Fu Qingyang led his five teammates out of the barracks. Looking around, they saw a dense black swarm of insects blanketing the sky above the camp, their wings producing a constant buzzing.
Fu Qingyang narrowed his eyes for a closer look. The insects filling the sky resembled gnats, but were several times larger. Their bodies were blood-red, and their long mouthparts gleamed metallically, like sharp needles.
The soldiers clutched their heads and charged wildly about beneath the swarm. One after another, they screamed and fell, frantically scratching at their faces and chests until their skin split open and blood streamed down.
Some soldiers fled into the buildings and shut the doors and windows. The swarm immediately covered the doors and windows like flies, trying to squeeze through every crack.
The experts in the army each employed their own methods. Fire Masters controlled twisting fire dragons that soared through the air and incinerated the swarm; Water Ghosts made well water surge upward in reverse, gathering it into massive hands that grabbed at the insects, but the gu insects were too fast, and the results were far from ideal.
The Wood Demons lit insect-repelling incense, hoping to drive the gu insects away with its scent.
With a whoosh, blazing flames rose from All Under Heaven Returns to Fire's body, covering him from head to toe. He strode over to a corpse and examined it closely, only to find it shriveled and drained of most of its blood. Dense clusters of red eggs clung to the ruptured wounds.
The eggs were crystal-clear, and the lifeforms within them were rapidly gestating and growing at an astonishing rate.
Alarmed, All Under Heaven Returns to Fire flicked out a tongue of flame, reducing both the eggs and the corpse to ash. Then he shouted, "These gu