As far back as the Eastern Jin, Gu Chen had roamed the world alongside Du Mang. Even then, their enemies had been supreme masters such as Old Man Withered Bamboo and Perfected Bliss.
Later, his master, the Heavenly Lust Cult Master, had become so utterly lawless and committed so many atrocities that he met heavenly retribution. Gu Chen then suffered one defeat after another at the hands of Old Man Withered Bamboo, Perfected Bliss, Elder Longbrow, and others. The magic treasures he had spent years painstakingly refining were destroyed in succession, and his vitality repeatedly suffered grievous damage. The more he fought, the weaker he became, while his enemies only grew stronger.
Fortunately, they were shrewd and well versed in escape spells. Whenever they proved no match for an opponent, they fled at once, and so avoided being killed for good.
When Elder Longbrow was about to ascend, he sought out Gu Chen again, intending to annihilate him in body and spirit. Instead, he discovered that Gu Chen had stolen a Daoist scripture from Ke Yizi and used a shortcut to cultivate an undying primordial spirit in an extremely short time.
Undying though it was called, it could still be destroyed. But Elder Longbrow's ascension was imminent, and he had no time to refine Gu Chen away bit by bit. He merely killed him with the Seven Cultivation Swords and buried him beneath the southern slope of Mangcang Mountain. Foreseeing that Gu Chen would revive many years later, he bound him with a treasure called the Fire Cloud Chain.
Because the Azure Cord Sword was unruly and difficult to tame, Elder Longbrow placed it underground nearby, letting earthly fiend energy temper it day and night. When his future granddisciples, Li Yingqiong, Zhou Qingyun, and the others, came to retrieve the