Chapter 44: Life and Death Together [Part 2] Male and Female Gu
There will be no herbal painkillers or anesthetics during the entire process, and Yan Huinan will have to endure all the pain of cutting out flesh and pulling out the arrow by himself.
Xie Yun tore off a corner of her clothes, rolled it into a ball, and asked Yan Huinan to bite it.
Yan Huinan just held it in his hand.
In fact, from the scars Xie Yun had seen on Yan Huinan's back before, she knew that Yan Huinan had suffered many injuries of this severity before.
He is a person who can endure hardship and pain.
But at this moment, Xie Yun couldn't help but think, who is born to endure hardship? He used to be a noble young man...
Xie Yun shook her head. She needed to concentrate on pulling out the arrow for Yan Huinan. She couldn't be distracted for even a moment.
She used a knife to cut open all the clothes below Yan Huinan's left shoulder, and his once fair skin was now covered in blood. But the blood had turned dark purple! Some of the blood had turned into large clots.
There's poison on the arrow!
Xie Yun quickly cut open the front of Yan Huinan's shirt. The area near his heart meridian hadn't shown any signs of being affected by the poison. This was probably because it had only been a short time, and Yan Huinan hadn't exercised vigorously since then.
"This arrow is poisonous..." she said desperately.
Yan Huinan: "Can you solve it?"
Xie Yun took a little of the remaining black blood and carefully identified it, but this poison was not one she had seen before.
At this moment, the military doctor who had led the team out to look for herbs also returned. Seeing Yan Huinan's condition, he hurried to check Yan Huinan's pulse.
Xie Yun: "Doctor, do you know what kind of poison this is?"
The military doctor was quite old and had traveled extensively. The lighting was dim at the time, and he was also quite old. He couldn't remove the arrow near the heart meridian, but he had seen this poison in Miao territory. "It's a poison used by the Miao people to raise poisonous insects." The assassin might have run out of other poisons, and this poison wasn't very strong and wouldn't kill people quickly, because if it was too strong, the poisonous insects would also die.
"Another possibility is that the assassin wished to torture the general before his death! Their greatest fear was that the poison, along with the Gu worm eggs, would enter the general's body. The Gu worms would crawl through the meridians and organs, gradually eroding the flesh and blood. The pain would be unbearable for ordinary people. This is the poison's insidious nature. It was often used to punish Miao people who had defected from the village and were then captured. In Miao villages, only twins from prominent families were qualified to learn how to cultivate these Gu worms. Male and female were never in the same person's possession.
"I once saved an unconscious Miao man. Unaware that he was deliberately seeking death, I saved him by mistake. Later, I learned he had betrayed the village and was subjected to this method, trapped between life and death. His only recourse was to wait for an agonizing death. This person, in excruciating pain, would tear every inch of their skin to extract the poisonous insect, but the insect was within their internal organs, not beneath their flesh, making it impossible to dig out. They would eventually transform into a skinless monster, a death exceedingly painful and undignified. It was an inhumane method. This secret technique wasn't widely circulated, but those who knew of it most often chose to commit suicide, as the Miao man I saved did. In the end, he didn't blame me for saving him, but instead allowed me to kill him again..."
As a fellow doctor, Xie Yun knew that this incident must have left an indelible shadow in the old doctor's heart. Killing the person he had saved with his own hands.
This was a rebellion and rejection of his many years of belief.
As soon as these words were spoken, everyone present gasped.
Is there such a vicious method in this world?
The fear in Xie Yun's heart spread like a tide: "Is there a solution to this poison?"
The old doctor exhaled softly, "Before he died, the man told me the solution. The solution is to first detoxify and then remove the poison. The poison is not fatal, but if it remains in the body for a long time, it will cause loss of physiological functions and organ dysfunction. I will write out the detoxification prescription later. Some of the precious herbs will need to be collected after returning to Beijing, and human blood is required as the medicine.
"And the solution to this Gu is the most difficult. This Gu is a male and female Gu, males correspond to the male Gu, and females correspond to the female Gu. If there is a Gu in the general's body, it should be the male Gu. To draw out the male Gu, a woman must insert the female Gu under her skin. After that..."
The old doctor's voice suddenly stopped, which made Xie Yun very anxious.
But the old doctor suddenly dismissed the others, leaving only Xie Yun and Yan Huinan, before continuing, "Female Gu are usually adult, dormant Gu. They need the stimulation of a man and a woman during sexual intercourse, when the female's skin secretes a pleasurable secretion, to awaken. Then, after about a day or two, the male and female Gu mature in the human body, and finally, they are attracted to each other and bite through the human skin to escape."
Yan Huinan's head felt dizzy, his brow furrowing deeper. He had never heard of such a ridiculous poisonous insect and its cure. This old doctor was indeed experienced and knowledgeable. If someone else had said this, he would have killed them. He actually used such a ridiculous statement to deceive people.
Xie Yun asked very seriously and simply, "Will the Gu worms meet inside the human body?"
The old doctor explained, "No. Because these insects are venomous, although they can grow in the human body, they need a cool environment to reproduce. The human body's temperature is not suitable for their reproduction. Therefore, as long as the location is chosen where the external environment is lower than the human body temperature, the insects will automatically choose the place with the lowest temperature and... usually break out of the human body.
"This cold and gloomy environment is precisely the reason why the Gu worm's eggs can be preserved forever. It takes more than a month to cultivate an adult Gu worm. The Miao people usually cultivate a batch of adult Gu worms, then return them to a cold and gloomy environment to let them fall asleep, leaving behind a batch of eggs that are easy to carry and can be easily inserted into the enemy's body without making a sound. The male and female Gu worms are also very easy to distinguish, and can be easily identified from the eggs. However, obtaining the female Gu worms is the most difficult step—"
Xie Yun nodded. "Doctor, please check if there are any insect eggs in the general's body. If not, that would be the best. If there are, the male Gu will take at least one or two months to grow. Even if we have to wipe out the Miao village, we must find a female Gu."
The old doctor said, "We just need to check if there's a mechanism on the arrow that could hold insect eggs. This arrow is different from ordinary arrows, so it's very likely. Madam, I'll give the general acupuncture first to slow the spread of the poison, while you remove the arrow."
"good."
Xie Yun bent down, blaming herself and saying to him with a look of heartache: "Yan Huinan, don't be afraid. I will heal you. After that, you can take revenge on your enemies and grievances. I——"
Xie Yun said the remaining "I" very briefly and softly. She accepted whatever revenge Yan Huinan had planned. But she still hoped to visit Jiangnan and see her mother. This was her only remaining wish.
Yan Huinan's originally weak and cloudy eyes suddenly became clear, and his desire to live was stronger than at any other moment.
He curled his lips in a silent smile.
Xie Yun's hand didn't tremble at all as he steadily cut open the skin around the arrow. Blood immediately flowed out, soaking his clothes. Xie Yun avoided important meridians and cut down layer by layer. After the skin was torn, he had to continue.
The whole process was very long and Yan Huinan didn't say a word.
But Xie Yun and he were both sweating profusely.
The entire process lasted until the sun was setting, and Xie Yun finally successfully removed the arrow from Yan Huinan's body. She handed the arrow to the old doctor for examination, and then used the needle the old doctor brought with him to sew up Yan Huinan's wound. After the wound was sutured, she also gave him acupuncture on his back to slow the spread of the poison.
The old doctor showed Xie Yun the tip of the arrow. At the very tip, there was a spherical object. As the arrow entered the body, the sphere rolled upward, pushing out the small compartment containing the eggs, which then embedded themselves in the flesh. As the arrow continued to penetrate deeper, the sphere continued to roll, closing the compartment that originally held the eggs. The eggs would not be removed again, but would remain in the body.
Because the coating of the Gu worm will be squeezed and ruptured during the squeezing process, the male Gu will begin to grow and move from the moment it enters the warm flesh/body, burrowing deeper and seeking a warmer place to grow. Blood and flesh are both its food during growth.
Normally, once worm eggs enter the human body, they cannot be found except by attracting them with a female Gu. Even removing the flesh cannot pinpoint the exact location of the worm eggs. Forcibly removing the flesh will result in not only no worm eggs being found, but also the person may have already died before the eggs are found.
The old doctor disassembled the ball and found that the compartment that was supposed to hold the eggs was empty.
"This mechanism has the insect eggs already placed inside it from the moment it's manufactured. It's then stored, along with the arrow, in a special water bag. Refilling it with eggs before use would be extremely time-consuming and inconvenient."
So the answer is self-evident. The male Gu has already penetrated deep into Yan Huinan's body.
Although we know that we can find the female Gu in the hands of the Miao people, how easy is it to enter the Miao village in the heart of Daliang?
Xie Yun and the old doctor's hearts sank to the bottom.
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Yu Xian and Song Hongxuan also arrived with their troops shortly after Yan Huinan set out. When they arrived, Xie Yun and the old doctor were working together to treat Yan Huinan.
Because Yu Xian only discovered after Yan Huinan left that the eunuch who delivered the message was not a real eunuch, but an assassin who was deliberately left behind to lure Yan Huinan to rescue Xie Yun. He was also the one who was sneaking around the water source in the back mountain at that time.
They first pretended to tamper with the water source to distract Yan Huinan's attention. When Yan Huinan dealt with the people who were negligent in their duties and replaced all the water sources with clean ones, they deliberately allowed the Taishan sacrifice to be completed smoothly. After these multiple designs made Yan Huinan relax his vigilance a little, they took action.
When Song Hongxuan discovered Xie Yun helping Yan Huinan out, he immediately rushed over and pushed Xie Yun away, supporting Yan Huinan himself. "Ziyou, are you okay?"
But he knew the situation was not good when he saw the expressions of the soldiers around him.
He asked the old doctor, "How serious is General Yan's injury?"
After the old doctor explained the situation in the simplest terms, Song Hongxuan's face suddenly turned pale. He was furious and looked like he wanted to kill Xie Yun immediately.
"Ziyou, don't worry. I will definitely find a female Gu for you. As for how to treat her later, Madam Yan is weak and may not be able to survive the few days when the Gu matures. I will find another woman."
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The author has something to say: Well...you can imagine the mechanism of this arrow as the tip of a ballpoint pen.
This Gu, in short, is a kind of Gu that will kill you if you don't do it [author sweats]
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