Chapter 115: The Hidden Enemy (2)

Rather than waste time watching the spies fight just as desperately as the other Black Desolation Sect disciples, Gu Yuan returned his attention to his original goal: finding the Corpse Furnace Sect Master.

It didn’t take long before he found his target.

Name: Bai Guquan

Age: 3200

Cultivation: Embryo Realm, Fifth Stage

Spiritual Root: Metal Root (First Grade)

Providence: Low

Special Note: Bai Guquan, Sect Master of the Corpse Furnace Sect, is affiliated with the Netherblood Palace. He was assigned to gather blood for the planned conquest of the Cangchen World. Though wary of the Heavenly Twin Stars, he joined the assault on the Black Desolation Sect in hopes of using the opportunity to improve his cultivation. However, should his life come under threat, he will flee without hesitation.

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Blood?

Gu Yuan’s attention lingered on that word. He had already noticed the strange behavior of the demonic beasts, the corpses being refined into puppets, and the way the surviving beasts seemed to grow stronger whenever their companions fell. Now, Bai Guquan’s appraisal mentioned that he had been assigned to gather blood too.

Gu Yuan swept his gaze across the battlefield, examining it more carefully than before.

Something was wrong. Despite the countless demonic beasts and cultivators fighting and dying around him, there was surprisingly little blood scattered across the battlefield.

Where had it all gone?

The more Gu Yuan learned, the more he felt as though he were peeling back the layers of an onion, only to discover another mystery underneath. Someone was clearly plotting something behind the scenes, and judging by the number of strange things happening on this battlefield, their plans were unlikely to be small.

Unfortunately, he didn’t have the time to investigate every mystery right now. Whatever Bai Guquan or those above him were plotting, Gu Yuan needed to deal with him first.

The man was currently disguised as an ordinary Black Desolation Sect disciple, displaying a cultivation at the Foundation Establishment Realm, when in truth he was a Fifth-Stage Embryo Realm cultivator.

He had blended himself into the battlefield so well that, without his appraisal ability, Gu Yuan might have overlooked him entirely.

Coincidentally, Gu Yuan had no intention of letting his target notice him, either.

He activated True Veil, concealing everything possible about himself. Then, using the Thousand Forms Ring and Silent Dust Art, he concealed himself even further. Now even a mortal had more presence than he did, and on a battlefield like this one, no one would notice him at all.

Only then did he start moving toward the Corpse Furnace Sect Master.

He didn’t run. He walked, calmly and unobtrusively, through the chaos, the Heavenfall Saber hanging loosely at his side, past disciples cutting down beasts and beasts tearing into disciples. No one looked at him twice.

When only a short distance remained from his target, he struck.

His expression remained peaceful, almost serene, without a trace of killing intent.

One moment, he was simply another cultivator approaching through the battlefield. The next, the Heavenfall Saber swept out of his hand.

Blood Moon Severance!

A blood-red crescent tore through the air.

The slash was so swift that its passage seemed to divide the chaos around it. A vast, crimson moon phantom emerged behind the crescent blade, its blood-colored radiance casting a fleeting red glow across the surrounding battlefield.

The moon seemed to hang in the air for an instant before its edge descended, concentrating its overwhelming power into a single, merciless cut.

It was Gu Yuan’s strongest attack, unleashed at point-blank range against an opponent who had no idea he was being targeted.

Weren’t you collecting the blood of everything that died on this battlefield? Then Collect this too.

That was the thought behind Gu Yuan’s perfectly peaceful expression as the blood-red slash closed in on Bai Guquan.

The attack struck.

Bai Guquan had no time to react. He hadn’t even realized that someone had attacked him, much less prepared a defense. The crimson crescent struck his chest, and for an instant, it seemed certain to cleave him in two.

But Bai Guquan was a man who valued his life above all else. He had prepared for precisely this kind of situation, and the treasures hidden on his person responded before he could even think.

A jade pendant around his neck shattered, releasing a barrier of pale light that covered his body. The crimson blade tore through it almost immediately. A golden talisman ignited next, forming a protective seal across his chest, only to crack apart beneath the force of the slash. A bronze mirror tucked beneath his robes flashed brilliantly, its surface twisting as it attempted to divert the incoming attack. It, too, broke under the pressure.

Each treasure bought him a fraction of a second, but none could stop Blood Moon Severance.

That’s when something small at his belt cracked.

It was a puppet no bigger than a child’s toy, carved from dark wood. When Gu Yuan’s strike reached the last of the man’s defenses, the toy lit with a sickly glow, and the blade that should have cleaved him in two seemed to turn aside, as if the wound had been handed to something else.

The little puppet shattered into splinters, taking most of the power behind the strike.

The remaining force struck Bai Guquan across the chest, carving a deep horizontal wound through his robes and flesh before finally dissipating.

He survived, but only barely.

The entire exchange had happened so quickly that most of the nearby cultivators had barely registered what they had witnessed. Those who did, however, immediately turned their attention toward the unexpected attacker.

"Who just attacked one of our own?"

"Wait, isn’t that Gu Yuan?"

"Gu Yuan? Who’s that?"

"The Twin-Star Consort. The husband of the Heavenly Twin Stars!"

"That Twin-Star Consort? Why is he attacking a fellow disciple in the middle of the battle?"

"Fellow disciple? Look at the cultivation he was concealing! That’s clearly an Embryo Realm cultivator pretending to be at the Foundation Establishment Realm. Does that look normal to you?"

The initial confusion quickly gave way to suspicion. Gu Yuan was indeed the husband of the Heavenly Twin Stars, but that didn’t mean everyone present knew his face, and even those who recognized him couldn’t immediately understand his actions.

Some thought he had mistaken Bai Guquan for an enemy. Others wondered whether there was something wrong with the man he had attacked. After all, concealing one’s cultivation wasn’t unusual in itself, but disguising an Embryo Realm cultivation as Foundation Establishment while fighting alongside ordinary disciples was certainly suspicious.

The more perceptive cultivators didn’t rush to condemn Gu Yuan. They instead watched Bai Guquan, trying to understand why someone like Gu Yuan would suddenly launch such a vicious attack against him.

Gu Yuan, meanwhile, was hardly pleased with the result.

His surprise attack had failed to kill Bai Guquan. He hadn’t expected the man to possess so many defensive treasures, much less a puppet capable of sacrificing itself to save its master.

Still, that didn’t change what he needs to do. Before the dust had even settled, he was already preparing to follow up with another attack.

Bai Guquan, however, had no intention of giving him the chance.

The instant he realized that someone had nearly killed him, his face twisted in alarm. He didn’t stop to identify his attacker or question why he had been targeted. He immediately turned to flee, abandoning any thought of continuing the battle.

Several demonic beasts nearby reacted to his movement, leaping toward Gu Yuan to intercept him. At the same time, a shadow descended from the sky.

Chensha, the puppet made from the former Corpse Furnace Sect Master, plunged toward Gu Yuan with lethal force, joining the demonic beasts in an attempt to overwhelm him before he could pursue Bai Guquan.

The situation had suddenly become troublesome, but Gu Yuan remained calm. He couldn’t afford to let Bai Guquan escape, not when the man was responsible for whatever was happening to the corpses scattered across the battlefield.

Without hesitation, he sent the Crimson Fire hurtling toward the fleeing sect master. At the same time, with the Blood Moon Severing Saber technique, he turned to face the puppet, killing the other demonic beasts that tried to interfere with a casual stroke of his blade.

His Crimson Fire, meanwhile, had already caught up to Bai Guquan. The flames surged toward the fleeing man, forcing him to summon another defensive treasure to keep himself alive. Gu Yuan couldn’t tell whether the attack had injured him further, but at least the man wouldn’t be escaping so easily.

Good. Now I only need to deal with this thing.

Gu Yuan turned his attention back to Chensha.

The puppet was a Sixth Grade puppet, the equal of a Void Realm cultivator. Gu Yuan had expected to struggle against it. He had only just broken into the Embryo Realm, and a whole major realm lay between them.

Yet, as the fight continued, he found himself less pressured than expected.

Chensha’s attacks were brutal. Every punch carried enough force to shatter the defenses of an ordinary Embryo Realm cultivator, and its movements were fast enough that Gu Yuan couldn’t afford to lose focus for even an instant. The puppet showed no hesitation, fatigue, or fear. It simply pursued him relentlessly, throwing one devastating attack after another.

But Gu Yuan wasn’t trying to overpower it with cultivation alone.

When Chensha threw a punch at his head, Gu Yuan raised his arm to block it. The impact drove him backward several steps, and a dull ache spread through his forearm. Before the puppet could follow up, however, Gu Yuan stepped back in and slashed at its torso, forcing it to defend itself.

He had felt the strength behind that punch. It was no joke.

Yet his arm had held.

Gu Yuan’s eyes narrowed as he began to understand the situation. The puppet relied primarily on its physical strength, using its reinforced body to overwhelm opponents through direct attacks.

To a cultivator who relied on spiritual energy and techniques alone, such an opponent would be exceedingly troublesome. But Gu Yuan had spent years tempering his own body.

Although he had only reached the Inner Palace Realm in body cultivation, the Yin Essence he had absorbed from Ji Yue and Ji Yan, along with the heavenly treasures he had consumed over the years, had pushed his physical strength far beyond what his cultivation realm alone would suggest.

Could my body cultivation have reached the equivalent of the fourth realm?

He couldn’t be certain. He hadn’t measured his body’s limits precisely enough to make that judgment. But the fact that he could block Chensha’s attacks without suffering serious injuries was proof enough that his physical strength was far greater than he had assumed.

That realization changed how he approached the fight.

Instead of continually retreating from the puppet’s attacks, Gu Yuan began meeting them head-on. He used his saber to deflect the strikes he couldn’t afford to take directly, while relying on his tempered body to withstand those he could. Whenever Chensha left an opening, he answered with a strike of his own, each slash aimed at the joints and vital points that held the puppet together.

His Blood Moon Severing Saber Technique wasn’t merely powerful. It was also far more refined than the attacks Chensha could produce. The puppet’s physical strength gave it an advantage in direct clashes, but Gu Yuan’s technique allowed him to direct his attacks with greater precision and make every opening count.

A crimson slash cut across the puppet’s shoulder. Another struck its side, leaving a deep gash in its reinforced body. The puppet retaliated with a punch that Gu Yuan narrowly deflected, then followed with another attack that he met with his own saber.

The clash sent sparks flying.

Gu Yuan didn’t back down. He advanced, his saber flashing in a series of increasingly forceful strikes. Chensha’s body was durable, and its strength remained formidable, but the damage was beginning to accumulate. Cracks spread across its surface, and its movements grew less fluid as its damaged body struggled to keep pace.

Gu Yuan still couldn’t afford to be careless. One clean hit from the puppet could turn the tables, and the gap between their cultivation realms hadn’t magically disappeared. But he was no longer fighting merely to hold it off.

He was beginning to gain the upper hand.

The puppet staggered as Gu Yuan’s next slash struck its chest, forcing it several steps backward. Gu Yuan followed immediately, the Heavenfall Saber gathering a dense surge of power as a blood-red crescent began to form along its edge.

The puppet steadied itself and raised both arms, preparing to meet his attack.

Gu Yuan’s expression remained composed.

This time, he intended to finish it.