Everyone's legs were shaking with fatigue by the time Jing Shu finally pointed her hand toward a small, vibrant patch of green clinging to the jagged cliffside. A few stunted, algae-covered trees stood there with slick, dark trunks, representing the only living things in that barren mountain range. "We will rest here for tonight," she said, her voice echoing slightly against the stone.
Honestly, the place didn't look special at all to the rest of the team. It was just a bit more grass and a few more trees than the gray wasteland they had been traversing.
"Oh thank God, finally!" Xiao Hei let out a long groan, his knees buckling as he flopped face-first into the slick, damp grass.
"Don't lie down!" Jing Shu shouted, but her warning came too late. Xiao Hei, looking half-dead from the long trek, sprawled out completely against the greenery. She covered her face with her palm, and within seconds came a blood-curdling scream that ripped through the silence of the peaks.
Xiao Hei shot up like a rocket, his bare butt, bare back, and bare legs all on display to the cold air. Every bit of clothing that had touched the grass was gone, eaten away by a hidden force, and even his skin was burned raw and red.
He yelped, slapping frantically at his backside as he ran in dizzy circles. "Shit, shit, what the hell! Is the grass poisonous?!"
Jing Shu pulled a massive, heavy bag of white sugar from her backpack. By now, the team didn't even blink at the sight. They had long accepted that her three-meter-tall pack was filled less with standard weapons and more with food and weird odds and ends she had scavenged.
She sprinkled the sugar in a wide, shimmering circle on the dirt, then added another thick layer around it for good measure. "We will sleep inside this circle tonight. Don't step out of the perimeter. Just one person needs to keep watch," she said, smoothing out the grains.
Ling Ling tilted her head curiously, her eyes fixed on the white line. "Is that some kind of special anti-bug powder from those cultivation novels?"
"It's sugar," Jing Shu replied flatly.
Tank gawked at the circle. "Wait, sugar works against mountain creatures?"
Before Jing Shu could answer, the grass where Xiao Hei had just been lying started to move with a low, rustling sound. A swarm of insects crawled out from the roots. They looked exactly like standard ants; however, each one was more than a centimeter long and disgustingly plump, their bellies bulging as if they were stuffed with something. Not only the grass, but the stunted trees too began to squirm with movement as thousands upon thousands of ants poured out from the cracks in the bark.
Xiao Hei shrieked, hopping around like crazy on the rocky ground. He accidentally stepped on a few stragglers, and a loud crackling sound burst from underfoot. His shoes dissolved in an instant as if dipped in acid, leaving him screaming again at the searing heat.
"They're sulfuric acid ants," Snake Spirit muttered, his brow furrowed as he watched the swarm. "But they used to be less than a centimeter long. These are twice that size!"
Jing Shu chuckled, her eyes reflecting the faint light. "They have evolved into strong sulfuric acid ants. They feed on rotting meat and corpses, and in these mountains, they have got no natural enemies. Even most animals end up as their food. The only thing keeping them in check is their queen."
Queens capable of evolving in the harsh conditions of the apocalypse were rare treasures.
The sulfuric acid ants formed two perfect, writhing rings around the sugar circle, remaining unmoving. They were guarding the haul. Every grain of sugar was an offering for their queen. From now on, anything—or anyone—trying to take the sugar would be killed instantly by the swarm.
Soon, the ants poured out by the thousands, even the flying ones circling overhead in the misty air. Xiao Hei trembled, his teeth chattering. "B-b-boss, are you sure this is safe? We're not digging our own graves here, right?!" He winced as the acid burns on his skin throbbed painfully.
Even before the apocalypse began, sulfuric acid ants were terrifying. One bite could rot your flesh, cause high fevers, nausea, and severe infection. Many people were left disfigured for life by a single encounter. That was just one ant.
Now, thousands of them surrounded the camp. After evolving, they had grown larger and deadlier, their acid far stronger than ever before. They were walking acid bombs that could melt anything undead. They were true predators of Darklife creatures, zombies, and other infected animals. Jing Shu realized she might have just found herself a powerful new card to play.
She had only ever encountered them a few times in the mountains during past migrations, but she had never managed to capture one. This time, she wasn't letting the chance slip away.
Then, a slow, lumbering shape emerged from a hollow tree stump: a huge, pale-red insect as fat as three fists put together. Its belly faced the sky as it waddled forward, its wings crushed and useless under its own massive weight. Unlike other chubby white ant queens, this one had a strange, vibrant reddish tint to her shell.
The queen was being carried by hundreds of soldier ants, lifted high like royalty. She seemed thrilled, her mandibles twitching as she wriggled eagerly toward the sugar circle. Around her, the ants had built a wall nearly thirty centimeters tall out of their own interlocking bodies. It was impossible to tell how many individuals were in the mass.
Jing Shu stepped closer, her curiosity piqued, while Xiao Dou the hen tilted her head. The bird looked as if she were thinking that the queen must taste amazing, with so much protein packed into one body.
"What are you doing?" Snake Spirit frowned, his hand moving toward his weapon. "Don't mess with the queen. If she dies, the rest of the colony will go berserk."
They all imagined the scene at once: a tidal wave of corrosive acid flooding their small camp.
Jing Shu just pulled out a big, black plastic bag, poured a fresh heap of sugar into the bottom, and opened the mouth wide. The ant queen's minions obediently carried her right inside the plastic.
It was the simplest trap, yet she walked right into it for the sweetness.
"Wait, is that actually going to work?" Tank asked nervously, his eyes wide. "That bag can't possibly hold something that spits acid!"
Jing Shu tied the bag tight with a quick knot and waved her hand dismissively. "Don't forget I'm a Gu Master. Everyone, rest for six hours, then we will move on. Monkey, you are on watch tonight. You couldn't sleep anyway with those burns on your back. I will spend some time bonding with our new friend."
She unpacked her gear and quickly set up a cozy, private tent with windproof panels, a soft mat, and two thick layers of down quilts. Xiao Dou curled up by the door, brooding over two black eggs she had brought from America.
Outside the fabric, the ants were calm, likely due to Jing Shu's subtle influence. But soon, a mouthwatering aroma drifted out from the tent. It smelled like fried chicken... and sauerkraut fish... and maybe rich braised pork too. No one could sleep easily after that scent hit them.
Still, lying on the patch of grass felt far better than the hard stone of the path, and exhaustion soon won out over hunger. One by one, rhythmic snores filled the night air.
Inside the tent, on a small folding table, the obese sulfuric acid ant queen lay sprawled comfortably on her back, her mouth open as worker ants fed her grains of sugar. She took several minutes to digest each grain, but she didn't seem to mind the wait.
Ever since entering this strange, warm new place, her aging body had started to feel young again. She had even drunk a mouthful of some divine liquid that made her shiver in delight. Her decaying body felt reborn from the inside.
Meanwhile, Jing Shu reclined with her legs crossed on the quilt, absentmindedly fiddling with her Rubik's Cube, the plastic clicking in the quiet. The two creatures coexisted peacefully in the small space, neither bothering the other.
But under that calm surface, Jing Shu had just gained her third registered pet. She never imagined that her greatest reward from this trip to America would be a forty-year-old ant queen.
===
A Gu Master (蛊术师, gǔ shù shī) is a practitioner of Gu Sorcery (蛊术, gǔshù), a form of ancient, esoteric, and often sinister art with its roots in Southern Chinese folk traditions and mythology.
Here's a breakdown of what it entails:
1. The Core Concept: "Gu" (蛊)
The word "Gu" (蛊) originally referred to a venomous insect or a potion/poison made from such insects.
In folklore, it is created by sealing several of the most venomous creatures (e.g., snakes, scorpions, centipedes, spiders, toads) into a sealed container and letting them fight and cannibalize each other. The lone survivor, having absorbed the toxins and essence of all the others, becomes the "Gu"—a super-poisonous and often supernatural creature.
2. The Practice of a Gu Master
A Gu Master is someone who knows the secret methods to create, control, and utilize Gu. Their abilities typically include:
Creating Poisons and Curses: Using the Gu to inflict disease, misfortune, or death upon a target from a distance.
Manipulation and Control: The Gu can be used to manipulate people's minds, bodies, or emotions, forcing them to do the Gu Master's bidding.
Healing: In some traditions, Gu can also be used for healing, by drawing out illnesses or countering other poisons.
Rearing Gu Creatures: A powerful Gu Master doesn't just create one Gu; they raise and command an entire collection of these specially bred, often mutated, venomous or parasitic creatures.