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Chapter 353: 346: Using Gu as Bait_1
Chapter 353: 346: Using Gu as Bait_1
Chapter 353: Chapter 346: Using Gu as Bait_1
Ten Wen Money per person, equivalent to a day’s wages.
After the two villagers had received the money, they were both delighted and helped carry the corpse to the front hall.
The houses of the poor were very simple.
Usually, there would be one main room and two bedrooms, with the latrine often lacking a proper room; it typically consisted of a pit dug behind the house, covered by a thatched shed.
He Saixiang’s house was slightly better than Qin Niu’s old one.
After removing the corpse, the entire backyard became exceptionally quiet.
Other than Qin Niu who stayed by the well, no one else lingered there.
Each of them stayed far away, fearing the affliction of unclean entities.
This suited Qin Niu’s intentions perfectly.
The cluster of blood mist at the bottom of the well seemed to become more active, starting to crawl towards the top of the well, but acting very cautiously.
Qin Niu moved to a distance, trying not to startle it.
Soon, a dark red shadow burst out from a corner of the backyard, moving at an incredibly fast speed.
Qin Niu was secretly thrilled, as the child Gu had indeed come.
It was as if it had walked into a trap.
He didn’t rush to capture it, instead wanting to see what would happen after it reunited with its kin.
After the child Gu entered the well, it climbed directly onto the mother Gu, which then carried it on its back.
The mother Gu crawled out of the well and quickly moved along the dark corners of the wall.
Qin Niu merely observed their movements in secret, without disturbing them.
However, to avoid losing track of his target, he sent out two Demon Ants and three War Bees to track them by land and air.
The two Blood Spiders crawled through a rat hole over the low wall of the backyard, then continued in a northwest direction.
It seemed as if they did not like sunlight very much.
Along the way, they intentionally avoided brightly lit areas, choosing routes with darker light instead.
Qin Niu just followed them from a distance, curious to see where they were going.
After about the time it took for a meal to pass, they actually reached the riverbank.
Could it be they were about to enter the river?
Knowing this, Qin Niu should have brought the Diamond Ink Turtle. If they entered the river, despite it being a small river, Qin Niu would quickly lose sight of them.
If he acted now, his plan to use the Gu as bait would be thwarted.
As he weighed whether to capture them now, he saw the two Blood Spiders jump down the riverbank but did not enter the water; instead, they continued upstream.
Every so often, the mother spider fluttered its front paw through the air a couple of times.
Qin Niu noticed an interesting phenomenon: whenever the mother spider raised its front paws, the male spider on its back instinctively dodged backward.
Spiders are different from Termites, which rely on their antennae to distinguish scents.
Spiders lack antennae and only have a pair of fangs.
Some spiders are non-venomous, so their fangs cannot be considered poisonous. Most spiders have venom which they use to inject neurotoxins into their prey upon biting, paralyzing the victim.
It might be more appropriate to describe it as a ‘vegetative state.’
In this condition, the prey does not die but is incapacitated, helplessly waiting as the spider slowly sucks out their bodily fluids.
So, in theory, all spiders are venomous.
At most, the venom is just low in toxicity.
There are also some highly venomous spiders whose bite can kill a person, such as the Red Widow, Six-eyed Sand Spider, Funnel-web Spider, Black Widow, and so on.
Orb-weavers are generally considered low in toxicity or even non-venomous.
A spider’s chelicerae, or ‘fangs,’ are actually not taste organs. They detect the scent of their prey with the fine hairs on their eight legs.
Especially the front legs, where nerves are most abundant, both the sense of smell and touch are extremely sensitive.
The mother spider’s continuous motion with its front legs through the air likely serves to identify pheromones and scents to determine direction.
Qin Niu was not sure what exactly was attracting it in the front.
It had crawled straight ahead for a good twenty-four or twenty-five miles, entering a low-lying area before it finally stopped.
This place had long left the boundaries of Daoyuan Village, and had even left Jade Stream Town.
It was at the confluence of a big river and the small river of Daoyuan Village.
On the riverbanks grew willow trees, poplar trees, and other trees such as Metasequoia.
The spot where the spider mother stopped was under a very large willow tree.
But it was not a weeping willow.
The diameter of its trunk was estimated to be over half a meter, it looked quite old.
Willow and locust trees gather yin.
Anyone with a slight knowledge of geomancy would not plant willow or locust trees at their doorstep.
If someone buried dead animals, or even dead people, under willow or locust trees, it would likely turn into a sinister place.
After the spider mother arrived under this willow tree with its spiderlings on its back, it went straight into a tree cavity at the position of the tree hollow.
“Could it be that there’s something inside this tree hollow that’s attracting it?”
Qin Niu waited outside for a moment but didn’t see the two blood spiders come out again.
He decided to send a termite in to explore thoroughly.
Fourth was currently engulfing each other with that young Gu, so he couldn’t use it.
He had no choice but to send another termite on this mission.
Among the many termites, apart from the Ant Queen, Fourth was the smartest. Qin Niu usually found Fourth to be the most satisfactory to use.
“Go, you two, go explore this tree hollow.”
Qin Niu released two termites, which knew not what fear was.
They executed their master’s orders unconditionally.
The two termites went inside, but quickly fled back out.
“Master, there are several bugs inside!”
Their intelligence wasn’t as good as Fourth’s, communication wasn’t nearly as efficient.
And they were not very clear in their expression.
“Could there be more than two blood spiders?”
Qin Niu thought of Auntie Hua’s daughter, whose Gu had long since disappeared without a trace; they might have run here too.
The puppet master cultivated Gu in people, and to not reveal her identity, she couldn’t stay by the side of the victim.
After their deaths, the Gu inside them would wander out on their own. If not collected in time, they could easily be lost.
Choosing a hidden location, letting them gather together, and then waiting for the right moment to take the Gu away at night or when no one was around. This would allow for stealth and misdirection.
Qin Niu realized this place might very well be a temporary gathering place for Gu set up by that Gu Master.
“Better to wait for the outcome of Fourth’s and that young Gu’s engulfment before making a move.”
He didn’t rush to stir the Gu in the tree hollow.
Instead, he chose a concealed spot and waited in hiding.
Fourth’s body was still covered by the blood cocoon turned from the blood mist, unmoving.
Qin Niu was not clear on how long it would take to complete the engulfment.
In theory, it shouldn’t take too long to complete the engulfment—it should be entirely sufficient within one or two hours.
The blood spider it was engulfing was a newborn Gu, whose abilities were all still in an infantile state.
Fourth itself was a War Demon Ant, belonging to a rare breed between heaven and earth. If it couldn’t handle even a young Gu, it would be somewhat too weak.
As time passed, Qin Niu sat in the tree, hidden by the lush foliage. Even if someone passed by here, they’d find it very difficult to spot him.
He didn’t just sit and wait.
He was already prepared to eliminate the Gu inside the tree hollow at any moment.