At that very moment, her hand resting on her waist brushed against the soft Qiankun bag.
In a flash, a wild idea she once had suddenly crossed her mind.
She held her breath, silently and rapidly reciting the incantation in her heart, her fingertips quietly pressing against the opening of the bag.
As the incantation ended, her body moved.
Her entire being seemed to be pulled by an invisible force, suddenly sucked into the Qiankun bag.
Almost simultaneously, Unale tore away the concealing dead branches and fallen leaves, and carelessly kicked the loose soil a couple of times.
Empty.
He frowned, then turned and shouted, "Let's go! Which direction?!"
In his blind spot, under a tattered leaf, a dark brown Qiankun bag lay quietly.
At the opening of the bag, the usual pale golden glimmer was gone; in its place, a dark red, blood-like gloomy light was flowing silently.
Chai Xiaomi floated in a chaotic void, a mass of red light before her eyes so piercing that she could hardly keep them open.
She instinctively raised a hand to shield her eyes, and through her fingers, she vaguely saw a crimson bead hovering faintly before her.
"Finally..."
The bead suddenly let out a long sigh, its voice sounding as though it had been suppressed for far too long, carrying a trembling sense of hunger and thirst.
The voice was androgynous, as if blending both male and female tones, echoing faintly in the void:
"Finally, a chance to get out... It's been so, so long since I last ate. I'm starving to death..."
"Little girl, do you still recognize me?"
The tone sounded inexplicably familiar.
Immediately after, several twisted, meandering vines slowly crept out from the red bead, carrying a foul stench of decay as they spread toward her.
Memories flooded back like a tide, and Chai Xiaomi exclaimed in shock, "Y-you're the Plantain Demon!?"
Could someone please explain how this thing was hiding inside the Qiankun bag?
"Hahahahaha, what a smart little girl. Look at this tender skin and soft flesh; how about I eat you first?" It laughed sinisterly, its vines constantly condensing and intertwining in mid-air, gradually outlining a human silhouette and wrapping the red bead at the position of its heart.
"A delicacy delivered right to my door, it suits me perfectly."
The human figure formed by the vines had no facial features, only creeping branches mimicking the shape of arms, slowly reaching out toward the young girl's cheek.
Right at the moment it was about to touch her skin, a pitch-black demonic aura suddenly darted out, pouncing straight at the vines!
The Plantain Demon was so frightened it shrank back.
The head formed by the vines turned slightly, as if an invisible gaze was locked onto the venomous scorpion tattoo on the back of Chai Xiaomi's hand.
This is—
"I see." It seemed to suddenly understand something, letting out a hoarse, low chuckle. "No wonder that young gentleman came to ask me earlier how to break a love gu."
Chai Xiaomi's heart tightened: "What do you mean?"
Looking at the little girl's innocent eyes, it was clear she still didn't know that the twin love gu had already been planted in her.
Who knew what that young gentleman was plotting.
Having been suffocated in this bag for too long, it was already feeling stifled, so it decided to patiently explain it to her:
"Little girl, that husband of yours has cultivated the twin love gu. This is the most malicious type of love gu, capable of making two completely unrelated people love each other madly. The gu master first plants the gu in one person, then lets that person's blood enter the mouth of another. From then on, the two will love each other to death, inseparable until their dying breath."
"An ordinary love gu can be broken by drinking the gu master's blood during intercourse, but this twin love gu—" It deliberately prolonged its tone, its vines trembling with delight. "Both of them are victims of the gu, so where would they get the gu master's blood to drink? It's completely unsolvable, hahahahahaha!"
Chai Xiaomi's pupils suddenly contracted, her gaze seeming to lose focus as it drifted aimlessly into the endless void.
In other words, Wu Li's approach to Song Yueyao all along had an ulterior motive.
From the very beginning, he had planned to plant this twin love gu in two people.
One of them was Song Yueyao.
Song Yueyao's heart belonged to Jiang Zhiyu, so it was absolutely impossible to plant the other half of the gu in him.
Then, who was the other person?
Who exactly did he want Song Yueyao to fall in love with? What on earth was his purpose?
So the reason for his descent into darkness was not because he loved the female lead but couldn't have her, turning love into hate.
But something else... a deeper, darker obsession.
—Revenge.
These two words pierced her mind like an ice pick.
While she was lost in thought, the human figure formed by the vines was slowly and methodically outlining the shape of a young girl. The vines wriggled and intertwined, gradually covered by a layer of supple human skin. In just a moment, a lifelike human skin had "grown" over the vines.
When Chai Xiaomi came back to her senses, she almost thought there was a full-length mirror in front of her.
The girl before her was charming and lively, with red lips and white teeth, and even the slightly damp curve of her hair tips was identical to hers.
She watched "herself" slowly curl her lips into a smile and speak faintly: "I'll borrow your skin for a while; I'm off to find some food. As for you, just stay here forever, hahahaha!"
Before the voice had even faded, the Plantain Demon waved its hand, and a transparent bubble instantly enveloped Chai Xiaomi within.
It then grabbed into the depths of the void and caught the red sandalwood brocade box, taking out the jade hair-pin. This was a great protective treasure, capable of hiding the demonic aura on its body.
Mimicking a human, it pinned the hair-pin diagonally into its hair bun, tilted its head, and gave a sweet smile to the trapped Chai Xiaomi inside the bubble: "Does it look good?"
Seeing that face, exactly the same as hers, making such a bizarre gesture, all the hairs on Chai Xiaomi's body stood on end.
She pounded vigorously against the wall of the bubble, her voice coming out muffled: "Look good my ass! Let me out of here right now! Or else I'll call my husband over to kill you!"
"I'm afraid you won't have the chance to summon him," the Plantain Demon chuckled softly, covering its lips, though its eyes were as cold as frost. "So what if the Qiankun bag is open? Trapped in my barrier, you will never, ever get out."
With that, its figure swayed, turning into a streak of red light that suddenly darted out of the open bag.
In the void, only the transparent bubble remained, floating faintly. Chai Xiaomi pounded vigorously inside, but not a single sound could escape.
An unprecedented chill rose from the bottom of her heart.
If it weren't for this barrier, she could have gone out through the open bag, but now, trapped in this bubble, no one would know she was here.
A few days... perhaps it wouldn't even take a few days, and she would die of hunger and thirst in this unknown, confined space.
Chai Xiaomi looked desperately toward the opening of the bag, where light was clearly shining through—so close, yet so far away.
Surrounded by boundless, chaotic darkness, a sense of powerlessness surged up like a tide, almost swallowing her whole.
She slowly slid down to sit, curling into a ball.
"Lili, where are you..."
The voice in her heart was so faint it trembled.
She slowly buried her face between her knees.
And right at the moment she lowered her head, the tiny bell on her ankle seemed to sense the voice in the young girl's heart, vibrating ever so lightly.
It was so subtle that it was almost imperceptible, yet like a pebble dropped into a pool of still water, it sent out invisible ripples.
