The Wine Worm was the size of a silkworm, its entire body radiating a pearlescent white glow, slightly plump and quite cute.
It fed on wine and was capable of flight. When flying, it would curl its body into a ball, moving at a remarkably swift pace.
Although it was a Rank One Gu, its value surpassed even that of certain Rank Two Gu.
Using it as a Natal Gu would be vastly superior to the Moonlight Gu.
At this moment, such a Wine Worm was clinging to a green bamboo stalk merely fifty or sixty paces away from Fangyuan.
Fangyuan held his breath, not daring to approach rashly, and instead slowly retreated.
He knew that although the distance was close, actually capturing the Wine Worm directly was exceedingly difficult for a Gu Master who had just awakened his aperture—or rather, there was simply no hope of success.
Though his eyesight at the moment could not yet make out the exact appearance of the Wine Worm, in some mysterious way, he could sense the creature's vigilance toward him.
Fangyuan retreated very slowly and gently, taking care not to startle the Wine Worm.
He knew that if the Wine Worm chose to fly away, his own speed would never be enough to catch it. Only when it had drunk its fill, grown intoxicated, and its flight speed slowed down would he have a chance to capture it.
Seeing Fangyuan move further and further away, the Wine Worm clinging to the bamboo stalk began to stir restlessly.
The strong aroma of wine ahead tempted and lured it, consuming its thoughts and dreams. Had it possessed saliva, a large puddle of it would likely have drooped down by now.
Yet the Wine Worm's vigilance remained high. It was only after Fangyuan had retreated a full two hundred paces that it flicked its body and leaped into the air.
As it drifted in mid-air, it curled its body into a round bundle, resembling a little white glutinous rice dumpling.
The rice dumpling carved a smooth arc through the air, landing on the patch of grass where Fangyuan had sprinkled the Green Bamboo Wine.
With the delicacy right before its eyes, the Wine Worm's guard dropped significantly. It scurried eagerly toward the floral bud containing the wine, thrusting its head inside and leaving only its chubby tail exposed on the outside.
It was utterly starved, and the Green Bamboo Wine was so delectable. It drank greedily, soon immersing itself in the deliciousness of the food and banishing Fangyuan to the back of its mind.
Only then did Fangyuan begin to cautiously and stealthily approach.
He saw the Wine Worm's tail protruding from the floral bud. The tail resembled that of a silkworm—plump and rounded, emitting a halo that brought pearls to mind.
At first, its tail hung motionless outside.
Then, after a moment, the tail began to twitch up and down, a clear sign that the Wine Worm was drinking with great delight.
By the end, when Fangyuan had closed the distance to within ten paces, its tail began swaying from side to side in a rhythmic, joyful swing.
It was completely wasted!
Seeing this, Fangyuan nearly burst out laughing.
He did not press forward, choosing instead to wait patiently. If he were to pounce right now, he would have a fairly high certainty of capturing the Wine Worm, but Fangyuan still wanted the creature to lead the way and guide him to the remains of Flower Wine Monk.
Before long, the Wine Worm backed out of the floral bud. Its body had swelled by a circle, and its head wobbled like a drunkard's; it remained entirely oblivious to Fangyuan's presence.
It crawled over to another pale yellow wildflower, nestled within the stamens, and feasted upon the wine-dew.
After finishing this time, it finally felt full. Its body slowly curled into a ball upon the petals, and then it lifted off sluggishly, rising to a height of about a meter and a half above the ground before drifting leisurely deeper into the bamboo grove.
Fangyuan hurried to follow on foot.
The Wine Worm was thoroughly intoxicated, its flight speed halved compared to usual. Even so, Fangyuan had to run at full tilt just to keep its figure in sight.
The night was pure as washed jade, and the youth darted swiftly through the bamboo grove, chasing the speck of pearly white snow not far ahead.
The moonlight was tender, the breeze gentle. The bamboo grove gleamed as if filled with clear water, and stalk after stalk of emerald-green green bamboo flashed rapidly before Fangyuan's eyes, falling away behind the youth.
On the ground lay lush patches of grass dotted with wild flowers.
There were also small moss-covered stones and unformed, tender yellow bamboo shoots.
Fangyuan's faint afterimage also rushed swiftly across the ground, leaping over the straight black lines cast upon the earth by the green bamboo.
He kept his gaze locked firmly on that speck of snowy shadow, breathing in the fresh mountain air amidst the lingering fragrance of wine while moving his legs to follow closely behind.
Because of his rapid dash, the moonlight beneath his feet resembled water, light and shadow shifting so frequently that it felt as if he were galloping through waters dense with aquatic weeds.
The Wine Worm flew out of the bamboo grove, and Fangyuan rushed out right behind it. A vast expanse of dazzling white flowers with faintly yellow centers let loose a flurry of petals at his legs, stirred by the forceful gust.
A swarm of dragon-pill crickets flowed past like a stream of fluid poetry, and as Fangyuan charged straight through, a rustling sound erupted, blooming into a red glow that scattered a patch of crimson starry fireflies.
A quietly flowing mountain stream paved with pebbles reflected the spring moon of the night sky upon its rippling surface. With a series of splashing sounds, Fangyuan waded through, shattering the water into ten thousand silver ripples.
What a pity that the breeze and moonlight of the stream were trampled into shattered jasper.
Fangyuan pursued relentlessly, sticking close behind the Wine Worm.
Following the mountain stream upward, he could already faintly hear the sound of a waterfall. After rounding a sparse patch of woods, he saw the Wine Worm fly straight into a fissure within a massive boulder.
Fangyuan's field of vision suddenly brightened, and he finally halted his steps.
"So it was here." He gasped heavily for breath, his heart pounding violently. With this stop, a wave of sweat broke out all over his body, and a surge of heat coursed through him as his blood rushed faster.
Looking around, he realized this was a shallow riverbed.
Pebbles of all sizes covered the ground, the river water rising only about the thickness of a finger above the stones. Gray-white boulders were also scattered about at random.
Behind Qingmao Mountain lay a massive waterfall.
The waterfall's flow varied with the weather, plunging straight down to crash into a deep pool. Beside this deep pool sat the Bai family village, a powerful faction that was stronger than, or at least equal to, the Gu Yue Village.
The waterfall also had tributaries, and it was clear that the one Fangyuan faced was a branch of a branch.
Usually, this riverbed was dry. But a heavy rain had recently fallen for three consecutive days and nights, causing a shallow stream of water to accumulate here.
The source of this flowing water was the very boulder the Wine Worm had burrowed into.
The massive boulder leaned against a vertical cliff face. A slender, miniature waterfall branched off from the main cataract, dropping vertically like a silver python plastered against the rock face and striking the boulder; over the ages, it had carved a crevice right through the center of the rock.
At this moment, as the waterfall crashed down, the water made a faint, rumbling sound. Like a white rolled curtain, it completely blocked the gap in the boulder.
Taking advantage of the moment to observe and size up his surroundings, Fangyuan's breathing grew less ragged. A flash of resolute determination crossed his eyes as he walked up to the boulder, took a deep breath, and charged headfirst into the opening.
The fissure in the boulder was quite large, easily wide enough for two grown men to walk side by side. All the more so for Fangyuan's frame, which was merely that of a fifteen-year-old youth.
The moment he rushed in, the rapid current pressed down hard on Fangyuan's body, while the freezing water instantly soaked him from head to toe.
Resisting the water pressure, Fangyuan pressed forward in quick strides. After walking several dozen paces, the water pressure gradually diminished.
However, the gap between the rock walls also narrowed accordingly, forcing Fangyuan to walk sideways.
In his ears roared the sound of water; overhead was a brilliant patch of white, while deeper within the boulder lay a patch of darkness.
What was hidden within the darkness?
Perhaps a slippery, venomous snake; perhaps a toxic gecko; perhaps a mechanical trap set by the villain Flower Wine Monk; or perhaps nothing at all.
Sideways like this, Fangyuan slowly squeezed himself into the darkness.
The flowing water overhead had disappeared. The stone walls were covered in moss, brushing against Fangyuan's skin with an extremely slick texture.
Fangyuan was completely swallowed by the darkness, and the rock fissure grew narrower still, eventually crowding him so tightly that he could no longer turn his head freely.
Gritting his teeth, Fangyuan pressed on.
After another twenty-some paces, he noticed what seemed to be a patch of reddish light glowing in the darkness.
At first he thought it was an illusion, but after blinking and looking closely once more, he confirmed that it was indeed light!
This discovery gave his spirits a lift.
Continuing forward for another fifty or sixty paces, the red glow grew brighter and gradually expanded across his retina into a long, vertical slit.
His outstretched left arm suddenly felt the stone wall ahead vanish, curving away into open space.
Overjoyed, Fangyuan realized that this boulder indeed contained an interior space. He hurried forward a few steps and finally squeezed through the crevice of light.
Before his eyes, the space suddenly opened up, revealing an area of roughly eighty square meters.
"I walked such a long distance, I must have passed right through the boulder and into the mountain cliff itself by now." While loosening his hands and stretching his limbs, he began inspecting this hidden space.
The entire area was suffused with a dim red glow, though the source of the light remained unknown.
The surrounding stone walls were damp and blanketed in moss, yet the air here was remarkably dry.
Clinging to the rock face were vines that had long since withered and died. Intertwined and tangled together, these vines covered the majority of the four stone walls, bearing some withered flower roots and stems upon them.
Looking at these remnants of dead flora, Fangyuan found them somewhat familiar.
"Wine-pouch Flower Gu, and Rice-bag Grass Gu." Suddenly, a flash of insight struck him, and he recognized the withered flower stems and vines.
Gu came in many forms. Some resembled minerals, like the moon-blue crystal Moonlight Gu. Some resembled insects, like the silkworm-like Wine Worm. Others took the form of plants—precisely like the Wine-pouch Flower Gu and Rice-bag Grass Gu before Fangyuan's eyes.
Both of these were natural Rank One Gu. They only required infusions of primeval essence to grow. Once fully grown, flower hearts would secrete nectar-wine, while grass bags would produce fragrant cooked rice.
Tracing the root system of the vines with his gaze, Fangyuan indeed discovered a clump of dead roots bundled and bulging together in the corner.
The Wine Worm was nestled atop this mass of dead roots, fast asleep and ripe for the taking.
Fangyuan walked over, scooped the Wine Worm into his bosom first, and then squatted down to brush aside the dead roots and withered vines, uncovering a skeletal corpse wrapped within them.
"I've finally found you, Flower Wine Monk." A faint smile touched the corner of his mouth at the sight.
Just as he reached out to peel away the remaining withered vines—
"Move an inch and try me?" A voice laden with murderous intent suddenly rang out from right behind Fangyuan.