The Gap

Screams, curses, cries of agony...

The din continued in his ears as Liu Feng's vision cleared.

A moment ago, he had been running through what seemed to be an empty North District. Now he was standing on an old street.

Ruined tile-roofed houses surrounded him. The refugees who had been huddled inside had gone completely mad, all of them charging into the streets.

It was as if all the darkness they had suppressed in their hearts had been stirred up today.

"Fourth Master." A shout came from nearby. It was the long-faced bandit.

Liu Feng didn't look back. In an instant, he shifted into his Twenty-Two Eyes state.

His compound eyes blinked, taking in everything in all directions around him.

Apart from the long-faced bandit, he couldn't see a single one of the others who had entered with him, including Shen Yushu and Zhu Li.

Of course, Liu Feng didn't care about any of them. He only cared about one person: the Medicine Slave, Li Si.

Without the Medicine Slave, Li Si, at his side, there was no way he could bring back Eldest Senior Brother. He might not even be able to protect himself.

After all, aside from the Insect Valley's Eldest Senior Brother, the White Sun Sect's second-realm Daoist was likely here too.

"I have to find Li Si right away." Liu Feng's compound eyes blinked across his face, and his body naturally darted to the left.

A scrawny old woman with bloodshot eyes lunged past him. Two more madmen immediately pounced after her.

The madmen who had set their sights on Liu Feng—front, back, left, and right—couldn't touch him.

"Fourth Master, save me!"

Liu Feng didn't need to turn around. The compound eyes on the back of his head blinked, and he saw hundreds of Gu insects swoop down from the sky, targeting the long-faced bandit.

Liu Feng flung out his arm, sending roughly two hundred Intermediate Gu streaking toward them.

He wanted to see which side was stronger: his own Intermediate Gu, outnumbering them two to one, or the Eldest Senior Brother's hundred.

"Buzz, buzz..." The two swarms of Gu insects collided in midair.

One breath, two breaths, three breaths... Not even five breaths had passed.

Broken limbs and torn wings rained down. Not one of Liu Feng's two hundred Intermediate Gu survived. Most had been devoured; the rest had been chewed to pieces.

"The difference is this great?!"

Liu Feng's heart sank. A troubling suspicion came to him: the Eldest Senior Brother's Intermediate Gu had already undergone a qualitative change.

Most of the Gu inside a Gu Child were Mortal Gu. Mortal Gu could not evolve and had no rank.

But Liu Feng, now a Gu Master, had transformed every Gu within him into Intermediate Gu, which had a rank.

If both sides had first-rank Intermediate Gu, then even with twice as many, it would be hard to decide the outcome in just a few breaths—let alone see one side wiped out completely.

"Ah, ah..."

As Liu Feng pondered, the long-faced bandit's face turned blue-black. He collapsed to the ground, poisoned.

The hundred Intermediate Gu had a clear target. They went straight for the vital blood at his heart, and once they had eaten their fill, they didn't linger. They flew directly toward Liu Feng, who was nearby.

Liu Feng weaved quickly among the madmen. The hundred Gu insects ignored all the others and pursued him relentlessly.

Seeing that he couldn't evade them, Liu Feng slashed his palm. With a flick of his hand, his bright-red blood became a mist, which burst open into a net of fire.

"Sizzle, sizzle..."

The hundred Gu insects hurtled toward him and crashed into the fiery net. Their wings were burned away.

Liu Feng glanced down. Only a small fraction of the Gu insects on the ground were dead. The rest had survived, their bodies merely singed black.

His Intermediate Gu couldn't beat them, and his Exotic Gu technique couldn't burn them to death. Liu Feng could almost be certain that the Eldest Senior Brother's Intermediate Gu had surpassed the first rank.

"Without needing to worry about the hidden danger of the Insect Valley's restriction, Pang Gang may well have succeeded in his second Metamorphic Rebirth." The thought weighed heavily on Liu Feng's heart.

He was about to search for the Medicine Slave, Li Si, but he hadn't even made it halfway down the street when an enemy appeared ahead.

Among the madmen nearby, a broad-faced young man with a deathly pale face stood out. Like Liu Feng, he was one of the few people here who had kept his wits.

When the two met, each immediately recognized the other as a cultivator.

"White Sun Sect fiend." Liu Feng's compound eyes caught the folds around the man's neck. He was clearly wearing a Human Skin Talisman.

The broad-faced young man had likewise recognized Liu Feng's Twenty-Two Eyes as the sign of a Gu Master.

"A Gu Master? You're that bandit's junior fellow disciple! Die!"

The broad-faced young man didn't hesitate. He shook both sleeves, and more than ten Human Skin Talismans flew into his left hand.

He leaped onto the courtyard wall. As he moved along it, he formed a hand seal with one hand and flung the Human Skin Talismans with the other.

Boom, boom, boom...

Nether Fire ignited. Fourteen balls of it shot straight toward Liu Feng.

Meanwhile, perhaps because the Evil Object's true body was affecting him, or perhaps because he was desperate to find Li Si, Liu Feng's gaze had grown far more vicious than usual.

Naturally, his attacks were also far more ruthless than usual.

Buddhist power coursed through his limbs. His figure blurred, his movements so nimble that he far outclassed the White Sun Sect Daoist.

"Mind Eye Technique."

Under the White Sun Sect Daoist's horrified gaze, Liu Feng charged straight into the Nether Fire, then slipped past every flame like a shadow.

When the distance between them shrank to half a zhang, an insect leg shot out from behind Liu Feng and pierced the broad-faced young man through the abdomen.

The insect leg yanked him off the wall. Mimicking the Ape Spirit's punching stance, Liu Feng struck him with a fist infused with Buddhist power.

Thud. The broad-faced young man's head lolled to the left, his neck broken.

After killing a White Sun Sect disciple, Liu Feng didn't pause. He darted several steps to the left, dodging six balls of Nether Fire that came at him from behind.

"Having eyes in the back of your head really is convenient!" A cold laugh came from around the corner behind him. Another young man wearing a Human Skin Talisman appeared.

Liu Feng turned to face him. The man's organs had been nourished by True Qi until they brimmed with vitality. He was no ordinary White Sun Sect Daoist.

"White Sun Sect Eldest Senior Brother?"

"Oh, you guessed who I am. You're a clever one."

The long-haired young man who had just appeared was indeed the White Sun Sect's Eldest Senior Brother.

They stood ten or so zhang apart. They had barely exchanged a word.

The next moment, five insect legs sprang out from behind Liu Feng. With a vicious look in his eyes, he charged straight at the man.

The long-haired young man cursed, "You're asking for death!" With a beckoning gesture, dozens of Human Skin Talismans slid over from the surrounding walls.

"This man is unlike us, who opened our apertures long ago. He's already been affected by the Evil Object's true body, and the fool doesn't even know it."

"Urgent command, binding command, by the wrath of the gods... Slay the evil..."

The White Sun Sect incantation Liu Feng had heard once before rang out. The long-haired young man formed hand seals, and fourteen Human Skin Talismans arranged themselves into two formations before him.

The talismans inside the Human Skin Talismans glimmered. Two Fire Lotuses were about to blossom.

But in the next instant, his target vanished before the long-haired young man's eyes. The madly charging young Gu Master was gone.

The abrupt change made the White Sun Sect's Eldest Senior Brother falter instinctively, about to switch directions and search for his target.

"No, it's an illusion. He's still there..." His reaction was quick; he understood in an instant.

But in that brief moment of hesitation, a brilliant red glow flared overhead. The flames surged with the same turbulent force as the Fire Lotuses he had conjured.

Boom, boom...

A half-chi-long gash opened across Liu Feng's arm. As blood poured from it, crimson Gu Fire swept across the space half a zhang before him.