Ming was on the ground on all four limbs, retching and sneezing for a while before black smoke and black tar finally stopped coming out of him, either from his wounds or his nose and mouth.

“We’re good for now. You just need to watch him for a little while.” The middle aged man let out a long sigh before sitting down on the ground, studying Mick, who was still on the table unconscious: “What happened to this young man?”

“He endured some soul damage, and we tried to perform a Jiaohun ritual.” Gloria answered.

“Oh, and the piece of soul was grabbed by that - that Wartorn Potential?” The middle aged man asked: “Yeah, I can imagine.”

The Elder took a long, deep look at the middle aged man, then sighed and shook her head: “So, Guangyuan Deng. What made you come back? ”

“Changes that happened in the city. It forced me to come back earlier than I planned.” Guangyuan Deng shook his head with a wry smile: “My sincerest apologies for - for my deception and my leaving without saying goodbye.”

“Save it for someone else, young man.” The Elder chuckled and shook her head: “And - what do you plan on doing this time? I am not certain I fully understand what you meant by ‘changes’. But I just suspect, that you may want to talk to our guests here.” She said as she extended her hands at Gloria, Keryn and the rest of the group, then pointing directly at Kevin: “This young man just saved my life, and possibly everyone else’s. So - you can trust them.” She then turned to Kevin: “You can trust him as well. ”

There was no place where they could hold a person, not one to which they had keys to anyway. So they found some ropes in the temple and tied Yu up to a heavy bronze incense burner placed at the center of the main courtyard. This young man still would not say anything, no matter what questions were asked and who asked. The only theory the rest of the group got was that his betrayal might have something to do with his mother.

After assigning Wupeng to watch Yu and Kelvin to look after Ming, the rest of the group aside from Mick’s parents were just about to gather in the sanctum and discuss the strategies for their next moves. That was, until Guangyuan Deng noticed something strange going on with Yu’s chest.

They ripped open Yu’s clothes, and were met with the disturbing sight - one of a long, winding bulge underneath the skin on this young man’s left chest. A long worm was burrowing under his skin.

“Heart Gu.” Guangyuan Deng and the Elder said at the same time, with the same tone of disgust.

“No wonder he can’t talk.” Gloria shook her head before fixing her eyes on the Elder: “What - what shall we do, Elder?”

Neither the Elder nor Guangyuan Deng responded. Guangyuan Dent knelt down by Yu and leaned forward, while pulling out a tiny metal shaft the size of a pen from his pocket. As he removed the lid - it turned out to be a small dagger with a long, thin, slightly curved blade.

“Don’t move.” He frowned at Yu as he pushed the blade closer to the bulge on his chest: “You know you’ll die if I so much as to poke the wrong spot.”

“Stop! Stop! You can’t do this! They’ll kill me!” Yu finally opened his mouth: “And - they’ll kil - they’ll do some other horrible things!”

“Who’s ‘they’?” Wupeng asked immediately. But the chained young man just shut up and refused to answer.

“He can’t answer. If he even tries, the worm will bite into his heart and kill him.” Kevin sighed: “Dude, I’d never imagined my first time seeing an Gu like this would be in a situation - like this.”

“I’d imagine ‘they’ would be someone from the council then?” Tae Kuo asked.

Yu’s entire body tensed and hissed, right at the same time as the tip of Guangyuan Deng’s dagger poked through his skin. Guangyuan Deng pulled the blade along the worm’s body, creating an incision that was about half a finger long. Then he used the back of the dagger’s tip and his left hand to pry the incision open. With a quick squeeze and pull, a dark, slender worm with some short, hooked legs was dragged out of his open wound.

“Fuck.” Keryn cursed, not hiding her disgust at all.

“Interesting - looks like it’s dead already.” Guangyuan Deng looked the worm up and down, then turned to the Elder: “There’s still some legs left in his wound, so it’d be better to send him to a health center or hospital to clean it. But - he should be good.”

“Dead?” Yu’s eyes were red, tears almost dropped from his eyes: “Really?”

“Yeah. Looks like just recently.” Guangyuan Deng frowned: “This means whoever controlled it must also be dead as well.”

Yu wept, and collapsed right next to the bronze incense burner.