Explosion

At this point, the golden seal had already led the ten members of the team silently into the warehouse.

As soon as he entered the warehouse, Jin Yin caught a scent.

"This is..."

"According to the information we received, Gu Jinlai has switched to cultivating as a Heavenly Master. Put nicely, the Heavenly Master Lineage forges swords and tames beasts; put less nicely, it works iron and feeds horses. It's perfectly reasonable for him to store large quantities of wood and coal in the warehouse."

One of the team members spoke.

Jin Yin frowned. Out of caution, he quickly searched the warehouse, avoiding any traps they might have stepped into.

Before long, he felt around in one spot and dug out some black granules. "This is..."

"Fireworks and firecrackers."

The team member explained, "This warehouse was supposedly once used specifically to store fireworks and firecrackers. A little residue from their powder is perfectly normal."

"Is that so?"

As he spoke, Jin Yin glanced around.

There were indeed some raw materials for fireworks and firecrackers. Such things might frighten ordinary people, but all ten of them had at least condensed qi into astral energy and were protected by true qi. Mere firecrackers were beneath notice.

"With all this crooked nonsense, I thought this warehouse was a trap Gu Jinlai had laid. That he'd used psychological warfare to make us walk into it ourselves. It scared me so badly I almost wanted to smoke a dry pipe to steady my nerves."

Another team member spoke.

Although Jin Yin did not believe that fireworks and firecrackers could break through their body-protecting true qi, which rivaled iron armor, he still instructed them out of caution, "Watch out for open flames. Don't let the fireworks ignite and make enough noise for Gu Jinlai to discover us, causing the ambush to fail."

"Understood."

The team members acknowledged him in unison.

At that moment, a light resembling reflected rays from a mirror came from outside.

Seeing the light, Jin Yin immediately said, "The target is almost here. Hide and stay alert."

Almost at the same time, a faint disturbance came from inside the warehouse.

The team member who had wanted to smoke a dry pipe to steady his nerves involuntarily looked toward the source of the sound. He saw a trail of flame and smoke flash rapidly toward one direction.

"Where did that fire come from?"

The thought had only just surfaced in his mind when, in the next instant, the blazing light suddenly became dazzling, filling his entire field of vision in a flash.

A terrifying force compressed the air and carried scorching heat as it slammed into them with the force of an avalanche. Their proudly held body-protecting true qi lasted only a moment beneath the impact of that dreadful power before being ripped apart.

The searing heat swept over their bodies, setting their clothes and hair ablaze and roasting their skin into charred coal.

"No!"

Jin Yin's furious, horrified roar came from amid the flames and explosions as he rushed toward a pile of timber at top speed.

But...

Considering the ignition efficiency and detonation speed of black powder, when arranging the warehouse, Gu Jinlai had deliberately left several places that appeared suitable for hiding from the shock waves. In reality, those places...

Had been packed with even more black powder.

"Rumble!"

An even more violent roar shook the heavens as the explosion spread outward.

At that moment, Gu Jinlai, who had just arrived outside the warehouse, clearly saw endless flames flare up, even eclipsing the radiance of the sun overhead. Then a gigantic fireball appeared from thin air, swallowing the entire warehouse from within outward.

The force of the heat-expanded air squeezed outward, forming rings of visible white waves that swept across the sky and earth.

Countless splinters, chunks of wood, and stones from inside the warehouse were hurled away by that sweeping force, like arrows fired from powerful crossbows, whistling in all directions.

The farthest splinters were thrown more than a hundred meters away.

Even though Gu Jinlai had deliberately kept a sufficient distance, the horse-drawn carriage he rode in still felt the gale howling beneath the shock wave. If not for Gu Jinlai's more than two thousand jin pressing it down, it might have been blown away.

"This..."

Su Nanxing, who had always been rather taciturn, could not help widening his eyes at the scene before him.

This kind of power...

If he, a Core Forming peak expert, were caught in the middle of it, he would probably be doomed.

"Is this the power of a Heavenly Master!?"

"Creak!"

At that moment, the carriage sank heavily.

Immediately afterward, Gu Jinlai's voice came from behind. "All right, it's time for us to clean up the aftermath. Finish off anyone who's still alive, and search the dead to see whether you can find anything useful."

As he spoke, Gu Jinlai emerged from the carriage after putting on heavy armor that made him over six feet three inches tall, nearly six and a half feet. He hung the two-meter-long greatsword in the slot specially left on his back, then strode forward.

However, after only a few steps, he already felt the burden of two thousand jin pressing down on him.

Just then, within the flames, one pale and three bright red clusters of light seemed to flicker, breaking out of the fire at varying speeds.

"You stop that one. I'll deal with the other three."

Gu Jinlai pointed Su Nanxing toward one direction. He activated the Spirituality Burst skill. In the next instant, his own spirituality seemed to be driven to its utmost limit, carrying his spiritual awareness as it continuously merged into his battle armor and battle sword.

The spirituality of the armor and sword was awakened.

At once, the burden of the two-thousand-jin armor and battle sword on him steadily decreased.

Fifteen hundred, a thousand, eight hundred, six hundred, four hundred...

In the blink of an eye, under the effect of the Spirituality Burst, the armor and battle sword on his body had dropped from two thousand jin to less than two hundred.

That weight still affected his agility, but it no longer hindered his movements.

Watching the direction in which the three red lights broke through the rolling flames and thick smoke, Gu Jinlai's "heavy" body advanced. Some stones and splinters were crushed into powder beneath his feet.

Soon, a red light carrying flames burst from the thick smoke. Before it could see the surroundings clearly, a sword astral force had already blasted out.

"Bang!"

The unknown Core Forming expert was shot dead by the astral energy.

The disturbance ahead seemed to alert the other two red lights. As one of them approached this direction, it let out an angry roar. "Gu Jinlai!"

Astral energy erupted.

A fierce ray, like a bolt of silk, tore through the dust and flames and slashed toward him with unstoppable force.

It was Jin Yin!

At this moment, the battle-seasoned Core Forming peak expert was charred black from head to toe. His eyes were wide, and the killing intent within them seemed capable of turning heaven and earth into a bitter winter.

Since their team had been established, when had they ever suffered such a crushing defeat?

Even when they had surrounded and killed a Spirit Refining expert, their losses had never been this disastrous. Yet now...

They had nearly been wiped out by Gu Jinlai, a Core Forming expert who had fallen from the Spirit Refining realm!?

"Die!"

Amid his furious roar, the astral energy Jin Yin unleashed grew even stronger.

Gu Jinlai did not even look at him. He raised the heavy sword in his hand and swung it down.

The battle sword looked light and nimble in his hands, yet when he swung it, it gave off a muffled thunderclap.

More than a thousand jin of weight accelerated instantly to the speed of sound, forming a visible hurricane and airburst in midair.

"Rumble!"

The astral energy Jin Yin had slashed out shattered the waves of air and shook Gu Jinlai's body before the sword reached him.

But...

Even when carbon-steel armor weighed less than a hundred jin, its defensive power could rival top-grade treasured armor. Now that it had been built up to over a thousand jin...

"Clang!"

The astral energy collided with the treasured armor on Gu Jinlai's body, producing a sound like a great bell and ancient chimes.

It was like firing a crude bow and arrow made from whatever materials lay at hand at a knight clad head to toe in plate armor.

In the end...

The astral energy scattered.

The strike merely made Gu Jinlai's body sway slightly.

"How..."

The expression on Jin Yin's face, still charged with boundless fury, froze.

In the next instant, the battle sword Gu Jinlai had swung came down like a flyswatter striking a fly, carrying terrifying force that made the heart tremble as it slammed into the Core Forming peak expert.

"Ah..."

"Bang!"

Before the Core Forming peak expert could even scream, his body exploded into a ring of blood mist.

Then he flew backward even faster than he had come.

The rolling smoke and raging flames were torn apart by the hurricane swept up by that sword, forming a smoke-free, fireless vacuum zone.

Before he even hit the ground, the bright red light belonging to him had already vanished.

"Not bad."

Gu Jinlai glanced at the sword scar on his treasured armor. "You nearly pierced a third of the way through my armor."