Chapter 29 – Soul-Eating Insect (2)
Grandpa ignored me. He walked to the coop and grabbed a big white rooster. The rooster was still struggling. Grandpa looked at it and said, "Sorry, I'm taking a life from you."
It was strange. After Grandpa said that, the rooster seemed to understand and stopped moving. Grandpa squatted on the ground, grabbed the rooster's neck from the back, and strangled it to death.
I'd seen Grandpa kill poultry before too. They were definitely afraid of dying too and always struggled. This time, the white rooster didn't move at all from the start to the end. It seemed to be waiting quietly for its death.
"Bring me a knife and bowl," Grandpa said.
I hurried to the kitchen to get the knife and bowl. Grandpa slit the rooster's neck. It had just died, so its blood hadn't coagulated. He filled half of the bowl with the blood and went back to get some incense ashes. Then he handed the bowl to me. "Baqian, urinate in it."
Still confused, I undid my pants and peed in the bowl. With this urine, the liquid inside the bowl almost spilled out. Grandpa took a stick and stirred. Then he called me over to stand beside Third Uncle.
"Flip him over and take off his clothes," Grandpa said.
I flipped Third Uncle over with Grandpa so he was sprawled on the ground. Then I took off his shirt, revealing his entire back.
Grandpa picked up the bowl. He dabbed a bit of the water that had incense ashes, a virgin's urine, and rooster blood mixed in and quickly drew a talisman on Third Uncle's back.
"Flip him back and support his body," Grandpa said.
I was afraid that Third Uncle was dead and I knew that Grandpa was definitely saving him, so I immediately did whatever he told me to. When I lifted Third Uncle to rest in my arms, Grandpa squeezed Third Uncle's cheeks to open his mouth. Then he poured the rest of the stuff in the bowl into his mouth.
I was about to ask Grandpa what was going on after all that, but he kept staring at Third Uncle. Instead of relaxing, he seemed to be even more nervous. This made me too scared to say anything. I could only keep staring at Third Uncle with him.
After around three minutes, Third Uncle started convulsing on the ground. I moved to help him, but Grandpa stopped me. He shook his head, motioning for me to stay put.
After convulsing, Third Uncle's mouth opened. I saw a huge black beetle crawl out of Third Uncle's throat. It was really fast. It darted out of Third Uncle's mouth, fell onto the ground, and started wriggling its claws to flee wildly.
Grandpa moved quickly and held down the beetle.
He caught the beetle's shell. The insect looked really menacing. Its black shell shone like armor and its front pincers and teeth were as sharp as saws. It struggled to no avail in Grandpa's hands. The sound of its pincers and teeth clashing broke through the air.
"Start a fire!" Grandpa said.
I hurried to get firewood. When the fire was started, Grandpa tossed the beetle in. It seemed to fear fire. After struggling a bit in the flames, it stopped moving. A short while later, there was the aroma of grilled meat.
When the fire was extinguished, Grandpa took the burnt beetle corpse and smashed it with a rolling pin. He mixed water into the powder and fed it to Third Uncle. After doing all this, Grandpa finally wiped away his sweat and let out a relieved sigh.
"Grandpa, what is all this?" I finally dared to ask softly now that Grandpa was relaxed.
"That's a Soul-eating Gu, a poisonous insect that swallowed his soul and spirit. He became a soulless person. That's why he didn't have a shadow. After swallowing his soul and spirit, the insect hid inside his heart to drink his blood. If I didn't take the insect out, he would've become the living dead within a month. Even the Great Principle Golden Immortal wouldn't be able to save him."