"Zou... Elder Zou!?"

The voice was all too familiar.

Zou Feng slowly opened his eyes and, sure enough, saw who it was. The person who had arrived was none other than Zhi Shuang—the one he had taken to Hundred-legged Ridge to hide when the Celestial Essence Sword Sect attacked Biyou Palace, and who had vanished without a trace afterward.

The moment she saw Zou Feng, tears streamed down Zhi Shuang’s face.

"Thank goodness, Elder Zou... You’re alright... This is wonderful..."

She was crying tears of joy, but then she seemed to remember something, and her expression changed drastically. "Elder Zou, you have to run! Take your family in Qingchuan City and escape! They... they’re almost here..."

Zou Feng frowned. "Don’t panic. Calm down and tell me what’s going on."

Zhi Shuang staggered a few steps forward, her tears still flowing uncontrollably. To have rushed here to warn Zou Feng, she had clearly pushed herself to her limit, and she was in a terrible state.

"It’s... it’s the Palace Master... She actually wants to..."

Zhi Shuang continued to move forward as she spoke.

Unexpectedly, when she was still five paces away from Zou Feng, an invisible barrier of Gang Qi blocked her path.

"Elder Zou?" Zhi Shuang was clearly confused.

"Keep talking!" Zou Feng’s voice betrayed no emotion.

Though baffled, Zhi Shuang wiped away her tears, steadied her ragged breathing, and said with an air of resolve, "It’s the Palace Master!"

"She learned long ago from the White Palace Master that you, Elder Zou, are a rare prodigy capable of withstanding the Poison of the Five Gu Kings."

"And the Palace Master has been searching for such prodigies to use as cultivation cauldrons."

"The White Palace Master is actually one of her cultivation cauldrons..."

Hearing this, Zou Feng mulled it over for a moment. "Then why did the Palace Master summon me to the Five Poison Hall only to let me leave so easily?"

Zhi Shuang shook her head vigorously. "With the Five Poison Heart Devouring Curse on you, the Palace Master naturally isn’t worried about you escaping, Elder Zou."

"To make you the most suitable cultivation cauldron, she has already sent her subordinates to Qingchuan City to capture Sister Yun..."

Zou Feng immediately cut her off. "Wait. What does making me a cultivation cauldron have to do with Sister Yun?"

"To... plant the Emotion Transfer Gu in you!"

"This Gu will grow inside Sister Yun. Once it matures, the Palace Master will use a Secret Skill to transfer it to herself."

"Then, you’ll also be affected by the Gu, and all your affection for Sister Yun will be transferred to the Palace Master. You’ll willingly become her cultivation cauldron," Zhi Shuang said quickly.

’The Emotion Transfer Gu... it’s that powerful?!’

"Elder Zou, quick! Go get Sister Yun and escape together! Otherwise, it’ll be too late..." Zhi Shuang urged.

However, Zou Feng didn’t immediately become desperate to rush back to Qingchuan City because of her words.

He stared at Zhi Shuang for a while before standing up. "Shuang’Er, I can see that you are truly loyal and devoted to me!"

Hearing this, Zhi Shuang suddenly felt that all her efforts had been worthwhile.

She choked back a sob. "Elder Zou... can you... take me with you? I ask for nothing more, I only want to be your maid for all of eternity."

At this, Zou Feng let out a long sigh. "If you hadn’t poisoned me with the Silk Binding Love Gu, I might have actually believed you!"

Zhi Shuang froze, looking as if she had no idea what Zou Feng was talking about. "The Silk... Silk Binding Love Gu?!"

She immediately shook her head. "Elder Zou, why are you suddenly bringing this up?"

"Besides, you leave the Silk Cave every ten days. How could you have been afflicted by the Silk Binding Love Gu?"

Zou Feng waved his hand impatiently. "Alright, stop acting! Ugh, no, that’s not right. I can’t say you’re acting. This affection of yours is as real as it gets."

"It’s just a shame I can’t bear this affection that will end with me being ’eaten’ by you!"

At this point, Zou Feng glanced around and said, "Where’s Yin Suhong? Tell her to come out!"

"CLAP, CLAP, CLAP..."

The sound of applause echoed as a seductive woman suddenly appeared on a treetop.

It was none other than the Valley Master of the Valley of Ten Thousand Snakes, Yin Suhong.

"Impressive. You even managed to discover this?"

"But don’t you think it’s a little too late?"

As Yin Suhong spoke, a red, poisonous smoke rapidly billowed out, surrounding Zou Feng.

From within the toxic smoke came the continuous sound of reptiles slithering across the ground.

It was as if hundreds of giant snakes of exaggerated size had suddenly appeared all around.

Meanwhile, Zhi Shuang, her face pale, took a few steps back. But her gaze, filled with misery, remained fixed on Zou Feng. "Elder Zou... I... I didn’t want to do this, but I really do like you..."

"But I know you would never give me a second glance, no matter what. So my only choice was to find a way... to eat you!"

"Once I’ve eaten you, I can be with you forever!"

As she spoke these last words, Zhi Shuang’s expression twisted into something frighteningly crazed.

Zou Feng didn’t question her further, because he already knew that Zhi Shuang’s love for him was, in fact, real.

It was just that, like some female spiders that devour the male after mating, it was a love he could not afford to accept.

Ever since joining Biyou Palace and seeing Yin Suhong’s name appear on the List of Gods, Zou Feng had been constantly on guard against the Valley Master of the Valley of Ten Thousand Snakes.

But Yin Suhong had never made a move, which had left him rather perplexed.

He never imagined that Yin Suhong had been plotting in the shadows all along.

Zhi Shuang’s deception began to show when she went to Qingchuan City to ask him to return and check on Teng County, who had been entranced by the Poisonous King Spider.

When Zhi Shuang had suddenly arrived at the martial arts hall, Zou Feng felt something was off. It seemed as though some kind of extremely subtle Exotic Poison had appeared in the vicinity.

His senses for various Exotic Poisons had almost never been wrong.

That was why, after following Zhi Shuang out of the martial arts hall, he had immediately made an excuse about having unfinished business and returned to check on Tian Yun and Bian Yixia.

The result was just as he had suspected: both women had been poisoned.

Furthermore, the poison was extremely difficult to detect; at the very least, neither Tian Yun nor Bian Yixia had realized they’d been poisoned.

Zhi Shuang certainly wasn’t capable of using such a sophisticated poison. The one who gave it to her could only have been a True Qi Realm master of Poison Skills.

Additionally, on the way back to see Teng County, he had run into several Gang Qi Realm Martial Artists who had teamed up to ambush him, coveting the reward for the Demon Slaying Order.

To have grasped his movements so accurately and set up an ambush on the road back to Biyou Palace—naturally, Zhi Shuang was the prime suspect.

However, before this, Zhi Shuang’s name had not appeared on the List of Gods.

After all, her strength was too low, and she was genuinely full of affection for him. According to the List of Gods’ rather inflexible mechanics, she belonged to the category of people incapable of posing a threat to him.

But just after leaving Cloud Mist Mountain, he had checked the List of Gods again, and Zhi Shuang’s name had appeared.

This meant the series of schemes had finally reached their climax. Of course, Zhi Shuang alone couldn’t pose any threat to him.

But if she came with Yin Suhong—who was already a major figure on the list—and then fully triggered the Silk Entanglement Gu Poison, that would naturally become a genuine threat...

"So what if you know, Zou Feng? Do you really think you were afflicted with just an ordinary Silk Binding Love Gu?" Yin Suhong said, looking as if she had him completely in her grasp.

This was still within Zou Feng’s expectations. Yin Suhong had always treated him as a Third Grade opponent, so of course she wouldn’t use a common Silk Entanglement Gu Poison against him.

Yin Suhong laughed loudly. "You feel fine right now not because you’ve neutralized the poison, but because... I haven’t made my move yet!"

Before her voice had even faded, Yin Suhong made a gesture with both hands, as if casting a spell.

Zou Feng, however, couldn’t be bothered with her for the moment. With a flick of his hand, he sent a palm strike flying through the air toward Zhi Shuang.

Zhi Shuang was only in the Inner Qi Realm; this palm strike was more than enough to take ten of her lives. But since she was colluding with Yin Suhong, how could she not have made preparations?

The next moment, a Magical Artifact on Zhi Shuang’s body automatically activated, and a shield of True Qi swiftly enveloped her.

Zhi Shuang also took the opportunity to retreat continuously, quickly backing into the area shrouded by the red, poisonous smoke.

Once the Silk Binding Love Gu in Zou Feng fully activated, he would immediately develop an uncontrollable love for Zhi Shuang.

The kind of love that would make him unable to pull himself away, even if he knew perfectly well that Zhi Shuang wanted to harm him.

This was Yin Suhong’s plan. As his personal maid in the Silk Cave, Zhi Shuang was with Zou Feng almost every day, poisoning him little by little.

The Silk Entanglement Gu Poison, improved by Yin Suhong, couldn’t even be called a poison at first because the dosage was too small.

Only after it had accumulated to a certain level in Zou Feng’s body would it slowly begin to take effect, until the situation was beyond remedy.