Chapter 48 Yanghua Cloud Sea (Thirty-Five)
The three-headed serpent's lair was extremely deep, and Jiang Gu didn't encounter any living creatures along the way. However, he was always cautious, so he never withdrew the concealment formation.
"Senior sister, could they have already escaped?" A voice came from afar.
"No, I can sense the aura of a cultivator, but it's very faint. They might be using a concealment array." It was a female voice.
Jiang Gu stopped in his tracks.
Concealment arrays usually completely hide a cultivator's aura, unless the cultivator's cultivation level is higher than that of the person who set up the array.
Seeing that the other party was getting closer and closer, Jiang Gu decisively changed the Concealment Array into a Teleportation Array.
Wan Haomiao's expression hardened. "Chase!"
Jiang Gu quickly realized that something was wrong with the cave. His teleportation array could usually travel thousands of miles, but it was limited here. When he reappeared, he was still surrounded by a dark cave, and he hadn't gone very far at all.
“There are hidden traps for binding beasts inside this cave. He can’t escape since his cultivation level hasn’t reached the Refinement stage.” Wan Haomiao spread out his divine sense to begin searching.
The disciple beside her said, "Senior Sister Wan, since the three-headed snake is already dead, why bother trying to catch it?"
"The senior brother's orders are never wrong," Wan Haomiao said succinctly.
"Senior sister, you're just too good-natured. That Lu Ziming, just because he's the eldest brother's younger brother, acts all high and mighty with us despite only being at the Foundation Establishment stage. Only the eldest brother treats such a worthless talent like a treasure." The disciple complained, "Look at how he acted just now. We went to great lengths to help him catch the three-headed snake, and in the end, we were the ones who suffered."
"Alright." Wan Haomiao cautiously searched the surroundings. "It's too late to say anything more now."
The disciples all shut their mouths, their faces showing displeasure.
Jiang Gu, who was perched on the upper part of the cave wall, observed the blue-robed cultivators. Their clothes were embroidered with golden dragons, and the tokens at their waists were also in the shape of dragon heads, so they were undoubtedly from the Spirit Dragon Sect.
It seems that the three-headed snake was their prey all along, but he intercepted it halfway.
Jiang Gu frowned slightly. These cultivators were all at the Void Refinement stage. He would struggle against any one of them, and a head-on confrontation would definitely result in a loss. Thinking of this, he took out a wooden puppet from his storage bag at his waist, bit his fingertip, and quickly drew a talisman on its forehead before blowing on it.
The puppet instantly came to life, its features becoming clearer from blurry, transforming into the likeness of the "Zhou Huaiming" he had created. Then, he sent a wisp of his primordial spirit into it, and the puppet transformed into a stream of light that darted into the cave.
"Don't let him get away!" Someone below spotted the streak of light and shouted.
Wan Haomiao and the others quickly chased after the wooden puppet.
Jiang Gu curled the corners of his lips and silently disappeared into the cave wall.
A wisp of his primordial spirit controlled the puppet to land. The moment it landed, the palm-sized puppet grew taller and transformed into a young man. There were too many hidden agents here, and the only exit left was to catch the three-headed snake. Now he had become the prey. Simply running away wouldn't get him out. If he was caught, the puppet would reveal its true form, and his original body would be exposed.
Jiang Gu recalled what those people had said earlier. The moment he ran out of the only exit, he accurately found a Foundation Establishment stage trash among a group of highly skilled cultivators. Before the other divine senses could overwhelm him, he appeared behind Lu Ziming like a ghost and grabbed him by the neck.
"Zi Ming!" Lu Zhenyi hesitated for a moment, her powerful divine sense barely stopping half an inch away from Jiang Gu.
Lu Ziming felt a chill run down his spine and froze on the spot, unable to move. Instinctively, he cried out for help, "Brother, save me!"
Wan Haomiao and the others, who had hurriedly chased after him from the cave, also stopped in their tracks upon seeing this, watching warily the mysterious man who had taken Lu Ziming hostage.
Lu Zhenyi's face was extremely ugly. The opponent's cultivation level was not high, but the speed was extremely fast. Even he was a breath slower than the opponent. Moreover, he could clearly see that Lu Ziming's primordial spirit had been tightly bound by a blood-red rope. It was not hard to imagine that if he made any rash moves, the opponent could immediately strangle Lu Ziming's soul.
“Fellow Daoist, I am Lu Zhenyi, the eldest disciple of the Spirit Dragon Sect. We have no intention of offending you.” Lu Zhenyi raised her hand to stop the disciples behind her who were about to attack, and said in a deep voice, “Please release my brother.”
Jiang Gu, controlling the puppet's body, said coldly, "I have no intention of making things difficult for you. Take your people and leave immediately."
"Don't even think about it! Brother, kill him right now! He actually dared to take me hostage!" Lu Ziming, completely unaware of his imminent death, continued to shout arrogantly, "Let me tell you, my brother is a Great Ascension Stage cultivator—"
"Lu Ziming, shut up!" Lu Zhenyi shouted, interrupting him.
Lu Ziming was taken aback by his shout and asked incredulously, "Brother?"
"My younger brother is young and dull-witted, please forgive me for any offense I may have caused." Lu Zhenyi said politely, "Fellow Daoist has no intention of being an enemy of the Spirit Dragon Sect, and I, Lu Zhenyi, am not a person who goes back on his word. As long as you release my brother, everything is negotiable."
Jiang Gu said with satisfaction, "As expected, you still have to deal with smart people."
Lu Zhenyi waved away the disciples behind her and said to Wan Haomiao, "Take the men and retreat a thousand miles east."
"Yes." Wan Haomiao readily agreed and led his disciples eastward.
Lu Zhenyi took a few steps back, withdrawing her divine sense and aura to show her sincerity.
Seeing this, Jiang Gu grabbed Lu Ziming and flew west for hundreds of miles, with Lu Zhenyi following closely behind, until Jiang Gu landed in a dense forest with him.
He threw the loud and boisterous Lu Ziming toward Lu Zhenyi, who quickly caught him. Jiang Gu said, "The rope will disappear naturally in half an hour. If you forcibly untie it, then you can expect to collect his corpse."
After he finished speaking, he stopped caring about Lu Zhenyi and disappeared from the spot using the teleportation array.
Lu Zhenyi immediately used her spiritual power to protect Lu Ziming's primordial spirit, but the red rope was not blocked by the spiritual power and stuck tightly to Lu Ziming's primordial spirit.
"Brother, why don't you just kill him?!" Lu Ziming grimaced, rubbing his neck, which had been choked purple. "Why keep this kind of reckless bastard alive?"
"Shut up." Lu Zhenyi directly enveloped his primordial spirit with her natal magic weapon, and was about to forcibly refine the red rope, but the other party took the lead and withdrew the red rope, and the last bit of spiritual power disappeared without a trace in the air.
Lu Zhenyi frowned and looked in the direction Jiang Gu had fled. "This person's magical artifacts are unpredictable, and he is cunning and unpredictable. It is not advisable to get entangled with him."
Lu Ziming rubbed his wrist angrily.
Two hours later.
Jiang Gu slowly walked out of the cave. The puppet that had taken a long detour also returned to this place. The wisp of his primordial spirit returned to Jiang Gu himself, and the young man transformed into a small wooden puppet the size of a palm, which landed in Jiang Gu's hand.
The little wooden puppet now had a tracking mark on its body, which Lu Zhenyi had secretly engraved into its soul. There were hundreds or even thousands of such tracking marks on the puppet's body, clearly not the first time Jiang Gu had done this.
However, since puppets are inanimate objects, no amount of markings can help them. Jiang Gu used this trick to evade many pursuers.
He casually tossed the little wooden puppet into his storage bag, and the red rope on his left wrist disappeared into his flesh. He sensed Wei Feng's presence and raised an eyebrow in surprise.
This guy is about to die again.
——
On the other side of the Xiyuan Secret Realm.
Wei Feng lay dying in a pool of blood, his body covered in bloodstains. Beside him lay the corpse of a Golden Core stage spirit beast, a long sword embedded in its heart, pinning it firmly to the ground.
He never expected his luck to be so bad.
Not only was the teleportation point far from his master, but he also encountered a Golden Core stage spirit beast right away. The beast nearly bit off his head, and he fought it off relentlessly until the heavens and earth seemed to darken. He managed to exhaust the spirit beast's spiritual power, and finally, he gripped a long sword and killed it.
Wei Feng couldn't help but recall how Jiang Gu had forced him to practice swordsmanship and body tempering during this period. If he had encountered Jiang Gu in the past, he definitely wouldn't have been able to withstand this situation for even a quarter of an hour...
As he thought this, his consciousness gradually blurred. His fingers, submerged in blood, twitched with difficulty, finally managing to lift his hand and reach for the storage pouch on his chest. All the pills he had brought had been consumed during the battle, leaving him with only the two bottles of pills his master had given him—
"Roar—" A deafening beastly howl suddenly rang out above his head, emitting a mournful cry towards the corpse of the strange beast beside him.
Wei Feng's face turned pale instantly.
These strange beasts are actually a pair!
He mustered his last bit of strength and rolled violently to his feet. The next instant, a huge beast's paw crushed the ground where he had just been lying, and then a flame shot straight at him.
The flip he made earlier had exhausted all of Wei Feng's strength. He knew how strong the fire spiritual power was, and now that he had no spiritual power left, he couldn't dodge it at all. He could only subconsciously raise his hand to shield his face.
But death did not come as expected.
He was suddenly pulled into someone's arms around the waist. He looked up in a panic and saw only Jiang Gu's indifferent profile and the blinding white light of his spiritual power bursting forth.
The invincible Golden Core stage spirit beast didn't even last half a move against Jiang Gu before collapsing to the ground and becoming a corpse.
“Master…” Wei Feng stared blankly at the person who suddenly appeared, feeling a sense of unreality, as if he were in a dream.
Jiang Gu stuffed a few pills into his mouth, "Hang in there."
The bitter taste of the pill spread in his mouth. Wei Feng gripped his shirt tightly and murmured, "Am I dreaming?"
Jiang Gu gave him a disdainful look. "You might as well be dreaming."
He can't even handle a Golden Core stage beast; all the knowledge he's learned has been wasted.
Wei Feng felt a lump in his throat, but then he coughed up a mouthful of foul blood, staining Jiang Gu's entire body. He tried to reach out to wipe it off for Jiang Gu, but the blood seeped in very quickly. Jiang Gu pressed down on his hand, which was trembling like a leaf, and said, "Let's find a place to heal first."
Upon hearing this, Wei Feng weakly slumped onto Jiang Gu's shoulder, his body shivering from blood loss. Jiang Gu's not-so-high body temperature felt incredibly warm to him, and he couldn't help but snuggle into Jiang Gu's arms, stammering, "Master, am I... going to die soon...?"
Jiang Gu looked at the horde of strange beasts gradually surrounding them and said expressionlessly, "It's still early."
Wei Feng immediately felt relieved, and his eyelids began to grow heavy. But when he saw the dozens of strange beasts approaching behind Jiang Gu, he suddenly woke up and shouted while spitting blood, "Master, behind you!"
Jiang Gu grabbed his head and pulled him into his arms, saying impatiently, "Shut up and go to sleep."
Wei Feng was suddenly overwhelmed by the cold, pungent scent emanating from him.
Her ears turned red without her even noticing.
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