Chapter 160: The Hidden Hunger

“Rip! Amazing!”

I stared at the hole pierced through the wall by the pencil.
Although it was still far from those qigong masters on TV who could supposedly shatter steel plates from over ten meters away without any tool,
shooting a pencil through a concrete wall was already incredibly powerful.

At that moment,
the wall began to repair itself.
The Supernatural Events Department had once been torn apart by the Painted Skin Ghost,
yet it had recovered perfectly afterward.
In a ghost domain,
any destruction could be restored—as long as the foundation remained intact.

“Only Senior Sister Mo could do something this impressive.
I still can’t even learn a single small technique.”

Ou Zhiqing said somewhat dejectedly.

“You’ve only just started learning—how could you master it so quickly?
When I first began, I wasn’t any better than you are now.
Calm your heart, practice seriously, and you’ll pick it up soon.”

Mo Qingyan comforted her.

“Yu Bing, what do you think?
Although this isn’t strictly martial dao,
it’s still a form of qi manipulation.
The principles of martial arts are universal.
If you can obtain the complete Taiji Quan manual,
Senior Brother Liang can teach you even stronger offensive techniques.
Of course, you can ask for other rewards if you prefer.”

Mo Qingyan turned to me and asked.

“Mm. I’ll do my best.”

I replied seriously.
Getting the complete Taiji Quan manual from Yi Zhiqiu probably wouldn’t be difficult.
But passing on the secret manual he personally taught me…
it really felt like betraying him.

“Very good.
Then let’s head out first.
Go to the Supernatural Events Department and review the records of the incidents the students reported today.
There should be some ghost stories or rumors among them.
Just show those to Yi Zhiqiu.”

Mo Qingyan said with satisfaction.

Not long after I left,
a small insect landed on my shoulder.
I heard Bai Yue’s voice:

“If you want a method to cultivate true qi quickly,
or offensive techniques,
I can provide those too.”

“Huh?
But… aren’t you a Gu cultivator?
Do you also know martial dao?”

I asked the little insect.
Sending a Gu insect specifically to speak with me—
clearly Bai Yue didn’t want Mo Qingyan to know about this conversation.

Bai Yue was indeed very strong,
but her strength came entirely from the Gu insects on her body.
Her own physical body didn’t seem particularly powerful.
At least from the way she walked and handled things,
her strength didn’t even seem average for her age—
let alone someone who practiced martial arts.

“I’ve never practiced martial arts,
but my family has methods of using Gu insects to open the dantian and qi sea,
methods of using Gu poisons to cultivate qi,
and also a large collection of secret manuals accumulated over many years.
All of these can be traded.”

Bai Yue said.

“You’re not actually after the Taiji Quan manual, are you?”

I asked.
She didn’t practice martial arts—
but I could already guess what she really wanted.

“Correct.
Your blood.
I still need a lot more.
As long as you can provide more blood,
anything can be traded.”

Bai Yue said through the Gu insect.

Sure enough—
after earning a whole dish of blood at my house over the weekend,
Bai Yue had tasted the shortcut of rapidly strengthening her Gu insects.
Now she craved even more.

“But right now my blood and qi are deficient.
You saw it yourself.
Even though I recovered a little today,
I don’t dare draw blood again in the short term.”

I said.

I had a vague feeling that,
even if I could replenish my blood and qi,
I shouldn’t draw blood again anytime soon.
My constitution and blood were very special.
Frequent bloodletting might leave behind some hidden danger
that simply replenishing qi and blood couldn’t fix.

“Tomorrow I’ll bring you some medicine to supplement qi and blood.
Once you’ve recovered,
remember to consider my trade.
What I can offer won’t be any worse than Senior Brother Liang’s.”

After Bai Yue finished speaking,
the Gu insect flew away.

I thought about Bai Yue’s words,
and the relationship and conversations between her and Mo Qingyan.
On the surface, Bai Yue was a member of the Supernatural Events Department,
and Mo Qingyan was the department head—
but they clearly weren’t completely on the same side.

Previously, Mo Qingyan had sought Bai Yue’s help.
Bai Yue had wanted to monopolize my blood.
In the end, Bai Yue agreed to help Mo Qingyan with one task—
but even when Mo Qingyan wanted her to do something,
she didn’t agree immediately.

Bai Yue came from a prominent Miaojiang Gu poison family
with deep heritage and resources.
She had been invited by Senior Brother Liang to attend Jianlong Middle School during junior high.
The condition that attracted her
was the cafeteria ghost story that could endlessly produce human flesh and blood.

Yet even Bai Yue, backed by the full resources of a great family,
only dared to say that what she could offer “wouldn’t be worse than Senior Brother Liang’s.”
Just who exactly was Senior Brother Liang?

How could he be compared to the resources of an entire great family?
And how had he managed to leave behind ghost stories in the school while still in high school?
It felt like there was something very complicated behind him as well.

After organizing the student assistance records from today at the Supernatural Events Department,
it was time to go home.
Before heading back, I first stopped by the market.
To replenish my missing blood and qi,
I needed to buy a large amount of red and white meat.

But today felt rather ominous.
At the meat stall, I saw that old man selling snake bird meat again.
He had actually reopened for business.
I wondered whether what he was selling today
was the flesh of the person who had been killed that day.

Still…
there was something strange about this old man.
His face felt indescribably off.
His features seemed slightly different from when I had last seen him a few days ago,
but I couldn’t quite pinpoint what had changed.

Mainly because I wasn’t familiar with him,
and I didn’t dare stare.
I was afraid of catching the attention of this murderer.
So I hid to the side and observed him with the Golden Bee Gu.

I quickly noticed something wrong with the way he looked at people.
It was as if his two eyeballs were looking in different directions at the same time.
The gaze he fixed on people was filled with naked hunger—
like he was sizing up his next prey.

Suddenly,
both of his eyes swiveled simultaneously
and locked onto the direction of the Golden Bee Gu.
That gaze felt exactly like Fei’er’s from that night—
as though it had pierced straight through the Golden Bee Gu
and landed on me.

I was so startled I almost moved.
I hurriedly covered my own mouth,
forcing myself to stay perfectly still.
Right now I was only one corner away from the old man.
If he had truly noticed me,
he should have looked in my direction—
not just stared at the Golden Bee Gu.

“Hey, Old Zhang, I want this piece of meat.”

A customer interrupted the old man’s stare.
The old man smiled, turned to serve the customer,
but one of his eyes remained fixed on the direction of the Golden Bee Gu
until it finally flew out of his line of sight.

Strange.
A few days ago, when Bai Yue and I followed him to the cold storage,
he hadn’t noticed either the Golden Bee Gu or Bai Yue’s Gu insects.
What kind of change had happened in the last two days?

I didn’t dare stay any longer.
I quickly left the market.
When I returned to the neighborhood,
I saw another group of suspicious-looking people.

How should I describe them?
Their clothing wasn’t particularly strange—
some wore suits, some sportswear, some short jackets.
What drew my attention was
that they were carrying several odd-looking instruments,
scanning the neighborhood as if searching for something.

And the other point—
they all carried a faint spiritual light on their bodies.
Though not particularly strong,
it was clear they were each carrying Dharma artifacts.

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