After taking a few more steps, Gui Wuzang suddenly frowned and ca to a halt.
Up ahead was a sparse forest. Deprived of sunlight for years and soaked in dense yin qi, the trees had long since mutated. The leaves had turned a dull grayish green, tough and rigid like iron.
As the night wind swept through, branches and leaves clashed with a sharp, tallic clatter. In the eerie stillness, a chilling sense of nace lood.
Amid that tallic rustling, the once-stable qi chanisms began to slowly shift.
Unfamiliar and shadowy qi breaths drifted through the air. They were currently using an exquisitely subtle technique to stir and manipulate the qi chanisms connected to a restriction formation. If he took even three more steps, the formation would react and activate.
Who’s there? Gui Wuzang narrowed his eyes. The technique at work was clearly from within the sect. And the caster was in the forest. Could it be that brat Hundred Ghosts knew he was coming and was trying to send a warning?
The more he thought about it, the more it made sense. But he wasn’t worried.
"Do you think you’re the only one who knows the Three ridian Calming thods? Others can too." Gui Wuzang sneered coldly, unfazed. He strode forward boldly, and just as he took his third step, he cupped his hand and instantly caught the seven qi chanisms that had begun to shift. With a gentle twist, he restored each one precisely to its original position.”
Just as he was feeling pleased with his flawless, effortless technique, a gentle voice called out from within the forest:
“Senior Brother Gui, you called out to ? What guidance do you have for your junior?”
“...Huh?”
Gui Wuzang blinked, caught off guard. Called out to you? What’re you talking about?
As he stood there confused, the leaves rustled again. A young man stepped out from the trees. Clad in a green Daoist robe, hair tied neatly into a topknot, the young man had an easygoing smile. At first glance, he had the calm grace of a breeze after the rain.
His eyes, half smiling, half not, were on Gui Wuzang’s still-raised arm.
Only then did Gui Wuzang realize.
The way he had flung out his arm while using the Three ridian Calming thods, didn’t it look exactly like he was waving soone over?
“Damn it!”
Gui Wuzang cursed under his breath. If he still couldn’t see that the man standing before him had co looking for trouble, then all those centuries of cultivation had been a complete waste. And judging from the way this man carried himself, along with that unfamiliar face…
“Hundred Ghosts?” he asked, testing the waters.
“Senior Brother Gui,” Li Xun responded with a warm smile, cupping his hands in greeting. “We rarely cross paths, don’t we? You called out to . Do you need sothing?”
Gui Wuzang looked at that blank face and suddenly let out a hearty laugh. “So it really is Junior Brother Hundred Ghosts! You’re right, we haven’t seen much of each other; but lucky for you, I happen to have sothing to discuss today!”
Li Xun raised an eyebrow, his smile growing even more pleasant. “Oh? And what might that be, Senior Brother?”
Gui Wuzang laughed again, stepping forward and raising a hand to clap Li Xun on the shoulder. “Nothing much, nothing much! Just thought I’d teach you… a little sothing about how to behave like a decent man.”
Those last few words had been squeezed out through clenched teeth.
In that sa instant, his hand shot forward, and his fingers clamping down hard on Li Xun’s shoulder. Then, with a practiced series of movents, he locked Li Xun's ridians, dislocated a joint, sealed his throat, and shoved him back against a tree with force.
Li Xun barely had ti to register what was happening. His body went half-numb, breath seized by the grip on his throat, and when his back hit the tree, his pale face flushed red, almost purple.
Gui Wuzang sneered coldly at the sight. “Junior Brother Hundred Ghosts, you’re still a bit green to be playing gas with . I don’t care what you were planning tonight. Right now, you’re in my hands, and that ans you’re going to listen.”
“I don’t care what Ye Ru promised you, or what you agreed to do for her. If you want to ss with my woman, you’d better be ready to pay the price. Out of respect for Madam Yan, how about I just cripple one of your arms?”
“Senior Brother Gui…?”
Li Xun’s face contorted with pain, but he still wore that baffled, innocent look.
Gui Wuzang hesitated, slightly loosening his grip so the man could speak.
Li Xun forced a strained smile. “Senior Brother Gui… I don’t know what you’re going on about. But honestly? Doesn’t matter anymore.”
The words gave Gui Wuzang pause...just for a half breath, and then he snapped back to his s for his senses.
His eyes sharpened, and just as he was about to exert force with his grip, sothing bizarre happened.
In that brief instant before his qi-strength reached his hand, the qi, against all reason, deviated uncontrollably.
A surge of turbid qi rushed abruptly to his head, causing his hands to weaken. In that instant, Hundred Ghosts, like a slippery loach, twisted with unnatural flexibility and wriggled free from his grasp.
This shocked him even more than his inexplicable qi deviation!
This should’ve been impossible. Gui Wuzang had sealed his ridians and disabled his arm. How can he move at all?
But Li Xun didn’t give him a chance to think. The mont he broke free, he spun around the tree and vanished behind it. A gust of wind swept through the branches, leaves clashing with that tallic sound. And in the blink of an eye, he was gone.
Just like that....a cooked duck had flown off the plate.
Gui Wuzang stood frozen for a mont. Then, embarrassed and furious, he exploded.
“Hundred Ghosts! Get out here! Hiding like a coward. Do you call yourself a man?”
“Senior Brother Gui, you speak too harshly....”
Li Xun’s faint voice floated through the trees, soft and hard to catch, like it could disappear at any mont.
"Using your fellow disciples as human cauldrons and making use of whatever’s at hand. That’s a skill your junior brother can never hope to learn.”
That little voice-twisting trick didn’t impress Gui Wuzang in the slightest. His eyes narrowed, scanning the area for a mont. Then suddenly exploded into motion, launching himself straight toward a spot in the forest.
“Go to hell, bastard!”
Li Xun’s body appeared like a drifting specter, phasing into view just long enough to fade again into the darkness.
Gui Wuzang’s fist smashed clean through a thick tree, splintering it into pieces, but didn’t so much as graze the hem of Li Xun’s robe.
Shadow-Devouring Body?
The scene before him felt oddly familiar, and that, in itself, put Gui Wuzang on edge. The movent technique Hundred Ghosts had just used resembled one of the sect’s top-tier techniques: the Shadow-Devouring thod. But sothing about it was... off. Not quite the sa.
It seed this Hundred Ghosts wasn’t soone to take lightly after all.
Gui Wuzang imdiately shed his earlier arrogance and no longer struck carelessly. Instead, he stood still, forming a hand seal with one hand while pulling a bronze bell from his robes with the other.
Staring into the pitch-black forest, he smirked coldly. With a slight shake of his hand, a delicate tinkling of bells scattered through the trees.
It felt as if a sudden gust had swept across the clearing. The mutated trees shuddered together, their branches and leaves clashing in unison, gathered and controlled by an invisible force into a single, sharp chorus. Amid this precise symphony, not the slightest irregular noise could escape his notice.
There you are.
Gui Wuzang was certain he had locked onto Hundred Ghosts’ movent trail, but he didn’t rush forward just yet. His hand ford another seal, and the bronze bell slipped from his grasp, flying through the dark night. It traced a faint, glowing arc like it had eyes of its own, weaving skillfully between the trees, heading straight for Hundred Ghosts’ location.
But that wasn’t all.
His hands quickly shifted through a series of seals, stirring hundreds of qi chanisms both inside and outside his body. Drawing in true breath, he traced a stroke through the void. A shimring, jade-green glow flickered to life before him, casting an eerie, sickly light across his face.
He grinned and pulled out a palm-sized skull, casually tossing it into the glow.
The mont the skull entered the light, a sharp and inhumanly unbearable scream burst out fiercely.
The piercing sound waves were not wasted at all; they converged into a sharp beam that slashed like a sword toward Hundred Ghosts’ position.
The scream grew sharper and went beyond the range that humans could endure, ultimately becoming silent.
But the invisible sword ford by the concentrated sound waves grew sharper and more fierce with every inch it traveled.
Wherever it struck, branches and leaves as hard as iron were cleaved cleanly in two.
Nothing could stand against it!
And as for the bronze bell, it was working its own kind of chaos. The faster it flew, the slower its chi beca, producing a wildly discordant rhythm that threw the entire space off balance. Even an ordinary cultivator hearing it would have their breath breath disrupted!
Watching Hundred Ghosts’ silhouette darting left and right, jumping up and down, Gui Wuzang was more than pleased. And he attacked even more fiercely.
In the blink of an eye, nearly half the forest had been shredded to pieces.
Judging that Hundred Ghosts was near his breaking point, he bared his teeth in a savage grin.
“Kid… tonight I’m teaching you a lesson you won’t forget. So won are off-limits.”
With that, the sonic sword energy suddenly exploded like a violent storm, tripling in strength. In an instant, every tree within a ten-zhang radius was sliced away, leaving the ground bare. There was nowhere left for Li Xun to hide now, and an even more fierce wave of attacks was about to follow.
But right then, Gui Wuzang heard a soft sigh echo in his ears.
“What an utter idiot.”
Gui Wuzang hadn’t even grasped the aning of those words when a rapid series of light explosions filled his ears. In the brief instant he was distracted, the qi chanisms around him had already shifted dramatically.
At least a thousand qi chanisms had veered off course—and each subtle shift marked a continuous, cascading change in the heaven and earth’s primordial qi.
And when all those changes converged and began to interact with each other, the formation was triggered!
“Impossible! I used the Formation-Suppressing Technique! I did!" Gui Wuzang’s mind went blank. This shouldn’t have been possible at all!
He had more experience fighting in this valley than any other disciple in the sect.
He knew just how dangerous it was. The entire valley was riddled with hidden restrictive formations, and the slightest disturbance could trigger their deadly effects.
That’s why any fight here had to begin with deploying the Formation-Suppressing Technique to steady the surrounding qi chanisms and guarantee safety.
And he had done that. He was sure of it. Before he struck, he absolutely used the Formation-Suppressing Technique.
So what in the nine hells was going on now?
The situation gave him no ti to think.
Driven by the shifting qi chanisms, the surrounding heaven and earth’s primordial qi had already beco restless. Countless bursts of force collided and tangled in the air, creating a surging, chaotic turbulence that closed in from all directions, trying to shake his body.
And if his body shifted even slightly, it would trigger an even more violent backlash.
And once that chain reaction began, he was....screwed.
At that mont, Gui Wuzang had no choice but to grit his teeth and hold his ground, not daring to move an inch. But standing rigid like that, he couldn’t use any technique to divert the incoming force. The crushing pressure from all sides hit him at once, and he imdiately suffered internal injuries. Blood sprayed from his mouth in a violent cough.
And just then, another sigh drifted through the air, followed by a breeze brushing lightly against the back of his neck.
“Hundred Ghosts!”
Gui Wuzang’s eyes were bloodshot with rage. The sudden shift from being the one in control to the one being controlled had already driven him to the brink of madness. And now, that mocking sigh, dripping with scorn, shattered the last of his reason in an instant.
No one knew where Gui Wuzang found the courage, but in that mont, he threw all caution to the wind, completely ignoring the deadly formations. With a furious scream, he spun around and drove his elbow straight back—
A heavy, dull crash of flesh and bone rang out. He felt sothing off in his elbow, and in that brief mont of surprise, he burst into laughter. Turning his head to confirm, he saw Hundred Ghosts’ chest caved in where his elbow had landed—broken ribs pushing inward, piercing organs. If the man wasn’t dead, he was at least half a step from it.
But…why did Hundred Ghosts’ face look like that?
Gui Wuzang hadn’t figured it out when Hundred Ghosts let out a strangled cry and fell backward. And right then, a cold voice rang out from not far away:
“Gui Wuzang! You have so nerve!"
It was Madam Yan’s voice. Gui Wuzang’s heart jumped, and he looked up without thinking.
Just as he lifted his head halfway, a sudden gust whipped up below. Hundred Ghosts, who had been falling backward, kicked up as he went; his foot catching Gui Wuzang square under the chin.
But before his gaze could even fully lift, a sudden gust whipped up below.
Damn, that kick was brutal! Gui Wuzang’s upper and lower teeth slamd together with a loud crack, and everything in front of his eyes suddenly blurred.
His mind went blank. All he could vaguely sense was that the fluctuating qi chanisms moving around him were suddenly drawn together by a mysterious force. And that force was…it was powerful. Very powerful.
And so, when Madam Yan and her disciples rushed over upon hearing the commotion and got within twenty paces of the scene, what they saw was Hundred Ghosts collapsing onto his back, his fate unknown; and Gui Wuzang, having just been grazed by the tip of Hundred Ghosts’ foot, staggering back half a step.
Right then, the qi chanisms shifted, the restrictive formation burst open, and the surrounding heaven-and-earth primordial qi was instantly drawn together and transford under the pull of the restrictive formation!
In the blink of an eye, a pure and unparalleled beam of Nine Netherworld Sword Qi burst forth from the ground, piercing right beneath Gui Wuzang’s neck. It slipped through like cutting paper, driving straight through his skull.
His head instantly caved in.
In that split second, his brain matter and blood were completely sucked dry by the sword qi.
It left no trace behind!
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