Shen Luo could not be bothered to argue with the short-bearded old man. He led Wuman'er toward the shore, and the crowd watching ahead promptly cleared a path for them.
Wuman'er deliberately kept a straight face, putting on a cold expression.
But the instant they stepped out of the crowd, she could not help laughing.
Shen Luo waved a hand and summoned a flying boat amid the crowd's gasps of amazement and envy, then boarded it with Wuman'er.
Just as they were about to depart, Wuman'er suddenly called out, "Brother Shen, wait a moment."
With that, she raised her slender, lotus-white arm and gently shook her wrist. The silver bells tied around it immediately let out a string of pleasant chimes.
A scream from the young man on the shore followed.
A rice-grain-sized insect bit through the skin beneath his eyelid and crawled out.
"A Gu Insect! It's a Gu Insect..."
Someone shouted, and the people gathered there immediately scattered and fled.
In the chaos, quite a few people trampled over the young man and his elderly retainer, who had fallen to the ground, drawing a steady stream of cries from them both.
The Gu Insect seemed uninterested in anyone else, however. After crawling out from beneath the man's eyelid, it spread its transparent wings and flew high into the air, soon vanishing from sight.
Shen Luo, however, watched a nearly transparent little insect descend from midair and crawl into a small cloth pouch at Wuman'er's waist.
"All right, let's go." Wuman'er smiled sweetly.
Shen Luo immediately set the flying boat in motion, flying low over the marsh waters.
Cloud Dream Marsh covered an immense area, practically no different from a sea. Most of it was covered in water of varying depths, with little dry land between; far more common