Chapter 171: Escape!

From birth I was locked in the Gu chamber, living isolated from the world, and at sixteen my eyes would be dug out to feed the Gu insects… Isn't that bloody enough?

"There is more than one Gu Saintess in the stronghold." The madam continued, "I have protected three Gu Saintesses."

I grew up with them, watching two of them taken away when they turned sixteen; though they were destined to have their eyes gouged out, we had grown up in that environment since childhood.

"Immortal Gu"—that is what everyone in our stronghold aspires to.

Generations have lived this way; the deep‑rooted ideology has enslaved us. We are told that a Gu Saintess offers her Buddha Eye as a sacrifice to the Immortal Gu, and in the second half of her life she ought to be treated well, being sent to the Holy Mountain behind the stronghold to live out her years.

The Holy Mountain is where the Immortal Gu is kept; it is supremely sacred, and only Gu Saintesses are qualified to live there. Three months after the first Gu Saintess I guarded was sent to the Holy Mountain, an old pagoda tree there was struck by lightning, and I earned the chance to go up the mountain to deal with the tree.

At this point the madam's voice trembled: "Actually, I just wanted to see her. I grew up almost alongside her, only four years older. Though faith is supreme, she lost her eyes—it's impossible not to feel sorry for her. I merely wanted to seize this sole opportunity to check how she's doing."

I could sense the madam's emotional fluctuations; her whole body was shrouded in an inseparable grief.

I ventured to ask, "Is she not doing well?"

"No, she's doing fine—at least when I saw her then, she gave me the impression that she was doing well."

The madam said, "We were brought into the Holy Mountain at night. I was lucky and happened to meet her there; she was sitting in a courtyard, head tilted back facing the bright moon, her expression calm, her skin translucent like newborn porcelain, with a woman attending to her."

I merely happened to pass by that courtyard's exterior; I didn't even get a chance to greet her, but seeing that she was all right put my mind at ease.

A tear slipped down the madam's eye corner without warning; in fact the rims of her eyes were already completely red.

I pulled out a tissue and handed it to her; she took it but didn't wipe her tears, letting them fall drop by drop.

The madam takes good care of herself.

She said her real age is three decades older than Gu Die's; Gu Die is sixteen this year, so the madam is actually fifty‑two, though she looks only in her thirties or forties.

She is beautiful, and a single tear makes one's heart ache.

I didn't speak to disturb her, nor did I follow her around asking questions.

This is the secret hidden deepest in her heart, and also her deepest pain.

She is now peeling open that scar bit by bit, laying bare the bloody reality before me.

This process is undoubtedly the most agonizing.

"I'm so stupid!" the madam suddenly clenched her fist and struck her chest, "I had the only chance, yet I failed to notice her abnormality right away, and then I even managed to send the second one in as well!"

Until Gu Die was six, one night someone escaped from the Holy Mountain and collapsed in a mountain ravine; I happened to pass by and saw a bloody, mangled thing writhing in the ravine that had been dry for many years.

A flicker of fear appeared in the madam's eyes.

Even after all these years, recalling that scene still turns her pale, showing how horrifying the situation must have been.

"Her body had not a single intact patch; hundreds or thousands of blood‑red centipedes surged beneath her flesh. At the time it was dark, the flame of the fire starter too dim—I first thought they were pulsing blood vessels, until she cried out for me to save her, and I crouched down and looked closely."

I recognized her—her name was Xiao Qin, sent to the Holy Mountain just a few months earlier… I was helpless; Xiao Qin initially clung to me like a lifeline, begging for rescue nonstop, until she realized there was no hope and spilled the whole Gu Saintess deception.

It turns out not every Gu Saintess's eyes can be called a Buddha Eye; it's one in ten thousand. They raise Gu Saintesses one by one, and once they confirm a girl's eyes aren't the desired Buddha Eye, they breed blood‑centipede Gu in her body, using her as fertilizer for raising Gu.

When their essence and blood are nearly exhausted, they are shoved into the Gu fighting arena to battle other Gu Saintesses, just like Gu fighting, from which the strongest is selected to continue to the next round…

At that moment I was completely stunned by the madam's words.

At first I thought, "So there are that many Gu Saintesses in the Ten Thousand Great Mountain."

Every Gu Saintess has a pair of Buddha Eyes, so it seemed the Buddha Eye wasn't rare.

But I never imagined such a shocking, scandalous secret lay hidden behind it!

"I watched Xiao Qin's living body be devoured by those blood centipedes until nothing remained; in the end she left me only one word—'Run!'"

"Yeah, besides running, what else could I do?"

"I couldn't save anyone; the stronghold's guards are strict, the Ten Thousand Great Mountain is vast—over one ridge lies another. Escaping alone is already hard enough, let alone bringing anyone else."

"That night I returned home and thought for a long time. My parents had already died, I had no siblings—I could have just left, but I couldn't let go of Gu Die."

The madam pinched the tissue, her nails poking a hole through it.

She continued, "She's only six—I raised her myself, yet now she must face a fate like Xiao Qin's on her own… I… I couldn't bring myself to harden my heart, so I ended up staying, accompanying Gu Die for two years."

During those two years I deliberately told her about outside events, trying to weaken or change her faith, and taught her some basic martial arts within my ability; the little girl learned quickly and also showed extraordinary intelligence.

But good times didn't last; two years later her cleverness attracted the chief's attention, my situation grew perilous, and I realized that if I didn't leave now I might never be able to escape.

After hearing the madam's words, my heart was filled with mixed feelings.

It turned out she had escaped from the Ten Thousand Great Mountain under those circumstances and finally settled in Wufu Town.

She came to Wufu Town, took over this teahouse from its former owner, and has since put down roots here.

"I got out, but all these years I've been worried about Gu Die." The madam collected her emotions and spoke again, "Since the start of this year I've felt uneasy, because Gu Die turns sixteen this year—I don't know whether she's still alive, and being alive might be no better than being dead."

"I've imagined many possibilities, but the one I never expected was that she would suddenly show up in Wufu Town…"