The art of Gu insects originated in the Southern Border.
Across the cultivation world, the mere mention of Gu turned faces pale with dread.
Yet that applied only to ignorant rogue cultivators.
For someone of Luo Chen's profound cultivation and vast experience, it was obvious that nothing under heaven was inherently righteous, evil, good, or wicked; things were merely useful or useless.
At the very least, from what he knew, many Gu insects served as outstanding cultivation aids for ordinary cultivators.
One example was a Tier 1 insect known as the Moonlight Gu.
Despite its modest grade, its effects were astonishingly wondrous, capable of guiding qi and opening blocked meridians.
Those blessed with spirit roots but cursed with congenitally obstructed meridians could refine this Gu to break free of their constraints and pursue standard Qi Refinement. Even cultivators whose meridians were naturally unobstructed did not hesitate to refine a Moonlight Gu if circumstances allowed, using it to assist their progress.
In the Central Continent, the Tianyuan Dao Sect had once purchased Moonlight Gu from the Southern Border on a massive scale, an influx that only dwindled as the Southern Border grew increasingly isolated. It could truly be said that the vast multitude of cultivators in the Central Continent owed a sizable debt of gratitude to the widespread circulation of the Moonlight Gu in past years.
Yet the Moonlight Gu was merely one among countless miraculous insects.
The Consonance Gu implanted in both Luo Chen and Sima Huiniang belonged to this craft as well, boasting an even grander pedigree.
Rumor held that it was a simplified variant of an ancient Tier 5 creature: the Life-and-Death Gu!
That was an extreme insect capable of binding a Soul Formation mighty figure and a Qi Refinement cultivator together in shared life and death.
Over the course of eras and shifting tides, the reputation of the Life-and-Death Gu had faded into obscurity, while another evolutionary branch of the Consonance Gu had once stirred immense turmoil across the cultivation world of the Southern Border.
A Tier 3 demonic Gu: the Demonic Heart Gu!
Depraved cultivators had once bred Demonic Heart Gu in droves, implanting them into low-ranking cultivators and then, upon maturity, relying on the creature's wondrous nature to devour the hosts' cultivation and realms wholesale!
It was precisely because of that atrocity that the Demonic Heart Gu was utterly suppressed, and in the aftermath, even the Consonance Gu became increasingly scarce.
Back then, Luo Chen had been preparing for an extended journey. Terrified of losing touch, he had examined the Consonance Gu thoroughly to ensure it posed no danger before implanting it into Sima Huiniang.
As time had proved, the Consonance Gu's power of mutual soul-attunement had indeed yielded immense benefits.
Whether during the two years Luo Chen spent trapped in the White Night Cave Abode on the Mount Thunder Accumulation battlefield, his three years as a prisoner on Mount Cangwu, or his century of drifting across the Northern Sea, it was the Consonance Gu that sustained Sima Huiniang's unwavering faith during those long stretches of severed contact.
She had waited for his return!
Without that enduring conviction, the Luotian Sect might have disintegrated long ago. Deprived of the sect's shelter, a gifted few might have been absorbed by greater factions, but the vast majority of ordinary disciples would likely have vanished into the boundless cultivation world. Not everyone could drift like Luo Chen and thrive more with each passing day.
Later, during Luo Chen's trek through the Demon Ruin, his physical body had undergone nirvana, causing his magic power and the Consonance Gu to vanish. Back then, he had grown deeply worried for Sima Huiniang. That had prompted him to purchase a batch of low-tier Gu insects for study at the Myriad Manifestations Pavilion in Shenyuan City on the Northern Sea. Later, in the Central Continent after the Grotto-Heaven Tournament, True Person Tianshan, who hailed from the Southern Border, had chatted with him, giving Luo Chen an opportunity to ask about the Consonance Gu. Whether through his own findings or the assessment of a master of the Gu dao, the Consonance Gu appeared completely benign.
That was why Luo Chen had initially assumed resolving Sima Huiniang's affliction would pose little trouble.
Yet now...
An anomaly presented itself!
Under Luo Chen's inspection, the Golden Core formed within Huiniang by the Consonance Gu was like a living creature, tethered not only to her heart, but also to her Sea of Consciousness and divine soul!
This was precisely why Luo Chen had murmured that "the consonance links heart and spirit alike."
Bound by these twin ties, Luo Chen dared not obliterate it by force. Doing so would not only rupture her heart, but simultaneously extinguish her soul.
"No wonder Caiyi said Huiniang's body had changed—her heart's blood was being devoured by the Consonance Gu. And that agony, unbearable even for a Golden Core cultivator, diminished considerably once she cultivated Bright Spirit Fiend Breaking. Strengthening her soul's endurance allowed her to barely withstand having her spirit devoured."
"Yet how did it come to this?"
Luo Chen briefly considered asking Chu Kui if there had been any undisclosed hidden dangers when the pair of Gu was gifted back then. But he discarded the thought as soon as it arose. With Chu Kui's character, he would have warned him had there been any flaw. Furthermore, two centuries of experience, his own research, and True Person Tianshan's insights all confirmed that the Consonance Gu carried no innate malice.
"Then the problem can only lie with Huiniang... and me."
Luo Chen's eyes narrowed slightly as a bead of blood welled silently at his fingertip.
The Consonance Gu was refined through essence blood and fed on the routine circulation of vital blood, causing no interference with normal cultivation once refined.
And Luo Chen's vital blood...
At his fingertip, the droplet gleamed crystal-clear, radiating boundless, thriving vitality. Even without comprehending the shifts of blood and qi, a single drop of Luo Chen's blood was no weaker than blood Wang Yuan had tempered a thousand times over.
It was on nourishment like this that the Consonance Gu had grown, step by step, from Tier 1 to Tier 3.
"My blood..."
"The Blood Nightmare Mara once said the Yuan Tu Sword relished my blood."
"Black King also said he loved clinging to me because the rich vitality I radiated made him feel immensely comfortable."
"Steeped day and night in my vital blood, the Consonance Gu grew so accustomed to me—and I to it—that I overlooked just what kind of monster it had become. When I underwent nirvana, the Gu shattered, yet it carried my magic power into Huiniang's body, revived, and coalesced into a Golden Core."
"Yet its new host was no longer someone with my formidable constitution, but the frail Huiniang. That is why it began devouring her heart and spirit to sustain its growth!"
In that flash of insight, everything became clear to Luo Chen.
Murmuring inwardly, he brought his finger down toward the lips of the sleeping woman beside him.
The drop of squeezed-out blood instantly stained her pale, thin lips.
Under his divine sense, the Golden Core within her sea of qi shuddered slightly, held in check by the restrictions Luo Chen had laid down. Luo Chen released the restrictions at just the right moment, watching as a wisp of magic power swept the droplet of blood inside.
The Golden Core deepened to a richer, darker red!
Yet the woman's furrowed brow relaxed completely!
Watching this, Luo Chen parted his lips, letting out a soft, sorrowful sigh.
"In the end, it was my oversight."
***
"Zhou Yuanli fell in the Howling Moon Mountain Range when the demon beast horde broke out."
"Bai Meiling's soul dispersed during the flight."
"Xing Zonghan suffered cultivation deviation from forcibly studying the Micromote Origin Art, severely diminishing his foundation. During a sect-wide retreat, he volunteered to hold the rear; his life or death remains unknown."
"Mi Li and her son Qu Jiu waited ten years in the sect for Qu Lingjun; she ultimately died with bitter regret."
"Duan Feng and his wife, skilled in identifying mineral ores, were ordered by True Person Jinling of the Five Elements Divine Sect to reinforce the battle at the Liangyi Tin Forest in the Wuji Domain. Both perished there, leaving behind no descendants."
"Xu Huanzhen died on the Santu River battlefield."
"The Supreme Elder of the Luoyun Sect went missing, the Howling Moon Mountain Range was overrun, and vast numbers of disciples perished. Furthermore, because Han Zhan had seized excessive benefits from the Luoyun Sect in his early pursuit of the Nascent Soul realm, the opening war collapsed in disaster, igniting internal turmoil within the sect. In the struggle for supremacy, the Luoyun Sect split into three factions: the Sect Master's lineage, the lineage of Han Zhan's grandson Han Zheng, and the lineage of First Elder Cheng Yan, who had been left behind on the Heavenly Drum Plains. The struggle between the three lineages wrought countless casualties. Belonging to the Sect Master's lineage, Qin Yuanjiang lost his Dao companion Ruan Huan'er to the infighting, while his mother Murong Qinglian was grievously wounded. Disillusioned, Qin Yuanjiang defected to the Luotian Sect along with his mother."
"Murong Qinglian died within the Luotian Sect."
***
Fallen leaves fluttered on the sobbing wind.
Luo Chen sat on the small stone terrace outside Huiniang's cave abode, reading through the Luotian Annals of the Luotian Sect spanning these past years.
This record had been initiated back when the sect was still the Luotian Association.
Three copies had always been kept: one archived in the Sutra Library, one carried by the reigning Sect Master, and one kept by Luo Chen.
Luo Chen's own copy had ceased recording a century ago.
The copy he held now was the one Yao Mingyue had sent someone to deliver.
Within its pages, observations of the outside world were few; the bulk documented the major upheavals within the Luotian Sect.
What Luo Chen focused on were those names, simultaneously so familiar and so estranged.
From the moment he arrived at Baili Qingchuan, his divine sense had swept over the territory, sensing the auras of many old acquaintances, yet finding far more missing altogether.
At a time like this, not being stationed in the sect carried an implication Luo Chen had long mentally prepared for. Yet actually reading the words inscribed in the Luotian Annals made his lips press tight, his teeth clench, and the space between his brows throb violently.
He did not know what emotion was swelling in his heart.
Regret? Grief? Agony?
Or perhaps rage?
Rage at the demon beasts' onslaught; rage at the crushing oppression from rival factions; rage at the Five Elements Divine Sect for treating Luotian disciples as expendable fodder; rage at the Luoyun Sect's internal feuds that had killed a friend he respected.
And perhaps even rage at his own past helplessness!
A pressure akin to an impending thunderstorm rippled faintly from his body.
*Thump!*
Xu Xiaoliu, who had brought the texts, was standing too close. Unable to bear the crushing weight, he dropped to his knees.
"*Sigh...*"
A sigh drifted into the gray-haired Xu Xiaoliu's ears, and the heavenly pressure instantly vanished without a trace.
He cautiously lifted his head.
"Xiao Liuzi, you are as slippery as ever. They all died, yet you are still breathing."
Xu Xiaoliu froze, not knowing how to reply.
Then he saw the young man give a self-deprecating chuckle, muttering to himself, "Then again, only slippery sorts like you and me can survive anywhere like loaches and earthworms, impossible to crush."
Relieved, Xu Xiaoliu rasped in an aged voice, "How could the Supreme Elder compare himself to Xiao Liuzi? I am merely a mayfly in the vast ocean, clinging stubbornly to life, while you are the bright moon in the azure sky, unblemished by any wind or rain."
"You... even at your age, you flatter people just as you did back then."
Luo Chen smiled and sent out a strand of magic power, supporting the white-haired Xu Xiaoliu and seating him on the stone chair opposite.
Xu Xiaoliu rested his hands on his knees, sitting upright and proper. The man before him was just as young as in those distant years, his demeanor like a gentle spring breeze.
It seemed nothing had changed, yet everything had.
Still, it had been many years since anyone had called him Xiao Liuzi; the name felt extraordinarily dear.
"Xiao Liuzi, tell me about the sect's current situation."
"Understood."
Perhaps soothed by Luo Chen's tranquil manner, Xu Xiaoliu relaxed considerably, detailing the Luotian Sect's present state.
"Our sect currently has three hundred members: over two hundred Qi Refinement cultivators and mortals, around thirty at Foundation Establishment, but an extraordinary number of Golden Core masters—nine in total!"
"The nine Golden Cores are Old Sect Master Sima, Elder Fu Jiusheng, Elder Chu Kui, Elder Gu Caiyi, Elder Min Longyu, Elder Li Yingzhang, Elder Yang Pingdu, and Elder Qin Yuanjiang."
Though Wang Yuan and Fiend Dragon Child possessed Golden Core combat strength, strictly speaking, they were not Golden Core cultivators; they were body practitioners.
Yet...
Luo Chen asked with mild curiosity, "Isn't that only eight?"
Xu Xiaoliu replied somewhat awkwardly, "If you count Sima Wenjie, that makes nine."
Luo Chen gave an understanding nod, gesturing for him to continue.
Inwardly, he sighed. Leaving behind the Micromote Origin Art and having Wang Yuan devise a simplified version had indeed been the right decision. Without that all-encompassing art, how could the small Luotian Sect have produced so many Golden Core cultivators?
Among the nine, Sima Huiniang went without saying.
Fu Jiusheng and Chu Kui had formed cores earlier, Gu Caiyi had broken through using the Dark Origin Pill he had left behind, and Li Yingzhang had advanced through sheer accumulation.
Qin Yuanjiang had formed his core by drawing upon the remnants of the Luoyun Sect's heritage, while Min Longyu had managed to form his core by a stroke of fortune with Qu Lingjun's aid, relying on formations.
The only unfamiliar figure was Yang Pingdu!
This man was the son of Yang Wenchang, the Sect Master of the Myriad Manifestations Sect, who had been assassinated by Diwu Qi during the opening war. To keep leverage over Diwu Qi, Luo Chen had forcibly retained the disciples of the Myriad Manifestations Sect. Later, the sect's eldest disciple, Zong Jiulang, died on the Heavenly Drum Plains battlefield, leaving Yang Pingdu as the leader of the Myriad Manifestations Sect's remnants.
When the demon beast horde erupted, Yang Pingdu had led his disciples to merge fully into the Luotian Sect to preserve their lineage, exerting himself to the utmost in the conflicts that followed. To reward him and foster unity, Sima Huiniang, after successfully forming her own core, had bestowed the remaining Dark Origin Pill upon Yang Pingdu.
He had succeeded!
And it was over this very matter that Sima Wenjie had rebelled!
Turning to another master, Sima Wenjie had gained the assistance of a Nascent Soul cultivator to form his core, and subsequently returned with outsiders in an attempt to usurp the Luotian Sect.
It was a muddled mess of debts, impossible to settle or unravel, accompanied by Xu Xiaoliu's steady drone.
"Among the juniors, Qin Yuanjiang and Zeng Yilong are naturally the most accomplished, but the others aren't far behind."
"Mei Ruoqi, Yuan Yijun, and Qu Jiu are gradually making a name for themselves. Su'e has passed away, but her disciple Suwen inherited her medical mantle. After Qu Lingjun departed, Qi Yi shouldered the banner of alchemy for the Luotian Sect. It was precisely because of the many Foundation Establishment medicines he concocted that our sect saw one true cultivator after another emerge..."
Upon hearing Qi Yi's name, Luo Chen took on a thoughtful expression.
That was an alchemist he had personally recruited in his early years—originally a disciple of an enemy faction!
If he recalled correctly, he had recruited him alongside his senior or junior brother.
Qi Yi's alchemy talent was beyond doubt.
Yet crafting so many Foundation Establishment medicines?
Could it be the Emperor Flowing Liquid?
However, he had only imparted that recipe to Qu Lingjun.
Had Qu Lingjun secretly passed it on before leaving?
If so, it made complete sense.
In the war between humans and demons, the one thing never in short supply was demon beast corpses and materials. Using them to brew massive quantities of Emperor Flowing Liquid could indeed sustain an unbroken stream of Foundation Establishment cultivators for the Luotian Sect.
Viewed in this light, that sole formal disciple of his truly held the sect at heart, having planned for every eventuality.
"Sect Master Yao needs no embellishment. After succeeding as Sect Master, though she lacked the formidable presence of the Old Sect Master, she has maintained a steady hand, working diligently to preserve the Luotian Sect's foundation."
"The daughter this old servant had with Shi Lan is currently studying at Sect Master Yao's side."
Toward the end, Xu Xiaoliu casually mentioned his daughter.
That little scheme...
Luo Chen glanced at him. The old man looked somewhat embarrassed, yet candid.
Luo Chen did not mind, asking curiously instead, "Shi Lan? Could she be the girl from Ice Fort back then?"
"Yes, precisely her! When turmoil tore through the Jade Cauldron Domain, Ice Fort suffered an upheaval as well. I saved Shi Lan's life, and later she became my Dao companion."
Speaking of this, Xu Xiaoliu sounded immensely proud, as if winning that woman's heart was the greatest achievement of his life.
Yet immediately, his tone grew somber.
"Regrettably, after leaving our daughter behind, Shi Lan departed without saying goodbye, setting off to search for her fellow disciples from Ice Fort."
"Did something happen to Ice Fort?"
"That is a long story. The Supreme Elder of Ice Fort failed in her attempt to reach the Nascent Soul realm, and many of the sect's powerhouses perished..."
Luo Chen listened half-attentively to Xu Xiaoliu recount the past, without investing much thought into it.
The Luotian Sect's present affairs were more than enough to occupy his mind.
The old acquaintances and lingering past of the Jade Cauldron Domain were hardly pressing priorities; he simply treated it as background knowledge.
Noticing Luo Chen's distraction, Xu Xiaoliu gradually brought the subject to an end.
"Of the former Seven Jade Cauldron Sects, aside from our Luotian Sect, all have long since scattered or perished. Had you not returned in time, Supreme Elder, I fear the name of Luotian would have scattered to the winds as well."
Luo Chen offered him a few comforting words before asking calmly, "How old are you now?"
Xu Xiaoliu started, subconsciously stroking his beard as he replied, "Xiao Liuzi is two hundred and forty-seven years old; my end is near."
Then, out of habit, he fell back into flattering:
"I have long looked past matters of life and death. Shi Lan and I once shared our hearts, my bloodline endures in this world, and I have even lived to see your return. Even if Xiao Liuzi were to drop dead the very next moment, I would do so contentedly."
"You cannot die just yet; I still have a task for you."
Luo Chen smiled faintly. Amid the other's confusion, he whispered a few instructions.
Having heard them, Xu Xiaoliu's eyes instantly ignited with brilliant light.
He clapped his hands together, speaking excitedly, "I accept this task! I will never let you down!"
After Xu Xiaoliu departed, Luo Chen closed the Luotian Annals.
Standing on the small stone terrace, he gazed out over the mountains and rivers of Baili Qingchuan, his mind consumed by the affairs of the Luotian Sect.
Deep in thought, he could not help muttering softly:
"Generation after generation grows old and withers away. Those who remain either continue to scale great heights or flourish anew."
"Just like a sapling braving winter to meet the summer, shedding excess to preserve its trunk, until at last it grows into a colossal tree propping up the sky."
"Such is the Dao of Wither and Bloom!"
The wind subsided, leaves drifted down, and a gentle rustle ran through the forest, as though the surrounding landscape were answering him in kind.
Chapter 784