Faced with suspicious food, Baixi couldn't help but sneer.
How could she not see such obvious malice?
The innkeeper and the arrogant old woman clearly had something planned.
Baixi contemptuously pushed away the food in front of her, thinking how could these country bumpkins be her opponents. Years ago, to elude pursuit, she wandered around with her mother. Those difficult years honed her keen observation skills and mature mindset.
"We cannot stay here for long. Leaving during the day would attract too much attention. Only at night is the best time to escape."
With that, Baixi quickly started packing her bags.
As the night grew darker, the village gradually became silent, with only occasional barks breaking the stillness.
"Is there any movement in the room?" The old woman looked expressionlessly at the innkeeper, her impatience evident.
"Reporting to the sorceress, the girl on the third floor seems to have already fallen asleep. There is no sound coming from the room." The innkeeper replied respectfully.
The old woman sneered, "She's already asleep? What a naïve girl. Go and bring her out."
The innkeeper quickly complied, climbing the stairs cautiously and arriving at Baixi's room on the east side of the third floor. He quietly turned the doorknob and realized the door wasn't locked.
"She doesn't even lock the door when she sleeps. It seems she's just a simple country girl who will soon earn a handsome reward." The innkeeper was delighted and cautiously pushed open the door to take a peek.
However, when he saw the empty room, his previously delighted expression instantly turned ugly - the country girl and her luggage were nowhere to be found!
The wind blew through the window, making a "whoo" sound. The innkeeper was dumbfounded, standing at the doorway for a while before he realized what had happened.
It turned out that the seemingly innocent country girl had already seen through their plan and quietly left in the middle of the night.
"Disaster!" The innkeeper exclaimed, "The sorceress will surely believe that I didn't drug the country girl's food and intentionally leaked information, allowing her to escape."
"This will surely anger the sorceress. My life is surely ruined!" The innkeeper wanted to cry but had no tears, trembling all over.
He knew how terrible the sorceress' temper was, she would definitely think he messed up the plan; the consequences were unimaginable.
The innkeeper immediately ran to the window and looked down.
The view from the ground seemed very small, but there was no sign of the agile girl anywhere.
The boundless night enveloped the earth, with only a few lights embellishing the quiet village. The shadows of the trees gently swayed in the breeze, silent and deep.
"Oh my god, how did this girl, who's so high up on the third floor, manage to get down? Even if she's skillful, she couldn't have jumped down unscathed. She must have been prepared in advance and escaped under the cover of night." The innkeeper thought.
He originally thought that the country girl could go down from the third-floor window, which would give him a way out, but who could have thought...
He knew how terrible the sorceress' temper was, she would definitely think he messed up the plan; the consequences were unimaginable.
Just then, a cold laugh suddenly came from behind: "Does it take you so long to catch one person? Do you not want to live anymore?"
The innkeeper was startled, turning around only to see the sorceress standing ominously at the doorway, her eyes filled with a chilling gleam.
"Please calm down, sorceress. This country girl must have sensed something, so she ran away." The innkeeper fell to his knees.
"Don't try to play tricks here!" The old woman shouted in anger, "She's just an ordinary country girl, how could she possibly detect the problem with the food? Clearly, you did not drug it."
After finishing her words, the old woman went to the window on the third floor and looked down. The night was dark, the moon was bright, but there was no trace of Baixi.
"I knew it, how could a powerless girl like her jump from such a high floor without a scratch," the old woman sneered, "she must have left with your help."
"Master Gu, I really did put medicine in the food. The kitchen maid can testify for me..." The innkeeper was still pleading desperately.
"Enough of your nonsense!" the old woman interrupted sharply, "since the person has escaped, it seems I can only use your blood to sacrifice my gu worms."
"Master Gu, I really did put medicine in the food. The kitchen maid can testify for me..." The innkeeper was still pleading desperately.
As soon as she finished speaking, more than a dozen gu worms suddenly appeared on the old woman's body, crawling all over the room. They made a hissing sound, revealing sharp fangs and emanating a putrid smell.
The innkeeper was terrified, his face as pale as paper. He struggled to escape, but was firmly held down by the old woman.
"No! Spare me!" the innkeeper wailed in despair.
It was a sleepless night, and the feast of the gu worms had just begun...
More than a dozen gu worms burrowed into the innkeeper's ears, nose, and throat, entering his body with every breath. He felt every part of his body being torn apart by pain, and each breath was a bite from the gu worms. He felt his soul shattered like a piece of tofu, suffocating in agony.
"No, no, don't bite me anymore! Please..." The innkeeper begged with all his strength, but the gu worms paid no attention and continued to feed.
Gradually, the innkeeper's breath faded away. The gu worms transformed back into their original forms and returned to the old woman's body.
The innkeeper's body turned into a pile of bones, with multiple holes filled with flowing red blood. The blood slowly floated in the chilly night breeze, like falling petals.
The old woman sneered, "Even if you escape to the ends of the earth, I will find you. I must have your appearance, little girl from a foreign land..."
She opened her cracked mouth, and a totem on her tongue turned into a gu worm on her right hand.
This gu worm was called the tracking gu, small in size, only about 1-2 centimeters long. Its body resembled a slender slug covered in tiny scales. The predominant color was dark green, which reflected a beautiful luster in the sunlight. The head was relatively flat, with two black compound eyes. The most obvious feature of this gu worm was a ruby-colored scale in the center of its back, shimmering with a peculiar light under the sun.
"Go, little one, find that girl."
She commanded the gu worm, following the trail left by Baixi's departure from the inn.
Under the cover of the night, the shops on both sides of the street were closed. At the corner of the street, there was an inconspicuous courtyard, with low walls and a huge banyan tree blocking the line of sight.
"This is it," the old woman looked around, her eyes filled with a vicious and ruthless gaze, "how dare a weak woman like her run away right under my nose."
The tracking gu stayed motionless on the ground, while the old woman began searching nearby.
The old woman searched nearby for a long time, but found nothing, and the tracking gu remained still on the ground.
"What's going on? Why isn't the tracking gu reacting? Could it be that girl has the ability to evade the tracking gu?"
At the same time, Baixi transformed into a dragon and flew towards the eastern part of the Southern Frontier.
The tracking gu could not fly, and Baixi had taken dragon form here, which is why it stayed behind.
