After getting out of the van, I handed all the money I'd taken off Shi Youfu to Ergou.
Then I gathered up Mr. Gu's whole stash of jars and containers—plus the man himself—and hauled them back to the shop.
"Xiaofeng, give me a hand."
She looked a little puzzled seeing me bring home a full-grown man, but Xiaofeng always did as I said. If something wasn't her business, she never asked.
We helped Mr. Gu into the store. I grabbed a bedsheet to wrap him up and locked the front door before dragging him upstairs.
"Xiaofeng, don't touch the black robe or any of the jars, okay?" I reminded her before locking the bedroom door behind me. Now it was just me and Mr. Gu, wrapped in that tacky red floral sheet.
"Who the hell are you? Why'd you drag me here? What are you planning?" Mr. Gu clutched the sheet tightly. Without his poisonous bugs on him, he looked more than a little nervous.
Back at Anxin Motel, Xiaofeng had been in a similar get-up when I first found her. But that was charming in a delicate, vulnerable kind of way. Mr. Gu? Just looked ridiculous.
"Bet you're wondering why your poison bugs didn't work on me," I said, drawing the curtains. If this involved The Netherworld Live Show, I didn't want anyone overhearing.
"Hmph. I lost today, fair and square. Blame my lack of skill. Kill me or torture me, do what you want. Those who practice Gu have already tasted every pain this world can offer. Nothing you do will make me flinch."
He was trying to act all tragic and noble, but the bright red bedsheet totally ruined the vibe. He looked like a parody of himself.
"Are all Gu practitioners this dramatic?" I sighed, then pulled out paper and pen. On the sheet, I wrote three characters:
Plum Blossom Gu.
"I brought you here to ask you one thing. Answer well, and I'll let you go."
"You mean it?"
"A man's word is his bond. But you'd better be honest. Don't get clever."
What I wanted to ask was about the Plum Blossom Gu—the only clue left behind after Xia Chi's disappearance. It was too important.
Mr. Gu frowned, bit open his finger, and smeared a drop of blood on his forehead. "I swear on my life-bound Gu. If I lie, the Yin Worms will devour my body."
Gu masters don't worship deities. Their life-bound Gu is their god. Swearing on it carried weight.
"I think the reason your Gu poison didn't work on me isn't because I've practiced Gu arts," I said slowly. "It's because I may already be infected with a different kind of Gu poison."
"Impossible. If that were true, the toxins would have triggered each other. The eggs would've hatched faster. Your body would've turned into a living container—a walking Gu vat."
What he meant was, Gu poisons don't cancel each other out—they stir each other up and create monsters.
"But what if the Gu I was infected with is so domineering that it doesn't allow any others inside?"
He paused, eyes flickering. He clearly thought of something, but quickly shook his head. "There are such types… but those bugs have all gone extinct."
That caught my attention. I pressed, "Have you ever heard of something called the Plum Blossom Gu?"
His eyes went wide. "Plum Blossom Gu?! Even among Miao Gu practitioners, that's one of the ultimate taboos! How the hell would an outsider like you even know the name?"
So it really existed.
"If I can figure out how to remove it, I might be able to break free from The Netherworld Live Show…" I kept my voice low, holding back my excitement. "I'll be honest with you. The Gu I'm infected with is the Plum Blossom Gu."
I rolled up my sleeve.
Mr. Gu jumped up, bedsheet flapping. "The Plum Blossom Mark? An innate Gu worm survived all this time?!"
He stared at my wrist for a long time, his face unreadable. "Listen, kid… I don't know much about Plum Blossom Gu. I only ever saw it mentioned in some ancient texts. It doesn't actually look like a plum blossom. It's named that because the infected bear a scar that resembles a blooming flower—one that never heals."
"You mean it never closes? Ever?"
"Until you die."
"That's… absurd."
"It's beyond absurd. It's unnatural," he said grimly. "Plum blossoms bloom before all other flowers, signaling the start of spring. The Plum Blossom Gu is the king of all Gu. Compared to it, even the Five Calamities of Yin are nothing. The technique to craft it has been lost for centuries."
He looked at my wrist again. "Gu poison has to be treated specifically, like fighting poison with poison. I know what you want to ask. I'm sorry—this one has no cure."
That hit harder than I expected. "No solution at all?"
"Let me put it like this. The most powerful Gu known to still exist is the Blood Gu, crafted by the Miao elder Qingpo. That's made by selecting the strongest 99 blood leeches out of a thousand, feeding them fish blood for nine days, making them fight until nine remain. Then you feed those with livestock blood for another nine days, until one survives. That one is then raised with human blood and dozens of poisons for 49 days. What you get is a vicious, bloodthirsty monster.
"But even that one? Back in the day, it was just a snack for the Golden Silkworm Gu.
"And the Plum Blossom Gu? The texts say its favorite food was Golden Silkworms."
So we'd gone in a full circle. Thanks to Mr. Gu's explanation, I finally understood how terrifying the Plum Blossom Gu really was.
"No hope whatsoever?"
"Not unless I want to be struck dead by five bolts of lightning," he said flatly.
If even he was saying that, I had to believe it. I unlocked the door. "You can go. Just stop working with Jiangjin Group's people. One day, they'll sell you out and you'll still be counting money for them."
He might be a master of Gu poison, but honestly? Guy didn't have much common sense. Either that or his brain was just wired funny.
As I opened the door, a rich aroma wafted upstairs. Xiaofeng called up, "I made you two some noodles. You've both been drinking—you should eat before you leave."
Fate is a funny thing. Just a couple hours ago we'd been enemies, and now we were sitting at the same table slurping noodles. The eye contact? Incredibly awkward.
"I can't believe you even have the face to eat here."
"Hmph," Mr. Gu snorted coldly, but he scarfed down the noodles like he hadn't eaten in days.
By the time we were full, it was well past one in the morning. The streets were dead empty—no taxis in sight. I glanced at Mr. Gu in his sheet-wrap and sighed. "If I let you walk out looking like that, someone's definitely calling the cops. Whatever, just crash here for the night."
We made up some floor bedding. I tossed all the jars outside the room and locked the front door.
"No funny business, or I'll make you regret it."
He gave a cold grunt and flopped down to sleep. Once I saw he wasn't moving, I relaxed too.
The room was quiet. Around 3 a.m., Mr. Gu suddenly opened his eyes under the thin blanket.
"You think you can outplay me? Too green, kid."
He smirked, muttered a spell, and the ceramic jar outside began to vibrate on its own. Soon, the Face-Moth crawled out, fluttering through the ventilation and into the room.
"Consider this my little revenge. I won't kill you for that bowl of noodles, but no one humiliates a Gu master and gets off scot-free."
He had the moth scatter phosphorescent dust across the room. "The Face-Moth thrives on Yin energy. From now on, this place will be even colder and emptier. I'll ruin your business."
He chuckled to himself, basking in his petty victory—but that feeling lasted all of three seconds.
The moment Baiqi stirred from his drunken nap, everything changed.
"So the mutt's alert, huh? Whatever. It's just a dumb animal. It couldn't handle my poison, let alone stop my bug."
But before the thought even finished, Baiqi spotted the flying Face-Moth and, still wobbly from the booze, leapt up and smack!—flattened it with a paw.
Pfft! Mr. Gu spit blood. Not exaggerating—his life-bound Gu had been injured, and it cost him heart's blood.
The Face-Moth managed to escape, but its wings were tattered, two missing, and several legs broken.
"I've roamed Miao territory for over ten years… never been humiliated like this." Furious, he wiped the blood off his mouth and tried again.
This time, he summoned the Thousand-Legged Gu and sent it crawling along the ceiling, away from Baiqi.
But things didn't go as planned.
Just as the bug reached the bedroom door, it stopped.
It wouldn't move.
"What the hell?" Mr. Gu paled.
"Thousand-Legged Gu only stops when it encounters something steeped in extreme Yin energy—usually a girl born under an extremely inauspicious star. Could it be… the girl in that room is the Heaven's Joy Saintess I've been searching for?"