Chapter 257: Trip to Raojiang (Part )
Coming down from the big stone platform on the steep mountain top, You Chuan had thought about tracking Chi Meng's figure. Even if he couldn't follow her, he could just quietly release a Liuzong Gu.

But when he thought that this action would do no good except to increase the girl's resentment, and because their relationship had already deteriorated to the point where they were like strangers, You Chuan could only sigh at the moon.

After much thought, only time can prove that what he thinks is right.

Godfather, there is absolutely no way you would harm the Gu King.

He will definitely make Chi Meng believe this fact.

……

After returning to the big camp from the secret big stone platform where Chi Meng liked to stay, You Chuan was still hoping to hear the news that Chi Meng had returned first, but the guards reported that Chi Meng had not returned first, so he felt disappointed again, but he just concealed it very well.

Although the Wandu Cave Village imitates the style of a county town in the Central Plains, the settlements and the main body of the village are scattered across a wide area, far exceeding the scale of a county town.

Many years ago, Dazhai was just built beside a mountain, and the bamboo buildings therein were distributed in different locations chosen by each family, with a pile in the east and a piece in the west, and the dispersion was extremely uneven. In places with good locations and good feng shui, there were often a large number of bamboo buildings crowded together near the mountain or the water. In slightly inferior places, the population gathered was reduced exponentially.

This was a normal human thing, and in the past, the Gu King Chi Li never interfered, allowing things to develop freely.

However, ever since the Gu King became seriously ill in recent years, all matters concerning the Ten Thousand Poison Caves have been taken over by the Poison Lord Chi Li. This Poison Lord has, with an extremely tough attitude, ordered the entire stronghold to be completely renovated. Not only did he relocate people to a new location, but he also mainly built a wall outside the stronghold, and later opened a kiln to burn bricks, building a continuous wall of unknown length.

It is indeed unknown how long it is, because this wall not only protects the entire village, but also includes a mountain called "Rao Yue" which is praised as a holy mountain by the Ten Thousand Poison Cave, and sets it as a secret place. Only the young people with excellent talents in each village are allowed to climb the mountain during specific periods to refine their own "Gu".

The five poisonous insects on Raoyue have always been much stronger than the poisonous insects in other places in Raojiang. Over the past few hundred years, countless poison masters have climbed the mountain to seek a poisonous insect that matches their skills, and countless of them have turned into bones on the mountain, but no one has ever stopped. The move of the Poison Lord will undoubtedly easily arouse public anger.

But surprisingly, within a few years, very few people attacked Du Gong because of this incident, even the leader of a village did not say a word.

The reason is that the Poison Master made a promise himself that any young Gu Master who could refine a Five Poisonous Insect that was compatible with the Gu Dao on Raoyue Mountain and return safely would be able to enter the Gu Yu Altar built by the Poison Master himself to practice Gu arts, and would be able to receive the Poison Master's poison arts, witchcraft inheritance, and Gu arts guidance. Anyone who entered to practice there would have the hope of touching the threshold of the 'Heavenly Position' before the age of thirty.

It should be known that although the Poison Lord Chi Li is known as the Poison Lord and respected as the Witch King, his poison and witchcraft are the best in the Ten Thousand Poison Caves, but his skill in controlling Gu is second only to the Gu King Chi Li. Not to mention being exposed to the mysterious witchcraft inheritance, even if he is guided by him in the art of Gu, his achievements will not be limited to one village. It is very likely that he will reach the level of the five Gu Lords around the Gu King in his lifetime.

Therefore, under this condition, each village not only had no complaints, but also tried their best to train the younger generations in their own village in order to qualify to go to Raoyue for training. Over the years, a competitive relationship was formed in secret. Every year, half of the hundreds of talented young people selected by each village would be killed or injured on Raoyue.

Of course, most of them died at the hands of Gu worms, but there were also many casualties at the hands of competitors. After all, Gu worms were hard to come by, and excellent five-poisonous insects that matched the Gu Dao were even rarer. Unlike the pure warriors in the Central Plains, a strong enough Gu worm could basically determine the bottom line of a Gu Master, and could achieve twice the result with half the effort, whether it was against the enemy or in cultivation.

There are those who have reached the pinnacle of Gu skills, and they are willing to sacrifice themselves to the Gu worm, complementing each other, living and dying together, and turning themselves into a Gu worm. In this case, although the life span will decrease, the strength will definitely achieve a qualitative leap, often comparable to two Gu masters of the same level, or even far surpassing them.

Therefore, driven by this trend, not only did the number of young talents killed and injured on Mount Rao not decrease every year, but each village spared no effort to train their young people to be more brutal, more cold-blooded, more resourceful, and even proud of death. Because even if they died, their flesh and blood fed the five poisonous insects on Mount Rao, and the poisonous insects refined by the young people the next year would be stronger.

As to why the Poison Lord, who has always sought unity among the Ten Thousand Poison Caves, did not curb this "evil wind", apparently no one has thought about this question.

At this moment, the waning moon was high in the sky. You Chuan stood on the wall of the big stronghold, which was about ten feet high, and looked into the distance at the bonfires in the deep mountains.

Those were arrow towers on every section of the city wall. Each arrow tower had a Gu Master of medium to high strength guarding it, to prevent people from outside the stronghold from forcing their way into the stronghold to plunder opportunities. Whenever they were found, they would be captured directly, and then taken to the Yu Gu Altar to be used by those favored children of heaven to test their Gu.

This method of testing Gu, which sounds a bit cruel, has gradually become the norm after the Gu King fell seriously ill. It is also strange that even though people know about this bloody rule, there are still many people who break into the village every month every year. Most of them are old and sick people. Perhaps they want to enter Raoyue to find a chance to prolong their lives?

Of course, You Chuan knows the inside story of things that ordinary people understand.

Testing the Gu on living people is the best way to get started with the art of Gu. In the past, there were even villages that specialized in this, training their bodies to be extremely strong, and then using the secret method of Gu that could remove the poison to earn the sky-high fees from testing the Gu.

This kind of village has always had a very high status in the Cave of Ten Thousand Poisons, because although it cooperates with the Gu Master to test the Gu, the process is also a kind of Gu technique practice. Over a long period of time, it can even use a variety of Gu techniques with the corresponding Gu insects without planting poison, and it is like training a body that is immune to all poisons. There are many people who enjoy doing this.

However, no matter how serious the situation was in the past, the Gu Master who was testing the Gu would know what was going on, and there would be people nearby to teach them, so generally no one would die. If the situation was really critical, there would be corresponding Gu doctors who would come to treat the patient, and even if the patient became disabled, he would generally be able to survive.

But even so, there are only a few people with strong physiques who can test Gu, and only big villages can afford them. In recent years, as the Poison Master requires, the methods of testing Gu have become more and more stringent, the refined Gu worms have become more and more ferocious, and all kinds of strange methods of testing Gu have emerged one after another. The demand for Gu testers has begun to exceed the supply, and the death rate has soared year by year, until they gradually disappeared.

In this situation, in order to ensure a fixed source of test insects, the number of "people sentenced to death" gradually increased, especially those who trespassed into the village without permission, which happened every year.

In each village, as long as there is a chosen one who becomes a disciple of the Poison Lord, there will be a short-sighted criminal who will be handed over to test the poison on the younger generations in their village.

As to where these sinners came from, only God knows.

You Chuan knew all this and of course he felt some resistance in his heart, but his adoptive father had told him that if the Ten Thousand Poison Cave wanted to remain stable for a long time, it had to become increasingly powerful, so powerful that no force would dare to underestimate it, and only then would it be able to achieve permanent peace.

After all, the time it took to create the Ten Thousand Poison Cave was too short.

Some necessary sacrifices are worth it. Not to mention that most of those people volunteered, but they fabricated some charges to reassure people. Moreover, their families will be treated well by the Ten Thousand Poison Cave to ensure that their descendants can embark on the path of Gu Masters...

These people are already old, so isn't it a kind of transcendence for them to receive something that benefits their descendants before they die?
Over time, You Chuan could only turn a blind eye to these things and pretend not to know. After all, what his adoptive father said was right.

The Cave of Ten Thousand Poisons is still too weak.

After standing on the village wall for a long time and feeling the cold wind, You Chuan's sense of loss finally eased a little. Then, after seeing that there was no so-called trespasser tonight, he returned to the village alone.

On the way back, they happened to meet a group of guards leading a group of people walking deep into the stronghold. You Chuan saw that the clothes of these people were not like those of Raojiang, and were slightly different from those of the Central Plains, so he naturally stopped to ask.

Then I learned that these were envoys from the State of Nanping, who requested to see Lord Du, and they had just arrived because of the long journey.

You Chuan frowned, not knowing why Lord Du wanted to meet these neighbors who were right next to the Ten Thousand Mountains. But seeing that there was no problem, he was depressed at the moment, so he did not ask any more questions, and did not even glance at the envoys from Nanping Country, and left on his own. The leader of the guards who saluted with his arms crossed watched You Chuan leave respectfully, then raised his head, and then turned around and explained to the leader of the envoys from Nanping Country in a low voice: "Don't blame me, your Excellency. Our young priest hates people outside the Ten Thousand Poison Cave the most, so I have to explain it this way. I hope you can understand."

Of course, the messenger just smiled and nodded, saying that he understood.

The leader of the guards smiled and held out his hand: "There are too many people in the daytime, so I will take you out of the Poison Cave as soon as possible under the cover of night. I also hope that you will convey the Poison Lord's intention to the King as soon as possible."

Of course, the messenger was reluctant to travel at night, but this Poison Cave was indeed a bit scary compared to the outside world, and leaving early was a good thing, so he agreed and turned around and left quietly outside the stronghold, escorted by a team of Poison Cave guards.

It turned out that this group of people were not going to meet the Poison King at all, but the meeting had ended at some point in time. They just happened to run into You Chuan who was still wandering around in the middle of the night when they were leaving.

And if you observe these so-called envoys from the Kingdom of Nanping carefully, you can see that the whites of their eyes begin to spread very slowly, as if to engulf the pupils. However, the speed is too slow, and it is night, so of course no one noticed.

……

When You Chuan returned to the big camp, he saw a burly figure standing in his yard. The man had double horns on his shoulders and wore a jade-inlaid turban on his head, which was quite intimidating in the night.

But You Chuan was not afraid. He just saluted with his hands on his chest in surprise: "Godfather, you are not..."

The last part of the sentence 'meet the envoy of Nanping Kingdom' was not said, because You Chuan suddenly remembered that it was so late at night, and it was expected that the envoy of Nanping Kingdom would meet Du Gong tomorrow.

The burly figure opposite was the Poison King Chi Li. He was standing with his hands behind his back, looking at You Chuan silently without saying a word.

You Chuan felt a little frightened by the pair of eyes that were so dark that they seemed to have no whites, and he lowered his head.

"My son, has he seen the Saint?" After a moment, Du Gong finally asked in a hoarse voice.

"Yes." You Chuan said with some difficulty: "I didn't keep the Saint Girl. Please forgive me, foster father."

"It's okay. The Saint is eager to save her father, so it's understandable that she went to the Central Plains after believing a little rumor." Du Gong sighed and walked into the house: "My brother's illness is really helpless in Raojiang. It's a blessing to find a master in the Central Plains. But the journey from Raojiang to the Central Plains is difficult and dangerous, more than ten thousand miles away. The people in the Central Plains are complicated and the war is constant. The Saint is still a little girl after all, and I am worried about my father..."

You Chuan's heart moved, and he looked up and said, "What my foster father meant is..."

The Poison Lord turned his head, twitched the corners of his mouth, and smiled: "Haha, your niece has never liked your appearance, and has been resentful of you for many years. Whatever you want to do, it will only be a crime and not a thankless one. It is easy to backfire, which is really not good. You and the Saint are childhood sweethearts. No matter what, she still trusts you... Can my son protect the Saint's safety?"

You Chuan froze for a moment, then smiled bitterly: "Foster father, I'm afraid you don't know that Chi Meng and I are now..."

He hesitated, then shook his head and said, "I'm afraid I can't do it either."

"What's the harm?" Du Gong stroked a bead in his palm. "The Saint is suspicious of my son because you are too loyal to your father. As long as you break with your father, how can you not win the Saint's favor?"

You Chuan was startled and immediately put his hands on his chest: "How can I be with my foster father..."

But before he knelt down, he felt a strong wind supporting him under his knees. Before he could finish his words, he heard Du Gong laughing.

"It's just a show, how can you take it seriously? The Saint is the heir of the Gu King, her safety is at stake, how dare you delay? Your father has made up his mind, don't say anything more."

"..." You Chuan's face was moved, and he thought about how Chi Meng had such a big misunderstanding of Du Gong, but Du Gong still cared about Chi Meng so much. He looked up at Du Gong's still kind smile, and felt even more empathy and uncomfortable.

"My son is a unicorn, not something that can be confined to a pond. He should go out of these ten thousand mountains and have a look outside. It's a good opportunity for you to help each other and improve together with the saint girl, isn't it?" The Poison Lord patted You Chuan's shoulder and said earnestly: "The future of the Ten Thousand Poison Cave will depend on you after all..."

You Chuan sighed, but said seriously: "I will definitely protect the Saint!"

"Haha." Poison Lord smiled with satisfaction, and then handed the bead in his palm to You Chuan: "This is the Golden Silkworm Gu of the Gu King, the holy Gu of our Raojiang, which can quickly restore people who are on the verge of death. I don't know its other functions yet. When the Gu King became seriously ill, he gave this thing to me for safekeeping. I will temporarily let him sleep in this bead. You can use this thing to create a conflict with me, catch up with the saint girl, and give the thing to her."

You Chuan was greatly surprised and took the bead carefully. Although he wanted to investigate the golden silkworm Gu inside, he did not react at all, perhaps because he did not have enough ability or because the Gu recognized humans.

Du Gong chuckled, told him to think about it slowly, and left.

You Chuan looked at his adoptive father's back and did not see him off. Instead, he looked determined and said nothing.

……

The next day, Junior Sacrifice Official You Chuan, due to a disagreement with the Poison Master, seized the Holy Gu and left the Poison Cave.

……

On the same day, at the border of the Ten Thousand Poison Cave, a small village in Raojiang was littered with corpses and blood.

Dead bodies dressed in the uniforms of the Wandu Cave guards lay in the pile of corpses, their deaths were ugly, with disbelief in their eyes, and not a single one was alive.

A group of zombies dressed in Nanping Kingdom costumes grinned and staggered northward.

"kill……"

There is a small village in the north.

(End of this chapter)