The courtyard was draped with red silk ribbons and lanterns, but the man standing at the entrance in a black windbreaker looked utterly out of place. His gaze was fixed intently on one of the grooms.
That look was far from polite—and certainly not innocent.
Everyone in the courtyard was also staring at the sudden appearance of this stranger. The scene felt unnervingly eerie, the tension palpable.
Huo Chen’an’s unexpected arrival seemed to make this already bizarre wedding even stranger. The courtyard fell dead silent, so quiet you could’ve heard a pin drop.
Huo Chen’an recognized the man in the bright red robes—he was one of the group he’d encountered in the woods that day. Back then, he’d been standing beside the man who’d offered to pass on a message for him.
A memory flashed through Huo Chen’an’s mind: the man smiling at him with polite warmth. As if struck by a thought, he pulled out his phone and dialed a number.
The next second, a ringtone sounded nearby—coming from the direction of the very boy who’d stolen his heart.
Huo Chen’an froze, phone in hand, disbelief and shock flickering in his eyes. He blurted out, “You’re the village chief’s daughter!?”
It was absurd. The boy was clearly male—how could he be the village chief’s daughter? Yet the ringing phone left no doubt: this was the blind-date candidate he’d refused to even meet.
Agitated, Huo Chen’an raked a hand through his hair, his face dark with frustration. He deeply regretted ever trusting that man to deliver his message.
That man had been smirking with clear ill intent, yet he’d believed him—and handed over his fiancée without a second thought.
If not for that man… today, he’d be the one marrying the boy.
Huo Chen’an’s gaze locked onto the groom, who was part of the same group as the liar. His eyes turned murderous, resentment thick enough to suffocate.
A vicious thought crossed his mind: Had this man schemed to steal his fiancée all along, instructing that bastard to deceive him?
No matter the reason, stealing his fiancée was unforgivable.
But inciting a gu rebellion wasn’t a viable plan. Once provoked, the gu worms would turn indiscriminately violent. He could handle them alone, but with his beautiful fiancée in the mix…
Huo Chen’an’s handsome face tightened, as if grappling with an impossible dilemma.
Mu Ye’an watched the man ogling Ruan Qing and nearly laughed in fury. Not only had this bastard crashed his wedding, but now he was openly lusting after his wife? Did he think Mu Ye’an was already dead?
Mu Ye'an's aura dropped to its coldest point. His icy gaze swept over the villagers in the courtyard, and in the next moment, the villagers seemed to fall under some unseen control, rising to their feet in unison and moving toward the man at the gate.
Their expressions were eerily stiff, their eyes unnervingly still—like stagnant, lifeless water. The whole scene was deeply unsettling.
They gave off the same chilling, dangerous vibe as the gu worms lurking in the fields, sending a shiver down one’s spine.
Huo Chen'an watched as the villagers encircled him, his expression unmoved. Beneath his sleeve, his index and middle fingers pressed together, and a flash of yellow appeared between them—only to vanish just as quickly.
The next second, a deep, magnetic voice sounded behind him.
"Quite the lively gathering, isn’t it?"
Miao Linyuan strode into the courtyard with a smile, tilting his head as he took in Ruan Qing in his wedding attire. "Getting married without inviting your old flame?"
His pupils were pitch-black, his smile not reaching his eyes—if anything, it sent a creeping sense of dread down one’s spine.
Miao Linyuan wasn’t in good shape. His handsome face was smeared with blood, his complexion deathly pale, his clothes soaked in crimson. He looked utterly battered, as though he’d barely escaped some horrific ordeal.
And he wasn’t alone.
Following him into the courtyard was another man—Fang Qingyuan, the player who had allied with Miao Linyuan in the forest.
Fang Qingyuan’s condition was no better. He could barely stand without leaning on his sword for support, yet his tall frame remained steady. His dark eyes fixed on Ruan Qing in his wedding robes before finally shifting to Mu Ye'an, standing beside him in matching attire.
[I always knew top players’ alliances never last—especially forced ones like theirs. But I never thought they’d turn on each other over falling for the same person.]
[Every time I watch this stream, it feels like a romantic deathmatch. None of these guys—players or bosses—are even trying to clear the dungeon. Well, except my poor, helpless darling.]
[Worse, they’re actively making it harder for him. This was supposed to be a simple cursed-gu dungeon, but thanks to them, he’s stuck dodging both deadly gu worms and this nightmare love polygon.]
[Honestly surprised these two made it out of the forest alive. Guess even Mu Ye’an has his limits.]
Ruan Qing, who was unconscious at that time, had no idea what was happening—but the livestream audience saw everything.
Back in the forest, once the fighting broke out, Mu Ye'an had taken advantage of the chaos to kill a player, using their blood to trigger a frenzy among the gu worms. In the ensuing mayhem, he’d whisked Ruan Qing away.
The gu worms were swarming, and few could survive their onslaught. Yet, against all odds, these two had returned alive.
Compared to the gu worms in the fields, those in the woods weren’t as numerous. Being closer to the mist further reduced their numbers, so escape wasn’t entirely impossible.
Ruan Qing’s face was pale, his beautiful eyes flickering with fear and unease. Under Miao Linyuan and Fang Qingyuan’s gaze, he instinctively tried to step back—whether to distance himself from Mu Ye’an or to evade their scrutiny, it wasn’t clear.
But Mu Ye’an wouldn’t allow it. Gripping Ruan Qing’s wrist, he yanked him into his arms, as if declaring ownership to everyone present.
The atmosphere grew heavier, the air so cold it seemed to drop below freezing, suffocating everyone in the room.
Stiff in Mu Ye’an’s embrace, Ruan Qing’s long lashes trembled nervously. His face remained bloodless, not daring to utter a word, terrified of becoming the next target of the brewing storm.
Today’s wedding was clearly not going to proceed. In fact, the joyous occasion might well turn into a funeral.
Miao Linyuan and Fang Qingyuan were in poor condition, and Huo Chen’an was just an ordinary man. By all accounts, Mu Ye’an held the upper hand.
Without hesitation, Mu Ye’an ordered the villagers to attack.
Even weakened, Miao Linyuan was still the overseer of Miao Village—no ordinary villager would dare lay a hand on him.
Seemingly aware of this, Mu Ye’an struck at Miao Linyuan himself, leaving the others to the villagers.
The festive courtyard instantly became a battleground. Neither side held back, yet none were easy opponents.
Despite their weakened state, Miao Linyuan and Fang Qingyuan weren’t so easily killed.
Even Huo Chen’an, judged to be an ordinary man, moved with startling speed—the villagers couldn’t even graze his clothes.
The red lanterns and silk ribbons had long fallen to the ground, trampled and stained beyond recognition.
Amid the chaos, in a shadowed corner unseen by all, a gu worm far larger than the rest writhed silently. Its aura was more terrifying than any other.
Had the villagers noticed, they would have been paralyzed with fear.
In Miao Village, whenever a villager died, paper money had to be burned for seven full days before the body could be buried in North Mountain.
This was because gu worms that coexisted with the living fed on their hosts, growing hundreds of times stronger than those without a human bond.
While the host lived, the gu worm would not leave the body. But upon death, the worm would emerge—triggering a frenzy far deadlier than the lure of blood.
Because detached gu worms, without the nourishment of a living host, greedily seek to devour other gu worms, their presence also awakens the gu worms lying dormant in the fields.
Only ghost money burned for seven full days can soothe them.
But no one knew the village chief’s time of death was wrong, and no one knew the gu worm inside her body had already detached on the very first night.
In the fields, invisible to everyone, countless gu worms writhed and churned, turning the farmland into what seemed like a shifting mass of something black.
Terrifying and horrifying.
Eventually, the gu worms began crawling up the ridges of the fields. Hundreds of millions of them surged and squirmed toward the village chief of Miao Village.
Yet inside the courtyard, no one had any idea—no idea the gu worms had detached, no idea the gu worms in the fields had broken free.
Except for Ruan Qing.
While the others in the courtyard were fighting, Ruan Qing had sensed a dark, viscous gaze—sinister and chilling.
Like maggots burrowing into bone.
Instinctively, he looked in the direction of the gaze and caught only a fleeting shadow, just like the wisp of darkness he had once seen in the original owner’s mother’s room.
In truth, it could hardly even be called a shadow—its form was tiny, no thicker than an arm. Only when it darted past swiftly did it give the illusion of a human figure.
But that was clearly no human figure. It was… the gu worm that had once resided inside the original owner’s mother.
Ruan Qing had long suspected the original owner’s mother’s time of death was falsified. By hiding the true time, she had likely ensured the gu worm could leave her body.
Now, he was certain—her gu worm had detached.
He wanted to tell the others, but the courtyard was a battlefield, and there was no way he could get close.
A flicker of urgency flashed in Ruan Qing’s beautiful eyes. His instincts screamed that a detached gu worm was nothing good. He took a deep breath and tried to step forward.
But just as he lifted his foot, the creak of the courtyard gate rang out again—so sharp it cut through the chaos.
Because the moment the sound echoed, everyone in the courtyard froze. Some villagers even collapsed, limbs weak, their faces twisted in terror as their bodies trembled uncontrollably.
It was as if some terrifying presence had arrived.
Even Mu Ye'an and the others stopped, all of them looking toward the courtyard gate with the wary tension of facing a deadly threat.
The players hiding in the corner also sensed that dreadful aura. Instinctively, they turned their eyes to the entrance.
It was that man named Miao Li—the true fiancé of the village chief’s son.
