As usual, Mr. Mu acted very quickly. He produced a porcelain phial, opened it and then held it to Yuwen Feng’s nostrils to let him breathe in the smell of the contents. After a while, Yuwen Feng’s face softened and he gradually drifted into a deep sleep.
Mr. Mu undid Yuwen Feng’s clothes to reveal his chest and then rapidly stuck several silvery needles into his acupoints in succession. Suddenly, Yuwen Feng’s body started shaking violently, an anguished expression appearing on his face which was growing reddish purple.
Both Miao Shiba and Yao Yi were taken aback. “Mr. Mu,” they called at the same time.
Mr. Mu unhurriedly picked up another porcelain phial, opened it and held it to Yuwen Feng’s nostrils to let him breathe in the smell. Gradually, Yuwen Feng stopped shaking and began to show signs of coming to.
Miao Shiba asked Mr. Mu, “Mr. Mu, just now his body reacted so intensely. Was it because the Gu worm inside him was very strong?”
Mr. Mu inclined his head. “Yeah.”
“You’ve identified what kind of Gu worm it is?” inquired Yao Yi.
Mr. Mu replied, “Unless I’m very much mistaken, it’s a Manipulation Gu.”
“Manipulation Gu?” Miao Shiba and Yao Yi had little acquaintance with Gu worms, but they came to know that it was something nasty at the very mention of its name.
At this time, Yuwen Feng slowly came around. After things in the study came into focus, he gave a nervous start. “You!”
“Yao Yi? Why are you guys here? What did you do to me?” Yuwen Feng looked at the silver needles sticking in his body, shocked. His whole body felt limp and he was unable to sit up.
“It was not us but your father who did something to you. There’s a badass Gu worm inside you. You need to calm down,” explained Yao Yi.
For an instant Yuwen Feng’s face was etched with astonishment. After a few moments, he cooled down and asked with a forbidding look, “What’s that Gu worm in my body?”
Miao Shiba shifted his gaze to him and replied, “I wonder why this doesn’t seem to surprise you at all, Your Lordship.”
Yuwen Feng didn’t take offence at the sarcastic tone. With a sulky face, he said, “I burned something earlier this day, and there were some weird worms in it. I’d heard about this kind of stuff before, so I became suspicious at the sight of them.”
Yao Yi said calmly, “Your guess is right. You’ve probably heard that a servant of yours met Childe Ling at the front gates of the Ministry of Rites that day, right?”
Yuwen Feng bobbed his head. “Yes.”
“After Childe Ling told Sire about it, Sire was a little surprised that Yuwen Qi, despite his disability, managed to kill two strong guards in a row. Sire instructed us to keep watch on Yuwen Qi, so we knew you burned the wax ball, and we suspected that those were Gu worms. Sire was worried that you might fall prey to that kind of worms, so he had us keep an eye on you. You’d been comatose ever since you had that dizzy spell in the afternoon. We feared that someone had done something to you, so we brought a miracle-working physician here to examine you. Now we’ve confirmed there’s indeed a Gu worm inside you,” said Yao Yi.
After hearing Yao Yi’s explanation, Yuwen Feng smiled, “I’m deeply indebted to His Majesty for his kindness.”
Then his face gradually fell. “What kind of Gu worm is it?”
Mr. Mu replied, “Manipulation Gu. The one inside your body is the Puppet Gu. The Puppeteer Gu is in someone else’s body. I think it was earlier today that the Gu worm was planted in you. There is a red spot on your arm, which was where the worm entered your body. Normally, after a Manipulation Gu worm gets into someone’s body, it’ll take several days for the worm to reach their brain. Since the worm entered your body through a spot on your arm, it should get to your brain in two days. It’ll reside in there, and you’ll lose your free will and be reduced to a complete puppet of the owner of the Puppeteer Gu, who will control your each and every move. The Puppet Gu is under the Puppeteer Gu’s absolute control, so you’ll do whatever the owner of the Puppeteer Gu wants you to do. Even if they instruct you to commit suicide, you’ll kill yourself without a second thought. After the worm takes control of you, your body will gradually weaken. The Puppet Gu of every pair of Manipulation Gu has a certain lifespan. Their lifespans range from several hours to a year. I think this worm inside you has a lifespan of half a year or so. After half a year, the Puppet Gu will die a natural death, and you will die with it. In fact, the way I see it, once you’re controlled by Manipulation Gu, your mind will no longer be yours, and that’s no different from death.”
Yuwen Feng’s face hardened even further as he listened, his fists clenched tightly, his eyes full of despair and coldness. “Is there a way to get rid of it?”
“Fortunately for you, we’ve detected it in an early stage. The Gu worm hasn’t invaded your brain yet. Otherwise, even if we manage to rid your body of the worm, your mind will still sustain some damages, and you’ll suffer seizures from time to time, and might even be directly turned into a vegetable,” answered Mr. Mu in a very casual tone of voice. “I’ve immobilized the Gu worm, holding it back in the right-hand side of your chest. It can’t do you any harm for the moment, and it won’t be able to get into your brain. Do you want me to get rid of it right now or do you have other plans?”
Yuwen Feng lifted his eyes to look at him. “What do you mean?”
Mr. Mu replied, “I don’t know. It’s up to you. I’m just a physician, and I’ll do what you want me to do.”
Miao Shiba exchanged glances with Yao Yi and then said to Mr. Mu, “I think it’s best if you help His Lordship get rid of the Gu worm straight away. That thing is too dangerous.”
Yao Yi said, “Do you know who put the worm inside you? It’s very likely that there’s a Gu master in this residence. We’d better find them. This person could be a big trouble. As for Second Master, we’ll stay out of his business. Sire said that he’ll leave this matter up to you to use your discretion, that he only cares about the outcome of it.”
Yuwen Feng clenched his teeth. A moment ago, when Mr. Mu had mentioned the red spot on his arm, he had come to realize who had done this to him.
“It was a physician I hired who did this to me. When I was leaving my father’s room, I accidentally bumped against him and my arm felt somewhat uncomfortable right after that. I didn’t think much about it, mistakenly believing that it was just a normal pain caused by the bump.”
“A physician?” Yao Yi’s face was instantly grave.
Miao Shiba said immediately, “I’ll go and see.”
“Wait,” Yuwen Feng suddenly said.
Both Miao Shiba and Yao Yi shifted their gaze to him. “Are you being soft, Your Lordship? That Gu master tried to control you and kill you.”
With a flinty look in his eyes, Yuwen Feng answered through gritted teeth, “No, I’m not being soft. I’m just worried that given the Gu master’s consummate Gu-craft, you might fall victim to his Gu worms if you go there to seize him without making any preparations. Once you’re wounded, however small the wound is, his Gu worms will burrow into your body immediately and kill you very soon.”
Naturally, Miao Shiba was aware of this, but it was unnecessary to tell Yuwen Feng the details about how he’d found out, so he pretended not to know it. “Are you referring to the kind of worms found in the wax ball you burnt?”
“Exactly,” replied Yuwen Feng.
“Then what should we do? Surely we can’t just stand by and do nothing? Nobody has ever dared do this kind of thing to any of us before. This obscure Gu master actually put a Gu worm in a marquess’ body. Imagine how unruly he might be if he makes it out of this residence,” said Miao Shiba.
Yuwen Feng sneered, “He was the one who put the worm in me, but it was my father who gave him the order.”
His father had had the Gu master plant a Gu worm inside his body before that dispute between the two of them, yet he had been so naive as to try to convince his father to let go of his obsession, unaware that his father had made up his mind to use him, regarding him as a puppet, a dead man.
“Well…” Miao Shiba looked at Yao Yi, giving him a wink.
Yao Yi said, “Your Lordship, the Gu master is too dangerous and must be disposed of.”
Yuwen Feng said, “I know, and I’m not going to let him live. Physician, can you hold the Gu worm in me at bay and make sure it doesn’t get into my head?”
Mr. Mu said, “I’ve sent it into temporary dormancy with silver needles and medication, but the Puppet Gu and the Puppeteer Gu share a telepathic bond, so this method could only fool the Gu master temporarily. Once the time is up and you’re not controlled by the worm, the Gu master will see through it. Considering how fast the worm moved in you today, the Gu master must be taken care of by tomorrow night at the latest.”
“That’ll be enough. It won’t take that long,” observed Yuwen Feng. “There’s something I want to say to him.”
Feeling dead inside, Yuwen Feng didn’t even refer to Yuwen Zhi as ‘my father’.
“Physician, would you please remove these silver needles from me so that I can get down and walk?”
Mr. Mu answered with a bob of his head, “Okay. But I warn you, the longer you delay it, the more painful the process of extracting the Gu worm will be. Also, when the medication is the only thing keeping the worm in dormancy, the worm will be struggling slowly, causing you excrutiating agony.”
Yuwen Feng said, “I can handle that.”
Seeing Yuwen Feng didn’t change his mind, Mr. Mu, who had said all he needed to say, naturally wouldn’t dither for a single moment. He quickly pulled the silver needles out of Yuwen Feng’s body.
Almost immediately, Yuwen Feng felt a knifelike pain in the right-hand side of his chest, as though something was gnawing at his insides, every nibble causing such anguish that it made him break out in a cold sweat.
Clenching his teeth, Yuwen Feng looked down at the right-hand side of his chest where something beneath his skin was heaving, inexpressible disgust and repulsion sweeping over him.
Yuwen Feng rose to his feet, buttoned up his clothes, took several deep breaths in an effort to endure the great pain in his chest and then stiffened his back.
“Guard Yao, I want you and your friend to come with me. After we get there, let me go inside first to have a word with my father. I’ll give you a signal when it’s time for you to enter.”
Yao Yi and Miao Shiba raised no objections. They were just here to assist Yuwen Feng and have him make a decision. Now that Yuwen Feng had made up his mind, they wouldn’t interfere with his business in the knowledge that they would have their chance to seize the Gu master before he made any more trouble.
“Physician, would you mind waiting here for some time? I’ll have a servant come here to wait upon you,” Yuwen Feng said to Mr. Mu.
Mr. Mu responded, “Okay. You wouldn’t mind if I read a couple of those books, I suppose?”
“Please help yourself,” said Yuwen Feng.
Yao Yi and Miao Shiba followed Yuwen Feng to Yuwen Zhi’s courtyard house and then entered with him.
After walking into the courtyard house, Yuwen Feng was still trying hard to subdue the agony in his chest, more cold sweat breaking out over his back with his every step, but on the surface he just had a forbidding face, showing no sign of anything out of the ordinary. There was nobody in sight except for the servants on night duty in the doorway of Yuwen Zhi’s room, and the courtyard house was unnaturally quiet.
They were very surprised at Yuwen Feng’s arrival. “It’s an honor to see you, Your Lordship!”
“Has my father gone to sleep?” inquired Yuwen Feng, looking at them.
“Ye–”
“No–”
On hearing their contradictory answers, Yuwen Feng came to realize that something was not right, his cold eyes raking their faces.
The two servants slumped to their knees, so nervous that they didn’t dare utter another word.
Yuwen Feng had just lifted his foot with the intention to enter when he suddenly paused and questioned, “Is the physician here?”
This time the two servants quickly replied, “No. The physician has gone back to his room to rest.”
The smallest frown creased Yuwen Feng’s face, Yao Yi and Miao Shiba exchanging glances.
