I Hit the Jackpot

Third Senior Brother did not continue speaking about the Exotic Gu. He glanced at the Gu Servants bustling back and forth, his brow furrowing.

"The amount of medicine prepared for planting the Exotic Gu Eggs this time seems less than last time?"

Lu Yao smiled like a blooming flower and explained calmly, "I gave that Mad Dog Liu Xing a few instructions, so naturally there was no need to prepare so much medicine. Seek quality, not quantity—why waste it on those slaves?"

Her meaning could not have been clearer! It was under her orders that Liu Xing had triggered the Insect Tide within the Gu Cave.

That way, a great number of Gu Children would surely die, leaving only a handful of the strong.

Third Senior Brother Zhu Li remained expressionless and had no objection to this. Yet Lu Yao's matter-of-fact tone still left him feeling desolate. Had he not once been a slave himself?

Deep within the passages of the Gu Cave.

The passage grew increasingly winding. Strip Worms on the ceiling became sparse, and the fluorescent glow was so faint it was nearly nonexistent.

Liu Feng slowed as he darted forward. He discovered that the stone walls of the passage were mottled black and green, smeared with large patches of dead insects.

"Come on, Liu! Don't tell me you're scared?" Ma Kun's taunt rang out from the darkness.

Ma Kun could barely see a thing, and he had been desperately fleeing. How could he possibly know what exactly was on the cave walls?

"It could be that the swarms from two Gu nests fought each other. If so, the Gu Mothers may have been left alone." Liu Feng inspected the insect remains, considering whether he might be able to capture the Gu Mothers.

Gu Mothers were not commonly seen. Most nests of Gu insects contained only one Gu Mother, and even the most would not exceed two.

A Gu Mother was the "leader" jointly nurtured by the insects of its nest. Its body accumulated far too much essence, making it greatly beneficial for raising Gu and refining Poison Qi.

Meanwhile, Ma Kun clutched his bleeding lower abdomen with one hand and continued shouting, "So long as I don't die, I'll still have plenty of ways to deal with you after we get out."

It would have been better if he had said nothing. Those words enraged Liu Feng. The Liu Feng of the past had suffered no small amount at his hands.

A cold snort sounded from ahead. Ma Kun immediately turned and fled. He was only putting on a brave front; there was no chance he dared fight Liu Feng to the death alone.

He had not run far before another fork appeared ahead, branching into three additional passages.

Ma Kun did not slow in the slightest. He flashed into the left passage, but after fleeing a short distance, he discovered no one was behind him. Liu had not pursued him.

At that moment, Liu Feng entered the middle passage.

"As expected, Gu Mothers—and more than one!" Liu Feng no longer cared about Ma Kun.

Under the second eye of Buddha Eye Insight, the Zen Eye, he could see two head-sized Gu insects hanging from the cave wall, their insides severely damaged.

A great number of Gu insects clustered around them. Ninety percent were dead, while the remaining ten percent still protected the Gu Mothers.

"Buzz, buzz..." The insect cries swelled. Flesh buds burst forth all over Liu Feng's body as the Gu insects within him poured out in full force.

All the Gu insects had caught the scent of the two Gu Mothers—a scent emitted only after injury, like a bleeding human. To them, it was an unsurpassable temptation.

After releasing his Gu insects, Liu Feng did not remain idle. He joined in surrounding and capturing the two Gu Mothers.

With only a small number of insects guarding them, coupled with their severe injuries, the two Gu Mothers failed to hold out even half a quarter-hour.

Liu Feng sat cross-legged on the ground, plunging one hand into each Gu Mother. He used the essence within their bodies to refine Poison Qi. All the Gu insects swiftly gathered around to feast on the Gu Mothers alongside him.

Meanwhile, within the left passage.

Ma Kun was still wondering why Liu Feng had stopped pursuing him when his foot suddenly sank, as though he had stepped onto a pile of insects.

He instinctively flung out more than a hundred Gu insects. At once, a shrill cry came from the darkness—some other Gu insects had been bitten.

When he moved closer to look, Ma Kun was instantly overjoyed.

"Damn it, I hit the jackpot—it's a Gu Mother! Where do you think you're running?!"

Ma Kun chased close, scooped with both hands, and twisted off the Gu Mother's triangular head. He immediately began refining it.

Day and night could not be distinguished within the Gu Cave. No one knew how much time had passed...

In the silent passage, scattered footsteps approached. Other Gu Children had arrived.

"There's someone ahead," one of the newcomers said.

"Let's go take a look. As long as it isn't that madman Liu Xing."

Ma Kun opened his eyes in the darkness and looked up to see three figures approaching.

As the distance closed, both sides could barely make out the other's features.

"I wondered who it was. So it's Brother Ma." As he spoke, the three Gu Children approached. The leader was short and stout.

Ma Kun knew this man as well. Like him, the man was a leader, though the other was in charge of gathering herbs.

Seeing that the three were composed, Ma Kun knew they were no longer in that strange bloodthirsty state from earlier. He casually asked, "Brother Gong, how are things at the entrance and exit?"

"That madman Liu Xing refined more than a dozen people alive. Quite a few also died in the Insect Tide, and all the survivors scattered."

"Huh? Have you just finished feasting on a Gu Mother?"

As the Gu Child surnamed Gong spoke, he suddenly gave a startled cry. The other two Gu Children also changed expression. Looking closely, they saw that Ma Kun had refined the Gu Mother into an empty shell.

As the three despaired, a string of "scritch, scritch" sounds came from the passage, like something sharp scraping across stone walls.

The sounds were swift and urgent. Based on the experience of the four Gu Children present, they suspected that larger Gu insects were fighting.

"There's movement inside. Let's go take a look. There might be more Gu Mothers," the Gu Child surnamed Gong suggested.

Ma Kun nodded in agreement. The four traveled together and soon reached their destination. By the faint fluorescence, they could see a writhing ball blocking the passage.

The ball was an insect mass, its outer layer covered in frenziedly crawling Gu insects. Two spots at its center bulged slightly.

At the sight, Ma Kun clapped his hands and laughed. "I hit the jackpot today. You three are riding my coattails. Look closely—not one, but two Gu Mothers."

"Two Gu Mothers, four of us. How should we divide them?" the Gu Child surnamed Gong asked with a smile.

"I found this place, so naturally one is mine, while you three split the other."

"You can't put it that way. We clearly discovered them together."...

The four argued back and forth until the Gu Child surnamed Gong interrupted, "How about this? Let's capture the two Gu Mothers first, then talk."

Still unwilling to suffer any loss, Ma Kun said, "You'll have to put in more effort."

"Easy enough."

"You two, why aren't you making a move?"

The two Gu Children who had come with the Gu Child surnamed Gong did not hesitate. They slapped the swollen areas on their chests, and two streams of Gu insects instantly burst through their skin.

The two approached the insect mass, fixed their eyes on the bulging spots, and flung the Gu insects from their bodies over.

Yet the smiles on Ma Kun's and the Gu Child surnamed Gong's faces froze the very next moment.

Boom, boom...

Two great holes abruptly exploded open in the insect mass. Two long, tongue-like insect bodies bristling with canine teeth shot out like lightning.

The canine teeth were dense and terrifying, with hundreds or even thousands visible at a glance, all rooted in those "long tongues."

Before the two Gu Children could even scream, their necks were pierced through by the two "long tongues." With a coil and a tug, two heads were ripped straight from their necks!

After the two "long tongues," two more shot forth with two pfft, pfft sounds, piercing the two Gu Mothers hidden within the insect mass.

"Other Gu insects are hunting the Gu Mothers!" The same thought appeared in Ma Kun's and the Gu Child surnamed Gong's minds at once.

As for the two Gu Children, they had simply suffered a bloody stroke of misfortune, meeting disaster alongside the two Gu Mothers.