The Crimson Immortal Gu Poison
What?!
After understanding the red-robed cultivator's shout, Su Fuxi did indeed feel that something was wrong with her body.
The Crimson Immortal Gu? She had never heard of such a thing, but it wasn't hard to guess what the hell it was. Damn it, she thought. I absolutely can't fall into the red-robed cultivator's hands.
A chill rose from her spine, like ice and snow melting into spring water, and gradually flowed through her limbs, bones, and every meridian and channel. Then it abruptly changed, turning into a dense, spreading warmth.
Half a quarter of an hour later, it became a stream of heat like molten lava, surging toward her abdomen and condensing into a single point. She examined herself with her spiritual sense and found that all the meridians in her body had turned crimson, wreathed in pink light. The gu worm's core was in an awkward spot beneath her dantian.
A red thread then extended from the red, pearl-sized core, connecting to her heart meridian like another channel. She used a little spiritual power to tug at it, and a sudden pain stabbed through her heart. At the same time, the core gave off an even more intense agitation.
The sensation left her both tingling and in pain. Su Fuxi's mind reeled. What a vicious gu!
"Hahaha, you can't escape! Be good and do as you're told, and I'll give you a quick death."
"Don't imagine you can remove the gu yourself. Once it enters the body, it takes on its host's attribute. Right now, you're yin to the extreme. Only by joining yin and yang and using primal yang can you resolve it. Hahaha, it's a fine thing for dual cultivation-you couldn't buy it outside even if you wanted to..."
Su Fuxi turned a deaf ear. Sweat gradually beaded on her forehead, and she activated the jade talisman at her waist, fleeing even faster.
Her spiritual sense swept over the red-robed cultivator pursuing her relentlessly. Beneath his wrinkled face, there was a disgusting lump of flesh on his neck. Su Fuxi bit her lip and swore that one day she would find a way to kill him!
For now, all she could do was flee for her life.
The Crimson Immortal Gu truly was vicious to the extreme.
Su Fuxi refused to believe the poison was as extreme as the red-robed cultivator claimed. She simply hadn't found a way to deal with it yet. As time passed, her face flushed red and hot sweat drenched her entire body. Fortunately, aside from her physical discomfort, her mind was still clear. She cursed inwardly. It really is a vicious thing!
She was so fast that the red-robed cultivator nearly failed to keep up. Su Fuxi formed a seal with one hand and struck herself with an Ice Breath Art, feeling a little cooler.
But in less than half an hour, the Ice Breath Art's effect had faded!
She tried forming seals to place a restriction over the gu poison's core, but failed. It had lodged itself in her meridians and was connected to her heart meridian. Her abilities were limited, and she couldn't seal it at all.
Whew.
Su Fuxi drew a breath and gritted her teeth as she headed toward the place where she and Lin Sui had parted. She remembered a cold spring near that spot. As long as she reached it and used water escape to transform into qi and hide herself, she could shake off the red-robed cultivator and then slowly work out how to purge the poison.
The teleportation artifact could only move her thirty li at a time, making it of little use during the pursuit. The red-robed cultivator had been in the secret realm too long and had used up all the pills he had snatched. He had chased her for three days without catching her. In his fury, he swallowed spirit herbs raw to replenish his spiritual power.
Her face flushed, Su Fuxi glanced back, swallowed a spirit-replenishing pill, and sped up. She gradually widened the distance between them, leaving the red-robed cultivator over a hundred li behind.
From the look of it, this gu poison was probably just that sort of drug and didn't have any tracking ability. Otherwise, the red-robed cultivator wouldn't have been chasing her so frantically. He would have stopped to heal his hidden injuries and waited until she thought she was safe before suddenly appearing and capturing her.
She had to reach the cold spring before she ran out of spirit-replenishing pills. Otherwise, she wouldn't have enough spiritual power to suppress the gu poison in her body, and she would be finished!
In fact, the place where Su Fuxi had gathered spirit herbs lay between the ruins and the cold spring, and was closer to the spring, because she had spent more than half a month traveling to gather the herbs.
Su Fuxi frequently formed seals to gather icy breath and ease her condition. Another six days passed before she reached the cold spring, with the red-robed cultivator always within a hundred li behind her.
A streak of pink light cut across the sky, heading straight for a bare black mountain range that radiated cold. This stretch of the Black Rock Mountain Range extended for over a thousand li, like a black dragon vein lying across the green land around it.
Su Fuxi blinked her listless eyes. Their outer corners glistened with moisture and were faintly red.
The cold air filled her with renewed vigor. Her face was flushed, but she looked as though she had been pulled from the water. Icy breath had gathered all over her body and, given enough time, melted, leaving her hair and face streaked with water.
How unlucky! She had a pursuer behind her, and her body was giving off water. She had never been in such a sorry state.
Looking at the cold pool ahead, its surface smooth as a mirror in a deep valley filled with white mist, Su Fuxi plunged into it wrapped in her restriction banner.
The water gave a gurgle, and a faint ripple spread across its surface before it grew calm again.
The red-robed cultivator was still a hundred li away. His spiritual sense saw Su Fuxi rush into the mountain range, but suddenly, every trace of her aura vanished.
Su Fuxi kept sinking. Beneath the cold spring, everything was pitch-black. After she had descended eight hundred zhang, just as the pressure neared the limit her body could currently withstand, she actually discovered transparent ice!
She was overjoyed, but after lying on the ice for no more than the time it took an incense stick to burn, she could no longer bear the feeling of her body being frozen into an ice sculpture and her heart meridian seemingly freezing over. She continued floating upward to where the temperature was more suitable.
At a depth of roughly four hundred zhang, she floated in the cold water and formed seals, using the water-escape method of transforming into qi to conceal her aura and presence. Her whole being seemed to merge with the water of the natural world, and even the gu poison's core became sluggish and quiet.
"Damn it! She actually disappeared!" The red-robed cultivator had searched the entire Black Rock Mountain Range for eleven days. Now, as he sat in meditation to regulate his breathing, he couldn't help cursing aloud in frustration.
"That wretched woman was struck by the Crimson Immortal. She definitely won't live past a month. She actually dared to suppress it with cold, without knowing that the Crimson Immortal was already extremely yin in her body. When the time comes, without primal yang to nourish her, she'll drop dead on the spot!"
"I made that gu poison myself. How could I not know that someone might try to use cold to purge it? Hmph, go ahead and purge it. It'd serve her right if her whole body froze into rotten flesh!"
After regulating his breathing, the red-robed cultivator released his spiritual sense and searched the entire Black Rock area once more. He also probed the cold pool, but the excessive icy breath forced him to stop before he could reach any deeper. In the end, he left on his flying sword, unwilling to give up.
"Hmph, she can die for all I care. It's just a pity about all those powerful artifacts that bitch had!"
Su Fuxi sensed spiritual sense pass by her without discovering her, and couldn't help breathing a sigh of relief.
She waited another half day, and although she sensed the red-robed cultivator's aura disappear, Su Fuxi still didn't move. She endured the stinging pain and numbness of approaching frostbite. Her whole body seemed lifeless, already covered in icicles, frost coating her eyelashes.
"Hm? Still nothing. Looks like that little bitch really is dead... Or did she use a secret technique to leave...?"
The red-robed cultivator, who had abruptly appeared by the water's edge, muttered to himself. Only then did he withdraw his spiritual sense and leave again, still unwilling to give up. This time, he truly left the Black Rock Mountain Range directly, certain that Su Fuxi couldn't survive.
After all, it had been nearly a month. No cultivator could survive with the icy breath making the gu poison worse.
Pain.
Su Fuxi's heart was filled with bitterness. It hurt so much. Her body felt as though it had been corroded by the icy breath, cracking whenever she moved. She couldn't go on; she had reached her limit. Maintaining her qi-transformed state, she slowly floated upward.
Transforming into qi meant turning herself into an aura like that of water. Perhaps it was an effect inherent to the technique, but it kept her meridians from being completely ruined by the icy breath.
But she couldn't avoid the gu poison in her body being stimulated by the icy breath and giving off a chill utterly unlike the heat from before, leaving her afflicted with cold poison.
Wrapped in the restriction banner, Su Fuxi floated to the surface and slowly flew out. Her meridians revived, and her spiritual power circulated extremely gently, yet sharp pain still shot through her body. With a spurt, she spat out a mouthful of blood, which carried wisps of cold.
She collapsed on the bank. "Cough, cough, cough..."
It hurts! It hurts so much...
Stabbing pain filled her body. Her fingers instantly dug into the sand and soil, and she gripped so hard that her nails broke, drawing blood tainted with cold poison.
With that, Su Fuxi's attempt to purge the poison using icy breath had failed.