Hearing the old man's words.
Wu Gou'er's eyes erupted with towering hatred.
He still remembered that day.
The bridge they often crossed had collapsed.
He, his mother, and his father had fallen into the river.
The current had been swift.
His father, who could not swim, had vanished beneath the water at once.
His mother, still carrying his younger brother, had only had time to give him a push before sinking into the river.
And throughout it all, the old man on the bank had merely watched with a smile, puffing on his dry tobacco pipe.
At the time, Wu Gou'er had no thoughts in his head at all.
He only knew to swim desperately toward the bank.
But the current had been too swift.
He could not get close to the shore and could only struggle as he drifted farther and farther away.
Farther and farther.
Until, at last, he slowly sank beneath the water.
At the instant he sank, the old man on the bank waved his hand. Wu Gou'er flew out of the river and crashed onto the grass beside it.
"Like a dead dog. From now on, you'll be called Wu Gou'er."
The man on the bank tapped his pipe against the ground and spoke.
The room fell quiet.
Only the sound of the old man grinding insects remained, along with the occasional sob from behind him.
At some unknown point.
The sobbing stopped.
Balu suddenly turned around.
"Wu Gou'er, are you going to kill me to avenge your parents?!"
He shouted sharply.
At the same time, he stared fixedly at Wu Gou'er as he approached.
Wu Gou'er recoiled in fright again and again until his back hit the door. He could barely remain standing.
In his hand, he gripped a dagger.
He had secretly bought it with the silver Balu had given him.
Like a ghost, Balu closed in on Wu Gou'er and seized him by the throat.
He roared, "You little bastard, I never should have saved you."
"I should have let you drown in the Tong Sheng River with your bastard parents."
"I fed you and clothed you, yet you actually want to kill me!"
"You ungrateful wretch."
As he spoke, he slapped Wu Gou'er hard across the face several times.
Blood streamed from Wu Gou'er's mouth.
The dagger in Wu Gou'er's hand fell to the floor.
Balu released Wu Gou'er, who was nearly unconscious from suffocation, and let him collapse on the floor like a dead dog.
"Useless trash. You don't even have the courage to stab me once."
"Trash."
Balu said disdainfully.
Wu Gou'er no longer sobbed. He lowered his head.
Balu rose and walked to a corner of the room.
Several enormous jars stood there.
He opened the lid of one of them.
Inside lay countless pieces of gold and silver.
And atop that gold and silver rested a bizarre silkworm the size of a finger, its entire body golden.
The silkworm was golden, yet it exuded an eerie black aura.
Balu selected several pieces of silver.
Then he walked over and tossed them beside Wu Gou'er.
"Tomorrow, go throw all this silver out onto the streets."
"Don't let anyone notice you, or you'll become a dead dog."
Wu Gou'er did not react.
This angered Balu so much that he viciously kicked him. "Are your ears deaf when I'm talking to you?"
After kicking him, he said nothing more and went back to continue rendering the oil.
"Grandpa Balu, can we stop hurting people?"
"You little bastard, are you saying I should go die?"
The moment Balu heard that, he flew into a rage.
He came over and gave Wu Gou'er two resounding slaps.
The hand gripping Wu Gou'er's throat shook him relentlessly.
"If I don't borrow lives, how am I supposed to live?"
"Do you want me to die?"
"I even stole the Sacred Worm Golden Silkworm to borrow lives, and now you're telling me not to hurt people?"
"Tomorrow, you will go scatter that silver, or I'll turn you into a dead dog for good."
He said.
After saying that.
Balu's emotions seemed to settle somewhat.
"Do you know what this is called?"
"The Heavenly Star Life Continuation Array!"
"Back then, there was a great Han cultivator who borrowed life from Heaven using the Seven Stars."
"I don't possess his heaven-reaching fortune, nor can I use the divine art of borrowing life through the Seven Stars, but borrowing another thirty or fifty years is no problem."
"It merely requires a few more human lives."
"Five years, ten years!"
"Now that I have the Gu Tribe's sacred relic, the Golden Silkworm, as long as I gain another fifty or ten years, I'll have a chance at Foundation Establishment!"
"Then my lifespan will increase by another eighty years."
"Like this, I may not lack the chance to fight for a shot at the Golden Core."
"Lingqiu City is the best place for casting the spell that I divined!"
"Here, it can raise my chances by at least twenty percent. I will definitely succeed!"
Balu said, somewhat crazed.
"I'll have to trouble Captain Ding with this matter!"
"You're too polite, Brother Song. Put plainly, it's all work for the Imperial Court. We're brothers from the same family."
"Rest assured. In a moment, I'll have my men notify all those street thugs and ruffians in the city. Whoever they see suddenly coming into a windfall, they'll report it."
"Much obliged, much obliged!"
"I'll drink to that!"
Song Chengan raised his cup.
"You're welcome!"
After leaving the Eight Immortals Restaurant.
Song Chengan felt a pang of pain in his wallet.
Treating Ding Dahai to this meal had cost him quite a bit of silver.
When he reported back to Lord Wu this time, he would have to claim a little more.
"Sun Yuan, head back first."
Song Chengan said to the young man behind him.
Sun Yuan was nineteen that year.
He had practiced martial arts since childhood and was one of the martial artists recruited by the Demon Suppression Division that year.
Captain Wu had ordered him to follow Song Chengan in investigating the Golden Silkworm case.
For the moment, Song Chengan had no idea where to begin.
The main problem was that the gold and silver thrown out by the killer had already been spent, rendering the Tracking Paper Crane he still held useless for the time being.
Now, they could only wait for that person to commit another crime.
"I should go see my sister."
The Eight Immortals Restaurant was not far from the An Household.
Song Chengan remembered encountering An Ruifeng last time. An Ruifeng had not welcomed him, so he had not seen his sister, Song Cui. Therefore, he planned to visit her again.
He would also tell Song Cui that he had found work at the Demon Suppression Division.
A Demon Suppression Envoy of the Demon Suppression Division.
That was quite prestigious in Lingqiu City.
Song Chengan bought some pastries his sister liked, then headed toward the An Household.
"Scholar Song, you're here?"
The servants immediately greeted Song Chengan warmly when they saw him.
This left Song Chengan rather puzzled.
"Why aren't you chasing me away today?"
"How could we?"
"Who doesn't know that you're now a clerk at the Demon Suppression Division!"
The servant said with a smile.
"Before, us brothers were ignorant. When there's a chance, how about we buy some wine and dishes and have a drink together?"
"Some other time."
Song Chengan felt somewhat regretful.
This time, he had entered through the front gate intending to stop pretending and tell them that he was now a Demon Suppression Envoy of the Demon Suppression Division.
What a pity.
It seemed An Mingxin had spread the word.
Fine, a clerk was a clerk.
He was not the kind of person who cared much about status anyway.
Whether he was a Demon Suppression Envoy or a clerk, it was all for the people of Lingqiu City!
"Scholar Song, the master wishes to see you."
At that moment, a maid called out.
"Scholar Song, you're amazing!"
"I heard that even real scholars can't obtain a position as a clerk at the Demon Suppression Division!"
After speaking, the maid covered her mouth. "Scholar Song, I'm sorry!"
"I wasn't mocking you for failing to become a scholar, I was... I was..."
The maid stammered.
Song Chengan smiled. "It's all right, it's all right. I know what you mean."
"Ah, Scholar Song, you're so easy to talk to." The maid relaxed.
Song Chengan was speechless.
You people did not like talking to me before, either.
I was easy to talk to before, too.
Before you continue