"That overgrown worm—you raised it?" Ergoudan's attention had never once left the blood-red giant worm. By now nearly half its body had pushed up out of the ground, rearing upright a good seven or eight meters tall, and if you counted its full length it was a monster of at least a dozen meters or more.

"Worm? Hmph, you ignorant fool—this is a Blood Corpse Worm, a thing that has existed since the primeval age. It's only that the creature is so savage and dreadful that in its maddest days it threw the whole world into chaos, and so from the primeval age onward the entire cultivation world listed it as a forbidden beast to be rooted out completely—kill every one you see, let no man keep one on his own. But as ill luck would have it, the old ancestors of our Evil-Warding Sect secretly froze a few larvae away. The larvae are no bigger than a fingertip—no one else could ever have found them." Sun Baixu spoke with smug satisfaction.

To prattle on endlessly at a simpleton—by any measure, that was a foolish thing to do. Yet it was not hard to understand. It was like carving a flawless work of art: any man would want to show it off to outsiders. It was only a pity that for now it could not see the light of day, and so he could only seek his satisfaction in Ergoudan—after all, in his eyes Ergoudan was already a dead man, thoroughly dead, and to a dead man, of course, you could say anything at all.

Ergoudan listened and understood not a word. He still did not even know what the Primeval Alliance was, and had even less notion of any Evil-Warding Sect. Sun Baixu might as well have been playing the lute to a cow.

Yet even playing the lute to a cow, Sun Baixu played with relish: "To raise a Blood Corpse Worm to full size, it must feed ceaselessly on the essence-blood of every kind of living thing. That can't be done in the Primeval backwaters—once discovered, there'd be no burying-place for your corpse. So I've been waiting for my chance, and the secular world's trial is the best chance of all! Heh heh, give me half a year and I'll raise this Blood Corpse Worm into a true colossus. By then it won't matter if the Primeval Alliance takes notice—let a Golden Core expert come at me and he'll only be courting death. From then on, under heaven, I alone am supreme!"

By this point Ergoudan had at last understood a little. He looked Sun Baixu up and down and said, "Are you out of your mind?"

"What did you say?!" Sun Baixu was wallowing in his splendid fantasy, unable to tear himself away, when those four words struck him and nearly bent his nose out of shape with rage. Such a perfect plan, and a man called it madness—and such a grinning simpleton of a man at that! This was beyond all bearing!

"I said, are you sick or something? Raise one ugly freak of a worm and you think you're invincible? Did a donkey kick you in the head?" Ergoudan's expression was dead serious. He sincerely believed that this Sun Baixu was a lunatic—and a lunatic who was sick in no small way.

"You're asking for death!" Sun Baixu flew into a towering rage. He had meant to let the simpleton live a while longer—even if the fellow could never fully grasp his grand plan, at least he should be left overawed and baffled by it. Who could have guessed Ergoudan would be so utterly obtuse? At once he pointed at Ergoudan and commanded the Blood Corpse Worm: "Eat him!"

Strictly speaking, the Blood Corpse Worm could not be counted a spirit beast in the proper sense. It did not nourish itself on the spiritual essence of heaven and earth, nor did it possess a spirit beast's intelligence—yet once it truly matured, it possessed the terrifying power to lay waste to heaven and earth. If one insisted on a precise definition, it was a savage beast of the wild.

Still, even if the Blood Corpse Worm seemed to lack intelligence, it could understand a few simple commands. Just now, for instance: at Sun Baixu's order the dozen-meter Blood Corpse Worm lunged at Ergoudan with a shrieking roar. Its featureless face somehow contrived to show a strange excitement—it loved the fresh blood of all living things, and human blood above all!

At the sight Ergoudan hastily sidestepped two paces, narrowly—by a hair—dodging the Blood Corpse Worm's first strike. The creature's reeking body grazed right past his cheek, and having missed, it plunged straight down into the earth. This thing's skill at burrowing was first-rate.

"Disgusting." Ergoudan wiped the foul, sticky slime off his face. Even a creature of his formidable tolerance could not help but feel his stomach turn. Never mind anything else—this worm was absolutely the most disgusting worm he had ever seen, bar none.

"You won't find it disgusting once you're dead," Sun Baixu said with a cold laugh, arms folded, standing off to one side. He showed not the slightest intention of striking himself. For a master of his caliber—peak Foundation Establishment—to lift a hand against a common man with nothing but brute strength would be to lower his own worth. True, the Blood Corpse Worm was still far from the legendary invincible ferocity of its kind, but dealing with one ordinary man was more than enough.

Ergoudan paid him no mind, concentrating instead on watching the ground. This Blood Corpse Worm that burrowed unseen was indeed a tremendous threat to him. He had drunk the complete version of the Great Strength Divine Gu, true, but he was not a true cultivator after all. His attack power was formidable beyond question, but a defense as feeble as any ordinary man's was a fatal weakness. If by some mischance the Blood Corpse Worm landed on him, then everything was finished.

A pity that the place was thick with bushes and scrub—once the Blood Corpse Worm burrowed underground, not a trace of it could be found. Had it been Wei Zhao, he could have locked onto its position by sensing with his divine consciousness. But what would Ergoudan know of divine consciousness?

Watching Ergoudan's cautious manner, Sun Baixu was amused all over again, and he watched the show with keen interest: "Idle I am, and idle I'll stay—so here's a tip for you. The Blood Corpse Worm will certainly come bursting up from under your feet before long, but just when is hard to say. You can try your luck—who knows, you might even manage to dodge it by sheer chance."

"Really?" Ergoudan gave him a serious look, then, rubbing his hands together, dropped flat on the ground. From the look of it, he had not the slightest intention of running—he meant to fight the Blood Corpse Worm to the bitter end.

"Hey now, you idiot—do you think you're scooping fish?" Sun Baixu was so exasperated he nearly laughed at the sight of Ergoudan's pose. Turning tail and running might be the stupidest choice in such a situation, true, but a fellow who meant to scoop a dozen-meter Blood Corpse Worm out of the ground like a fish—that Sun Baixu had truly never seen before. This one really was a bloody fool.