Liu Feng's figure blurred as he darted out of the kitchen.
He first swept his gaze around the entire mountaintop. Shen Yushu, Zhu Li, and the others were still nowhere to be seen. It seemed the Evil Object's influence remained.
"Beneath this mountaintop, there are more talismans stained with the Evil Object's blood!"
The mountaintop wasn't very large, but digging three feet down and searching inch by inch would clearly take more than a short while.
"Fourth Master, hurry and get rid of that demonic cultivator!" The two bandits abandoned the Green-Clad Elder and crowded around Liu Feng.
Liu Feng's expression was cold as he stared at the human skin drifting overhead.
"Fellow Daoist of the White Sun Sect, why not come down and explain yourself?"
The moment he spoke, the human skin's face bulged, and more than ten Human Skin Talismans suddenly dropped from its mouth.
Liu Feng's Compound Eyes caught the enemy's move at once. He couldn't simply let more than ten talismans unleash their power.
With no time to hide the fact that he possessed a second Exotic Gu, Liu Feng dragged his thumb across his forefinger, opening a wound.
"Puff, puff..." His crimson blood steamed into a bloody mist, igniting a great mass of Gu Fire.
The two bandits standing nearby saw flames blazing in their eyes. A crimson fire serpent shot up into the sky and collided with the falling Human Skin Talismans.
The two bandits couldn't make out what was happening, but Liu Feng's Twenty-Two Eyes saw it clearly.
There were fourteen Human Skin Talismans in all, and none bore any tainted blood. As they fell, faint white light glimmered across their runes. Two had already ignited, turning into balls of Nether Fire.
But whether they had already been activated or hadn't yet turned into Nether Fire, they were all scorched beneath the crimson Gu Fire and reduced to ash.
As the Gu Fire dissipated, Liu Feng didn't wait for the human skin overhead to use another evil art. He jolted both arms at once.
More than a thousand Gu insects detached from his arms. Some shot forward, while others spread their wings and surged upward.
In front of the house, the crazed Green-Clad Elder stared open-mouthed as the "True Person" was swarmed by Gu insects and, in the blink of an eye, was chewed full of holes.
"True Person! Oh, True Person!" the Green-Clad Elder roared hoarsely, charging at Liu Feng.
Before he could reach him, one of the bandits swung a steel saber backward and hacked most of the way through his neck.
"Die, you bastard!" the other bandit cursed, rushing up to land another blow.
The two bandits hadn't been on the mountain long, but their minds had already been affected by the Evil Object's tainted blood. Their murderous rage had grown beyond measure without them even realizing it.
At that moment, the Bald Bandit inside the main house had come to his senses somewhat.
He walked out with his steel saber in hand, only to see a human skin drifting down from the sky. He stumbled backward in fright.
The human skin landed on the ground, still covered in countless Gu insects. In an instant, it was chewed to shreds, no longer resembling a person.
After chewing through the human skin, the Gu insects crawled back onto Liu Feng's body. But he didn't want to take them back inside himself, so he could only leave them there to expend in battle later.
"It shouldn't have been the White Sun Sect cultivator's true body!" Liu Feng glanced at the tattered human skin, then turned his gaze to the empty mountaintop.
An Evil Object formed when the world's resentment took material form. The stronger the resentment, the stronger the Evil Object. And different objects each had their own peculiarities.
The Human Skin Talismans placed inside the Goat Head weren't the Evil Object's true body. They had only received some of its tainted blood, affecting the area around this mountaintop.
"Just one patch of tainted blood probably isn't enough to break the restrictions on Insect Valley."
"The White Sun Sect has an Evil Object. I wonder if Eldest Senior Brother managed to seize a part of it, or..."
Liu Feng paid no heed to the weeping woman inside the house. She seemed weak, but he knew that in all likelihood her mind had already been deranged as well.
He beckoned to the three bandits, then immediately took another route down the mountainside.
On an ordinary mountain, the path from the middle slope to the foot would take half a quarter-hour to walk.
But Liu Feng took more than half an hour. By the time he left the area around that mountaintop, night had completely fallen.
Behind him, only the Bald Bandit remained of the three.
"Fourth Master, we should hurry and find Second Master and Third Master. I'm afraid I might turn into a madman myself at any moment."
The Bald Bandit was terrified. He kept looking back at the mountainside where smoke had risen.
From here, the path leading up the slope was faintly visible in the night, yet the two brothers from before were nowhere to be seen.
Liu Feng glanced at the Bald Bandit and took a pitch-black Gu insect from his chest. It was the Nightmare Gu Larva.
"Even Medicine Slave Li Si can't sense the larva!"
He stood beneath the mountain wind for a while, but no one came. He didn't know whether they were too far away or Li Si's mind had completely gone awry.
The mountains stretched before him, and night hung like a curtain. It was as if the vast forest held only him and the bandit beside him.
As for Shen Yushu, Zhu Li, and the others, Liu Feng had no way of knowing whether they were still trapped on the mountaintop or had left after coming down.
"Let's go."
Liu Feng called out and led the last man behind him onward. Their two figures soon vanished into the depths of the night.
In the mountains west of Shao Mountain.
A burly figure, monstrous in shape, sped through the forest. His eyes glinted with bestial green light as he dodged each tree in his path.
This was Zhu Li, who had used the Ox Eater Gu technique. At that moment, his muscles bulged all over, and his arms were as thick as an adult's waist.
"I don't know whether Second Senior Brother and Fourth Junior Brother are still on Shao Mountain. I'll look for some useful clues, then hurry down the mountain."
As Zhu Li sped through the forest, he suddenly roared and wrenched a small tree from the ground with his bare hands.
"Crack, crack..."
He twisted off the tender leaves and smaller branches, then hurled the trunk with all his might like a spear.
The tree trunk, tipped with jagged splinters, shot out like a spear and pierced a human skin hiding in the distant bushes.
Under the tremendous force, the human skin was dragged through the air for several yards before being pinned hard among the dead leaves and branches.
Compared to Liu Feng's recently hatched Exotic Gu, Zhu Li's Exotic Gu, Ox Eater, had hatched nearly two years ago and molted twice. In a contest of sheer strength, even a first-realm martial artist who had refined their qi into marrow would be no match for him.
"Demonic fiend of the White Sun Sect! If you've got the guts, fight me in your true form!"
As Zhu Li spoke, he wrenched another tree from the ground and gripped it like a spear.
"You haven't even finished the appetizer, and you're already craving the main course! You're not even as strong as your Eldest Senior Brother. Why are you in such a hurry to die?"
The moon cast flecks of mottled light through the woods. A chilling, mocking laugh drifted from nearby.
"What happened to my Eldest Senior Brother, Pang Gang?" Zhu Li scanned the area and barked the question.
"Your Eldest Senior Brother is no longer the man he was. Like us, he's had his aperture opened. But he still has to die. The sect's masters have already gone to claim his head..."
"Had his aperture opened, like you? What do you mean? Explain yourself!"
As he spoke, Zhu Li followed the voice and pounced like a beast toward a large tree.
"Bang!" His fist slammed down, scattering broken branches and leaves in every direction.
But the tree's branches were empty. Only a Human Skin Talisman was there, burning to ash.
Just as he was about to search elsewhere, Zhu Li suddenly looked toward the bushes nearby. He heard a series of cracking sounds, as if something with equally tremendous strength was approaching.
Squinting through the darkness, he saw an Evil Specter burst out of the bushes, its flesh exposed and not a shred of skin on its body.
It wasn't just burly; it had the physique of a martial artist, and more than a hundred Human Skin Talismans were plastered over its body.
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