He Can Rely Only on Himself to Force Out the Gu Bug.

Because Su Yang and Gu Feidi were so focused on the removal of the Poisonous Gu, they didn’t pay attention to anything else. In addition, Luo Yu deliberately concealed it, so everyone was completely in the dark. 

Qin Jianyue went on a round trip between the Elegant Jade Peak and the Tengyun Pavilion alone. He didn’t get to see Gu Ruohai in person, only heard the news that he was away.

During this period, in order to prepare and maintain Su Yang’s body to its peak before removing the Gu Bug, Luo Yu added herbal soup and a nightly medicated bath to the usual acupuncture treatment. 

This was Su Yang’s first time being in contact with herbal soup after so long. The moment his tongue touched the liquid, he reflexively spat it out.

“Is this herbal soup even made for human consumption?” Su Yang wrinkled his nose and complained. “Can’t you make it into pills? It would be so much easier to swallow it in one gulp. Who can stand drinking medicine like this?”

Luo Yu placed the bowl on the table and smiled annoyingly. “This is for your body’s health. And just because I stopped using harsh words on you, you decided to strike a pose toward me? Make them into pills? Who has the time and effort to grind the medicine into powder and form it into a pill for you?”

Su Yang pouted and glanced at Gu Feidi.

Gu Feidi immediately understood his silent message. “If necessary…”

“Unnecessary.” Luo Yu rolled his eyes. He emphasised each word slowly, “Usually, these medicines could be made into pills for anyone, anyone but him. Some of these herbs can only be boiled in water. If they are made into powder form, it will be too potent for his body. I fear it might trigger his internal energy that is suppressing the Poisonous Gu, which would worsen his symptoms.”

Hearing this explanation, Gu Feidi shut up.

Luo Yu snorted and looked contemptuously at Su Yang. “You are an adult and not a child. Stop making a fuss and drink the soup. Gu Feidi, watch him, make sure he drinks every single drop. If he refuses, force-feed him by any means, use mouth to mouth for all I care.”

With a raised eyebrow, he added, “Oh, before I forget. This medicine has special properties. You can’t intake sweets after consumption. In fact, drinking and eating anything is prohibited after a specific time period. Otherwise, it will weaken the efficacy and you’ll suffer more once we start the removal process.”

With that, he turned and left. Neither of the two knew if the senior was joking or not.

Su Yang glared at the bowl of black-coloured herbal soup, and he cried…internally.

In fact, he was not some delicate person, and he had never acted coquettishly on purpose until now. Glaring at this bowl, his earlier tiny sip was enough for him to not want to touch it again the second time.

If it was just bitter, he could drink it as someone who drinks pure black coffee without sugar. But the problem was that the herbal soup was not only bitter, it was also mixed with all kinds of indescribable flavours…If he had to describe it, it tasted like death with a lingering rotten aftertaste.

And according to the doctor’s advice, he couldn’t get rid of the aftertaste with sweets, and he couldn’t even drink to dilute the taste in his mouth and the back of his throat. He would be stuck with the taste for two hours at a minimum!

This was torture...

Seeing reluctance on his face, Gu Feidi picked up the bowl and sat down next to Su Yang. He coaxed, “Good medicine naturally tastes bitter. Since it is a preparation needed to eliminate the Gu, you must drink it no matter what.”

Su Yang struggled for a moment before taking the bowl from Gu Feidi’s hands. Tasting the lingering aftertaste in his mouth from the earlier sip, he still couldn’t bring the bowl to his lips.

Gu Feidi said with a smile, “Do you really want me to feed the medicine to you with my mouth?”

Su Yang raised an eyebrow, handed over the bowl and dared, “Taste it first before offering to feed me.”

Gu Feidi chuckled. He accepted the bowl, lowered his head, and took a sip.

Immediately, his original calm and collected expression disappeared and was replaced by a very… colourful expression.

He managed to swallow, saying while coughing softly, “This medicine…it is indeed difficult to swallow.”

Su Yang sniggered. 

Gu Feidi’s eyes stayed on his face for a moment, and he smiled helplessly while shaking his head, picked up the bowl and was about to put it near his mouth.

Su Yang quickly reached out to stop the other man and sighed exaggeratedly, “Give it to me…Instead of feeding me this soup that defies the natural order one mouthful at a time, it’s better for me to drink it all in one go.”

Then he snatched the soup from Gu Feidi’s hand, glared at the dark liquid, took a deep breath, pinched his nose and drank it up all at once.

Tossing the bowl aside without shattering it, Su Yang showed an extremely disgusted expression and hissed, trying to suppress the unspeakable taste in his mouth.

Gu Feidi raised his hand and gently pressed the back of Su Yang’s neck, caressing the skin for a moment before pulling the other close for a kiss, tasting the bitterness on the soft lips. Gu Feidi explored around the other’s mouth, touched gently on the upper jaw with his tongue, and ended the tender moment with a nibble and a lick on Su Yang’s lips.

With a soft laugh, he said with a nasty breath from the lingering taste of the herbal soup, “Since you can’t eat anything sweet, you can only have something that doesn’t have to go into your stomach…”

Giving his advice, he closed his eyes slightly and returned to the other’s lips again.

After a long kiss, Su Yang felt breathlessly dizzy and lay on his pillow, watching Gu Feidi with his unfocused eyes.

Gu Feidi grinned and asked, “Wasn’t that sweet?”

Su Yang: “...”

This man is really getting more and more shameless and narcissistic. Who did he learn that from?

Gu Feidi leaned closer, lowered his voice and asked like a kicked puppy, “No?”

Feeling amused, Su Yang gave a helpless smile, nodded and muttered, “Alright! Sweet, very sweet. You’re the sweetest…”

Smiling as well, Gu Feidi reached out his hand and gently touched Su Yang’s forehead. “Listen to the doctor and drink your medicine in the future, alright? This way, you can get better as soon as possible.”

Su Yang closed his eyes, and answered in a very light breath, “...I will.”

...

After ten days of recuperation with acupuncture and herbal soup, Luo Yu checked Su Yang’s pulse and finally set a day to remove the Gu Bug.

Midnight was the best time to draw out the Blood Gu.

This day coincided with the next new moon, between the ninth month’s last day and the beginning of the tenth month. The light would be dim, which was perfect for drawing out the Blood Gu.

But the lightless setting was also the condition for the cold nature beings to be at their peak. It was also the period where it would be the hardest for Su Yang to suppress the Apparition inside of him.

Su Yang didn’t want Gu Feidi to be present during the removal process, but Luo Yu vetoed the idea for a good reason—Gu Feidi was the only person here who practised the sun natural mental skills, which made him the only person who could pull Su Yang back from death’s door when the Apparition went on a rampage. 

So that night, Gu Feidi was there with Su Yang in the hot spring. Luo Yu also went into the water with the two, while Qin Jianyue stayed on the shore as the three’s protector.

“Su Yang, since you helped Gu Feidi extract the Blood Gu, you should know that if you want to force out the Poisonous Gu, it would have to be through your tongue.” Luo Yu instructed. “The same is true if you want to completely induce the Blood Gu from your body, but…you need to use something special.”

With that, he took out a black porcelain bottle the size of a fist and explained, “This is the paste needed to draw the Blood Gu. It has a very intense taste, but you must hold it in your mouth before you can push the Blood Gu into it to seal it.”

Su Yang took the porcelain bottle, popped the lid open and sniffed it. He immediately made a funny expression as he almost retched.

“What is this?” He asked, wrinkling his nose.

“This is the Hundred Toxin Paste created by the E’Luo Gui Faction using hundreds of poisonous bugs and poisonous plants. It’s the only thing that can lead the Gu Bug out of the host’s body.” Luo Yu shared a smile and pulled out a small dagger. “However, there’s one last fresh ingredient needed before the paste is complete and ready for use.”

As he spoke, he turned the dagger and made a cut on his wrist. The blood flowed out like a waterfall as it was added into the porcelain bottle, mixing the container and turning the paste into a thick liquid.

“Make a cut on the tip of your tongue, just like when you extradited the Poisonous Gu.” Luo Yu ordered. “Then hold this paste in your mouth and do not swallow it. You need to force out the Blood Gu with your internal energy, then into the Hundred Toxin Paste.”

Su Yang followed his senior’s order and bit his tongue to make a cut, put the bottle close to his mouth and paused.

Luo Yu urged, “Hurry. There’s blood in the medicine, stop hesitating.”

With no other choice, Su Yang forced himself to pour the paste mixed with blood from the porcelain bottle into his mouth.

The moment the liquid entered his mouth, an unspeakable smell mixed with iron spread in his mouth and rushed straight into his nose, making Su Yang feel dizzy. He held it in his mouth tightly, suppressed the impulse to spit everything out, and turned toward Luo Yu.

Luo Yu sucked in a breath and instructed solemnly, “Alright, now, use Half-Withered Crimson…use your internal energy to drive the Poisonous Gu up your meridians to the tip of your tongue.”

Su Yang did as he was told as he used Half-Withered Crimson, it quickly provoked the Apparition in his body. 

The cold leapt up suddenly, invading his bone and blood, and spreading to all parts of his body. Even being in the hot spring, Su Yang couldn’t resist shivering.

With deep worry, Gu Feidi took a step forward, wanting to hold the trembling man into his arms, but Luo Yu stopped him.

“Don’t disturb him.” Luo Yu commanded. “He can only rely on himself to force out the Gu Bug.”

With his eyes closed, Su Yang could feel the Poisonous Gu residing in his body slowly ascending along his meridians. Because of the extremely cold internal energy and the Apparition being active, he didn’t feel pain, only the intense cold gushing out from within.

The chill seemed to condense into an icicle as it pierced upward along his spine and stabbed him mercilessly in the heart.

His consciousness gradually blurred as his surrounding environment turned into a void. Not sensing anything around him, he felt as if he was weightless in a vacuum space. He could not feel the mud under his feet or the heat from the hot spring.

The only thing he could feel was his body, circulating his internal energy using the Half-Withered Crimson, and the chilling sensation brought by the Poisonous Gu rising along his meridians.

Once the Blood Gu arrived at the tip of his tongue and began to drill outward from his blood vessel. This was the first pain from the treatment.

The sharp pain also cleared Su Yang’s muddled head a bit. He slightly opened his eyes, seeing past the black cluster gathered in his vision, and focused on the porcelain bottle that was held by Luo Yu, which was placed before him.

After getting the Poisonous Gu into the paste, he must spit it back into the porcelain bottle along with the paste as soon as possible. He can’t…faint now.

Su Yang’s body swayed slightly as he almost fell into the water.

Without thinking, Gu Feidi moved forward to catch the man, but the biting cold from Su Yang’s body startled him.

He looked at Luo Yu in shock. Luo Yu seemed to have guessed what was on his mind as he explained in a deep voice, “You must not help him with your internal energy. One wrong move and you’ll do irreversible damage to him.”

Gu Feidi could only clench his teeth and tighten his grip around Su Yang’s arms. He moved behind Su Yang, carefully took the other into his arms and held the man steady. He could feel the trembling body in his arms from the pain and cold as he resisted the impulse to hold what he most treasured tightly. He closed his eyes and gently placed his forehead behind Su Yang’s head.

A very light flower fragrance seeped into Su Yang’s nose, which pulled his consciousness back from the abyss.

Su Yang tried to focus on maintaining the Half-Withered Crimson, exhausting the last trace of his willpower, and completely forced the Blood Gu out of his body.

As soon as the Poisonous Gu was in the paste, it immediately began to wiggle violently. Su Yang raised his hand, grabbed Luo Yu’s wrist, pulled the porcelain bottle closer to him, and spit out the contents inside his mouth, including the paste and the Blood Gu inside.

Then, having used every ounce of his strength, he closed his eyes and fell softly into Gu Feidi’s arms.

“Hold his throat!”

Luo Yu immediately ordered as he put the lid back on the porcelain bottle. “Do not let him swallow even the smallest amount of paste remaining in his mouth, otherwise, it will increase the intensity of the Apparition. He won’t be able to withstand it.”

Gu Feidi immediately locked Su Yang’s neck, preventing the unconscious man from swallowing. After sealing the porcelain bottle, Luo Yu accepted clean water and his tools from Qin Jiangyue and helped Su Yang clean his mouth.

“You can use your internal energy to help warm him up now.” Luo Yu released a tense breath. “Once his temperature is stable, take him out of the spring water. I’ll deal with this Blood Gu first. Call for me if there’s the slightest change to his body. Yue-shuYue-shu: Your friendly neighbourhood Uncle Qin Jiangyue. will hear you.”

Gu Feidi embraced Su Yang tightly and nodded.

As Luo Yu got to the shore and was about to leave, Gu Feidi called out and stopped him.

Gu Feidi pondered for a moment, locked eyes with Luo Yu, and asked with a slightly trembling voice, “When senior Luo mentioned the Apparition, it was with a grave expression…If I may ask, is his weakened body and increased susceptibility to the cold caused by the Blood Gu or Half-Withered Crimson? Or…is it because of the Apparition of Frozen Lake?”