Second-Rank Medicine Slave

A sensation that made the heart ripple washed over him, and Liu Feng's heartbeat could not help but quicken.

Compared to his own face, the tactile sensation of the two was entirely different.

Leng Qiuyue, standing right before his eyes, flushed crimson. She showed not the slightest intention of resisting, her lowered brows and submissive posture revealing only delicate tenderness.

Liu Feng's breathing grew heavy. His gaze drifted downward, sweeping over that exquisite, shapely figure, and an instinctive impulse belonging to a young man surged forth.

His heart was restless, his eyes turning somewhat scorching, and as his palm descended upon Leng Qiuyue's scarlet cheek, it moved slowly downward.

The next moment, Leng Qiuyue's delicate body stiffened abruptly, and a strange, dainty cry escaped her pink lips!

Liu Feng jolted back to his senses, instantly withdrawing his hand as he said, "It was my presumption! You should return to your work and strive to refine your Poison Qi as soon as possible."

"Th-then, I shall take my leave!"

Leng Qiuyue also seemed to wake from a dream; her small face turned purple with a blush, and clutching her medicine box, she turned and fled.

At this moment, she felt both ashamed and startled. She shouldn't have listened to Li Xiang'er's instigation, but what she never expected was that Liu Feng would actually make a move!

With the young girl's slender figure gone, Liu Feng, left in the Stone Chamber, looked at his right hand with a strange expression.

He naturally did not know what Li Xiang'er had been teaching Leng Qiuyue, only that the girl had developed a psychological dependence on him. She had shown no intention of refusing the Blood Qi Pills he gifted her, either.

It was just that her parents had asked him to protect Leng Qiuyue and at least help her become a Gu Master, yet he had nearly committed a mistake in a moment of weakness.

Liu Feng sighed. For now, he could not confess that he was acting on the request of her parents; even without mentioning that they were already dead, he feared Leng Qiuyue would grow suspicious.

If that happened, and Leng Qiuyue acted on her own accord, not only would she meet with disaster, but she would drag him down with her.

Refusing to dwell on it further, Liu Feng took out three Exotic Gu and that segment of Blood Vine.

He circulated the Poison Qi within his body, driving the Gu insects to emerge from his skin.

"First, I will refine the three Exotic Gu and this Blood Vine. Recovering from these minor injuries shouldn't be difficult."

"Furthermore, the Exotic Gu egg, 'Fire Eater,' requires an increased supply of blood and qi. Judging by the name, it is clearly an Exotic Gu adept at slaughter, which can add a killing move to my arsenal."

"Also, my movement technique is not fast enough; I must also devote some effort to the bone-tempering method of the Diamond Demon-Subduing Sutra."

Dense swarms of Gu insects surged, enveloping the three Exotic Gu and the Blood Vine.

Under the Zen Eye Technique, Liu Feng looked inward at his own internal organs.

The Exotic Gu egg, "Fire Eater," near his heart had melted more than halfway, and one could vaguely see an Exotic Gu, crimson from head to tail, within.

While supplying it with blood and qi, Liu Feng turned his attention to his own skeleton.

On the very last vertebra of his spine, there was a "root" that could barely be considered a Buddha-root, which required the guidance method to continue strengthening.

Within the Insect Valley, everything remained as usual.

As in the past, it was common for a Gu Child or two to go missing, with newcomers filling the gaps the following day.

For the past two days, the Gu Children had received orders from the Third Senior Brother that they no longer needed to deliver large quantities of medicine to the eastern cliff face.

Under the thatched shed, Leng Qiuyue was cutting medicinal herbs, her mind clearly elsewhere.

She did not know what she was thinking about; at times she wore a look of feigned anger, and at others, her face was full of bashfulness.

"What are you thinking about? The Medicine Slave is about to wake up, and many Gu Children have gone to take a look." Li Xiang'er appeared by her side before she noticed.

Seeing Li Xiang'er approach, Leng Qiuyue stiffened her face and glared at her, still remembering that it was this person who had come up with the terrible idea two days ago.

This wicked girl had instigated her, claiming that if she had intentions, she should use some tactics early on to get a grip on Liu Feng.

Everything from feigning shyness to acting submissive, or even putting on an honest, easy-to-bully front—all were meant to stir a man's primal desires.

When she went to see Liu Feng alone, she had been at a loss, so she simply listened to Li Xiang'er and adopted that submissive look. Who would have expected the tactic to actually work!

"What does the Medicine Slave waking up have to do with me? I'm not going!" Leng Qiuyue refused to budge.

"Haven't you heard? The three Senior Brothers need to take the Medicine Slave out to handle some business; Liu Feng will likely show his face."

Seeing Li Xiang'er winking and nudging her, Leng Qiuyue felt a surge of irritation, but she stood up nonetheless.

On the eastern side of the Insect Valley, in just a short while, over sixty Gu Children had gathered.

Many Gu Servants had also moved; they had never seen a Medicine Slave before and were eager to broaden their horizons.

Rumors of Gu Masters capturing martial artists, or refining wild cultivators who came to cause trouble into Medicine People, were things they had heard plenty of before entering the Insect Valley.

However, such methods were not something Gu Servants or Gu Children could ever come into contact with.

At this very moment, everyone's gaze was fixed on the gap beneath the cliff, where the medicinal mud piled at the entrance was visibly heaving.

The Third Senior Brother, Zhu Li, frowned and turned to the Gu Children and Gu Servants hiding in twos and threes in the distance, shouting, "Retreat sixty zhang! When a Second-Grade Medicine Slave awakens, they cannot contain the Gu poison within their bodies; you will die the moment you touch it."

Under the stone eaves, beneath the bushes, and behind the large trees, one figure after another fled in an instant.

"Why do you care if they live or die? It's a good thing for fools to die early." A figure arrived; it was the Second Senior Brother, Shen Yushu.

With his hands behind his back, he came to Zhu Li's side and stared with him into the gap at the foot of the mountain.

Zhu Li did not respond to Shen Yushu's words. After waiting for a moment, he suddenly said in a low voice, "He is coming up."

As he spoke, Zhu Li hurriedly reached into a cloth bag and took out two Gu insects as black as ink.

He grabbed one of the Nightmare Gu Larvae in his hand and passed the other to Shen Yushu beside him.

The two held these Nightmare Gu Larvae, ready at any moment to drive the insects and awaken the Nightmare Gu Mother within the Medicine Slave's skull, preventing the slave from running amok due to a muddled mind upon waking.

"Gurgle, gurgle..." A multitude of bubbles pushed aside the Medicinal Mud.

Under the tense gaze of everyone present, a limb resembling a long black spear thrust out, instantly hooking onto the rock at the edge of the opening.

Seeing this, Shen Yushu and Zhu Li retreated several paces, a layer of protective poisonous mist diffusing over their bodies.

Exclamations rang out from the distance; many Gu Children, having already retreated sixty zhang, could not help but back away even further.

At the gap beneath the cliff wall, a second, a third, a fourth...

Spear-like limbs climbed up one after another, and then, with a "bang," the Medicinal Mud burst open, and a hunched figure was "hoisted" up by the limbs like a marionette.

A rich, exotic fragrance emanated from the body, and the vegetation within a dozen zhang visibly withered and turned yellow.

As the eight limbs crawled, the figure suspended in the center slowly opened its eyes.

Shen Yushu squeezed the Nightmare Gu Larva in his palm, channeling a wisp of poisonous qi from his body into the insect. Immediately, the figure opposite him raised its head, its muddled eyes becoming slightly more alert.

Upon seeing the face of this figure, Zhu Li remained indifferent, but Shen Yushu was momentarily struck dumb, recognizing this Medicine Slave.

"Li Si, retract your Soldier Gu and Gu poison at once," Shen Yushu commanded.

The figure looked over with a blank expression, dazed for a moment, before speaking in a hoarse voice: "You are... Shen Yushu. I... saw you when you became a Gu Master."

As he spoke, he complied and retracted the Soldier Gu, and the exotic fragrance he had been emitting quickly dissipated.

The eight spear-like limbs, sharp as steel blades, snapped back in an instant, retracting into the black insect carapace on Li Si's back.

A loose robe was tossed from Zhu Li's hand. Li Si caught it, shook off the Medicinal Mud from his body, and pulled the garment over himself.

At this moment, the Medicine Slave's appearance was fully exposed to everyone's sight.

At a glance, one would only take him for a deranged, hunchbacked middle-aged man; apart from his muddled expression, there was nothing particularly unusual to be seen.