Chapter 341: Human Gu

Heaven, Earth, Gods, Men, and Ghosts. The spineless, the scaled, the furred, the feathered, and the shelled.

Chen Yuan had heard this saying from Ying Yuanzhen before. To hear it again from Long Yao’s lips felt rather strange.

‘Perhaps in ancient times, this was truly how things were classified for a period. Maybe there’s some secret hidden within it.’

“Miss Long, there’s no need to be so indignant. The decline of the Gu Dao and the rise of the Martial Dao are not things that can be resisted by human effort.”

Chen Yuan shook his head and said, “There are fewer and fewer powerful Poisonous Insects in the outside world. Some have even gone completely extinct. As a result, powerful Gu Masters are also becoming rarer. The Martial Dao, on the other hand, is different. It has a very low barrier to entry but an incredibly high ceiling. Knowing a few basic moves is called the Martial Dao. Shattering metal and splitting stone is also the Martial Dao. Demolishing City, cleaving mountains, Covering Sea, and treading on waves—that’s the Martial Dao as well. Therefore, it’s inevitable that the Martial Dao of the Human Race would flourish while other cultivation methods become completely niche.”

Chen Yuan held no prejudice against Gu Techniques; he simply believed this path was destined to be a niche one, possibly even fading into obscurity in the future.

Right now, some rare Poisonous Insects could only be found in mystic realms like the Endless Immortal Palace. But if the Heaven-Reaching Tower were to completely collapse in the future, even such mystic realms would become impossible to find.

The two continued exploring toward the center. They encountered quite a few Poisonous Insects along the way, and Long Yao managed to capture several rare ones.

However, the closer they got to the center, the fewer Poisonous Insects they saw. Long Yao’s expression couldn’t help but turn grave.

Noticing that her expression was off, Chen Yuan asked, “What’s wrong?”

Long Yao said in a low voice, “Poisonous Insects are drawn to places with abundant Spiritual Qi. The Spiritual Qi at the center of this Ten Thousand Gu Hall should be the most plentiful, yet the Poisonous Insects have suddenly vanished here. There’s only one possibility: something in this central area is making the other Poisonous Insects terrified, so they don’t dare to approach.”

“Could it be a powerful and rare Poisonous Insect on the Level of the Blood Spirit Celestial Eye Moth?”

Long Yao shook her head. “Even a Blood Spirit Celestial Eye Moth, as rare as it is, couldn’t have this effect. To achieve this, it would have to be an existence on the Level of the Ten Great Evil Gu.”

As she spoke, Long Yao formed a Seal Technique, and from the Gu Insect Bag at her waist, a series of strange Poisonous Insects flew out.

These Poisonous Insects had bodies like dragonflies, but their heads consisted of only a single, massive eyeball.

After releasing more than ten of these Poisonous Insects, Long Yao closed her eyes. The scenes they witnessed were all transmitted back into her mind.

“What’s over there?”

Long Yao frowned. “Nothing. Just a Cold Pool rich with Spiritual Qi. The Poisonous Insects didn’t detect any threatening auras either.”

Finding no threat, the two had no choice but to press on. After walking for about ten minutes, they arrived beside the central Cold Pool.

The scenery here was quite beautiful. The pool’s water was a deep blue, like jade, and a cold mist drifted above it, giving it a somewhat ethereal, otherworldly quality.

Moreover, the Spiritual Qi was incredibly abundant. Chen Yuan could tell just by taking a deep breath that the Spiritual Qi here was at least several times stronger than in the outside world.

Even the surrounding flowers, grass, and trees grew to an immense size. Some of the wild plants growing randomly by the Cold Pool were actually high-quality Spiritual Medicines.

In the center of the Cold Pool was a protruding rock, like a Lake Heart Island, densely inscribed with countless Array Patterns.

This was clearly the center of the Cold Pool, an auspicious, man-made treasure land.

Just then, Long Yao suddenly shouted, “Be careful!”

In her senses, the Poisonous Insects she had released earlier to scout the area had all vanished in an instant. This was extremely abnormal.

At that moment, a sudden impulse struck Chen Yuan. He grabbed Long Yao and yanked her back.

The next moment, a pitch-black flower bloomed where they had just been standing. Black mist spread out, and in an instant, all the surrounding flora were stripped of their Vitality. It was utterly tyrannical.

The pitch-black flower began to squirm. Only then did Chen Yuan realize it was actually a soft-bodied Poisonous Insect. Its snake-like form had a fleshy crest larger than its own body, which made it look like a black flower when coiled up.

At the same time, several more strange noises sounded, and three more Poisonous Insects appeared around Chen Yuan.

One was a moth, blood-red all over, with only a single eye on its head.

Another was a giant, solid-gold spider, as if cast from precious metal, with natural, profound Array Patterns on its back.

And the last was an ice-blue butterfly, magnificent beyond compare, like a fairy. But the cold aura it radiated was enough to freeze all Vitality.

Long Yao took a deep breath, her eyes filled with disbelief. “The Black Slug Mandala, the Blood Spirit Celestial Eye Moth, the Celestial Star Golden Spider, and the Ice Fairy Butterfly… these are all rare Poisonous Insects that have gone completely extinct in the outside world!”

Chen Yuan looked at Long Yao, a hint of confusion in his eyes.

‘Four rare Poisonous Insects, including the Blood Spirit Celestial Eye Moth that he wanted. She should be overjoyed right now, so why is there terror in her eyes?’

Long Yao turned to Chen Yuan, her face grave. “These four types of Poisonous Insects are all top-tier existences among their kind. They belong to different species and are extremely territorial. Normally, only one could exist in a single area; otherwise, they would kill each other. But the fact that they’ve all appeared here proves that there is an even more terrifying existence present, one that can make all four Poisonous Insects submit to it and suppress their natural instincts to fight.”

The moment Long Yao’s voice fell, the Cold Pool in front of them began to boil, and a powerful wave of energy erupted.

A human figure slowly emerged from the bottom of the Cold Pool.

The instant they saw the figure, the expressions of both Chen Yuan and Long Yao changed drastically.

It couldn’t really be called a ‘person’ anymore.

From a distance, the figure only had an upper body; its lower half was growing out of a lotus platform.

But upon closer inspection, they discovered it wasn’t a lotus platform at all. It was a structure formed from the piled-up corpses of countless Poisonous Insects.

To be precise, they weren’t even corpses. Chen Yuan could clearly sense that the Gu Insect Lotus Platform still possessed a certain degree of activity, with the power of Vitality flowing within it.

The man’s skin was a sickly, waxy yellow and translucent, like aged amber. There was no flesh and blood beneath it, only dense, slowly squirming black threads—the intestines and nerves of countless Poisonous Insects, which had long since replaced the flesh, blood, and Meridians a normal Martial Artist should have.

His face was the same. The flesh was gone, replaced by a scarlet, hard carapace. Even his eyes were like the compound eyes of an insect.

Long Yao stared at the man, her eyes flashing with horror and terror.

“He’s refining himself as if he were a Poisonous Insect! This person has gone mad! The Gu Dao is the art of Refining Gu, but he’s used every Secret Technique for Refining Gu on himself, treating himself as an equal to Poisonous Insects and refining them together. I can see traces of at least a thousand kinds of Poisonous Insects on him, and hundreds of different Gu-refining methods!”

“Man is the spirit of all creation, and Gu are the essence of heaven and earth. Heaven, Earth, Gods, Men, Ghosts; the spineless, the scaled, the furred, the feathered, and the shelled. We are all among these ten cosmic categories, so why can we not be refined together? Gu is man, and man is Gu. Human-Gu Unity is the ultimate state of the Gu Dao!”

The man spoke slowly, his voice like a grinding, ear-piercing shriek.

“I am the Master of Ten Thousand Gu Hall of the Endless Immortal Palace. You, junior, are also a successor of my Gu Dao. Are you willing to cultivate my Great Dao, become a supreme Gu Immortal, and step onto the path of eternal life?”

A look of revulsion flashed in Long Yao’s eyes.

She did indeed cultivate the Gu Dao and was a Gu Master who held the path in the highest reverence, but she had no desire to become such a monster.

But at this moment, she didn’t dare to refuse.

Before her was the former Master of the Ten Thousand Gu Hall of the Endless Immortal Palace, a supreme existence in the Gu Dao.

In ancient times, whether it was her own sect’s founder or the founder of the current Gu God Sect, they could only look up to this being in awe. She had already lost the courage to even fight back.

“Don’t panic,” Chen Yuan said. “What Master of Ten Thousand Gu Hall? All that’s left now is a sliver of obsession, a monster piled together from countless Poisonous Insects.”

Chen Yuan was not a practitioner of the Gu Dao. He only believed one thing: within the Endless Immortal Palace, no one could break the limits of life and death to truly survive until the present day.

The old man from the Blood Shadow Nether Kill Sect had become a puppet of the Seven Kills Stele. The Abbot of Militan Temple had preserved his Vitality and obsession until now by relying on the power of two monsters not of this world.

The Hall Master of the Beast Taming Hall had fused himself with a Candle Dragon, but in reality, his humanity had long since been extinguished. He had only survived because he was sealed by an Array and possessed a supreme treasure like the Life Transformation Pearl.

The Master of Ten Thousand Gu Hall before them was the same. Though he could still speak human words, as if he had truly lived for ten thousand years, his True Spirit had in fact been obliterated long ago. All that remained was a sliver of obsession.

The reason his physical body could maintain its Vitality was because of the Gu Insect Lotus Platform beneath him.

That lotus platform was inlaid with densely packed Poisonous Insects. Some had completely fused with the platform, their original forms no longer recognizable.

Other Poisonous Insects, however, were still clearly visible, with only a part of them merged into the platform.

Chen Yuan guessed that the Master of Ten Thousand Gu Hall had managed to persist until now only because the thing he had refined was truly heretical, capable of actively devouring external Poisonous Insects to maintain its Vitality.

When a Poisonous Insect inside the platform died, it would devour and fuse with other Poisonous Insects, causing the Gu Insect Lotus Platform to grow larger and larger over time.

A major reason there were no Poisonous Insects in this central area was that he had devoured them all. Only the four rare Poisonous Insects, like the Blood Spirit Celestial Eye Moth, were able to resist his power and avoid being consumed.

Theoretically, this ‘Human Gu’ before them had indeed lived for ten thousand years. It wasn’t in a sealed state and had remained active all this time.

The problem was, while its physical body had remained active, its Divine Soul had been unable to maintain true self-awareness. It had long since dissipated with the passage of time, leaving only a lingering obsession in its shell.

Therefore, the path to eternal life that the Master of Ten Thousand Gu Hall had pursued was still a failure.