HPLFK 03

Chapter – 03

Oh No, Your Wife Is Looking for a Way to Break the Gu 

A sound came from outside the door. A-Shang had barely lifted her head when the door was pushed open from the outside.

Two maidservants in sect servant attire saw that she was indeed here and muttered under their breath, “She’s actually sleeping in this place…”

A-Shang watched them walk in. One of them carried a tray with a small black porcelain bottle on it.

“Miss A-Shang, we have been sent by Azure Jade True Person to deliver your medicine,” the maidservant said. After speaking, she glanced around the somewhat rundown hut and covered her mouth and nose with a faintly disdainful gesture.

A-Shang looked at the black porcelain bottle on the tray and knew what it contained—contraceptive pills.

In her previous life, every month after she helped Xie Hengyu suppress his love gu, these contraceptive pills would arrive on time.

Although she had become Xie Hengyu’s wife, she was not entitled to bear his child.

“Thank you.” A-Shang knew that these two maidservants held no fondness for her, but she thanked them anyway. Then, in front of them, she swallowed the contraceptive pill.

Only after they confirmed she had swallowed it did they turn and leave.

“Hey, did you see the marks on her neck? So shameless—using all those fox-like seductive tricks to entice Young Master Xie.”

“Exactly. She wouldn’t stay in the Jade Extreme Hall—she had to come to this filthy place. She’s definitely trying to play the pitiful card. But what use is her scheming and playing pitiful? Young Master Xie loves Miss Shen. If she hadn’t planted that love gu on him, Young Master Xie would never have touched her!”

The two maidservants had not walked far, and their voices carried clearly into A-Shang’s ears.

The fox clan’s love gu was a mark that fox demons placed specifically on the one they loved. Once planted, it could never be undone. A fox could only mark one person in their lifetime.

—

*Using love as the gu, with the full moon as the limit; feeding on love, sharing life and death.*

That was why Xie Hengyu had no choice but to marry her. That night, she had unintentionally planted the love gu on him. The gu acted up once every month, and to suppress it, the two parties had to cultivate together and merge their essences and blood.

Alternatively, the one afflicted could drink the blood of the one who planted the gu—but its suppressive effect was far weaker than cultivation together.

However, the fox clan’s love gu was not entirely irreversible. In her previous life, Xie Hengyu had found a way and personally removed the gu she had placed on him.

That was why, when she died under the lightning punishment, Xie Hengyu had lived on.

A-Shang reached up and touched her neck, covering the faint, intimate red marks there. The fox clan’s love gu had originally been created to ensure loyalty between partners—but now, to her, it had become nothing but a shackle.

She had to find a way to break the gu and dissolve her bond with Xie Hengyu.

—

“Why is she here?”

“How dare she even show her face here?”

Early the next morning, A-Shang arrived at the practice grounds of the sect’s Sword Learning Hall. The moment she appeared, the disciples present began whispering among themselves.

By now, the entire sect knew how she had drugged their pure and untouchable Senior Brother Xie, and how he had been forced to marry her.

Hearing the crowd’s criticism of her, A-Shang’s face remained expressionless. She had heard words far more vicious than these thousands of times in her previous life—she was long used to it.

In her past life, no matter how she defended herself, no one believed her. The rumors缠绕在她身上 grew larger and larger, piling up day after day until she could barely breathe.

She had fallen into a spiral of inferiority and timidity, living less and less like herself.

But in this life, she would not be like she was before. They could open their mouths as wide as they liked and spew their venom at her—she would not listen to a single word, nor would she care.

A-Shang walked past the crowd to the weapon rack and picked up a wooden sword. Following the sword manual she remembered from memory, she casually practiced a few forms. But halfway through, she suddenly stopped. Habit was truly a terrifying thing.

She had originally been a blade cultivator. But because Xie Hengyu was a sword cultivator, she had replaced her blade with a sword.

Blade cultivation differed greatly from sword cultivation. Sword cultivation emphasized flexibility, forms, and technique, while blade cultivation focused more on raw power and overbearing might.

Though only one character separated them, the difference was vast. That was why, in her previous life, A-Shang had never been particularly skilled with a sword.

Just as she was about to set the sword down, she suddenly felt something hurtling toward her from behind at great speed. Her body reacted almost instinctively, dodging to the side. She glanced at the stone that had rolled to the ground, then turned around to see a young girl in a goose-yellow ruqun striding toward her with an aggressive air.

“So you’re the half-demon A-Shang who drugged Yanzhi-gege? I was just wondering where to find you, and here you are, showing up on your own today.” The girl crossed her arms, her posture as arrogant as a proud peacock, her eyes brimming with contempt for A-Shang. “You. Fight me.”

A-Shang glanced at the girl. She recognized her—Yun Luoyi, daughter of the Qingyun Sect’s sect leader. She was also Shen Yueqing’s closest friend.

In her previous life, because she had “stolen” her best friend’s man, Yun Luoyi had made things difficult for her more than once.

A-Shang did not want to get tangled up with her. She put the wooden sword back on the rack and turned to leave.

Yun Luoyi was enraged to see this half-demon ignoring her. The next moment, her life-bound sword, Tianyun, was pressed directly against A-Shang’s throat. If A-Shang took even one more step forward, the blade would slash her neck.

The disciples watching gasped in shock.

Yun Luoyi: “Missy here wants to spar with you. Are you deaf?”

Yun Luoyi was determined to teach this man-stealing vixen a lesson today. Before A-Shang could even answer, she had already charged at her with Tianyun.

Her sword intent was just like her—fierce and aggressive.

The watching disciples observed the duel. Though it was called a spar, Yun Luoyi was already at the mid-Foundation Establishment stage and possessed her own life-bound sword. A-Shang, on the other hand, had been in the sect for less than half a year and did not even have a life-bound sword. She was clearly no match for Yun Luoyi.

Before long, A-Shang’s arm was slashed open by Tianyun’s sword aura, leaving several ghastly bloody wounds. Blood dripped onto the ground, a startling sight.

“Heh, a half-demon is a half-demon—something too low-class to ever amount to anything.” Yun Luoyi grew bolder seeing her injured, and her sword strikes became even more vicious.

“If you ask me, your Immortal Sect shouldn’t even accept lowly half-demons as disciples. So what if they have half human blood? A beast is a beast. A mere half-demon aspiring to cultivate the Dao—utterly laughable!”

Every harsh, cutting word from Yun Luoyi struck A-Shang’s ears. Though the disciples present did not like A-Shang, even they felt Yun Luoyi’s words were too harsh.

A few of the female disciples who had come with Yun Luoyi saw the bloody wounds slashed across A-Shang’s body by the sword aura and felt Yun Luoyi had gone too far. They tried to intervene: “Luoyi, she’s already injured.”

This was the Immortal Sect’s territory. Though they knew Yun Luoyi was venting for Miss Shen’s sake, injuring someone this badly on another sect’s grounds—if the sect leader found out, there would surely be consequences.