Nan Zhi carefully put away the will and cash left by Dao Magu, only then finding the time to examine the Gu handbook and the cauldron.
《Ten Years of Gu Records》 was not some secret cultivation manual; instead, it was more like a Gu master’s personal handbook used for keeping records. It was filled with entries on niche Gu techniques like “Money Gu,” “Love Gu,” and “Cat Face Gu.”
She flipped through a few pages and realized that although the book was written in the Han language, it seemed quite old. The semi-classical text was interspersed with traditional characters.
Fortunately, Nan Zhi was able to piece it together, so it didn't hinder her reading.
However, the Gu Jar she had mistaken for a cricket jar was quite interesting.
By placing the five venoms in the jar, one could obtain a Gu among Gu, which could then be used to breed the Mother of Ten Thousand Gu.
Huaguzi was as dead as could be, but Nan Zhi still had a vivid memory of her Gu arts.
Setting aside that black-skinned spider that could change its size, the insect mist Huaguzi had commanded was incredibly formidable, having used its teeth to wreck the red-skinned gourd left by Ma San!
And that was with Huaguzi’s cultivation only being at the Qi Refinement stage.
If her Gu arts had reached mastery and she had various artifacts to assist her, taking on three opponents of the same rank would not have been a problem.
Nan Zhi experimentally shook the Gu Jar in her hand and was surprised to hear a rustling sound inside. It was very faint, like dry, brittle leaves.
Could the Gu insect inside still be alive?
She instinctively held her breath and opened the jar, sparks of electricity dancing at her fingertips, ready to crush any movement from within—
“Clatter.”
Following her movement, a long, black, fat centipede corpse fell out of the jar. When fully extended, it was as long as an adult’s palm.
The centipede corpse was stiff and curled into a large ball. Its interior was already brittle, and its oil-slicked black shell was almost translucent—it had clearly been dead for many years.
Only then did Nan Zhi smack her forehead.
Right, Grandma had buried these things while she was still alive. Even if there really had been some Gu Mother in this jar, it would have starved to death long ago.
It seemed she wouldn't be able to enjoy the fruits of someone else's labor. If she wanted to raise a Gu insect of her own, she would have to start by catching bugs.
As for that conspicuous cauldron, Nan Zhi couldn't figure out its origins for the time being.
Although she had always known she had Miao blood and had grown up immersed in Miao mythology, she had never actually seen her Grandma use Gu, so she naturally hadn't known of this Gu Jar’s existence.
Needless to say, these things had been inherited by Dao Magu from Great Grandpa Nan. Even though they had lived through a specific historical era where Great Grandpa Nan was unwilling to let his only daughter learn Gu, he couldn't bear to let the art be lost, so he had passed the items down through the generations.
But something like the Chixia Cauldron was clearly a Taoist object. She had no idea how it had ended up in a Miao village, eventually falling into her great-grandfather’s hands.
Regardless, since it was now in her hands, it was hers.
Nan Zhi put away the Gu Jar and the Chixia Cauldron before burying the centipede corpse under the large locust tree.
She decided that when she visited Grandpa Shi tomorrow, she would ask him about it to see if she could dig up any more stories about her great-grandfather.
As for the 《Ten Years of Gu Records》, Nan Zhi treated it as bedtime reading. Besides recording some Gu techniques, most of it consisted of the author’s experiences with Gu over many years, which were exceptionally vivid and interesting.
Gu were not always the sinister things people imagined, used to harm others or by Miao women to control their lovers. Just as witchcraft was divided into black and white, Gu naturally had good and bad types.
For instance, one entry described a man in the author’s village who had been bewitched by a fox or snake spirit while up in the mountains. After returning home, he began to vomit sour water, and many healers failed to cure him.
The author wasn't sure what was harming him either, but they took a “Black Gaba” from their jar and told the man to place it under his pillow when he went to sleep at night.
In the middle of the next night, the man woke up with a start to find a large hole in his window. The Gu insect under his pillow had vanished, but a segment of a yellow snake tail was left on the floor—only then did he realize he had provoked a snake spirit.
He watched with his own eyes as the Black Gaba bit off the snake spirit’s tail and flew out through the broken window, disappearing from sight.
Afterward, the man’s illness naturally cleared up, but the author did not record the final fate of the snake spirit or the Black Gaba.
Nan Zhi: “...”
What a cliffhanger. One star review.
...
...
Shi Hongjiang’s house and the Nan family’s old residence faced each other across the lake, both situated in somewhat unique locations.
The entire village was shaped like a sharp crescent moon. The Nan house was at the top tip of the crescent, while the Shi house was at the bottom tip.
So, when Nan Zhi was a child and ran to Grandpa Shi’s house to pick tangerines, she would sometimes stay over if it got too late. She would only run back home the next morning after smelling the aroma of oil baba.
When Nan Zhi and Zhang Qiuyu arrived at the Shi house, a circle of people was gathered in the clearing in front of the wooden building to watch the commotion. The driver who had driven them yesterday was kneeling in the main room of the Shi house, looking pained and clutching his stomach as he cried out in agony.
White-haired Grandpa Shi sat by the fire pit, speaking to the people nearby in a rapid-fire dialect while occasionally taking a puff from his water pipe and exhaling a cloud of white mist.
The old man was over eighty years old this year, and his back was severely hunched. He was always stooped over, looking from behind as if he were folded in half or had a large pot strapped to his back. However, he was very energetic. His thick fingers were stained a scorched yellow from tobacco oil, and his thin, withered face usually looked stern. But upon seeing Nan Zhi, he smiled like a blooming old chrysanthemum.
“Zhizhi, little one, why didn't you come to see your grandpa sooner? The tangerines behind my house turn yellow every year, but no one comes to pick them. They're all ruined by the dragonflies and the birds.”
“Grandpa Shi, haven't I come to see you now? This is my good friend, Zhang. She lives with me. When she heard I was coming to see you, she came along with me.”
Nan Zhi placed the gifts in Shi Hongjiang’s hands and squatted down beside the old man. She caught the familiar scent of tobacco oil on Grandpa Shi, which she didn't find unpleasant; it only made her feel like she had returned to the days when she used to steal tangerines as a child.
“I only got back yesterday. I wanted to burn some paper for my Grandma and sweep the old house. That's why I came to see you first thing this morning.
I bought you some biscuits, soft cakes, and milk. Have Shi Hongjiang make you some egg tea with the milk every morning. And smoke less; it's not good for your health.”
“Good, good. I get to eat the things Zhizhi bought to show her filial piety. If your Grandma were still here, she’d surely be happy.”
Grandpa Shi was overjoyed. He took Nan Zhi’s hand and patted it, then grinned and called for Shi Hongjiang to take the two girls to the back of the house to play.
“Grandpa is going to extract the black for someone in a bit. Don't let it scare you girls. Go find your auntie behind the house and tell her to fry some cakes for you to eat.”
“What a beautiful, fair girl. Grandpa Shi, you have good fortune; the children in your family are all good-looking and capable.”
Hearing this, the people nearby assumed Nan Zhi was a girl from the Shi family. They hurriedly offered a few compliments with forced smiles before turning back with bitter expressions.
“Look at my third son. He was in pain all night. We took him to the city hospital for scans, but they didn't find anything. Please take a look, please take a look. He really knows he was wrong now.”
Rate on N.U.
