The Fox Immortal Who Made Loofah Soup - Chapter 8

We stormed straight into Miaojiang.

Poisonous vapor spread everywhere. A group of human poison vessels clustered around a cultivator like stars around the moon.

“So it’s you. My lost little poison vessel. I wondered why I could never find you. This fox’s reek has been covering your scent.”

He made a show of holding his nose.

“What a disgusting smell of merit.”

Yungui stood full of righteousness.

“That isn’t a reek. It’s merit my master earned through hard cultivation.”

“You murdered A-Tao and so many innocent people. You deserve ten thousand deaths—Master?!”

Before they could finish talking, I charged in with my sword raised and sent the poison cultivator’s head flying with a single stroke.

What was all that flapping of little mouths? In storybooks, the people who talked too much died first!

The head stopped eerily in midair.

Its mouth opened and closed, producing an inhuman voice.

“Oh my, how frightening. To think a weapon like that exists.”

“You’ve prepared very thoroughly. Unfortunately, you can’t touch me.”

“Poison vessels, bite them to death!”

As if receiving an order, the mindless poison vessels hurled themselves at us.

An enormous blaze of golden light erupted from me. The poison vanished at once.

The head dropped to the ground and glared venomously at me.

“Why do you want to kill me?”

Why?

“For all living beings!”

“All living beings, my ass! Heaven and earth destroy those who don’t look out for themselves. You hypocritical cultivators don’t understand the laws of the Heavenly Dao at all!”

The head suddenly shot toward me.

“All I want is to pursue the Great Dao. What’s wrong with that?”

I split the head in half with my sword.

“Beyond reasoning with.”

“Yungui, it’s over. We’re done. Let’s go home.”

I turned. My heart stopped.

A huge gu insect was crawling over Yungui’s face.

Yungui had already lost consciousness.

“Heh heh heh! You thought a poison vessel could escape my control?!”

“As long as my life-bound gu survives, every poison vessel in the world is an incarnation of me. I am invincible!”

“And A-Tao and Yungui are my two finest poison vessels. Through them, I can inherit not only their innate aptitude but their bloodline as spirits of myriad poisons!”

“Eternal life through the Heavenly Dao! Invincible beneath the heavens! Heh heh heh!”

I pointed at the gu insect, taking it to task.

“You mean that as long as your life-bound gu doesn’t die, you don’t die. Correct?”

“And this thing right here is your life-bound gu. Correct?”

“Putting it right out in the open like this… You’re not very bright, are you?”

I couldn’t make out its expression, but I had the feeling the gu insect’s face had darkened.

“Give up. That sword of yours can’t cleave my life-bound gu’s thick shell.”

I coughed twice.

“I wasn’t planning to cut it.”

“I just wanted to remind you of something.”

“Always check that what you’re putting in your mouth is clean.”

Yungui, who should have been completely unconscious, suddenly seized the gu insect.

It was horrified. Then it saw Yungui give it a chilling smile.

“You’re not getting away.”

The poisonous vapor disguising Yungui’s skin dispersed,

revealing a body filled with merit and medicinal power.

The gu insect recoiled in horror. “What is this?! You righteous sects practice human medicine-making too?!”

Something about that phrase, “human medicine,” grated on me. It felt wrong.

Yungui held the gu insect and bit it. “I won’t let you plague this world again!”

The insect fought desperately to get away!

“Help! Help!”

I blocked its escape with the sword of merit, making it easier for Yungui to keep hold of it.

“Stop struggling. An evil cultivator like you, planning to take the whole world down with you! You deserve to die!”

At those words, the gu insect struggled even harder.

“I’m not trying to take the world down with me! I only raised a few poison vessels! You’ve got the wrong person! You’ve got the wrong person!”

“Still making excuses! Yungui, bite it to death!”

Yungui bit down hard. His medicinal power gradually permeated the entire gu insect. It slowly stiffened, until nothing but resentment remained on its face.

“This was what I was supposed to do.”

The instant the gu insect died, the poisonous vapor dispersed, revealing the forest as it had originally been.

A peach blossom drifted on the wind and touched Yungui, only to dissolve swiftly away.

Yungui froze and murmured,

“A-Tao.”