que nodded weakly. "But because the Nine Prefectures sealed off the news in time, they didn't initially know that thing was on Qingxiao, much less where Senior Brother Qingxiao had last disappeared."
"They picked up the trail because you were searching for Corpse Soul Incense?"
Xu Taiping ventured.
Huang Que nodded with a bitter smile.
"Time was running short, so I failed to conceal my identity properly. That Demoness saw through me after I obtained the Corpse Soul Incense. You saw everything that happened afterward."
He spoke with some shame.
"Cough, cough, cough!"
Just then, Huang Que began coughing violently again, vomiting mouthful after mouthful of blood.
"Eldest Brother Huang Que, do you have other injuries?"
As Xu Taiping used his Danxia True Qi to stabilize Huang Que's Qi and Blood, he questioned him with some puzzlement.
"He's been poisoned, with an extremely insidious strain of Gu Poisons at that."
Before Huang Que could answer, Fairy Lingyue's voice rang out in Xu Taiping's mind.
"When that Demoness captured me, she planted Merfolk Gu in my body. Once the Gu Poisons take effect, fish scales grow all over the body, itching unbearably. But whenever you pull one out, another grows in its place. In the end, the afflicted person dies amid that unbearable itching and the agony of their flesh being torn apart."
Huang Que extended his hand toward Xu Taiping with a bitter smile.
Sure enough, patches of inconspicuous fish scales had grown on his arm.
"Is there a cure?"
Xu Taiping's heart tightened.
He was asking both Huang Que and Fairy Lingyue.
Huang Que and Fairy Lingyue gave him the same answer in unison:
"No."
But Fairy Lingyue immediately added:
"However, if the person who planted the Gu is killed, the Gu Poisons will no longer