Be Our Master!

The five people who had fallen to the ground calmed down slightly. Their ear-flaps twitched, and judging by the sound, Liu Xing was clearly right in front of them.

But when they looked with their eyes, the scene before them was like the compound eye of an insect, as if hundreds of tiny images had been stitched together in a chaotic mess.

In their fragmented field of vision, one person saw Liu Xing to the left, another saw him to the rear right, and in Ma Kun's view, Liu Xing was simply floating in mid-air.

Unless one possessed extraordinary eyesight or was a Taoist proficient in complex calculations, it would be impossible to pinpoint Liu Xing's true location from those hundreds of chaotic, tiny images.

"Close your eyes. He has only just hatched his Exotic Gu; there is no need to fear him..."

The five refused to give up. They shut their eyes and relied on their hearing to judge Liu Xing's position.

The next moment, from the perspective of the Gu Children watching from the sidelines:

Five ugly, madmen with their eyes closed surrounded Liu Xing, dense swarms of Gu insects rising from their bodies like black smoke.

"Buzz, buzz..."

Crawling on the ground, flying in the air, from every direction, the air was filled with bizarrely shaped Gu insects.

The yellow sludge and the fine drizzle in the air were both dyed black in an instant.

Liu Xing's smile faded. As he released his own Gu insects, he pulled at his sleeves with both hands.

With two "rip" sounds, his sleeves were torn away, revealing six additional eyes on each of his exposed arms.

As his arms swung, the twelve eyes upon them formed a motion-tracking field of vision, rapidly capturing the movements of the five men and their Gu insects.

Sharp-eyed Gu Servants noticed that hidden within the hair at the back of Liu Xing's head was actually a single vertical eye.

Counting them up, with seven extra eyes on his face, six on each arm, and one on the back of his head, Liu Xing had grown a full twenty eyes.

Surrounded, Liu Xing dodged with ease, parrying the five men's attacks from time to time.

The swarms of Gu insects could only circle around in pursuit of Liu Xing; if they failed to dodge in time, Liu Xing would simply use his own Gu to wear theirs down.

"This Exotic Gu seems to bring me three benefits for now: expanded vision, motion-tracking, and the ability to scramble others' vision." Liu Xing was intentionally using the five as practice.

However, he lost interest before ten rounds had passed.

He needed to spar with Gu Masters of his own level to accumulate experience; fighting these five made it difficult to see his own flaws.

"That's enough."

Liu Xing's arms suddenly swelled several times over, returning to their deformed, thick state. With a combination of sweeping and smashing, aided by his expanded and motion-tracking vision, every strike landed true.

As Ma Kun lunged from behind, Liu Xing didn't even turn his head before a fist the size of a human skull slammed into his face.

In the blink of an eye, all five lay sprawled in the sludge.

Liu Xing walked a few steps to stand before Ma Kun, staring directly at the Dead Eye on his face, and laughed: "The Dead Eyes on you five are useless to me, but they might have some use for others. You could call them half-finished products."

At this, Liu Xing's expression turned strange, and he swept his gaze over several Gu Children sitting on the ground not far away.

Those few felt their vision blur just looking at the Dead Eyes on Ma Kun and the others; staring for too long made them uncontrollably dizzy and lightheaded.

"I'd rather not have it!" Ma Kun shrieked, his hands clawing wildly at his face once more.

"That's not up to you, unless you want to peel away your own flesh and bone!"

Liu Xing sneered and ignored the five of them.

"Liu, you're gloating too early. You aren't the only one going to see the Valley Master. Let's see if you can make it out alive."

"We may have been reduced to Gu Servants, but your life is far from guaranteed."

"That Liu Feng is insidious and ruthless; you are no match for him. He will surely take your wretched life..."

The five were more rational than before; after cursing Liu Xing, they looked at each other and gave a miserable laugh.

As Liu Xing turned to leave, his complexion darkened significantly upon hearing this.

Just as Ma Kun and the others had said, based on the situation before they left the medicine garden, it was a near certainty that Liu Feng had hatched an Exotic Gu.

He had clashed with Liu Feng before, and with Liu Feng's Soldier Gu, Split-Tooth, combined with that strange method that made his every strike miss, he truly might not be a match for him.

"I have suffered through endless hardships to reach this point; how could I die at the hands of that young brat? I must make arrangements early."

"It is just strange... I have already hatched my Exotic Gu, so why has Liu Feng not yet appeared?"

Liu Xing's compound eyes, which he had not yet retracted, blinked. The surrounding scene, and even the faces of the hundred-plus Gu Children, all fell into his sight.

"Hm? The person beside Third Senior Brother... it's Second Senior Brother!"

He had intended to see how many others who had been implanted with Exotic Gu had succeeded like him, but he had not expected to see Second Senior Brother, Shen Yushu.

At this moment, under the stone eaves some twenty yards inside the entrance of the Insect Valley:

Two young men stood there, one burly and the other tall and slender.

They watched Liu Xing's back from afar and exchanged a glance. Zhu Li said in a low voice: "This Exotic Gu is called 'Evolution Pupil'. Judging by what Liu Xing just displayed, it seems to have some clever uses."

Beside him, the newly returned Second Senior Brother, Shen Yushu, looked handsome and was dressed like a scholar.

"It does have some clever uses, but for Liu... Liu what's-his-name, for someone like him to wield it—Third Junior Brother, with your brute strength, a few punches and he'd likely be beaten into a pulp of flesh."

Zhu Li nodded noncommittally at Shen Yushu's assessment.

It was not that he was arrogant, but simply that it was the truth.

Gu arts that assist or interfere with others are often less effectively executed by most practitioners than those specialized in slaughter.

Take his Exotic Gu, "Ox Eater," for instance; it is simple and direct. The host gains a physique as domineering as a martial artist's—they do not strike unless necessary, but once they do, the opponent is left either dead or crippled.

"I have returned this time to report an urgent matter to Master, so I must head to his quarters first."

As Shen Yushu spoke, he beckoned to the figures behind him, where two spirits were actually crouching: an Ape Spirit and a Black Wolf Spirit.

The two spirits were draped in cloaks, their beastly eyes filled with profound intelligence, devoid of the dullness typical of wild animals.

Their consciousness was not influenced by Shen Yushu's "Mountain God" Gu art like that of plant or tree spirits; rather, they had been subdued through the Gu Shen Yushu had planted within them.

Zhu Li took two steps to catch up and asked casually, "Oh, so you didn't return for the Soldier Gu, 'Split-Tooth'?"

"Naturally not. It is Eldest Senior Brother who has met with trouble; he is being hunted, and no one knows where he has fled to in recent days."

"Eldest Senior Brother was on the verge of shedding his mortal coil for his second incarnation, and Master had even summoned him back. To think he would meet with disaster at such a critical juncture!"

The two walked and talked, with Zhu Li listening to Shen Yushu's account.

It turned out that a group of heretical Taoists from somewhere called the White Sun Sect had appeared. Upon learning that these White Sun Sect evildoers were hunting Eldest Senior Brother, Shen Yushu had, of course, stayed far away.

Shen Yushu had not dared to intervene, merely gathering some intelligence.

The White Sun Sect Taoists were skilled in controlling yin fire and painting talismans on human skin; Eldest Senior Brother had incurred their enmity while competing for some object.

"I will report this to Master first and see how he decides! In any case, I am powerless to help," Shen Yushu said indifferently, spreading his hands.

As the two walked, two Gu Servants hurried toward them from the opposite direction.

The pair, a man and a woman, were both missing an arm! They knelt in unison before Shen Yushu.

"Second Senior Brother, had you returned any later, my sister and I would likely have lost our lives."

"Not only did wicked people steal our medicine, but they also hacked us into cripples. We beg you, Senior Brother, to seek justice for us..."