The Time of an Incense Stick

The entrance was like a dog hole, leading into a stone chamber that opened up into a space ten zhang wide. The interior was nearly pitch-black, illuminated only by the faint phosphorescence of several dozen worms.

The Gu insects were packed densely, surging like black waves, their shrill screeching deafening to the ear.

Without protection, an ordinary Gu Child would be reduced to nothing but bones in the blink of an eye upon entering this place.

Five figures stood there, their bodies covered in crawling Gu, a thick, toxic mist permeating their skin.

An atmosphere of extreme oppression filled the air; these five living men were forced to slaughter one another just like the Gu insects themselves.

Compared to the conditions elsewhere in the Gu Cave, the plight of these five, currently surrounded by the swarm, was far more wretched.

Standing amidst the mass of insects, they could not easily deploy their own Gu, for they had to rely on them to shield their bodies. Once the Gu and toxic mist on their skin were breached, they would be devoured by the surrounding swarm while locked in combat.

"Kill Liu Feng first, then the one surnamed Yan. The three of us will settle the score last," Liu Xing's voice rang out, cold and ghostly.

His eyes were bloodshot, blue veins bulged across his body, and his breathing was as heavy and ragged as a beast's.

Chen Xiaocui and Niu Yuanshan, who had come with him, were in much the same state; all three had consumed the Red Refining Medicinal Gu.

Almost in an instant, the three figures in the stone chamber moved.

Liu Xing, Chen Xiaocui, and Niu Yuanshan all shifted into the state of Twenty-Two Eyes.

The moment they closed in on Liu Feng, Yan Hongda also activated his Twenty-Two Eyes, unleashing a Gu technique designed to scramble the vision of others.

"Liu Xing, your opponent is me."

Hearing this, the trio turned their heads in unison to look at Yan Hongda.

Their gazes crossed, and the images in their eyes became a chaotic blur.

In a heartbeat, the entire stone chamber seemed to shatter into hundreds of fragments. Since all four men possessed Twenty-Two Eyes, they were all capable of discerning the correct positions within a very short span of time.

Liu Xing did not stop his advance. As Yan Hongda closed in, his arms swelled to twice their original size.

Veins pulsed along his thick, muscular limbs as he swung his Ghost-Head Broadsword, hacking down with wild abandon.

Twelve eyes blinked along Yan Hongda's arms. Utilizing his motion-tracking vision, he used his short blade to precisely parry the strike.

However, the immense force transmitted through the blade was staggering, sending him flying backward to crash into the churning swarm of Gu.

"You have a death wish. Once Liu Feng is dead, you're next—why be in such a hurry to die?"

Liu Xing possessed what amounted to one and a half Exotic Gu; though his attempt to refine the "Ox Eater" had failed, it had still granted him a fragment of its brute strength.

Looking at the other two, Chen Xiaocui's iron chains had already unfurled, while Niu Yuanshan faced Liu Feng with his massive shield raised.

As Liu Xing pulled away to join the fray, the three of them aimed their Gu techniques at Liu Feng simultaneously.

"Vision Distortion!"

Within their field of vision, Liu Feng remained motionless.

He watched the three charging toward him with a cold, indifferent gaze, not even bothering to open his compound eyes.

Before him, there were over a hundred chaotic images, but to Liu Feng, it was child's play! By relying solely on his Mind Eye Technique, he had already pinpointed their true positions.

"Your Gu techniques are nothing more than this!" A cold, sharp smile curled Liu Feng's lips as he reached back with a sudden, violent motion.

The five insect legs of the Soldier Gu "Split-Tooth" intertwined, transforming into a grim, massive sword.

Having been gorged on the essence blood of monsters, this Soldier Gu was in a bizarre state; its legs had swollen, and its color had turned a deep, flushed red.

Now, as it took the form of a greatsword, it had grown significantly larger, its entire surface bristling with exposed, jagged teeth that seemed to drip with blood, making it look increasingly terrifying.

Seeing Liu Feng grinning while wielding this monstrous blade—without even opening his compound eyes—Liu Xing, Niu Yuanshan, and Chen Xiaocui were all struck with alarm.

"Bluffing!"

"Die!"

Niu Yuanshan led the charge, slamming his massive shield forward, while Liu Feng swung the Soldier Gu "Split-Tooth" in a horizontal arc.

A muffled "bang" exploded outward, and Niu Yuanshan, along with his shield, was sent flying backward by the force of the blow.

"My turn!" Liu Xing's arms swelled again.

His limbs, thick to the point of deformity, were so engorged with muscle that they looked as if they might burst.

Flashes of light flickered through the stone chamber as the Ghost-Head Broadsword and the Soldier Gu "Split-Tooth" collided frantically. Liu Xing, who should have held the advantage in strength, found himself unable to suppress Liu Feng.

"To kill the three of you, I don't even need the time it takes for an incense stick to burn!" Liu Feng's smile remained cold as he traded blows with Liu Xing.

The second Exotic Gu egg within him had dissolved halfway, providing a second boost to his physique.

The essence blood of two monsters was a potent tonic; how could the Red Refining Medicinal Gu of these three compare?

His blood and qi surged; though the injury to his ribs had yet to heal, he used his Mind Eye Technique to anticipate their movements, remaining calm and unhurried.

"What use is this dead weight? To be devoured by the swarm is death, and to fall at the hands of this man surnamed Liu is death all the same."

Niu Yuanshan scrambled to his feet and discarded his shield. He split his protective Gu into two, hurling half of them toward Liu Feng.

"Buzz, buzz..." A massive cloud of Gu insects swarmed forward like a curtain of black smoke.

While parrying Liu Xing, Liu Feng shifted his footing, moving just enough to lure Liu Xing directly in front of him, using him as a shield against Niu Yuanshan's insects.

To the side, Chen Xiaocui waited for an opening, hoping to bind the Soldier Gu "Split-Tooth" with her chains, but she never found the chance to strike.

In her eyes, Liu Feng's movements seemed to have been calculated in advance! And the actions of the three of them seemed to have been accounted for by this man as well!

"We cannot drag this out any longer..."

Chen Xiaocui changed her target. When she closed to within four paces, she swept her iron chain toward Liu Feng's legs.

The result was as one might expect: it missed once again. With merely a glance from the corner of his eye, Liu Feng was able to dodge her iron chain with perfect precision!

Chen Xiaocui froze for an instant, as if waking from a dream, and a deep chill began to permeate her heart!

The next moment, she roared toward the entrance: "He, he is not right, Valley..."

She wanted to scream out loud, to inform the Valley Master that this person was absolutely problematic!

But her words seemed to have awakened a terrifying beast. Before the word "Master" could even leave her lips, Liu Feng suddenly turned his head to stare at her.

In that split second, Liu Feng's appearance changed drastically; all his compound eyes opened in unison, and blood vessels coiled across his body like black patterns.

As their gazes met, the Stone Chamber before Chen Xiaocui vanished without a trace, and she instantly plummeted into a black-and-white labyrinth teeming with countless Gu insects.

Above and below, front and back, left and right—the swarm of Gu covered the sky and earth, crashing down like a black tidal wave sweeping away everything in its path.

The Gu insects that had been surging within the Stone Chamber a moment ago were magnified a hundredfold in her vision!

Chen Xiaocui was clearly standing on the floor of the Stone Chamber, yet in her trance, the ground beneath her feet vanished. Reality and perception clashed, and she collapsed on the spot, falling toward the rolling tidal wave of Gu.

"Ahhh..." A girl's terrified scream rang out through the Stone Chamber.

"Splat!" With a single sound, the screaming came to an abrupt end; Chen Xiaocui was torn in two at the waist by the Soldier Gu, "Split-Tooth."

Once he had begun the slaughter, Liu Feng did not stop for a moment; he could not allow anyone to alert the old ghost Lu Huai outside.

His gaze shifted, sweeping over Niu Yuanshan, Liu Xing, and Yan Hongda, who stood dazed in the corner.

In an instant, the scenes before the three of them collapsed, replaced in the blink of an eye by a black-and-white labyrinth pieced together from hundreds of overlapping images!

The three of them were each trapped within one of these frames, becoming mere components of this "shifting" maze, where swarms of Gu surged like ocean waves across the black-and-white imagery.

"I am not reconciled..." Liu Xing's body swayed as he let out a hoarse, frantic roar.

At this very moment, he felt as if he had once again been reduced to a failed semi-finished product of Gu-seeding, while Liu Feng was the true success.

It was exactly like the day he had emerged reborn, when Ma Kun's Dead Eye had been ineffective against him, and he had crushed Ma Kun with his own Gu arts.

He now felt the same powerlessness as that wretch Ma Kun, forced to close his eyes! As for the Exotic Gu within him, when faced with Liu Feng, it was no better than trash!