Wait a minute, where is my master?

The little Taoist vigorously shook his head.

A copper pot for hotpot meat was before him.

How could he think about these useless things!!!

Even just standing at the doorway of the mansion, Jin Xu could already smell the fragrance of meat wafting from the backyard.

Think about those tender slices of meat tumbling in the boiling hot pot base.

Think about the crisp and tender tripe.

Think about the deep-fried golden and crispy, edible and cookable, little crispy meat.

And think about...

Hiss, he couldn't think about it anymore.

Jin Xu's throat involuntarily moved as he quietly swallowed the saliva that had pooled in his mouth.

Then, cloaking the two women in spiritual power, he lifted them and headed into the backyard.

By the time the two women realized what was happening, they found themselves sitting at a round table laid with a cloisonné copper pot.

"Mr. Jin?"

"Young Master?"

The sudden appearance of the little Taoist startled Yu Yaoer and Xia Yunzhao, who were setting bowls and dishes and arranging meats at the table.

Once they clearly saw who it was, they greeted him in turn, one after the other.

Little Black, the insect left at home by Jin Xu, also voluntarily flew from a nearby column to land on his shoulder.

"Little Yu, Yunzhao, sit. Let's eat first," the little Taoist said, standing at the table. He grabbed two plates of freshly cut slices of some demon beast meat, which was similar to lamb but tasted even better, and dropped them into the hot pot with its clear and spicy red broth.

Yu Yaoer and Xia Yunzhao sat down somewhat dazedly next to him.

In the meantime, Xia Yunzhao curiously scoped out the barefoot young girl who had followed Jin Xu back, thinking this must be the person Sister Kui had mentioned to her.

As for the Little Fish Demon, she took a surreptitious glance and upon seeing Miss Fu Ling's so-called "bareness," she lost her sense of crisis in an instant.

Yu Yaoer sat down to attend to her master's needs, starting to mix his dipping sauce.

After Jin Xu finished putting in the meat, he touched the Insect Queen on his shoulder, then turned to the barefoot young girl and said, "Miss Fu Ling, let's eat first. We can discuss the Gu Worms later, just tell Little Black what you need."

With that, he briefly introduced Fu Ling's identity to everyone at the table and explained why she was there.

Upon hearing the little Taoist's explanation, Xia Yunzhao's sense of crisis also vanished quite rapidly.

She turned to look at Yu Yaoer by her side and, following her example, sat down and began to prepare the sauce for Jin Xu.

Little Black, though it could not speak and communicated by crawling, understood human speech.

After hearing Jin Xu's words, the insect stood up congenially from the Taoist's shoulder, bowed politely to the barefoot young girl, conveying its goodwill.

But this Gu Cultivator called Fu Ling was somewhat stupefied at the moment.

!!!!!!!!

"Its appearance resembles a caterpillar, body all black, with faint blue twin stripes on its back, unprepossessing in looks, it is known as the mother of all Gu Worms in the world."

The barefoot young girl's mind flashed with this line, the very first sentence from the Nine Provinces Gu Skill Atlas, upon seeing Little Black.

At the same time, the only Lifebound Gu left in her body was frantically warning her, urging her to leave quickly.

"Run quickly run quickly run quickly. You're going to die, you're going to die, you're going to die."

If the Gu Worm inside Fu Ling were not her Lifebound Gu and could speak,

There was a twenty percent chance it would repeat these words incessantly in her ear.

As for the remaining eighty percent...

Well, of course, it would have run away on its own.

But there are no 'ifs' in this world.

The Lifebound Gu and its owner rise and fall together.

If the barefoot young girl doesn't leave, even if the Gu itself ran away, it would be useless, so it was desperately signaling a warning with all its might.

Not even the master's use of spiritual power to soothe it was any use.

Now, on the little Taoist's side...

Cough, his attention was entirely on the slices of meat rolling in the copper pot.

After the slices of meat in the pot were cooked, Jin Xu picked up his chopsticks, passed through the wafting steam, and gripped a full chopstick's worth of meat from the boiling soup base.

Then he placed it into the sauce bowl he had prepared for himself, making sure the meat was soaked thoroughly, before he slowly began to chew it in his mouth.

"Ah~"

After swallowing the meat, the young Taoist released a satisfied sigh.

It was only then that he noticed, out of the corner of his eye, that the barefoot girl sitting beside him had not touched her chopsticks at all and hadn't prepared any sauce either.

She was even shaking slightly.

"Miss Fu Ling, what's the matter?"

Jin Xu's gentle words drew everyone's attention at the table to her.

"Jin... Jin... Taoist Jin Xu, can you ask that Insect Queen to... to restrain its aura? My... my Lifebound Gu is about to..."

Fu Ling's words cut off abruptly as her cheeks flushed red and she tightly closed her mouth.

Little Black could understand human speech and noticed that within the young girl's Dantian, there seemed to be a weak member of its species.

Seeing how its unintentional release of aura had frightened her to this state,

the kind-hearted Little Black immediately altered its own aura.

But good intentions don't necessarily translate into good outcomes.

The Insect Queen itself possessed two types of aura that it could control.

One was what had just been released, instilling fear in all sorts of Gu worms, adequately reflecting its own majesty.

The other, however, was fatally attractive to Gu worms.

Previously, when Little Black was asleep in the mountains of Qing State, the Demon Sect's Second Elder, Shen Zhi, had thrown countless Gu worms into the pit.

The worms had converged towards it frantically, precisely because of this kind of aura.

Now that Little Black's aura changed,

the consciousness from the Lifebound Gu within the barefoot girl's body

shifted from "I'm going to die, I'm going to die, I'm going to die" to "Charge! Charge! Charge!"

Fu Ling struggled to calm, or rather suppress, the Lifebound Gu within her body with Spiritual Power.

But her body was also honestly inching closer to Jin Xu at the same time.

The young Taoist frowned, sensing the sudden change in the barefoot girl before him.

He then turned to glance at the Little Black on his shoulder.

Golden spiritual power coursed through his body, and a thin yet sturdy shield of light quietly surfaced, enveloping the Insect Queen within it.

As soon as he completed this gesture,

the Lifebound Gu inside Fu Ling instantly quieted down and she, looking like she had fought a great battle, collapsed ungracefully into her chair.

In just that brief moment, the barefoot girl felt more drained than when she had originally refined her Lifebound Gu.

"Miss Fu Ling, how are you feeling now?"

"Whew~ Thank you, Taoist, for your concern. I should be fine now."

The barefoot girl breathed heavily but managed to sit up straight in her chair and replied.

Although Yu Yaoer, who had no idea what had happened, had still prepared a cup of hot tea for Fu Ling, she walked over and handed the teacup to the girl, whose forehead was beaded with sweat.

"Thank you."

The barefoot girl whispered her thanks.

On the side, Shiqi, seeing the opportunity to appear sensible in front of the temple master by offering tea had passed, quickly pondered whether there was another way to show improvement.

She noticed the sweat on the girl's forehead.

Her bright little eyes came up with an idea, and she opened her mouth to conjure a chunk of ice with Spiritual Power.

She offered it enthusiastically.

"Miss Fu Ling, you must be overheated. Use this to cool down!"

Holding the hot tea, Fu Ling saw the ice Shiqi was passing her and had a moment of obvious stupefaction in her gaze.

Then...

She accepted it.