Chapter 32 - 32: One Strike

Chapter 32 - 32: One Strike

When he exited the cave, he fully expected the three members of the Jade Lotus Sect to have long since left. However, to his surprise, the two core disciples were cultivating near the camp while Jiao Ning protected them. Her wind qi circulated quietly within her body, ready to defend against any and all perceived threats.

Wei Wuyin frowned. He swept his spiritual sense outward and saw his crane using its beak to grab fish from a nearby river.

Fweet!

Wei Wuyin whistled, causing the crane to lift its head and excitedly return. The whistle broke Dai Qiuyue and Mu Zhang out of their cultivation states. They looked towards him and had very odd expressions.

He jumped and landed nearby. A brow of his formed an arch as he looked at them questioningly. Mu Zhang released a stifled cough as he looked away.

Wei Wuyin was only curious as to why they stayed.

In truth, they hadn’t.

Earlier, they left. However, when they came across the news that the City Lord and his son were found murdered while the elite soldiers that had gone out earlier had also been found dead in a similar fashion - beheaded - this created all sorts of a commotion.

They soon realized that Wei Wuyin had killed them. To be able to do that, he had to be a Fifth Phase expert, or even a Mortal God!

Despite having such a strong, youthful lifeforce aura, he was such a high-level expert! They also realized that the Earthly Titan Sect had acted quickly. They had already locked down the surrounding area and were investigating the situation. After all, the City Lord was a recent Mortal God and a newly promoted grand elder of the sect.

They had to take this seriously, if only for face.

They directly sent three Grand Elders and several prominent Core Elders to investigate. They were looking for a young woman with a Heart of Wind Qi. Therefore, Jiao Ning couldn’t leave and was helpless.

They believed she was an accomplice, drawing the forces of the City Lord away before an assassin took his life. They predicted the person who did the act was a Fifth Phase expert, hence the need to kill in a stealthy manner.

So, they came back and hid here. If trouble came, Jiao Ning would do her best to get Wei Wuyin to help. In truth, they weren’t looking for him, so he was safe. However, she was different.

Jiao Ning walked forward with a calm expression, but when she saw Wei Wuyin brazenly taking his full of her chest, she blushed slightly. She calmly explained the situation.

"Oh? So it’s like that." Wei Wuyin realized these three could not catch a break. If at any time since their meeting he had decided to just not bother with them, their fates would’ve been horrible. Either death or worse.

The crane arrived near him and stretched out her head. He rubbed it softly and pondered on the situation. This white crane was a signature beast for those in the Scarlet Solaris Sect. Considering the two territories were neighbors, it could be taken as a coincidence of him being here. However, if word of his Fifth Phase cultivation base had spread and his identity was discovered, then he would immediately be suspected.

This made things difficult. Of course, he could just avoid the lockdown and escape, but the crane would be left alone and he wasn’t willing to abandon it. Worse was these three, if he left, they would soon be discovered and killed or worse.

After all, it was likely that she was the only person who had a Heart of Wind Qi in the immediate area that was not a top-tier Earthly Titan Sect member. She wasn’t a suspect, she was the immediate culprit upon discovery. After interrogation, it’s likely they would learn of his identity and involvement.

Killing a grand elder figure were grounds for war, and with him being so exceptionally talented, they would probably want to capture him to kill or trade for a vast amount of concessions and resources from the Scarlet Solaris Sect. for new novels

The politics of the situation was troublesome.

His mount wasn’t fast enough to escape the pursuit of the Earthly Titan Sect. He wouldn’t even be able to escape now with the crane.

He felt like he was in a bind. He subconsciously looked towards his right arm and checked his karmic value: 162.5.

"Still 162.5. Guess no luck-" His eyes widened in abrupt and mind-shaking shock as he looked at the number again. His pupils trembled as they focused heavily on the numerical text written on his right arm.

162.5.

It was 162.5.

How the fuck?

Wasn’t it 162.4?

When did it change? How did it change? No one voluntarily gave him their karmic reincarnation value, right? Right?!

Because he didn’t know when it had increased by 0.1, he didn’t know why this happened. Could it be an inverse response? If he suffered bad luck, he gained more karmic value as a result? That didn’t make sense at all, but was it the case?

The three watched Wei Wuyin stare at his right arm in disbelief. Like he didn’t notice his flawless skin or toned muscles before. This caused them all to have various expressions, mostly confused and awkward ones.

In the Wu Country, there were tens of millions of cultivators. A majority of them were in the Foundation Establishment, with hundreds of thousands of Qi Condensation experts. A majority of those were in the First and Second Phase as they just required accumulation and essence. With time and effort, every cultivator who reached eighty years of age would break through to Qi Condensation, even with horrible talent and no resources.

The ambient Essence of Heaven and Earth was enough.

The number of Mortal God and higher stage characters in the Scarlet Solaris Sect numbered less than twenty. This was a decent average, so within the Five Great Sects of Wu Country, they had merely a hundred or so. This was why keeping track of them was exceptionally easy.

In the entirety of Wu Country, there were no more than three hundred of these experts.

Wei Wuyin threw a transmission crystal out of the shroud towards Gu Futu.

Gu Futu frowned and grabbed the crystal. He read the message and frowned.

"You say you’re on a secret mission and can’t reveal your identity, wanting to pay me off for passage. You dare be so brazen and arrogant in the Gaia State, in front of the Earthly Titan Sect?! You can reveal yourself voluntarily and stay until I say otherwise, or I’ll rip your concealment and you don’t even need to think about leaving with breath in your lungs and warmth on your flesh." He snarled out viciously. Gu Futu looked as if he was insulted and disrespected at the same time.

Wei Wuyin helplessly smiled. He wanted to avoid suspicion and a war, if possible. This was the most direct way - lying and bribery. Unfortunately, he met a direct man like Gu Futu.

He sighed.

He sent out another message, "One strike."

When Gu Futu read this message, his eyes suffused a battle lust and fiercely roared like a ravenous beast. His bloodline seemed to boil as his aura spiked. He brought out a large, three meter long blood-red saber with a serrated edge. It looked like a monster with teeth and exuded blood qi.

Wei Wuyin didn’t have any other alternatives but using brute force. If he proved to be superior in combat, then Gu Futu would have no choice but to concede the way. That being said, the two other grand elder figures had certainly been notified the moment he arrived. Even if Gu Futu didn’t personally send a message, the other members should’ve.

He had about a minute before being forced to face three Mortal Gods. He needed to strike and severely injure Gu Futu, if not, he needed to display a sufficient amount of strength capable of acting as a deterrent to prevent them from chasing or forcing him into a corner for fear of their own lives.

After all, in the face of a true life or death battle, to hell with face, their lives were far more important.

Furthermore, he wanted to display absolute strength. The Ash Dragon City Lord was a newly ascended Mortal God who was killed in a sneak attack. If he showed strength that made the action itself pointless, when he departed, they would rule him out.

Wei Wuyin clenched his right hand into a tight fist and gathered his qi.

"Ha!" Without any arts, he unleashed his full cultivation base with the myriad of elemental energies fueling it. His earth, water, fire, wind, metal, lightning, wood, and magma, yin-yang qi were all conjured and condensed into a solidified image of a clenched fist. Its manifestation was over ten meters tall and wide.

Steel Metal Qi, Violet Lightning Qi, Life Meadow Wood Qi, and Blazing Inferno Magma Qi were imbued within this single fist to its maximum. Nearly thirty-percent of his qi was injected into this direct strike.

A large fist rivaling a one-story building formed from vibrant yin-yang energy and caused the world to shift, even the sky grew darker from its influence. It was like the entire world was using all its means to kill! It may be missing Ice Qi, but it contained nearly every element of the natural world.

Gu Futu’s eyes became like full moons, a fierce, never-before felt deadly sense of crisis emerged in his heart and detonated in his mind. His wild instincts informed, no, screamed with its entire might, that he needed to flee!

Flee!

FLEE!

FLEEEEEEEE!!!

The fight or flight response that he hadn’t felt since he became a Mortal God went into overdrive as his brain became overly panicked. And, when that fist that seemed to contain the world emerged from the shroud like a fist of god and flew towards him like a myriad of elements in full fury, he did something unexpected.

He froze.

Yes.

He froze like a deer in headlights.

While many didn’t realize that there’s a third response to fight or flight - freeze, there was. One’s brain would become overloaded with emotions and thoughts that they simply couldn’t process anything in a rational or appropriate manner. For a human, this was rare, but inherently an ever-present possibility.

Boom!

The fist comprised of various elemental qi heavily smashed into Gu Futu’s unprotected, burly body without the slightest of resistance. His skin, muscles, bones, and organs started to disintegrate beneath the sheer force of that fist. In moments, he was engulfed and his body vanished within the qi. Not even a whimper was heard as the fist continued to blaze through the skies.

Wei Wuyin’s eyes widened in undisguised shock and utter disbelief. Even his mouth was agape, feeling as if his reality had been altered somehow. However, the truth pierced into his eyes, with Gu Futu’s body dispersing beneath his attack and his senses, as Gu Futu’s lifeforce aura had abruptly ceased.

No fucking way!

From this moment on, he knew, the legacy of the Mortal God Gu Futu was no more.