Song Chengan gripped the Demon Subduing Staff and gave chase.
At last, the Tracking Paper Crane stopped before a dilapidated garden in the south of the city.
This should be the place.
Song Chengan glanced at the garden gate, then ultimately chose to vault over the wall.
Song Chengan spotted a frail child.
The child saw him too, then turned and ran.
"Stop!"
Without a second thought, Song Chengan chased after him.
"Grandpa Balu."
"Someone's here."
Wu Gou'er shoved open the door and burst inside.
A gust of wind swept in through the door he had opened, making the copper lamps on the floor sway wildly, nearly extinguishing them.
"Get out!"
With a flick of his hand, Balu sent Wu Gou'er flying. He slammed into the wall and passed out.
"You idiot! How many times have I told you not to barge in so suddenly?"
"If the wind blows out those lamps, I'll butcher you!"
Balu flew into a rage.
On the floor.
Forty-nine copper lamps encircled Balu.
"Only the final step remains."
Balu slowly stepped through the ritual's celestial paces.
Years of preparation had all led to this day.
As long as he could borrow a life...
He did not want to die.
When he had been young, he too had believed himself unafraid of death.
But now he was old, and death had truly come knocking.
He was afraid.
He wanted to live longer.
He wanted Foundation Establishment, wanted Golden Core Formation.
"It's going to succeed!"
Balu felt as though his long-aged heart had become young again.
Its beating was so powerful.
"Not good!"
"A formation!"
Song Chengan followed the child into the garden.
Yet after a brief lapse of focus, he lost sight of the child.
A thick fog had inexplicably risen within the garden.
Within the fog.
The ornamental rockeries seemed to have come alive, shifting from time to time.
Every time they moved, the path on the ground changed direction.
"This formation is truly bizarre."
Song Chengan thought of the great formation in the dense forest of Mount Luo.
It had likewise used mist to make people lose their bearings and keep them from entering Mount Luo.
"Smashing the rocks should break the formation."
Song Chengan knew that in those crude formations, the manipulated objects themselves were one of the formation's foundations.
Such as these rockery stones.
Song Chengan could do nothing about the large rockeries, but the smaller stones were no problem.
Seeing one of the stones shift toward him, Song Chengan raised the Demon Subduing Staff and brought it down with a strike!
With a loud explosion, the stone shattered into fragments all over the ground.
"Just as I thought."
"As long as enough formation foundations are smashed, this formation will naturally collapse."
Inside the dim room.
Excitement had flushed Balu's aged face red.
"It succeeded!"
"They all say borrowing a life depends on Heaven."
"I have bested Heaven."
A smile involuntarily spread across his face.
A Late Dao Seed Stage Qi Refiner, a Gu Master, had actually borrowed Tianming.
This... was an achievement enough to hold his head high.
"Squeak, squeak."
Just then.
A rat had appeared on the beam at some unknown time.
It fell down.
By sheer coincidence, it landed squarely on one of the copper lamps.
Balu froze.
He did nothing.
He let the startled rat scurry about wildly until it finally crashed into the door and knocked itself unconscious.
Balu fell silent.
At that moment, the door was kicked open.
A young man holding a long staff appeared in the doorway.
"Demon Suppression Division business! You are under arrest!"
"Heh heh."
With a wave of his hand, Balu sent a cloud of gray poisonous smoke surging toward Song Chengan.
Song Chengan's expression changed sharply.
Gu Masters of the Southern Border were most adept with Gu Worms and poisons. He did not dare be careless and could only withdraw from the room first.
That gave Balu an opportunity.
With a leap, he grabbed the unconscious Wu Gou'er, smashed through the window, and fled.
"You can't escape! Surrender and submit!"
Balu stopped.
He panted heavily.
"I'm old. Can't run anymore."
As he spoke, he threw Wu Gou'er onto the ground.
Then, sword in hand, he charged at Song Chengan!
A surge of gray true qi burst from his sword.
Song Chengan met it with his staff!
But his expression immediately changed, and he hurriedly retreated!
Because at the instant their weapons clashed, tiny strange insects drifted toward him.
Those insects were extremely small; one would never notice them without looking closely.
"Take my sword!"
Song Chengan had only just dodged when Balu thrust his sword at him again.
"They're fighting!"
"Someone's being killed!"
The moment the two clashed, the street descended into chaos.
Pedestrians fled in every direction.
Yet some ran a few steps before stopping to watch the spectacle.
"Get lost! The authorities are conducting business."
"Keep watching and I'll throw every last one of you in prison!"
Song Chengan was nearly driven mad by the sight of them.
A Gu Master's methods were inherently strange and unpredictable; even he could barely guard against them.
Yet these fools who did not know the meaning of death not only refused to run, but were actually watching the show.
At his roar.
Some people ran.
But several fools who did not know the meaning of death continued watching.
"Worry about yourself first!"
Balu thrust out his sword.
Song Chengan dodged.
But his expression changed at once.
A golden silkworm sprang from Balu's hand and bit at him.
Song Chengan's face went pale!
A Golden Silkworm!
In the Southern Border, it was revered as a Sacred Worm.
Why would someone who was merely at the first level of the Dao Seed Realm possess a Golden Silkworm?
Golden Silkworms were creatures of deadly poison. Even a Foundation Establishment cultivator would die if bitten, much less a Dao Seed Realm cultivator like Song Chengan.
Instinctively, Song Chengan swung his staff at the Golden Silkworm.
"Hm?"
Song Chengan was stunned.
Wasn't this supposed to be the Gu clan's Sacred Worm?
Why was it so weak?
The Gu Worm turned into a pile of mush beneath his single strike.
"No, my true qi restrains him."
Song Chengan realized something.
At once, he circulated his Heavenly Radiance Dao Qi with all his strength.
Immediately, a purple-red shield of true qi enveloped his entire body. The moment Balu's deadly black true qi encountered Song Chengan's Heavenly Radiance Dao Qi, it melted away like ice and snow.
Not only that.
Those bizarre venomous insects could no longer get close to Song Chengan.
"Heavenly Radiance Dao Qi?" Balu recognized the origin of Song Chengan's Dao Qi.
"Heaven is killing me."
"It's not too late for you to surrender now."
"Surrender and submit?"
"Then spend the rest of my life locked in the Demon Suppression Division's great prison?"
As he spoke, he lunged at him again.
After that, Balu attacked Song Chengan like a madman.
But unfortunately, his attacks were useless.
He was too old.
His qi and blood had declined.
And the true qi he cultivated was restrained by Song Chengan.
After more than ten exchanges.
Song Chengan knocked the longsword from his hand with a single blow of his staff.
Blood seeped from the corner of Balu's mouth.
Yet his eyes shone brighter than ever before.
"Watch this move of mine."
"Ten Thousand Puppets, Thousand Insects!"
As he spoke, he slammed a palm against the ground.
Countless bizarre Gu Worms the size of soybeans immediately surged toward the crowd in every direction.
"Help!"
"Mother!"
"Brother Song!"
Ding Dahai arrived then, running over from afar with a group of people.
"Run! Those are venomous insects!" Song Chengan shouted.
The crowd immediately dissolved into chaos.
Ding Dahai heard that from afar and turned to run without hesitation.
"This is bad!"
Song Chengan's face went pale at once.
How many people would have to die?
"Grandpa Balu, stop killing people."
At that moment.
A weak voice came from behind Balu.
Balu paused.
The Gu Worms passed through the crowd and crawled into the surrounding alleys.
Before long.
Dogs came charging out of the alleys one after another.
Every one of their eyes was blood-red.
A Gu Worm clung to the back of each of their heads.
Howling, they charged toward Song Chengan.
Song Chengan naturally showed no mercy now.
One strike each, sending them flying.
Song Chengan let out a breath of relief.
Thankfully, they were only beasts.
If those Gu Worms had controlled people...
Song Chengan's Demon Subduing Staff hovered before a dog's forehead... The red faded from the dog's eyes. It let out a terrified shriek, then fled into the alley with its tail between its legs.
The other controlled dogs also scattered in terror.
"Brother Song, this man is dead."
Song Chengan looked over.
Balu had somehow stopped breathing.
"This old bastard—how many people did he harm?"
Ding Dahai kicked him to the ground.
"Captain Ding!"
Song Chengan was still shaken.
It was not that he feared this strange man, but that just moments ago, many innocent people had nearly been controlled by the Gu Worms.
"This man is a Gu master from the southern frontier. His methods are exceedingly bizarre, and he nearly harmed innocent people just now."
"Hurry and persuade the onlookers to leave."
"I only just joined the Demon Suppression Division. They don't know me, so they won't listen."
Ding Dahai froze, then immediately understood. "Brother Song, don't worry. We'll go tell them to return at once."
"Didn't you hear what Brother Song said?"
After saying that, Ding Dahai turned to the constables beside him and shouted.
The constables immediately ran toward the surrounding townsfolk, throwing punches and kicks as their long staves whirled without pause.
Song Chengan: "..."
Before you continue