What do you mean by saying that the corpses I sew are all ominous creatures?

The hole was about the size of a fist, and the skin around the edges was charred black, as if something had burned it out from the inside.

Strangely, there was no large area of ​​blood around the hole, as if the blood had evaporated the moment it flowed out.

I leaned closer and took a sniff; a pungent odor, a mixture of rotting flesh and some kind of herb, filled my nostrils.

This taste is familiar to me.

When we were in Huilongzhai, my grandfather's body also had a similar aura, but the concentration was not nearly as strong as it is now.

"Old Jin, what exactly was the procedure when Master Lan removed the Gu?" I asked without looking up.

Jin Wanliang had already gotten up from the ground. He leaned against the wall, trying his best not to look at the corpse on the ground, and spoke intermittently:

"He...he first placed a circle of Gu jars around Zhou Yuanshan's bed, then lit three sticks of black incense, and muttered incantations."

About half an hour later, Zhou Yuanshan's chest began to glow...

No, it's a fever. The skin in that area has turned bright red, as if it's on fire.

Then Master Lan inserted a silver needle into Zhou Yuanshan's heart, saying it was to draw out the Gu worms.

"Has it been lured out?"

"It's been lured out."

Jin Wanliang swallowed hard.

"A small, dark red worm, about the length of a little finger, crawled out of the needle hole in Zhou Yuanshan's chest."

Master Lan caught it with a Gu jar, and at the time I thought it was a success.

The moment the insect fell into the Gu jar, Master Lan's expression suddenly changed. He abruptly took several steps back, and then... then with a 'poof' sound, his chest exploded.

I remained silent for a moment, then looked down at the hole in Master Lan's chest.

From the outside, it does indeed look like the wound caused by a Gu worm bursting out of the body.

But I am not a Gu master. My understanding of Gu techniques is limited to the few words left by my grandfather and the few cases I have come across over the years.

I can't determine what kind of Gu it is, nor can I determine whether Master Lan died from the Gu poison he carried or from some kind of backlash mechanism triggered during the process of removing the Gu.

The only certainty is that after Master Lan died, something from his body spread out, causing the entire Zhou family to be affected.

I stood up, about to take out my phone to contact Lu Yan, but my phone vibrated first in my pocket.

The screen displayed Lu Yan's number.

"Lu Yan".

"Chen Yang, I've found out about Jiang Ling, but she's problematic."

Lu Yan's voice was as crisp and clear as ever, without a single wasted word.

"She went back to her rented room in Huaihua Lane after finishing get off work at the funeral home last night, but she left the house around 11:20 p.m.."

"Where did you go?"

"That's the problem."

Lu Yan's tone became slightly somber.

"After she left, the surveillance cameras at the three intersections around Huaihua Lane all showed blurry images within the same time period, which lasted for about four to five minutes."

It's not a device malfunction. I had the technical team check it, and the data on the memory card is intact.

But those few minutes of footage looked like someone had wiped the lens clean; nothing was visible.

Upon hearing this, I frowned slightly.

Being able to interfere with multiple surveillance cameras simultaneously is something that ordinary people cannot do.

Even if it's a folk method, it's something that only a master at the level of an elder of the Shadow Sect could do.

"Later I used the department's tracking device."

Lu Yan continued, "You know this thing: as long as you have an item that the target has recently come into contact with as a medium, you can trace their movements within a certain range."

I used clothes from her home.

"Did you catch up?"

"We caught up with part of them."

Lu Yan's voice carried a hint of seriousness that was barely perceptible.

"The tracking device shows that after she went out last night, she walked towards the suburbs, and her final direction was the wild mountain behind the Zhou family villa."

However, when we reached the halfway point on the mountain, the tracking device lost its connection, as if it had been abruptly severed by something.

After that, her trail completely disappeared; surveillance cameras, cell phone signals, and tracking devices all failed.

I held my phone and remained silent for a few seconds.

Halfway up the mountain.

That was the spot I passed through last night when I was following the red line, and it's also the only way to reach the cave where the white bone altar is located.

"Lu Yan, something has happened to the Zhou family."

I didn't press Jiang Ling further, but instead shifted the topic to the more pressing situation at hand.

"The Miao Gu master that Jin Wanliang hired died at the Zhou family's house. The cause of death is currently unknown. It looks like he died suddenly from Gu poisoning, but I can't make a specific judgment."

I briefly recounted everything that had happened to the Zhou family.

There was a two-second silence on the other end of the phone.

"I'll bring men over right away. You keep things under control and don't let anyone leave the villa area."

"It's under control."

After hanging up the phone, I squatted beside Master Lan's body for a while longer.

Jin Wanliang paced back and forth, muttering to himself, "It's over, it's really over now."

If Master Lan dies here, and the Lan family investigates, my life won't be enough to pay for it..."

"Old Jin," I interrupted him.

"Was there anything unusual on Master Lan's journey to Jiangcheng? Where did he stop along the way? Who did he come into contact with?"

Jin Wanliang paused for a moment, then tried hard to recall: "He flew directly from Chuncheng to Jiangcheng, and I sent someone to pick him up at the airport."

On the way... nothing unusual happened, except he said he slept on the plane and wasn't feeling well when we landed. I thought it was airsickness.

"Did you take a nap on the plane?"

I repeated the sentence.

If someone wanted to harm a Gu Master, the enclosed space of an airplane would indeed be a good choice.

However, the fact that this person could cast a spell on a legitimate Gu master without them noticing suggests that their Gu skills are far superior to Master Lan's.

I didn't voice this speculation because there's not enough evidence right now, and anything I say would just be empty talk.

About forty minutes later, the sound of a convoy could be heard outside the villa.

Lu Yan has arrived.

She was wearing a black training uniform, her hair neatly tied into a ponytail, and a peach wood sword with thunder patterns was tucked into her waistband.

He was followed by eight members of the action team, all dressed in black tactical gear.

After entering the room, Lu Yan glanced around the living room and then quickly went upstairs.

When she saw Master Lan's body, her brows furrowed tightly.

She crouched down, took out a yellow talisman from the leather pouch at her waist, and stuck it on Master Lan's forehead.

The talisman instantly glowed with a faint golden light, which quickly dimmed and eventually turned into a charred black.

"The evil energy is too strong."

Lu Yan stood up, her expression solemn.

"The purification talisman can't dispel this evil energy at all. This isn't ordinary poison; it's certainly not any kind I've ever encountered before."

She turned to look at me: "What do you think?"