Gu Child

Great Sui, Qi Prefecture, Yunze Prefecture.

A hundred miles outside Baofeng County stood a vast mountain range called Min Mountain.

It was late autumn, and the mountain forests were dyed in layers of color.

In this beautiful place lay a valley called Insect Valley.

Hunters from nearby often brought large hauls of game here to trade for miraculous medicines. Otherwise, ordinary people would never dare approach Insect Valley.

Rumor had it that Gu Masters lived in the valley. The other rogue cultivators in Min Mountain didn't dare come looking for trouble.

For anyone who offended the Gu Masters of the valley met a grisly end. They were either fed to Gu or refined alive into Medicine Persons, like puppets.

One day, six hunters each drove a cart piled high with game to the valley entrance. Their palms had already grown slick with cold sweat as they gripped the reins.

"Grandpa, are those Gu Children...?"

The young hunter huddled behind the Old Hunter. At the valley entrance, the Poisonous Miasma parted, and twenty-four Gu Children emerged.

They were all young—some teenagers, others only children—and every one of them looked terrifying.

Some had blue-black faces, some had horns growing from their heads, some were covered in fleshy tumors, some had swollen limbs, and some had bulging sacs hanging from their shoulders... They were all people deformed by having Gu implanted in them.

As the distance between them closed, the Gu Children's faces grew clearer. The six hunters couldn't help but look at them with complicated expressions.

They knew that one batch of Gu Children after another died inside Insect Valley, but new children always came to take their place.

As for who these children were, they were all refugees who had lost their families in the ravages of war. Some had lost both parents; others had been separated from their families and sold here.

Anyone who knew how terrifying Insect Valley was—even beggars—would avoid it. No one would willingly become a Gu Child.

The twenty-four Gu Children were led by one with a swollen face. He stepped forward and tossed the bundle in his hands to the Old Hunter.

"These are the medicines you need. Take them and leave at once."

"Yes, yes."

The hunters took the bundle, unloaded their wares onto the ground, and drove off without daring to check whether the medicine inside was real or fake.

"Come move the goods. Take them to the Medicine Pit."

At the leader's command, the other twenty-three Gu Children got to work.

Among them was a teenager with a fairly handsome face. His lips and fingernails were black, a sign that he was badly poisoned. No one knew how much longer he could hold out.

Like the other Gu Children, he hoisted a mountain deer onto his shoulders and started walking.

Compared with the others, who struggled under their loads, he moved with ease. His strength was clearly a cut above that of an ordinary Gu Child.

Of course, it came at a price. He had to have more Gu implanted than the others—and more poisonous Gu.

In the sunlight, the Gu-Implanting Orifice on his right arm stood out starkly. The exposed flesh was blue-black, and dozens of Gu seemed to be plugging the gaping wound.

Perhaps unable to stand seeing the teenager make it look so easy, the leader Gu Child spoke up.

"Liu Feng, you're supposed to carry that stag. Put the mountain deer on your shoulders back."

The leader's name was Ma Kun. When Liu Feng had first come to Insect Valley, he'd talked back to him once, and Ma Kun had held a grudge ever since. He never missed a chance to make Liu Feng suffer.

"Captain Ma told you to carry the biggest one. Didn't you hear him? Hurry up." A Gu Child named Qiao Fei chimed in at just the right moment.

Liu Feng's handsome face remained calm. He said nothing and turned back as instructed.

With his build, even carrying the stag was a struggle. Before long, he had fallen behind the other Gu Children.

By contrast, Gu Child Qiao Fei carried only a young deer.

"He's got plenty of suffering ahead of him."

Ma Kun lowered his voice. "I can't wait for later. We can't let him make a comeback. Keep an eye on him for me. If you get the chance, kill him."

As he spoke, Ma Kun casually kicked a pebble away. It struck Liu Feng squarely in the knee.

Liu Feng staggered and dropped to one knee. The stag, weighing hundreds of pounds, nearly crushed him.

Ma Kun sneered and walked off with the other Gu Children, leaving Liu Feng pinned beneath the load.

"I have to become a Gu Master and escape Insect Valley's control. Only then can I go look for my parents and younger brother." Blood seeped from the corner of Liu Feng's mouth as he forced down his anger.

Ma Kun was looking for a chance to get rid of him. Liu Feng was waiting for a chance too, but Ma Kun held the position of leader and had many more opportunities to strike.

Gritting his teeth, Liu Feng drew upon the Poison Qi he had cultivated for barely a month and mustered his strength to stand back up.

He quickened his pace and passed through the Poisonous Miasma into Insect Valley.

At this hour, the Gu Children weren't just moving goods; others in the valley were busy too.

Some planted herbs, some gathered them, some raised Gu, and others handled odd jobs. They passed one another without exchanging greetings.

Insect Valley had Gu Masters, Gu Servants, and Gu Children. The Gu Children held the lowest status and were the most numerous. They died miserable deaths all the time, only to be replaced with newcomers. Liu Feng had long since grown accustomed to the other Gu Children's indifference.

Apart from the busy Gu Children, the mysterious Valley Master and his three Gu Master disciples were nowhere to be seen.

For now, the ones directing the Gu Children were several Gu Servants in charge of managing affairs.

Gu Servants ranked above Gu Children. They were half-finished products who had been implanted with an Exotic Gu Egg but had neither become Gu Masters nor died. They were much stronger than Gu Children.

When Liu Feng reached the Medicine Pit, the Gu Children who had moved the goods were standing around its edge. Ma Kun was saying something to them.

"Take a good look. The medicinal mud in that corner needs to be cleared out."

"Isn't clearing the Medicine Pit a Gu Servant's job? The poisonous fog at the bottom is too thick. Gu Children can't go down there."

"Something's wrong. Even the Gu won't go near it. There could be deadly poison in there..."

Hearing footsteps, Ma Kun immediately turned around and looked at Liu Feng with a sinister smile.

"You're just in time. Come take a look."

A cold glint flickered in Liu Feng's eyes. He knew the other boy was up to no good again.

He walked to the edge of the Medicine Pit, threw the stag on his shoulders down into it, then peered at the bottom.

The Medicine Pit was ten zhang across and four zhang deep. Through the yellow-green poisonous fog, he could just make out the black medicinal mud at the bottom, where countless herbs grew.

Among the poisonous herbs lay heaps of bones, many of them unmistakably human—the remains of Gu Children who had been buried there.

Looking more closely, he could barely make out large patches of living things moving in the black medicinal mud. They were all Gu, packed together in a writhing mass.

The Gu Children didn't dare go down because their cultivation was too weak to withstand the poisonous fog at the bottom of the pit. The longer they stayed below, the greater the chance they would be poisoned to death.

Ma Kun pointed to a corner of the Medicine Pit. "All the herbs in that spot have died. The Gu won't go near it, either. The medicinal mud they put in recently must have been mixed wrong. It needs to be cleared out."

"Take a basket and a Medicine Shovel. Those three will go down with you."

The three unlucky Gu Children picked out to go with him—two boys and a girl—were all small and thin.

Under the watchful eyes of Ma Kun and Qiao Fei, the three nervously took the baskets and Medicine Shovels.

Liu Feng stayed where he was, staring at Ma Kun without expression.

He could put up with small things, but this meant going down into the Medicine Pit.

Besides, the spot Ma Kun had pointed to was very suspicious. Poisonous herbs were incredibly hardy, yet every one there had died. Even the highly poisonous Gu refused to approach it.

"What are you standing around for? Just get it done quickly. It won't kill you," Qiao Fei said, making himself useful at just the right moment.

Liu Feng still didn't move. Ma Kun's face darkened, and he pulled a medicine box from his robes.

"Fine, then. When you come back up, each of you can have enough Qi-Nurturing Pills for three days. Steward Liu only just gave these to me. You can't even handle this little job?"

"Liu Feng, I know you're eager to cultivate. Qi-Nurturing Pills are good stuff."

Sure enough, at the mention of cultivation, Liu Feng's grim expression softened a little.

He was worried about his parents and younger brother. With war raging and demons and fiends running rampant, he wanted to find them as soon as possible.

"Give me my Qi-Nurturing Pills first."

"I trust you. Here."

Seeing Liu Feng give in, Ma Kun put on a smile and handed him what looked like an oil-paper packet without a second thought.

After confirming what was inside, Liu Feng put away the Qi-Nurturing Pills, tossed the Medicine Shovel into the basket, slung it onto his back, and walked to the edge of the Medicine Pit where a rope ladder had been set up.

"You three want me to send you down? Get down there already!"

Ma Kun's angry shout came from behind them. He had no patience for these weaklings.

The other Gu Children at the edge of the pit turned their eyes to Liu Feng. Their looks were a mix of envy and disdain.

"He really values cultivation more than his life. He's actually going down there!"

"His parents were probably swallowed whole by some mountain spirit or wild creature long ago..."

Climbing down the rope ladder, Liu Feng could feel the Gu inside him growing restless. He became more and more certain something was wrong.

As he wondered what was wrong with that patch of medicinal mud, the ladder above him swayed. He looked up and saw two small figures tumbling down.

The two Gu Children struck the bottom and were instantly covered by swarms of Gu. Their fate was obvious!

"Two useless fools. They only climbed halfway before passing out from the poison. I'd have been better off going down myself." Qiao Fei's teasing voice rang out from above.

On the rope ladder, the only one besides Liu Feng was a pockmarked Gu Child, around twelve or thirteen—a child who hadn't yet grown up.

He said in a panic, "Let's hurry. I'm afraid I won't be able to hold out."

Liu Feng nodded. After glancing at the distance to the bottom, he let go with both hands and jumped. The pockmarked Gu Child jumped down after him.

The moment they landed, they forced the Gu inside them out to fend off the Gu at the bottom of the pit. With a few light steps across the medicinal mud, they reached the corner where all the herbs had died.

Above them, the Gu Children stood in a row, watching the two blurry figures at the bottom.

"Take a good look. Do those two look poisoned?"

"I can't see very clearly either. Don't worry, Captain Ma. There's plenty of medicinal mud in that spot. They'll have enough to dig."

Ma Kun and Qiao Fei traded remarks. This was a rare chance for them to get Liu Feng killed.

At that moment, Liu Feng and the pockmarked Gu Child in the corner at the bottom of the pit both looked puzzled.

The patch of medicinal mud they stood on was only five chi across. It looked no different from the mud elsewhere, yet it was the only spot where no herbs would grow.

The poisonous fog drifted overhead, but none of it continued downward or seeped into this five-chi patch. They only had to bend slightly to stand there, and for the moment, they didn't have to worry about being poisoned.

"How strange." The pockmarked Gu Child looked at his body as the Gu inside him crawled out on their own.

The Gu inside Liu Feng were also getting out of control. Luckily, his Poison Qi was stronger than the pockmarked Gu Child's; otherwise, he wouldn't have been able to suppress them either.

"Don't worry about the Gu. Clear the medicinal mud and get back up as soon as possible."

"Okay. We'll dig from opposite sides."

On Liu Feng's side, the corpse of a mountain deer lay on the medicinal mud. It had been thrown into the Medicine Pit a few days ago, yet showed no signs of decay.

He exerted himself and tossed the deer beyond the five-chi patch, drawing the Gu in the Medicine Pit toward it in a swarm.

"The mountain deer's been sitting here for days. It seems fine too."

Muttering to himself, Liu Feng took the Medicine Shovel and started digging. But after only a few shovelfuls, the shovel head gave a sharp clink.

He took a closer look and couldn't help letting out a soft gasp. The pockmarked Gu Child asked, "Are you all right?"

"I'm fine. It's just a pebble."

As he spoke, Liu Feng pried a small, seven-colored egg-shaped stone from beneath the shovel head and casually flicked it toward the basket.

But halfway through the motion, his hand froze. His expression turned utterly bewildered...