There's Something in the Room

The kitchen was quite spacious. The group stepped inside and looked around, discovering that the stove was covered in dust, while a fire burned directly on the floor.

Aside from the few pieces of game piled on the wooden table, a large quantity of smoked meat hung from the rafters.

"Old brother, your haul is quite impressive." Old Huang looked at the smoked meat on the rafters with some surprise.

Little Fuzi was also stunned. With refugees everywhere, game was rare in the forests near the county town; to have such a large haul, one would have to venture deep into the mountains.

"The harvest is passable. I'll roast a young deer for you all right now."

"Don't stand on ceremony, everyone sit down." The hunter and his son sat opposite the fire and gestured for them to join.

Except for the Medicine Slave Li Si, who was staring blankly, the group of five sat down around the fire.

Old Huang exchanged pleasantries with the pair, and laughter filled the air before the fire. Neither of them asked about Li Si's condition, assuming he was just a madman.

As they chatted, the venison roasting over the fire became seven or eight parts cooked, sizzling as the fat dripped down.

Seeing Shen Yushu nod, Old Huang and Little Fuzi finally dared to eat, and the five of them began to feast around the fire.

They were led to a side room after finishing the roasted deer, and the process went off without a hitch.

A moment later, inside the side room.

Silently and stealthily, a large number of black specks crawled in through the door cracks.

Little Fuzi was just laying out his bedding when several black specks crawled past his feet, startling him into a cry: "So many poisonous insects!"

"Don't make a scene, they are the Gu insects released by the Second Master." Old Huang hurriedly covered Little Fuzi's mouth.

Little Fuzi suddenly realized; this was the first time he had witnessed a Gu Master using Gu.

"Senior Brother, what is their background?" Zhu Li turned to ask Shen Yushu.

Shen Yushu grabbed a handful of Gu insects and said, "I'm not yet clear about that hunter and his son, but at least they didn't poison the food."

"There are twelve others in the side rooms, all reeking of corpse aura."

As he spoke, Shen Yushu casually crushed the Gu insects that had been biting those people and tossed them into the corner.

"Walking Corpses?" Zhu Li's expression turned grave.

Shen Yushu said indifferently, "Calling them Walking Corpses is a stretch; they are merely Living Dead."

Hearing they were not Walking Corpses, Zhu Li's expression relaxed. If they were twelve Walking Corpses, they would likely need the Medicine Slave Li Si to go all out to deal with them.

Liu Feng sat cross-legged to one side. Seeing that neither of the two had any intention of going out to fight, he began to practice his guiding technique on his own.

The room returned to silence. On the animal skin mats, the exhausted grandfather and grandson fell into a deep sleep.

The rain pattered down, the downpour outside having eased slightly.

The oil lamp cast a dim, yellow light, and the group closed their eyes one after another.

Just as they thought nothing would happen tonight, two green vines sprouted from Shen Yushu's sleeve.

Shen Yushu woke up instantly and whispered, "Something is wrong, we've been targeted! There is something in the room!"

Liu Feng and Zhu Li opened their eyes at his words, casting their gazes toward the vines in Shen Yushu's hand.

They were two tender vines, and the few leaves on the shoots were visibly turning yellow and withered.

"Vegetation Spirit Monsters are most sensitive to vitality. Something is draining our life force; if this grandfather and grandson keep sleeping, they won't last the night." Shen Yushu said in a low voice.

On the animal skin mats, Old Huang and Little Fuzi had fallen unconscious at some point, their mouths hanging wide open and motionless, looking just like the faces of the dead.

Had they not realized they were under attack, they might have fallen into the same state!

"I'll go finish off those hunters." Zhu Li rose abruptly, the dark green flesh granules on his arms pulsing as his frame began to swell and grow taller.

"Don't be in such a hurry to act. Fourth Junior Brother, use your 'Evolution Pupil' Gu technique to take a good look at this room."

Liu Feng nodded. Including the vertical eye in his hair at the back of his head, all twenty compound eyes opened at once.

With his vision expanded, he locked onto a target within mere seconds.

Suddenly, a black shadow darted out from under his hem, its target actually being the pile of debris right behind them.

"Squelch." One of the insect legs of the Soldier Gu Split-Tooth pierced something.

Zhu Li and Shen Yushu stared over to see something resembling an infant struggling within the debris pile.

The little thing's limbs thrashed violently, black blood oozing from its body as it let out a series of shrill screams.

"Squelch, squelch..."

Liu Feng's expression was cold. He controlled the other four insect legs of the Soldier Gu to pierce forward together, smashing through the debris pile and dragging the little thing out by force.

By the dim light of the oil lamp, the three brothers saw the creature clearly.

It was an infant with a pitch-black, shriveled body, its mouth full of fangs, looking more beast than human.

The five insect legs had nearly torn it apart, leaving it half-dead, yet even the Soldier Gu found the creature repulsive and did not attempt to consume its flesh.

"It's not this one. This thing looks like a Corpse-Eating Gall! It grows in piles of corpses in places of extreme yin, and it loves to seek out and devour those on the verge of death."

"Something else is stripping us of our vitality!"

"Living Dead, Corpse-Eating Gall, everything is related to corpses..." Shen Yushu's gaze shifted toward the wall.

Just then, a pained horse whinny pierced through the sound of the rain.

The rain was clamorous, making it difficult for an ordinary person to distinguish, but the three people here were all Gu Masters.

"Hoo..." A gust of wind erupted, and Third Senior Brother Zhu Li dashed out without a word, his figure vanishing into the curtain of rain.

Liu Feng looked up to see the door wide open, Zhu Li's back already lost to the downpour.

The two remaining in the room did not have to wait long before a continuous series of wooden snapping sounds and sharp, miserable wails echoed from the direction of the stables.

Hearing this, Liu Feng had the Soldier Gu, Split-Tooth, tear with its insect legs, and the Corpse-Eating Gall was ripped into pieces on the spot.

He turned to rush out, as the commotion by the stables was significant, clearly involving several people.

Shen Yushu stopped him, saying, "No need for you to go; keep watch for me instead."

As he spoke, granulation tissue surged across Shen Yushu's skin, and every Gu worm within his body emerged.

The dense swarm of Gu worms spread out like a black carpet, covering the entire room in the blink of an eye.

Since they were certain something was here draining their vitality while managing to evade the sight of the Evolution Pupil, it meant the creature was hidden within the walls or perhaps buried directly beneath the floor.

Regardless of the situation, as long as there was a crack to crawl through, nothing could escape the swarm.

At the same time, Liu Feng's Twenty-Two Eyes covered the entire room, taking in every direction at a glance.

A moment later, he jerked his head to look behind Shen Yushu, where a thin, black stream was quietly oozing out from between the floorboards.

Without hesitation, one of his insect legs struck out.

"Bang." The floor shattered, and the insect leg pierced through the shallow soil; it was hollow inside, just as expected.

However, the internal space was small, filled with a large amount of straw and insulated by a layer of earth, making it difficult to detect unless one stepped on it with deliberate force.

A few breaths later, more and more spots began to seep black water.

Black water bubbled up everywhere—front, back, left, and right—and a nauseating stench began to spread.

"Bang, bang, bang..." Liu Feng shifted his feet, the five insect legs on his back stabbing down like pile drivers as he hunted for the target.

Seeing the black water spreading across the floorboards, Shen Yushu's voice rang out: "Found it, let me handle this!"

In the next instant, Shen Yushu tilted his body and vaulted into the air.

Under the dim, yellow light, a mass of green vines erupted from Shen Yushu's body, hoisting him up and pinning him against the ceiling.

Immediately following, hundreds of wooden spikes moved in unison, and a shrill whistling sound erupted.

Sensing the danger, Liu Feng flashed two steps outside.

The moment his back foot cleared the threshold, a sound as dense as raindrops hitting a roof echoed from within the room as hundreds of green vines frantically pierced into the floor.

Looking back, he saw Shen Yushu enveloped in vines and wood, his control pulling at whatever was hidden beneath the ground.