Forget about surviving until the seventh day—by then, it’s uncertain whether Miao Village will even still exist.
The gu worms in the farmland had originally been forcibly suppressed with medicinal herbs. Now that they were rebelling, they were a hundred times more terrifying than the gu worms in the woods.
Before the worms could swarm them, the players rushed at top speed into the house to the north.
That was Miao Li’s house.
There seemed to be something special about the house. The gu worms didn’t immediately chase them inside but instead hesitated, gathering at a distance—just like what had happened at the village chief’s house.
The gu worms feared Miao Li… and they also feared his house.
Seeing this, the players exchanged glances before quickly searching the house for clues. The gu worms wouldn’t fear something without reason—there had to be a crucial clue here.
Yet after searching everywhere, they found nothing useful. They didn’t even know what the gu worms were afraid of.
In the end, it was Ruan Qing who discovered something wrong beneath the house.
From the moment Miao Li insisted on returning alone, Ruan Qing had suspected he was hiding something. Add to that his determination to rebuild the house—it was clear he had another purpose.
The house was newly constructed, with almost nothing inside. If there was a problem, it had to be underground.
As it turned out, Ruan Qing wasn’t wrong. Beneath the house was a hidden passage leading deep underground.
Without hesitation, Ruan Qing descended the winding, spiraling passage. Miao Ciyu didn’t stop him, instead following closely behind.
The players immediately trailed after them, stepping cautiously into the passage with a mix of anticipation and wariness.
But their hopes were dashed. This wasn’t a tunnel leading out of Miao Village—it led to a basement.
The basement was filled with many things, the most eye-catching being a pitch-black coffin.
The players didn’t dare touch the ominous-looking coffin right away. Instead, they searched the basement.
Inside were numerous documents, all related to the village. Finally, they pieced together the truth of this dungeon.
Miao Village had always been a tomb—a tomb sealing away terrifying gu worms. The mist was a natural barrier preventing the gu worms from leaving. Why it existed remained unknown.
The Li Corporation had somehow learned of this legend and sought to study the gu worms, hoping to use them to further their ambitions.
The one in charge of this operation was the eldest son of the Li family, Li Tianyi.
But the gu worms were far more horrifying than imagined. Without exception, everyone who entered either met with disaster… or never left again.
It also included the eldest son of the Li family, Li Tianyi.
For ordinary people, entering Miao Village usually led to only two outcomes: either forming a symbiotic relationship with the gu worms or being parasitized and devoured by them. But Li Tianyi was different.
After the gu worms entered his body, he wasn’t parasitized, nor was he completely consumed. Instead, his corpse remained perfectly preserved.
Inside that coffin lay the body of the Li family’s eldest son, Li Tianyi.
The basement also held many documents from the Li Corporation’s investigations into the gu worms. The only way to leave Miao Village was indeed to exterminate every last one of them.
The mist in the forest existed to trap the gu worms. Once they were all gone, the mist would vanish as well.
After reading the documents, the players fell into despair—there was simply no way they could kill all the gu worms.
Ruan Qing lowered his gaze after finishing the materials, his long eyelashes casting delicate shadows under his eyes, making him look breathtakingly beautiful.
Just as he was lost in thought, a tall figure appeared beside him, exuding an indescribable aura of gloom and danger.
"You want to leave Miao Village?"
Though phrased as a question, Miao Ciyu’s deep voice carried absolute certainty, as if he already knew what Ruan Qing was thinking.
Ruan Qing nervously pressed his lips together and gave a slight shake of his head, as if denying Miao Ciyu’s words.
The danger in Miao Ciyu’s eyes didn’t fade. His gaze locked onto Ruan Qing like a vise. "You’re not going anywhere except by my side."
"Want to leave Miao Village…?" Miao Ciyu paused, his magnetic voice dripping with menace.
"Unless I die."
Miao Ciyu had once said that if he died, he would drag Ruan Qing down with him.
In other words, this statement was nothing short of a death sentence.
Ruan Qing’s face paled slightly, his fingers trembling imperceptibly where they held the documents. In the end, he let out a quiet "Mm," as if conceding to Miao Ciyu’s words.
The villagers of Miao Village had long since formed a symbiotic bond with the gu worms—even in death, they could never leave. But Ruan Qing was different. The gu inside him could be extracted.
Moreover, the gu worms' influence on him wasn’t deeply rooted, almost as if something was suppressing them, making their removal even easier.
Ruan Qing knew exactly what was suppressing the gu worms—his long-dead mother.
There are countless types of gu, and each fears something different. But there is one thing they all fear without exception.
Yin energy.
The yin energy of a vengeful ghost.
This is why all the villagers of Miao Village feared Miao Li’s existence—and even his corpse.
And this was also the key to the entire dungeon. In fact… it might even be the real way to leave Miao Village.
The gu worms truly couldn’t leave Miao Village, but the records never once stated that ordinary people couldn’t.
Living people who weren’t parasitized or symbiotically bonded with gu worms could leave Miao Village.
As long as they found the right path.
But finding that path seemed even harder than surviving seven days. The living would lose all sense of direction in the forest, eventually becoming nothing more than hosts for the gu.
In truth, locating the correct path wasn’t actually difficult.
The living couldn’t find it—but the gu worms… could.
When Miao Linyuan had dragged Ruan Qing deep into the forest earlier, he had noticed something: the closer they got to the heart of the mist, the more the gu worms were suppressed, and the more they suffered.
The depths of that mist were most likely the exit of Miao Village.
By gauging the gu worms’ distress, it was possible to determine where the exit lay.
All one had to do was incite the gu worms into a frenzy, then use a living person’s blood to lure them deeper into the forest. That would reveal the correct path.
In theory, this method was feasible—yet almost no one dared to try it.
Stirring the gu worms into a frenzy meant being devoured instantly, leaving no chance to test the right direction.
Without gu in your body, you couldn’t find the way. But if you carried gu, the mist would suppress you, making it nearly impossible to approach the exit with a clear mind. Even if you got close, you’d never leave Miao Village.
It was practically a death trap.
The true challenge of this dungeon was never about finding the right path—it was about controlling the gu worms to locate the exit while ensuring you weren’t devoured in the process.
And Ruan Qing had already found a way to suppress the gu.
Yin energy—that was the perfect solution.
The gu worms feared the sinister energy of vengeful ghosts. As long as that energy suppressed them, it might still be possible to survive the gu's infestation.
This was likely the method his mother had discovered.
She turned herself into a vengeful ghost to suppress the gu's infestation, then lured living suitors into the village—both to trigger the gu's activity and to attract the worms, testing for the correct path.
Human sacrifice was the most crucial condition in this dungeon, because only corpses could provide enough gu worms to lead the way. The second most important condition was a living person. Whether it was attracting the gu to test the path or leaving Miao Village, a real, living person was indispensable.
By the time they were about to step out of Miao Village, she would likely seize his body outright.
***
Miao Ciyu didn’t want to give Ruan Qing any chance to leave, but he also couldn’t tolerate Miao Li’s gu worms remaining inside Ruan Qing.
As long as the gu was inside him, Miao Li could easily control this person—and then Ruan Qing would never belong to him.
Over the past two days, Miao Ciyu had searched for a way to extract the gu worms, and fortunately, he had succeeded.
He took Ruan Qing’s hand and, without hesitation, made a light cut on his index finger with a knife, then smeared a transparent liquid over the wound.
When the pain pricked his fingertip, Ruan Qing’s lashes trembled slightly. His delicate, picturesque brows furrowed as if he were extremely uncomfortable, and when the liquid was applied, that discomfort peaked.
Ruan Qing’s heart ached, his breath growing labored.
Something squirmed inside his chest, as if gnawing at his heart. A dense, crawling pain spread until his face paled, sweat beading on his forehead. He seemed to be enduring unbearable agony.
A few seconds later, the pain finally faded—and from the tip of his index finger, a black worm wriggled out.
It was the gu worm Miao Li had planted.
Before the worm could fully emerge, Miao Ciyu yanked it free, then crushed it underfoot with a vicious stomp, grinding it into the ground for good measure.
But after a few ruthless twists, Miao Ciyu suddenly froze. His expression turned icy as he glared in a certain direction.
“Miao Li is back.”
Miao Ciyu wasn’t the least bit surprised that the others had failed to kill Miao Li. A man already dead could not be killed again.
These past two days, he hadn’t just searched for a way to extract the gu—he’d also sought a method to erase Miao Li for good.
Vengeful ghosts formed for a reason, triggered by specific circumstances. Though he didn’t know what had turned Miao Li into one, he did know how to make him disappear.
As long as they destroyed his corpse, it would be over.
Miao Ciyu pulled Ruan Qing into his arms, carrying him bridal-style, and then quickly ran toward the northern part of the deep forest.
He had already checked—the coffin didn’t contain Miao Li’s corpse. His real body was buried in the woods to the north, deliberately interred by Miao Ciyu himself on the afternoon of the great fire.
Seeing the two flee, the players immediately gave chase without hesitation, followed closely by the dense swarm of gu worms.
The gu worms weren’t particularly fast, moving at about the speed of an average person sprinting. For players who had spent years surviving infinite horror dungeons, this wasn’t much of a threat.
Thankfully, the gu worms’ speed wasn’t inhuman—otherwise, they wouldn’t have stood a chance in this dungeon.
Soon, the group entered the woods, the swarming gu worms close behind. The scene was horrifying, enough to make one’s scalp crawl just from looking at it.
The commotion of being chased by the gu worms was so loud that the group’s location was obvious at a glance.
The gu worms might not have been fast, but that didn’t mean the man wasn’t. The players were soon forced to stop.
Staring at the terrifying man before them, they halted in shock, not even daring to breathe.
Thank you for the chapter!!
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