Venerated Venomous Consort

Gu Xijiu witnessed a very strange scene unfold before her. Wisps of green smoke rose into the air, and soon, the tree transformed into Zhu Duqing! His hair was in a complete mess, with some parts of it even missing. He was almost bald in certain areas. His robes were unkempt and disheveled. Gu Xijiu had never seen him in such a messy state before and was shocked.

Zhu Duqing noticed the bewilderment in Gu Xijiu’s big shocked eyes and was immediately at loss of what to do. His image was gone. Although he did not really care about his image in front of most people, things were different with Gu Xijiu. Therefore, Zhu Duqing quickly rushed into the woods to tidy up his clothes.

When Zhu Duqing finally returned, Gu Xijiu was still in shock. “Are you really Zhu Duqing? You really are a Bamboo Monster!”

Zhu Duqing was already immaculately dressed, but his face was still pale. With a cough, he awkwardly corrected her, “I am a Bamboo Devil, not a Bamboo Monster. All the Bamboo Monsters are my juniors.”

“How old are you?”

“About this… Honestly, I am not too sure.” In fact, he had already been cultivating for tens of thousands of years. However, he did not want Gu Xijiu to know how old he really was.

Gu Xijiu took a look at a green leaf in her hand. Then, she continued to observe Zhu Duqing. Had she been pulling off his hair?

“How did you transform into your old self so suddenly?” Gu Xijiu was curious.

Zhu Duqing was too arrogant to tell her the truth about Di Fuyi’s mean trick. “About that, it was all because of the storm last night. I was trying to absorb the energy from the wind,” he promptly explained.

Gu Xijiu did not know what to say. She had only heard about absorbing the essence of the sun and the moon. Never had she heard about absorbing energy from the wind. When did plants share the same feature as a windmill?

Zhu Duqing finally realized that his answer was rather odd, so he quickly changed the topic. “Where is the Devil King?”

Gu Xijiu answered casually, “The princess is in danger. He has returned to save her.”

Zhu Duqing seemed quite relieved. “He seems to care a lot about the princess. He gave away everything just to be with her again. Otherwise, judging from how wicked he is, I believe he would torture us, all in the name of returning his favor for saving our lives. I am glad that he is gone! Very well, then! By the way, he doesn’t leave the Devil Kingdom vert easily. Why was he here?”

Gu Xijiu shook her head. “Perhaps he has some other matters to attend to. He is the Devil King, after all. Maybe something he needs to deal with something personally.”

After a long night, the morning sun finally shed its first streak of light on the field. After a night of braving the storm, Zhu Duqing refused to stay another minute in that place. He quickly suggested that they should leave. Gu Xijiu did not object to the idea. Thus, they hit the road again.

She tried hard not to think about Di Fuyi. She chose to believe that their previous encounter was merely a coincidence. The chances of them bumping into one another again in this big world would be really small anyway.

Gu Xijiu had a feeling that destiny always made a fool out of her. When she was trying to look for him, she had never been able to see any sign. It was almost a fruitless search. Now that she refused to see him anymore, they kept seeing one another. They had only met one day ago. Just now, they met again.

…

At the poisonous swamp, many colorful clouds were floating around in the air. Under the light, the clouds moved and showcased their beautifully vivid palette. It was a rather mesmerizing scene.

It was a very beautiful and yet dangerous place. Other than the locally grown plants, no other animals would step forth into this poisonous place.