Longevity: Starting as a menial servant in the Green Wood Sect

The sharp pain that pierced my forehead came quickly and went quickly.

Gu An felt a churning in his mind, and then the foreign sensation receded like the tide, hovering again three feet in front of him.

"Huff... huff..."

Gu An suddenly opened his eyes, his pupils shrinking to the size of pinpoints.

He didn't immediately bow down or loudly question like the hotheads in those storybooks. In the instant he regained consciousness, his body's instinctive reaction outpaced his thoughts.

"rub!"

Gu An pushed off with his feet, and like a startled cat, he tumbled and crawled backward several feet until his back pressed firmly against the cold bronze fence corner before he stopped.

He held the broken "Cloud Piercing" sword, now only half its original length, across his chest. The tip of the sword trembled but remained firmly pointed at the ball of blue light. His other hand had already quietly grasped the last life-saving talisman in his storage bag.

Cold sweat slid down his forehead and dripped into his eyes, stinging painfully, but he didn't dare to blink.

"Hehehe..."

The aged voice rang out again, tinged with mockery and ridicule, echoing through the empty, deathly silent underground hall.

"Your reaction wasn't slow. What, little brat, did you think I was going to possess your broken body?"

The floating blue light bobbed up and down twice, seemingly sizing up Gu An's wary expression.

"With his useless talent of four spiritual roots, his meridians are full of poison. Although he has barely managed to cultivate a little bit of physical body, he has also overdrawn his lifespan... Even if this body were given to me for free, I would still find it dirty to taint my soul."

Despite being belittled like this, Gu An was not angry at all; on the contrary, he felt a slight sense of relief.

In the world of cultivation, if an old monster praises you from head to toe, it's most likely that he wants to use you as a cultivation vessel or a scapegoat; on the contrary, such ruthless disdain means that you are still safe for the time being.

Sometimes, having no value is the greatest protection.

Gu An took a deep breath, forcibly suppressing the fear in his heart, and tentatively spoke in a hoarse voice: "Since senior doesn't think much of this crippled body of mine, why bother showing yourself up to make fun of me? I'm just a sect servant who stumbled into this place by mistake, and I had no intention of offending you, senior, so please rest in peace..."

"rest in peace?"

The voice suddenly rose, carrying a chilling mix of anger and sorrow: "I have been trapped here for three hundred years, watching my body decay and my soul wither away, never once finding a moment of peace!"

boom!

As the sound rose and fell, the airflow in the entire hall instantly became violent. The ball of blue light shone brightly, transforming into a blurry, aged face. Although the features were indistinct, the imposing aura of someone who had long held a superior position pressed down on Gu An, causing his kneecaps to crack.

"Kneel down!"

A sharp shout, as if words had become law.

Gu An felt as if he were carrying two mountains on his shoulders, and his legs went weak. But he gritted his teeth and used his broken sword to support himself on the ground, stubbornly refusing to kneel down.

Throughout his life, Gu An could kowtow to stewards and act subservient to powerful figures in order to survive, but only when he needed their help or was in a situation where death was inevitable.

Although this old ghost is fierce, he is clearly just a remnant soul and needs his help. If he kneels down now, he will truly become an ant to be manipulated at will, with no right to negotiate.

"what?"

The face within the ball of light showed a hint of surprise. "You do have some backbone. Fine, then, you don't have to kneel. But let me ask you, who is the current leader of the Green Wood Sect? Is he Li Qingyun's grand-disciple?"

Panting heavily, Gu An forced a bow and said, "Reporting to Senior, this junior is merely a lowly spirit farmer from the outer sect and has never seen the sect leader's true face. I only know that the current sect leader's Daoist name is 'Xuan Lingzi'."

"Xuan Lingzi... Xuan Lingzi..." the aged voice murmured to itself, as if recalling extremely distant past events. After a long while, it let out a long sigh, "Times have changed so much. Even that brat Li Qingyun's grand-disciple is probably long gone."

The ball of light slowly drifted closer, and the violent tone in his voice dissipated considerably, replaced by a deep weariness.

"Young one, since you are a disciple of the Green Wood Sect, you must have seen the portrait hanging in the sect's main hall. Take a look and see who I am?"

As the words fell, the ball of light distorted slightly, projecting a phantom human figure into mid-air.

It was a middle-aged Taoist priest dressed in a blue robe, with a thin face, carrying a long sword on his back and riding a dragon. Even though it was just a phantom, the domineering sword intent still stung Gu An's eyes.

The moment Gu An saw the figure clearly, his heart jolted, and long-buried memories were awakened in his mind.

The first page of the "Introduction Manual of the Aoki Sect" that he received from the errand office had a drawing of this person on it!

Qi Yunmeng, the founding patriarch of the Qingmu Sect!

That legendary figure who single-handedly slew 100,000 demons with his sword, established a sect in the Southern Wilderness, and ultimately failed to break through to the Golden Core Dao and disappeared without a trace!

"You are... Ancestor Qi?!"

Gu An was truly shocked. He had imagined that this remnant soul might be some imprisoned demon or a senior master of the sect, but he never expected it to be his own ancestor!

"Hey, it's kind of you that you recognize this old man, little one."

Qi Yunmeng's remnant soul let out a cold laugh, his voice filled with endless desolation, "Everyone says that I failed to break through to the Golden Core stage and perished, but they don't know that for the sake of the sect's foundation and to suppress that inner demon, I had no choice but to imprison myself here, drawing a circle around myself for three hundred years!"

Gu An's eyes flickered, his mind racing.

Self-imprisonment? Suppressing inner demons?

He suddenly remembered the terrifying flesh-and-blood Tai Sui underground, and the words "Yi Wood Prison" on the stone tablet.

An astonishing guess took shape in his mind.

"The monstrous creature you spoke of, senior, could it be... that Tai Sui demon from the underground?" Gu An asked cautiously.

"You're quite clever."

Qi Yunmeng did not hide anything, or rather, having reached this point of exhaustion, there was nothing left to hide.

"Back then, my cultivation had reached the Pseudo-Core stage, just one step away from the Golden Core path. However, when the inner demon tribulation arose, the poison from the pills and the blood stagnation accumulated in my body over the years backfired, transforming into a mass of demonic flesh and blood that could not be killed no matter what."

"In order to prevent this demon from devouring my body and becoming a demonic cultivator, I had no choice but to use the ancient forbidden technique 'Splitting the Soul and Severing the Corpse' to forcibly separate that mass of demonic flesh along with most of my cultivation from my body, transforming it into the Tai Sui you mentioned."

Gu An felt a chill run down his spine.

To cut off a piece of one's own flesh and turn oneself into a monster, to imprison oneself underground for three hundred years to suppress oneself... Are the great beings in the cultivation world really this ruthless to themselves?

"That Tai Sui had no intelligence, only the instinct to devour. I suppressed it deep within the Yin meridians, intending to slowly extinguish its life force with the help of the earth's evil energy. Who would have thought..."

Qi Yunmeng's voice suddenly turned chilling, "For the past three hundred years, some unworthy descendants have colluded with foreign enemies, secretly sabotaging the seal, and even feeding it blood, fueling the arrogance of that monstrous creature! Now that demon has developed intelligence, if it breaks free and joins forces with the demonic bastards of the Blood Blade Sect, the thousand-year foundation of my Green Wood Sect will surely be destroyed!"

Gu An remained silent.

He thought of Zhao Feng, that mysterious neighbor, and the Blood Blade Sect's invasion plan.

It turns out that everything was orchestrated around the "rotten flesh" of this ancestor.

"Senior..." Gu An carefully considered his words. Since this remnant soul was an ancestor, perhaps he could try to curry favor with him?

"Then why don't you just take action and destroy that monster?"