“How did you get in here? You were supposed to be locked up,” Lingling asked coldly.
Gouli replied, “I said I wanted to join the Flame Demon Tribe, so Suomo let me come.”
Lingling was momentarily stunned. What was Uncle Suomo thinking?
As she spoke, Gouli kissed his face again, then covered his body with passionate kisses.
She was a powerful warrior. Not as strong as Constantine or Suomo, but stronger than Duoduo.
If she joined the Flame Demon Tribe, they would have three Magic Martial Grandmasters.
But she was greedy, domineering, and ruthless.
None of that really mattered. What mattered was whether she could be trusted. Lingling had no intention of planting a hidden threat within his own tribe.
Lingling said, “You have no place left in the Chimera Tribe, and no place beside Constantine. I know that. But what about your daughter? Wouldn’t she be a better person to rely on?”
Gouli replied, “Would you let me leave for no reason?”
Lingling shook his head.
“Of course not.”
Gouli continued, “If you wanted to use me to bargain with Nini’an, would she agree?”
The answer was obviously no. Nini’an had inherited Constantine’s calculating nature. She would never allow herself to suffer a loss.
Gouli said, “I have no other choice. Joining you is my only way out.”
Lingling fell silent.
Gouli continued, “Many of us Rakshasa can live to one hundred and twenty years old. For the next twenty or thirty years, I can remain young and beautiful. Besides, ever since I slept with you, I seem to have become even younger and prettier. I can still have children.”
Lingling asked, “What about your son, Constantine the Second?”
Gouli replied, “He’s finished. He was brave but foolish to begin with. After you shot out one of his eyes, he became completely unstable. He’s utterly useless now.”
Lingling looked at her.
“You really are a heartless woman.”
Gouli answered calmly, “Every person fights for themselves.”
Lingling closed his eyes.
Gouli trembled slightly, then took the initiative once again.
Another fierce storm followed.
For more than half an hour, passion raged before finally settling.
“If I am to make use of you, that’s possible,” Lingling said. “But first, you must earn a little of my trust.”
Resting in his arms, Gouli nodded.
“Tell me what I must do.”
Lingling said, “I will make you take a poison whose antidote exists only with me. Your life and death will be completely in my hands. If you betray me, your fate will be worse than death.”
Gouli’s beautiful face trembled.
Then she nodded.
“Fine.”
Lingling got up.
“Wait here.”
He walked outside and communicated with the Mirror Demon King through his spiritual power.
“Mirror, is there a poison with only one antidote? If someone takes it and fails to receive the antidote regularly, they will suffer something worse than death.”
The Mirror Demon King thought for a moment.
“There is.”
“What is it?” Lingling asked.
“The Curse Calamity Pill,” the Mirror Demon King replied. “Hundreds of years ago, the greatest alchemist of the Barbarian Wasteland created it. He was hideously ugly but fell in love with a peerless beauty. She would not even look at him, so he tricked her into taking the Curse Calamity Pill. Afterwards, she had to take a special antidote once every year. Otherwise, her body would rapidly age, all her hair would fall out, her skin would become as revolting as a toad’s, her bones would gradually collapse, and she would suffer unbearable agony every moment. After enduring a month of torment, she would finally die.”
Lingling shivered.
That alchemist had truly been vicious.
The Mirror Demon King continued, “However, if the antidote is taken on time, not only will she avoid ageing and ugliness, she will remain forever young and beautiful. The Youth Pill was also his creation.”
The Youth Pill could make someone twenty years younger, but at the cost of ten years of their lifespan.
The alchemist had been twisted, but undeniably brilliant.
The Mirror Demon King continued, “By using such despicable means, he forced the peerless beauty to marry him. He prepared ninety antidotes for her, hoping she would live to one hundred and ten.”
Lingling asked, “What happened in the end?”
The Mirror Demon King replied, “After taking the eleventh antidote, she committed suicide.”
Lingling sighed in regret.
“What about the remaining seventy nine antidotes? And the poison?”
“The poison was made in three doses. Only one was ever used.”
“Are they still in the treasure beneath the lake?”
“Yes.”
Lingling entered the cave, stepped into the pool, dived to the bottom of the hidden lake, and searched for the medicine.
At last, among a mountain of gold coins, he found the box.
“The Curse Calamity Pills and the seventy nine antidotes are inside. You only need to take the poison. Leave the antidotes here. Once you open the box, the poison and antidotes are stored separately.”
Lingling opened the box and found two bottles made from a special crystal.
Almost all precious pills were stored in these crystal bottles. They repelled both water and air, preventing the medicine inside from deteriorating.
The treasure beneath the lake contained priceless items such as the Youth Pill and the Nirvana Blood. So why had there not even been Beast Essence Pills, forcing Lingling to buy them with gold at the Ghost Market?
The Beast Essence Pills had indeed been there, dozens of them.
But although valuable, they were far less precious than the Youth Pill. They had been stored in ordinary porcelain bottles. After hundreds of years beneath the lake, water had seeped in and destroyed them.
“The green bottle contains the poison. The white bottle contains the antidotes,” said the Mirror Demon King.
Lingling took the green bottle, returned the white bottle to the box, and buried it once more beneath the pile of gold.
Carrying the Curse Calamity Pill, he surfaced from the lake, left the cave, and opened the bottle.
Inside were the remaining two Curse Calamity Pills, perfectly preserved.
They did not resemble ordinary pills at all.
Instead, they looked more like drops of vibrant living essence.
Lingling returned to the room, poured one pill into a porcelain bowl, and said,
“Take it.”
Gouli’s beautiful face trembled.
Although she had already agreed, she still marvelled at Lingling’s cold ruthlessness.
Moments earlier they had been locked in passionate intimacy.
Now he was making her swallow poison.
Taking a deep breath, Gouli closed her eyes and swallowed the Curse Calamity Pill.
Then…
“Ah…”
She suddenly let out a scream and collapsed onto the bed, writhing in agony.
Her figure had always been extraordinarily alluring. As she struggled, she twisted like a beautiful serpent, tracing astonishing curves that only made her appear even more irresistible.
“Ah… Ah… Ah…”
She cried out repeatedly, as though enduring unbearable pain.
Her body continued to convulse.
It felt as though a strange energy was flowing through every vein and reaching every part of her body.
It was almost like her body was being reforged.
Not to strengthen her martial arts, but to place every inch of her body under the control of the Curse Calamity Pill.
After a full quarter of an hour, Gouli finally calmed down, her entire body drenched in fragrant sweat.
Lingling looked at her in astonishment.
Her skin had become firmer.
Previously it had been smooth and soft, possessing the mature fullness unique to an older woman.
Now it possessed the firmness of youth.
Her face had also tightened noticeably.
After taking the poison, she looked almost ten years younger, while her features had become even more enchantingly beautiful.
Anything deadly was often beautiful.
The Curse Calamity Pill was no exception.
She had become several degrees more stunning, and ten years younger.
Her appearance was now almost on par with Second Madam Sisi’s, while her already breathtaking figure retained all its generous curves but had exchanged mature softness for the firmness and vitality of a young married woman.
“Is that enough now?” Gouli asked weakly, as though half her life had been drained away.
Lingling handed her a crystal mirror.
Startled, she looked into it.
Then she gasped.
She had become this beautiful.
This young.
The woman reflected in the mirror looked only four or five years older than Nini’an, yet even more breathtaking, almost equal to that vixen Sisi.
No woman disliked beauty.
Gouli was no exception.
She became utterly intoxicated, unable to tear her eyes away from the mirror.
Lingling said coldly, “Don’t celebrate too soon. Every year from now on, you must take the antidote. Otherwise, you will age instantly, your skeleton will begin collapsing, and within less than a month you will suffer the greatest agony imaginable before dying.”
“The Curse Calamity Pill?” Gouli exclaimed in horror.
Lingling looked surprised.
“You know of it?”
Of course she did.
The legendary Alchemy King had lived only a few hundred years ago. His name had been passed down through countless generations.
His Youth Pill was famous throughout the entire Barbarian Wasteland.
Although women did not long for the Curse Calamity Pill, its notoriety was equally widespread.
Gouli gave a sorrowful smile.
“You think very highly of me, to use something as precious as the Curse Calamity Pill.”
What truly shocked her was that Lingling actually possessed such an incredibly rare pill from hundreds of years ago.
His secrets seemed endless.
Then she asked,
“Can you trust me now? Will you restore my cultivation?”
“Not yet.”
Lingling looked at her now youthful body, firm, curvaceous, and irresistibly attractive.
“You’ve become much younger and firmer. Let me see how different you feel now.”
He immediately pulled her back onto the bed.
The two of them became entwined in passion once more.
This time, they remained together for over an hour.
Gouli felt as though she could barely breathe.
Ever since Constantine had taken Second Madam Sisi, he had scarcely touched her.
She had gone years without intimacy.
This encounter was fiercer than ever.
It was like dying and being reborn.
The ecstasy felt as heavenly as paradise and as overwhelming as hell.
Many women would sacrifice everything to experience such bliss.
Only then did Gouli understand why Ali, such a timid woman, had been willing to risk even death for Lingling.
That feeling truly could make someone lose themselves.
She almost spoke words of love.
But she restrained herself.
Lingling was cold and merciless.
No matter how heartfelt her words were, they would only make her look ridiculous.
…
The thirty thousand strong allied army of the Chimera Tribe and the Ankara Tribe had been utterly defeated, almost wiped out.
Within only a few days, the news spread across the entire Silver Alliance, causing a tremendous uproar and shocking everyone.
Thirty thousand troops had fought only one thousand under Lingling, yet suffered catastrophic defeat.
How was that even possible?
Even if Lingling were a god, such a result should have been impossible.
Yet however unbelievable it seemed, it was the truth.
Thus, the thirteen tribes of the Silver Alliance gathered once again at the Silver Tribe to discuss what should be done next.
Since his daughter Nini’an had become the Little Barbarian King’s concubine, Constantine’s status had risen dramatically.
Even the Silver Alliance Leader tried to curry favour with him, presenting him with fifty thousand jin of salt every year.
During the campaign against Lingling, the other eleven allied tribes had even contributed three thousand soldiers.
But after this crushing defeat, Constantine’s status had fallen back to where it had been before Nini’an’s marriage.
He was once again looked down upon by everyone.
The Barbarian Wasteland respected power, but above all it respected strength.
A loser like Constantine would never earn true respect, regardless of his influence.
Alfonso, chief of the Ankara Tribe, was in an even worse position.
After annexing the Wild Horse Tribe, he had possessed the largest territory in the Silver Alliance and seemed destined to become one of its dominant rulers.
Now, however, more than ten thousand of his elite troops had perished.
The four or five thousand remaining soldiers could barely defend his homeland.
The surrounding tribes were already watching greedily.
At the Silver Alliance council, Constantine endured humiliation as he carefully described every detail of the battle.
He especially explained why the army had been annihilated.
The Flame Demon Tribe’s Divine Demon Ruins had used an incredibly bizarre form of sorcery to lure twenty five thousand soldiers into a giant death pit, where they had drowned alive.
In short, Constantine repeatedly insisted that the defeat had not been caused by poor leadership.
Finally, he proposed that the Silver Alliance send one hundred thousand troops to completely surround the Flame Demon Tribe and starve them into extinction.
This proposal was rejected.
Previously, only Constantine and Alfonso had provided the troops, so everyone had readily voiced their support.
Now every tribe would have to contribute ten thousand soldiers.
The price was simply too great.
Although the Rakshasa and the Near Human race were mortal enemies, the Flame Demon Tribe had not yet harmed anyone else’s interests.
Why should they sacrifice their own forces merely to avenge Constantine?
For several consecutive days, the Silver Alliance meeting ended without any agreement.
Meanwhile, every single day, Lingling’s Flame Demon Tribe continued growing stronger.
…
The female shaman Yin Ji sat alone in her room.
Only when she was alone would she remove her mask, revealing her exquisitely beautiful face.
She was writing.
Her handwriting was elegant, filled with spirit, yet also filled with murderous intent.
She wrote in the script of the Human Kingdom.
Soren.
Yes.
Those were the two characters she wrote.
The entire sheet of parchment was covered with the name Soren.
She was not writing it with affection.
She wrote it with hatred as deep as the sea.
She had no idea that Lingling was actually Soren.
She had never even met him.
Yet Soren was her sworn enemy.
Her mortal enemy.
That was why her brush was dipped in blood instead of ink.
…
At the same time,
A large ship ran aground on the coast of the southeastern territory, four hundred and seventy li from the Flame Demon Tribe.
It had sailed from the northern Barbarian Wasteland and had been at sea for more than twenty days.
Most of the people aboard were Near Humans from the north.
As the Motuo Empire expanded, one Near Human tribe after another had been destroyed.
Most had been slaughtered.
Only a few survivors escaped by sea to the southern Barbarian Wasteland.
Normally, only one ship out of ten ever reached the south.
Of those aboard, only two or three people out of every ten survived.
This ship was no exception.
Most of those aboard had perished.
After the ship ran aground, only a little more than twenty people climbed ashore.
The remaining two or three hundred had all died.
Among the survivors was one woman.
The Black Widow, Meng Tuoluo.
She gazed across the desolate and unfamiliar land before her, took a deep breath, and murmured to herself,
“Southern Barbarian Wasteland, I’ve arrived.”