“Hic...!”
In the crook of Gu Changsheng’s left arm, seven-year-old Jiang Tuntun gave a sudden, sharp convulsion.
The healthy pink flush that had just bloomed across her chubby cheeks drained to a chalky gray-white between one heartbeat and the next. Her small fingers, still clutching the front of Gu Changsheng’s white linen apron, curled inward in pain as a second wisp of acrid, greenish-black smoke hissed out from between her newly regrown front teeth.
Wherever that tiny wisp of greenish-black smoke drifted across the stone floor, the solid granite tiles hissed and bubbled like wax dropped onto a red-hot stove!
“Fourth Sister!”
Ten-year-old Gu Nian, eleven-year-old Ye Xiao, and eight-year-old Su Nuannuan all cried out in alarm at the same time, crowding around their father’s knees.
“Master Gu, be careful!”
Auntie Qin flashed across the cavern floor and pressed two fingers lightly against Tuntun’s tiny wrist. The retired Rank 4 Peak assassin barely touched the little girl’s pulse point before a jolt of scorching, corrosive sulfur-fire shot up Auntie Qin’s fingertips, turning her expression dead serious.
