My girlfriend is a Miao demon.

The Circle Art City, located on the outskirts of Wangshan City, is hidden behind a dense camphor forest at the foot of the northern slope of Shounan Mountain. The rugged industrial style of the old factory buildings forms a wonderful contrast with the surrounding Chinese villages.

In Professor Zuo's studio, it was already five in the afternoon. The setting sun slanted through the glassless window in the side wall, casting a long, narrow patch of light on the floor. At the edge of this patch, the shadow of the Maoxi Gu Master stretched to a full two meters long, like a dark silk ribbon spread across the floor strewn with paintbrushes. The stubborn stone Gu, which had been as lively as mercury just moments before, now lay still in his left palm, reverting to its original form.

—A flat, bluish-gray pebble.

The pebble was about half the size of a palm, flat in shape, with a rough surface covered in textures, like a river stone that had been washed by water for thousands of years. But under the setting sun, the pebble shimmered with a faint glow inside. The light was not bright gold or silver, but a deep dark blue, as if it contained a pool of unyielding night. When it was gently shaken, it seemed as if tiny starlight could be seen flowing inside.

Mao west Gu Master gently stroked the texture of the pebble with the fingertips of his right hand, his movements slow and gentle, like stroking the gray stubble on his grandfather's chin when he was a child, with an almost reverent tenderness. Xiang Nanfeng stared at the stone, his Adam's apple bobbing twice—was this really the same stubborn stone Gu that had just rolled on the ground, cast spells on the wall, and made water flow backwards?

"My grandmother was one of the little Gu witches personally selected by Jiang Yang back then," Mao Xi Gu Master's voice was heavy with the musty smell of old canvases in the studio, as deep as cotton thread soaked in water. "Back then, the Hua Miao camp in Sanwei Mountain was also surrounded by Pan Hu's rebel army, and the battle situation was getting worse day by day."

"The Miao people were divided into seven different valleys. Their food was running out, and their herbs were nearly exhausted. Everyone knew their fate: either they would be wiped out one by one, or they would starve to death in the mountains. Their ancestor, Jiang Yang, devoted his life to the study of witchcraft and created eleven different forms of witchcraft, each with a different purpose:"

"—Some can manipulate the power of nature, some can heal serious injuries, and some can kill without leaving a trace. But the situation is urgent, and the little witches cannot all learn them. The more talented ones can learn three or four, while the less talented ones can only learn one or two."

"According to my grandmother herself, she was not bad at all, but she was too young at the time, only seven years old. She couldn't sit still when studying, and she couldn't concentrate when practicing because she was always distracted. So in the end, she only learned 'two and a half'."

"Two and a half types?" Xiang Nanfeng took two steps forward, the afterglow of the setting sun falling directly into his eyes, dyeing his pupils a warm amber color. "Why is there a half type? Two types... what kind of Gu is the other one? What's the story behind that half type?"

Mao west Gu Master spread his hands. In his left palm was still the same stubborn stone Gu in the shape of a small blue pebble, but the skin on his right palm had begun to twitch slightly and rhythmically. Xiang Nanfeng and Zuo Hezi both crowded around.

As the skin on the right palm of the Maoxi Gu Master gradually bulged, a bump the size of a thumbnail first appeared. The bump kept wriggling, getting bigger and bigger, and the skin on the surface of the bump was stretched thinner and thinner, and the dark outline inside could be vaguely seen moving.

The two stared wide-eyed, feeling as if they were about to hear the sound of skin tearing open, but the scene and sound of flesh being torn apart never appeared. Instead, at some unknown moment, a terrifyingly flat head suddenly emerged from the right palm of the Maoxi Gu Master.

The head was like a sharp iron shovel; when the skin folds at the back of its neck quietly opened, it was as if a jet-black cloak had been unfurled, its edges tinged with a pale yellow—its own battle flag. Its two pupils, as narrow as needles, were set in dark brown irises, cold, indifferent, and devoid of any emotion, staring intently at the two with the deathly gaze of a king of the rainforest.

"Ah! Glasses... King Cobra!"

Xiang Nanfeng instinctively took half a step back, his foot bumping into the easel behind him with a loud thud. His face instantly turned pale, his hands instinctively raised to shield himself, and his breathing became rapid. Zuo Hezi, though remaining expressionless, tensed up in her waist and arms.

Immediately afterwards, a dark shadow grew longer and longer against the skin of his palm. A powerful king cobra emerged from the palm of the Maoxi Gu Master, coiling and slithering upwards around his arm.

The scales gleamed with a dark, glossy sheen, as if they were clad in armor imbued with a dark, luminous light.

The venomous snake's body was almost as thick as the Maoxi Gu Master's forearm, yet its form was astonishingly flexible. Each wriggle carried a silent menace, and it passed over his clothes without making a sound. Until it wrapped around his entire arm, climbed onto his shoulder, and burrowed into his collar.

"This is called the Spirit Serpent Gu. Don't be afraid. What you see is just the serpent spirit. If you touch it, it doesn't actually exist." The Gu Master, Mao Xi, said with a smile, stretching out his right arm towards the two men amidst their panicked gazes. But both men instinctively waved their hands, neither willing to actually touch it.

"Forget it, this...this must be a form of witchcraft that can kill people."

Xiang Nanfeng and Zuo Hezi exchanged a glance, one speaking and the other nodding, while the Mao west Gu Master opposite them did not refute this time, clearly acknowledging their conjecture.

"Alright, alright, I know your grandmother has mastered both the Spirit Snake Gu and the Stone Gu. Let's talk about the remaining half of the witchcraft!"

"it is good."

Mao west Gu Master nodded. At that moment, a section of the snake spirit's tail swayed twice outside the collar before disappearing completely inside. He then continued:

"The last 'half' of witchcraft that my grandmother learned was called the 'Child-Losing Gu,' which had a much more significant origin than the previous two. Moreover, it was extremely malevolent. The Child-Losing Gu originated from a crooked old mulberry tree on the banks of the Qi River in the homeland of the Sanmiao people."

As Mao Xigu Master spoke, he turned to Xiang Nanfeng and asked:

"Hey, you're Chinese, haven't you heard the saying 'Mulberry means mourning'?"

Xiang Nanfeng was stunned for two or three seconds, then suddenly realized:

"Oh, I see, I've heard of it."

"What does that mean?" Zuo Hezi asked.

"It's a Chinese folk custom. The word 'mulberry' in Chinese sounds the same as 'mourning' in Chinese, so mulberry trees are considered unlucky. Although mulberry fruits are edible and leaves can be used to raise silkworms and reel silk, making them very useful trees, and Chinese people generally like to plant mulberry trees, they never plant them in their own yards or around their houses, for fear of being tainted by the bad luck associated with 'mourning'."

"That's right, that's what I mean."

Mao Xigu Master nodded in satisfaction, clearly appreciating Xiang Nanfeng's erudition. Then, he continued:

"Eight thousand years ago, Taihao Fuxi, the legendary ancestor of the Chinese people, had a concubine who was pregnant for fourteen months and gave birth on the eighth day of the first lunar month. However, the baby was stillborn. When the infant was born, it was covered in purplish-blue and had no breath. The concubine was heartbroken and cried for three days and three nights, holding the stillborn baby until her tears ran dry. On the fourth night, which was the twelfth day of the first lunar month, she carried the stillborn baby to the old crooked mulberry tree, buried the baby next to the roots of the tree, and then climbed up the mulberry tree and hanged herself on it."

"And then?" Xiang Nanfeng pressed. He could imagine that the so-called "child-mourning curse" must be closely related to the resentment of this mother and child.

"Then the old mulberry tree seemed to sense the resentment of the mother and child and the subtle energy of heaven. Its branches suddenly began to sway and wrap around the corpse of the concubine in the air, preventing her from falling. At the same time, the tree roots also wrapped around the corpse of the dead infant underground like countless arms."

Nourished by the corpse, the mulberry tree grew wildly for the next three hundred years, its branches blocking out the sky like a towering fir. Three hundred years later, the mulberry tree suddenly died, its branches and leaves falling off, leaving only a trunk like a pillar, standing tall. Three hundred years later, the mulberry tree collapsed with a crash, until the sunlight and moonlight corroded and weathered it into a few broken pieces. These remaining pieces of wood became wood spirits, as hard as rock, incorruptible and undying, and said to emit a faint, exotic fragrance.

"Jiang Yang used those broken pieces of wood as a medium to attract the souls of the concubine and her child, and refined them into Gu worms. She then distributed them to several young Gu masters, including my grandmother, to cultivate the Child-Losing Gu."

"Oh, if that's the case, then this 'Lost Child Gu' is indeed different from the previous 'Stubborn Stone Gu' and 'Spirit Snake Gu.' It carries such a heavy story within it, its origins are truly extraordinary!"

"That's right. So, logically speaking, the power of this 'Child-Losing Gu' should be among the top of the eleven types of witchcraft:"

"The original Gu worm of the Stubborn Stone Gu is just the most common pebble in the Three Danger Mountains, and the original Gu worm of the Spirit Snake Gu is the king cobra in the rainforest. Although rare, it's not that rare. But the Mourning Child Gu is different. It is formed from the souls of a mother and her child. It is not an ordinary object, nor is it a normal spirit. Its power is naturally incomparable. It's just a pity!"

Mao Xigu Master sighed, his face full of regret:

"My grandmother was too young then; she was only seven years old when she was pushed into the Twin Gates. At that time, she had only studied the Child-Losing Gu for a short time, and she hadn't mastered it very well. After passing through the Twin Gates, she had forgotten most of the methods related to the Child-Losing Gu. Later, she spent half her life without being able to comprehend the methods of the Child-Losing Gu, let alone cultivate it. So in her hands, this most powerful Child-Losing Gu could at most be considered 'half a kind'."

Xiang Nanfeng listened attentively to Mao Xigu's words, keenly grasping a subtle anomaly in them:

"Wait a minute, Master Mao Xi, if I heard you correctly, you just said 'for half her life'? Why not 'for her whole life'? Did your grandmother stop researching the Child-Losing Gu later?"

"Yes. That's right. That's exactly what I wanted to say." Master Maoxi nodded. "About forty years ago, my grandmother gave away the old mulberry wood that contained the Child-Losing Gu."

"What? Giving it away? Shouldn't this be the most precious witchcraft?"

Mao Xigu Master's words were clearly earth-shattering, but Sawako, sitting to the side, did not seem surprised.

"I don't know who Grandma gave it to; she didn't say." Before Xiang Nanfeng could press for details, Mao Xi Gu Master continued, his eyes filled with melancholy and confusion. "My grandma died of a heart attack; it was a sudden death, so she didn't have the chance to make any arrangements for her affairs. Therefore, she never told me the name of this person until her death. But she once told me that when she was young, she and that person were very close and trusted each other, so she told him everything."

"everything?"

"Yes, she told us everything, including that she was a Gu witch of the Hua Miao, Jiang Yang's plan to restore her kingdom, the history of the Three Miao War, the secret of the Twin Gates, and all the origins and characteristics of the witchcraft that Jiang Yang created. The only thing is that she never taught that person how to practice witchcraft. So that person knows everything about witchcraft, but just doesn't know how to use it."

"But why did she tell that person everything? Excuse me, and it may be presumptuous, but I still have to ask. Was it simply because she was blinded by love?"

"Hahaha." The Master of Maoxi Gu laughed, but he shook his head and said:

"You don't know, we Miao people are very sincere, and my grandmother was a very emotional person. So I guess there must be some factors involved, but it's definitely not all of it. According to my grandmother, when she was young, before she was pushed into the Twin Gates, there was already a traitor among the Miao people. The traitor had already told Panhu about Jiang Yang's secret plan to cultivate a little witch in an attempt to infiltrate and restore the country."

"Fortunately, the Twin Gates are the Flower Seedlings' top secret, known only to Jiang Yang and the thirteen elders, and the exact locations of all the Twin Gates are known only to Jiang Yang herself. Therefore, the traitor did not know that Jiang Yang was preparing to send these secretly cultivated little Gu witches to infiltrate parallel universes, and of course, he did not know which Twin Gate they would be sent behind."

"However, Panhu is ruthless. Jiang Yang believes that since Panhu has obtained the list of the little witch, he will definitely kill everyone on the list."

"So even if Jiang Yang and the thirteen elders all die in battle in the future, and they risk their lives to protect the secret of the Twin Gates, as long as Pan Hu is unwilling to give up, he will eventually discover the existence of the Twin Gates. At that time, he will definitely send his most powerful assassins into the parallel universe to hunt down the little Gu Po."

"Understood. Develop a downline, just in case?"

"Yes. I think Grandma must have been afraid that something might happen to her, so she gave the child-killing curse to that person and told him everything. And that person also promised Grandma that he would help her find a new Twin Gate and a way back to Sanwei Mountain."

As Mao Xigu spoke, he wore an expression filled with deep emotion. But while the speaker meant no harm, the listener took it to heart; Xiang Nanfeng's gaze bypassed him and abruptly landed on Zuo Hezi's face:

"Oh, I see. Miss Zuo, the person Mao Xigu Master was talking about is your father, Professor Zuo Sigong, right?"