In the depths of the Myriad Spider Ancient Forest, where no light could reach, silence hung heavy.
After fleeing for the better part of a day through the brambles, Venerable Green Face finally entered the depths of that forest.
There, a foul miasma filled the air, so dense that one could not see five fingers before one's face. Even Venerable Green Face could no longer tell his direction.
In the box he carried, he kept a Five-Hued Venom-Web Spider.
Venerable Green Face endured the pain, cut his finger, dripped blood, and fed the venom spider.
The once listless spider, after consuming his essence blood, regained its vigor. As if drawn by the 'mother body," it began to move continuously in one direction inside the box.
The spider in the box was like a living compass.
Venerable Green Face continued forward, following the direction in which the venom spider moved.
After another hour or so, the surrounding haze gradually thinned.
Pavilions and stone lanterns appeared before him, revealing a secluded Daoist temple hidden among bamboo and trees.
The temple was silent and deep, exuding a forbidding air that made strangers stop.
Venerable Green Face looked at the eerie temple, his expression turning somewhat grave. Then, moving his hunched body, he stepped inside the temple gate.
Once inside, he looked up to see spider webs hanging from the eaves and insect patterns carved along the corridors. The flying bridges were low, as if bowing their heads; the pavilions interlaced, as if coiling around one another.
It looked elegant and transcendent, like an immortal haven, yet danger lurked everywhere, like an insect swarm waiting to strike.
Under the drifting mist, even a ruthless killer like Venerable Green Face felt a faint chill in his heart.
At that moment, an Unorthodox disciple in black came up to him, bowed, and said, "Venerable."
The moment Venerable Green Face saw those black robes, the hateful figure of that man surfaced in his mind. He was overcome with fury, and nearly could not stop himself from striking out and killing the black-robed disciple on the spot.
His hand was already raised when he suddenly realized this was the Myriad Spider Daoist Temple, and the man before him was only a disciple of Master Wu, not that treacherous villain.
"Venerable, what... what brings you here?" The Unorthodox disciple sensed the murderous intent and his expression changed slightly.
Venerable Green Face looked around and asked, "Where is the master?"
The black-robed disciple cupped his hands and said, "Master is in seclusion."
Venerable Green Face ordered, "Take me to him."
"The master does not allow anyone to disturb him during seclusion, Venerable..." The disciple had not finished when Venerable Green Face cut him off. "Hmph!"
He then headed straight into the temple's main hall.
The four pillars of the great hall were carved with ancient insect patterns. At the high end, a deity statue was enshrined, covered by yellow cloth, its true form hidden.
Below the statue stood an incense table, where offerings of the five poisons were placed and purple sandalwood incense burned.
In the curling smoke, a gaunt old man sat on a cushion, wearing a dark robe patterned with the five poisons. All around him were jars, insect cages, and medicinal wines.
Venerable Green Face pushed open the door and entered. Seeing the old man, he did not dare to be too presumptuous. He demanded coldly, "Master Wu, did you send someone to harm me?"
The old man slowly opened his eyes. His pupils were brownish green, like a venomous insect wrapped in human skin. His voice was hoarse. "What nonsense are you spouting?"
Venerable Green Face looked grim. "I ran into a man in a black robe who called himself a sorcerer and said you, Master Wu, had sent him to help me kill Gu Changhuai. Yet at the critical moment, he turned on me and made me suffer a great loss..."
As he was speaking, voices clamored outside. A group of temple disciples, filled with righteous indignation, rushed to the door. Seeing Master Wu, they showed fear and shame. "Master, we... we failed to stop him..."
Master Wu's gaze was icy. He waved his hand.
The Unorthodox disciples hurriedly withdrew.
Master Wu raised a hand, and the great hall doors closed again, cutting off all sight and sound from outside.
Now only the deity statue, Master Wu, and Venerable Green Face remained in the hall, making it even more sinister and dead silent.
Venerable Green Face glanced at Master Wu, then lowered his gaze, not daring to look at the deity statue.
Not that he could see the statue's true face anyway.
Master Wu frowned in thought, then counted on his fingers. After reaching a conclusion, he looked up at Venerable Green Face and said slowly, "I never sent anyone to help you... And no brothers from my sect have visited recently. You were deceived by an outsider."
"So I was deceived..." Venerable Green Face felt fury rise in his heart.
He had entertained that suspicion himself.
But whether true or false, he had to come see Master Wu in person and establish the facts clearly.
Otherwise, when they later attempted something great, any small misunderstanding might create an enormous disaster.
Master Wu looked at Venerable Green Face with deep eyes. "So... you still failed to kill Gu Changhuai?"
Venerable Green Face's face turned ugly.
Master Wu took a soft breath, his expression cold. "I spent all that time casting spells to trap him for you, and you still could not kill him?"
Venerable Green Face said darkly, "I was close. If not for that black-robed thief deceiving and getting in my way, that dog Gu would already be nothing but bones."
Master Wu paid no attention to these excuses. He only said, "In any case, Gu Changhuai must die within the borders of Qingchou Prefecture."
Venerable Green Face showed displeasure, but still cupped his hands. "Yes..."
Master Wu mused for a moment, curious, and asked, "You say... a black-robed cultivator, posing as a sorcerer, deceived you and saved Gu Changhuai from your hands?"
Venerable Green Face nodded. "Yes."
Master Wu said, "Was that person at the late Golden Core stage, or at the peak of Golden Core?"
Venerable Green Face was silent for a long time, then spat out two words. "Early..."
Even Master Wu, sinister and experienced as he was, could not help but change his expression. "Early stage?"
Venerable Green Face's face was ashen. "Early Golden Core..."
Master Wu's gaze at Venerable Green Face gradually grew wrong. He began to suspect that Venerable Green Face had some problem.
Venerable Green Face gnashed his teeth. "That thief's cultivation seemed to be at the initial Golden Core stage, but his abilities were uncanny..."
Master Wu said, "No matter how uncanny, was he not still at the initial Golden Core stage?"
Venerable Green Face said nothing.
Master Wu did not want to say anything harsh. After all, Venerable Green Face was not his disciple; he was a great fiend in the secular sense. The larger plan still relied on Venerable Green Face to kill and suppress.
Master Wu asked again, "Since he was so uncanny, what exactly were his abilities?"
Venerable Green Face said, "Fireball art, water-control arts..."
Master Wu waited for a while, but when Venerable Green Face said no more, he asked, "And then?"
Venerable Green Face said, "No then. That was all..."
Even the ruthless Master Wu could not contain the fire in his heart. "That really is... uncanny enough..."
A Fireball art. What an amazing ability.
Master Wu asked coldly, "You could not defeat him?"
Venerable Green Face's face twitched. "I could defeat him... but... I could not hit him."
"Could not hit him?" Master Wu's gaze could not help but turn strange.
Venerable Green Face was both annoyed and ashamed. "His movement... was too good. Oily and slippery, like a water ghost."
Master Wu said, "No matter how good his movement, was he not still at the Early Golden Core stage?"
"You are at the late Golden Core stage. You truly could not catch him?" Master Wu could not help but question again.
Venerable Green Face naturally did not want to admit it. His face was iron-blue, and his voice hoarse. "I was struck by that dog Gu's killing move. I was severely injured, my vital essence was greatly damaged, my blood qi disordered, and I could not put all my strength into the fight. That was why I couldn't seize him."
Master Wu looked at Venerable Green Face, his brows tightly knit.
He began to suspect that Venerable Green Face had eaten too many people and had ruined his own brain.
Everything he had said so far did not sound like human speech.
Any Golden Core cultivator with a normal brain could not have fabricated such a shabby lie.
Master Wu frowned. "Then in that battle, did you truly gain nothing? Could you not even wound that man's skin?"
Venerable Green Face was silent for a moment, then said, "I used all my strength... and cut off a strand of his hair."
For a moment, the air was dead still.
If an ordinary cultivator heard this, he would certainly find Venerable Green Face absurd.
But Master Wu was not an ordinary cultivator. Apart from finding it absurd, the moment he heard the word 'hair,' a glint of light appeared in his turbid eyes.
"How did you cut it off?"
"We fought close to a thousand rounds without a clear victor. In the end, I used a clever scheme, feinting left and striking right. At the moment of the feint, I roused the strength of my heart meridian, multiplying my speed. Only then did I cut three hairs from the thief's temple." Venerable Green Face said solemnly.
Master Wu's expression turned subtle. If he had not heard it with his own ears, he might have thought Venerable Green Face had accomplished some great feat.
Still, three hairs were not bad.
To ordinary people, three hairs might be insignificant.
But to Unorthodox sorcerers, the body, hair, and skin inherited from one's parents were extremely important ritual media.
Master Wu said, "Where are the hairs?"
Only then did Venerable Green Face carefully, with his blood-stained hand, take out three ink-black strands and present them to Master Wu.
These were the strands he had gone through endless trouble to cut from the side of that face.
Master Wu took the hairs, and his heart inexplicably trembled.
This was an Unorthodox intuition, telling him that these hairs truly held some mystery.
They were not the hairs of an ordinary person.
Master Wu nodded slightly and was about to begin the ritual, but a lingering doubt made him ask, "What origin did that thief have?"
Venerable Green Face shook his head. "I only know he is an extremely sinister man... I do not know his origin."
Master Wu asked again, "Then was he a true sorcerer, or a false one?"
Venerable Green Face shook his head again. "I cannot tell. He looked a bit like one, but then again, he seemed not to be..."
Master Wu silently mocked this fool, who could not even distinguish whether the man was a sorcerer.
He had to ask more precisely. "Then what did he look like?"
Venerable Green Face recalled the face he had glimpsed in that fight, and said, "Like moonlight, and like white jade, carved with flawless precision. Very detestable."
Master Wu frowned. "So he is very young?"
Venerable Green Face nodded. "That face was tender enough to drip water. His cultivation age was at most no more than fifty."
Master Wu found it even stranger, and asked, "When he fought you, did he ever use any Unorthodox sect sorcery?"
Venerable Green Face thought for a moment, then shook his head. "He did not use sorcery. Besides fireballs, one water-control art, and his movement technique, there was nothing else."
"Oh, right," Venerable Green Face suddenly remembered something. "He also used formations."
Master Wu was startled. "Formations?"
Venerable Green Face nodded, his pupils trembling slightly. "That boy's attainment in formations was profound and unfathomable. I simply could not understand it..."
Seeing that even Venerable Green Face, his 'enemy,' praised him so highly, Master Wu grew even more uneasy.
After a moment of thought, he nodded. "Too young, and skilled in formations... Then he cannot be a sorcerer."
For any branch of cultivation, to reach mastery required a great deal of time, day-and-night study, and focused polishing.
A cultivator's lifespan, time, and divine sense were all limited.
Especially divine sense, which seemed formless but was an extremely precious cultivation resource.
The Unorthodox path and formations were both disciplines that consumed "divine sense."
Whether studying the Unorthodox path or studying formations, to enter the hall and achieve some success required pouring a massive amount of divine sense into practice, night and day.
Therefore, the Unorthodox path and formations were almost mutually exclusive.
Both were major devourers of divine sense.
If one studied the Unorthodox, one had no extra divine sense to practice formations.
If one studied formations, one could not have the spare energy to study sorcery.
Studying both at once would inevitably lead to greed for too much, and in the end, neither could be mastered.
Some old monsters might cultivate both formations and the Unorthodox, but those were extremely rare cases.
Moreover, old monsters had long lifespans, enough time to slowly practice both.
But the 'thief' Venerable Green Face spoke of was different.
He was so young, yet already had remarkable attainments in formations.
That meant that in his short decades of cultivation, he had poured almost all his divine sense into formation practice.
If so, then he could not have gone on to learn any advanced Unorthodox sorcery.
Even if he had, the sorcery he knew would be limited, and he could not have any outstanding mastery...
Master Wu nodded, feeling that this was roughly the truth, and slowly relaxed.
Venerable Green Face was cunning and sinister, but he was not studious, and knew little of formations and the Unorthodox.
But Master Wu, a master of the Unorthodox, certainly understood the principles involved.
Master Wu once again sorted through the cause and effect in his mind, and after confirming there was no flaw, he said, "This old man will use these hairs to cast the gu curse and trace this person's karma. If he has some notable origin, I will withdraw for now and plan again. But if this child's destiny is weak, his divine thought unsteady, and he has no foundation in the Unorthodox, then do not blame this old man..."
A cruel light flickered in Master Wu's eyes. "I will use Gu sorcery directly, curse him until blood flows from his seven apertures and he dies on the spot."
Venerable Green Face was overjoyed. "Master Wu, your powers are great. I shall trouble you, Master."
Master Wu stroked his beard and nodded lightly.
Afterward, Venerable Green Face stood guard while Master Wu began to prepare the ritual for casting the Unorthodox Gu sorcery.
He spread a straw mat on the ground, then reached into the large black vat beside him and pulled out several living venomous insects.
Some of these insects looked like centipedes, some like scorpions, and some were venomous silkworms the length of a thumb. The strangest of all was a human-faced spider.
Master Wu placed all these venomous insects on the ritual mat and began adding various poisons to provoke their ferocity.
Then Master Wu dropped the three ink-black hairs into the gu vessel. When the Gu insects sensed the hairs, he began forming hand seals, chanting incantations, and casting the gu sorcery.
This series of rituals was the secret sorcery inheritance of his sect.
Master Wu performed it in front of Venerable Green Face, yet he was not afraid of being imitated.
Because while the ritual was visible, the true mystery lay in the invisible divine thought. Even if someone watched, they could not perceive the secret within.
This was what made Unorthodox arts so hard to learn, and so sinister and mysterious.
Venerable Green Face stood guard by the side. Indeed, he could not understand the mystery of the Gu curse, but his heart was restless, and his sharp eyes flickered without stopping.
In the center of the great hall, after finishing the ritual of the Unorthodox Gu sorcery, Master Wu concentrated his mind, stirred his divine thought, and followed the hairs in the Gu king's mouth to seek the unknown karma.
He wanted to see just what kind of person this young man mentioned by Venerable Green Face was.
Venerable Green Face, a late Golden Core cultivator, could not even seize him. Truly a waste.
With the five poisons protecting his body, the Gu curse driving the incantation, and the hairs as guides, Master Wu's divine thought seemed to merge into the void, probing the unknown threads of karma. In the midst of blurry confusion, he soon saw a slightly thin figure.
This figure wore a black robe, with fair, handsome features.