Chapter 323 The Old Man of Ten Thousand Gu

"People say: Fake monk! Sinister Daoist! Ruthless Confucian! It really isn't wrong!"

"Scholars are one more ruthless than the next, and you, this pedantic scholar from White Deer Academy, are a hundred times more ruthless than other scholars!"

After speaking, before the two people in the pavilion could reply, the person in the dark felt that what he said was very reasonable, and he couldn't help but let out a weird laugh himself.

"Gaga ga!!"

"I am just too cultured!!!"

This laughter was like a broken gong, acting directly on one's ears, as if coming from every angle without any blind spots, 360 degrees around.

Even the middle-aged man carrying a sword, a Celestial who had opened two Divine Treasuries, had his ears buzzing from this sound, as if he were about to go deaf.

"Who is it?!"

The middle-aged man shouted, and the long sword at his waist unsheathed with a clatter. A piercing Sword Intent filled the surrounding hundreds of miles, and even the air seemed to have turned into sharp, chilling long swords.

However, though the middle-aged man's Sword Intent radiated outward, he could not find the slightest trace of the person in the dark.

Instead, the sound kept echoing in his ears, accompanied by the rustling sound of insects crawling, as if they were gnawing on something.

He felt as if his eardrums were rupturing, and blood began to trickle out from his ear canals.

"Gaga ga!!!"

The weird laughter in the dark became even more cheerful, revealing undisguised schadenfreude.

Thump!

Just at this moment, the octogenarian elder in front of him made his move.

He saw him strike the ground with the cane in his hand.

The cane did not strike the ground, but rather struck the empty air, yet it emitted a sound like a great bell or a resonant chime.

He saw the air rippling in layers, like undulating waves, spreading outward. The sound in the sword-carrying middle-aged man's ears vanished instantly, and tiny things fell out of his ears.

He caught them, seeing that they were two black Gu insects, several times smaller than a needle tip, which had already been shaken to death.

He hadn't even noticed them at all just a moment ago.

For a Celestial who had opened a Divine Treasury like him, this was simply inconceivable!

And the only person in the whole world who could plant Gu insects on him without him knowing was one person.

"Old Man of Ten Thousand Gu!!"

The middle-aged man's face turned icy, and he gritted his teeth as he shouted.

He was the Emperor of Southern Wei, Fang Yuheng.

The octogenarian elder in front was none other than the Old Dean of White Deer Academy, known as the contemporary Saint of Confucianism, a figure mentioned alongside the Dao Head and the Buddha Head.

It was no wonder Fang Yuheng was in such a state.

The territory of Southern Wei was small, no more than the size of four provinces of the Great Jin Dynasty, and even that was the result of continuous expansion over the years.

For so many years, besides their arch-enemy, the Great Jin Dynasty, Southern Wei had another enemy: the Ten Thousand Mountains of the Southern Frontier.

Many shamanic tribes lived within the Ten Thousand Mountains, all under the protection of the Old Man of Ten Thousand Gu, constantly opposing Southern Wei. The two sides engaged in no fewer than a hundred large and small battles every year.

With this strike from the Old Dean of White Deer Academy, the Old Man of Ten Thousand Gu could finally no longer hide his figure and was forced to reveal himself from the air.

He was a strange old man, less than five feet tall, hunched like a shrimp, even more stooped than the bent-over Old Dean of White Deer Academy.

His face was like wrinkled old tree bark, his skin color a dark, greenish-black from being soaked in medicinal Gu for years, his eyes one yellow and one green. His hair was sparse, tied with ropes woven from Gu silk, and tiny poisonous insects occasionally crawled through his hair.

There was no need to speak. Just looking at the old man's appearance was enough to make people fearful.

"Gaga ga!"

"Old Ghost Wang, you're at such an old age, why don't you stay in your dilapidated academy and teach students? You still dare to dream of climbing the Heavenly Pillar Mountain? Be careful you don't fall off the pillar halfway up and die!"

Forced to reveal himself from hiding, the Old Man of Ten Thousand Gu was neither anxious nor angry; instead, he shook his head and cackled with mockery.

The Old Dean had one hand behind his back. Hearing this, he did not reply but instead tapped his cane forward.

Even though they were hundreds of feet apart, this tap seemed to pierce directly through space, striking the chest of the Old Man of Ten Thousand Gu.

Like lake water, a ripple appeared in the center and spread in all directions.

Pop!

The figure of the Old Man of Ten Thousand Gu instantly shattered like a dream bubble.

A Gu insect, almost invisible to the naked eye, fell, having blocked this cane strike for him.

Although the Old Dean of White Deer Academy was old, his eyes were not dim.

When calm, his movements were slow, truly like an old man on the verge of fading away, but once he moved, he was more agile than any young person.

He saw him turn around and instantly lock onto the Old Man of Ten Thousand Gu's figure again.

Usually, this old poison-master hid in the depths of the Ten Thousand Mountains and was hard to find. Since he dared to show himself at such a time, there was absolutely no reason to let him go.

The Emperor of Southern Wei, Fang Yuheng, watched from the side without blinking.

Although he was a Celestial, this level of combat still deeply shocked him.

It wasn't the momentum of the attacks, but that every move and strike had begun to align with the rules of heaven and earth, providing him with immense inspiration.

Thump!

The air emitted a resonant sound again. This cane strike was sent out from a hundred miles away.

The Old Man of Ten Thousand Gu crossed a hundred miles in an instant, yet he still could not escape the Old Dean's cane, only feeling the threat behind him like thorns on his back.

Suddenly, several figures appeared in front. There were five men and two women, seemingly divided into two groups, but they were not far apart.

"Good!" The Old Man of Ten Thousand Gu gave a sinister laugh: "Watch me tear off your hypocritical mask as a Confucian Saint!"

As he spoke, he spread his five fingers like a winnowing basket, his withered, black, curved nails gleaming with a dark light, and he clawed toward the seven people in front.

He intended to use these seven people as human shields. Let's see how the Old Dean would maintain his standing before the world after killing innocent people in public.

"Hey, someone is fighting over there!"

Luo Jin had experienced intimacy with Yan Chu, and she seemed to have been reborn, becoming radiant.

Originally, she was cold and aloof, always exuding an indifference that kept people at a distance, but now she had become much more sunny and cheerful, and there were many more girlish mannerisms in her demeanor and actions.

These past few days, they had traveled from the Northern Mang grasslands to the Great Jin Dynasty, and along the way, besides traveling, they hadn't been idle at all.

At first, there might have been some shyness. Now, the three of them were as familiar as could be.

From afar, the momentum of the Old Dean of White Deer Academy's attack was extremely small, but only those whose cultivation had reached the level of Three Flowers Gathering at the Crown could see how terrifying the power within his moves and strikes was.

Luo Jin only saw two people fighting, but she did not see the true cultivation strength of those fighting.

As for Princess Yunshu, she didn't even see that someone was fighting.

"Ah? Someone is fighting? Where?"

She lightly shook her head and looked around, her voice filled with delicate laziness.

Last night, Yan Chu had just had a fierce battle with the two women; although she mostly just beat the drums to cheer him on, she still hadn't recovered.

While speaking, the group had stopped. The three of Yan Chu were a few dozen meters away from the four of Meng Ao.

This distance was insignificant to everyone present, but the Old Ancestor of Ten Thousand Gu spotted the three of Yan Chu at a glance.

Mostly because the three were handsome men and beautiful women, especially Princess Yunshu, who was so beautiful she didn't seem like a woman of this world.

Meng Ao was as if facing a great enemy. He could deeply feel how strong the person attacking was.

"Gaga ga!" The Old Ancestor of Ten Thousand Gu cackled, spreading his five fingers and clawing directly toward the three of Yan Chu.

All this takes a long time to say, but in reality, it happened in the blink of an eye.

From the moment the Old Dean of White Deer Academy first struck the ground with his cane, to Luo Jin speaking, she hadn't even had time to say a second sentence before the withered, greenish-black hand had already clawed over.

However, Luo Jin did not have the slightest look of panic.

Yan Chu stood in front, as straight as a pine, as immovable as a mountain.

With this man here, let alone one Old Man of Ten Thousand Gu, even ten or a hundred wouldn't be able to stir up any trouble.

Meng Ao's hesitation was only for an instant. The next second, he decisively made his move, blocking this strike for Yan Chu.

Although this claw strike was mere child's play for Yan Chu, once he made a move, it would undoubtedly cause the heavens and earth to sense it again, bringing down divine punishment.

This was the time for him to perform.

Thump! With a slightly muffled, loud sound, the space within a few yards where the fist and palm met shattered and churned.

The momentum was not great, but it made the eyelids of the Southern Wei Emperor Fang Yuheng, in the pavilion a hundred miles away, jump wildly.

This move was more than just a little bit stronger than the Sword Intent he had just covered hundreds of miles with.

Both sides had condensed their own power to the extreme, and a casual move contained a thousand variations, enough for him to ponder for many years.

"Eh? Still a little expert at the Three Flowers level!" A soft exclamation came from the mouth of the Old Man of Ten Thousand Gu.

His figure dissipated again like foam, and an insect corpse, invisible to the naked eye, turned into fly ash.

What he was most skilled at was, naturally, the unfathomable Gu arts.

Meng Ao withdrew his fist, his brows furrowed tightly.

On his fist, the flesh was festering, and at this moment, those pieces of rotten flesh seemed to have become alive, wriggling and crawling, while threads of numbness burrowed deeper along the festering flesh.

Splat! He made a decisive decision, and his right forearm fell off his body directly.

Blood gushed out, but he seemed to feel no pain at all, as if he had only done a trivial little thing.

Swoosh! In just a moment, his arm grew back immediately. At this level, regrowing a severed limb was nothing out of the ordinary.

However, Meng Ao's expression darkened quite a bit.

"Flesh-Entangling Gu? You are the Old Man of Ten Thousand Gu from the Ten Thousand Mountains of the Southern Frontier?"

Both belonging to the top-tier circle, Meng Ao immediately guessed the other party's identity.

At this moment, the Old Dean of White Deer Academy also stopped his hand, looking at Yan Chu and the others with surprise.

"Ya gaga ga!" The Old Man of Ten Thousand Gu laughed happily, "I haven't left the Ten Thousand Mountains for a hundred years, and there are still people who remember my name?"

"Not bad, not bad! Gaga ga!"

"Hmph! Old Man of Ten Thousand Gu, you dare to make a move against us, you really don't know how to die!"

Meng Ao's face turned cold, and suddenly, the surrounding hundreds of miles were shrouded in black clouds, so dark one could not see their own fingers. From the boundless black clouds, dense black hands reached out and clawed toward the Old Man of Ten Thousand Gu.

"Oh? The Black Sky Shrouding the Sun technique, are you a little brat from the Great Black Heavenly Demon Cult?"

The Old Man of Ten Thousand Gu had a frighteningly high seniority in the Jianghu. Seeing this scene, though surprised, he was not panicked. From one of the pockets on his colorful clothes, a small insect flew out.

It was a green insect the size of a fingertip. As it opened its mouth and spat, thick green poisonous mist surged out, rolling upward and entangling with the black clouds in the high sky.

One couldn't help but wonder how such a small insect could spit out so much poisonous mist, as if it were inexhaustible.

Chi chi chi... The poisonous smoke eroded the black clouds and the air, making a sizzling sound. The invisible and intangible poisonous gas dispersed into the air, startling Luo Hang and the others from the Great Black Heavenly Demon Cult, who hurriedly held their breath and condensed their Qi.

This mysterious old man could fight against the Cult Leader; his poisonous gas must absolutely not be touched, otherwise, no one could save them.

Seeing that the poisonous smoke was effective, eroding a huge hole in the black clouds in the sky and revealing the blue sky again, the Old Man of Ten Thousand Gu cackled with laughter again.

But just as his smile appeared, he felt a chill wash over his entire body. A cane struck fiercely from a hundred miles away, aiming straight for his back.

"Damn it, you damned old pedantic scholar, you're not finished yet!"

The Old Man of Ten Thousand Gu hurriedly sacrificed another displacement Gu, suddenly flashing a hundred miles away in another direction.

Pop! The void shattered again, and a tiny Gu insect turned into fly ash.

He had scattered who knows how many displacement Gu in this world; he only needed a thought to shift his form and change his shadow, which was much more useful than any profound movement technique.

The Old Dean's cane was too powerful; he dared not confront it head-on under any circumstances, or he would really have his head smashed by a single strike.

But this time, just as he landed, he suddenly discovered a tall young man appearing dozens of feet away.

"Eh?" The Old Man of Ten Thousand Gu saw the situation was bad and was planning to run away, but he was intercepted by this young man in the direction of his escape.

"Kid? You also want to make a move against me?"

Although he didn't know the young man in front of him and couldn't sense his aura, being able to cross a hundred miles in an instant to appear by his side meant he was definitely also an expert at the Three Flowers level.

"You want to run after making a move on me? Do you think it's that easy?" Yan Chu's tone was indifferent.

Logically speaking, given his current Realm, he couldn't make a move at will, otherwise, he would definitely be sensed by the heavens and earth, bringing down the Lightning Tribulation.

However, as soon as he arrived here, Yan Chu felt that the pressure from heaven and earth had eased somewhat.

Because the soon-to-be-born Heavenly Pillar Mountain was not far away. With the appearance of this divine mountain, even heaven and earth had become much higher and further away, and the will of heaven and earth seemed to be retreating.

This was also the reason why the Old Dean of White Deer Academy made his move. The other party was also an existence that had condensed the Innate Fetal Respiration.

A casual strike would not attract the targeting of heaven and earth.

"Hehe! I haven't stepped into the Jianghu for a long time; it seems the world has forgotten my name, actually thinking that anyone can manipulate me!"

The Old Man of Ten Thousand Gu's voice also turned cold.

Although he wasn't famous among the ordinary Jianghu, that was among common Jianghu people; in the circle above Celestial, everyone was terrified upon hearing his name.

Having been forced to retreat repeatedly by the Old Dean of White Deer Academy's several strikes, he was already angry, and at this moment, he also developed murderous intent.

Seeing that Yan Chu was young, even if he had achieved Three Flowers, it was impossible for him to be a match for his nearly thousand years of cultivation.

Swoosh! He stretched out his withered, black five fingers and clawed toward Yan Chu.

He dared not use his full strength for this claw, keeping his mind firmly fixed on the Old Dean and Meng Ao in the distance.

With his cultivation at his current Realm, he didn't worry about any danger; with Gu on his person, he could advance or retreat, naturally standing in an invincible position.

In the center of his open palm, a greenish eye appeared, constantly flickering and staring at Yan Chu.

A powerful Mental Energy radiated out, and countless illusions assaulted Yan Chu's Primordial Spirit, wanting to drag him into an illusion.

But this immense, layered Mental Energy felt like a gentle breeze to Yan Chu. He only heard him scoff disdainfully:

"Daring to be distracted while fighting me, you are truly courting death!"

Clang! With a crisp sound of a blade singing, a scorching, fiery red blade light flashed out.