Chapter Sixty-Five: The Heart-Devouring Gu (Weekend Five Updates, Third Update Presented)

The next time I saw Shen Jiangchuan was in his office. He had never expected me to come, and certainly not alone. Yet, even so, there were still many of his men guarding the entrance.

Shen Xiang stood beside Shen Jiangchuan. After what had happened that night, he still couldn’t understand how a man in his seventies could turn the tables with just a few words. It was supposed to be Yue Leiting’s group who were doomed, but in the end, he and Shen Jiangchuan barely made it back alive.

Shen Jiangchuan had not spoken a word. He was always a prudent man, knowing that saying too much was rarely a good thing, especially when he didn’t know my purpose. So he just sat there, quietly holding his tea, watching me in silence.

“Su Lengyue is simply using you. The only reason you obey her is because she has placed a curse on you, and as it happens, I can help you break it,” I said calmly as I sat on the sofa.

“You… you can remove that thing?!” Shen Xiang's eyes lit up and he straightened in his seat.

Compared to Shen Xiang’s reaction, Shen Jiangchuan was much more composed. He didn’t move, not even a flicker of emotion crossing his face.

“Did Yue Leiting send you?”

“Ting doesn’t know I’m here,” I replied, meeting Shen Jiangchuan’s gaze.

“Heh, after all, I am a businessman,” Shen Jiangchuan said with a faint smile, his eyes narrowing. “I always like to ask myself why I do anything before I do it. I’ve already fallen out with Yue Leiting. Though he spared me, I know it was only because Uncle Gu was present. Yet you come here today to save me… Why?”

“You and Ting are both in this business. Whatever means you use, your aims are the same—to make money. Harmony brings wealth,” I answered with composure. “Today you can move against Ting, and tomorrow he can move against you. If this cycle of violence continues, in the end, both sides will lose. No one will benefit.”

Shen Jiangchuan glanced at the others in the room, then motioned for them to leave. With his hands behind his back, he paced a few times before asking coldly, “How did you know Su Lengyue placed a curse on me?”

“The last time Shen Xiang was at the casino, I noticed he kept drinking water, but he didn’t go to the restroom all night. On the other hand, every chip he touched was soon slick with sweat,” I said evenly, glancing at the teacup in Shen Jiangchuan’s hand. “You have the same symptoms. When I saw Su Lengyue appear, I realized you’d both been cursed by her.”

Shen Jiangchuan and Shen Xiang exchanged a look, then Shen Jiangchuan turned to me. “Since you know we’ve been cursed by Su Lengyue, do you also know which curse she used?”

“The Needle Gu, also called the Heart-Eater Gu. Once inside you, the venom travels through your blood to your heart. The Heart-Eater Gu is refined from leeches; the venom attaches itself to your heart. If you act against the caster’s will, the poison will activate and drain all the blood from your heart. Drinking water constantly is Su Lengyue’s way of helping you suppress it. For now, the venom only absorbs the water in your bodies and does you no harm. But the control remains with Su Lengyue—she can take both your lives whenever she chooses.”

“Heh, if all we need to do is obey Su Lengyue, and since Old Master Huang is backing her and has always been generous with us, and as I’ve never crossed the line in my dealings, it seems I have little to worry about,” Shen Jiangchuan said indifferently.

“That’s only because you still have value. When Su Lengyue left that night, she didn’t even spare you a glance. Clearly, she doesn’t see you as important as you think,” I replied with a cool smile. “Besides, from what I know, the Heart-Eater Gu grows within its host. When it matures, drinking water will no longer suppress it. It will need to feed on blood to survive. If the Gu dies, Su Lengyue will suffer a backlash. When that time comes, do you think she’ll save herself or the two of you?”

“The Gu can grow?!” Shen Xiang said, horrified. “She didn’t tell us that. When will it mature?”

“At first, you’ll notice a small red dot on your chest. As the Gu grows, the dot will expand. Eventually, eight tentacle-like lines will spread from the center, completely enveloping your heart. When those eight lines cover your heart, the Gu will have matured.”

Shen Xiang quickly unbuttoned his shirt and looked down at his chest. Sure enough, there was a red spot the size of a fist, with eight blood-red lines spreading from it like tentacles. Shen Jiangchuan, too, was startled as he unbuttoned his own shirt—the same mark appeared on his chest.

“Dad, we need to go to a hospital and have surgery to get this thing out!” Shen Xiang said, panicked.

I shook my head and replied solemnly, “It’s useless. The Heart-Eater Gu has already invaded your hearts, clinging to them like a leech. The eight lines you see are its tentacles, barbed and embedded in your heart. That’s why you often feel stabbing pain in your chest. If you try to force the Gu out, you’ll only tear your heart apart and die anyway.”

“Then… then what should we do to get it out?” Shen Xiang asked, trembling with fear.

Slowly, I took a bottle of blood-red liquid from my bag and pushed it toward Shen Jiangchuan. “Drink this.”

“What is it?”

“The blood from a stillborn infant’s umbilical cord,” I answered, looking at Shen Jiangchuan calmly. “The Heart-Eater Gu must drink blood to survive, but it fears the yin-tainted blood of the deeply wronged dead. Gu is an evil art; it cannot survive yin blood. Once the Gu dies, it will fall from your heart and turn into blood.”

“You want me to drink the blood of the dead?” Shen Xiang stared at the bottle, aghast.

“You don’t have to. But when the Gu matures, it’s your blood it will drink. In the end, you’ll be nothing but a bloodless, dried-up corpse,” I replied, still calmly. “Whether you drink it or not is up to you.”

Shen Jiangchuan looked at the bottle in silence, then walked over, took a deep breath, and swallowed half the contents. Wiping the blood from his lips, he coldly said to Shen Xiang, “If anything happens to me, toss him out of here.”

Shen Xiang watched his father drink the blood, fear etched across his face. I sat on the sofa, still as calm as ever.

Less than a minute later, Shen Jiangchuan clutched his chest in agony, a sensation as if his heart was being torn apart. He collapsed onto the sofa, spitting up a mouthful of blood that splattered onto the floor—black as ink. The more he vomited, the more there was. Shen Xiang watched, terror draining the color from his face.

When all the black blood had been expelled, Shen Jiangchuan felt the pain in his chest recede. The fist-sized red mark had vanished. I took a pen and began sifting through the black blood he’d just vomited.

A moment later, I lifted the pen. Skewered on its tip, still writhing, was a grotesque creature—the Gu poison I had described. Shen Jiangchuan stared at it, horrified.

“This is a Gu refined from leech and spider. It fears sunlight,” I said, pulling back the curtains. As sunlight hit the Gu, it shriveled and dried up at once.

After Shen Xiang drank the remaining half of the blood, his reaction mirrored Shen Jiangchuan’s. The red marks on both their chests disappeared. Shen Jiangchuan sat slumped on the sofa for a long while before finally coming to his senses, breathing heavily as he stared at the dried Gu impaled on my pen.

“Uncle Gu actually approached Ting beforehand. You were only working for Su Lengyue for money. No one really knows how much treasure is buried in the Ming Tombs, but Ting has already said he can’t take it all for himself. If the tomb is found, you’ll get your share,” I said as I tossed the pen into the trash.

“Did Yue Leiting really say he wouldn’t keep the Ming Tombs’ treasure to himself?” Shen Jiangchuan asked skeptically, sitting up.

“If I hadn’t saved you today, you would have died sooner or later. Even if Ting never said that, you still wouldn’t get anything. Why would I lie to you?”

Shen Jiangchuan thought it over and realized I made sense. He had always been wary of me, but seeing what he and Shen Xiang had just expelled—the very thing Su Lengyue had used to control them—he understood that, though Old Master Huang was generous and had made him a lot of money, being under someone else’s thumb was never a good situation.