The string of questions caused Lin Yue-er’s face to darken, while Gu Rong looked at her sternly.

“Yue-er, I’ve instructed you to find someone to properly groom Lingzhi’s Alchemy skills, and this is what you’ve come up with?”

At this point, Gu Rong could no longer overlook Yue-er’s actions even if he wanted to.

He became even more agitated as he thought of how Lin Yue-er had treated Gu Lingzhi in the past.

“Or do you think I am no longer able to manage this household?”

In the past, Gu Lingzhi had not demonstrated any talent, but now that she had and Lin Yue-er was still trying to suppress her abilities, Lin Yue-er had indeed crossed a line.

Lin Yue-er’s face paled instantly, realizing that she had already fallen into Gu Lingzhi’s trap. But at this point, what could she say? Gu Lingzhi did not have to do anything to her, Lin Yue-er walked right into the trap herself.

Everything that happened recently suddenly floated through her mind. From when she schemed against Gu Lingzhi but ended up losing Xiao Tao, till when Gu Lingzhi was revealed to possess dual wood and fire Spiritual Roots, it seemed like Gu Lingzhi had always been patiently biding her time.

Could a girl in her teens actually come up with a plan as elaborate as this? Who was helping her come up with such schemes?

Lin Yue-er could only suppress the hatred in her heart as she received the brutal scolding from Gu Rong.

She could only blame herself for underestimating her enemy.

Gu Linglong could not stand seeing her own mother being scolded by her father. She dashed towards Gu Lingzhi and pushed her, scolding, “You bitch! You paid the two Master Alchemists to spread false news to my mother! You are a bitch just like your mother, only knowing how to seduce men!”

Gu Linglong’s attack caught Gu Lingzhi by surprise, the fire in Gu Lingzhi’s eyes could no longer be hidden. The Spiritual Essence Liquid that she had used for the past few days was suddenly useful as she easily dodged Gu Linglong’s attack. She then struck back with a slap of her own.

“The people who are least qualified to speak about my mother are the two of you!” Gu Lingzhi whispered into Gu Linglong’s ears menacingly. The unconcealed hatred in her words took Gu Linglong by surprise. She had never seen Gu Lingzhi like this before.

“Linglong!” When Lin Yue-er heard the sound of a slap, she thought it was Gu Lingzhi that got hit. She never expected that she would instead see her daughter staring blankly into space, with two hand imprints on her face. She then realized that it was her daughter who got slapped. At that moment, her heart ached as she looked at Gu Lingzhi menacingly.

“If I were you, I would drop whatever thoughts you are having now. Now we know that Lingzhi possesses the talent to be an outstanding Alchemist, I will not let you bully her anymore. I’m sure you know what our family lacks the most right now.”

Lin Yue-er’s body trembled when she suddenly remembered that Gu Rong was standing beside her.

Although the Gu Clan was one of the Xia Kingdom’s Four Great Clans, they were the weakest amongst all of them.

This was because the Gu Clan did not have any Alchemists that could cultivate Heaven Level medicine. As a result, many clan members had not been able to obtain sufficient Spiritual Medicine, causing their cultivation to lag behind that of the other three clans.

But now, how could Gu Rong not seize the opportunity when Gu Lingzhi possessed an extraordinary talent for Alchemy?

Reading Gu Rong’s mind, Lin Yue-er felt her hatred for Gu Lingzhi grow even more. At the same time, the fear in her heart rose.

Now that Gu Rong had started to think highly of Gu Lingzhi, she could not imagine what would happen when Gu Lingzhi had become a more outstanding Master Alchemist. Would she ride over her head?

She would not allow this to happen. She had to think of a way to get rid of Gu Lingzhi before she had a chance to progress any further. What about benefits to the clan? She did not believe that the Gu Clan would be unable to rise above the ranks without Gu Lingzhi.

The schemes that Lin Yue-er had plotted against Gu Lingzhi collapsed right in front of her.

After sending off Gu Rong and others, Gu Lingzhi glanced at Cui Lian.

“If Lin Yue-er makes things difficult for you, push the blame to me; you can just tell them that you were completely oblivious.”

Cui Lian gave a slight nod, but she already had a plan.

She could see Gu Lingzhi’s brilliance on one hand and Lin Yue-er’s ruthlessness on the other. She clearly knew who was good and who was bad. Certain and resolute about her decision, she fell to her knees under Gu Lingzhi’s astonished gaze.

“First Mistress, I want to pledge my loyalty to you and from today onwards, I will only receive orders from you!”

Gu Lingzhi was shocked at this sudden declaration. She never thought that Cui Lian would so quickly betray Lin Yue-er and a sincere smile appeared on her face, “Weren’t you on my side ever since the first day you were here?”

Cui Lian was stunned but she forced a smile on her face.

What did her mistress mean? Did her First Mistress treat her as one of her own from the very beginning?

Humans were extremely fascinating; the moment you begin to think that someone was good, all their past misdeeds could be forgotten. Cui Lian was exactly like that. She was bewitched by Gu Lingzhi’s sincerity and completely forgot that she had only started helping Gu Lingzhi because she was threatened into doing so.

Making use of this situation, Gu Lingzhi retrieved three black medicinal pills from her Storage Ring and handed it to Cui Lian, “This amount of antidote will last you three months. If you are truly loyal to me, after one year, I will cure you of the poison.”

Cui Lian was moved to tears as she took the “antidote” and was even more certain of her choice to be loyal to Gu Lingzhi.

At the same time, Gu Lingzhi had made it known to her that as long as she was faithful to Gu Lingzhi, the poison in her that initially made her extremely apprehensive would be cured.

As Gu Lingzhi watched Cui Lian consume the three pills happily, her eyes filled with mockery.

Cui Lian was not poisoned to begin with. After today, however… she would really be poisoned.

The poison that she had fed Cui Lian was a slow-release poison. The poison would accumulate and slowly devour one’s consciousness. Eventually, it would cause the victim to go crazy.

On the day that she was reborn, she had sworn to herself not to forgive anyone who had harmed her in her previous life!

On the other hand, in Gu Clan’s guest house, Rong Yuan leaned lazily on the wall as he listened to Yuan Zheng report about what had happened in Gu Lingzhi’s garden that afternoon to him. The interest in his eyes grew even deeper.

“You said that the First Mistress of the Gu Clan had actually refined a Spirit Moulding Pill consisting of two different attributes?”

“I saw it with my own eyes, it can’t be fake,” Yuan Zheng confirmed.