Chapter 475: Chapter 166: The Art of Sorcery and Gu! Are you eating a pig? You’re eating a Taoist! (A 10,000-word Chapter asking for subscriptions)_6
The cooks in the kitchen, at this moment, also looked at Fan Wu and the others with faces full of shock, then turned to look at their employer, the merchant.
In an instant, these cooks in the kitchen didn’t know what to do.
However, they could definitely feel that something was not quite right with the situation.
It seemed not to be the kind of thing that people like them could get involved in.
"He is not a practitioner of evil ways," Fan Wu’s voice suddenly rang out at that moment. "He is just a rather special ordinary person who is slightly more extraordinary than the average common folk.
Ah?
Yun Jiuqing’s expression froze abruptly; she did not expect to have misunderstood someone as soon as she entered.
Fan Wu continued, "But the meat displayed here, indeed... it’s exactly what you think."
The scene that Fan Wu could see was completely different from what the others could see.
In the eyes of Yun Jiuqing and the others, the unprocessed raw meats laid out in the kitchen appeared to be the flesh of various livestock—some looked like pork, others like mutton, and there were also what seemed to be deer meat, rabbit meat, and so on.
But in my eyes, the meat laid out here had no fancy frills; they all looked the same.
Fan Wu even saw, on a cutting board that was specifically used for slicing meat, a body that caused physiological discomfort.
He frowned.
Fan Wu’s gaze then shifted to the merchant who looked somewhat frightened and anxious, not knowing what was happening. He could see the attribute information hovering above the merchant’s head.
[Merchant infested with ’Glutton Gu Worm’—Life: 61—Power: 2.2—Skill: None]
"Daoist Fan Wu, what’s with this man..." Xing Fengzi, not as impulsive as Yun Jiuqing, asked Fan Wu in astonishment.
Fan Wu replied, "’Glutton Gu Worm’, have you ever heard of it?"
Xing Fengzi was taken aback: "It sounds... rather familiar."
Upon reflecting carefully, a flash of insight crossed Xing Fengzi’s mind as if he remembered something.
He immediately widened his eyes.
"Witch Gu Cultivator?" Xing Fengzi exclaimed: "I seem to have come across the ’Glutton Gu Worm’ mentioned by Daoist Fan Wu in a certain book, if I remember correctly..."
"It should be a kind of witchcraft, and it is said that at the borders of Nanjun and Xijun within the Great Zhou Dynasty, such techniques are passed down. But I heard, not many practice it."
"Glutton Gu Worm is among the more malicious witcheries of the Witch Gu Cultivator; practitioners cultivate a kind of Gu worm named ’Glutton Gu Worm’, which can infest a human body."
"Those infested by the Gu worm will have their perception deceived by the worm! Even... emotions and cognition, can be influenced by the worm..."
"Wait!"
At this point, Xing Fengzi himself had already turned pale because he realized that while looking at those pieces of meat, it seemed like he was just looking at some livestock meat.
This is bad!
When on earth did he get caught up in this Gu sorcery without realizing it?! He hadn’t noticed at all!
Xing Fengzi no longer cared about where he was.
He immediately closed his eyes, attempting an internal inspection of his body.
His expression changed again and again.
Because...
Upon looking inside at his Dantian in the lower abdomen, he could vaguely see a small oval object, like a tiny worm egg emitting a very strange fluctuation.
It was this strange fluctuation... that allowed him to detect it, otherwise he would not have found it at all.
Because it was too concealed.
Yun Jiuqing also realized the severity of the situation: "Did we fall under a witchery as soon as we entered the county city, or was it when we approached this shop? No, I’ve been to this county city before, and I’ve been near this shop more than once..."
"Ah, this..." Yun Jiuqing’s eyes widened: "Does this mean I’ve been infested by this kind of Gu worm since I was very young?"
Xing Fengzi shook his head: "Glutton Gu Worm can only survive in the human body for a month. After a month, it turns into nutrients and disappears, being directly absorbed by the body."
Hearing this, Yun Jiuqing didn’t know whether to breathe a sigh of relief or continue to be on edge.
The dialogue among the few men caused the merchant in the kitchen and all the cooks and helpers to react differently.
Those cooks and helpers, one by one, wore confused expressions.
They didn’t understand what Fan Wu and the others were talking about at all.
But this didn’t prevent them from looking terrified.
After all, things like Gu worms and witchcraft just sounded very creepy.
The merchant’s eyes widened, especially when Xing Fengzi just mentioned "Witch Gu arts," his facial expression reacted the most intensely.
The change of expression on his face.
It was impossible to hide from Fan Wu.
Fan Wu opened his mouth and asked, "May I know if you have recalled something? Feel free to share what you’ve remembered."
The merchant opened his mouth intending to say—Why should I listen to you, a stranger? You barged in here claiming this place is a den of evil, and I, as the owner, haven’t even questioned you!
But when Fan Wu released a slight pressure of his power, the words in the merchant’s heart were all swallowed back down.
Just a slight show of his power was so terrifying in the eyes of the group in the kitchen!
The merchant felt that standing before him was not a person at all.
But rather an extremely terrifying great Demon or Devil!
His subconscious told him...
—If he didn’t tell everything he’d recalled, the consequences he would face definitely wouldn’t be good!
The intense desire to survive that surged within him caused the merchant to break out in a cold sweat, and with a trembling voice, he spoke of everything he’d remembered in detail.
It was about how he had been a poor hunter, living day and night on the edge of hunger.
Until one day, during a hunting trip, he had a strange encounter with two people in the woods.
One of them was wearing a Daoist Robe.
Seeming like a Taoist.
The other was dressed very oddly, with a clear distinction from the mainstream attire of the Great Zhou Dynasty.
The commonality between the two people he met was that both of them had suffered very serious injuries. They appeared half dead, breathing in less than they were breathing out.
The Taoist, panting heavily, told him that the strangely dressed person was a Witch Gu Cultivator. If he could shoot and kill the Witch Gu Cultivator with his bow, the Taoist promised to take him as a disciple.
The strange person weakly said that if he could help him shoot the Taoist, he would make him a wealthy man—taking wives and concubines would be no issue!
Even, the strange person took out a piece of gold from his bosom right in front of him, and the gold was bloodstained.
He didn’t hesitate.
He shot the Taoist dead.
"And then... then the strange person gave me a piece of symbol paper, I have no idea what was wrapped inside it. He... he said, besides giving me that piece of gold, that symbol paper was... also a reward for me."
The merchant swallowed hard, and under the intense fear imposed on him by Fan Wu, he didn’t dare to tell any falsehoods.
"He had me unveil that piece of symbol paper and then I ate it. After that... I, I fainted. When I woke up, the strange person had disappeared."
"The Taoist I shot dead was also gone; I think his body must have been taken away by that strange person."
"Beside me was an additional dead wild boar."
The merchant spoke without hiding anything: "I thought at the time that it must have been a thank-you gift from that strange person. So I carried the wild boar back home, skinned it, drew out its sinews, deboned it."
"Most of it I sold, only a small part... I... ate myself."
Yun Jiuqing couldn’t help but interject: "...What you ate was not any wild boar!"
She bit her silver teeth together: "What you ate... was that Taoist!!"
"..."
...
