Chapter 148
Chapter 148
I turned and glared at Wang Dachun.
“You be quiet too! I need to concentrate on casting this spell. I can’t afford any distractions.”
He immediately clapped both hands tightly over his mouth and nodded frantically.
In truth, unease had already stirred inside me when Dr. Liu first described Yao Nan’s symptoms… When his second examination revealed the black fleshy mass lodged in her throat, I became absolutely certain.
This wasn’t some goddamn throat inflammation caused by a cold, nor was it any kind of malignant tumor. These were gu insects!
That’s right!
Someone had used gu on Yao Nan.
The written character for gu itself revealed its meaning: “insect” on top and “vessel” beneath–in other words, poisonous insects deliberately raised inside a container!
The methods that used these poisonous insects were known as the gu arts.
I didn’t study the gu arts, but Master had taught me some basic knowledge about them.
This lineage had an extraordinarily long history, reaching all the way back to the era of shamanic sorcery in ancient times…
The most common method of raising gu began on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month, when twelve different species of venomous creatures were caught in the wild.
They were then placed together in a single vessel–usually a large earthenware vat–and left to attack and devour one another.
The more venomous ate the less venomous, and the strong ate the weak, until only one remained… After devouring the others, that final creature would change in shape and color.
It had become a gu insect!
Of course, that was only the roughest outline of the process. The actual practice involved complicated details and secret methods. Different details and techniques produced different gu insects with different abilities.
In addition, there were exceedingly rare gu insects that formed naturally. They were known as wild-born gu–and they were far more formidable and powerful than artificially cultivated gu insects.
The various methods used to create, control, and command gu insects collectively made up the gu arts. Those who mastered these methods were known as gu masters.
By way of analogy, these people were a bit like the “biologists” of the esoteric world–they specialized in studying insects!
Master had told me that after several thousand years of development, the stronghold of the gu arts had become concentrated in the Miao borderlands–what was now western Hunan and southeastern Guizhou.
Sichuan and Chongqing lay in the southwest, not especially far from the Miao borderlands.
That was especially true in modern society, with all its convenient forms of transportation… The late 1990s hadn’t yet reached the later era when high-speed trains and airplanes seemed to run everywhere, but traveling from the Miao borderlands to Sichuan or Chongqing was still quite easy.
Could a gu master have come to Lianghe Town? But even if one had, why target a middle-school student? I should cure Yao Nan first and worry about the rest later.
I gathered my thoughts, focused my attention, and directed the qi from my dantian toward my fingertips.
Fwoom!
The paper talisman pinched between my fingers ignited under the power of my qi, giving off orange-yellow light and searing heat.
When Yao Nan saw the paper talisman in my hand burst into flame without being lit, shock filled her eyes once again.
“Don’t be afraid, Yao Nan. I won’t hurt you. First, I’ll use the heat of the talisman fire to try forcing the gu insects in your throat to crawl out on their own. If that doesn’t work, we’ll think of something else. You can drink talisman water, or we can lure the insects out with raw eggs.”
As I soothed her softly, I held the burning paper talisman between my fingers and brought it close to her neck.
At the same time, I slowly moved it up and down, allowing the heat of the talisman fire to irritate the gu insects in her throat…
I could tell Yao Nan was frightened. Anyone would fear being burned with a ball of fire so close to them. Even so, she tried her hardest to control herself and remained perfectly still.
Because the burning of talisman fire could be controlled with qi, I kept the flame alive as long as possible. Gradually, the bulge beneath Yao Nan’s throat actually began to squirm!
Even through her flesh and skin, we could see the swollen, tumor-like mass starting beneath her throat and moving upward…
It was a horrifying sight that made one’s scalp tingle and sent chills down the spine!
But inwardly, I breathed a sigh of relief.
It looks like the gu used on Yao Nan is extremely crude and low-level. Merely bringing the heat and aura of talisman fire close enough to warm it through the skin has already made the insects flee.
My real fear had been that the gu wouldn’t react to the talisman fire at all. Then I would have needed to think of another method.
For instance, I could burn a paper talisman to ash, mix it with water, and have her swallow it.
Or I could have her eat two raw eggs smeared with chicken blood, then roll unpeeled hard-boiled eggs around her neck…
Either method would make Yao Nan suffer more and would be much more troublesome to carry out.
After about half a minute, the lump had moved from the very bottom of Yao Nan’s throat all the way to the top. We could no longer see it through the skin of her neck–which meant the insects had entered her mouth!
“Ngh, ngh, ngh…”
Yao Nan suddenly began making strange noises beyond her control. Terror filled her eyes, and her cheeks bulged outward.
I quickly steadied her back with my free hand and shoved her upper body down so that her head was directly over the circle I had drawn on the floor with cinnabar.
Two or three seconds later, Yao Nan’s mouth opened involuntarily.
“Blargh!”
A large mass of black, sticky matter spilled from her mouth and landed inside the cinnabar circle with a wet splat. It continued heaving and squirming frantically.
“That’s disgusting!”
Yao Nan cried out and stumbled back a step.
Then she froze. A moment later, she clutched her throat in delight.
“I… I can talk again? I’m cured? Wu Zhong, thank you so much.”
Overcome with excitement, Yao Nan rushed toward me, seemingly intending to throw her arms around me. In the end, however, she restrained herself, probably feeling that it wouldn’t be proper for a girl to do that.
I didn’t give it any thought.
Seeing that Yao Nan had spat out all the gu insects in her throat, I merely breathed a sigh of relief.
Honestly, the whole thing had gone much more smoothly than I expected. That alone proved how utterly pathetic the person who had used gu on Yao Nan was! One roasting from the talisman fire, and the insects came right out.
The culprit probably didn’t even qualify as the lowest-ranking gu master. They might merely know the most basic method for cultivating gu insects.
Beside me, Wang Dachun gave me a thumbs-up and exclaimed in admiration, “That’s my boss! Brother Wu is incredible.”
Of course I felt pleased–and tremendously satisfied–to hear someone praise me like that!
But outwardly, I naturally had to remain calm.
I pointed at the floor.
“Yao Nan, I told you this wasn’t an illness. Both of you, look inside this cinnabar circle.”
They lowered their heads. The moment they saw what was there, they sucked in sharp breaths, goosebumps rising all over their skin.
Yao Nan reacted most strongly. Her pretty face went pale, and she stumbled several steps backward in terror. She hid behind me, trembling uncontrollably.
Inside the circle I had drawn with cinnabar, the round, black, tumor-like mass had broken apart into countless tiny black worms, each the shape and size of a maggot!
Packed densely together and layered one atop another, they crawled back and forth across the floor.
Whenever one crawled outward and touched the surrounding cinnabar line, it seemed to recoil in fear, quickly retreating and changing direction.
The disgusting black insects were therefore confined within the cinnabar circle. Otherwise, they would surely have crawled across the entire classroom floor by now!
“Urk… urk… urk…”
Yao Nan covered her mouth and dry-heaved repeatedly.
It really was utterly revolting!
She couldn’t stop thinking about how she had lost her voice because those worms had packed themselves into a mass, lodged in her throat, and clung to its walls. The thought made her want to vomit.
Fortunately, she hadn’t eaten much for dinner, and so much time had passed that there was almost nothing left in her stomach. She only dry-heaved without actually bringing anything up…
Otherwise, I was afraid this place would become even more disgusting.
“Ugh… That’s fucking revolting! What the hell are those things? Looking at them makes my scalp tingle and gives me goosebumps all over. They’re even scarier than the Dry Immortal that possessed me last time.”
Wang Dachun stared fearfully at the insects scurrying inside the cinnabar circle.
I sneered.
“Of course they are! The Dry Immortal was at least a proper mountain spirit. These things are nothing but venomous insects, and they’re far more sinister than the Dry Immortal.”
After dry-heaving for a while, Yao Nan patted her chest and asked cautiously, “Wu Zhong, what exactly are those things? Why did they get into my throat? And what was that Dry Immortal Wang Dachun mentioned–the one that used spirit possession on him? How do you know how to do all these… these amazing things?”
She had suddenly launched into a one-girl game of twenty questions, brimming with curiosity. At the same time, she apparently had no idea how to describe the methods I had used.
I pointed at the venomous insects crawling across the floor and said gravely, “Those things are called gu. I don’t know whether you’ve heard of them before. Broadly speaking, they’re venomous insects cultivated through special methods in the Miao borderlands.”
“Gu come in countless forms, and they possess all sorts of strange and extraordinary effects and abilities.”
“I don’t specialize in the gu arts, so I can’t identify this particular kind. But judging from its effects, it probably parasitizes the human throat and blocks the organs used to produce sound, leaving its victim unable to speak.”
“If it isn’t removed in time and the insects fully burrow into the muscles, meridians, and acupoints, there’ll be real trouble! Even if we manage to remove them then, they’ll probably have caused irreversible damage.”
“Fortunately, whoever used this gu was extremely inept, and the gu insects themselves weren’t cultivated in a pure form. They’re actually still somewhere between ordinary venomous insects and true gu, so they’re relatively easy to handle. One roasting from my talisman fire was enough to drive them out through her mouth.”
As I spoke at length, I pinched another paper talisman between my fingers and infused it with qi.
Fwoom!
The paper talisman ignited, becoming a ball of flame.
I flicked my fingers.
Whoosh…
The ball of talisman fire fell into the cinnabar circle. The moment it touched the black, venomous gu insects, flames surged nearly a foot and a half into the air, burning fiercely.
The firelight cast all our faces bright red.
Faint, crisp crackles came from within the flames–the sounds of the gu insects bursting as they burned!
Against ordinary people, a flame kindled through talisman arts was probably no more dangerous than a burning sheet of paper thrown in their direction. Its ability to frighten far exceeded the physical harm it could cause.
But against supernatural entities, its power increased explosively! It became remarkably destructive.
Gu insects naturally fell into that category. Their bodies themselves became fuel for the talisman fire, feeding the blaze.
About half a minute later, the flames slowly died away.
Not even ashes remained inside the cinnabar circle. There was nothing at all, as if those revolting, venomous gu insects had never existed…