Chapter 43: Southern Border, Heart-Devouring Gu

Lu Qingyang stepped on the humus soil formed by millennium miasma, the Red Sun array patterns on the soles of his boots scorching the dark green moss. The gnarled branches of the Southern Border's dense forest obscured the sky, and tendrils of black mist seeped from the cracks on the surface of the qingmu spirit pearl, interacting with the colorful miasma floating around, producing a subtle sound like venomous insects gnawing.

The Xuanbing Marrow swallowed three days ago had condensed into ice scales on the surface of his Golden Core, which were now being steamed into fine water droplets by the humid and hot climate of the Southern Border.

“The mosquitoes in this damned place are more persistent than the courtesans in the Drunken Immortal Pavilion.” He flicked his finger, shattering a blood-winged Gu that was darting towards the corner of his eye, the exploding venom from the insect’s corpse corroding a hole in his sleeve.

Su Li’s Puppet Silk wrapped around a trembling patch of lichen, pulling out half of a bronze bell engraved with Taiyi Pavilion runes, its clapper surprisingly a section of a human finger bone.

Yinghuo’s silver bell cord swept away the vines in front, and a chensha stone shattered a shadow Gu attacking from the darkness.

Nine corpse Puppets clad in vine armor crawled out of a tree hollow, golden-threaded centipedes emerging from their rotted eye sockets, and the patterns on their carapaces were identical to the cracks on the qingmu spirit pearl.

“Ye Wuchen’s lackeys certainly know how to pick a place.” Lu Qingyang used two fingers to split open the skull of a corpse Puppet, digging out a walnut-sized soul-controlling Gu. “This Gu worm can fetch fifty Spirit Stones on the black market, everyone…”

Before he finished speaking, a mournful sound of a lusheng came from deep within the dense forest.

The corpse Puppets suddenly erupted, thousands of green-scaled snakes pouring out of the gaps in their vine armor, their flickering tongues surprisingly forming a fragmented chapter of the 《Five Poisons Secret Tome》.

Lu Qingyang stepped on the snake heads to maneuver, the array patterns on his boots reacting with the snake venom, scorching a fragmented array diagram of the Tai Xu Swallowing Sky Skill onto the decaying leaf ground.

The ice scales on the surface of his Golden Core suddenly flared with a cold glow, freezing the approaching poisonous mist into ice shards.

“Kan Palace shifts, Li Fire burns the heavens!”

Yinghuo’s chensha array temporarily repelled the snake swarm, and Lu Qingyang seized the opportunity to dart towards the source of the sound.

The qingmu spirit pearl reflected the entrance to the Myriad Gu Cave a hundred meters away, but the cave walls were not covered in moss, but rather layers of Heart-Devouring Gu eggs.

He flicked his finger at a swollen insect egg; the exploding venom revealed a scene of a Taiyi Pavilion Elder gouging out Cultivator hearts to raise Gu.

“Heart-Devouring Gu paired with Soul-Separating Powder, it’s even more poisonous than the Mandarin Duck Pot in the Drunken Immortal Pavilion.” He sneered, tearing off half of his Daoist robe to wrap around his hand, and reached towards the largest Gu nest on the cave wall.

Su Li’s Puppet Silk suddenly tightened: “The Gu nest is connected to the Earth Vein!”

The entire Myriad Gu Cave suddenly trembled, and the stalactites on the cave ceiling turned into poisonous spears, stabbing downwards.

Lu Qingyang dodged the falling stones, and the ice scale Dao patterns on the surface of his Golden Core suddenly opened their eyes, exhaling a wisp of Divine Sense mixed with alcohol scent: “Southern Border Miasma Mother, can refine a Golden Core.”

He threw three Exploding Flame Talismans with a backhand, and in the firelight, he saw an ancient shaman corpse sealed in amber—a bowl-sized blood-hole at its heart was wriggling with colorful Gu worms.

At midnight when the miasma was densest, a faint green phosphorescent light glowed deep within the Myriad Gu Cave.

Lu Qingyang stepped on the heads of corpse Puppets, leaping towards the epicenter of the tremors, the qingmu spirit pearl reflecting the bronze cauldron at the core of the cave.

The cauldron was not engraved with runes, but with a hundred Gu worshipping picture, and the leading Heart-Devouring Gu King surprisingly had the face of a Taiyi Pavilion Elder.

“Ye Wuchen’s quirks are getting more disgusting.” He pried open the cauldron lid, but what surged out of the cauldron was not Gu worms, but the solidified essence of the Miasma Mother.

The moment the essence touched the spirit pearl, the surface of his Golden Core suddenly became covered with blood-red threads, twisting with the ice scale Dao patterns into a strange totem.

Su Li’s Puppet Silk wrapped around his wrist: “Gu poison backlash!”

“Backlash?” Lu Qingyang shook off the silk, his pupils constricting to pinpricks. “Back then, to cure the love Gu poison, Mr. Lu swallowed the bile of a Seven-Step Snake King…” His words abruptly stopped, and he suddenly froze in place—at the bottom of the cauldron was buried the corpse of a Southern Border witch, the totems carved on her silver ornaments perfectly matching the cracks on the qingmu spirit pearl.

At the fifth watch, Yin Qi surged, and the Miasma Mother’s essence suddenly went berserk.

Lu Qingyang stepped on the collapsing stalactites, darting towards the depths of the cave, the qingmu spirit pearl automatically operating the Tai Xu Swallowing Sky Skill, swallowing the essence’s black mist into his Dantian.

The blood-red threads on the surface of his Golden Core suddenly flared up, and while grappling with the ice scale Dao patterns, they actually condensed into a phantom of the Gu King.

Yinghuo’s silver bell cord wrapped around a piece of driftwood in a dark river, and the three of them used the momentum to rush out of the Myriad Gu Cave.

Lu Qingyang found half a shamanic bone tablet in the miasma, the character “Ye” carved on its surface corroded beyond recognition by the venom.

He flicked his finger to shatter the Seal on the bone tablet, and the remaining Divine Sense revealed a map of the Southern Border branch altar, with a red dot marking the location explicitly labeled “Witch God Altar.”

“Ye Wuchen even dares to touch the ancestral land of the shaman tribe.” Su Li’s Puppet Silk probed into the crack of the bone tablet, pulling out a wisp of a shaman priest’s residual soul.

Lu Qingyang held up the phantom of the Gu King towards the dissipating phosphorescent light; what wriggled at the heart of the phantom was not a Gu worm, but half a sword tassel of Taiyi Pavilion standard.

Yinghuo’s chensha stone shattered an attacking flying head Gu, and she frowned, looking at the entangled Dao patterns on Lu Qingyang’s Golden Core: “Your Golden Core…”

“Still lacks three ingredients.” He tore off his venom-stained cuff, revealing his forearm covered in blood vessels. “After dealing with these Gu-raising Cultivators, it’s time to go to the Witch God Temple to meet that ‘old friend’.”

When the morning light pierced through the miasma, the three stood on the mountaintop, overlooking the shaman village.

The qingmu spirit pearl reflected the soul-summoning banners fluttering in the village, and on the forehead of the Heart-Devouring Gu King embroidered on the banners, there was a jade fragment embedded, originating from the same source as the cracks on the spirit pearl.