Immortal Dao Killer Move: Steal Life

"Aah-!"

Hu Fangyuan let out a hoarse roar, his legs driving hard as his speed actually increased again.

"Oh? You can still speed up?"

The Evil Soul Master behind him gave a surprised sneer, then his tone grew even crueler. "Interesting, very interesting. Let's see how long you can keep running, you little brat!"

Three figures pursued him from behind, neither fast nor slow, always keeping about a hundred feet away from Hu Fangyuan. From time to time, they unleashed attacks, forcing him to flee along the route they had chosen.

Like cats toying with a mouse, they savored the thrill of their prey fleeing in despair.

Hu Fangyuan ran past burning corridors, collapsed courtyard walls, and corpses strewn every which way. His legs grew weaker and weaker beneath him; he had lost too much blood, and his strength was beginning to fail.

Finally, when he reached a scorched flower bed behind the manor, he tripped and fell heavily to the ground.

"Can't run anymore?"

The three Evil Soul Masters slowly approached. Their leader crouched down and patted Hu Fangyuan's face with a pitch-black dagger, his voice brimming with perverse delight. "You little brat, you were having such fun running just now! Why'd you stop? Come on, keep running. Grandpa hasn't had enough fun yet!"

Hu Fangyuan lay facedown on the ground, his mouth filled with the taste of dirt and blood. He tried to get up, his right arm trembling as it braced against the ground. His left arm... his left arm was already gone.

Despair engulfed him like a rising tide.

Was he going to die?

Even after living a second life, could he still not escape death in the end?

Just then-

A faint, distant voice, as though it had crossed the long river of time, rang out beside his ear without warning:

"Wanderer far from home, you are like me, another pitiful soul with a home you cannot return to..."

The voice was soft and faint, as if it came from somewhere unimaginably far away, yet also as if it sounded directly within the depths of his soul.

At that moment, time seemed to slow countless times over.

The wind stopped.

The dancing flames froze.

The mocking smiles on the three Evil Soul Masters' faces froze in place.

Even Hu Fangyuan's own heartbeat slowed.

He clearly saw a palm-sized lotus-shaped Gu worm slowly fly out of the darkness. It was only the size of his palm, its lotus petals lustrous and translucent, a pale bluish white, with nine lotus leaves unfurling in overlapping layers and a faint glow lingering around the petal edges.

Tiny, dazzling grains of primeval crystal were embedded in the lotus's heart, and as it gently opened and closed, wisps of primeval energy shimmered out.

It floated and drifted, its petals gently swaying as scattered specks of glittering lotus dust fell away. As it turned, it gave off the faint, trickling murmur of a spring.

The lotus-shaped Gu worm slowly flew into Hu Fangyuan's hand. Its petals lightly touched his palm, then slowly released tiny strands of light that sank into his hand.

For a moment-

Hu Fangyuan felt an immense power suddenly surge into his dantian!

Like floodwaters bursting through a dam, that power instantly rushed through every limb and bone. His cultivation, originally only rank thirteen, soared wildly at that moment: rank fourteen, rank fifteen, rank sixteen... it only barely stopped upon reaching rank twenty!

But although his Soul Power Level stopped rising, the total amount of Soul Power did not!

Surging primeval energy burrowed into his meridians and dantian, swelling them painfully!

"What's... happening?"

Hu Fangyuan did not understand. Hu Fangyuan was bewildered. Hu Fangyuan's mind was completely blank.

Yet at the same time, a powerful instinct rose from the depths of his heart-

He should strike back!

He should make those three scumbags behind him pay in blood!

As though answering his wishes, that faint, distant voice rang out again, this time with a trace of killing chill:

"Junior, watch closely. This is... Immortal Dao Killer Move: Steal Life!"

Almost instantaneously-

Understanding dawned on Hu Fangyuan.

The Soul Power that had just surged into his body, overflowing to the limit, was instantly consumed!

And not just his Soul Power.

Hu Fangyuan could clearly feel his body seemingly about to be sucked into a withered husk. His skin shriveled, each rib jutted out, and his eye sockets sank deep. In the blink of an eye, he looked like a dried corpse.

Yet his consciousness was clearer than ever before.

He heard... an insect's cry!

The next moment, within a thousand feet of Hu Fangyuan, with him at the center-

The grass seeds barely clinging to life beneath the scorched earth had their faint, almost imperceptible vitality drawn out.

The lingering souls within the corpses, those soul fragments carrying resentment and terror, were drawn out.

The spiritual energy drifting through the air, the primeval energy of heaven and earth that should have slowly gathered, was drawn out.

Even the three pursuing Evil Soul Masters-their surging blood energy, burning like raging flames, was violently sucked over by an invisible vortex!

Every force of "life" converged on Hu Fangyuan at that moment!

The mocking smiles on the three Evil Soul Masters' faces instantly turned to horror.

"Wh-what's happening?! My Soul Power-my Soul Power is draining away!"

"What kind of sinister art is this?! My blood and vitality... my blood and vitality are flowing out!"

The masked Evil Soul Master leading them reacted fastest. He abruptly tried to retreat, but his feet seemed nailed to the ground, utterly unable to move. To his horror, he discovered that the Soul Power, blood, and vitality within his body were pouring out like floodwaters bursting through a dam, completely beyond his control!

He looked down at his hands-

Those hands were shriveling and shrinking before his very eyes. His skin cracked like a dried riverbed; his flesh collapsed, exposing the stark white finger bones beneath. His once-powerful arms turned into skin-and-bone sticks of dry wood in the blink of an eye!

"Aah-! Aah-!"

The masked Evil Soul Master let out piercing screams, his voice filled with terror and despair. "You little bastard! What sorcery did you use?! Let me go! Let me go now!"

"Help! Hall Master, save me!"

Another Evil Soul Master began to wail. His face had already caved in, his eye sockets sunken and his eyeballs bulging, making him look just like a hanged ghost. "I don't want to die! I don't want to become a dried husk! Hu Heming's son is a monster! He's a monster-!"

"I... I'll take you down with me!"

The third Evil Soul Master's eyes widened until their corners nearly split. Summoning his last ounce of strength, he tried to activate a Soul Skill to attack Hu Fangyuan. But his Soul Power had already been drained completely dry, and his Soul Rings were dull and lightless; he could not unleash even the most basic Soul Skill. All he could do was feebly wave his shriveled arms, struggling in vain like a drowning man.

In just a few breaths.

The three Soul Ancestor-level Evil Soul Masters became three dried corpses.

Their skin clung tightly to their bones, all their flesh, blood, and vitality drained away, leaving only empty shells. A gust of wind blew, and the three dried corpses crashed to the ground, shattering into countless fragments.

And Hu Fangyuan's body-

Was undergoing a bizarre transformation.

The immense vitality drawn over gathered, intertwined, and reshaped itself upon Hu Fangyuan's body.

At the site of his severed arm, where it had been cut off at the shoulder, countless hair-fine buds of flesh writhed, tangled, and grew wildly.

Those buds of flesh seemed alive, twining and weaving together, first forming the outline of bones, then winding muscles around them, covering them with fascia, and finally skin.

In an instant, a brand-new arm broke free of its cocoon!

The skin of that arm was as fair as a baby's, its meridians and blood vessels clearly visible beneath, and it was even more perfect and powerful than his original arm.

His newly grown flesh filled out his tattered robes. The wounds on his face healed, scabbed over, and shed their scabs before his very eyes, revealing smooth skin beneath.

His sunken cheeks filled out again, and his shriveled body regained its fullness. The body that had looked like a dried corpse just moments before returned to normal in the blink of an eye, even sturdier than before.

Hu Fangyuan sat dumbly on the ground, staring at his newly grown left arm, bending and straightening his fingers, clenching his fist, opening his hand... every movement was smooth and effortless, as though that arm had never been severed.

The danger was gone.

Only at that moment did the taut string within Hu Fangyuan finally relax completely.

He plopped down on the ground, leaning against a charred wooden stump and panting in great gulps. Cold sweat slid down his forehead, mingling with the dust and bloodstains on his face to form muddy streaks.

His lost arm, restored.

The strange, uncanny Gu worm.

The voice from an unknown source.

All of it left his mind unable to process anything for a time. He could only sit there blankly, like a wooden figure.

Only after a long while did he shakily raise his right hand and touch his left shoulder.

The skin there was smooth and whole, without even a single scar.

"It really... grew back?" Hu Fangyuan murmured, his voice so hoarse it did not sound like his own.

He lowered his head again to look at his palm.

The palm-sized lotus-shaped Gu worm hovered quietly above his palm. Its nine lotus petals gently closed, the glow along their edges flickering bright and dim, while the grains of primeval crystal at its heart sparkled with tiny points of light. It seemed to be resting, yet also seemed to be waiting.