Chapter 75: A GU BUG(1)

Hu Bai remained beside Li Yan for a while, their hands still intertwined as they stood outside the house. Neither of them seemed particularly eager to break the comfortable silence, although Li Yan had become increasingly conscious of the warmth surrounding his fingers and the way his heartbeat refused to settle.

Eventually, Hu Bai glanced toward the darkening sky and realized he could not remain any longer. He released Li Yan’s hand reluctantly and reminded him to rest properly instead of spending the entire night cultivating.

Li Yan agreed, although his expression suggested that he had already made other plans for his evening.

"Go inside and get some rest. I will come to see you again."

Li Yan nodded and watched him leave before finally turning toward his residence. The quiet courtyard felt strangely empty after Hu Bai’s departure, and he stood there for a moment before entering the house.

"You two really are troublesome."

Xiaoxiao’s amused voice suddenly came from inside.

Li Yan looked toward the kitchen and found her preparing dinner. He had almost forgotten that she had been waiting for him, and he quickly went to take a bath while she finished cooking.

The warm water washed away the fatigue that had settled into his body throughout the day. Li Yan soaked for a while before changing into loose clothes meant for staying indoors.

The simple garments felt far more comfortable than the robes he had worn throughout the day, and he returned to the main room just as Xiaoxiao finished preparing the meal.

She had made only two dishes, one containing tender pieces of pork and the other being a simple serving of rice. Neither dish was particularly elaborate, but the portions were generous enough for Li Yan to eat his fill.

Xiaoxiao placed everything on the table and covered the dishes carefully to keep them warm. Rather than eating herself, she sat nearby and waited for Li Yan to return, quietly enjoying the peaceful atmosphere of the residence.

The calm did not last. A strange sensation suddenly crawled across her skin, making Xiaoxiao’s expression change.

She could feel someone’s gaze lingering around the residence, and the intensity of it was enough to make her suspect that the person had been watching the house for some time.

She stepped outside and looked around the courtyard, carefully examining the surrounding trees and buildings. Nothing moved, and she could not detect anyone hiding nearby.

Xiaoxiao narrowed her eyes as she continued searching the darkness. Whoever had been watching them had either noticed her presence and withdrawn or possessed enough skill to conceal themselves properly.

"This place needs some basic defensive arrays."

She returned inside after making a mental note to deal with the matter later. There was no reason to frighten Li Yan over a suspicious gaze when she had not found anyone nearby, but she would not allow someone to observe the residence so easily again.

Several streets away, a figure remained outside the range of the residence’s ordinary inhabitants.

Mo Lang stood nearby and looked toward the same house that had captured the senior brother’s attention for far longer than expected.

"Senior brother Li, is there something interesting about this residence? We should be on our way now."

Li Hanye did not answer immediately. His gaze remained fixed on the house in the distance, and his expression carried a rare uncertainty that Mo Lang had never seen from him before.

Mo Lang could not understand why everyone seemed so interested in Li Yan.

There was nothing special about him, yet he easily got everyone’s attention.

Li Hanye really wanted to step inside the residence and confirm if this Li Yan was his younger brother that had allegedly died at home.

But he couldn’t, since he was currently under both Hu Bai and Fu Hanzheng’s protection.

He couldn’t act as he pleased, plus it was rude to barge into a stranger’s house so late in the day.

He sighed and turned around, tomorrow he would confirm his suspicion once and for all.

"You should get back. There is no need to escort me junior disciple Mo, you should use the time to work on the things I taught you..."

Mo Lang wanted to speak, say he was okay with escorting him but Li Hanye’s face showed he didn’t want him following him anymore.

He sighed and bowed. "Have a good evening, Senior Brother." After that he turned back and walked down the mountain.

Li Hanye didn’t spare Mo Lang another glance, he was just another outer disciple clinging onto him. He had nothing to offer so there was no need to give him more freedom that he deserved.

Meanwhile in the residential area, Elder Shen had not been in a good mood.

He had smashed everything within sight and made all the servants afraid. Flinching whatever another object shattered.

"How dare they. How dare they..."

Elder Shen hissed lowly and called one of the trembling servants beside him.

"You there, send four hundred high grade mana stones to an outer disciple named Li Yan, he lives at the purple mountain..."

The man nodded and quickly went to carry out Elder Shen’s request. Overly happy just to get away from the angry man.

"Li Yan mark my words, I will make life very miserable for you..."

He got up and walked to a cabinet, opening a jar with an odd looking bug. Which was giving a weird aura.

"My little experiment, pay a visit to Li Yan, hide under his bed, hide out of sight. Make his worst nightmares come to pass."

The bug began flying out of the jar escaping through the open window and heading towards the purple mountain.

The bugs were called Gu bugs, malevolent and venomous creatures created to inflict harm.

Gu bugs were not born of nature. They were born of cruelty.

In the dark arts of the Southern Border, a Gu bug was forged rather than hatched. A master would take a sealed earthen jar and throw a hundred venomous creatures inside, including centipedes whose bites rotted flesh, spiders that drank blood, toads that sweated poison, and snakes with fangs as sharp as needles.

The jar would then be buried and forgotten.

For months, the creatures trapped inside would tear one another apart. Poison fought poison, fang met fang, and only the strongest survived. When the jar was finally opened, only one creature remained.

It would be bloated and mutated, its body stained with the essence of everything it had devoured.

That was a Gu bug, the distilled malice of a hundred creatures given physical form.

There were countless varieties. Some brought illness, while others stole a person’s luck. The most insidious did not kill their victims at all. They tormented them instead, nesting within dreams, whispering in the darkness, and feeding on fear until their hosts gradually withered from within.

To outsiders, Gu was nothing more than witchcraft. To Gu cultivators, however, these creatures were tools. They were silent, traceless, and cruel, leaving behind neither sword light nor obvious spiritual fluctuations. A single bite in the night could leave a man weaker, madder, or dead by morning.

Elder Shen’s jar contained creatures of precisely this nature. They had been raised through hatred and fed on resentment, and now they had been released with a single command: hide and make him suffer.