The Gu King Insect

The moment the voice fell, I hurriedly shouted, "Everyone, careful! Get ready to meet the enemy."

The wooden house's windows and door flew open at the sound, and then we saw a huge crowd of paper people rush out. Every paper person moved fast, leaping in from all directions, and very quickly surrounded the three of us in the middle.

Ma Erlei lit a torch, while Xiao Yudao and I took out the sharpened bamboo spikes. As soon as any paper person came close, we would stab through them with the bamboo spikes.

"The paper on the paper people can fly off! Everyone, be careful!" I shouted. I had just forced the Three-Corpse Snake Gu with all my strength to drive back the centipedes and scorpions, and my strength was running out. Right now, I could only rely on Ma Erlei and Xiao Yudao.

Sure enough, the sheets of paper came flying. Ma Erlei swung the torch in his hand and burned several white sheets head-on. Once the paper caught fire, the smell of smoke spread. Even more sheets flew over, and some landed on Ma Erlei.

My heart clenched. Once the paper stuck to the body, it would burrow into the skin and hinder a person's movements, as if a great mountain were pressing down on them. Xiao Yudao seized the chance and threw two bamboo spikes, piercing through two paper people.

But the two paper people did not stop at all. They marched straight forward, staring blankly.

"Damn it, they don't feel pain! Bamboo spikes are useless!" Xiao Yudao cried in shock, sweat beading even thicker on her forehead.

"You stabbed the wrong place. You should stab their chest, knock out the soul sealed inside. Then the paper people won't be able to run anymore." I leapt and dodged, several sheets of paper almost brushing past my scalp. I gasped for breath, my strength failing more and more.

Ma Erlei burned another three paper people, and more and more sheets were sticking to him. But judging by his movements, he did not seem affected much. I was slightly surprised, then thought about it and figured it might have something to do with the black scales on his body.

Ah! I suddenly felt my right foot sink. Two sheets of paper had stuck to it, making my jumps even slower. I immediately shouted, "Erlei, the paper doesn't affect you much. Charge in and throw the torch into the wooden house. There are still paper people inside. Burn their nest down."

Ma Erlei answered, then leapt forward with agile movements. When he got close enough, he threw the torch straight in. There were still paper people in the wooden house, and after the torch went in, they instantly caught fire.

In the blink of an eye, the burning paper people ran out of the house. All we heard were strange "ying-ying" cries as the paper people panicked and fled in all directions. When paper people collided with each other, they spread the flames to the unburned ones.

Soon, whole swarms of paper people were burning, and the air filled with a choking smell of smoke. I tore off the sheets wrapped around my foot and walked up to the wooden house. The fire was still blazing. Wu Daochao was not in the room at all. From the flames, I could tell that aside from paper people, there were only some jars inside, and no daily necessities.

It did not look like anyone had ever lived there. But after another thought, once a person turned into a zombie, they would not need daily necessities anyway.

The paper people turned to ash, and the mournful ying-ying wails gradually died down. The three of us had won our first battle, and we were all a little excited. I hammered my fist against Ma Erlei's body and felt the scales clink with a hard, metallic ring.

"Erlei, you're really amazing. The paper flying off those paper people carried Yin energy, but when it landed on you, it didn't affect you at all." I gave him a thumbs-up. "If not for you, Xiao Yudao and I probably would've been killed by those sheets."

Ma Erlei scratched his head and smiled embarrassedly. "I guess it's a blessing born from disaster. But if I had a choice, I'd rather not have these black scales."

Yes. If there were a choice, who would want to become a Gu Human?

Xiao Yudao scanned the wooden house and said, "Wu Daochao isn't inside the house. Then where did that voice come from just now?"

"Ying, ying, ying!" Before I could answer Xiao Yudao, ying-ying calls came from the side of the wooden house. I looked toward the sound and saw the Red-Faced Paper Man standing in a tree. It was the Red-Faced Paper Man sealed with the Great Gu Master's soul.

I chased after him and asked, "Do you know where Wu Daochao is?"

The Great Gu Master slowly nodded, his appearance still extremely comical.

He jumped down from the tree and followed a hidden path behind the wooden house. The three of us hurriedly chased after him.

Less than half a minute after we caught up, there was a cave entrance on the side of the mountain wall, with cold wind rustling out from within. A rotting stench of corpse insects drifted through the air.

This smell was very similar to the smell in the forbidden Gu-refining grounds of Camellia Village. Inside the cave, someone might be raising Gu insects.

Ma Erlei carried the torch, and Xiao Yudao held the Yin Gong in her hand, making it clang and clang. The sound of the Yin Gong could suppress zombies; even Xiao Tianxing feared it somewhat. By striking the Yin Gong as we entered the cave, we meant to force Wu Daochao out.

With the Great Gu Master leading the way, he warned us whenever danger appeared, and the poisonous snakes we encountered were all killed by us. The cave entrance was small, but the farther in we went, the larger the cave became. There were also quite a few forks, and the deeper we went, the lower the temperature became.

"Great Gu Master, Gu... Earth Egg, what exactly does it mean?" I followed behind the Red-Faced Paper Man and asked curiously.

"Ying, ying, ying!" The Great Gu Master gestured with his hands, still saying things we could not understand.

After walking for about half an hour, we had already entered deep into the cave. The Great Gu Master pressed himself against a rock and craned his head to look ahead. A faint, cold air drifted over, and he pointed forward with his paper hand.

"You mean it's just ahead? You want us to go by ourselves?" I asked patiently.

The Great Gu Master nodded, moving from the very front of the group to the rear. It seemed he was still extremely afraid of Wu Daochao.

"Great Gu Master, stay with us. We won't let anyone bully you again," Ma Erlei said, patting his chest. Toward the legendary figure of Camellia Village, he still held great admiration.

The Great Gu Master answered twice with ying-ying sounds.

After passing that rock, we walked another hundred-plus meters inward.

Suddenly, the view before us brightened, and the space abruptly opened up. The ceiling overhead was at least several dozen meters high. Several fire basins burned, making the cave as bright as day.

Inside the enormous cave, strange rocks were piled everywhere, and jars of all sizes were arranged on top of them.

Among these jars of different sizes, one huge vat stood a full two meters tall, drawing the eye the most.

I took one look, and my gaze could no longer move away from that vat.

The Sha Qi on the vat was extremely dense, almost surging right into our faces. The Three-Corpse Snake Gu I carried had clearly become restless.

The three of us strode in. On the other side of the cave was a huge mural, carved with the patterns of five poisonous insects. The entire mural radiated a soul-seizing allure. The pattern was extremely old and should have had a very long history.

Among the Miao people's worship of poisonous insects, poisonous snakes, centipedes, scorpions, toads, and spiders were the most prominent. These five poisonous insects were also called the Five Poison Sacred Insects. It was nothing surprising for a mural of the Five Poison Sacred Insects to appear in a cave in Chiyou Valley.

Compared with the mural of the Five Poison Sacred Insects, that large black vat drew even more attention.

"Xiaodao, you lived in a Miao village, so you should have seen plenty of Gu insects. In your opinion, what kind of Gu insect is inside that vat?" I asked curiously.

Xiao Yudao stared for a while, then shook her head and said, "I don't know! I've never seen anyone use such a vat to raise Gu insects. Generally speaking, the vessels used to raise Gu are all relatively narrow spaces. Only in a narrow space will the slaughter become extremely savage."

I glanced at the Red-Faced Paper Man. The Great Gu Master gestured with his hands, his whole body extremely agitated.

"Ma Xiaolou, you actually dared betray me." A cold, sinister voice came over. On a pile of rocks more than ten meters away, a man in a black robe appeared. His hair hung down, and a dozen or so bamboo tubes were hung all around his waist. In his hand, he held a black bamboo staff adorned with a snake head.

The black robe was extremely bulky, and there was no telling what was wrapped inside it.

As for that face, one glance at that face made it impossible to forget. There was almost no flesh on it, only a sheet of dead skin pasted over the bones, and a pair of cloudy eyeballs rolled about.

As he stood there, I felt corpse energy come rushing at me.

Needless to say, this person was a zombie—and an evil zombie to the extreme. The Great Gu Master's paper body trembled, and he staggered back several steps, hiding behind Ma Erlei.

"Is that Wu Daochao?" I asked Xiao Yudao in a low voice.

Xiao Yudao shook her head and said, "I've never seen Wu Daochao. Even if I had seen him before, with that skull face now, I wouldn't recognize him. But my dad said the bamboo staff he used was a Black Snake Staff. From the look of it, it should be right."

"No need to guess. I am Wu Daochao. You two brats, upon seeing me, should be calling me Martial Uncle. Hei Moyun and Ma Huoxin, those two ungrateful wretches—are they dead yet?" Wu Daochao shouted loudly.

I clenched both fists and said furiously, "Shut the fuck up. You hid in a mountain cave doing shameful things that couldn't see the light of day. You're not worthy of talking about my master. He was the best person in the world."

Xiao Yudao glared at Wu Daochao with eyes full of rage, fury soaring to the heavens as she shouted, "Old thief, my mother's death had everything to do with you. I never thought you'd raise yourself into a zombie. I'll avenge my mother."

Wu Daochao gave a cold laugh and said, "Brats who don't know the height of the sky or the depth of the earth, with no upbringing and no manners! Since you've barged into my Chiyou Valley, you're on a road to death. I'll tell you this: today, my Gu King Insect has reached completion. Just in time to use you two brats to test my gu!"

He lifted the Black Snake Staff and struck that large jar. A cloud of black energy scattered out from around the jar and wrapped itself around Wu Daochao's body. My heart gave a thud. Though I didn't know what kind of insect the Gu King Insect was, from the black energy it gave off, I knew it was far more formidable than the Three-Corpse Snake Gu I carried.

From the looks of it now, the only thing that could deal with Wu Daochao was the Yin Gong in Xiao Yudao's hand. As long as Wu Daochao was a zombie, then once the Yin Gong sounded, no matter how powerful he was, he would have to back down.

Xiao Yudao faced him with cold, angry brows, and the Yin Gong in her hand went dong, dong as she struck it. The echoes rang loudly through the entire cave, rolling together. Wu Daochao struck the ground with the Black Snake Staff and sneered, "If Ma Huoxin were striking the Yin Gong, perhaps I would fear it somewhat. My little niece, you won't do. You may not know this, but back then, I was the one who taught your father the corpse-driving chants and the rhythm for striking the Yin Gong."