Chapter 84: Gu Removed, Illusion Trance, the Ye Family Arrives:

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Ye Qingning followed the group toward the side hall, but in the end, only she and the Daoist Wuming entered. The others were stopped outside by him.

After all, they would be of no help even if they came in—just an eyesore, in Wuming’s opinion.

Ye Qingning waited quietly as Wuming took out a black wooden box from his sleeve. Inside the box were rows of silver needles that glinted with a cold light.

She recalled Wuming mentioning earlier that he would use “Thread-Cutting Needles” to sever the connection between the mother and child Gu insects. These silver needles were undoubtedly those very needles.

Then Wuming began preparing the special medicinal concoction required for dispelling the Gu.

The dark concoction wasn’t even brewed or heated. The liquid was actually squeezed out from an insect she didn’t recognize.

He also added various crushed powders of indistinguishable components, creating a smell that was hard to describe.

Ye Qingning couldn’t help frowning. Just thinking about drinking that bowl of black sludge made her temples throb.

She almost wished someone could pinch her nose and just pour the awful stuff down her throat.

“Drink it. It’ll suppress the Gu in your body and stop it from devouring your heart meridians. That’ll allow me to insert the needles.”

The Gu insects cultivated by Gu practitioners were far from ordinary. Often, these Gu had additional unique powers, so suppressing them also meant suppressing those special abilities.

Ye Qingning closed her eyes and mentally prepared herself. Then, she tipped her head back and drank the whole dark concoction in one go.

The taste nearly sent her to meet her great-grandmother.

But she didn’t let even a hint of disgust show on her face, which made Wuming nod approvingly.

“Lie flat. While I perform the needling, try your best to stay calm. Don’t let anything disturb your mental state. If you can fall asleep, even better.”

Wuming’s deep voice now carried a soothing tone that calmed the heart.

Ye Qingning took a deep breath and tried to steady herself.

After lying down, she saw Wuming open a bottle containing heart’s blood and take out a silver needle from the box, dipping it into Ye Hanyue’s heart’s blood.

She had thought that heart’s blood was something she’d have to drink—after all, most novels described it that way. Heart’s blood was a cure-all; one person drinks, the other silently suffers.

But now she understood: the Thread-Cutting Needle, coated with heart’s blood, wasn’t for drinking—it was used to lure out the child Gu and strengthen the effectiveness of the acupuncture technique.

As needles coated with heart’s blood pierced her chest—targeting points like Tanzhong, Jiuwei, Yutang, and Zigong—a cool sensation began to flow through her heart, even easing the pain from her earlier sword wound.

But as the needling continued and the heart’s blood entered her meridians, the Gu that had lain dormant started writhing furiously inside her.

Perhaps it was because the needles had forced a disconnection from the mother Gu. The Gu began ramming against her heart meridians, as though trying to break free from its constraints.

A stabbing pain flared from her chest, as if a thousand claws were ripping her apart.

Beads of sweat the size of soybeans rolled down her pale face. Every heartbeat brought fresh torment, scattering her focus and driving her closer to the brink of madness.

She really wanted to ask Wuming: under these circumstances, how the hell was she supposed to fall asleep?

If she could redo this moment, she’d pull out a Sleep Talisman on the spot…

The dog system didn’t dare speak. It knew the process of drawing out the child Gu would be painful and extremely dangerous—it was more afraid that Ye Qingning wouldn’t be able to endure it.

If it could, it would have rather knocked its host unconscious with a stick!

Wuming noticed the pallor on Ye Qingning’s face and frowned slightly, but his hands remained steady and precise.

Seeing how she was bearing the pain, despite also being injured by a sword, he finally relented and inserted a needle into the center of her brows—the Yintang point.

The Yintang, linked to the spiritual platform, could instantly put a cultivator into sleep.

Ye Qingning’s consciousness quickly faded, swallowed by endless darkness, and soon she fell into a deep slumber.

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The system immediately exploded in rage. This old coot! Would it have killed him to do that sooner?!

He waited until Ningning suffered like hell before giving her that needle—was it deliberate?!

But then it reconsidered. This guy was a Gu Saint who could massacre with his life-bound Gu. Compassion? As if. The fact he was helping at all was already a miracle.

Still, at least he acted when he saw Ningning couldn’t endure anymore.

Suddenly, the system thought of something and completely freaked out.

She’s asleep! SHE’S ASLEEP! In her past life, after returning from the Cloud Mountain Secret Realm, Ningning fell into the heart demon illusion after sleeping back at the sect!

This time, after coming back from the secret realm, she took her reward, went to Jiuli Peak, and then rushed to the Western Continent black market to get heart’s blood—she hadn’t even closed her eyes!

Now this old coot stuck a needle in her and made her sleep!

Does that mean the heart demon illusion is about to start just like last time?!

AAHHHH! Damn old coot, you might as well not have given her the needle!

Technically, the system shouldn’t be this panicked. Ye Qingning had already overcome her heart demon illusion in her past life.

But because the world had reset and she was living again, the system was sure that this time would be different!

Back then, she had just joined the Falling Cloud Sect and was only beginning to win over Xie Jibai—she hadn’t gone through any of the later traumatic events.

So overcoming the illusion then had been easy.

But in this life, after all she’d endured—failed romantic pursuit, risk of erasure by the main system, and constantly suffering due to the Mother-Child Gu…

Especially from the moment Ye Hanyue was imprisoned in the dark prison, the system had no idea how she survived each day.

Endless torment from all kinds of punishments—anyone else would have gone mad. If not, they would’ve surely developed a heart demon.

That’s why it was so worried.

Yet now, disconnected from the main system and practically useless, it couldn’t even enter her illusion to help—just stand there and watch.

Wuming frowned. He’d thought she merely fell asleep but sensed a mysterious force the moment her consciousness faded.

A heart demon illusion…

For it to appear now—he didn’t know if she could get through it safely.

——

About a tea’s time later, Wuming opened the door.

Xuan Yangzi, Tianjizi, and the others rushed up immediately.

“How is it? Has the Gu been removed from Ye girl? Let this old man take a look!”

The next second, Wuming blocked them. “The Gu is gone. But she won’t be waking up any time soon. She’s inside a heart demon illusion.”

Everyone froze.

They all knew Ye Qingning had broken through to the Golden Core stage in the secret realm, but no one expected the heart demon illusion to appear now—during Gu removal.

Suddenly, they grew restless. The sect had seen many disciples lose all their cultivation after failing to overcome heart demon illusions. How could they not worry?

Right then, a disciple on guard duty rushed over.

“Reporting to the Sect Master, Elders! Members of the Ye family have trespassed into the Penglai Sea and are now blocked by the Sect Protection Array. They’re outside the sect gate causing a commotion—demanding to see the Sect Master!”