PD -Chapter 104 The Mysterious Professor

Looking again at the black skull placed beside me, I couldn’t shake the feeling—perhaps it was just psychological—but a cold, eerie chill seemed to seep into my bones.

I cursed under my breath, glanced at my hand that had touched the skull, and found nothing unusual. Still uneasy, I jumped up and hurried into the bathroom, scrubbing my hands repeatedly with hand soap until my skin felt almost raw.

Only then did I return to the bed. I closed my eyes and circulated my spiritual energy, performing an internal check of my body. After confirming that nothing was wrong, I finally relaxed.

It seemed the power of the “Saint Child Gu Vessel” only affected gu insects and posed no direct threat to the human body.

I let out a long breath. Seeing my strange behavior, Liu Xiaopeng also leaned over to the computer to examine the data.

After reading for about five minutes, he suddenly stood up and rushed into the bathroom as well.

I was puzzled. Why was he so worked up too? I had been the one handling the black skull the entire time—he hadn’t even touched it.

A moment later, Liu Xiaopeng came out holding a bath towel. He wrapped the skull in it and placed it back in its original position.

“Looking at it like that is creepy. Who could even sleep?” he muttered. Then he asked, “So what do we do next?”

I collapsed back onto the bed and thought for a moment.

“Based on the current situation,” I said slowly, “this Saint Child Gu Vessel is probably connected to everything that’s been happening in this county.”

“You mean… someone is using gu techniques here?” Liu Xiaopeng asked, sitting back down.

I shook my head. “I can’t be certain yet, but the gu sorcery of Xiangxi is far beyond what I imagined.”

The eerie scenes from that abandoned building kept replaying in my mind. Combined with the descriptions of gu techniques in that scholar’s paper, I felt a chill creeping up my spine.

“I think we should go find that scholar tomorrow. Maybe he can give us some answers,” Liu Xiaopeng said, pointing at the computer.

“I checked just now. This Professor Luo Li teaches at Jishou University, not far from the county town.”

After thinking for a moment, I nodded. “That’s the only option we have right now.”

We took advantage of the remaining hours before dawn and tried to sleep for a few hours. But the sleep was extremely restless. I didn’t know if it was because the Saint Child Gu Vessel was in the room, but I felt as though something was hanging over my chest, as if danger could strike at any moment. I kept waking up again and again.

Fortunately, nothing happened during the night, and we finally made it to morning.

Liu Xiaopeng and I didn’t want to waste a single moment. We immediately found Li Zi, who was having breakfast, and told him about our discovery from the night before. We asked him to drive us to Jishou University to find Professor Luo Li.

Li Zi also understood the urgency and didn’t want to see another insect attack incident. He drove us onto the highway, and after half a day, we arrived at Jishou University.

After entering the campus and asking around, we finally found Professor Luo Li, who had just finished a lecture and was about to go to the cafeteria for lunch.

The professor looked like a typical scholar—unkempt beard, slightly messy hair, and thick black-rimmed glasses that looked like the bottoms of old glass bottles.

He was introverted and not very talkative, and our sudden appearance clearly made him uncomfortable. He even looked somewhat displeased that we were interrupting his meal. He didn’t say much until we explained our purpose.

The three of us followed him all the way to the cafeteria. After he finished getting his meal and sat down, we explained everything in detail. Then I took out the Saint Child Gu Vessel wrapped in the bath towel from my backpack.

I only opened a small corner of the towel to show him. The moment he saw it, his expression changed drastically. Even a piece of braised pork he had just put in his mouth was spat out.

“Where did you get this?” Professor Luo asked, pushing up his glasses and staring intently at the exposed corner of the black skull.

“Professor Luo, maybe… we should find another place to talk?” I lowered my voice.

He looked at his freshly served meal, then back at the skull, and finally said, “Follow me.”

He led us to his office. The three of us sat across from him. Without hesitation, he told me to unwrap the towel completely and immediately picked up the black skull himself, examining it closely.

I was worried it might harm him and was about to stop him, but he waved it off.

“It’s fine. The gu poison isn’t on the surface. Touching it won’t do anything,” he said.

“It’s been preserved so well! Even larger than the one I saw back then…” he murmured, taking out a ruler and starting to measure its dimensions on his own.

“This… this is impossible!” he suddenly exclaimed after checking the numbers.

“What’s wrong, Professor Luo?” I asked quickly.

“Based on the skull’s size, the age should be between 12 and 14 years old. But saint-child gu vessels, because they are infested with countless gu insects, usually don’t survive past the age of five!”

“So in other words… this saint child survived into adolescence, yet still couldn’t escape being killed and turned into a vessel?” I muttered.

Then I added, “But didn’t you say that if a saint child survives long enough to gain awareness, they can learn to control the gu insects within their body, making them very hard to kill?”

Professor Luo shook his head and looked at me. “You still haven’t told me where you found this.”

After a moment’s thought, I told him everything that had happened to us, in detail.

He fell silent for a long time, then muttered to himself, “That area… I remember it used to be the territory of the Luo family…”

“Professor Luo, what did you say?” I frowned.

He snapped back to attention and explained, “During the most prosperous period of Xiangxi gu sorcery, there were several great gu masters who divided regions based on their hometowns. The county you found this in was once under the Luo family’s domain.”

“The Luo family? Are they related to you, Professor?” Liu Xiaopeng asked.

He shook his head. “Although I share the surname Luo, I have no connection to that gu sorcery family. I only met their patriarch once many years ago while studying Xiangxi folklore.”

“This matter… it’s very likely connected to them,” he said, placing the skull down.

“Then how do we find this Luo family?” I asked.

Professor Luo seemed certain we wouldn’t be able to track them down easily. After thinking for a moment, he said, “This is too serious. I’ll go with you.”

Hearing that, I immediately agreed and told him to pack his things quickly so we could set off right away.