Black Market Search for the Gu Path

The next day.

Xu Shan's corpse was sent back to the city by the arriving Demon Suppressing Guards.

Luo Chen remained behind in the village alone.

He spent half a day directly building a bamboo hut in a nearby mountain forest.

It was to prevent the villagers from being harmed as much as possible.

He did not even return to the village at night, only passing through it during the day on patrol.

In the blink of an eye, twenty days passed.

Luo Chen rode a fine horse and met up with Demon Suppression Envoy Wang Yue and his group, who had come to join him. Together, they headed for Qingyuan City.

The group passed through the broad city gates. Wang Yue, who had been silent the entire way, patted Luo Chen on the shoulder.

"Don't take it to heart. From the moment we joined the Demon Suppression Bureau, every one of us was prepared to face death."

"Get some proper rest."

Demon Suppressing Guards returning from patrol had to report back to the Demon Suppression Bureau.

Afterward, they received a month of leave. Whether they spent that month enjoying life or cultivating their strength was entirely up to them.

Luo Chen arrived at the Demon Suppression Bureau and completed the handover.

Then, token in hand, he plunged straight into the Demon Suppression Bureau's Library Tower.

After checking his token, the Demon Suppressing Guard at the entrance reminded him.

"Demon Suppressing Guards may only browse the books on the first two floors!"

"Understood!" Luo Chen answered and stepped into the Library Tower.

The first and second floors of the Library Tower held a chaotic assortment of books—strange tales, historical records, Demonic Beast files, and countless others.

This was not the Technique Pavilion, so the books could be freely browsed.

"The true form of a Skin Tempering Demon is difficult to find, but the world is vast, and all manner of strange things exist. There must be some way to locate its true form."

Luo Chen looked up at the mountains of books and could not help swallowing hard.

After making up his mind, he began searching for books concerning Skin Tempering Demons.

And so, five days passed in succession.

Cold winds howled across the sky as specks of silvery-white snow drifted down, adorning the earth.

Deep winter had arrived, with biting winds and falling snow.

Luo Chen still wore a neat training outfit as he came to the Library Tower every day to read.

"Found it!"

Suddenly, Luo Chen's eyes lit up. He opened an ancient, dust-covered book in his hands, anticipation shining in his gaze.

"Martial divine ability, Thousand Mile Tracking! It can accurately search for and locate the true form of a Skin Tempering Demon..."

Luo Chen fell silent for a moment. Over the past few days, he had read many books in the Library Tower.

He had also gained some understanding of martial divine abilities.

Those were things only prodigies among martial artists of the third martial realm, the Divine Intent Realm, could comprehend.

For him now, they were still far too distant.

In reality, he had never seen anyone use a martial divine ability.

"Divination and deduction, the path of heavenly secrets and karmic causality..."

Luo Chen remained silent and continued reading.

Then his gaze suddenly sharpened.

"Southern Border Gu Path, Shadowless Scent Seeking Gu. It can capture and track residual scent information from all things. Whether it is a tangible scent or lingering Demonic Beast magic power, it can trace its trail!"

The book did not record much. Several other Gu insects listed afterward could accomplish the same thing, but their cultivation requirements were harsh, making them inferior to the Shadowless Scent Seeking Gu.

"Southern Border Gu Path, Shadowless Scent Seeking Gu! This is it."

Luo Chen's eyes gleamed. He returned the book to its place, walked out of the Library Tower, and headed toward the nearby Technique Pavilion.

"Demon Suppressing Guards may freely study cultivation methods and martial techniques at the first realm, but they must not pass them on to others."

"This is also one of the benefits Demon Suppressing Guards receive for risking their lives."

"Yet no Demon Suppressing Guard would try to learn too much. The martial path is already difficult enough. Ordinary martial artists need ten or twenty years just to cultivate one or two martial arts to great mastery and perfection. Who has the time to learn more?"

Luo Chen entered the Technique Pavilion, glanced around, and approached the old man lying with his eyes closed in a recliner before the counter beneath the pavilion.

He bowed slightly and showed his token.

"Mm, a Demon Suppressing Guard. You may view the cultivation methods and martial arts on the first floor."

Luo Chen nodded slightly and asked respectfully, "May I ask whether there are any cultivation methods related to the path of Gu Masters?"

The old man slightly opened his cloudy eyes and looked Luo Chen over before finally shaking his head.

"Southern Border Gu Masters are separated from our Northern Border by a hundred thousand li. Our Library Tower has no records of them.

Perhaps the headquarters in Northern Garrison City has something!"

Luo Chen clasped his fists in thanks. Without feeling discouraged, he began casually browsing through the Technique Pavilion.

"I only have one saber technique. My methods are still lacking."

"At the first martial realm, one competes in vitality and strength. I should choose a body-tempering martial art."

Luo Chen searched for half the day before finally choosing Vajra Body.

Vajra Body was a superior body-tempering art of Mount Sumeru Temple. Once cultivated to great mastery, even treasure weapons could scarcely harm the body, and one's vitality would become several times more abundant...

After registering the martial art, Luo Chen left.

"The cultivation and refinement method for the Shadowless Scent Seeking Gu... perhaps I can look for it at the Black Market."

Luo Chen muttered to himself and made up his mind.

He had heard Uncle Liu mention Qingyuan City's Black Market before.

Though it was a chaotic place where fish and dragons mingled and truth mixed with falsehood, there were genuinely good things to be found there. It depended on whether one had the discernment and luck to discover them.

That night.

Luo Chen's bedroom was brightly lit.

He looked at Vajra Body, which had been entered into the panel on his desk, his eyes thoughtful.

"I do not have much lifespan left. I need to save it to deduce the path of Gu Masters."

Abandoning the idea of learning Vajra Body for now, Luo Chen put on a White Tiger Mask and quietly slipped out in black clothes.

He pushed the Withered Glory Art to its limit, disguising himself as someone at the peak of Bone Forging.

That would avoid most trouble without revealing too much.

He traveled through streets and alleys and smoothly arrived at an alley in East Market.

The alley was dim, yet amid the silent night, pedestrians came and went without end.

No one spoke. No one made a sound. Every passerby was disguised and hurried along.

Rather than a Black Market, Ghost Market was a more fitting name.

Luo Chen arrived at the entrance to the alley.

"Three taels of silver!"

Two tall martial artists blocked the path on either side of the alley. One of them spoke softly while looking Luo Chen up and down.

"Take it!"

Luo Chen cursed inwardly. He had not even bought anything, yet simply entering to browse cost three taels of silver.

What a robbery!

But he had no choice. He obediently took out three taels of silver, and only then was he allowed through.

As he walked deeper into the alley, the view suddenly opened up.

A narrow street lay ahead, lined on both sides with stone tables for people to display their goods.

Once he entered, the sounds of bargaining occasionally rose from all around.

Luo Chen looked around, silently making comparisons in his heart.

He specifically stopped before stalls displaying books and cultivation methods, examining all kinds of cultivation methods and martial arts.

Yet not a single one met his expectations.

He could not help feeling disappointed.

Did he need to find another way?

The path of Gu Masters possessed strange and unfathomable methods. Even if he spent lifespan deducing it, it would not go to waste after he found the Skin Tempering Demon.

Those bizarre methods would instead become an aid to him.

When he reached the end of the street, just as Luo Chen's heart sank to rock bottom, one stall made him stop.

Behind the stall sat a hunched figure cross-legged, draped in a black robe and wearing a bamboo hat.

It was an old man. The skin beneath his bamboo hat resembled the withered bark of an ancient tree, cracked and dry.

Ten pitch-black earthen jars sat upon the stone table before him, trembling from time to time.

Were there living creatures inside?

Curious, Luo Chen paused slightly.