Demonic Beasts

Several minutes later, Zhou Yunyi, who had gone after Su Nanxing, returned.

Just as Gu Jinlai had guessed, once Zhou Yunyi realized the route of pursuit was dangerous, he feared it was a scheme to lure the tiger from the mountain. He retreated after chasing for less than a li.

In the courtyard were Hong Shan, the awakened Zhao Yiping, and the various Gang Condensing and Qi Refining disciples.

Looking at Fang Cai's headless corpse, Zhou Yunyi's expression was rather grim.

"With so many of you lying in ambush around the area, you still let him escape?"

He stared at Hong Shan, visibly furious.

"To avoid alerting Gu Jinlai, our encirclement was some distance from Protector Fang's courtyard. But if Protector Fang had held on for a moment, we could still have completed the encirclement. We simply never expected that in less than three breaths, Protector Fang had already... We had no time to close the net at all."

Hong Shan looked at Fang Cai's corpse with some fear.

A clansman who had come with Zhou Yunyi could not help saying, "Killing a fellow disciple is a grave taboo in any faction. Ancient Demon Gu murdered Protector Fang; such conduct has already violated the sect rules. Why not report this to the Enforcement Hall and ask its experts to apprehend him?"

"Killing a fellow disciple?"

Zhou Yunyi glanced at his clansman and said coldly, "Which of your eyes saw Gu Jinlai commit the murder?"

"Isn't it obvious?"

"Gu Jinlai was wearing a mask."

Hong Shan replied.

"You think it is that easy to bring down an elder? You want to punish an elder based on nothing but speculation, without sufficient evidence? When the lips are gone, the teeth grow cold. Do you want the Purgatory Sect to fall into internal strife?"

"I..."

The younger man, who had wanted to show off his cleverness, lowered his head after the reprimand and dared not speak again.

Zhou Yunyi looked at Fang Cai's corpse, seemingly lost in thought.

After quite a while, he finally asked, "Gu Jinlai truly killed Fang Cai in only three breaths?"

"Not even three breaths."

Hong Shan said.

He had organized the closing of the net as soon as he heard Fang Cai's long cry, and he remembered it clearly.

"Report this matter to Sect Master Lin and let him deal with it."

Zhou Yunyi said, then turned and left with his clansmen.

Hong Shan wanted to say something, but...

In the end, he said nothing.

He glanced at Fang Cai and could not help feeling the rabbit's grief at the fox's death.

A starved camel was still bigger than a horse.

Even if Gu Jinlai had fallen from Spirit Refining, his strength was still not something Core Forming cultivators like them could provoke. It was true that wealth and honor were sought amid danger, but if one lost one's life, what use was any amount of wealth and honor?

Fang Cai was the best example.

With that thought, Hong Shan had already made up his mind to lie low for a while and not show his face lightly.

Lin Xiao and Gu Jinlai were openly and secretly fighting each other?

Whoever wanted to go could go.

South Street, at the mouth of an alley.

Su Nanxing was waiting.

Gu Jinlai discarded his mask and emerged from a patch of shadow.

"He didn't chase after us?"

"No."

Su Nanxing shook his head.

"As expected."

Gu Jinlai remained calm.

He was old, his fighting spirit gone, seeking stability in all things.

Unlike a young man like him, sharp and driven, brimming with vigor.

Unfortunately, the stability Zhou Yunyi sought might not be stable at all.

Did he truly think Gu Jinlai was a faded flower from yesterday, that he could come kick him when he was down and still retreat unscathed?

"Let's go back. Then we'll leave the city and hunt Demonic Beasts."

Gu Jinlai said.

Changjun City could no longer be stayed in. If he continued swaggering about the city and provoked Zhou Yunyi into making the fish die and the net break...

He could not withstand that now.

After all, Spirit Refining cultivators rarely acted alone.

They usually brought along a dozen, several dozen, or even over a hundred Qi Refining, Gang Condensing, and Core Forming disciples, rushing in shoulder to shoulder.

"Hm!?"

At that moment, Gu Jinlai seemed to hear something.

His gaze shifted toward a certain direction.

There, a black shadow flashed past.

But that was not the important part.

The important part was that Gu Jinlai saw no Karma on it.

No purple, white, yellow, or red.

No Karma.

Just like...

Poultry, objects, vegetation, mountains, and stones.

What kind of person had no Karma?

"Follow it."

Gu Jinlai said, striding forward.

"Whoosh!"

Su Nanxing unleashed his movement technique, swift as a swimming dragon. He quickly overtook Gu Jinlai and intercepted the black shadow.

"..."

Gu Jinlai's mouth twitched.

Movement technique.

So this was why Gu Jinlai had sent Su Nanxing to meet Zhou Yunyi at night.

He was fast.

Bang!

A battle erupted ahead. Gang Qi burst forth, and the surging shockwaves sent stones flying.

But the other side...

Was using neither True Qi nor Gang Qi, but pure physical strength.

When Gu Jinlai approached and saw the black shadow clearly, he was startled to discover it was a black gorilla!

A demonized creature that had undergone mutation, with blade-like claws, thick limbs, and crimson light flashing in its eyes.

"Demonic Beast!"

Gu Jinlai's pupils contracted.

This was a Demonic Beast.

Demonic Spirits fused with savage beasts, guiding them to evolve and mutate, strengthening their bodies until every movement carried thousands, even tens of thousands, of jin of force.

How ferocious was that!?

Gu Jinlai's sword could break the sound barrier.

With ten thousand jin of strength, a Demonic Spirit's full-force attack was equivalent to wielding an iron pillar weighing several thousand jin and smashing into its target at supersonic speed, splitting steles and shattering rocks with ease.

At this moment, Su Nanxing's Gang Qi erupted and sword light crisscrossed, yet this Demonic Beast relied on its flesh-and-blood body to smash it apart, reducing it to powder.

A body capable of bearing ten thousand jin of force was itself tougher than refined iron.

"High-ranking Demonic Beast!"

Gu Jinlai judged its rank at once from the power erupting from the Demonic Beast.

Thinking of the information Su Nanxing had mentioned not long ago...

Was this the Demonic Beast ravaging Changjun City?

Clang!

Gu Jinlai drew his sword in an instant!

He focused his mind.

A Demonic Beast's body was powerful, as though clad in precious armor, and its vitality was tenacious, making it extremely hard to kill.

The Formless Sword Qi's optical invisibility and aerodynamic configuration could not kill them at all.

He had to use another form of the Formless Sword Qi—Wave-Penetrating State.

The Demonic Beast's senses were keen. Sensing the danger, it grew even more violent and kept growling.

Finding an opening, it suddenly erupted, smashing Su Nanxing's sword Gang apart. The force capable of crushing metal and stone continued unabated as it slammed into his body.

Bang!

Gang Qi exploded apart.

Under that eruption of pure strength, Su Nanxing's protective True Qi failed to block it in the slightest. He was blasted flying and crashed into a solid wall nine meters away.

Stone chips flew everywhere, and dust billowed.

Gu Jinlai could clearly see Su Nanxing's chest cave in, accompanied by the sound of bones breaking.

Gravely wounded!

This Demonic Beast was incredibly powerful. Had Su Nanxing encountered it alone, he would likely have been beaten to death in this battle.

Just as the Demonic Beast finished one burst of force, its old strength exhausted and new strength not yet born, Gu Jinlai, who had been poised and ready, charged forward boldly.

He thrust his sword.

Whoosh!

Three rings of ripples seemed to spread through the air.

Like a wave-particle thruster, propelling forward wave after wave.

When the first ring rippled outward, Gu Jinlai's sword Gang had already pierced the sound barrier, a faint white mark forming at the sword tip. As the second ring dispersed, the sword Gang had already surpassed the ripples and pierced through the void.

When the third ripple spread, Gu Jinlai, man and sword as one, became like a missile. Flame-like light burst forth as he struck the Demonic Beast's body at lightning speed, carrying fierce sword Gang. The sword Gang erupted and exploded inside the Demonic Beast, tearing all its internal organs apart like an instantaneous cavity.

Roar!

The intense pain made the Demonic Beast let out an enraged roar. Its claws, as though forged from fine steel, smashed viciously toward Gu Jinlai.

The savage, Baleful Intent that rushed at his face made Gu Jinlai retreat without the slightest hesitation.

Yet even so, the immense force on the claws brushed against his protective True Qi, tearing through it as though crushing dry branches and rotten wood, shredding his clothes and leaving three wounds across his chest.

The Demonic Beast's ferocity and tenacity were displayed in full.

"Retreat!"

Gu Jinlai barked, his figure moving at extreme speed.

He knew perfectly well how severe the wounds caused by the Formless Sword Qi were.

Although Demonic Beasts possessed tenacious vitality, and some greater Demonic Beasts could even regrow severed limbs, they would not die unless killed within a short time.

But this Demonic Beast had all its internal organs shattered, and an instantaneous cavity had blasted a bloody hole ten centimeters wide through its body. How could it endure such a wound?

Gu Jinlai retreated rapidly while the Demonic Beast roared and pursued him. Its overwhelming, savage Baleful Intent rolled in like a tide, enough to make any Core Forming cultivator tremble in terror.

But just as he had guessed, after maintaining its roaring pursuit for a short while, the Demonic Beast finally could not withstand the injuries to its shattered lungs and organs. Its roars gradually became low groans.

More than a dozen breaths later, the Demonic Beast's muscular body collapsed weakly to the ground.

Blood dyed the ground red.

Gu Jinlai cautiously stepped forward, sword in hand, and drove it through the Demonic Beast's head before twisting the hilt.

Only after confirming that the Demonic Beast no longer moved did he pull out his sword.

"So, we really did come out tonight to slay Demonic Beasts and eliminate evil."