Chapter 99 - The Fortified Gu Mansion
Nine-Five Island, in a forest of the Great Chen Kingdom...
"Ah~!" "Ah~!" "Don"t come!" "I didn"t have anything to do with it!"...
Rumbles of fights, accompanied by miserable screams rang. And very soon, everything went quiet.
A few dozen cultivators, all tied up, were brought before Gu Hai.
Chen Tianshan"s face was incomparably horrid. "My Lord, do you remember the war between Chen and Song? That war was fought because this spirit stone mine was discovered. And the two sects agreed that the owners.h.i.+p of the mine would be decided by the war between the two kingdoms. Finally, my Lord"s Project Annihilate Song helped us win. In the end, this low-grade spirit stone mine was claimed by my Clear River Sect!"
"Are these Song Jia Sect disciples?" Gu Hai, narrowing his eyes, looked at the bound Song Jia Sect disciples before him.
"Tell me, what happened to my Clear River Sect? Why are you guarding this spirit stone mine?" Chen Tianshan stepped forward and said, glaring at them.
"We don"t know anything, it was all under Chief"s orders!" the captured Song Jia Sect disciples cried immediately.
"Song Jia Sect Chief?" Chen Tianshan"s countenance changed for worse.
"So what happened to the Clear River Sect disciples guarding this place?" Gao Xianzhi asked in a deep voice.
"There weren"t any! When we arrived, no one was here!" one of the Song Jia Sect disciples cried right away.
Hearing this, everyone"s eyes went wide. A group of Gu"s men promptly began their interrogation. However, there were still no results.
"My Lord, something might have happened to the Clear River Sect!" Chen Tianshan"s face twisted with a grimace of fear.
"Chen Tianshan, take the Earth Company with you to the Clear River Sect, investigate everything. I will be returning to my mansion, if there"s anything, you can look for me at the Gu Mansion!" ordered Gu Hai.
"Thank you, my Lord!" Chen Tianshan answered, deeply sincere.
"You are welcome, it is nothing! The Clear River Sect Chief also helped me a lot. As for these Song Jia Sect disciples, take them with you, will you?" commanded Gu Hai.
"Yes, my Lord!" Chen Tianshan obliged respectfully.
Hundreds of Earth Company"s men brought the group of Song Jia Sect disciples with them, quickly marching towards the forest under Chen Tianshan"s orders.
Gu Hai, on the other hand, came to the spirit stone mine. It was a cavern, in fact. On the walls of the cavern, one could see traces of something having been chiseled out, as well as pieces of many low-grade spirit stones scattered around, as if they were once embedded in the walls.
"My Lord, this is lowest-rank spirit stone mine, and also the most troublesome spirit stone type. One needs to slowly and cautiously chisel the spirit stones to take them out. If strength is used, not only the mountain will collapse, even these spirit stones will burst into pieces. And these broken spirit stones are completely worthless!" explained Scar.
"Check up the surrounding for the mined spirit stones and take them with you. Once you are done, wait for me outside the mine!" Gu Hai commanded in a deep voice.
"Yes, my Lord!"
Everyone quickly cleared away the spirit stones in the vicinity.
Gu Hai, on the other hand, reached out to his chest and slowly pulled out the Life Severing Saber.
As the Life Severing Saber appeared, black qi started to pervade the air.
"Let"s see, if you can also devour the spirit qi inside the spirit stones?" Gu Hai, taking a deep breath, mumbled to himself, before he plunged the saber into the mountain.
Suddenly, swirling black qi emerged from the Life Severing Saber and made its way into the walls directly.
More and more black qi continued to surge into the spirit stones on the walls.
Suddenly, the spirit stones protruding from the walls turned into dust one by one, while billowing spirit qi flowed towards the Life Severing Saber.
Not long after, the black qi slowly returned to the Life Severing Saber. Obviously, every bit of spirit qi inside those spirit stones had been devoured clean by it.
Suddenly, all the spirit stones on the walls turned into dust, loosening up the rocks about him.
As Gu Hai pull the bone saber out of the wall, an overbearing power immediately rushed into Gu Hai"s body.
Gu Hai"s body immediately quivered every so slightly, but he didn"t have a breakthrough.
"The spirit stones are just too little!?" Gu Hai heaved a sigh.
One-thousandth of the spirit stones of a spirit stone mine were insufficient for me to break through!?
Gu Hai put the Life Severing Saber back into his body and slowly made his way out of the cavern.
Just as Gu Hai walked out of the cavern, the mountain, having lost the support of the spirit stones, collapsed with a loud boom.
At the sight of this, his men had dumbfounded looks on all of their faces.
"Let"s go! There"s one of my stables in town upfront. On horses, it will take at most three days for us to arrive at my mansion!" ordered Gu Hai.
"Yes, Lord!" Everyone snuck a glance at the collapsed mountain before they left, following after Gu Hai.
Tiger Cage Pa.s.s, Gu Mansion...
Though Gu Hai had yet to return, the news of his deeds at Golden Tong had already spread here.
In a flash, the crowd of cultivators waiting here for Gu Hai to walk into their trap were flabbergasted.
"Are...are...are you kidding me? Gu Hai… he has subdued three thousand criminals?"
"What did you say? Gu Hai has destroyed the Golden Tong!?"
"Impossible! How could he possibly arrange the Sky Sabers Life and Death Game and the 28x28 Heaven and Earth Grand Array at Nine-Five Island?"
"Even Nascent Soul cultivators were so afraid that they dared not approach Gu Hai!? You must be lying!"
"f.u.c.k off, do you think I am stupid? Twenty thousand cultivators were killed by Gu Hai, just because he said he would?"...
For a few moments, countless cultivators" hearts were on tenterhooks. At first, they were confident, which now seemed to be withering away slowly. When they heard of the tragedy of Golden Tong, none of them dared to believe it at first.
How is it possible? Everyone had done their investigations clearly. Half a year ago, Gu Hai was just a Houtain Stage cultivator. How can he be so powerful?
However, it wasn"t just one cultivator alone who was saying this, but many, some of whom were their friends and relatives. They had no reason to lie to them.
Gu Hai has eradicated the Golden Tong! Gu Hai has routed Nascent Soul cultivators! Gu Hai has ma.s.sacred twenty thousand cultivators! Gu Hai has three thousand criminals under his command!
Each piece of information stupefied many people.
We have been standing by the tree, waiting for the rabbit to dash itself against it!? Someone may come, das.h.i.+ng into the tree, but it won"t be the rabbit that"s coming, but a tiger!
Capture Gu Hai, and rob him of the Hundred Years Longevity Peach! For that, we must be able to survive first!
This Gu Hai has ma.s.sacred twenty thousand men, freaking twenty thousand men without so much as batting an eye! Won"t we be killed without blinking an eye!?
Some people had already begun to retreat. Nonetheless, there were still some who were furious. "My sword brother was killed in the Sky Sabers Life and Death Array! I will avenge my sworn brother!"
"My junior brother was also killed inside the array! Gu Hai, since, you killed my junior brother, I will kill your sons!"...
Countless cultivators fumed in anger. However, having learned of Gu Hai"s brutality, the crowd of angry cultivators was too afraid to take the risk.
Just because some wanted to rob Gu Hai"s peaches, he killed twenty thousand men. If they capture Gu Hai"s sons, won"t Gu Hai be h.e.l.l-bent on taking revenge?
The corpses of twenty thousand men lying everywhere piled up into a tall mountain... Just by picturing this, everyone"s hearts were gripped with chills.
Their antic.i.p.ation of Gu Hai"s arrival slowly turned into fear.
The air around the Gu Mansion became strange.
The people who wanted to take revenge were also hesitating a bit, as if waiting for someone to make a first move. Then, they would launch a collective attack.
s.h.i.+mmering moonlight bathed the Gu Mansion.
At this point, the scale of Gu Mansion was far bigger than before. Many buildings had been added, and they were built in a unique fas.h.i.+on. It was like a circular gate tower. At this moment, Gu Qin and Gu Han were standing atop the gate tower under the night breeze, gazing into the distance.
All around the gate tower, there was an extremely wide open area that had all kinds of plants and trees growing.
Gu Qin and Gu Han, leaning on the railing, looked about as they listened to the findings of their subordinates.
"Well, G.o.dfather is coming back after ma.s.sacring twenty thousand cultivators! These people who have been guarding around our Gu Mansion should be scared s.h.i.+tless!" Gu Han said as he broke into laughter.
Gu Qin was also delighted. "G.o.dfather is coming back, and with three thousand criminals! These thieves and bandits who have been waiting for the hare to dash into the tree came for naught!"
"Great Brother, there are still some people who are ready to make trouble!" Gu Han stated, as a frown crept up on his brow.
"Don"t worry about it. Since G.o.dfather"s news has arrived, he will be returning very soon! We just have to hold on for some time. Hey, since we constructed this huge stronghold in accordance with father"s layout, they won"t be able to rush arbitrarily, right!?" Gu Qin said in a deep voice, his gaze focused outside.
Nodding, Gu Hai burst into laughter and said, "They definitely won"t be able to! Maybe we can also hang a plaque outside just like father?"
"It may not be a bad idea! Any trespa.s.sers will be killed immediately!" Gu Qin agreed, laughing.
The next morning...
The cultivators around the Gu Mansion, after waking up, looked in the direction of fortified Gu Mansion in surprise.
In front of the stronghold, a plaque had been hung at some time during the night.
An array had been laid out around the Gu Mansion already, anyone who dares to rush into the array will be… killed!
Seeing this warning, almost all cultivators were astounded.
"Are you kidding me? Array? Do you mean it"s the 28x28 Heaven and Earth Grand Array from Golden Tong?"
"Only Gu Hai can arrange that array. He learned it in the Xiantian Endgame World. It"s impossible for the Gu Mansion to have it!"
"There isn"t even a bit of mist, everything"s clear here, how can there be a grand array here?"...
Many cultivators were having a hard time believing this. No, they didn"t believe it at all. Can"t you lie a bit better? Where is the mist? We can see everything clearly! Where is the array?
Be that as it may, many cultivators were still afraid to take the risk. After all, the tragedy of Golden Tong had scared the h.e.l.l out of them.
All twenty thousand men had been ma.s.sacred completely! Not one remained alive!
Is there really no array here?
Some cultivators who wanted to take revenge became even more hesitant… until another group of cultivators dressed in white robes arrived from far away.
"Song Jia Sect disciples? Why are they here?" someone said, surprised.
However, all they saw was the leading Song Jia Sect disciple staring at the Gu Mansion before him coldly.
At this time, a cultivator, who appeared to have been keeping watch here for a long time, quickly jumped out from the crowd and askedrespectfully, "Martial Uncle Bai, why have you come?"
"Where are Gu Qin and Gu Han?" the leading white-robed cultivator asked in a deep voice.
"Ah?"
"Chief has ordered to take down Gu Hai"s two adopted sons, Gu Qin and Gu Han!" Martial Uncle Bai stated in a cold manner.
"Ah? Martial Uncle Bai, this disciple had been keeping watch of this place for three months. I have always been paying attention to Gu Qin and Gu Han. They are in that strange gate tower. However, judging from the warning outside the city tower, it looks dangerous!" that man carefully reported.
With this, the group stopped in front of the stronghold. Many cultivators in the vicinity turned their curious gazes towards them. Song Jia Sect disciples have come to capture Gu Qin and Gu Han?
"Anyone who dares to rush into the array will be...killed!? Hahaha, what a joke, a group of mortals who have yet to enter the Xiantian Stage want to use this to scare us?" Martial Uncle Bai asked in a cold voice.
"No! Martial Uncle Bai, I heard that Gu Hai hung a warning just like this in the Golden Tong...!" that man warned, worried a bit.
Martial Uncle Bai"s eyelids twitched madly. Obviously, he had also heard of Golden Tong"s tragedy. Song Jia Sect Chief had sent them to capture Gu Hai"s sons all because of Golden Tong"s news.
But how can they possibly arrange an array under all these watching eyes?
"What a joke, where is the array? You think you can scare me with this? If it was Gu Hai, then it is another matter, but just two brats dare to do this?" Martial Uncle Bai spoke coldly. The congregation of Song Jia Sect disciples didn"t believe this and gathered around, preparing to rush into the stronghold.
Up on the fortifications, Gu Qin and Gu Han had also received the information. Standing atop the gate tower, Gu Qin and Gu Han looked at the noisy group, narrowing their eyes.
"Great Brother, are they going to try?" Gu Han asked solemnly.
"They are welcome to try!" Gu Qin"s eyes flashed with a cold light.