Saving a Life

The Gu Family members cleaned up the wreckage left behind by the battle. Gu Xi and Gu Jing led Bai Yu and Liu Qingli slowly toward a hidden seclusion cave in the Gu Family's rear courtyard.

After disabling the surrounding formations, the four slowly entered the seclusion cave. Gu Xi gently pushed open a stone door within, revealing a rather spacious chamber.

At the center of the room stood an enormous bed of ice. An elderly man, gaunt as a skeleton, sat cross-legged atop it. All manner of strange medicinal herbs surrounded the ice bed, giving off their natural fragrances.

Bai Yu slowly approached the ice bed and activated his Delusion-Breaking Golden Eyes, studying the old man's darkened face.

Enhanced by the Delusion-Breaking Golden Eyes, Bai Yu could clearly see that the old man's blood had turned an inky green. Death qi pervaded even his sea of consciousness. Most bizarre of all, a mutation was taking place in his dantian—a massive lump of flesh had abruptly grown within it.

After so many years of nourishment, the lump of flesh had already taken human form. Like a bloated Buddha reclining halfway down, it fed on the old man's essence, qi, and spirit as its most nourishing sustenance.

"An Esoteric Sect method?"

Bai Yu spoke in a low voice. Though the outline of that bloated Buddha was indistinct, judging by its overall form and the power it radiated, it should be a technique of the Joyous Zen lineage.

"The Esoteric Sect?"

"Master Bai, are you saying our ancestor was ambushed by someone from the Esoteric Sect?"

Gu Jing froze upon hearing Bai Yu's words, then his expression turned to shock.

Over the years, they had invited countless alchemists and Great Apothecaries, yet no one had managed to identify the nature of the