studiobondurri Chapter 264: The east brings disaster
Chapter 264: The east brings disaster
Chapter 264: The east brings disaster
Boom!
A violent impact spread out, creating huge cracks on the ground as fierce winds howled, shaking the entire dungeon.
In terms of strength, the white ape ultimately had the upper hand. With a loud "bang," the wooden vine’s giant palm exploded into a hole about three meters in diameter, centered around the white ape’s fist.
The white ape darted through the shattered wooden palm and in a flash, was upon the golden ugly tiger, seizing its neck and biting down hard on its throat with a gaping maw.
With a "crack," the golden ugly tiger’s neck bone was brutally snapped, its body shuddered, and its life force completely dissipated.
Such a pity for the golden ugly tiger, a formidable being among spiritual beasts, to be humiliated and bitten to death by the likes of Hua Zhi and the white ape, two anomalies.
Hua Zhi, infuriated by the white ape’s intervention, immediately burst from the ground, lunging at the white ape as its vines shot out like crossbow bolts.Alll latest novels at novelhall.com
The white ape, not one to show weakness, charged towards Hua Zhi. Just as the battle between Hua Zhi and the white ape was about to erupt, a yellow light flashed between them, and Yuan Ming’s figure appeared out of nowhere, arms extended to both sides.
"Stop!"
Hua Zhi’s vision blurred, and suddenly it found itself above an endless sea, waves rolling and sea breeze blowing.
"The master’s illusion?" Hua Zhi was taken aback.
A force pushed it back involuntarily, and as its vision returned to normal, it found itself back in the dungeon, retreating several meters.
Hua Zhi’s grip on the golden ugly tiger’s giant palm loosened, and the white ape held the tiger’s corpse in its arms, greedily feasting.
"Master, you’re playing favorites, I want some too!" Hua Zhi cried out in grievance.
"The black aura carried by that ugly tiger seems to benefit the white ape greatly. Let it have the corpse. You’ve already absorbed a lot of black aura in the Snake King Valley’s underground palace. I’ll make it up to you later, okay?" Yuan Ming said.
The white ape, now seemingly mad, clutched the golden ugly tiger’s corpse, refusing to let go, prompting Yuan Ming to make this decision.
"Hmph, I’ll let it slide this time for the master’s sake," Hua Zhi said with a disdainful glance at the white ape, reluctantly agreeing.
"Why do both you and the white ape fancy this black aura so much?" Yuan Ming asked curiously.
"I don’t know, I just really want to absorb it when I see it," Hua Zhi replied.
Yuan Ming fell silent, then shook his head, choosing not to dwell on it any longer, and looked at his right hand. He was holding someone—it was Gu Qiulong, who had just had his leg bitten off and was knocked unconscious by the golden ugly tiger. Yuan Ming had grabbed him while using the illusion to stop Hua Zhi and the white ape from fighting.
Yuan Ming plunged a needle into Gu Qiulong’s abdomen, shattering his dantian and crippling his magic power.
Gu Qiulong’s face twisted in pain, but still overwhelmed by the Enchanting Incense, he did not wake up. Yuan Ming placed his hand on Gu Qiulong’s head and used a soul-searching technique, his expression quickly turning grave.
Gu Qiulong was no ordinary figure; he was a direct descendant of the Precious Spirit Sect’s Gu family, far more important than a collateral member like Gu Qiuming.
Gu Qiulong’s lineage boasted a Nascent Soul stage cultivator, who held sway in the entire Precious Spirit Sect. This Nascent Soul stage being was none other than Gu Qiulong’s grandfather, who doted on Gu Qiulong for his decent talent and sweet words.
Then, summoning a white jade flying shuttle, Yuan Ming flew towards Xiaohu City, quietly entering the city.
***
Carefully avoiding everyone, Yuan Ming returned to his residence at number 86, activated all the arrays, and placed a silver token on the ground.
Rich silver light emerged from the token, quickly spreading throughout the room, soon engulfing it completely.
Yuan Ming finally relaxed a bit, reclining on the bed and meticulously reviewing the day’s events from beginning to end.
From meeting Gu Qiuming to finding the Zhenling Pavilion, then to his sect, meeting his sixth uncle, and killing Gu Qiulong, there was nothing that could reveal his true identity.
He usually kept a low profile, and selling incense was mostly handled by Hu Tu and Muyang. There were few in Xiaohu City who knew him, and even if Gu Qiuming went back and confessed everything, he wouldn’t know Yuan Ming’s residence. It wouldn’t be easy for the Precious Spirit Sect to find him.
Considering Gu Qiulong’s attitude towards Gu Qiuming, and the extra spirit stones in the storage bag, Gu Qiuming would likely be long gone by now.
As for the temple master of Shuiyun Temple, discovering Gu Qiulong’s death in his temple, he probably had no choice but to flee. After much deliberation, Yuan Ming decided not to leave Xiaohu City but to wait and see how things unfolded.
He took out Gu Qiulong’s storage bag and delved into it with his spiritual consciousness, his eyes lighting up.
Gu Qiulong, indeed a Foundation Establishment disciple of the Precious Spirit Sect and favored by a Nascent Soul stage grandfather, had quite the wealth, with over two thousand spirit stones alone.
Other items included a green jade slip, a purple invitation, a two-foot-tall jade chest, several magical instruments, and over ten bottles of Four Spirits Elixir and other elixirs.
Yuan Ming first picked up the green jade slip, immersed his spiritual consciousness in it, and his eyes revealed a hint of surprise.
The green jade slip contained the Precious Spirit Sect’s secret beast-controlling technique called "True Beast Mirror," similar to the beast-controlling arts of the Southern Border, involving the implantation of beast-controlling runes within the bodies of demonic beasts.
However, the True Beast Mirror had many ingenious ideas for subduing demonic beasts, far superior to the beast-controlling arts taught by the Three Cave Masters, though it didn’t mention much about beast-controlling itself.
Yuan Ming quickly saw that most of the jade slip’s content was about introducing the demonic beasts that could be turned into spiritual pets in the cultivation world, detailing their magical abilities, habits, and so on, greatly broadening his horizons.
He searched carefully but, unfortunately, didn’t find the origin of Hua Zhi. He did, however, come across the record of Gu Qiulong’s golden ugly tiger.
The beast was called "Scale-Tooth Tiger," a metal-attribute spiritual beast capable of unleashing various metal-attribute attacks and fond of consuming metallic spiritual materials.
Yuan Ming quickly finished reading about the beast, frowning slightly. The jade slip made no mention of the black aura emitted by the Scale-Tooth Tiger. Could it be that the tiger was a mutated spiritual beast?
Yuan Ming didn’t dwell on this and hastily skimmed the rest of the content, putting down the jade slip to study in detail later.
He picked up the purple invitation, which read "Tianxiang Auction" in large characters, with the date marked as two and a half years later.
Upon seeing this, Yuan Ming’s thoughts stirred.
Having lived in Xiaohu City for some time, he was quite familiar with the local situation and had heard of the renowned Tianxiang Auction. It was a triennial auction event agreed upon by the major cultivation forces of Leizhou, where any cultivator with the means would seek their desired items.