Chapter 123: The Gu Girl

"Ah!!!" The guy suddenly shrieked and collapsed heavily to the ground. The flying Gu insects that had been swarming before my eyes abruptly stopped and began falling one after another.

Still shaken, I looked around in confusion. The dense swarm of black dots had all landed on the ground, revealing their true forms: they were strange-looking, fat, brown insects.

The guy was howling in agony, and black, spiderweb-like cracks were rapidly spreading across his body.

"What's wrong with him?" I asked.

"He's been struck by a Gu curse," Tu'e said.

Struck by a Gu curse?! Could a guy like him even be cursed by his own kind? He had been acting so arrogant just a moment ago—was this karma for all the evil he’d done?

I didn't have time to worry about him. Seeing that all the surrounding Gu insects had fallen and were lying motionless, I signaled for Tu'e to run.

We sprinted toward a side path, rushed out of the alley, and ducked into the vegetable market. The market, which should have been bustling, was completely deserted. Vegetables and fruits remained on the stalls, as if the vendors had vanished into thin air.

We bolted out of the market and saw an unremarkable gold van parked ahead, its doors flung wide. A familiar, wizened face was sitting inside, a bony arm waving at me.

In my shock, I quickly climbed in with Tu'e. The doors slammed shut, and the van immediately sped off.

"You brat! Didn't I tell you to come over once things were finished? Why did you drag it out for so long!" Old Man Ma complained with a look of disdain.

I hadn't even caught my breath yet, and hearing this, I nearly coughed up blood. He actually had the nerve to say that! Never mind that he’d dragged me into this mess and nearly gotten me killed by that freak—he was my master, and I was his apprentice. But didn't he know my capabilities? He made it sound like I could just solve a problem like that with a flick of my wrist!

"What was up with that cross-dressing midget? He almost killed me! Did he kill everyone in there?" Despite my intense frustration, I held my tongue, knowing the urgent questions came first.

"Kill everyone? He wouldn't dare. He just used some petty tricks to induce minor ailments and clear the place out to put on a show. The epidemic prevention station will be here soon. Does he really think a bug-keeper can rule the world?" Old Man Ma maintained his usual posture, clearly not intimidated by his opponent in the slightest.

"Master Ma, I wouldn't say that. He is a true master," a voice chimed in from the side.

I looked over. The speaker was a young man in his early twenties with refined features and a heroic air. He seemed incredibly sensitive to the cold; he was bundled up so tightly he looked as swollen as a giant panda.

Besides the kid, there was a middle-aged man driving. He looked perfectly normal—neither fat nor thin—and completely unremarkable. I glanced at him once and ignored him.

"Who exactly is that person?" I asked.

The young man replied, "A very formidable Gu master who calls himself 'Little Sister Gu'."

What a terrifying moniker! If he were actually a little girl, that would be one thing, but what was going through his head? Since he was never going to grow up, had he just decided to give up on life and "play to his strengths" by pretending to be a girl?

"If he's clearly a man, why does he call himself 'Little Sister'?" Tu'e asked in confusion.

The young man looked at Tu'e, puzzled. "What are you talking about?"

I looked at the kid's bewildered expression and thought, *Does he really not know?*

I probed, "You didn't know that Little Sister Gu is a man?"

His pupils suddenly dilated, his face filled with shock and disbelief. He stared at me as if he had heard something absolutely horrific. In an instant, he seemed to plummet from heaven to hell, as if he’d been subjected to every torture in the book—he looked completely shattered!

"You... what did you say?" he stammered.

Although I didn't know who this guy was, he seemed to harbor some strange fantasy about Little Sister Gu. I didn't have the heart to crush him, so I said carefully, "He's a man—a man in his twenties, the kind who never grew up."

"No! This can't be true! You must be lying! How could it be? I came all this way specifically for him! It’s not true! It’s not true! Such a cute little girl! Ow—ah!" The last part was a yelp of pain.

Old Man Ma pulled back the hand he’d used to smack him and said irritably, "What are you yelling for? We’ll be tracked down at this rate."

The kid went quiet, clutching his chest with a heartbroken expression. This look, combined with his bloated, bundled-up appearance, made me want to laugh.

Old Man Ma looked at me, then glanced at Tu'e beside me. "Who is he?"

I finally realized why. Old Man Ma had reacted so strongly to that bird-summoning talisman earlier and had warned me to be careful of Tu'e. Now that the man himself was standing right here, he was definitely not going to be pleased.

I said hesitantly, "A friend."

Old Man Ma stared straight into my eyes, as if seeing right through me. "What’s his name, and where is he from?"

"His name is Tu'e. He was invited by Second Uncle."

Old Man Ma’s eyes flickered with a sharp glint. He looked back and forth between us but didn't say anything more.

He gave the young man a nudge. The kid snapped out of his sorrow and introduced himself as Qu Xinchen, also a Gu practitioner. He was here both to help Old Man Ma and because of Little Sister Gu. It was he who had planted the Gu curse on the guy earlier.

He had already heard about me from Old Man Ma, so I didn't need to introduce myself.

When Little Sister Gu was mentioned, his expression turned somber again. "I thought a young, beautiful girl had emerged in the Gu-keeping trade, and I was hoping for a chance to spar with her and persuade her to change professions. I never imagined it was all a lie. You guys were lucky this time; he didn't release his 'Three Great Treasures'."

"Three Great Treasures?" I asked, confused.

He explained, "He has three incredibly powerful Gu insects, known as the Black Gentleman, the Red Lady, and the White Beauty. No one who has encountered these three has ever survived."

*White Beauty... that white cockroach!* So that thing was actually that dangerous!

"White Beauty..." Tu'e began to speak, but I quickly interrupted. "White Beauty? What kind of thing is that?"

Tu'e looked at me in confusion. I gave him a look, hoping he understood—in short, stay quiet.

"White Beauty is a cockroach Gu, Red Lady is a red snake Gu, and as for the Black Gentleman, no one knows what it is," Qu Xinchen said.

Old Man Ma watched me, his eyes filled with hidden meaning; he clearly sensed something was off. I never expected to hide anything from an old fox like him, but if word got out that Tu'e had taken down one of the Three Great Treasures with his bare hands, he would become a legend.

I stopped dwelling on the Gu issue and asked Old Man Ma, "What is this really all about? Why did Little Sister Gu come after you?"

"I was just targeted by an old enemy. If you hadn't been so slow, you would have arrived just as they were showing up! If it weren't for this kid Qu, I wouldn't have been able to save you," Old Man Ma said.