Chapter 127: Gu Insects as Payment

I went to the market and bought a few pounds of roujiamo and soy milk.
Since I don’t know how to cook, I could only get ready-made food for their breakfast.
The trip went smoothly—I didn’t see that old man selling snake meat.
Maybe, as Bai Yue said, he’d gone to the park to play chess.

As I walked back upstairs, I spotted a swarm of bizarre insects flying past outside.
They seemed headed toward my home.
If my eyesight hadn’t improved, I might not have noticed them.

Back home, I saw Bai Yue had moved from the bedroom to the living room.
Her face looked excited.
I knew what was up and asked with a wry smile, “You got it already?”

“Mm, very smoothly.
No matter how strong that old man’s physique is, he’s still just a mortal.
There were no traps in his cold storage—my gu insects emptied it easily.”
Bai Yue said proudly.

“Just don’t lead a murderer back to my place.”
I said helplessly.
If possible, I’d have preferred her to wait until leaving the complex before acting.
I hadn’t expected her to move so quickly.

“Don’t worry. If he dares come, he’ll only die.
Senior Sister Xia, yesterday I promised you two fourth-grade gu insects.
With them protecting you, no one can hurt you.”
Bai Yue said, pulling a silver orb from her clothes.

It was an exquisitely crafted silver ball, about the size of a tennis ball.
Intricate hollow patterns covered its surface—it seemed hollow inside.
When she took it out, a shrill insect buzzing emanated from within.

I could clearly see a faint spiritual glow flowing over the silver ball, containing a mass of ominous, murderous aura.
This was a Dharma artifact—and a very special one.

“All your gu insects are raised in here?”
I guessed the silver ball’s purpose.
The writhing murderous aura inside was Bai Yue’s gu insects.

“Exactly.
I’ll give you two fourth-grade gu insects. And they’ll come with—”

Bai Yue looked pained as she said this, but she still tapped the silver ball.

Suddenly, over a dozen dark shadows flew out and landed on the living room floor.
Goosebumps covered my skin.
These gu insects were hideous one by one, fangs bared and claws waving.
Though I wasn’t afraid of bugs before, this sight still scared me.

Among them was the ghost-eyed moth I’d seen yesterday, a purple scorpion with six wings, a blood-red spider, a golden beetle, a palm-sized cockroach.
The most eye-catching was a centipede as long as a giant python.

“Until yesterday, I only had five fourth-grade gu insects.
Today, there are this many—all thanks to your blood accelerating their growth. Uh…”
Bai Yue paused, looking troubled.

“What’s wrong?”
I asked, puzzled.
Bai Yue said embarrassedly, “Though I promised you could pick any two fourth-grade gu insects, that Dragon Gu… please let me keep it, Senior Sister Xia.”

“Dragon Gu?”
I followed her finger in surprise—to that centipede at least three meters long.
She called this a Dragon Gu?

“Mm. In our Miaojiang gu arts, snakes and centipedes can be refined into Dragon Gu.
Dragon Gu represents the master’s fortune.
It’s my most cherished gu insect after my natal one.
Meeting Senior Sister Xia might be the opportunity it brought me.”
Bai Yue said.

Fortune is intangible—I don’t understand it.
But Bai Yue seeing meeting me as her opportunity felt strangely wonderful.
And she wasn’t exactly wrong.

“You’d even part with such an important gu insect?
Your natal gu is already sixth grade, right?
How is your second-most invested Dragon Gu only fourth grade?”
I asked.

“That plate of blood was too little.
I was in a hurry to raise the others to fourth grade, so there wasn’t enough left for the Dragon Gu.
Unless Senior Sister Xia is willing to give me more blood, but for exchange…”
Bai Yue’s expression grew even more conflicted.

I roughly knew her dilemma.
To quickly evolve her gu insects, she needed more of my blood.
But to get my blood, she’d have to trade more gu insects.
It was hard for her to choose.

Over the past few days, to understand the golden bee gu, I’d read some books on gu arts.
Perhaps because Bai Yue was a gu master, the Supernatural Events Department had detailed introductory books on the basics.

The primary challenge in raising gu is selection: gathering hundreds of various venomous creatures, placing them in a jar to kill each other.
Just finding enough quality venomous creatures is time- and effort-intensive.

If the overall quality is low, the final gu insect will likely be mediocre too.
To improve the outcome, gu masters add various drugs to stimulate ferocity and potential.

Of so many venomous creatures fighting to the death, only one survives—becoming a first-grade gu insect.
But which one survives and what abilities it has is completely random—the gu master can’t control it.

Even if a promising, high-potential specimen is included, it can easily “flip” in the hundred-venom melee.
With ferocity stimulated, creatures fight desperately—ganged up on or dying from accumulated injuries is normal.

In Bai Yue’s words, it’s like pouring resources into a gacha game without a pity system—pure luck.
Gu masters can only adjust probabilities to some extent.

So gu masters keep raising more gu, increasing their numbers, prioritizing those with excellent abilities.
Higher-grade gu insects require even more resources.

A gu master’s strength largely depends on the number of gu insects—more means more abilities, better handling diverse situations or overwhelming opponents.

That’s where Bai Yue’s dilemma lay: trading more gu insects for my blood to cultivate a few powerful ones would reduce her own abilities.
Quality versus quantity—a tough contradiction.

But I resolved it for her.
I shook my head and said, “Yesterday’s ritual cost me a lot of vitality.
I can’t bleed again soon—I need to recover.
You can relax; I don’t want that Dragon Gu.”

Truthfully, even if Bai Yue gave me that centipede, I wouldn’t take it.
I don’t have her artifact to store gu insects.
Where would I hide a three-meter centipede?
If it crawled on me, I’d die on the spot.

Bai Yue sighed in relief, recalling the giant centipede into the silver ball.
Then she said, “You can pick any of the remaining gu insects.”

She’d actually brought out the untouchable Dragon Gu to show me.
This girl was pretty straightforward.
I couldn’t imagine her reaction if I’d really chosen the centipede.

I looked at the pile of terrifying gu insects.
Knowing nothing about them, I asked Bai Yue, “Can you recommend some?
I want ones that can protect my life—uh, protect Xiao Qing’s.”