Gu Chuhao's mind was a mess, having absorbed too many secrets at once, but he wasn't naive enough to believe that Tian Yi had come all this way just to tell him such unspeakable things.
"Why are you telling me this?" he asked directly.
Tian Yi paused for a long moment. With his strong pride, opening his mouth had been a struggle for a long time. He sighed, "I just don't want to be trapped in this darkness forever."
Gu Chuhao understood. This person intended to exchange information for benefits. He sneered, "You deserve it."
What right did a perpetrator have to complain about their living conditions? If it weren't for the fear of being struck by heavenly lightning, he would never have let him live this long. He certainly wouldn't have been so kind as to let him out.
Tian Yi knew that showing weakness to Gu Chuhao for sympathy was useless. This person's youthful appearance belied a ruthlessness no less than his sister's formidable methods. Therefore, he had been waiting for an opportunity.
Now was an excellent chance that he had to seize.
"Gu Chuhao, I can help you achieve what you desire in your heart. I won't beg you to release me, but can you allow me half an hour of activity each day?"
Tian Yi was very good at discerning people's hearts. He knew Gu Chuhao would absolutely not let him go, so from the beginning, he made requests that were within the other party's acceptable limits and not harmful, planning the rest of his moves later.
Gu Chuhao's eyes flickered. "Why should I believe you can do it?"
"I saw through Yuan Dao's disguise long ago and got to know him up close. He's always been a petty person. Cautious and suspicious in danger, but arrogant when successful. The more he hates someone, the more smug he becomes. When he lets his guard down, he will naturally loosen his tongue."
"What if he doesn't loosen his tongue?" Gu Chuhao wasn't so optimistic.
Tian Yi had expected Gu Chuhao to ask this, so he had prepared his response in advance: "You can release me. As long as he's caught off guard, I can use my Eye of Insight to make him speak the truth."
Tian Yi's words did indeed move Gu Chuhao. He desperately wanted to know what was going on.
"Fine, if you can truly fulfill my wish," Gu Chuhao agreed.
Since he wanted to let the other party become arrogant and smug, Gu Chuhao couldn't exert his full strength. During the exchange, he deliberately feigned a miss, allowing Yuan Dao to seize the opportunity.
His long mace, like a whip, extended and struck his leg before he could evade. He lost his balance due to the force and toppled to the ground. Sharp spikes from the ground erupted like earth dragons. He dodged in panic, but a bowl-sized hole was still pierced through his waist.
Corpse fluid flowed all over the ground. His current "miserable state" clearly pleased Yuan Dao, who let out another string of harsh, unpleasant laughter.
"Brat, look at you. You came all the way to die, and I, your master, can only accept it, hahahaha—"
As he spoke, the long mace in his hand shot out, swishing through the air. With a single hook, it tightly wrapped around Gu Chuhao's neck. The malice in Yuan Dao's eyes intensified. He pulled back forcefully with his arm, dragging the person from the ground beneath his feet.
In a deeply insulting manner, he stomped on Gu Chuhao's face, deforming Tian Yi's cold, refined features.
Gu Junshi, hidden high above, had no idea what Gu Er and Tian Yi had discussed. However, she understood that Gu Er had deliberately gone easy during the fight.
What was he trying to do?
Gu Er's eaves hat slipped off due to the stomping and struggling. The harsh midday sun fell on his cold, grim face, immediately searing it with finger-sized blisters. Black smoke began to emit with a sizzling sound. In a short while, his corpse-white face became unrecognizable, as if splashed with acid and ruined.
He was truly daring. The essence of a flying zombie was a decaying body. Unlike cultivators, they couldn't use spiritual energy to quickly repair damaged tissues. Every piece of rotten flesh would leave a scar and a hole. Recovering completely would not be easy.
"Yuan, Wudao, what's the difference between me and death now? I'm not afraid of death, but I want to know, why... why did you do this?" Gu Chuhao struggled to turn his face at an angle beneath Yuan Dao's feet. That face, covered in dirt and ruined, greatly pleased Yuan Dao's perverted psychology.
Indeed, seeing Gu Chuhao utterly defenseless, appearing to be in excruciating pain and on the verge of death, Yuan Dao's guard loosened, and he felt inclined to share the evil deeds he had committed with the person involved.
He wanted to see Gu Chuhao die in the most agonizing and desperate state.
His sinister gaze, unmelting even under the midday sun, said, "Why? Of course, it's because your Gu family deserves to die. You ruined me, so your Gu family's Furnace Seed must reforge my immortal body."
"But I killed so many members of the Gu family and couldn't find a single Furnace Seed. In the end, only you and your sister were left. Your sister was born with a废灵根 (waste spiritual root), so she couldn't be the Furnace Seed. Yet, you, a member of the Gu family, know nothing in the end. Don't you think you're very incompetent!"
The Gu family must have a Furnace Seed; it must have been hidden somewhere. Therefore, Yuan Dao would not give up.
Mentioning this made Yuan Dao's face contort with rage. He stomped fiercely on Gu Chuhao's face again, maliciously twisting and grinding it into the ground.
This bastard actually annihilated his entire Gu family?!
Gu Chuhao's body stiffened in shock.
Although he didn't know about these matters of the Gu family before, and he didn't even know he had so many unseen blood relatives killed by Yuan Dao, after hearing his words, his blood seemed to surge backward. Despite being a corpse, he felt a fire of anger burning within him.
The dark energy in his eyes seemed like tears about to fall. The demonic nature of the creature erupted, clashing against Gu Junshi's restraint, making it tremble precariously. Grinding his teeth, he had only one thought: he wanted to tear Yuan Dao to shreds, bite by bite.
"Then, did you kill my parents too?" His sharp corpse claws dug into the ground, retracting, his words almost indistinguishable.
Upon seeing the hatred in Gu Chuhao's eyes and his helplessness lying at his feet, Yuan Dao couldn't help but want to say more to provoke him.
"Why would I kill them? If they hadn't died prematurely, why would I have had such trouble finding you siblings?"
Gu Chuhao didn't believe it. He asked Tian Yi to verify if what Yuan Dao was saying was true or false.
Tian Yi said it was true.
Gu Chuhao trembled and murmured, "So... they died accidentally."
Yuan Dao loved to toy with dying people the most. Seeing Gu Chuhao seem relieved, thinking his parents' deaths were merely an accident, he chuckled in a singsong voice, "Hahaha, although I didn't kill them, they didn't die by accident either. They were brutally subjected to soul-searching and then killed. Their souls weren't even left behind. You say they were lucky to escape me for hundreds of years, but in the end, they couldn't escape the fate of the Gu family."
Gu Chuhao's head exploded with a "boom." He shouted like a madman, "Tell me, what is a Furnace Seed, and what is the Gu family?"
Hahahaha—
Finally, he had stimulated this useless person to the point of losing all reason. Yuan Dao laughed excitedly and joyfully, but he also knew he had revealed too much, so he had no intention of continuing, "You useless person know nothing. Why should I tell you? Die!"
Tian Yi saw that Gu Chuhao was on the verge of losing control, and Yuan Dao was clearly impatient to answer and intended to kill them. He said anxiously, "Release me, and I'll ask for you!"
Gu Chuhao was stunned for a moment, then relaxed his consciousness and agreed to let Tian Yi take over.
"Gu Chuhao" opened his eyes again, but his gaze was no longer agitated and resentful. Instead, it was indifferent and emotionless. The demonic zombie pupils, stained with dark energy, spread like golden vines, seeming to penetrate the gaze exchanged in the static air, advancing unstoppably, entwining and piercing into Yuan Dao's spiritual consciousness.
He asked in a commanding tone, "What is a Furnace Seed?"
Yuan Dao's head jolted. The tsunami-like impact made him dizzy. He involuntarily responded submissively, "The Gu clan, due to their special innate bloodline, the women are naturally rare Furnaces. Within a century, the Gu clan will produce a Furnace Seed. A Furnace Seed is not a Furnace, but the Gu clan's Furnace Seed is born as an excellent spiritual energy container. If all the spiritual energy within the Furnace Seed is absorbed, and then their bones and blood are refined into pills using a Dan Ding and a secret technique, a new immortal body can be reborn."
Tian Yi hadn't expected there to be such a race and bloodline destined to be a stepping stone for others. But he had no time to think further. He immediately asked again, "Who killed Gu Chuhao's parents?"
Gu Chuhao...
Yuan Dao's face contorted in pain. He clutched his aching head and closed his eyes. The next moment, his spiritual consciousness erupted. Yuan Dao's spiritual consciousness was actually higher than his cultivation level. Tian Yi discovered that his pupil technique could not completely control him. At this moment, Yuan Dao prepared to counterattack.
"Gu Chuhao!" Tian Yi called him.
Gu Chuhao knew that once Yuan Dao became wary, he wouldn't be able to extract any more information. Thus, he no longer hid his strength. Dark patterns crawled across his pale skin. The current Gu Chuhao had lost all humanity, his aura incredibly violent, like a complex evil spirit risen from hell.
His speed was incredibly fast, his imposing figure closing in like lightning. Yuan Dao, caught off guard, was pinned to the ground by a claw. Besides underestimating Gu Chuhao, the displayed power was far beyond that of a flying zombie.
His corpse qi melted the ground into a blackened patch. Yuan Dao, his chest pierced by Gu Chuhao's claw and constantly infused with the invading corpse qi, cried out in pain.
But Gu Chuhao had no intention of letting him go. Even though he knew killing this person wouldn't help, as it was just a puppet, a fake person wearing Yuan Dao's skin.
Gu Chuhao's corpse qi blackened Yuan Dao's face into a gloomy black. His eyes and mouth gaped open. The black energy that entered and flowed out conflicted with his internal spiritual energy. This torment made Yuan Dao suffer immensely, trembling and hissing.
"Tell me, who killed my parents?!" he demanded sternly.
Yuan Dao coughed up a lump of black blood. He knew he was finished today at Gu Chuhao's hands, but like a cunning rabbit with three burrows, he sneered and decisively abandoned this hard-won puppet.
Compared to his life, he had nothing to regret!
Tian Yi exclaimed, "Damn it, he's going to self-destruct!"