Kill Him to Feed the Gu

The Gu Cave lay beneath the mountain wall west of Insect Valley. Its entrance was not large, barely over a zhang wide.

When the Gu Children arrived, they all peered into the cave. Its interior stretched downward into the earth, and faint insect cries drifted out from within.

From the outside, the Gu Cave looked like a huge urn, and they were the "gu" waiting to be tossed inside.

"Why are you still standing outside? Get in, all of you."

Under the barking orders of two Gu Servants, the more than one hundred and eighty Gu Children had no choice but to enter, their hearts filled with unease.

If they did not enter, they would die. If they did, they might yet survive this trial. Once they emerged alive, planted Exotic Gu Eggs, and hatched Exotic Gu, they could become true Gu Masters like Third Senior Brother.

Seeing the resolute expressions of the Gu Children around him, Liu Feng knew that although Lu Yao's methods of bewitching hearts were not particularly brilliant, she had still stirred everyone's fighting spirit.

"The entrance will be sealed for three days. Let me tell you in advance: aside from this entrance, the Gu Cave has no other exit." The voice of the Gu Servant who had led them here came from behind.

The exit was sealed by a massive boulder, and the cave immediately darkened. Its only light came from the ceiling.

They instinctively looked up and saw strips of writhing grubs hanging from the roof, fluorescent light glowing from every one of their tails.

Before they could make out the grubs' appearance, startled cries rang out from the crowd. "Liu Xing, you're a Gu Servant. How did you get in here?"

"And her! She's a Gu Servant too, just like Liu Xing."

Liu Xing had indeed entered. Ignoring the Gu Children, he turned to the delicate-looking woman beside him. "Senior Sister Gu, trouble yourself to explain it to them."

The Gu Servant surnamed Gu frowned. Liu Xing was acting strangely this time—he was actually willing to call her Senior Sister.

Without dwelling on it, the Gu Servant surnamed Gu raised her voice. "If a Gu Servant fails to plant an Exotic Gu, they may try again. The price is that the risk will be far greater, but if they succeed, they can still become Gu Masters. Right now, I am the same as you. I must first pass the trial of the Gu Cave."

As she spoke, she took out a palm-sized medicine packet and tossed it deep into the Gu Cave.

She explained, "Once the Gu insects deep within the cave smell the medicine's fragrance, they will arrive in batches. We need to use the Gu insects as nourishment to feed the gu inside our bodies."

At that moment, every Gu Child listened intently, their eyes fixed on the Gu Servant surnamed Gu.

So that was how it was. Liu Feng understood.

The medicine packet's scent was not strong, so it would not draw many Gu insects in a short time. That was just enough for them to make use of, cultivating gradually over the course of three days.

"Whoosh..." At that moment, a sudden change erupted.

A grotesquely thick arm swept out and smashed viciously into the Gu Servant surnamed Gu's head.

The Gu Children all stared in shock. Their gazes shifted, and they saw the Gu Servant surnamed Gu collapsed on the ground, her head dangling to one side. A single punch had nearly torn it from her neck. She was dead beyond doubt.

"Yap, yap, yap... If we wait for you to use that medicine packet to lure insects over bit by bit, how long will that take? Using you as bait is much more convenient!" Liu Xing stood after withdrawing his fist, impatience written across his face.

"Liu Xing, y-you madman!" A Gu Child who looked like a child screamed from within the crowd.

The other Gu Children looked equally grim, unable to understand what Liu Xing intended to do.

Liu Xing cocked his head toward the half-grown child and sneered. "I remember you. Your older brother died by my hand not long ago. Don't rush. You'll soon be reunited with him."

As he spoke, Liu Xing crouched beside the Gu Servant surnamed Gu's corpse. Under the shocked gazes of the Gu Children, countless Gu insects burrowed out from his deformed right arm.

Then, with a wet squelch, his five fingers plunged into the corpse's flesh, and the Gu insects devoured most of its essence and blood alive.

The sight made every Gu Child's scalp tingle. They heard Liu Xing shout madly, "Let me teach you how to feed gu. The Gu insects in this cave are gu, and so are we. Killing gu can feed gu. Killing people can feed gu too."

Before their horrified eyes, Liu Xing flung the corpse deep into the Gu Cave.

They did not have to wait long. The flesh and blood of a Gu Servant produced immediate results, and the insect cries deep within the Gu Cave surged thunderously.

Buzz, buzz, buzz...

Under the fluorescent glow shed by the strip-like grubs on the ceiling, dense swarms of Gu insects came crawling forth—some thick, some thin, some long, some short, like centipedes and earthworms.

At a glance, the passageway of the Gu Cave, above, below, left, and right, was completely covered in crawling Gu insects.

They clearly had three days. They clearly could have refined the Gu insects in batches... Yet because of Liu Xing's madness, enormous numbers of Gu insects had been drawn out from the depths of the cave, leaving them no time to catch their breath.

Every Gu Child trembled with fear and, as though by prior agreement, grabbed the Insect Medicine in their hands and stuffed it into their mouths.

Some went even further, shoving the Insect Medicine directly into the wounded flesh where they had planted gu, desperate to absorb its medicinal power as quickly as possible.

Buzz, buzz, buzz... The insect cries rapidly drew nearer.

There were more than one hundred and eighty Gu Children present, but if they waited helplessly for death, then within less than half an hour, never mind refining gu—they themselves would become nourishment for the Gu insects.

At this moment, Liu Feng, like the other Gu Children, immediately mobilized his Poison Qi and spurred the Gu insects inside his body after swallowing the Insect Medicine.

In an instant, his lips turned black as ink, and his ten fingers and both hands became pitch-black. The Gu insects bursting from his body opened their mouthparts, forming a layer of poisonous mist around his body.

It was not just Liu Feng. In the blink of an eye, every Gu Child present underwent a drastic transformation. All manner of twisted forms were exposed, while every sort of poisonous gas mingled into a rainbow-colored toxic fog.

Within the mixed toxic mist, everyone's eyes turned red, their states eerie and unnatural.

"Kill him! Join forces and kill that madman surnamed Liu first!"

"He wants us dead. We can't let him live!"

"You son of a bitch! This is for my older brother!" The Gu Children who had suffered Liu Xing's oppression in the past grew furious, their roars echoing through the Gu Cave.

Whether it was something strange in the Insect Medicine Lu Yao had bestowed, or whether the mixed toxic mist had affected their minds, every Gu Child became incomparably savage, as though all their pent-up brutality had been drawn out.

Of course, there was one exception: Liu Feng.

His expression remained calm. He quietly shifted his feet and retreated to the edge of the crowd, watching the frenzied people with cold eyes.

The next instant, more than a dozen Gu Children charging at the front pounced on Liu Xing and swallowed his figure from view. At the same time, the small Insect Tide from deep within the Gu Cave washed over them, completely blocking Liu Feng's view behind them.

For a time, it was impossible to distinguish Gu insects from Gu Children. All he could hear were the furious roars of the Gu Children within the Insect Tide, along with Liu Xing's wild laughter.

"First, avoid this wave of the Insect Tide. I can't waste my strength here for nothing." Liu Feng activated the mind's eye of Buddha Eye Insight, and the movements and techniques of the Gu Children around him seemed to slow in his vision.

After avoiding the crazed Gu Children, he advanced instead of retreating, intending to break through this small Insect Tide amid the chaos and hide deeper within the Gu Cave.

Just then, five figures closely pursued him from behind.

"Liu Feng, where do you think you're running now? This place isn't like outside. We don't need an excuse to kill you."

"Kill him to feed the gu..."

The one roaring was Ma Kun, with four other Gu Children following behind him.