A-Ge was certainly not a term to be used lightly.
Chai Xiaomi remembered that in a Miao village, one could only call their lover A-Ge. It was a unique and exclusive title between lovers.
Translated into the Han Chinese language system, it was roughly equivalent to baby, darling, or hubby.
Chai Xiaomi stared at the tips of his ears, which were so red they looked like they might bleed, and two words popped into her mind: there is hope.
Who would have thought that this arrogant, lifelong villain hadn't even held a girl's hand before he died? He had been completely fixated on planting a love gu in the female lead. The closest he came to successfully casting it was ruined by a cannon-fodder female supporting character. No wonder he was so furious that he destroyed her completely, leaving no corpse behind.
"A-Ge, no matter what you say to me, it will never erase my love for you," Chai Xiaomi said earnestly, her eyes rippling with deep affection. "Ah, this damn love at first sight. There are millions of beautiful youths in the world, yet I only have eyes for you. It's truly strange."
"Shut up!" Wu Li interrupted her with a harsh tone.
He hastily rolled up the wide sleeve of his Miao attire, revealing a tattoo of the five venomous creatures encircling his forearm.
A snake, a scorpion, a centipede, a toad, and a gecko were intertwined and coiled together. They were so lifelike that it seemed as if they would materialize and crawl right out of his arm in the next second.
Among the five animals, only the scorpion tattoo had faded in color. It was no longer a rich black, but a faint gray.
Wu Li pressed his fingertip against the scorpion tattoo, lowered his eyes, and softly chanted an incantation.
The next second, Chai Xiaomi felt a sharp pain strike the back of her hand, just like when she had been bitten by the poisonous scorpion earlier.
"Ah!" She clutched the back of her hand, grimacing in pain.
Wu Li lightly lifted his eyes and looked at her pained expression.
He finally confirmed one thing.
The love gu he had cultivated for so long had somehow, inexplicably, been planted in the girl before him.
Even he himself didn't know when it happened.
So her falling in love with him at first sight wasn't strange at all.
This love gu had been raised on his own heart's blood. Ordinary love gu couldn't compare to it, and its power was naturally a hundred times stronger.
This was originally a gu he had meticulously prepared for the princess of Liangya Prefecture. Now, by some twist of fate, it had ended up in someone else. Fortunately, the scorpion's color hadn't completely faded, though its power was greatly reduced.
Chai Xiaomi rubbed the back of her hand, secretly observing the youth in front of her.
She saw him standing there with a dark expression, not saying a word. Murderous intent gathered in his eyes and then slowly dissipated.
To kill, or not to kill?
If he killed her, because the love gu was different from other gu arts, he, as the caster, would also suffer a certain degree of backlash.
More importantly, the faded power of the poisonous scorpion would also disappear with her death. Only by removing the gu could its power be restored to its original dark color.
Then he would keep her around for now. He needed to find a way to remove the gu as soon as possible.
This woman looked quite foolish, but her flesh was fair and tender. He would fatten her up a bit more. Once the gu was removed, it wouldn't be too late to throw her into the cave to feed his tomb bats.
At this moment, voices suddenly came from outside the cave entrance.
"Little bastard! The patriarch told you to bleed yourself to feed the gu insects. Why are you dawdling for so long and still not coming out!?"
"Today we still need to hunt a wild boar to send to Yuebai tomorrow. If you dare to slack off, we'll go back and tell the patriarch to skin you alive!"
"Have you eaten the heart of a bear and the gall of a leopard? Why aren't you answering! Did you hear us, you dog bastard!"
"..."
Youtiao simultaneously translated these Miao words in Chai Xiaomi's head.
The word she heard the most among them was bastard.
Were they talking about Wu Li?
The youth stood quietly, his eyelashes, as long and slender as raven feathers, casting faint shadows on his lower eyelids.
He seemed to turn a deaf ear to their words.
After a long while, he finally walked to her side, cast a sidelong glance at her, and gave an order: "Follow behind me. You are not allowed to speak from now on. Do whatever I tell you to do, understand?"
Unsurprisingly, the girl currently controlled by the love gu would obey his every word.
Chai Xiaomi nodded like pounding garlic. "A-Ge, if you tell me to stand, I will never sit. If you tell me to go east, I will never go west. You are my god!" As long as you don't kill me, anything is negotiable.
"If you dare to call me A-Ge one more time, I'll pull your tongue out."
Wu Li's face was as cold as frost, and his tone was eerie. He didn't sound like he was joking.
Chai Xiaomi obediently corrected herself: "Okay, little brother."
The youth didn't want to be called old, so she would call him something younger.
As soon as she finished speaking, Chai Xiaomi suddenly felt a tickle on her mouth, as if a small flying insect had crawled into it. She reached out to grab it.
In her haste, she suddenly realized she couldn't make a single sound. Her tongue swept around her mouth, but it was completely clean. Where was the insect?
She didn't know what method Wu Li had used, but she had become a mute just like that.
Standing at the cave entrance were four young men, also dressed in Miao attire. They craned their necks to look inside but didn't dare to enter the cave.
Seeing Wu Li leisurely walk out, they were about to hurl abuses when they suddenly caught sight of an outlander girl following behind him.
Wu Li was a head taller than the girl, so she had been completely obscured by his figure. They didn't notice her until they got closer.
This girl wore strange clothes, a Central Plains style they had never seen before.
One of them cried out in shock, "Where did this outlander woman come from? You bastard, you're doomed!"
"Quickly go back and tell the patriarch! He actually dared to bring an outlander into the gu cave without permission!"
The group cursed and swore, looking as if they had caught hold of Wu Li's weakness.
The expressions of disgust on their faces were completely undisguised.
Chai Xiaomi was a bit dazed.
In the book, Wu Li had shown extraordinary witchcraft abilities since childhood, and his bloodline was considered divine blood among the voodoo tribes. With such superior innate conditions, if he were placed in a sect, wouldn't he be the sect's prodigy most admired by the founding ancestor?
Why did these people look at him as if they were looking at the god of plague?
If they knew that the youth standing in front of them would become the youngest Gu King in the entire Miao Territory in the future, would they still be so oblivious to who was the real boss?
Chai Xiaomi secretly sighed with emotion. Fortunately, she had spoilers. As long as she worked hard to suck up to the villain, her fate wouldn't be too miserable.
Watching their retreating backs, Wu Li didn't say a word. As if he had long been used to it, he silently walked in the direction they had left.
Suddenly, he felt the corner of his clothes being gently tugged.
He turned his head and saw the girl earnestly gesturing something to him, her eyes sparkling. First, she raised her hand to touch her forehead, then tapped her chest a few times with her pinky finger, her lips moving along.
After watching for a while, he realized this was a very rhythmic movement, not random gesturing.
The youth's curiosity was inexplicably piqued.
He raised his fingertip and gave a gentle hook. An obedient little black insect crawled out of Chai Xiaomi's mouth and docilely darted into his sleeve.
Chai Xiaomi cried out in alarm. There was an insect hiding in her mouth and she hadn't even noticed!
"What do your movements mean?" Wu Li looked at her in confusion.
Was it a spell of the Central Plains people? He wanted to learn it.
Under the sunlight, his pair of heterochromatic eyes reflected a glass-like, watery luster, crystal clear.
He was incredibly beautiful, like a fairy stepping out of the jungle, arriving in the human world for the first time.
But when he showed a confused expression, it actually hid a bit of ignorant and innocent purity.
His bright black pupils held moisture, just like a little deer.
Chai Xiaomi was momentarily entranced.
Swallowing back her drool, she raised her hands to gesture again, explaining as she moved, "This is sign language. What I meant just now was, I am sorry."
"I am sorry?"
Wu Li froze for a second, then let out a disdainful scoff.
In his entire life, this was the first time anyone had ever said those three words to him.
It seemed the Love Gu really was a miraculous and useful thing.
The elders used to say it could bewitch a person's mind, making them unconditionally treat you as their most precious person.
He had just been pondering how to fatten her up to feed the tomb bats later, yet here she was, foolishly apologizing to him.
"Why are you apologizing to me?"
"Because my showing up seems to have caused trouble for you. Those people just now looked like they were going to snitch on you. Will you be punished?"
Chai Xiaomi asked uneasily. If the villain got implicated because of her, there was no telling if he would vent his anger on her.
"Oh, just for that."
Wu Li looked thoughtful. He slowly curled the corners of his lips into a completely harmless smile, yet the words that came out of his mouth were incredibly cruel. "Then are you willing to take the punishment in my place? It is only thirty lashes. At worst, your flesh will be torn open, but you won't die. I have herbs to stop the bleeding and prevent scarring that I can lend you."
Listen to that, is that something a human would say?
Chai Xiaomi felt a wave of chills. His tone made it sound like a grand favor he was bestowing upon her, whether it was the whip or the herbs.
Truly the thought process of a psychopath.
"Are you willing?" Wu Li looked down at her intently, his beautiful eyes brimming with dark gloom.
His gaze was like an ice pick, its cold gleam piercing straight through her heart.
Chai Xiaomi felt that if she dared to say no, there would be countless ways for her to die in the very next second.
"Of course I am! I would do anything for you. Whether it is climbing a mountain of swords or crossing a sea of fire, just say the word! I would even pluck the stars from the sky for you!"
"The heavens and earth can bear witness to my heart, and the sun and moon can illuminate my love for you!" Chai Xiaomi was completely out of ideas, so she just fed him classic sweet-talking scumbag lines.
Whatever. As long as she could stay alive, nothing else mattered.
Hearing her answer, Wu Li seemed exceedingly satisfied. The curve of his lips gradually deepened.
"Keep up."
Weaving through the dense, humid jungle, Wu Li was nothing like a tour guide; he wouldn't stop to wait for her after walking a distance.
He only cared about speed, regardless of whether she lived or died.
On the path earlier, there had been paved bluestone slabs to make walking easier for tourists.
But in this exact same place a thousand years in the past, the environment was completely primitive. The muddy dirt path was covered in thick layers of damp fallen leaves. It was uneven and pitted, threatening to swallow her foot with every step.
Chai Xiaomi swatted away the shrubbery on both sides as she walked.
Her sneakers were caked in mud, turning into two thick, heavy lumps. Every step was a struggle with the extra weight.
Chai Xiaomi pushed herself to the absolute limit just to keep up with Wu Li. By the time they reached the village, she could barely catch her breath. Her hair was completely soaked, plastered stickily to her face.
"Truly useless."
Chai Xiaomi's legs gave out and she collapsed to her knees. The young man's mocking voice drifted down from above.
"What did you grow up eating? Tofu? You are so soft and flimsy, looking like you are about to fall apart into mush after just a few steps. I suggest you brace yourself to survive those thirty lashes, because I certainly won't waste a Crimson Blood Silkworm to extend your life."
