Blocking the Exit

By the time Liu Xing, Ma Kun, and the Gong-surnamed Gu Child arrived, four swarms of Gu insects had already occupied the area around the fork.

The three stopped before the swarms and did not rashly charge into them.

Liu Xing's nostrils twitched. The stench of blood here was fading; once the Gu insects had devoured the corpses on the ground clean, the swarms would naturally disperse.

"We saw the Soldier Gu in the passage on the left," the Gong-surnamed Gu Child said.

Liu Xing found it difficult to make out the traces around them. After feeling along the stone wall with his palm, he said with certainty, "The Soldier Gu should have entered the middle passage."

The three waited for a while. Before the swarms had fully dispersed, a heavy hissing sound suddenly came from ahead.

Ma Kun exchanged a look with the Gong-surnamed Gu Child. "That's it," Ma Kun said. "But something about the noise isn't right..."

"Someone got there first! Charge in after me."

After listening briefly, Liu Xing hesitated no longer. He stepped over a half-devoured corpse and shot forward.

His two malformed arms swept out repeatedly. Enduring a few injuries, he forcibly sent large swathes of Gu insects flying.

Liu Xing led the way, with Ma Kun and the Gong-surnamed Gu Child close behind. All six eyes were fixed ahead, eager to see who was refining the Soldier Gu.

More than thirty feet away, in the nearly pitch-black passage, a figure was pinning the Soldier Gu firmly beneath him. Judging by the movements of his hands, he was refining poisonous blood into the Soldier Gu's body.

"There really is someone among the Gu Children who dares refine a Soldier Gu." Before he could clearly see the figure, Liu Xing swept his broad palms to either side.

Seven stones fell into his hands. With a forceful throw, several sharp whistles tore through the passage in succession.

In the darkness more than thirty feet away, the figure seized the half-refined Soldier Gu and, like a nocturnal beast, sprang several times before vanishing into the depths.

Several loud bangs rang out as all seven stones smashed into the stone walls of the passage.

"Trying to run?" Liu Xing roared and immediately gave chase.

The Gong-surnamed Gu Child was about to follow when he suddenly saw Ma Kun standing there in a daze. "Brother Ma, what are you spacing out for? Let's go take a look too."

"Coming." Ma Kun gave a perfunctory reply, unable to stop a thoughtful look from appearing on his face.

The light here was already poor, and that person had been covered head to toe in Gu insects, making him even harder to identify. Still, perhaps it was only an illusion, but Ma Kun felt that figure looked somewhat familiar.

Within the winding passageways, the three made two large circles and returned to the fork where they had entered.

Seeing Liu Xing's savage expression, the Gong-surnamed Gu Child's cheeks still burned with pain. He did not dare make a sound.

Ma Kun suggested, "It's too dark inside. Even if that person is hiding halfway up the cave wall, we wouldn't spot him. Rather than waste our strength here, we should go block the exit."

"Go." After a brief moment of thought, Liu Xing punched the stone wall and left unwillingly with the other two.

At that moment, not too far from the fork.

Just as Ma Kun had guessed, Liu Feng was indeed hanging from the stone wall of the passage. In his hand, the Soldier Gu, curled into a ball, gradually stopped struggling.

In the darkness, the flesh on Liu Feng's arms had turned up and split open, leaving scarcely an inch of uninjured meat.

Earlier, in order to suppress the smell of blood, he had forcibly sealed his wounds with Gu insects. Now he could no longer hold them down, and the wounds burst open again.

"Drip, drip..." Blood trickled down the stone wall.

"So this thing is called a Soldier Gu!" Liu Feng glanced toward the fork, then flipped down onto the floor of the passage.

A strange gleam flickered in his eyes. When he had fought this Soldier Gu, whose entire body was lined with canine teeth, he had the help of a swarm of Gu insects and the Heart Eye to anticipate the attacks of its insect legs. Yet his arms had still been left bleeding without end.

"The Mind Eye Technique is useful for anticipating another's movements, but even if many attacks can be seen and predicted, one still cannot evade them when limited by one's own strength!" After this battle, Liu Feng had gained some insight.

"I'll first find a Gu Mother to treat my injuries. That madman surnamed Liu, and Ma Kun too—I'll settle the score with you sooner or later."

Carrying the Soldier Gu, Liu Feng turned and disappeared into the depths of the passage.

As the great stone was pushed aside from outside, light returned to the Gu Cave.

The three Gu Servants at the front tossed aside their pry bars and covered their noses and mouths. They had caught a nauseating stench.

Their gazes swept over the scene. Gu insects, bones, and slime covered the ground. No one knew how many Gu Children had died at the entrance.

"I said it long ago—letting that madman surnamed Liu in would get more than half of them killed." The thick-browed Gu Servant pinched his nose and spoke in a muffled voice.

"It wasn't us who let him in!"

"Enough nonsense. Sound the bronze gong and summon the Gu Children who survived."

Just as the other two Gu Servants were about to strike the gong, three figures hurried over from within the Gu Cave. It seemed they had been guarding the area near its entrance.

The three stepped across the ground littered with slime and bones. They were Liu Xing, Ma Kun, and the Gong-surnamed Gu Child.

Clang.

Clang, clang... The sound of the bronze gong echoed through the silent Gu Cave.

The Gu Children inside could not distinguish day from night and could only roughly estimate the time. Upon hearing the gong, they emerged from their hiding places one after another.

Ten, twenty, thirty... Half an hour later, the number of Gu Children stopped at thirty-seven. Including Liu Xing's group of three, there were only forty!

Yet these Gu Children were full of spirit. Whether in physique or bearing, they were plainly different from when they had entered.

Especially one group of eight—every one of them radiated a seething baleful aura. They had likely taken quite a few lives within the Gu Cave.

"Everyone is here. Why are you blocking the exit?" the tall leader of the eight-man group asked in a deep voice.

At the entrance of the Gu Cave, besides the three Gu Servants, Liu Xing was also standing there as a Gu Servant.

The four exchanged glances. Liu Xing stepped forward and said coldly, "Search yourselves first, then leave one by one."

At those words, the faces of all the Gu Children darkened. The crackling of clenched joints rang out in a chorus.

They had waited here for a long time and had already exercised considerable restraint. Now they were to be searched too? Did these people take them for livestock?

Moreover, Liu Xing was the one saying it, which filled them with even greater fury. It was that damned madman who had triggered the Insect Tide.

"Do you take us for the useless trash who died? You think you can search us whenever you please? We survived the Gu Cave, and we're about to implant Exotic Gu Eggs."

"Liu, do you really think we don't dare fight you?"

"You four cripples are only Gu Servants. Once we hatch Exotic Gu, we'll be Gu Masters."...

While the other Gu Children vented their anger, the tall leader stepped out of the Gu Cave first and bellowed, "Liu, I won't settle the earlier score with you for now, but try stopping me this time."

As soon as the leader spoke, the seven Gu Children behind him stepped forward. Their meaning was unmistakable.

The muscles in Liu Xing's face twitched, and veins bulged on the malformed arms dragging along the ground. He had underestimated these surviving Gu Children.

"Move aside. Don't hinder us from implanting Exotic Gu Eggs."

The Gu Children surged out together. With that prize dangling before them, they truly dared raise their hands against the Gu Servants they had once feared.

As they watched the Gu Children leave one after another, the four Gu Servants, including Liu Xing, could not stop them and did not dare truly make a move.

Suddenly, Liu Xing spotted a somewhat familiar figure among the Gu Children and immediately thrust out an arm to block him.

"You, stop. If I remember correctly, your name is Liu Feng, right? Earlier, you said you would repay me. Also, how did you get the injuries on your arms..."