Human, or Gu?

Beneath the dense shade of the trees, all was still and silent.

Third Senior Brother Zhu Li, guarding the Gu Rearing Pool, rose every few hours to fish out the dead Gu Children from the pool.

As the Exotic Gu Eggs hatched, the further it progressed, the more gruesome the deaths of the Gu Children he retrieved became.

Some had been sucked dry into mummies; some could not endure the transformation of their bodies and had their meridians utterly destroyed; others, like Liu Xing, had parts of their bodies warped into deformity... But they were worse off than Gu Servant Liu Xing.

During the previous hatching of Exotic Gu Eggs, Liu Xing had ended up with an incomparably ugly shell of a body, but at least he had survived.

With a miserable groan of "Ah," another Gu Child began convulsing.

Ma Kun and Liu Xing opened their eyes at the same time and discovered that this time, it was the Gu Child surnamed Gong. A huge lump had swelled from the left side of his head, splitting his skull apart.

Ma Kun watched helplessly as Third Senior Brother fished away the Gong Gu Child's corpse, his scalp going numb.

Though he had refined a Gu Mother after entering the Gu Cave, most of the medicinal power had gone toward healing his injuries. His physique was not much stronger than the Gong Gu Child's.

"Liu looks full of vigor. Why am I this weak?!" Ma Kun felt as though every drop of blood and Qi in his body had been hollowed out.

"Steward Liu, I'm afraid I can't hold on. How did you survive last time? I don't want to be a Gu Master anymore. Please, teach me how to stay alive."

Liu Xing shoved away Ma Kun, who had leaned close, and said in a cold, low voice, "Do the opposite. Others raise Gu; you refine Gu. That can only be said to give you a slightly better chance of surviving."

"Thank you for your guidance, Steward Liu."...

The two kept their voices extremely low, but in the current stillness of the woods, nearly every Gu Child still alive in the Gu Rearing Pool could hear them.

Third Senior Brother at the poolside sat with his eyes closed, regulating his breath. He turned a deaf ear to it all; in his eyes, each person had their own fate.

"Ma Kun is finished. Unless he clings to some powerful backer, he will no longer pose a threat to me." Liu Feng curled his lips into a cold smile. He looked full of vigor? He had refined four Gu Mothers!

Not dwelling on it, Liu Feng continued cultivating with his eyes shut. As he purged the Mortal Gu within his body, he also guided Poison Qi into the Soldier Gu on his back, nourishing it bit by bit.

The number of Mortal Gu in his body steadily decreased. Though the number of Intermediate Gu had not increased, they had all grown considerably stronger.

On his back, the Soldier Gu, "Split-Tooth," lay there meekly, like a child Gu clinging to a Gu Mother.

In the end, this Gu had neither knowledge nor awareness. It was muddleheaded, possessing only the instincts of an insect. In terms of intelligence, it was inferior even to a wild dog.

For Liu Feng to control this Gu in battle, he had to divide his attention and wield it through Qi. This had both advantages and drawbacks. The drawback was that he could not let it kill enemies on its own; the benefit was that it moved as his heart commanded, as readily as an arm or finger.

All in all, a Soldier Gu was precisely what its name implied: a weapon.

Liu Feng steadily strengthened himself in this manner. As the hours passed, miserable groans still sounded from the pool now and then.

Before they knew it, sixteen corpses had been cast aside in the woods.

Gradually, the misty aura over the pool's surface dissipated completely, and many Gu Children realized they could no longer draw out any medicinal power.

On this day, daylight shone brightly beyond the forest. This was the seventh day since they had planted the Gu.

Third Senior Brother Zhu Li rose to his full height, his gaze sweeping over the twenty-four Gu Children still alive in the pool. "The medicinal power in the pool has been exhausted. Follow me to the Medicine Garden and use Exotic Gu to raise your Gu."

Hearing Third Senior Brother's words, the twenty-four surviving Gu Children rose from the pool one after another, all somewhat puzzled.

"Exotic Gu are all treasures. We can use Exotic Gu to raise Gu?"

"What we planted were Exotic Gu Eggs. Fully grown Exotic Gu cannot be planted inside human bodies. They can be used to grow herbs, refine medicine, or raise Gu. Follow me, and you will understand."

Insect Valley's Medicine Garden was divided into an inner and an outer section.

The Medicine Garden near the mountain wall was the Inner Medicine Garden, while the section farther out was the Outer Medicine Garden. Both lay beneath the eastern mountain wall.

To enter the Inner Medicine Garden, one had to reach the point nearest the eastern mountain wall. The stone cave where the Valley Master resided was halfway up the mountain.

Following Third Senior Brother Zhu Li to the front of the Medicine Garden, every Gu Child looked rather grim. The moment they lifted their heads, they could see the entrance to that stone cave on the mountainside.

"You had best keep your eyes in check. If you offend the Valley Master, your fate will certainly be worse than death," Zhu Li reminded them in time.

The twenty-four Gu Children withdrew their gazes. Naturally, they did not dare offend the Valley Master. Rather, they were all considering the same question.

It was what Third Senior Brother had mentioned seven days ago: after hatching an Exotic Gu, they would have to meet the Valley Master. Of those who entered, no more than two would emerge alive.

"Meeting the Valley Master means people will die—several of them!" This was the shared thought in the hearts of all twenty-four.

"There is no need to linger in the Outer Medicine Garden. Follow me into the Inner Medicine Garden."

"Yes, Third Senior Brother."

As they entered the shadow of the mountain wall, the Inner Medicine Garden, which rarely saw sunlight all year round, unfolded before their eyes.

Under ordinary circumstances, even Gu Children responsible for gathering and planting herbs were not qualified to set foot in the Inner Medicine Garden. They could only come and go through the Outer Medicine Garden.

Before them stood medicinal herbs as tall as small trees. Within an area of less than three mu, it was nearly packed full of such towering plants.

Following the stems of those herbs downward, they found that dozens of plants had often rooted in the same spot—upon the body of a Gu insect seven or eight feet long.

Other than Third Senior Brother Zhu Li, only Liu Xing remained calm. The other twenty-three Gu Children all looked around in every direction.

These Exotic Gu were roughly similar in size, all around seven or eight feet long, but their body colors varied: mottled and multicolored, ash-black, and pure white. Only these three kinds were present.

"The pure white ones are Exotic Gu 'Cotton Spitters,' and the ash-black ones are Exotic Gu 'Ox Eaters.' Could these mottled ones be the Exotic Gu 'Mountain Gods'?"

"The Exotic Gu planted by our Insect Valley Young Miss and the senior brothers are one of these three kinds. There must be more than thirty Exotic Gu in this entire Inner Medicine Garden. They are all being used as fertilizer?"

"Judging by the size of these Exotic Gu, if we hatch Exotic Gu, they will not grow this large inside our bodies too, will they?"

"How are we supposed to use them to raise Gu? Many of these Exotic Gu have dried up. How should we choose?"

Standing among the group, Liu Feng indeed noticed that many Exotic Gu had shriveled bodies, as though the luxuriant medicinal herbs had wrung every last drop of essence from them.

"Most are dead Gu! There is no need to waste effort. Just as you normally raise Gu, release your Gu insects to gnaw on them, then use the Gu insects to nourish yourselves in return."

Under Third Senior Brother's guidance, the Gu Children present did not hesitate for long. One after another, they scattered in a scramble, all wanting to select a plumper Exotic Gu to raise their Gu.

Liu Feng walked more than ten zhang deeper inside, searching for fresher Exotic Gu. He did not want fertilizer that looked like a dried corpse.

"This is my first time seeing Exotic Gu."

"They are about as large as we are. There would be more than enough of this to refine Gu for a hundred people, wouldn't there?"

Somewhat familiar voices came from behind him. Liu Feng turned his head and saw the Gu Child leader named Yan Hongda speaking with another Gu Child.

Paying them no mind, he walked around a clump of lush medicinal herbs and continued deeper in.

Suddenly, his steps came to an abrupt halt. Looking again at the Exotic Gu beneath the tightly packed medicinal herbs, his heart jolted.

"As large as we are..."

"Dharma Eye Insight!" Liu Feng shut his eyes, then opened them.

Under Dharma Eye Insight, those "Exotic Gu" revealed their true forms: their insect flesh had been stripped away, and within were unmistakably human-shaped skeletons.

Standing in the shadows, Liu Feng's hands began trembling uncontrollably.

"Insect Valley is making us refine Exotic Gu to raise Gu! But this is clearly refining people!"

The human-shaped skeletons had almost completely fused into the insect bodies, leaving only vague fragments of bone. Only by seeing through their true forms at a glance could one make out the complete shape formed by those remaining bones. They were, without question, human skeletons.