Chapter 488 - Gu Zuo is Seriously Injured
T/N: For those who skipped the previous chapters, this is a recap of any important information from Chapters 486 and 487.
Gongyi Tianheng is suspicious about the reasons behind the mysterious disappearances in Swallowtail City, but cannot come to any definite conclusions. Therefore, he bides his time and lays in waiting. On the day that the next kidnapping is supposed to occur, Tianheng’s Celestial Realm shadow cat intercepts the culprit, saves the abducted woman, and tracks the culprit back to their base of operations. There are three enemies. Two Ascendant Realms who serve one Atomic Realm. Due to the relative strength of the opposition inside the cave, Tianheng orders the Tianlong Guards to remain in the city. Only Tianheng himself, wearing the black cloak, and the shadow cat infiltrate the cave.
Inside, they discover that the missing people are being mind controlled to copulate. Through some kind of evil technique, their energy and life force are drained into the pregnant women’s respective fetuses. Tianheng arrives in time to stop one of the Ascendant Realms from cutting open one of the pregnant women. The shadow cat deals with the two Ascendant Realms while Tianheng fights the Atomic Realm. During the fight, Tianheng is forced to defend himself by using his trump card, which was given to him by the Blood Transformation Heaven Lord. In the end, all three enemies are killed and the captives are saved.
Once the three enemies are dead, the captives stop copulating, but they remain motionless like puppets with their strings cut. To preserve their dignity, Tianheng covers them with quilts. He also collects the enemies’ inter-spatial tools and burns away the corpses.
Tianheng orders the shadow cat to do several things: Inform the city lord of Swallowtail City to evacuate her citizens, bring the Tianlong Guards back to Ten Ultimates Sect, and report the matter to the Blood Transformation Palace Master for a.s.sistance. Because the Atomic Realm pract.i.tioner utilized a move that contained the strength close to a Heaven Lord’s attack, the one backing the deceased Atomic Realm must be equivalently powerful.
In order to safely evacuate the victims, Tianheng stays behind to look through the inter-spatial tools. He researches the evil techniques used by the Atomic Realm pract.i.tioner to understand the situation and undo the mind control. As it turns out, the pract.i.tioner combined the dual cultivation-type Yin Yang Harmony Sculpting Cultivation Method with “demonic techniques” to siphon yin and yang energies from men and women into fetuses, which were cannibalized as fuel to enhance his body and improve his own potential.
Now, Tianheng uses what he knows to remove the mind control on the city lord’s two daughters. The two women awaken with all of their memories intact…
Fortunately, these two women were said to be over a hundred years old. They usually spent their days in relentless and bitter cultivation. They wholeheartedly devoted themselves to revitalizing Swallowtail City, and their temperaments were resolute.
After a flash of fury flickered across their faces, the two quickly got up, used the brocade quilts to cover themselves, and paid their respects to Gongyi Tianheng: “Many thanks for saving our lives, young master.”
Tianheng sighed, and hurriedly spoke several words to explain the situation to them. Then, he said: “Although I can get rid of the puppeteering technique, it won’t be convenient to settle down this crowd of people. I’ll have to ask these two young ladies to work hard.”
The two women replied: “We understand.”
After that, Tianheng waved his hand, and many pieces of clothing appeared on the ground. These clothes were part of the monthly allocations issued by Ten Ultimates Sect. It was just that they didn’t belong to the category of spirit weapons. Thus, these clothes were only comfortable and nothing more. In addition, he had never worn them before.
At the present time, he wasn’t the least bit stingy, and took out sufficient amounts. It was just that there were only men’s clothing. He didn’t have any apparel for women.
The two women didn’t mind, and swiftly put on the loose men’s robes. Then, one of them said: “Young master, please remove the technique. You can leave the rest to me and my sister.”
Tianheng faintly nodded his head. First, he undid all of the puppeteering techniques that those women were under one by one. The sisters surnamed Wan quickly went over to comfort them. When those women heard the two’s ident.i.ties, saw their haggard faces, and realized that those two still wanted to console them, their resentment gradually came to a halt and their willpower slowly strengthened.
The moods of these women recovered. Tianheng tossed over two bottles of medicinal pills: “This pill can replenish one’s qi essence. Give them to these men. Otherwise, they won’t live for long once they awaken.”
When the group of women looked at those men, their gazes were rather complicated.
Although physical intimacy wasn’t what they wished for, the other parties weren’t lecherous men. On the contrary, they were victimized as well… Moreover, during that period of muddleheaded ignorance, in order to prevent the turbid mixing of yin and yang qi, each of them had been paired with the same man, respectively.
In their hearts, there was naturally the feeling of disgrace, but there was also a type of empathy that could only be shared between those who went through the same suffering. Therefore, hatred never arose.
Currently, it wasn’t the time to overthink things. The two daughters took the medicinal pills, and distributed them to the women. Meanwhile, Tianheng’s fingers swiftly moved, and all of the men were also awakened.
Those men discovered their own miserable conditions, and many reacted no better than the women. All of the women fed the medicinal pills to the men one after another, distributed the clothes, and were busy again.
Once the men took the medicinal pills, their originally shriveled skin and flesh slowly plumped up. It wasn’t to say that their bodies had recovered back to the way they were before, but they were no longer so weak that a strong wind could blow them over.
Afterwards, Tianheng plainly said: “Although those evildoers have been slain, I’m afraid that there’s a backer supporting them. All of you shouldn’t stay here for much longer. Going back to Swallowtail City is the correct course of action.”
When everyone heard this, it was only natural that they didn’t dare act negligently. After hurriedly supported one another’s weight, they rushed to Swallowtail City extremely quickly under the leadership of the two women surnamed Wan.
Seeing them depart far into the distance, Tianheng came out of the cave, and carefully inspected the surroundings. Each and every vicious trap and evil trick left behind by those people were dismantled by him one by one.
Following a short period of time, he destroyed the cave and flew into the sky.
But right at this moment, a rolling and thunderous sound suddenly approached from beyond the horizon. A terrifying power abruptly pressed down from above!
Tianheng only felt his heart palpitating. At once, he rapidly operated his inner cultivation method, gathered all of his strength into his body techniques, and quickly dodged to the other side!
Only a streak of blood shadow remained in his original position.
However, even though it was like this, the terrifying power still caused Tianheng’s chest to ache. A rivulet of blood spilled out from the corner of his mouth. He didn’t dare to be the slightest bit careless, and immediately brandished even more strength to dodge again!
An extremely huge palm pressed down from the heavenly vault. Tianheng barely managed to evade it, but its remnant power was so strong that two ribs in his chest were broken and the internal qi in no fewer than three qi oceans were almost completely depleted. Right now, he only had half of his profound qi left!
But the third attack was already here!
These attacks were relentless, and didn’t give any room to breathe. Their purpose was to suppress Tianheng to death!
He wasn’t even able to split his attention to identify it. He only heard a berating shout —
“What kind of brat dares to kill my grandson? You’re courting death!”
As the third attack fell, a torrential river of blood suddenly appeared from within Tianheng’s body to cover the top of his head.
He allowed this river of blood to be swiftly crushed under that attack. Meanwhile, his figure transformed into a ray of b.l.o.o.d.y light and rushed toward another direction!
This direction was naturally opposite that of Swallowtail City…
Tianheng didn’t catch a glimpse, but the person who arrived was an old man with a tall and st.u.r.dy build. His hair and beard were both white. It was clear that he was a peak Royal Realm, and the distance to the realm of Heaven Lord was merely a hair’s breadth away. Now that he came here in a rage, he didn’t care about anything else. He only wanted to kill Gongyi Tianheng.
How large was the difference between the Royal Realm and the Atomic Realm?
For Tianheng, no matter how many more abilities he possessed, regardless of how good his apt.i.tudes were, such a gap was like a natural moat. He was completely incapable of competing with this old man.
At this very moment, Tianheng had no choice but to flee for his life!
Unfortunately, even if he wanted to run away or intended to stall for time, it was extremely difficult.
After a few times, even though Tianheng escaped the attacks, his body was inevitably injured by the remaining powers. There wasn’t even enough time to treat these injuries. He could only strive his hardest to flee to a larger city — At that time, perhaps a powerhouse might see this one-sided chase, and break him out of this encirclement.
Unfortunately, Tianheng’s luck ran out. If it hadn’t been for the fact that Tianheng already activated the Heavenly Blood Palm, he could’ve used it to block for a period of time. This would’ve allowed him to quickly escape. It wasn’t known if he might’ve found a teleportation array to get away. However, that object had been used long ago. Now, he could only rely on the cloak and his own capabilities to deal with this situation. Risking his life and being wounded with every round, he hurriedly fled into the distance.
Gradually, the conditions of Tianheng’s injuries worsened. The profound qi within his six qi oceans were also steadily and continuously drawn out. Currently, only an extremely thin layer remained.
Tianheng didn’t notice it, but the fragments of the power of chaos, which were originally floating above the qi oceans, were also being squeezed to their limits and extracted. One thread after another helped to stabilize the qi oceans, which prevented him from being completely destroyed under the barrage of boundless attacks.
Ten Ultimates Sect, within the manor, at the summit.
The furnace flames were burning strongly. Gu Zuo, who was originally right in the middle of refining a batch of medicinal pills, was suddenly struck with a sharp pain. At once, he coughed up a mouthful of blood. As for the pills that were on the verge of forming inside the furnace, they also promptly collapsed into waste pills.
Gu Zuo’s fingers faintly twitched. His face was as white as paper.
Ao Ying, the battle slave hidden nearby, emerged and hastily arrived in front of Gu Zuo: “Pharmacist Gu, are you alright?”
Gasping for breath, Gu Zuo abruptly reached out his hand and firmly grabbed Ao Ying’s arm. He clenched his teeth to stifle his coughing, and spoke with difficulty: “Quick… Take me to see the palace master! Big brother, something happened…”
While he was talking, his thoughts moved. Some medicinal herbs already appeared in his hand. He managed to bring them to the edge of his mouth, and hurriedly chewed and ate them. Right away, the warm medicinal power flowed through his body, which immediately improved his injuries.
Ao Ying didn’t dare to neglect anything. Right away, he carried Gu Zuo on his back and went straight to the Blood Transformation Palace Hall at flying speeds. Having arrived at the palace gates, the guards also recognized Gu Zuo. Seeing that he was in such a dreadful state, it was only natural that they immediately reported the matter.
Shortly thereafter, the Blood Transformation Palace Master appeared before Gu Zuo in the blink of an eye. He took Gu Zuo, and only felt that his whole body was ice-cold. A trail of blood was still constantly leaking from the corner of his mouth. Although he was continuously chewing and eating precious spirit medicines, every time his condition improved, he would suddenly be afflicted with even worse injuries. As for why these wounds showed up, the palace master had absolutely no idea!
Gu Zuo’s fingers were tightly clenched. His complexion was already deathly pale: “Something bad happened to big brother! Palace master, go to Swallowtail City!”
The pupils of the Blood Transformation Palace Master suddenly shrank. However, he didn’t call Gu Zuo into question. Instead, he turned around while cradling Gu Zuo with one arm, used his other hand to strike the air, and appeared dozens of kilometers away extremely quickly. At the same time, the qi energy surrounding his body rose and swelled, safely protecting Gu Zuo from the slightest bit of turbulence.
Gu Zuo continued placing spirit medicines to his lips. While mechanically devouring the herbs, he spoke as succinctly as possible: “Big brother and I have a contract. When he is seriously hurt, a portion of the injury can be transferred based on my tolerance level. I’m very safe inside the sect, so since I suffered a serious injury, something must have happened to big brother.”
The palace master hastened along their journey. As for Gu Zuo’s explanation, he didn’t miss a single word as everything entered his ears.
He naturally didn’t know that such a contract existed between Gu Zuo and Gongyi Tianheng, but after finding out, he was gladdened and grateful towards Gu Zuo.
The guardian contract between the two had already reached the third rank: Life and Death Companions. Originally, this kind of contract was one that they had control over. However, Tianheng was so exhausted from running for his life that he couldn’t even think about it. As such, there was no way to consciously control the contract. Because the contract sensed Tianheng’s imperilment, it transferred his injuries onto Gu Zuo’s body based on the maximum limit that Gu Zuo could bear in order to leave a glimmer of life for Tianheng.
It was also due to this that Gu Zuo immediately thought of the contract when he was injured. Thus, he swiftly chewed and ate spirit medicines to heal himself. In this way, as the condition of his wounds improved, the contract would be able to transfer even more injuries. The probability of his big brother’s survival would also increase. As a result, the Blood Transformation Palace Master found that every time Gu Zuo’s injuries got better, they immediately worsened.
Currently, Gu Zuo was extremely regretful. Not only was the speed the spirit medicines healed injuries slower than that of medicinal pills, it was also very wasteful. If he had considered earlier that he himself could also receive wounds, he would’ve refined more pills that specifically treated pharmacists. How much better would that have been? Then, he could’ve treated himself even faster!
Unfortunately, it was too late now. He could only endure the sharp pains and devour spirit medicines… In any case, this was better than doing nothing.
When the Blood Transformation Palace Master was a high Royal Realm powerhouse, he had received incredibly useful gifts from his disciples out of filial piety. As early as several months ago, he broke through to the peak of this realm, so he displayed the fastest speeds. In coordination with the teleportation arrays, it was only natural that they rushed to Swallowtail City extremely swiftly.
After reaching their destination, the palace master immediately sensed that the atmosphere here wasn’t right. Someone was brazenly punching straight down from above. If the punch connected, all of Swallowtail City would be destroyed!
When the Blood Transformation Palace Master saw this person, he knew that this was certainly the a.s.sailant who attacked his disciple. Otherwise, who else could’ve suppressed his disciple in such a remote location? At that moment, he also suddenly took action. A blood-red giant palm swatted out, and caught this attack.
After that, he got a clear look at this person’s appearance. He furrowed his brows: “It’s actually this guy?”
The blood-red palm smashed that attack to pieces. To the people within Swallowtail City, this was like a light drizzle of amnesty. They only felt that they had escaped from the jaws of death.
Meanwhile, the Blood Transformation Palace Master flashed ahead, launching an attack on that person!
T/N: The next four chapters are double-length.
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