“Sister, if father and mother were really harmed by someone…” His voice choked, unable to continue.
Gu Junshi examined his face closely, her gaze like a gently flowing stream, clear and deep. “I will help you avenge them. Those who owe our Gu family debts… not a single one will escape.”
Her tone was calm, but her eyes held a power that could wash away people’s confusion and inspire deep conviction.
Gu Er looked at her, opening his mouth several times but unable to utter a word. The turmoil within him could only be seen in his eyes.
At times, Gu Er felt a sense of strangeness towards this “Gu Yi” who had arrived in the cultivation world. He could guess that she must have endured much after he left. She didn’t have much affection for him, but Gu Er didn’t blame her. However, when she spoke of their parents with such cold detachment, his heart ached, filled with a bitter sorrow and bewilderment, unsure of what to do.
But at this moment, hearing her say “our Gu family” made his heart burn, as if he finally felt a connection of blood ties.
Gu Er quickly averted his gaze, not wanting her to see his embarrassing moment of being moved to tears.
Just then, he saw Sheng Chou finish his conversation with Yuan Dao and turn to fly away. Yuan Dao watched Sheng Chou’s retreating back, his small triple pupils narrowing, a displeased smirk tugging at the corner of his mouth. Clearly, these two were also in a superficial alliance, each with their own agenda.
“Sister, leave Yuan Dao to me!”
Gu Er took a deep breath to calm his emotions. When he opened his eyes again, they were filled with a chilling aura and murderous intent.
“Yuan Dao—”
He swooped down from above, positioning himself in front of Yuan Dao, and let out a furious roar. The Ghost Tomb Stone cracked with malevolence, startling the birds into a cacophony of chirps.
As an object of extreme Yin, he was not supposed to be directly exposed to the scorching sun. Although he would not vanish like weaker ghosts and spirits, he would still suffer varying degrees of burning.
Therefore, Gu Junshi had also gifted him a Xuanming Cloak, similar to her own. This cloak, capable of concealing his aura and possessing some hiding functions, was woven by Gu Junshi with Qi and netherworld energy as threads. As it wasn’t formed from proper materials, it lacked the durability of magical treasures. However, Gu Junshi had produced a hundred or so of them in a streamlined fashion for replacements, so she wasn’t worried about a shortage of clothing.
Initially, Gu Er felt a bit embarrassed and wanted to refuse, thinking he was taking a valuable collectible from his sister. But then he saw her pull out a small mountain of identical cloaks from her storage ring, and he was stunned.
…He had overestimated himself.
Yuan Dao heard the hateful, enraged cry and turned back in surprise. He saw a man dressed in a black Xuanming Cloak standing before his cave dwelling.
Gu Er hadn’t specifically concealed his face, so Yuan Dao recognized the face instantly – it was Tian Yi. No, it wasn’t!
A chill suddenly ran down Yuan Dao’s spine. He recalled the explanation from the elder’s disciple, Chen Daoshan, who was now crippled.
This person was not Tian Yi; it was Gu Chuhao who had possessed Tian Yi’s body. Therefore, this person glaring at him with resentment and coldness must be his former disciple.
Gu. Chu. Hao.
“It’s you!”
What immense audacity! Yuan Dao was dumbfounded. How could he dare to appear so arrogantly in the Void Gate…
He carefully observed Gu Chuhao’s current face. Beneath the long, wide, dark cloak, his body was slender and his muscles firm. His skin lacked the healthy blood color of a living person; his cheeks were pale and gaunt, his lips tinged with purple, and his pair of chilling, dark eyes unnaturally occupied almost his entire face.
He was indeed a Flying Corpse!
Not long ago, Sheng Chou had brought him bad news. He had thought Gu Chuhao had fled with his tail between his legs, making it difficult to find such a timid creature that only dared to hide in dark corners. But he hadn’t expected—
“Hahahahaha… Gu Chuhao, are you stupid or foolish? Your master was just wondering how to find you, and you’ve come all the way here yourself?”
Yuan Dao didn’t take Gu Chuhao seriously at all. He was merely a hastily formed Flying Corpse that had leaked Yin energy from the Nirvana Stone. He wasn’t as powerful as a Flying Corpse nurtured by Yin energy for thousands of years.
Moreover, this was not the Dark Realm of the Crossing Life Temple, where a Flying Corpse’s power would be suppressed. It was therefore normal for Yuan Dao to be so dismissive of Gu Chuhao.
Gu Chuhao saw Yuan Dao’s lack of guilt and, after a moment’s thought, understood the other’s intentions. He let out a cold sneer, “Why? Why did you kill me? I always respected you as my most esteemed master, yet you deliberately led me to the Crossing Life Temple to steal the Nirvana Pearl, causing me to become this evil being. Do we have such deep-seated hatred?”
Yuan Dao scoffed, “Gu Chuhao, you can only blame yourself for misjudging people!”
He was cautious and didn’t reveal any secrets. But Gu Chuhao was determined to make him speak.
Since he wouldn’t speak, he would make him speak through force.
Gu Chuhao had endured for too long, so he couldn’t afford to play cat-and-mouse games with Yuan Dao and decided to attack directly.
Logically speaking, there was a significant gap in their strength. A Flying Corpse was at most at the Nascent Soul stage. However, due to the suppression of the spiritual realm, it couldn’t exert its full power. This was Yuan Dao’s assumption.
Yuan Dao had just advanced to the peak of the Nascent Soul stage. Although his talent wasn’t exceptional, and he was merely an alchemist who had relied on refining elixirs to increase his cultivation for nearly five hundred years, his combat prowess wasn’t high. But this “Yuan Dao” fighting Gu Chuhao was skilled and sharp; he wasn’t a scholarly cultivator who only knew how to bury his head in closed-door cultivation and alchemy.
Gu Chuhao’s arm vibrated, and sharp black claws grew to a length of two inches, emanating corpse energy. If they tore open skin, not only would the flesh be ripped open, but corpse poison would also seep into the flesh and blood, causing it to gradually petrify and stiffen.
Yuan Dao didn’t take out his life-bound magical treasure to fight, whether out of contempt for Gu Chuhao or for other reasons. He drew a soft whip-like, four-edged mace from his sleeve. It was about four feet long. He flicked it into the air, and spiritual light enveloped it, accompanied by a whistling wind.
Gu Chuhao had never seen Yuan Dao use this treasure before, implying that their master-disciple relationship was not close, and he wouldn’t reveal any secrets to him.
But he had heard from other fellow disciples that Yuan Dao’s life-bound treasure was a Yuan Chu Gong, primarily used for defense and disruption, which suited his alchemist combat style. However, this Yuan Dao, completely different from others’ memories, was like a fake skin over a living being, making him utterly disgusting.
Yuan Dao swung the mace, and the spiritual killing energy surged, transforming into sharp cones. This strike was intended to slice Gu Chuhao in half.
Gu Chuhao leaped up, rising from the ground. Flying Corpses, by nature, generally possessed strong bodies but lacked agility. However, he had practiced the Corpse Stealth Technique custom-designed for him by Gu Junshi. Once he detected “Shadow Corpse Transformation,” his stiff body would hoard the corpse energy internally rather than leak it externally, and his entire physique would undergo a powerful regeneration, making him incredibly agile.
As he ascended, Yuan Dao’s mace-wielding lights cut through the ground like thin blades. After he dodged them, the passive skill of the spiritual weapon was triggered, and stone cones formed from countless shattered rocks rumbled towards him…
Yuan Dao’s combat strength was not to be underestimated. After a preliminary exchange with him, Gu Chuhao had estimated Yuan Dao’s true strength.
Although he didn’t possess the terrifying combat power of his cheap brother-in-law, it had to be said that the Golden Core cultivation was more imposing than the peak Nascent Soul cultivation. He could even continuously unleash various techniques without rest, forcing Gu Chuhao into a desperate struggle.
This Yuan Dao also didn’t expect Gu Chuhao to be more troublesome than anticipated. He had once seen a Flying Corpse unearthed after being buried for over seven hundred years. It emanated immense corpse energy and was buried in an extremely Yin location like the Ten Thousand Bones Cave, making its strength formidable.
However, the weaknesses of such evil beings had long been clearly analyzed by righteous cultivators. Their movement speed was no match for cultivators who could fly swiftly through the air, and even the most powerful zombies feared the power of pure Yang.
Just as Gu Chuhao was about to unleash “Corpse Stealth Technique – Six Scrolls, Art One: Shadow Corpse Transformation, and Corpse Stealth Technique – Seven Scrolls, Art One: Cursing Butcher,” a weak and chilling voice, like that of a dead person, suddenly appeared in his mind: “Gu Chuhao, do you really think you can capture him and interrogate him under torture to get the truth?”
At first, Gu Chuhao was startled and couldn’t identify the speaker. But he quickly realized: “Tian Yi?!”
Right, the original owner of this Flying Corpse wasn’t dead. He was merely imprisoned within this body by his sister and could no longer contend with him for the use of the Flying Corpse.
Why not directly obliterate Tian Yi’s soul?
Because his sister had said that Flying Corpses were naturally born Yin and evil entities. He was an “uninvited guest” of a dead soul from the outside. If he forcefully occupied the nest and destroyed the soul of the “landlord,” this would incur karmic debt. Then, when he cultivated to the level of a Drought Corpse and faced heavenly tribulation, the Heavenly Dao would sense that he was not the original owner but an intruder who had occupied someone else’s body.
At that time, it was likely that the Heavenly Dao would not give him any further chance to survive. The heavenly tribulation would directly transform into purple lightning that eradicates evil, and he would be smashed into ashes in an instant.
Therefore, Gu Junshi kept Tian Yi’s soul, waiting for Gu Er to evolve into a Drought Corpse. At that time, this refurbished body, tempered by heavenly lightning, would completely belong to Gu Er. Tian Yi would then be worthless, and Gu Junshi would let Gu Er dispose of him as he pleased.
Upon hearing Tian Yi’s voice, Gu Er recalled the evaluation of him by the Void Gate disciples. Tian Yi was born with the “Eye of Insight,” capable of discerning truth from falsehood in the world. Hence, he was precocious and extremely perceptive. However, a person with such clear eyes had not chosen to eliminate evil and protect good but had instead aided and abetted evil.
“What do you mean by that?” Gu Chuhao asked in a deep voice.
Tian Yi clearly knew something. He originally didn’t want to share these matters with others, but given his current predicament, he saw no need to carry any secrets to his grave.
He weighed the situation and said, “The Yuan Dao who took you as a disciple is not the real Yuan Dao. If you push him too hard, he might abandon this fabricated puppet body.”
Gu Chuhao was stunned.
He might not have understood the deeper meaning of Tian Yi’s words before, but he had a formidable sister. Just recently, his sister had refined a demon puppet in front of him.
He hadn’t expected things to turn out this way. This “Yuan Dao” was not the real Yuan Dao. Therefore, he wasn’t outwardly respectable but had planned from the beginning to impersonate a righteous cultivator and infiltrate a righteous sect for nefarious purposes. Then, who exactly was this “Yuan Dao”?