After driving away those paper figures, I was already at my last gasp.

Despite managing to dodge the paper figure's sneak attack, the attacker was still a bit too slow.

I was knocked to the ground by a hammer, and I felt the whole world spinning wildly, and I felt a warm sensation on my face.

The paper figure knocked me down with a single blow, rushed over, stepped on my chest, and raised the hammer in its hand once more.

"Woof! Woof woof woof!"

Just then, a dog barked. The paper figure paused for a moment upon hearing the bark, then retreated and disappeared into the woods.

I shook my head and looked toward the sound of barking. I saw the large mastiff next to Miao Xiaoxian, about ten meters away from me.

Seeing this dog was like finding a savior. I yelled, "Miao Xiaoxian! Miao Xiaoxian! Are you nearby? Help!"

"Stop yelling! Are you out of your mind?!"

With a shout, Miao Xiaoxian appeared from the nearby woods, glaring at me angrily: "Who let you into this woods? Are you crazy?"

"I'm here to rescue someone! My friend got lost here!"

Seeing that Miao Xiaoxian was here, I knew she could definitely find a way out. I struggled to my feet, pointed at Wei Shengnan, and said, "My friend is possessed by an evil spirit, and the others have also gotten separated from us. Can you please help me find them?"

"You guys will get yourselves killed sooner or later!"

Miao Xiaoxian took out her tinderbox, blew on it gently, and a flame appeared.

In the firelight, I noticed that Miao Xiaoxian was not wearing the coarse cloth clothes we had seen before, but the kind of fine clothes that the villagers had worn when we first entered the village. Moreover, her clothes were more exquisite than those of the villagers, and they were decorated with silver ornaments.

When Miao Xiaoxian saw my leg, which was swollen beyond recognition, she frowned and asked, "What happened to your leg?"

I replied, "When I was looking for someone, I encountered those paper figures. They would throw insects as weapons, and I think I was bitten by one of those insects!"

"That's not an insect, it's a poisonous insect!"

Seeing my miserable state, Miao Xiaoxian first rolled her eyes, then opened her bag, took out a palm-sized toad from the ground, squatted down and was about to put it on my lap.

I instinctively flinched at the toad covered in slime and bumps on its skin.

"Don't move! Do you really want to die?"

Miao Xiaoxian scolded me, then pressed down on my leg and placed the toad next to my wound.

As the toad opened its mouth and bit my wound, a sharp pain shot through my leg, making my whole body tremble.

This feeling is like someone is pulling out my tendons.

The pain was unbearable, and I reached out to grab the toad, but Miao Xiaoxian grabbed my wrist tightly: "If the eggs aren't expelled, you won't live more than three days! The longer it drags on, the more severe your aftereffects will be!"

"Insect eggs?"

When I heard Miao Xiaoxian say that, and then looked at my own calves, which were swollen to three or four sizes larger, I felt inexplicably nauseous.

Miao Xiaoxian seemed to understand how painful this was, and comforted me, "Distract yourself, don't think about it, and it won't hurt so much!"

I gritted my teeth, looked away, and pointed at the paper figures' corpses, asking Miao Xiaoxian, "These guys are all your villagers, right?"

Miao Xiaoxian didn't want to answer, but in order to distract me, she still said, "They are also Gu."

I immediately retorted, "You're talking nonsense! I clearly saw that they also had internal organs!"

"They really are Gu, but they are just the carriers."

Miao Xiaoxian replied, "These things are monkeys trained from a young age. Ping'an Village uses a special kind of Gu to modify them, making these monkeys bigger and stronger! To increase their muscle strength, the village bathes them with a special potion, and the side effect of that potion is that it melts their skin! So the skin on their bodies is transplanted to protect their muscles."

I wanted to ask Miao Xiaoxian where this place was, but I felt that asking would expose Wei Shengnan and the others for following us, so I changed my question: "Did you come here specifically to look for us?"

“I’ve been in the forest the whole time. When the Gu monkeys spot the enemy, they report back to the village. You’re lucky it’s my turn to be on duty today; otherwise, all of you would be dead in this forest!”

As Miao Xiaoxian spoke, the toad on my leg, which was the size of a palm, had swollen to the size of a human face. Miao Xiaoxian pinched its belly, took it off my leg, and turned it over to rub its belly.

"Whoosh!"

A few seconds later, the toad spat out a large mouthful of sticky liquid.

In the firelight, the liquid was filled with ant-sized larvae, churning and wriggling.

"vomit!"

The thought of my legs being filled with these moving worms made me vomit.

"You know fear, so you're not stupid! Don't think that just because Ping'an Village is isolated from the world, it must be backward! There are many methods here that you'll never see outside!"

As Miao Xiaoxian spoke, she placed the toad on my lap again: "Just bear with it. Repeat this three times, and the worms in your body should be mostly gone."

I nodded and looked at Wei Shengnan not far away: "My friend, is she also under a spell?"

Miao Xiaoxian glanced at me sideways: "You were bitten by the spotted worms. The spotted worms are the snakes that the paper dolls threw. Those things were cultivated by Ping'an Village itself and are not completely natural creatures."

"This isn't right?"

I pointed to the wound on my neck: "I was bitten by a snake before, why didn't I have the same problem as her?"

Miao Xiaoxian snorted coldly: "The time is not yet right. If you hadn't met me, you would have become a walking corpse too."

I started to get nervous: "Is there any hope?"

Seeing how worried I was, Miao Xiaoxian whispered, "If the person isn't dead, they can be saved."

I endured the excruciating pain and waited for the toad to suck out the slime from my legs. Then, I asked Miao Xiaoxian with concern, "Are you sure all the worms inside me have been sucked out? What if a couple of them left behind and made their home inside me?"

"These worms, apart from the mother, have no reproductive ability. They enter the human body and feed on blood. They can live for seven days and can grow up to the size of a peach pit. Most of the worms in your body have already been sucked out. Even if there are a few left, they won't kill you."

Miao Xiaoxian handed me a bottle made from a small gourd: "Drink this, it will cure the Spotted Insect Gu."

I drank the sour liquid in the gourd in one gulp and asked, "Is there any more of this medicine? I want my friend to drink some too!"

"Her situation is more complicated than yours because the Gu worms inside her have already fully matured!"

Miao Xiaoxian carefully put the toad away, then walked towards Wei Shengnan, turning to look at me at the same time: "What are you standing there for? Come and help!"