According to Jiang Shan, every year the Moon God Race sends a Divine Envoy to bless newborn babies, which means marking them with the moonprint. At the same time, they also take away humans who have cultivated their moonprint to the full moon stage, bringing them to the Moon God Palace for further cultivation.
The next Divine Envoy visit is in two months.
Xiang Beifei stayed quietly in the tribe, cultivating and contemplating his strategy.
The Eternal Night Demon King of the Meat-Winged Monster is an immortal master, far superior to Xiang Beifei. Xiang Beifei cannot act impulsively; he needs to rely on some special methods.
For example, first figuring out the source of Yellow Spring, and its weaknesses.
Even the Eternal Night Demon King has sacrificed himself to the Meat-Winged Monster of Yellow Spring; the Yellow Spring is the key.
Additionally, the matter of the Moonprint Gu Worm needs to be clarified.
Loud snoring resonated in the simple house.
Their houses were built of stone, with roofs covered in various thatches and animal hides for wind and rain protection. Inside, yellow clods were used to divide it into two rooms, where Xiang Beifei and Jiang Shan each stayed in one.
However, the rooms were not soundproof, so the entire house was filled with Jiang Shan’s snoring.
Xiang Beifei didn’t mind; such snoring was a minor issue compared to Erha, who often mumbles in his sleep.
Seeing Jiang Shan asleep, he carefully walked over.
They mentioned that losing the moonprint results in death, so Xiang Beifei had to thoroughly understand the capabilities of the moonprint.
Xiang Beifei used his Spiritual Power to protect Jiang Shan’s whole body meridians and transferred his perception so that Jiang Shan would not wake up.
He extended two fingers, and a sharp strand of Spiritual Power flickered at his fingertips, like a precise scalpel, carefully slicing the muscle around the moonprint.
Every drop of blood was swiftly blocked by Xiang Beifei’s Spiritual Power, preventing it from spilling. Soon, he discovered a dense cluster of tendrils beneath the moonprint, connecting to Jiang Shan’s subcutaneous meridians, including the Qi channels.
Jiang Shan was also a martial artist who had already undergone Meridian Opening, although the Qi channels developed throughout his body were not many, he quickly noticed something strange about them.
Xiang Beifei realized something, and his eyes flickered with a black and white glimmer.
In his perception, these Qi channels and meridians no longer belonged to Jiang Shan but rather to the Moonprint Gu Worm, as if they were assimilated by the Gu worm!
Xiang Beifei stared at the Moonprint Gu Worm, pondered for a moment, and used his Spiritual Power to pressure the Moonprint Gu Worm. But, just when his Spiritual Power was strong enough to threaten it, the Gu worm suddenly started contracting urgently.
At that moment, Jiang Shan’s Qi channels were also yanked, as if they were being ripped from his meridians, and Jiang Shan’s body began to convulse uncontrollably, curling up.
Xiang Beifei quickly withdrew his Spiritual Power, and the Moonprint Gu Worm, losing the threat, stopped trembling, and Jiang Shan’s body returned to normal.
Xiang Beifei finally understood why losing the moonprint led to death. It was because the moonprint essentially took over a person’s meridians and Qi channels.
In other words, if the Moonprint Gu Worm senses a threat to its host, it will promptly leave the body, essentially stripping away the person’s meridians and Qi channels. Once the meridians are gone, the person would collapse and die instantly!
It’s no wonder that outside, when a hunter’s arm with the moonprint is cut off, they perish. That’s the explanation.
"Such a vicious thing."
Xiang Beifei hadn’t expected the Meat-Winged Monster to use human bodies to nurture Gu!
"Wait a minute, it seems it’s not just that."
Xiang Beifei carefully observed the Gu worm again, slightly furrowing his brows.
The Gu worm seemed to have fused with the human soul!
In the God Refining period, the meridians are refined into the divine soul. But before that, the human soul is attached to the meridians, meaning that if the Gu worm is threatened and withdraws the meridians and Qi channels, it also takes away the human soul!
What is the Meat-Winged Monster collecting human souls for?
"Is it for the Dao embryo? Do they think the Dao embryo is in the soul?"
Xiang Beifei pondered.
The Meat-Winged Monster and the Ghost Mustache of Remnant Visage had once teamed up to ambush the Human Race in order to plunder their Dao embryo. Over three thousand years had passed, and it was evident that the Ghost Mustache of Remnant Visage had figured out how to steal the Dao embryo. However, the Meat-Winged Monster seemed oblivious, something apparent from the behavior of the Flaming Six Wings.
Regardless, Xiang Beifei needed to deal with the trouble caused by the Gu Worm.
Directly removing the Gu Worm would cost Jiang Shan his life, so he had to think of another way.
After thinking for a long time, Xiang Beifei suddenly thought of "Return to the Original State." Since the Moonprint Gu Worm was gradually assimilating the body’s meridians, why not make it revert back?
He immediately pressed on the Moonprint Gu Worm and channeled the aura of Return to the Original State onto it!
The Moonprint Gu Worm wanted to resist, but in front of Xiang Beifei, a tiny, insignificant worm couldn’t turn the tables.
Soon, the Moonprint Gu Worm was enveloped by Return to the Original State. Guided by Xiang Beifei, the meridians and energy channels assimilated by the Moonprint Gu Worm started to revert, and the Spiritual Power extracted from Jiang Shan was forced back, beginning to flow back into Jiang Shan’s body through the energy channels.
The shape of the Moonprint Gu Worm changed from a full moon back to a crescent, looking shrunken, and the connecting meridians were severed.
"Now there shouldn’t be any problem."
Xiang Beifei withdrew his aura.
However, after some contemplation, he inscribed a formation around the Gu Worm. The formation concealed the Moonprint Gu Worm, restoring it to its full moon shape.
Neither Jiang Shan nor anyone in the tribe could detect this change, not even the Meat-Winged Monster could manage that.
He did this because if others discovered Jiang Shan’s moonprint had shrunk, the elders might use it to stir trouble, blaming Xiao Houzi, making things even more of a hassle. Hence, even though it was restored, it still needed to be disguised.
After finishing everything, Xiang Beifei healed the wound and then returned to his room.
The next day, Jiang Shan woke up early. He specifically went to Xiang Beifei’s room to check on him. Seeing Xiang Beifei still peacefully lying in bed, he finally breathed a sigh of relief.
"Strange, my whole body feels a lot more comfortable."
He stretched lazily, feeling as if his body had transformed, like a heavy burden had been lifted, as if the weight pressing on his chest was gone.
This feeling was quite marvelous; he had never felt so relaxed in his life.
"Did something go wrong?"
Jiang Shan didn’t quite understand. Could it be because his wound just healed?
"Or maybe my son’s miraculous survival brought me good fortune too?"
Jiang Shan thought about his amnesiac son returning alive, and it gave him peace of mind. Although his son remembered nothing, being alive was a blessing.
Not dwelling on it further, he turned to make breakfast.
Breakfast was simple—a very peculiar vegetable soup paired with dried cured meat. The cured meat was made from the desolate beasts hunted usually, dried to the extent that he couldn’t even tell what meat it was, only that it was tough to chew.
The vegetable soup exuded a strange odor, as though it had been left for days, with a sourish smell.
"Eat quickly, just cooked," Jiang Shan said with a smile.
While Jiang Shan wasn’t looking, Erha snuck a taste and immediately spat it out, rolling his eyes.
This wasn’t something humans should eat—it was too atrocious!
But the people in the tribe seemed used to it. Trapped here with limited resources, they couldn’t acquire much food. Eating anything fine was impossible; they were accustomed to the unpleasant wild vegetables, so it didn’t matter much.
"Eat more, you were injured, need to replenish." Jiang Shan kept giving Xiang Beifei slices of cured meat and filled his bowl with wild vegetable soup.
Looking at the dark, oddly smelling wild vegetable soup, Erha and Xiaohei snickered gleefully. Xiang Beifei helplessly rubbed his forehead. He originally wanted to evaporate these things, but Jiang Shan was watching him with concern. He had no choice but to shut off his taste buds and gulp it down.
Seeing Xiang Beifei drink the soup, Jiang Shan then said, "Right, today stay at home, don’t go out, rest well. I need to participate in the Meng Dong Hunt."
"What is the Meng Dong Hunt?"
"In the next two months, the temperature will change, and the nearby edible desolate beasts will migrate. So every year at this time, the tribe must conduct a large-scale hunt to store enough food, otherwise, we won’t have anything to eat in the coming months," Jiang Shan explained.
"Let me come too!" Xiang Beifei said.