The Scorpion Ghost approached the two humans without any attempt at concealment, its immense, seething resentment sending chills through Li Yunlong and his companion.
It was past midnight now, the time when the ghosts in the livestream could interact with the players.
The two of them had blocked the comments, but the ghosts could still tip them Ghost Money to warn them that they were in danger.
Watching the Ghost Money in his hands steadily increase, Li Yunlong seemed to realize something and whipped his head around.
The hideous Scorpion Ghost was right there, its face pressed against his, wearing an eerie smile.
"Aah-"
Before his scream could fade, Li Yunlong's skin sagged like a deflated balloon. Then he dissolved into a puddle of bloody liquid.
The biker beside him was already petrified. He wanted to flee, but his legs refused to obey, trembling uncontrollably.
His lips quivered, but no sound came out. All he could do was stare wide-eyed, his eyes brimming with terror as they reflected the Scorpion Ghost's hideous, revolting face.
Under the biker's terrified gaze, the ugly Scorpion Ghost slowly approached him...
Tonight was destined to be anything but peaceful.
The clan chief sat at ease as gu insects continually crawled out of her aged skin.
She no longer resembled the beautiful, delicate woman they had first met. Wrinkles covered her entire face, and she looked eighty or ninety years old.
Because she was not the clan chief.
More precisely, she was not even human.
"Where could those two naughty fellows be hiding?"
Her voice was coarse, like the sound of countless gu insects crawling and scraping inside her throat.
Several wisps of black mist faintly coiled beneath her aged skin, where innumerable gu insects writhed. She looked like a swarm of gu insects wearing human skin.
Under her control, aside from the two men killed by the Scorpion Ghost, six men should have been getting devoured by her offspring gu.
But now, only four offspring gu were feeding.
Chu Qingjiu, whom the clan chief had dubbed a "naughty fellow," was currently inside her room.
Chu Qingjiu had not forgotten that he had entered this instance to find his Puppet Threads. Although the instance involved gu insects, he had still sensed his own aura.
So, during the nighttime rest period, his first thought had been to search for his Puppet Threads.
After gathering his things, Chu Qingjiu had traveled across the rooftops just as Qi Wu had. However, he had set out earlier than Qi Wu, so the two had not crossed paths.
From the objects arranged around the room, he deduced that it belonged to the clan chief. Finally, his gaze settled on the wooden box she had hidden beneath the bed.
It was an exquisitely crafted rosewood box with an intricately carved lock, and it caught Chu Qingjiu's attention with just a glance.
Because he sensed a familiar aura inside the rosewood box, an aura that came from him.
His Puppet Threads should have been inside.
With that thought, he picked up the rosewood box and found that a small lock secured it.
His fingertips twitched, and the soul Puppet Threads concealed within his flesh obediently emerged. The slender threads slipped into the keyhole, twisting and fiddling for a while until the lock opened.
Chu Qingjiu opened the rosewood box. A single soul Puppet Thread belonging to him lay quietly inside, with a soft red silk scarf lining the bottom, as though its keeper had treasured it deeply and carefully placed it there.
Sensing its true owner's aura, the previously motionless Puppet Thread stirred. It affectionately wound around Chu Qingjiu's pale fingers and merged with him.
Chu Qingjiu rummaged around the head of the clan chief's bed, finally finding a yellow-covered notebook beneath the pillow.
He read its contents expressionlessly, his brow furrowing before quickly smoothing out again.
It was the clan chief's diary.
More precisely, it was the real clan chief's diary. The clan chief who had spoken to them that morning was not the clan chief at all, but a sentient gu insect.
In this remote village, there had been an exceptionally gifted Miao woman who had raised a sentient gu insect.
But she fell in love with a man from outside her clan, and he deceived her. To keep him with her, she fed him the sentient gu insect, naming it the Mind-Losing Gu.
It meant that his heart would no longer be under his control, that he would never fall in love with anyone again, and that he would lose his true feelings.
The antidote was blood from the heart of the person who had implanted the gu. As long as he took it on schedule, he would be fine.
But the gu insect witnessed the man's infidelity and took it upon itself to kill him.
The man died when the gu insect devoured his heart, while his empty shell remained alive in an eerie fashion under its control.
This did not last long. A dead body would rot and stink, and soon the entire village knew that the Miao woman had killed the man and was using a gu insect to control his corpse and keep him by her side.
The villagers called the Miao woman a madwoman. They stripped her of her title as clan chief, locked her up, and buried the man.
The gu insect ate all the man's internal organs and produced many offspring gu.
It left the grave and returned to the imprisoned Miao woman.
But the Miao woman wanted to kill it, because she had realized that something was wrong with it.
But it was already too late.
Under the gu insect's control, its offspring entered the bodies of everyone in the village, slowly consuming their life force.
The gu insect was taking revenge on the Miao woman. It had clearly helped her by killing that unfaithful man, so why did she want to kill it?
Every day, the Miao woman would turn ugly, while the gu insect walked through the village wearing her skin.
At night, the Miao woman's appearance would return to normal, while the gu insect that had stolen her skin would turn ugly.
The gu insect could not kill the Miao woman because she was its master, but it could get outsiders to kill her.
Chu Qingjiu had not expected this to be the origin of the Mind-Losing Gu. Was there any difference between a sentient gu insect and a monster that had gained sentience?
But none of that mattered.
He put down the diary, having confirmed that the Gu Ghost Woman in this instance was the sentient gu insect.
Miao gu were commonly known as "grass ghosts," and a Gu Ghost Woman was a woman who carried Miao gu within her body. Since she had to provide nutrients for the gu insects she carried, they would begin eating their host if there were not enough.
In such circumstances, the Gu Ghost Woman would release offspring gu to gather nutrients for the mother gu.
Those parasitized by the offspring gu would develop marks resembling black plum blossoms behind their ears. This was also why the clan chief had such marks behind hers.
Because that human skin belonged to someone else.
Although the gu insect was not human, its behavior followed the same logic as a Gu Ghost Woman's.
Chu Qingjiu had yet to confirm who had implanted the gu in Qi Wu, but everything would end as long as he killed the Gu Ghost Woman.
Just then, a jumble of footsteps sounded outside. Chu Qingjiu opened the door a crack to see what was happening.
The first thing he saw was the clan chief's beautiful profile, as she was closer to the room. Only then did he see the backs of eight Miao women.
Between those eight Miao women were the five players other than Chu Qingjiu.
When Chu Qingjiu's gaze landed on the black-haired boy surrounded by the eight Miao women, his fingers abruptly tightened around the door handle.
Qi Wu had been captured.
Before you continue