novelapdf Chapter 14 Dark Night Murder, Geng Metal Defeats the Enemy
Chapter 14 Dark Night Murder, Geng Metal Defeats the Enemy
"That's... a place where people live."
The man in black's single eye gleamed green in the darkness, like a vulture eyeing carrion.
Gu An huddled deep in a crevice in the rocks, his heart already stopped. He watched as the man in black, dragging a severed arm, staggered past the animal skeletons blocking the cave entrance and strode in.
"Who is it? Show yourself!"
The man in black spoke in a hoarse voice, and the crescent-shaped blood-red blade in his hand drew a cold light in the air, pointing directly at the shadows deep inside the cave.
Gu An knew there was no way to avoid it.
The Turtle Breathing Technique reversed, and his previously icy body temperature instantly rose, his heart beating powerfully again. He deliberately made a noise, his whole body like a startled wild beast, suddenly shrinking back, his back hitting the rock wall with a dull thud.
"No...don't kill me!"
Gu An trembled, covering his head with his hands, his eyes peeking at the newcomer through his fingers with terror. His pathetic appearance was exactly like that of a low-ranking servant who had never seen the world.
"Second level of Qi Refining?"
The man in black scanned Gu An with his divine sense, and his tense nerves immediately relaxed a little.
He's a useless farmer, not worth worrying about.
"Cough cough..." The man in black sat down against the cave wall, his face beneath the half-masked body ashen white, blood from his severed arm soaking through half his body. "Do you have any healing pills on you? Hand them over! Hurry up if you don't want to die!"
Gu An shakily pulled a dirty porcelain bottle from his pocket.
"Only...only this."
Gu An's voice trembled as he held the porcelain bottle in his hands and crawled forward two steps. "This is a Yin-Repelling Pill issued by the sect... Although it can't heal injuries, it can... can suppress Yin energy..."
That's the truth. This Yin-Avoiding Pill is a special supply for the guards of Youying Valley. It's extremely poisonous; although it can dispel cold, it also harms the body.
A flicker of desire flashed in the man's eyes. He was currently suffering excruciating pain as his wounds were being eroded by the malevolent energy of the valley. Although the Yin-avoiding pill was not the right remedy, it was better than nothing.
"Give it to me!" the man in black shouted, extending his intact hand.
Gu An stood up hesitantly and walked over with unsteady steps. Just three steps away from the man in black, he suddenly tripped.
Clang!
He knocked over a half-full pot of cold water that was placed on the stone table. The pot smashed to the ground, the lid flew off, and the cold water inside splashed all over the man in black's trousers.
"court death!"
The man in black subconsciously looked down, a murderous intent rising within him. He was about to raise his hand and slap this useless wretch to death.
In that very instant.
Gu An's hunched back suddenly straightened, and a chilling glint instantly flashed in his cloudy, terrified eyes.
His left hand, which had been hidden in his sleeve, suddenly shot up.
"puff!"
A packet of crushed quicklime powder, mixed with toxic insect repellent powder, was thrown at the man in black.
At such close range, and completely unprepared, the man in black had no way to avoid it.
"ah--!"
Before the scream could even begin, Gu An's right index finger had already pointed out.
It was no longer the faint, pale golden light it usually emitted.
This time, the golden light at his fingertips condensed into needles, carrying a sharp whistling sound that tore through the air, and fiercely stabbed towards the black-clad man's intact single eye!
[Geng metal refers to: proficiency]
With a sudden, sharp sound, it was the muffled thud of a sharp blade piercing flesh.
"Aaaaaah! My eyes!"
The man in black clutched his right eye and frantically retreated, blood gushing from between his fingers. The golden light had not only blinded his eyeball, but its sharpness, imbued with the energy of metal, had also shattered his eye socket bone. Had it gone in just an inch deeper, it would have pierced his brain.
But he was, after all, a ruthless character at the fifth level of Qi Refining. At the critical moment, he instinctively tilted his head and avoided a fatal blow.
"I'm going to kill you! I'm going to tear you to pieces!"
The man in black had completely lost his mind. With his only remaining hand, he wildly swung the blood-red blade, unleashing streaks of crimson energy that crisscrossed and slashed wildly within the narrow stone cave.
Boom boom boom!
Stone fragments flew everywhere, and the stone table was shattered into pieces.
However, after Gu An landed a successful blow, he didn't pause for a moment.
He was like a slippery eel; he crouched low and rolled along the ground into the shadows at the entrance of the cave.
My breath caught in my throat, and my heart stopped beating.
[Status: Cold-blooded]
The man in black was blind, had lost an arm, and his consciousness was disturbed by the violent Yin energy in the valley. At this moment, in his perception, the servant who had ambushed him seemed to have vanished into thin air.
"Come out! Get out here!"
The man in black leaned against the rock wall, his blood-stained blade held protectively in front of his chest, his chest heaving violently. The excruciating pain and blood loss made his vision blur, but he dared not faint; he knew the venomous snake was lurking in the shadows.
The cave was deathly silent.
Only the heavy breathing of the man in black and the sound of dripping blood could be heard.
Gu An squatted behind a boulder at the cave entrance, holding a sharp-edged spirit stone in his hand.
He was waiting, waiting for the opponent to bleed dry, waiting for the opponent to exhaust their spiritual power, waiting for the opponent to reveal that fatal flaw.
Time slips away, bit by bit.
The man in black began to sway. The burning sensation of lime powder in his eyes caused him unbearable pain. His remaining spiritual power was exhausted, as he had to suppress the injuries in his body and maintain the protective aura.
"Ahem... young man."
The man in black suddenly softened his voice, his tone pleading, "Come out... I'm an inner disciple of the Blood Blade Sect. I have dozens of spirit stones and high-level cultivation techniques in my storage bag... If you let me go, you can have all of these..."
Gu An remained expressionless, his breathing not even faltering.
This kind of nonsense is only good for fooling newbies who are just starting out.
Seeing no response, the hope in the man's eyes gradually turned into despair and madness. He knew he couldn't afford to delay any longer.
"Since you want to drag this out, then let's die together!"
The man in black roared suddenly, abandoning his defenses and frantically channeling the remaining spiritual energy in his body into the blood-red blade. The blade hummed, emitting a blinding red light, clearly preparing some large-scale killing move.
In that instant, a sliver of an opening appeared in the man in black's defenses.
His right rib area, exposed by raising his hand to gather strength, revealed a half-foot-wide opening.
"die."
Gu An silently recited in his heart.
Instead of charging out from the front, he pushed off the rock face with his feet, and his whole body shot out like a taut bow.
His right index finger pointed out again; this time, it was no longer a probe, but a fatal blow.
The spiritual power of the green wood in his dantian was transformed into the metal energy without reservation, and the golden light at his fingertips even took on a dark gold color due to its excessive condensation.
"Geng metal finger, broken!"
call out!
The golden light flashed like lightning, arriving in an instant.
The man in black, who was about to unleash his ultimate attack, suddenly froze.
The golden light pierced his ribs with perfect precision, pierced his lung diagonally upwards, and stabbed directly into his heart.
"Well……"
The blood-stained blade in the man in black's hand clattered to the ground.
His one remaining eye, hidden beneath the mask, stared intently ahead, as if trying to see what the ant that killed him actually looked like.
"Thump."
The body fell straight down, kicking up a cloud of dust.
Gu An did not immediately step forward, but instead added another finger, piercing the corpse's throat. After confirming that the person was completely dead, he collapsed to the ground, panting heavily.
This battle, though seemingly brief, exhausted all his energy and spirit.
[Practical experience +10]
[Experience with Geng Metal +5]
The pop-up notifications on the panel eased Gu An's tense nerves slightly.
He struggled to his feet, preparing to search for his spoils.
Suddenly, a strange red light flashed from the severed arm of the corpse.
That was the black-clad man's life essence. The red light condensed in the air into a hideous skull, moving at an astonishing speed. Gu An had no time to dodge, and the skull slammed into his left wrist.
A burning pain shot through me.
Gu An rolled up his sleeves and saw a blood-red skull mark the size of a fingernail on the inside of his wrist, emitting an eerie light.
"A blood curse?!"
Gu An's face was grim. He had read in a miscellaneous book that demonic sects often implanted blood curses within their core disciples to protect them. Once a disciple died violently, the blood curse would mark the murderer, and all fellow disciples within a hundred miles could sense it.
"Damn it, this is a huge problem."
Gu An gritted his teeth and tried to use his spiritual power to wash away the mark, but found that the mark was like a malignant tumor that was stuck to the bone and could not be shaken at all.
We can't stay here any longer.
He quickly crouched down and began to search the body.
A bloodstained storage bag, a high-quality blood-stained blade, and... a map made of some unknown leather.
Gu An unfolded the map, which showed the terrain around the Qingmu Sect in a crooked and uneven pattern. A thin, bright red line was winding its way from the outer perimeter of the Qingmu Sect into the depths of Youying Valley.
The map's endpoint is marked with a bright red "Yin" character.
That location was precisely where the strange plant that Gu An had sensed earlier was located.