Chapter 87
The images in the illusion began to accelerate.
Dark clouds began to gather over the capital.
Gu Shuo got out of bed, put on his clothes, and had a secret conversation with his subordinates and the ministers sent by the sage to assist him.
According to Ah Qi, the sorcerer's spiritual power was incredibly strong, and he was even more terrifying than some of the first-generation monsters he had encountered before.
At first, they heard that the incident outside the capital was caused by monsters devouring each other. However, if the riot was not caused by monsters at all, but by a sorcerer, then the one who devoured the monsters must be the sorcerer...
However--
When Gu Shuo called Su Xuan into the room, Su Xuan's face darkened after hearing these words. "For anyone other than a monster, devouring a monster wouldn't allow them to directly absorb its spiritual power for themselves, unless they devoured a large number of them. But let's not even talk about whether he has the ability to devour so many monsters. How could he possibly encounter so many monsters in this world?"
The natural spiritual power in the world is constantly dissipating. Affected by this, the number of first-generation and second-generation monsters born in this world is decreasing. The lack of spiritual power has caused some people to start hunting monsters. It was also from that time that the monsters began to hide.
It is true that the so-called hiding is often nothing more than disguising oneself as a mortal like Su Xuan and his companions and blending into the world, but first those who hunt monsters must also identify their identities.
Therefore, the sorcerer should not be able to swallow a monster of this size, and it is even more impossible for him to significantly increase his spiritual power through such a simple act of swallowing.
He should even have known better than some foolish mortals that devouring ordinary monsters would do him no good.
So if he really was increasing his spiritual power by devouring monsters, then what he devoured must have been a first-generation monster - he directly devoured the spiritual core!
"Both the spirit and the spirit core can be devoured?" Ah Qi was stunned.
"I don't know, and I've never seen it, but in order to become stronger, some people will try even the craziest things. If they try more, the crazy things will come true, right?" Su Xuan said solemnly.
And if that sorcerer is really devouring the spirit cores of the first generation of monsters, then Gu Ruqing...
Su Xuan looked up and said, "I'll be the bait to lure him out!"
The others were slightly startled, and Gu Shuo immediately frowned and said, "No."
Su Xuan explained, "A Shuo, I know you're worried about me, but your father's current situation is unclear. If that sorcerer is still searching for the first generation of monsters, then I'm the perfect person to be the bait. Don't worry, I'm very powerful and I won't be hurt!"
"Aye is also the best among the monsters of his generation." Gu Shuo's face was serious, and the implication was very clear.
"But Gu Weitong, someone has to go out and lure the sorcerer out. If we just wait for the other party to take action, it would be too passive." The court minister advised.
"Besides, that sorcerer is now in the suburbs of Beijing. His spiritual power is so formidable, and his ambitions are so terrifying. Keeping him here for even one more day would be a huge hidden danger!"
"Yes, that's right..."
Ah Qi seemed to want to say something, but after glancing at Gu Shuo's expression, he didn't dare to.
Su Xuan pulled Gu Shuo aside and said, "Ah Shuo, if your father was really devoured by that sorcerer, then as long as his spirit core hasn't been absorbed, there's still hope—so we have to hurry! Can you find a second-generation monster besides me in such a short time?"
Gu Shuo's body froze.
"We can't find it at all, right?" Su Xuan said firmly, "Let's plan carefully, lure the enemy in deep, and cooperate with the inside and outside. There will be absolutely no problem!"
Gu Shuo looked at him with complicated eyes, and he said in a hoarse voice: "Ah Xuan..."
…
Later, Su Xuan asked the Night Guard to go back to the teahouse to inform Su Amei and Atu, but he didn't expect that when the Night Guard came back, Atu also flew over, shouting that since a new generation of monsters were needed, then he would go with Su Xuan!
The sorcerer would definitely not be able to defeat the two first-generation monsters together. Wouldn't this operation be even more successful?
Su Xuan felt that it made a lot of sense, and felt that A-Tu was indeed his good brother.
Once you have made your plan, start taking action without delaying for a moment.
…
Later, this became the longest night in Su Xuan's life.
It was also the darkest night with no moon.
On the way to the outskirts of Beijing, Su Xuan could always feel Gu Shuo's gaze behind him.
At that time, he still couldn't understand why Gu Shuo was so solemn.
——No matter how powerful the sorcerer who was suspected of having swallowed the spirit core was, he could not defeat him and the demon Atu alone. This was a fact.
He felt that Ah Shuo was just worrying too much. He didn't seem to be such a worrying person normally. So why was he so abnormal at this time? It must be because he cared about him, right?
Su Xuan felt very happy, and then A Tu patted his head to remind him to concentrate.
——However, if Su Xuan could carefully recall what Gu Shuo said when they were alone, perhaps he would understand... what Gu Shuo was thinking.
The world is in chaos.
History is a process that repeats itself.
Although each of its stages is not exactly the same, they are extremely similar.
The spiritual power between heaven and earth continued to weaken, and both humans and monsters felt a sense of crisis, and thus began to hunt monsters.
The world is in chaos and killing is everywhere. In the end, a craziest person will definitely appear, and this craziest person will definitely start a war.
Of course, in the long course of history, those crazy people all failed in the end.
But the madness of crazy people lies in that they always believe that they will be the successful one, and then they will act to an outrageous extreme in order to achieve this.
Gao Ruhan is the craziest one in this historical period.
——Until Su Xuan and A Tu met an injured second-generation little demon on the road and were lured to a forest. On the way, they both realized that this was the sorcerer's trap. They deliberately took advantage of the situation, but the moment they stepped into the forest, they were wrapped in a powerful barrier, and Gao Ruhan appeared in front of them with a smile.
——It was not until that moment that Su Xuan suddenly understood what Gu Shuo was thinking.
No, it should be said that the reality might be even crazier than Gu Shuo expected.
The spiritual core that Gao Ruhan swallowed was far beyond everyone's imagination.
By consuming only one spirit core, a sorcerer might be able to increase his power to that of an ordinary first-generation youkai.
...But what if a sorcerer swallowed dozens of spirit cores?
Even Su Xuan, who was fearless, was stunned for a moment.
No, he didn't even have time to be stunned. As soon as they met, he quickly fell into the illusion set up by Gao Ruhan.
He saw countless people around him pointing knives at him. Shocked, he tried his best to fight them off, but he caught a glimpse of Ah Shuo standing alone in the encirclement not far away.
He screamed and ran towards Ashu. The man heard the sound, turned to him and opened his arms to him.
Su Xuan flew forward without any preparation, and then was stabbed straight into the chest by a hand, freezing on the spot.
He heard "A Shuo" slowly say, "Those dozens of spirit cores still can't be fused together. I'm afraid something is missing. Let's use your heart to test it."
In an instant, the illusion disappeared and Su Xuan saw Gao Ruhan's nonchalant face again.
At that moment, Su Xuan thought -
It's over.
Not good.
We can’t let Ashu see this scene.
He trembled, and grasped Gao Ruhan's hand with all his strength. He held back his breath and suddenly burst out with spiritual power. In an instant, Gao Ruhan's face changed, and when he pulled out his hand, he only held half a heart.
Su Xuan half-knelt on the ground and coughed up blood.
The next second, he heard Ah Tu, who had regained consciousness, shout sharply, "Ah Xuan!"
Spiritual power surged towards him, Gao Ruhan made a "tsk" sound and dodged.
Hold on, hold on.
Su Xuan's eyes went dark for a moment, and he quickly used his spiritual power to rebuild the missing half of his heart. This half-real, half-fake heart was beating wildly, as if it would burst at any moment.
Su Xuan kept taking deep breaths. He thought of A'Tu who was fighting at this moment, Su Amei who stayed in the capital, and Gu Shuo who was blocked outside the barrier.
He, Su Xuan, would never die so easily.
Don't underestimate him, you bastard.
Return half of his heart and Ah Shuo's Aye to me——
He gritted his teeth, calmed his heart completely, held his breath, and rushed forward to join forces with A Tu to deal with Gao Ruhan.
Gao Ruhan is indeed very powerful. Su Xuan has never met such a powerful sorcerer.
He and A'Tu used all their strength to work together with Gu Shuo outside the barrier to shatter it, and the Night Guards also rushed in and joined the melee.
Su Xuan was knocked flying by Gao Ruhan. Gu Shuo flew over to catch him, staring at him intently and asking, "Ah Xuan, are you okay?"
Su Xuan had already wiped away the blood he coughed up. Naturally, he shook his head and pretended nothing had happened. He said in a hoarse voice, "It's okay. Don't worry, Ah Shuo. I'm fine!"
Gu Shuo looked at him intently for a moment and said, "Ah Xuan, I told you that if I ever fall into a coma again, I hope to see you intact when I wake up."
Su Xuan was stunned.
Gu Shuo held him in his arms and said softly, "I'm glad you're okay... Leave the rest to us."
After he finished speaking, he looked at Gao Ruhan who was fighting, his eyes dark.
…
If Su Xuan could recall earlier what Gu Shuo said when they were alone... then perhaps he would understand sooner what the man was thinking.
If Su Xuan could have understood Gu Shuo's expression when he said this earlier, he might have been able to predict Gu Shuo's plan earlier.
This man always thinks one step ahead of him.
A dimly lit forest.
The air was filled with the smell of blood.
Spiritual power surged, the wind blew violently, shouts, groans, and roars overlapped.
In this chaotic scene, the last thing Su Xuan saw was Gu Shuo reaching out and pressing Gao Ruhan's chest, slamming the latter against the rock wall.
After such a great battle, everyone was injured to varying degrees, but Gao Ruhan was not dead yet.
After being hit like this, Gao Ruhan choked and spit out a mouthful of blood. He roared angrily, and his spiritual power became stronger again. It was so difficult to deal with that all the Night Guards began to feel desperate. A Tu also spat and cursed softly.
However, Gu Shuo did not let go of Gao Ruhan.
Su Xuan was stunned for a moment and was about to go up to help Gu Shuo, but Gao Ruhan suddenly screamed and his spiritual power was in chaos!
This spiritual power seemed to be on the verge of collapse. Su Xuan was stunned, not knowing what Gu Shuo had done. But before he could be surprised, he noticed that Gu Shuo's face had turned pale.
“…A Shuo!” Su Xuan’s face changed drastically.
The man seemed to hear the sound and turned his head.
It was a very gentle look.
It also contained a hint of apology.
Immediately, dozens of spirit cores overflowed from Gao Ruhan's body.
The spirit cores of the monsters of that generation that had not yet been absorbed by him finally found an opportunity to struggle out from his confinement and attacked him together. In this desperate situation, Gao Ruhan made a ferocious face, roared, and self-destructed!
Gu Shuo was engulfed in flames.
Su Xuan's mind was about to break, he opened his mouth to scream, and rushed forward but was blown away by the wind and waves.
At the same time, thousands of trees fell.
*
There were many things that Su Xuan only figured out later.
For example, Gao Ruhan wanted to fuse those dozens of spirit cores together, so he must have wanted to refine a complete spirit core, but he has not succeeded yet.
Failure may mean not starting at all, or it may mean being halfway to success.
And if he succeeded only halfway, it would mean that he only had half a spirit core.
——Then his situation is exactly the same as Gu Shuo’s.
Unlike the first generation of monsters, a mortal with powerful spiritual power in his body would be fine if he did not have a spiritual core, but if he only had half a spiritual core, that half spiritual core would be like a poison.
If it is disturbed even slightly, Gao Ruhan's spiritual power will become chaotic like Asuo's. If the fluctuations are more intense, he will self-destruct and die.
This was probably the last thing Gu Shuo did.
He connected his spiritual power meridians with Gao Ruhan.
However, while disrupting Gao Ruhan's spiritual power, he could not escape this wave of spiritual power self-destruction.
But Gao Ruhan must be killed.
This man's strength and madness are beyond everyone's imagination. If he escapes, and becomes stronger again and sneaks into the capital, the consequences will be unimaginable.
Not to mention that Gu Ruqing was still in Gao Ruhan's hands. It would be difficult for them to capture Gao Ruhan alive, so they had to kill him on the spot.
So, this is how things turned out in the end.
And what about Gao Ruhan?
During the battle, he smiled meaningfully at Gu Shuo and said, "How is Gu Weitong?"
Presumably, he had infiltrated the capital long ago and knew Gu Shuo's identity and even more so Gu Shuo's secrets - this was probably the reason why he had been acting so crazily recently. He already knew the dangers of half a spirit core and was eager to refine a complete spirit core.
However, what now?
Gao Ruhan disappeared.
In that wave of self-explosion, everyone was blown away by the turbulent flow of spiritual energy.
Su Xuan held on with all his might, and called out hoarsely for A-Tu and A-Shuo in the forest as daylight approached, but he could not see anyone.
Until he tripped and tumbled down a small hill. When he looked up from the pile of leaves, he saw a figure lying quietly on the ground not far away.
His pupils suddenly constricted, and he quickly got up and ran over to help the man up.
Gu Shuo closed his eyes tightly and did not move.
Su Xuan called out twice, but received no response.
He used trembling fingertips to feel Gu Shuo's breath. Although the breath was weak, it was still there. Su Xuan breathed a sigh of relief.
But when he explored the spiritual power in Gu Shuo's body, he froze.
The spiritual power scattered throughout Gu Shuo's limbs and bones, about to tear his body apart.
Once it is torn apart, no one can save Gu Shuo.
Su Xuan held Gu Shuo tightly in his arms, his eyes staring into the void, his heart beating wildly.
For a moment, Su Xuan's mind was blank.
In fact, although Su Xuan is already in his twenties, he seems to be too naive, probably because he lived in the mountains for the first twenty years.
He didn't know how sinister people were until he followed Amelia Su into the capital and completely set foot in the world.
He also didn't know that whether it was monsters, wizards or mortals, they all wanted to eat monsters to obtain spiritual power until he was involved in a series of incidents in the capital.
He had no idea that the unstable world that Gu Shuo talked about was exactly as the name implies - chaos, disorder, madness, and greed.
Unrest can happen at any time.
A mere wizard, after learning how to devour spirit cores, was able to restrain them to such an extent.
He... he should have used his brain earlier and thought carefully about what Ashu said, right?
But what’s the use of thinking about it?
The world will not be different just because he thinks about it.
Su Xuan stayed like this for a moment, then slowly tightened his arms around Gu Shuo, and his eyes changed slightly.
At some point, the sound of flapping wings was heard, and then Ah Tu landed in front of him, surprised and said, "Ah Xuan, I've been looking for you for a long time. Are you okay? Gu Lanyu... is he okay too?"
Su Xuan whispered, "A-Tu, if there were no spiritual power in this world and everyone was just an ordinary mortal, this wouldn't happen, right? What about a monster devouring a spiritual core? Could a mortal really dream of becoming a god through this method?"
Ah Tu opened his mouth and said, "...As long as there is a difference in spiritual power, there will always be someone who wants to be the most powerful one."
"So why is there a division between monsters and mortals in this world? And why is the natural spiritual energy between heaven and earth fading? If it's going to fade, wouldn't it be better to simply not exist in the first place?"
Su Xuan asked confusedly, but A Tu couldn't answer.
Immediately, Su Xuan curled his lips and said, "Forget it. No matter what this world becomes, I will live in my own way."
And he would never let the person he wanted die.
Su Xuan gently touched Gu Shuo's face and whispered, "Ah Shuo, this doesn't count as me breaking my promise. You said you would wake up in seven days at most, but your current body can't even last an hour. So when you wake up, don't be angry with me."
Ah Tu hesitated and said, "Ah Xuan, you want to..."
Su Xuan closed his eyes gently.
"A Shuo said that he possessed his body some time ago. A year ago at Chunyue Pavilion, Ah Qi saw the possessed A Shuo with a 'young lady' who looked very much like me," Su Xuan said softly, "So, whether it's him or me, we must have lived well through this day and will live well."
"Ashuo will definitely be able to use my spirit core."
…
——But Su Xuan never thought that the so-called them in the unknown future came from the future more than a thousand years later.
Later, the two of them were separated for such a long time.
In reality, in the apartment, Su Xuan opened his eyes and tears rolled down from the corners of his eyes.
Gu Shuo raised his face, frowned and called out, "Ah Xuan, are you awake?"
Su Xuan stretched out his hands and hugged him tightly, unable to say a word.
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