Chapter 355 - Chapter 355: Chapter 348 Fully Collected_1

Chapter 355: Chapter 348 Fully Collected_1

After observing the tree hollow once more, he struck the willow tree’s trunk with his knife.

With his current strength and the power of the Ink Blade, he easily bisected the large willow tree with a half-meter diameter.

Because the Ink Blade was so sharp, the tree did not fall immediately after being cut.

He felt that the trunk was probably hollow inside.

Trees with hollow trunks.

Nine out of ten large trees are hollow.

Qin Niu placed one hand on the trunk and pushed hard.

It immediately tilted and thunderously fell to the ground.

The tree canopy heavily crashed into the river, splashing up a great deal of water.

However, Qin Niu’s gaze was tightly fixed on the inside of the tree hollow. To his surprise, even with such a big commotion, the Gu hidden inside did not come out.

In the center of the severed trunk’s cross-section, there was an irregular hollow.

Looking down the hollow of the tree heart, he saw a clay pot the size of a sea bowl at the bottom, faintly emanating a stench of blood.

There was a black cloth covering the mouth of the pot, with only a hole the size of a fingertip left open at the center.

This was definitely prearranged by the backstage culprit.

The blood in the pot was likely intended to lure several Gu to come and feed.

Ordinary blood would not be able to lure Gu from miles away.

This indicated the blood in the pot was specially prepared.

Qin Niu secretly admired the cunning methods of the person behind the scenes. Having discovered it now, he certainly would not be courteous.

He directly took the whole pot.

After checking there were no Gu on the outside of the pot, he carefully took the pot out of the tree hollow.

Indeed, it contained half a pot of liquid.

It was quite heavy when he carried it.

Upon lifting the black cloth that covered it, the pot indeed contained blood. It had not coagulated and looked like freshly drawn blood, vivid in color.

It was difficult to discern with the naked eye how many Gu were actually inside.

Termite could roughly sense how many Gu were inside by using his sensing abilities.

Qin Niu disliked that this pot had no lid, worrying it couldn’t confine the Gu inside.

So he simply poured the blood from the pot into the pickle jar he had purchased. As he poured, the Gu inside might have been disturbed, causing the blood to churn and bubbles to emerge.

But it quickly calmed down.

It seemed as long as there was a sufficient supply of blood food, they would be particularly quiet.

He sealed the lid and then used rooster blood to seal the mouth of the jar.

To prevent any missed Gu, he released Termite to search around the tree hollow. Not discovering any Gu hiding outside, he finally felt somewhat at ease.

He went straight back to Shuangfeng Village with the pot.

From a hidden spot, he deployed Termite and bees to keep watch.

Since this place was far from Shuangfeng Village, standing guard here was not a wise decision.

He had a sneaking suspicion that the person behind the scenes was not only cunning but also likely extremely powerful.

Whether it was using humans to breed Gu or having arranged blood food in advance to lure the successfully bred Blood Gu, all these indicated that this person was proficient in the art of Gu.

Fang Lian had once reminded Qin Niu to be careful of Elder Mei from the Nine Insect Gang.

That person, along with a group of Nine Insect Gang experts, had infiltrated the territory of the Black Tiger Gang, intending to rescue Elder Jiu Yin who was trapped.

Later that day, Elder Jiu Yin was killed by Qin Niu.

Whether Elder Mei left or not, no one was sure.

With the Black Tiger Gang’s territory being so vast, it would be all too easy for a Spirit Qi Realm expert to hide away.

Qin Niu still felt palpitations from his battle with Elder Jiu Yin.

Even with severe injuries, almost all his insects lost, Elder Jiu Yin’s combat power was still terribly strong. He was more than ten times more formidable than Old Master Huang.

If the person raising these Gu was indeed Elder Mei, Qin Niu standing guard here would probably be no different from courting death.

Now that he had taken all the Gu that the opponent had cultivated with great effort.

“`

Taking the gu and slipping away quickly was the best strategy.

More than an hour later, he returned to Shuangfeng Village with the jar.

To avoid bringing disaster upon himself, he didn’t take it home but brought it into the Ancient Banyan Tree Maze instead.

The mother gu inside the bucket was still sucking on the blood.

But when Qin Niu opened the jar, the mother gu in the bucket seemed more interested in the blood inside the jar.

It quickly crawled out of the bucket and actually climbed into the jar on its own.

Qin Niu also noticed it seemingly disliked the rooster’s blood in the jar’s storage trench.

As it passed by, it carefully avoided the rooster’s blood.

Once the mother gu entered the jar, he secured the lid back on top.

What to do with these few gu became a difficult problem.

Before Fourth had completely assimilated the gu, Qin Niu didn’t dare to experiment with a second insect.

In another two or three six hours, it would get dark.

At night, he definitely couldn’t leave these gu within the Ancient Banyan Tree Maze. Otherwise, by the next day, they would likely all become nutrients for the ancient banyan tree.

Leaving them outside, he was somewhat uneasy.

He was worried both about the gu inside escaping and about the perpetrator behind the scenes following the trail here.

If the secret of this Ancient Banyan Tree was discovered, his losses would be tremendous.

…

Time flew by, and there were no abnormalities from the termites and bees lingering around the cut-down willow.

It meant the perpetrator behind the scenes had not yet appeared.

As the sky gradually darkened, Qin Niu had no choice but to bury the pickle jar containing several gu next to the Ancient Banyan Tree underground.

He went home for dinner, and utilizing his rare free time, he taught both his wives and Xiao Qing the Misty Rain Elusive Step together.

Now that they were a family, any cultivation resources Qin Niu had that could be useful to them, he provided openly and abundantly.

When he got to know his wives a bit better, he planned to take them to cultivate under the Ancient Banyan Tree.

By then, their cultivation levels would surely soar.

It’s just that women sometimes can’t keep secrets, and it’s easy for them to spill family affairs.

Wang Wanyan and Tang Caixian were both young, and at times, they still behaved like children.

They were completely unaware of how treacherous society could be.

Tang Caixian might be a bit better in this regard, having stayed in the city and encountered many nobles and young masters. She should have seen quite a bit of society’s dark side and the ugliness of human nature.

Wang Wanyan, on the other hand, rarely left home, a sheltered lady, and somewhat lacking in worldly experience.

In the middle of the night, as Qin Niu was sleeping with his wife, he detected movement from the termites near the willow tree.

“Wan Yan, I have to go out and handle something. Lock the door properly and wait for me to come back.”

“Where are you going at this late hour?”

She clung to Qin Niu, resting her face against his chest.

“There’s some activity with the gu I’m raising; I need to check it out. Be good! Wait for me at home.”

Qin Niu gently pushed her away, quickly got dressed, and put on his King Pig Leather Armor.

“Husband, be careful.”

Wang Wanyan looked at him with some concern.

“Mmm! Wait for me to come back.”

Qin Niu gave her a light kiss on her cherry lips, then went out the door.

He moved like a ghost on his way.

This tree was about twenty-four or twenty-five miles away from the willow’s location, so he hadn’t planned to go check it out.

Instead, he hurried to the mountains.

Now, this mountain was almost entirely his private territory, with termites placed everywhere as his eyes and ears. The moment someone intruded into the mountains, he would immediately know.

It was just a pity that the Green Demon Bee hadn’t metamorphosed into an adult insect yet; otherwise, he would have had yet another formidable method at his disposal.

“`