Capturing Gao

Li Fuchan's gaze was deep and dark as he stared at the Fierce Tiger, as massive as a mountain boulder.

Cultivation was no easy matter for Monsters. Judging by Mu Liang'er's story, this Mountain Lord had not yet been a True Person two hundred years ago. To have reached such a realm two centuries later was already no small feat.

A thought suddenly stirred in Li Fuchan's mind. He turned and asked, "Fairy Mu, you said the Various Sects migrated north two hundred years ago. Were these the sects that moved six mountains, leaving only Black Mountain behind?"

Mu Liang'er did not know why Li Fuchan had suddenly asked, but she concealed nothing. "Senior, I know little of the circumstances myself. But according to my martial uncle, Seven Sects migrated north that year. Only the Six Mountains Immortal Sects truly established themselves in the Northern Lands afterward."

"Do you know Black Mountain's secrets?"

Mu Liang'er shook her head.

Li Fuchan pondered in silence.

"You wish to pry into Black Mountain's secrets?"

A heavy, muffled voice rang out, and fury abruptly flared in Li Fuchan's heart.

An Evil Spirit!!

Illuminating Light flickered between Li Fuchan's brows. He forcibly suppressed Li Thunder, immediately suffering a loss of Dao Attainment.

Li Thunder delighted in light and shunned darkness, bound monsters and punished demons, subdued evil and upheld righteousness. Its cultivators were meant to drive thunder and command lightning, marshal light and wield fire, break demons, refine and deliver souls, burn away evil, open barriers, and illuminate all things.

Yet Li Fuchan now occupied a dark chamber where no light reached him, stood amid obscuring barriers he could not dispel, and faced an Evil Spirit he dared not bind or punish. It was already a blessing that Li Thunder had not struck him dead on the spot.

In the world as it stands, even Li Thunder cannot manifest openly and risks vanishing altogether. What chance do I have? A True Person-level Monster stands before me, but I have no resolve to sacrifice myself for the Dao.

No wonder you vanished.

Li Fuchan mocked the thunderlight in his sea of qi, then bowed. "This lowly cultivator dares to ask the Mountain Lord for instruction."

"I am merely a monster. How could I dare instruct an orthodox cultivator of Li Thunder? If you do not disdain the company of monsters, I have a proposition for you."

"I respectfully await your words."

"West of Zongshedu Mountain stands a Low Hill, with an archer atop it. He is timid, unlike you, and dares not come up the mountain to see me. Sorry for the trouble, but bring him here under restraint."

It seems he is the man from the Gao Household whom Jia Hua said he had sent. I might even know him.

Li Fuchan agreed and was about to walk down the mountain when the Mountain Lord said, "An Outer Scenery cultivator rides wind and clouds. How could I let you go on foot?"

No sooner had he spoken than Li Fuchan felt a gust rise beneath his feet. The stifling sensation of a windless world instantly vanished. Before he could marvel, he reached out and seized firm control of the wind. Glancing at the Fierce Tiger from the corner of his eye, he felt horror stir within him.

Clouds follow the dragon, wind follows the tiger. Is this a True Person who has completed the Nature-and-Fate Root?

Gao Gongjin surveyed the chaos below the mountain with an icy gaze. He nocked an arrow and shot down the bald monk in the distance before putting away his bow and sitting cross-legged again.

Jia Hua lured me here to slay monsters, saying there were fellow cultivators I could rely on. Yet all I see are monstrous novices and the miasma of evil spirits. Alone, I fear I cannot kill them all. And that Mountain Lord watches me like a tiger eyeing its prey. Now I can neither advance nor retreat. Has Jia Hua joined forces with some household to trap and kill me?

Ever since Gao Xianxiang had stopped appearing, the Yuchi Household and Mu Household had repeatedly harried their borders, seizing a great deal of the Gao Household's territory.

It was entirely possible that Jia Hua had joined forces with one of them to kill him and divide up the meat that was the Gao Household.

Rumble.

Within the dark clouds, thunderlight flashed and lightning serpents writhed.

Gao Gongjin abruptly looked up, puzzlement in his eyes. "Thunder? There should be no thunder here."

Rumble.

Before Gao Gongjin finished speaking, another Thunderbolt struck. He gazed into the distance. Two hundred paces away, thunder and fire surged as a figure slowly emerged, wearing a black robe with broad sleeves, a tall crown, and a wide sash, a sword cradled in his arms.

Gao Gongjin's brow twitched.

Is it Yuchi Jing or Mu Yuehe? Someone from the Peaceful Way Abbey, or the garrison commander of Huaishuo Town?

The Gao Household was now like meat and fish before four households, each eager to divide and devour it.

The Dufu Hehe Formula could give warnings. Murderous intent had already appeared, so he seized his bow and drew its string, letting out a humming that contended with the Thunderbolt above.

"Within a hundred and fifty paces, nothing lives beneath my arrows."

He took clear aim, drew his bow, and loosed an arrow.

It struck Li Fuchan squarely in the chest. He toppled stiffly backward, but his body turned into a mass of fiery qi and dispersed with a whoosh.

Gao Gongjin's heart lurched. What a masterful substitute! The Yuchi Household has no such methods.

A hand had already seized his shoulder from behind. A forceful tug dragged him off balance. Gao Gongjin used the momentum to swing his bow backward, trying to entangle the person behind him with its string. His magical power had barely surged when that figure turned into watery qi and scattered with a splash.

He was about to draw his bow and loose another arrow when his hands paused.

This man stays hidden, and he has so many tricks. He must be trying to draw out my arrows. I cannot fight a prolonged battle. I should leave at once!

Gao Gongjin pulled away to flee.

He had barely moved when another call sounded behind him.

"Fellow Daoist, please stay."

A chill ran down Gao Gongjin's spine, and every hair on his body stood on end. His magical power surged out again to protect him. The man behind him had already dissolved into earthen qi. In an instant, sand and dust filled the sky and pelted his head and face.

Blinded by the dust, Gao Gongjin could not open his eyes. His head reeled, his brows repeatedly lifting and lowering as savagery spread across his face. What a venomous serpent lurks in the shadows! He forces me to exhaust my moves, leaving all my abilities with nowhere to strike. No longer sparing his arrows, he loosed one amid the murky wilderness, narrowly averting disaster.

Boom.

A bolt of thunderlight came straight at his face. Gao Gongjin was directing his Dharma Power to meet it when he suddenly paused, a thought flashing through his mind like lightning. How could he repeatedly use false bodies with such lively eyes? He must be making me suspicious, tying my hands and feet, before striking with Thunderbolt. This one is real!

As the thought arose, he threw himself left to escape the blow. Just then, Golden Light burst through the dust. A streak of swordlight slashed toward him, cutting his longbow in two with a crack. The bowstring whipped loose, nearly severing his palm.

"What a cunning scoundrel."

Gao Gongjin's face turned ashen. He hunched low, his brows pressed down, curling his body like a savage tiger or wolf and growing fiercer still. Before he could make another move, a mass of silvery-white radiance smashed down onto his head.

Gao Gongjin's expression changed sharply. Before he could react, the blow struck the crown of his head. His vision went black, leaving him only enough time to cry, "So it was an Ancient Arts technique!" Then he toppled stiffly to the ground.

The dust dispersed, and a pale-faced Li Fuchan slowly appeared.

He approached and bent down, about to examine the unconscious Gao Gongjin.

Unexpectedly, the archer suddenly sprang up and spat a flying needle from his mouth, striking Li Fuchan squarely between the brows.

The green bamboo snake's mouth, the needle behind the hornet's tail.

This needle came from Belly Yellower, a Poison Gu raised by the Gao Household, and could kill a person in an instant.

Tension showed in Gao Gongjin's eyes as he stared fixedly.

Yet Li Fuchan only smiled faintly. His figure drifted apart like smoke, turning into a wisp of green qi that vanished without a trace.

Silvery-white radiance lit up behind Gao Gongjin's head again, and another solid blow smashed down.

His face the color of gold paper, Gao Gongjin said bitterly, "What an unjust defeat!"

Only half an hour later did Li Fuchan reveal his true body. His face, too, was the color of gold paper. Clearly, this ordeal had been no easy matter for him either.

A Golden-Feather Arrow still pierced his left shoulder. It was coated in a potent poison that specifically dissolved Dharma Power, corroded bone, and ravaged the body, leaving him looking thoroughly bedraggled.

Looking at Gao Gongjin sprawled on the ground, Li Fuchan praised him. "What a cautious, vicious wolf."

With the Lord of Zongshedu Mountain guiding him, he had easily found Gao Gongjin's trail. Then he had spent a full fourteen hours fashioning numerous false bodies for the sole purpose of drawing out his arrows.

The Myriad Transformations at Will Register and Three Lights Method were both Ancient Arts, things Gao Gongjin had never seen before. How could he see through them and find a counter in so short a time?

Not to mention that when Li Fuchan had once stolen Gao Qin's identity and infiltrated the Gao Household, he had already learned every detail of Gao Gongjin's abilities.

Even with timing, terrain, and knowledge all in his favor, he had still taken an arrow. That alone spoke volumes.

"Compared with these tigers and wolves who have killed, shed blood, and fought viciously since childhood, I am merely a snake at the bottom of a ditch, a flood dragon in the water, with a little more sinister cunning and venom. I truly should not underestimate heroes."

Across all seven towns, Gao Gongjin could be counted an outstanding man, no mediocrity in single combat. But this time, ill fortune had broken the hero. He had happened to meet someone like Li Fuchan, and before he could fully display his abilities, he had been forcibly beaten into submission.

Li Fuchan searched his robes for the antidote and used a little. Then he seized him, summoned the wind, and headed straight up Zongshedu Mountain.