My Adventures in Raising Gu

My name is Ma Wu, an ordinary Miao boy from a Miao village in the Miao borderlands.

When I was seven, my teacher gave me a formal name: Ma Sang.

My grandmother was the village’s most mysterious Gu master. In her hidden room, she kept one of the two supreme Gu worms of the Miao borderlands: the Golden Snake Gu.

Grandmother passed the Golden Snake Gu on to me, then died.

My grandaunt, Ji Ruyan, came to see me. She said she had the other supreme Gu worm within her: the Golden Silkworm Gu.

She said that for thousands of years, the Miao borderlands had been waiting for someone who could fuse the Golden Snake and the Golden Silkworm. That person was me.

The day the Golden Snake entered my body, I felt as though millions of ants were gnawing on my bones.

The day the two Gu worms fused, I passed out three times, woke up three times, then passed out three more times.

My grandaunt said that when they would truly become one depended on my fate.

All I knew was that someone wanted me dead.

The Black Miao Gu masters came to take the two Gu worms inside me. My grandaunt died protecting me.

Alone, I left the mountains and entered the world of ordinary people. I met Mo Chen, a sorcerer from Meishan, and we became brothers in life and death.

I met Yun Yan, a Maoshan disciple as cool and ethereal as an immortal. She was the first to show me that even a Gu master’s heart could be stolen.

I met Ling Chen, an Emei disciple as fiery as a flame. She said that even if I didn’t like her, she would stay by my side.

I’ve been made an enemy by Maoshan Daoists, hunted by Black Miao Gu masters, fought for my life against Nanyang witch doctors, destroyed lairs where evil cultivators raised jiangshi, battled vampires from the West, and crossed spells with Japanese onmyoji.

I’ve entered haunted caves in western Hunan, climbed sacred peaks in the Tianshan Mountains, ventured into poisonous lairs in frozen pools, crossed desert tombs, and dived into a dragon palace beneath the deep sea.

Every time, it was a matter of life and death