Chapter 43

Chapter 43: Three-Eyed Sight

Gu Shi Yi whirled around, heart hammering. The curtain was still a curtain, swaying softly like nothing had happened. But when she reached out, her fingers met a solid, unseen wall.

Cold fear climbed her spine. She forced a smile and turned back.

“Please lift the restriction, Official. It’s getting late. I need to go home.”

Fifth Lady Wang laughed, as if she’d heard something delightful. “This back hall is where we appraise rare spirit herbs. A formation master at late Foundation Establishment Stage set up this restriction. Forget you, a tiny mortal—even a cultivator at the same late Foundation Establishment Stage couldn’t break it in an hour or two.”

Gu Shi Yi’s stomach sank. She kept her smile anyway, like a shield she could hide behind.

“Of course, of course. You officials have heaven-reaching powers. How could someone like me break it? I only ask you to lift a hand and open it, so I can go home.”

Fifth Lady Wang studied her for a moment, then smiled again—too pleasant, too calm.

“Why are you so anxious? You did a service for our sect. Naturally, I should reward you.”

She produced a clear, pearl-like bead. “This spirit-testing pearl is nothing special. Every major sect uses it when recruiting disciples to test spirit roots. Come. Touch it. Let me see your constitution, and I’ll decide whether to give you pills or an artifact.”

Gu Shi Yi didn’t believe a word of it. But she also knew she wasn’t in a position to refuse.

She stepped forward and laid her fingers on the bead.

The pearl lit briefly. Mist churned inside it, thickening into a rolling haze that slowly shifted to gold.

Fifth Lady Wang’s brows rose. “You’re a half-demon?”

Gu Shi Yi immediately thought of the old man at Exotic Beast Pavilion. He’d taken one look and seen through her. Fifth Lady Wang needed a tool.

That alone told Gu Shi Yi exactly how dangerous this woman was: not the strongest, but strong enough—and greedy enough—to gamble.

Gu Shi Yi swallowed. “I suppose… one of my ancestors, generations back, must have been a great demon.”

Fifth Lady Wang nodded. “Yes. This thread of demon power is quite pure. Just… thin.”

Then her tone turned sharp, like a blade sliding out of a sheath.

“Since you have a half-demon body, your physique should be sturdier than an ordinary mortal’s. When I take the thing inside you, you should be able to endure to the end.”

The words hit like ice water.

Gu Shi Yi’s scalp prickled. She snapped her head up, eyes wide, face blank. “What are you saying, Official? I don’t understand!”

Fifth Lady Wang laughed softly. “You can act as innocent as you like. You won’t fool me.”

Her smile widened, triumphant. “That blind fool Shang San. The treasure walked right past him and he didn’t notice a thing. How generous of him—to deliver it straight to me.”

The way she looked at Gu Shi Yi now was no longer the way one looked at a customer. It was the way a butcher looked at meat, deciding where to cut.

“You have something very good inside you,” she said, still smiling. “Don’t tell me you didn’t know.”

Gu Shi Yi’s face went paper-white.

She had wandered the jianghu with her old Daoist priest master for years and met more cultivators than she could count. Not one of them had discovered the Mystic Profundity Bright Mirror sealed inside her. Yet this woman had spotted it the instant Gu Shi Yi walked in.

Her secret—thirty years guarded—was cracked open in a heartbeat.

Fifth Lady Wang seemed pleased by her terror. “You’re surprised? That’s normal. I was born with Three-Eyed Sight. Not something trained later, not something forced into shape. A natural constitution—out of a million, you might not find one.”

Her finger tapped lightly between her brows. For an instant, the faint outline of a third eye shimmered there, blurred and fleeting.

“At the peak, it can see up to the Nine Heavens and down into the Nine Netherworlds. No matter what you hide, it can’t escape my eye. It sees what others cannot—treasures even divine sense fails to detect.”

She leaned closer, her voice turning almost coaxing. “My cultivation is still shallow. I’m only at Qi Refining Stage, Level Seven, and my Three-Eyed Sight hasn’t fully formed. But as the Hall Master of Yi Fang, it’s more than enough to distinguish spirit herbs and immortal grasses.”

Her gaze raked over Gu Shi Yi again, savoring the fear. “The moment you entered, I could see something extraordinary sealed inside you. I don’t need to know exactly what it is. Knowing it’s valuable is enough.”

She smiled, sweet as honey. “Don’t be afraid. If you cooperate and let me take it out, then if you’re still alive afterward, I won’t treat you poorly.”

She wasn’t lying about the danger, though she didn’t seem to care. The treasure had been sealed in Gu Shi Yi’s body for years, fused into blood and flesh. Forcing it out would likely kill her.

But to cultivators, a mortal’s life was lighter than dust.

“If you die,” Fifth Lady Wang added brightly, “I’ll even perform a rite for you. You can be reborn with a good fate.”

Then she reached out and seized Gu Shi Yi by the shoulder.

Gu Shi Yi was quick—normally. She would’ve bolted the instant the chance appeared. But when that fleeting third eye glanced over her, her entire body locked up, stiff as a board. She couldn’t even twitch a toe.

She could only watch in horror as Fifth Lady Wang pulled her forward with an easy tug.

“To keep the treasure’s spiritual energy from leaking when it leaves your body,” Fifth Lady Wang said casually, “we’ll go to the back courtyard. The formation there is sturdier. It won’t attract outsiders’ greed.”

She waved her sleeve. The front hall’s door slammed shut.

A ribbon of silk shot out, wrapped around Gu Shi Yi like a living thing, and dragged her—face drained of all color—toward the back.

They crossed a small gate, and the world shifted.

A vast garden unfolded before her, far larger than the shop suggested, with a small tower nestled inside. Fifth Lady Wang’s lips curled.

“Good. My two maidservants were sent out on errands recently. Saves me the trouble of silencing them.”

She carried Gu Shi Yi into the tower’s main hall and set her on the table in the center, like an item awaiting inspection. Fifth Lady Wang patted her cheek lightly.

“Stay there. I’ll prepare a few things and come right back.”

She giggled and drifted away without another glance.

“Shi Yi…”

The moment she left, Li Yan Er struggled out from Gu Shi Yi’s chest. Gu Shi Yi stared at her, frantic. Her mouth wouldn’t move. Her body wouldn’t move. Only her eyes could scream.

Run. Run now.

They had been sisters for years. Li Yan Er understood immediately. She shook her head, then untied the cord around Gu Shi Yi’s neck, pulled free the jade token, and hugged it close.

“Shi Yi, I won’t run,” she whispered. “I’ll hide with the token and look for a chance to save you.”

Gu Shi Yi nearly went mad.

You’re a tiny yin spirit. In front of a cultivator, you’re less than an ant. How are you going to save me?

Her eyes burned with tears she couldn’t wipe away.

At least the jade token hid Yan Er’s aura well enough that even Fifth Lady Wang hadn’t noticed she was there.

Li Yan Er climbed down from the table, clutching the token, and vanished into the shadows.

Gu Shi Yi could only lie there like a corpse that hadn’t died yet. Despair filled her chest until she felt she might crack.

In her mind, she screamed at her dead master.

“Master! Master! Old man, show yourself! If you don’t, your disciple is about to come see you. And if you let me die, then when I get over there, don’t you dare think you’ll ever crawl into that widow’s bed again!”

Tears slid down the corners of her eyes.

Fifth Lady Wang returned not long after. Seeing Gu Shi Yi’s tears, she clicked her tongue as if amused.

“Oh? Crying? Don’t cry. Everyone dies. Die early, reincarnate early. Next life, get a good body—be a rich family’s young lady. Isn’t that nice?”

She tapped Gu Shi Yi’s throat. The tightness snapped loose, and Gu Shi Yi sucked in a ragged breath.

Fifth Lady Wang smiled. “If you willingly force out what’s inside you, I won’t make things hard. I can compensate you afterward—pills, gold. What do you say?”

Gu Shi Yi stared at her and let out a cold, ugly snort.

“In your dreams.”

A mortal’s life meant nothing to cultivators. If this woman got the Mystic Profundity Bright Mirror, why would she give Gu Shi Yi anything? She’d flick a finger and erase her.

Gu Shi Yi had survived the jianghu by being slippery when needed, but she wasn’t spineless. If she was going to die, she’d at least make Fifth Lady Wang work for it.

She shut her eyes. “Stop talking. If you’re going to do it, make it quick.”

Fifth Lady Wang’s smile vanished. “You think I can’t take it by force? I offered because I was pitying you. Since you refuse, I won’t waste the effort.”

Her hand brushed across Gu Shi Yi’s face.

Sleep crashed down like a wave.

Gu Shi Yi clenched her jaw and tried to fight it, eyes wide and furious. Fifth Lady Wang brushed her again.

Darkness swallowed everything.

Fifth Lady Wang stared down at the unconscious Gu Shi Yi, cold and contemptuous. “A tiny mortal dares challenge this madam. Are you worthy?”

With a sweep of her sleeve, several streaks of green light flew out—formation flags that stabbed into the hall’s corners. They hummed as they activated, and a hazy green barrier rose to envelop the room.

Fifth Lady Wang nodded, satisfied. “I was willing to spare your life if you cooperated. Since you don’t know what’s good for you, don’t blame me for being ruthless.”

She formed seals with both hands, chanting under her breath. Then she lifted her right index finger. A point of shimmering light appeared at the tip.

“Go.”

The light shot into Gu Shi Yi’s brow. It didn’t vanish. It glowed beneath her skin like a moving ember.

“Move,” Fifth Lady Wang commanded.

The ember slid down Gu Shi Yi’s forehead, inch by inch, drifting lower until it stopped at her lower belly.

Fifth Lady Wang pressed her palm there. At first, nothing.

Then her power poured in.

A burst of blinding radiance flared from Gu Shi Yi’s belly—only to dim again almost immediately.

Fifth Lady Wang didn’t panic. She smiled wider and forced more power in, draining nearly half her reserves in a matter of breaths.

“It really is a treasure,” she muttered, startled despite herself. “It took nearly half my power just to stir it.”

But stirring it wasn’t extracting it.

Fifth Lady Wang’s expression tightened. She flipped her left hand, produced a porcelain bottle, popped the lid, and poured the pills into her mouth in one gulp. As she activated the medicine, fresh power surged into her meridians.

She smiled, greedy and bright. Then she pushed harder.

Light flared again—then dimmed again, as if swallowed by a bottomless pit.

Fifth Lady Wang’s eyes sharpened. “What is this thing? It’s devoured so much power and still won’t resonate with me at all.”

And yet, that only made her greed burn hotter.

She was stuck at the bottleneck of Qi Refining Stage, Level Seven. A breakthrough was within reach, if only she had the right push. If she couldn’t use this treasure herself, she could still trade it to a sect elder for the Thousand-Gold Pill.

Her hands trembled as she swallowed another bottle. Then another.

She forced in power again and again.

Nearly ten bottles later, the treasure still refused to budge, as if it had taken root inside Gu Shi Yi’s body.

Fifth Lady Wang’s face finally showed a crack of anxiety. “How can it be this stubborn?”

Those pills were not cheap. They were her carefully hoarded reserves, begged from her master with every method she knew. And now she was burning through them like water.

But to stop now would be to throw everything away.

Her jaw clenched.

Suddenly, she hammered her chest three times with her left fist. Each blow forced a drop of blood from her nose. The three drops did not fall. They floated in the air before her, trembling like living beads.

“Go!”

With a sharp shout, she slapped the three drops onto Gu Shi Yi’s lower belly.

The hall rang with a deep, vibrating hum.

At last, Gu Shi Yi’s belly changed. The flat plane slowly rose, swelling until it looked like she was four or five months pregnant. A faint glow pulsed beneath the skin.

Fifth Lady Wang swayed, her face turning deathly pale from the loss of blood essence, but joy flared in her eyes.

“Finally,” she breathed. “Those three drops weren’t wasted.”