Looking at the round perfume container the guard was holding, Yuwen Feng instructed with a cold face, “Open it. Nice and slow.”

The guard inclined his head, carefully put the container down onto the table and opened it.

Inside the container was a wax ball. The guard gingerly leaned over to scrutinize it and found that it bristled with very small apertures which were alive with some kind of black creatures that looked like tiny worms.

Taken aback, the guard hurriedly backed away several paces and said to Yuwen Feng, “Your Lordship, there are black worms hidden in this wax ball – living ones.”

With a glum face, Yuwen Feng gazed at the wax ball and ordered, “Go and get a living thing here. A chicken or something.”

“Yes, Your Lordship.” The guard left and soon brought back a living thing. He placed the wax ball and the living thing on the ground, carefully made a small cut in the skin of the living thing and with that the worms in the wax ball were immediately stimulated by the smell of blood, as though it was some kind of delicious food for them. In the blink of an eye, several long black worms wriggled out of the wax ball and instantaneously wormed their way through the wound into the body of the living thing. Before long, the living thing died.

The guard and the others present were horrified, not daring approach the wax ball again.

Yuwen Feng’s face hardened. “Get a brazier here and burn the wax ball and that thing. Make sure they’re burnt to ashes!”

The guards quickly brought a brazier to the room, used their clubs to put the wax ball and the body of the creature into it, poured some oil over them and set them afire. Fierce flames instantly rose, the two things in the brazier sizzling.

Yuwen Feng stood on the side, staring at the brazier. After the two things in the brazier were burnt to ashes, he instructed a servant to dispose of the ashes.

“Your Lordship, what were those worms? They were so scary,” said a guard, experiencing a carry-over of fear.

With a sulky look on his face, Yuwen Feng replied, “I don’t know what poisonous creatures they were. Interrogate Yuwen Qi. Do whatever necessary to find out where he got this thing!”

“Yes, Your Lordship!”

…

Hiding in the shadows, Miao Shiba watched Yuwen Feng instruct a servant to dispose of the ashes. Having memorized what he had seen, he planned to go back to report. He had just pivoted around when he suddenly noticed that someone else was hiding diagonally across the courtyard from his position around a corner, stealthily keeping watch on Yuwen Feng and the others who had just burnt the wax ball and the living thing, revealing a small part of the hem of a gray coat typically worn by a servant. After seeing Yuwen Feng instruct the guards to put Yuwen Qi under intensive interrogation, that person quietly backed into the corner and disappeared from view.

Miao Shiba quickly detoured to that corner with the intention to tail that person and find out who it was, but it was too late. That person had already left.

Just now he had only seen the profile of that person shadowed by a tree, and he hadn’t distinguished that person’s features, but there was no doubt that that servant was suspicious.

“That person was either a snooper or someone having something to do with that wax ball. You’re right, Sire. Yuwen Qi is indeed hiding someone in the residence, whose identity is unknown to us.”

After returning to the imperial palace, Miao Shiba reported to Yuwen Tong and Ling Zhang all what he had seen.

“Long thin black worms?” Ling Zhang knitted his eyebrows. The mere description of those things made him feel sick. “Last time it was a venomous snake, and now poisonous worms – why does Yuwen Qi always have to carry this kind of disgusting things with him?”

Yuwen Tong looked at him, and so did Miao Shiba.

Ling Zhang was puzzled. “Why are you both looking at me like that?”

He didn’t say anything wrong, did he?

Yuwen Tong instructed Miao Shiba, “Go get Xie Shi.”

Xie Shi was soon summoned to the hall. After Miao Shiba described those long thin black worms to him, Xie Shi said, “I think they were some kind of poisonous Gu worms.”

Poisonous Gu worms? The three words gave Ling Zhang goosebumps.

“Only Gu masters in South Xinjiang excel at raising Gu worms. Where Yuwen Qi got that venomous snake is still a mystery, because the provider of the snake had long since returned to South Xinjiang, and we have no intelligence about their appearance whatsoever, so there’s no way to find them. This time around, in all likelihood, the provider of those worms is the same person who gave him the snake,” added Xie Shi.

On hearing that those worms had actually been raised by the same person who’d raised that venomous snake, Ling Zhang furrowed his brows. “Does that mean a Gu master from South Xinjiang slipped into the residence to offer Yuwen Qi help?”

“Probably,” replied Xie Shi.

Yuwen Tong asked, “Is there anything those Gu worms are afraid of? Something that could help people defend against the worms?”

Xie Shi pondered for a while before he answered, “Common alexipharmic pills are definitely no use against them. Gu worms are living creatures. In order to keep them away, people will have to carry with them either a drug with a strong scent that the worms are scared of, or a Gu insect that is stronger than those worms and could deter them.”

“Do you have anything like that?” asked Yuwen Tong.

Though astonished, Xie Shi still quickly replied, “I can prepare a kind of medicinal powder, which could be contained in a sachet, and anybody carrying it wouldn’t be attacked by Gu worms, but it’s only effective against common Gu worms. It cannot deter any strong poisonous creatures. In addition, once someone carries it with them, a Gu master would be able to detect it very easily.”

As regards strong Gu creatures, Xie Shi didn’t have any for the moment. Firstly, strong Gu creatures with deterrent effects were hard to come by; secondly, people who were not experienced Gu masters didn’t have the required skills to tame that kind of creatures and the process could easily backfire on them.

After a few moments’ consideration, Yuwen Tong commanded, “Go and prepare some first.”

“Yes, Sire,” answered Xie Shi.

Ling Zhang inquired of Yuwen Tong, “You want to give a sachet to Yuwen Feng?”

Yuwen Tong responded, “Shiba and the others need the powder, too. Pity it has such an obvious drawback – it’s too easy to detect it.”

Ling Zhang thought about it for a moment and then suggested, “How about we invite Mr. Mu here and ask him his opinion?”

Yuwen Tong gave it some thought and replied, “All right.”

Soon Mr. Mu was escorted to the palace. Ling Zhang had Miao Shiba give Mr. Mu a detailed description of those Gu worms, and then asked him whether or not he knew what those Gu worms were, and whether there was a way to defend against them.

Looking quite relaxed, Mr. Mu said, “Although I haven’t seen any of them with my own eyes, I have an educated guess that they’re a kind of Blood Gu.”

“Blood Gu?” Ling Zhang and the others were perplexed, wondering what kind of Gu worm a Blood Gu was.

“Blood Gu, as the name implies, are a kind of Gu worms that feed on blood and are virulent. They run wild at the smell of blood, burrow their way into living things’ bodies through wounds, suck their blood and eat their flesh. As a result, anybody who falls victim to Blood Gu would be subjected to unbearable pain. Without timely medical treatment, the agony would go beyond the victim’s endurance and kill them. The Blood Gu might even reduce the victim to a skeleton. But according to your description, after those Gu worms entered the guards’ bodies, the guards were in pain but didn’t show any other particular symptoms and died very soon. Given these facts, I think those worms were a fairly special species of Blood Gu. They’re called Blood-heart Gu. After entering a person’s body, they will rapidly burrow into the victim’s cardiac meridian and release a highly noxious substance which will kill the victim very soon. Then the worms will quickly metamorphose and then go into hibernation in the corpse,” explained Mr. Mu.

“That sounds so vicious,” observed Ling Zhang in a disgusted tone.

Mr. Mu said, “All those who know how to raise Blood-heart Gu are no common Gu masters. They’re at least beyond average and shouldn’t be taken lightly.”

“Do you know how to defend against those worms, Mr. Mu?” asked Ling Zhang.

Mr. Mu answered, “The medicinal powder Guard Xie is preparing could deter Blood-heart Gu from approaching. If the goal is merely to defend against the worms, the powder will be more than enough for you to achieve it.”

“For the moment we don’t want to alarm that Gu master. That person still hasn’t shown his face yet. I think he’s in disguise. It’s best if we could capture him,” said Ling Zhang.

Mr. Mu came to understand. “If that’s the case, the medicinal powder will be too easy to detect. That Gu master would probably sense it immediately. I have an idea – I’ll give you something. No Gu creatures will dare approach the one carrying it.”

“Is it some kind of badass Gu creature?” Ling Zhang asked him.

Mr. Mu chuckled, “I’m not a Gu master. Although I have some acquaintance with Gu-craft, I’m not very interested in raising Gu worms, so it’s not a Gu creature, just an insect called White Cicada. A White Cicada gives a whistle inaudible to the human ear, which scares all kinds of Gu worms. Whenever a White Cicada approaches, Gu worms will play dead, not daring move an inch. Also, the skin sloughed by White Cicadas is a top-notch medicine. This kind of insect is very rare. People may come by it with luck, but not by searching for it. On top of that, its cries are inaudible to the human ear, so even if it shows up right beside a Gu master, the latter wouldn’t be able to detect it.”

Delighted, Ling Zhang exchanged glances with Yuwen Tong and then said, “Thank you so much, Mr. Mu.”

Mr. Mu replied, “I didn’t bring it with me, so I’ll have to go back to the Ling Mansion first. You may have someone go there with me to get it for you.”

“Of course, of course,” Ling Zhang agreed and then asked, “By the way, how should we feed it?”

Mr. Mu answered, “You won’t have to do that anytime soon. I’ll put something that it likes to suck in the box, which will be enough to last it half a month or so. All you have to do is return it to me before the time is up.”

Yuwen Tong inclined his head. “We’ll only be needing it for a couple of days, and we’ll return it to you immediately after it serves its purpose.”

Mr. Mu soon went back to the Ling Mansion, accompanied by Miao Shisan, who then brought the White Cicada back to the palace.

Yuwen Tong gave the White Cicada to Miao Shiba and told him to play it by ear.

…

At this moment. In Yuwen Feng’s residence.

Yuwen Feng had been interrogating Yuwen Qi non-stop for over two hours, trying to press Yuwen Qi into telling him where he’d got that wax ball, but Yuwen Qi refused to confess no matter how hard Yuwen Feng pressured him. Eventually, Yuwen Feng angrily stormed out of the room, slamming the door as he left.

Yuwen Feng went to see Yuwen Zhi who was still in bed, looking so sickly as though he could kick the bucket at any moment.

Having mixed feelings, Yuwen Feng looked at him for quite a while before he asked the physician he’d hired previously, “The symptoms of my father’s cold have abated some time ago. Why is he still confined to bed? And he doesn’t look well too.”

Face crumpling up, the physician said, “Please forgive me, Your Lordship. I’ve done everything within my power. It’s just that Lord Yuwen’s constitution is weak, and the cold took a heavy toll on him. In addition, he stayed in the dark dank Court Prison for a very long time and the coldness invaded all parts of his body. I’m afraid it’ll take some more time to eliminate the root of the illness.”

Yuwen Feng looked at Yuwen Zhi who had his eyes closed and seemed to be asleep. After quite a while, he said, “You must cure my father of his disease, no matter what drug it’ll take. Soon the time will come when he will be sent into exile. If he still doesn’t recover by then, I won’t be able to have him stay here. I’ll have no choice but to have some men carry him to the south-west.”

His eyes closed, Yuwen Zhi’s eyelids flickered, but he still didn’t open them.

Yuwen Feng, who saw that flicker distinctly, pivoted around and made towards the door.

Halfway to the door, he accidentally bumped into the physician, who was startled and hurriedly supported Yuwen Feng. “Are you okay, Your Lordship? Please pardon me. My eyesight is poor and I wasn’t paying attention.”

Yuwen Feng didn’t mind, waved his hand and left. While walking through the door, he moved his arm, as though feeling somewhat uncomfortable, but soon he was far away from the doorway.

The physician wiped the apologetic expression off his face and made towards Yuwen Zhi’s bed. “Lord Yuwen,” he called.