Chapter 314: The Savior Arrives

Daoist arts are not many; with just one word they can subdue the south and north, mountains and rivers, and eliminate all demons in the world.

Just as we were about to be corroded by the poisonous insects, a familiar voice sounded, and then a fierce hot wind rose from the flat ground; the insects crawling around us instantly burned more than half.

"It's him—how could he have come here?" The newcomer was Shen Yuaning, and even this incantation was unchanged, the same as always. In the blink of an eye he had flashed to our front, blocking us and facing off against Ou Yaofeng.

I was about to ask him something, but Shen Yuaning instantly shoved something into my and Pangzi's mouths.

"This is my sect's detox pill; swallow it quickly."

As soon as the pill entered my mouth, I felt my dizziness lessen a bit, but the medicine's taste was strange—somewhat aromatic and somewhat salty.

"Shu Aizi, thank you." Pangzi moved his pale lips and said weakly.

Shen Yuaning returned the salute with a clasped-fist bow, saying, "It's just a small effort, Brother Qiang really need not be so polite."

"Hehe, of course, of course."

"Brother Qiang is really polite."

"Not at all, not at all!"

I: "..." Damn it, you two idiots, can't you stop making people vomit blood? At this life-and-death juncture, you're still being polite to each other, for fuck's sake.

"You bastards, have you forgotten where this is?"

I hadn't even spoken when Ou Yaofeng flew into a rage and hurled abuse. I realized that being blatantly ignored, feeling nonexistent, really drives one crazy.

Shen Yuaning turned his head to glance at Ou Yaofeng, then, in a naturally clueless way, turned back and asked me and Pangzi, "Who is he?"

I and Pangzi exchanged a glance and said in unison, "A bad person."

"You bastards, go die." Ou Yaofeng, furious, commanded the poisonous insects to crawl toward us.

Daoist arts are not many; with just one word they can subdue the south and north, mountains and rivers, and eliminate all demons in the world.

The move was still the same old one; only this time he changed weapons—Shen Yuaning no longer used that withered brush, but switched to a fan covered in talismans.

As the incantation fell, a gust of scorching strong wind burst from the void, scattering the poisonous insects in disarray.

Indeed, with a light wave of the fan, the scholar's casual talk made the strong crossbow turn to ashes and smoke—but the scholar was no mere scholar; he was also a Daoist. And the strong crossbow was not a person, but a swarm of insects.

"I didn't expect it, but Shen Yuaning is pretty formidable?" I whispered to Pangzi. "Last time Shen Yuaning broke my spell altar, I didn't realize he was this strong."

Pangzi curled his lips: "This move is fresh—effective everywhere."

I: "..." Pangzi, are you just openly jealous of him?

Whether one move or half a move, anyway Shen Yuaning's appearance completely turned the tide; we, who were originally at a disadvantage and on the verge of collapse, instantly surpassed Ou Yaofeng, and the embarrassed roles swapped—from us to Ou Yaofeng.

Those poisonous insects hadn't even reached us before being scattered by Shen Yuaning's talisman fan; moreover, the strong wind from the fan carried a scorching sensation, like the feeling of splendid light and earth fire.

After the insects were knocked to the ground by the fan, they instantly began to emit green smoke from the heat, and hundreds or thousands of them died off again in a short time.

"Who... who are you really?" Seeing his poisonous insects nearly wiped out, Ou Yaofeng lost his momentum, stared at Shen Yuaning with a panicked expression.

Shen Yuaning didn't answer; he just furrowed his brows and took a deep breath of the air.

"You too have been infected with gu, and moreover you're a gu king—who did this, and why would they do it?" Shen Yuaning didn't answer Ou Yaofeng's question, but instead stepped closer step by step.

When Shen Yuaning uttered that sentence, Ou Yaofeng jumped up as if his tail had been stepped on, his face full of disbelief.

"How do you know?" Ou Yaofeng blurted out.

His words confirmed Shen Yuaning's suspicion and made my heart sink. It seems this matter is far more complicated than I imagined; behind Ou Yaofeng there appears to be someone else.

"Take me to find him." Shen Yuaning pressed forward again.

Ou Yaofeng kept retreating, then gritted his teeth and snarled, "Delusional fantasy—try blocking this move of mine first!" After saying that, he waved his black robe with both hands, as if preparing to attack us again.

Seeing this, Shen Yuaning hurriedly turned back, tightly guarding us in front.

But Ou Yaofeng merely made a false move; after Shen Yuaning stepped back, he fled toward the woods behind the training ground.

"Hurry up and chase him, don't let him get away!" I urged Shen Yuaning.

Shen Yuaning nodded: "Exactly what I had in mind; I also want to see who's behind him." Having said that, he turned and went after Ou Yaofeng.

But what happened next left all of us stunned.

A shrill, eerie scream suddenly rang out on the flat ground, startling even Shen Yuaning into stopping his steps.

"Ah... ah...," the one emitting the scream was none other than Ou Yaofeng, who had been fleeing.

At this moment he knelt on both knees, his eyes streaming red blood; he clutched his stomach with both hands, as if suppressing something.

"No, master, please... don't." Ou Yaofeng foamed at the mouth and collapsed to the ground.

I, Pangzi, and Shen Yuaning cautiously guarded against Ou Yaofeng, worried he might pull another trick.

But what followed made our scalps instantly go numb.

We saw Ou Yaofeng's skin rapidly bulge at visible speed, rings of bluish-purple patterns spreading outward, with tendons and bones protruding above the skin.

"Save me..." he pleaded with bloodshot eyes, reaching out a hand to us—but in just a second his skin rapidly deflated again.

If he had been an inflated skin balloon before, in the blink of an eye he turned into a desiccated mummy.

This sight made our three scalps tingle and our hearts fill with chill. After following QingSongShu for so long, I had never seen such a bizarre situation.

But the bizarre events didn't end; instead, wave after wave piled on, the climax unceasing.

Just as we three relaxed, we heard a 'pop' like an eggshell cracking. Then……

A black snake as long as two meters actually slithered out of Ou Yaofeng's mouth; the snake flicked its forked tongue, its jade-green eyes emitting an eerie cold glow in the night—elders say non-venomous snakes have round heads, deadly ones have triangular flat heads. This black snake clearly belongs to the deadly kind.

After the black snake emerged, it began to circle Ou Yaofeng's corpse... then, with a 'plop', its head shot out like an arrow and— in one gulp— swallowed his corpse into its belly.

Insect Master—Ou Yaofeng turned out to be an Insect Master. Seeing this, I felt a chill even in my gut.

The profession of Insect Master is more vicious than head-lowering, more mysterious than gu.

Since ancient times, the Miao region has been famous for gu, while Thailand has established itself with head-lowering. Actually the latter is merely a blend of gu techniques and some Chinese talisman arts, forming its own school. Thus head-lowering masters who cast insect gu employ methods quite similar to those of Miao masters.

But after these two, a new profession arose: the Insect Master.

This mysterious profession originated in Yunnan, blending Miao gu, Thai head-lowering, and even the talisman arts of the Plowshare Witch Sect and minority Daoist teachings, forming its own school. Although it originated in Yunnan and absorbed the strengths of many schools, it was nearly exterminated by all religions in Yunnan and vanished from the world.

On one hand, the profession of Insect Master is too sinister and vicious; they regard insects as lowly creatures, and to evolve they must first absorb human vitality and gain humanity. Every Insect Master's first raised natal insect must take the life of a newborn baby as an offering: they slit open the baby's belly, let the poisonous insect crawl in and devour it raw, eating the baby until nothing remains—a deed so heinous it makes one's hair stand on end, even among the folk who fear neither the five calamities nor three deficiencies, those ruthless practitioners who sell their lives for money. If you curse his actions as being no different from those of the Yunnan Insect Masters, he will flush with anger, jump up and shout at you: 'Pah, don't compare me to that pack of beasts!' From this we can see that among the hundred schools of thought, not a single one would feel any fondness for Insect Masters.

Secondly, the Insect Masters' method of inheritance: when a master takes on a disciple, he must plant a gu in the disciple's body. In the Miao lands, raising gu within oneself is a taboo, yet Insect Masters do the opposite—they not only plant it, but also establish a rule: if a disciple's cultivation surpasses the master's, he may devour the master's poisonous insect king to increase his own cultivation; conversely, if the master wishes to extract the poisonous insect king from the disciple's body, the disciple must die, and the disciple has no choice but to comply.

In QingSongShu's mouth I had once heard rumors about Insect Masters, though I didn't know much. But I clearly heard QingSongShu say that the profession of Insect Master had long been wiped out by the joint efforts of the Plowshare Witch Sect and the shamans and other minority ethnic groups' magical lineages; it ought to have vanished from the world. So why, now, do I again see a shadow of an Insect Master?

"Insect Master... damn it, this bastard is actually an Insect Master—this profession that has exhausted all heavenly conscience shouldn't have been eliminated long ago?" Pangzi glared with his big round eyes and burst out cursing.

The traits of Insect Masters differ from those of Miao Masters. Even if a Miao Master violates the taboo and raises gu within himself, he does so only to preserve his life. If a Miao Master is hunted down with no escape, he may release the poisonous insect king he nurtures inside him to fight desperately against his enemies. At the same time, once the poisonous insect king emerges, the Miao Master also declares his own death. But when an Insect Master's poisonous insect king emerges, it does not first attack the enemy; instead, it devours the host until nothing remains, and only then does it help the host deal with the enemy.

Ou Yaofeng is certainly an Insect Master. But his natal poisonous insect king seems not to have been released by himself. He still has a strong will to survive, only his natal poisonous insect is being controlled by someone else.

Who that person is, there is no doubt—it is Ou Yaofeng's master; just from Ou Yaofeng's dying cry of 'master' one can tell. The people behind him, fearing that Shen Yuaning would pursue Ou Yaofeng and find him, without hesitation abandoned the chariot to save the commander, thereby triggering the natal poisonous insect king within Ou Yaofeng's body.

I no longer had time to wonder who that person was… because, after the black snake had finished eating Ou Yaofeng, it unexpectedly turned its snake head and crawled toward us. To be precise, it extended its snake head and lunged at us.

Shen Yuaning took a deep breath, chanted the old-fashioned incantation, and, holding his Dharma fan, went forward to meet it.