Chapter 205 — A Tree Full of Yellow Pears
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 1 of 4
Shen Mu sorted out his medicinal materials and compounded the medicines. He kept Old Master Huo's arm and the Lame Elder's leg nourished with medicine, then went to the storehouse of the Imperial Academy and bought some Southern Wilds gu powder.
This gu powder was called Vermilion Countenance Gu, and it consisted of worms so unimaginably tiny that a single one placed before the eyes could not be seen by the naked eye — only the Heaven's Eye could perceive them.
Once dried in the sun, the worms turned to powder, and upon meeting blood they came back to life.
He asked Old Master Huo and the Lame Elder each for a little fresh blood, and dissolved the gu powder in it. Nourished by the blood, those unimaginably tiny worms revived, so that the two cups of blood seemed to possess lives of their own.
Old Master Huo and the Lame Elder peered into the cups. Both had extraordinary eyesight, and could naturally make out the worms in the blood. In the two cups the gu worms numbered in the tens of thousands, densely packed — a truly frightening sight.
The Lame Elder said with a placating smile, "Shen'er, you mean to use these worms to treat our hand and leg? What kind of worm is this? Is it harmful?"
Of all the villagers, if one spoke of the fierce and the terrifying, of those who could scare a little girl to tears, the Butcher could rank only second. First place went to the Alchemist, who loved to keep flowers, plants, and little insects.
The Alchemist's face was frightening, and his insects still more so. The Lame Elder, accustomed as he was to stealing, had rifled through every room in the village — even Shen Mu's candied hawthorns had been wheedled out of him several times over — yet he would not touch a single thing in the Alchemist's room.
Shen Mu had studied medicine under the Alchemist and knew a good deal about such insects. Seeing the worms in the two cups, the Lame Elder could not help feeling uneasy, as though some ill-meaning rascal were out to do him harm.
"Rest easy, Grandpa Lame. The Vermilion Countenance Gu is one of the gu arts of the Five Miao of the Southern Wilds. It does little harm to the body."
Shen Mu infused the two cups of blood into the vessels of Old Master Huo's arm and the Lame Elder's leg respectively, planting the Vermilion Countenance Gu within them. "The reason this gu is called Vermilion Countenance Gu is that certain sects in the Southern Wilds have their women use it to preserve their looks, to keep eternal youth — so that even in death they remain as lifelike as if living."
"Lifelike even in death..." The Lame Elder shuddered, certain the Vermilion Countenance Gu was nothing good.
Shen Mu laid his leg and Old Master Huo's arm in the medicinal cauldron, in which he had already refined a full cauldron of medicinal broth. "These gu worms can devour the dead blood in the blood, the dead skin upon the skin, the torn mucous membranes and muscle fibers in the flesh, the shattered bone within the bones, the dead marrow in the marrow. That is why those who take the Vermilion Countenance Gu keep the appearance of their youth until the very moment they die of old age. Grandpa Alchemist said he once had several fair confidantes who kept this gu in their bodies; they still looked sixteen or seventeen, and were very firm. Grandpa Alchemist said he liked firm girls very much..."
The youth lifted his head, musing. "What does 'firm girls' mean?"
The Lame Elder said, "You are still young. Do not think about such messy things. Can I use it?"