King of Hundred Victories Saber

The late spring mountain wind wrapped in pine waves swept across the valley, as the Blind Granny’s withered fingers caressed the years-old carvings on her bamboo staff. Under Lan Xiaodie’s rapt gaze, she finally began to slowly reveal the long-sealed past: "However..."

Her clouded eyes turned to the void, a trace of ripples in her aged voice, "Twenty years ago, on a rainy night, a child accidentally fell into the ’Ten Thousand Scorpion Cave’ set by the Five Poison Sect in the dense forest. The trap, reaching a depth of ten feet, had walls coated with scorpion-attracting venom. If an ordinary person were to fall in, within half an incense stick’s time, they would be gnawed to white bones."

Lan Xiaodie sharply raised her head, the moonlight casting a trembling shadow on her pale cheeks: "Father... would rescue someone?"

Her voice carried a tremor of disbelief she couldn’t even convince herself of. Her simple, white dress was lifted by the mountain wind, revealing bruises on her calves from the long journey.

The granny’s lips curled into a bitter smile, one of both compassion and relief: "Back then, I asked the same. He stared at the old wound in his palm for a long time before saying: ’When that child looked up and cried for help, the fear in their eyes reminded me of when I was eight, bitten by a venomous spider, waiting alone to die in a mountain cave.’ It turns out even the cruelest people have a softness they don’t wish to confront in their hearts."

Lan Xiaodie’s eyes instantly moistened, and she envisioned a scene she had never witnessed: a young father leaning towards a trap on that stormy night, moonlight highlighting his hesitant yet resolute profile.

She suddenly recalled discovering a half-carved wood statue in a hidden compartment at the ancestral home during her childhood, depicting a child holding a kite, now imbued with profound significance.

"What happened to that child later?" Her voice carried a sob, her fingertips unconsciously grasping the hem of her dress.

The granny sighed, a fleeting longing passing over her wrinkled face: "After being rescued, the child hurriedly left the Southwest, not even leaving behind a name. Lan Xianglin stared in the direction the child had gone for three whole days, and every time the new moon arose thereafter, his gaze towards Miao Ling always seemed as if he were searching for a lost soul."

At some point, mountain mist enveloped them, dampening Lan Xiaodie’s temples and lashes.

Kneeling on the damp stone slab, she suddenly felt that the pain in her knees was far less than the turbulent waves in her heart.

The father known to the world as the "Poison Demon" had once, on a rainy night, used blood-soaked hands to lift a glimmer of hope.

"Thank you, granny, for telling me." She bowed heavily, her forehead touching the cold stone slab, "Though Xiaodie is weak, I want the world to know there’s more than guilt in the Lan family’s bloodline."

The Blind Granny fumbled out a pouch embroidered with the Five Poisons, placing her aged palm over Xiaodie’s hand: "This is a powder to dispel a hundred poisons, take it with you. Remember, harder to break than any poison Gu is the obsession in the human heart."

Lan Xiaodie placed the pouch against her heart, where its warmth seemed to resonate mysteriously with the salvation from that rain-soaked event twenty years ago. The mountain wind howled past, sweeping away the long-standing gloom in her heart and illuminating her path ahead.

The night fog of late spring, like crushed ink, made the world more misty.

Lan Xiaodie walked barefoot on the decaying leaves, her simple white Miao dress drenched with mountain dew, the crimson thread at her waist flickering faintly in the night.

As she reached the valley’s depths, she suddenly heard a faint rustling from a crevice in the rock wall, as if countless bugs were gnawing at something.

Late spring’s moonlight seeped into the valley like cold frost, the natural curtain of interwoven vines rustling in the night wind, casting a cobweb-like shadow onto the bluestone slabs. Lan Xiaodie walked barefoot on the damp moss, her simple white Miao dress soaked in night dew, the crimson thread at her waist slightly rising and falling with her breath.

Her gaze locked intently on the depths of the shadow—the bronze ancient coffin entangled with vines, its surface covered with dark purple moss like congealed blood scabs, the carved centipede totem gleaming with phosphorescent light, seemingly ready to crawl from the coffin into reality at any moment.

The moment her fingertips touched the dangling vines, a piercing sting suddenly swept over her.

Lan Xiaodie’s pupils shrank abruptly, as three poisoned silver needles shot towards her like a snake flicking its tongue!

Balancing on her toes, the Green Phosphorus Sword executed the move "Plum Blossoms Blooming," its frosty gleam ringing crisply, deflecting the silver needles.

However, at that moment, the coffin lid creaked with a teeth-grating sound, and a hunched figure slowly sat up. "Who allowed you to trespass on forbidden grounds?" A hoarse female voice startled birds resting in the forest.

This person was draped in a tattered Miao embroidery robe, half of her face crawling with dark purple poison patterns, resembling bark scorched by fierce flames.

It was none other than the Five Poison Sect’s long-assumed-dead Third Elder Ah Duo!

Her emaciated fingers tightly gripped a half-snake bone whip, her clouded eyes bore into the crimson thread at Lan Xiaodie’s waist, as though seeing the root of deep hatred.

Lan Xiaodie’s sword tip trembled slightly, forcing herself to stay calm: "Elder Ah Duo, weren’t you..."

Before she finished speaking, Ah Duo suddenly sprang up, the snake bone whip striking like a spiritual serpent, the piercing whoosh aiming straight for Xiaodie’s throat!

"It’s all that Lan Qin’Er’s doing!" Ah Duo roared, the whip’s tip releasing poisonous mist that condensed into a menacing skull shape in midair. "She colluded with Yang Yinglong using the ’Heart-devouring Gu’ to control sect members! I refused to connive with them, so she poisoned me with the ’Thousand-Day Bone Decay Poison’!"

Lan Xiaodie dodged the poisonous mist, her Green Phosphorus Sword turning into "Wind Rolling up the Remnant Cloud." As the cold light shimmered, she saw that Ah Duo was surrounded by black mist, countless tiny Gu insects surging within, crawling into the old woman’s festering wounds.

Ah Duo’s laughter was laced with bloody foam, eerily piercing: "This is Lan Xianglin’s tomb! Back then, when the Sect Leader suddenly disappeared, Lan Qin’Er claimed he had defected to the Central Plains. But I vividly remember that night, the forbidden grounds echoed with earth-shaking battle sounds!"𝘧𝓇𝑒𝑒𝑤ℯ𝑏𝓃𝘰𝑣ℯ𝘭.𝘤ℴ𝘮