There Was Something in the House

The kitchen was quite spacious. The group entered and looked around, finding that the stove was already coated in dust, while a fire burned on the floor.

Besides the game piled on the wooden table, large quantities of smoked meat hung from the rafters.

"Old friend, that's quite a haul you've got there." Old Huang glanced at the smoked meat overhead, somewhat surprised.

Little Fuzi was stunned as well. With refugees everywhere these days, game was scarce in the forests near the county seat. To make a big catch, one had to venture deep into the mountains.

"The haul's decent enough. I'll roast a young deer for you all."

"Don't be shy. Have a seat." The hunter and his son sat across from the fire and welcomed them.

Apart from Medicine Slave Li Si, who was staring blankly, the other five gathered around the fire.

Old Huang exchanged pleasantries with their host, and laughter rang out around the fire for a while. Neither man asked much about Li Si's condition, assuming he was simply a lunatic.

As they chatted, the venison roasting over the fire cooked until it was nearly done, sizzling as fat dripped from it.

Only after Shen Yushu nodded did Old Huang and Little Fuzi dare to take a bite. The five of them gathered around the fire and ate heartily.

They finished sharing the roasted young deer and were led to a side room. Nothing untoward happened along the way.

A short while later, in the side room.

Silently, a swarm of black specks slipped through the crack beneath the door.

Little Fuzi was laying out his bedding when several specks suddenly crawled past his feet. He cried out in fright, "There are so many poisonous bugs!"

"Don't make a fuss. They're Gu released by Second Master." Old Huang hurriedly covered Little Fuzi's mouth.

Little Fuzi immediately realized what was happening. This was his first time seeing a Gu Master use Gu.

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

Shen Yushu scooped up a handful of Gu and said, "I'm not sure about the hunter and his son yet. At any rate, they didn't put poison in the food."

"There are another twelve people in the side rooms. Every one of them reeks of corpse qi."

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

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

Shen Yushu said calmly, "They're nowhere near ready to be called Walking Corpses. They're just Living Dead."

Hearing that they weren't Walking Corpses, Zhu Li relaxed. If there really were twelve Walking Corpses, Medicine Slave Li Si would probably have to fight at full strength to handle them.

Liu Feng sat cross-legged to one side. Seeing that the two men had no intention of going out to attack, he began practicing the Guidance Method on his own.

The room fell quiet again. On the animal-hide mat, the exhausted grandfather and grandson fell into a deep sleep.

Rain pattered outside, its downpour easing somewhat.

The oil lamp cast a dim yellow glow as the others gradually closed their eyes.

Just as they thought the night would pass without incident, two Green Vines slipped out of Shen Yushu's sleeve.

Shen Yushu jolted awake and whispered, "Something's wrong. We've already been hit! There's something in the house!"

At his words, Liu Feng and Zhu Li both opened their eyes and looked toward the vines in Shen Yushu's hand.

They were two tender vines, their few leaves visibly turning yellow by the moment.

"Plants and trees are most sensitive to life force. Something is draining ours. If those two keep sleeping, they won't make it through the night," Shen Yushu said gravely.

At some point, Old Huang and Little Fuzi had passed out on the animal-hide mat. Their mouths hung wide open, their bodies motionless. They looked just like corpses.

If the group hadn't realized they'd been hit, they might have passed out the same way!

"I'll deal with the hunter and his son." Zhu Li sprang to his feet. The blue-black granules on his arms swelled and writhed as his body began to grow larger and taller.

"Don't rush into it. Fourth Junior Brother, use your 'Evolution Pupil' Gu art to take a good look at this room."

Liu Feng nodded. The vertical eye in the back of his head opened along with his twenty Compound Eyes.

His field of vision expanded, and within moments, he had pinpointed a spot.

Suddenly, a dark shadow darted out from beneath his hem. Its target was right behind them, inside a pile of odds and ends.

"Pfft." A leg of the Soldier Gu Split-Tooth pierced something.

Zhu Li and Shen Yushu stared over. Something shaped like a baby was struggling amid the clutter.

The little thing thrashed its limbs violently, black blood pouring from its body as it shrieked repeatedly.

"Pfft, pfft..."

Liu Feng's expression was cold. He sent the Soldier Gu's other four legs stabbing forward. They burst through the pile and dragged the little thing out by force.

In the dim yellow lamplight, the three senior and junior brothers saw what it was.

It was a shriveled baby, black from head to toe, with a mouthful of fangs that made it seem more beast than human.

The five insect legs had nearly torn it apart, leaving it barely alive. Even so, the Soldier Gu found it repulsive and didn't devour its flesh.

"It's not the culprit. This thing looks like a Corpse-Eating Gall! It breeds in piles of corpses in places steeped in yin and likes to seek out the dying and gnaw on them."

"Something else is draining our life force!"

"Living Dead, Corpse-Eating Gall... They're all connected to corpses..." Shen Yushu turned his gaze toward the wall.

Just then, a pained horse's whinny rose above the rain.

The rain roared, and an ordinary person would have struggled to make out the sound, but all three men here were Gu Masters.

"Whoosh..." A gust of wind sprang up. Third Senior Brother Zhu Li dashed outside without a word.

Liu Feng looked up and saw the door standing wide open. Zhu Li's back had vanished into the rain.

The two men inside didn't have to wait long. From the stables came a rapid series of sharp, splintering cracks, followed by a shrill scream.

At the sound, Liu Feng flicked a leg of Split-Tooth, the Soldier Gu. The Corpse-Eating Gall was torn into pieces on the spot.

He turned and was about to rush outside. The commotion from the stables was considerable—there were clearly several people there.

Shen Yushu stopped him. "There's no need for you to go. Keep watch here for me."

As he spoke, fleshy buds appeared across Shen Yushu's body, and all the Gu inside him poured out.

The dense swarm spread like a black carpet, swiftly covering the room.

Now that they knew something here was draining their life force and could evade the Evolution Pupil's sight, it had to be concealed inside the walls—or perhaps it was underground.

Either way, as long as there was a crack to crawl through, it couldn't escape the swarm.

At the same time, Liu Feng's Twenty-Two Eyes covered the entire room, taking in everything on all sides.

A moment later, he abruptly tilted his head to look behind Shen Yushu. A thin black trickle was quietly seeping out between the floorboards.

Without hesitation, he stabbed at it with an insect leg.

"Bang." The floorboards shattered. The leg pierced the thin layer of soil, and sure enough, there was a hollow space beneath.

The space wasn't large, though, and it was packed with straw. A layer of soil blocked it off, so it would have been hard to notice without deliberately stomping on the floor.

A few breaths later, black water began seeping out in more and more places.

Black water bubbled up all around them, front and back, left and right, and a nauseating stench spread through the room.

"Bang, bang, bang..." Liu Feng moved across the floor, the five insect legs on his back stabbing down like pile drivers as he searched for the target.

As the black water spread across more and more of the floor, Shen Yushu's voice rang out. "I found it. Leave this to me!"

In the next instant, Shen Yushu's body tilted as he soared into the air.

In the dim yellow lamplight, countless Green Vines burst from around Shen Yushu, lifting him bodily into the air.

Then, over a hundred wooden spikes struck at once, their shrill whistles erupting.

Sensing danger, Liu Feng darted outside in two quick steps.

The instant his back foot crossed the threshold, a dense patter of cracks burst from inside. Hundreds of Green Vines plunged furiously through the floor.

When he looked again, Shen Yushu was wrapped in vines, controlling hundreds of them as they tugged at something beneath the ground.