Chapter 2: Ruthless Efficiency

Gu Wenlian's face twisted into a snarl. "What are you smiling at, wretch?!" That face—stunningly beautiful even after years of degradation—remained the deepest venomous thorn in her pride.

That icy, hauntingly captivating smile sent an unexpected sliver of unease crawling up Gu Wenlian's spine. She crushed it instantly. So what if the pathetic creature had broken free? Crushing her beneath her heel would still be effortless!

Gu Qingxi offered no reply.

She moved.

Her rise was instantaneous, a bolt of silent lightning! Her thumb, slick with her own blood drawn by a sharp nail, slammed onto Gu Wenlian's forehead before the thought of defense could form—

"Spirit-Banishing Bind!​"

A single crimson mark, like potent Joss seal, bloomed between Gu Wenlian's brows. Blood sacrifice.

"You—!" Gu Wenlian's pupils contracted to pinpoints. Raw terror seized her as the horrifying sensation of utter immobility—identical to Gu Qingxi's previous state—locked her limbs. She couldn't even twitch a finger!

Real fear, visceral and clawing, ripped through her facade. "Gu Qingxi! RELEASE ME! Or I'll make you beg for dea—!" Her shriek tore through the bridal suite.

"Blood-Woven Arts?! ​Demonic Verity Mantras​?!" The voice from the bracelet exploded, a cacophony of incredulous shock and startled elation. "Are you of the Devil Path?! But… no! Your spirit bears no such taint... How could you possess such—?!"

Gu Qingxi remained deaf to it all.

Her eyes held only glacial frost.

Her hand closed over Gu Wenlian's dagger hilt.

The blade descended—

Thwick!

The edge pierced bone with brutal economy, precision, and not a heartbeat of hesitation.

Blood blossomed against the crimson backdrop like a grotesque flower lit by the guttering candles.

Gu Wenlian's eyes bulged, wide with uncomprehending shock and frozen hatred. Her body fell backward, hitting the thick carpet with a sickening softness. Silence claimed her.

The bridal chamber plunged into absolute stillness, broken only by a faint pop as candle wax spilled over.

"Girl… you… what you did…" The Elderly Voice from the bracelet finally re-emerged after a palpable pause, rough with shock and a tremor that hadn't been there before.

Dead?

Just… like that?

One moment, a sneering predator; the next, cooling meat on the floor?

Not even a final curse uttered…

The girl's decisiveness… the unflinching savagery…

Had he truly slept so long that the new rhythms of violence in this world eluded him?

"Who are you?" Gu Qingxi's voice was disturbingly level, as if she'd merely brushed off dust. She knelt beside Gu Wenlian's body, her examination swift and clinical. "Why reside within my bracelet?"

"Who is I?!" The elderly voice rallied, injecting a strand of its former imperious pride. "I am the renowned ​Wuling Laozu​! Supreme Sovereign of the Devil Path in my time! All bowed before my presence! Alas, I met my demise within this pitiful realm… and slumbered within the void! That is, until the strange spatial ripples that heralded your awakening… stirred me! It is kismet, little girl! Fate has entwined our paths! You undoubtedly have heard tales of my might, resonating through the annals of…" His pronouncement was cut short.

Shhhhk!

The dagger found its mark again—directly into Gu Wenlian's heart. A twist. A withdrawal.

Clinical. Ruthless.

Wuling Laozu: "..."

"Continue." Gu Qingxi's tone offered no room for reaction.

The Laozu's words seemed to solidify in the air. This… this post-mortem technique… practiced with such chilling familiarity…

"Ahem… The matter of Fate! Since I aided you in your direst need, reciprocity is only fitting! My demand is simple! Merely—" The old spirit chose his words carefully now, the earlier boastfulness tempered.

"In the Cultivation world," Gu Qingxi interrupted him, her gaze shifting pointedly to Gu Wenlian's lower dantian region, "Is it not considered prudent protocol to ensure the dantian core is also… neutralized? For thoroughness."

She didn't wait for affirmation.

Squelch!

The blade sank deep into the precise spiritual reservoir below Gu Wenlian's navel. Another brutal twist.

Wuling Laozu: "..."

Why did he feel… a phantom chill ripple through his spectral essence?

Who… exactly… embodied the Devil Path here?

"Merely what did you require?" Gu Qingxi inquired coolly, pulling the dagger free and wiping the gore meticulously on the luxurious silk of Gu Wenlian's wedding robes.

A long, profound silence emanated from the bracelet. This girl… defied all established frameworks!

Gu Qingxi's eyes swept the crimson prison. A slight frown touched her brow as she moved to the heavy wooden table. A flick of her wrist—a worn, elegant talisman brush and a stack of plain yellow spirit parchment materialized. Her hand danced. Black glyphs, emanating waves of palpable, chilling lethality, flowed onto the paper as if guided by an unseen current. Her Qi surged within her, more fluidly than she had ever experienced, resonating with this world like a forgotten chord finding its instrument.

"Flee!​" Wuling Laozu's voice erupted again, thick with urgency. "While that old villain remains absent! Use this moment to escape!"

"Escape?" Gu Qingxi didn't pause her brushwork. Glyphs streamed forth, each stroke reinforcing the humming power growing in the room. "Wherefore flee?"

"That 'Banishing Bind' you used was potent—but only because of utter surprise! You are but ​Qi Refining Layer One​! And afflicted with mutually ​clashing Water and Fire Spiritual Roots​! That you even achieved Qi Refining is a marvel! With such paltry cultivation, slaying Wenlian at the third layer was blind fortune's peak! That Sect Elder, wounded and fallen as he may be, remains a ​Foundation Establishment​ cultivator! He will not stand like a dumb wooden post waiting for you to paint his forehead!" The Laozu's tone cracked with anxiety.

"Before you died," Gu Qingxi murmured, executing a final, decisive flourish on the last talisman, "did you also… talk too much?"

"Huh? …Well… perhaps?" The Laozu was bewildered by the seeming non-sequitur.

"Gu Wenlian," Gu Qingxi continued, that lethally beautiful curve returning to her lips, "also spoke far too many words… before she died."

"…What… what does that imply?" Wuling Laozu asked, an instant too late, the sense of foreboding crushing.

"Trash dies from monologuing.​" Seven icy syllables dropped into the heavy air. Simultaneously, Gu Qingxi's hands moved like wind-blown leaves. The completed talismans detached themselves, floating silently to adhere at precise points across the walls and beams of the bridal chamber—beside the window drapes, under the table, above the lintel. A hundred points of darkness.

Wuling Laozu: "..."

The transformation was immediate and terrifying. The black sigils pulsed, lines of energy snapping between them like dark lightning. An interwoven lattice of pure, annihilative suppression solidified over the entire space. The air grew thick, charged, pressing down with the weight of impending ruin.

"You are a ​Talisman Master​?!" The Laozu's voice resonated with dawning awe and sharpening curiosity. "What… what are these glyphs? Five Ghosts Yin-Suppression Symbols?" A brief pulse of his soul-sense made him recoil internally. "No! This essence… it carries a purging fury… ancient suppression! This potency eclipses common ghost-tethers!" The question screamed silently within his spectral mind: Who or what is this girl?!

Gu Qingxi offered no explanation. With the final center glyph affixed to the central roof beam, she calmly turned back to the corpse. Under Wuling Laozu's utterly baffled scrutiny, she knelt again and proceeded with systematic efficiency. With practiced hands—born of surviving a merciless wasteland—she rifled through the cooling flesh. The ​spatial pouch​ at Gu Wenlian's waist, the spiritual jade hairpin (now sticky and dulled), the jade bracelet on the limp wrist… and, most importantly, a subtly glowing spirit-jade pendant worn close to the skin. All vanished into Gu Qingxi's possession.

"Truly pathetic." Gu Qingxi hefted the pouch, a flicker of disdain crossing her perfect features as her consciousness swept its contents. "A Gu family heiress? Worth merely ​three Low-Grade Spirit Stones." She scoffed, the sound chillingly dismissive in the charged silence.

Wuling Laozu descended once more into depths of profound, speechless contemplation.