Chapter 1226: Jin Wutuo
Chapter 1225: Jin Wutuo
“Filthy beast, trying to run?!”
Lu-Gu sneered, and then his blood surged; like a fierce tiger, he crossed several paces and closed in on the brocade-clad barbarian.
The brocade robe giant hadn’t expected Lu-Gu’s footwork to be so fast; his face turned pale in an instant. He pulled out a piece of bone, shoved it into his mouth, and bit it to splinter.
Lu-Gu’s palm was already on his shoulder; with a sudden grip, the sound of bone shattering rang out.
The brocade giant did not utter a sound.
Lu-Gu’s expression shifted slightly. He pulled with force and actually tore a layer of human skin from the brocade giant’s body.
Some unknown shamanic art—this man had shed his skin like a great python, stripping a layer of flesh to escape the hunt.
The man, stripped of his outer brocade and even his skin, was naked and slick like a bleeding loach. He darted into a nearby sealed chamber, crashed through a hidden wall, and vanished.
Lu-Gu rushed in after him and found nothing but emptiness behind the wall—passages branching in all directions, pitch-black.
Burning with hatred, Lu-Gu did not hesitate and jumped in.
After a while he crawled back out, covered in black muck, his face extremely ugly.
Whatever was behind that wall was filthy and reeked; he’d jumped in but couldn’t find a direction or catch the traitor. He could only return furious, clutching the layer of human skin he had ripped off.
Mo Hua asked: “Lost him?”
Lu-Gu nodded.
From afar more voices came—metal on metal, the clash of blades and spears—and several cultivators with respectable Golden Core auras.
Young Lord Gongtu and his concubine were ashen.
Mo Hua said: “Let’s Leave first.”
Lu-Gu didn’t want to go; he only hissed angrily: “I’ll catch that traitor and question him properly—how he betrayed my brother and crawled out alive.”
Mo Hua said: “If you chase now, you won’t catch him.”
Lu-Gu’s face darkened.
Mo Hua stepped forward, plucked a tuft of hair from the human skin in his hand, and said: “Don’t worry—he can’t get away now.”
Lu-Gu looked puzzled.
Mo Hua gave no more explanation, only: “Withdraw first. If more come later, we won’t be able to run. There may even be late-stage Golden Core cultivators hiding in that oasis.”
Lu-Gu frowned—he would not take late-stage Golden Core cultivators lightly.
Having said that, Mo Hua ignored Lu-Gu, ordered Chi-Feng to escort Young Lord Gongtu and his concubine away, and left with Dan-Zhu.
Lu-Gu watched Mo Hua’s back for a moment, then followed.
Mo Hua, as a shaman, had strange skills; if he said the traitor couldn’t escape, he must have some confidence.
They walked out of the sealed chamber. Along the way some blockers appeared—mostly Foundation Establishment cultivators and three or four Golden Core, but all early-stage and no match for Lu-Gu. In a few exchanges limbs were broken or legs shattered.
Mo Hua was a little alarmed.
Late-stage Golden Core generals truly were not to be underestimated.
They fought their way out of the prison chamber, and when they reached the outside they found flames everywhere; guards ringed the place in many layers.
Mo Hua said: “Break out.”
Lu-Gu charged at the front, bare-handed and without using treasure, and smashed through a swath of people.
Four or five Golden Core rushed to surround him but were beaten to blood by his fists and kicks; his momentum was truly terrifying.
For a time the oasis guards were shaken; no one dared advance.
Mo Hua and the others took advantage of Lu-Gu’s might and fought while retreating.
At the main gate they suddenly saw a sinister green light shoot up. An old man in a black-and-green robe hastened forward on a light of escape with an extremely grim, fierce momentum and aimed at them.
Mo Hua felt his heart sink.
“A late-stage Golden Core barbarian…”
Lu-Gu also furrowed his brow. He looked back at Mo Hua and said, “You all go first.”
Mo Hua nodded without ceremony.
After all, he wasn’t worried whether anyone died—least of all Lu-Gu.
Lu-Gu stayed behind alone to face the black-and-green-robed late-stage Golden Core elder.
Chi-Feng led the way as they pushed through; Mo Hua, Dan-Zhu, Young Lord Gongtu and his concubine moved toward the gate.
Near the gate Chi-Feng cleared a path with his spear and killed several guards.
Earlier that day Mo Hua had already seen through the gate’s formation.
In barbarian lands, aside from Taotie-related formations, most formations were not particularly sophisticated.
Mo Hua moved a finger; ink traces danced and formation patterns condensed on the gate, unravelling the gate’s formation.
Mo Hua said: “Break it.”
Chi-Feng’s spear shot forward like fire and pierced the gate.
Mo Hua and the others passed through and left the oasis.
Pursuers followed in waves.
Chi-Feng held the rear; relying on mid-stage Golden Core strength and ruthless tactics he slaughtered several waves, and soon no one dared pursue.
Having temporarily escaped, Mo Hua had everyone hide behind a reef.
In the long night, a powerful fluctuation soon came from not far off—late-stage Golden Core were fighting; crystallized spiritual force and brute power interwove, blood-red and black-green mixed; the earth trembled and sand flew.
After hundreds of rounds of clashes, Lu-Gu dragged a huge bone blade and fled from the black-and-green-robed elder. The elder’s technique was vicious; in a frontal fight he couldn’t outmatch Lu-Gu’s decisive killing style and dared not pursue.
A few oasis Golden Core guards tried to stop Lu-Gu but were cleaved in two by his backhand.
Golden Core cultivators were treated like sect founders in small places, yet that night at least seven or eight were cut down.
Mo Hua mentally counted the heads and let out a small sigh.
With so many Golden Core dead, no one dared pursue Lu-Gu’s momentum.
Alone, having repelled powerful enemies and slain many Golden Core, bloody and ferocious Lu-Gu used a fleeing technique in the desert. Suddenly he realized someone dared to throw fireballs at him. He looked coldly and saw Mo Hua beckoning from behind a large reef.
The fireballs had been thrown by Mo Hua.
Lu-Gu couldn’t be angry.
He reined in his killing intent and reunited with Mo Hua and the others.
After meeting up, Mo Hua said: “This place isn’t good to linger. Return to camp first and plan from there.”
Dan-Zhu nodded.
Lu-Gu said nothing but did not object.
So the group set out again against wind and sand for over half an hour before rejoining the main force of six thousand barbarian soldiers.
Young Lord Gongtu had been shocked by Lu-Gu and Chi-Feng’s strength; seeing this armor-clad, massive barbarian army, he trembled from head to toe.
Mo Hua ignored him and ordered that Young Lord Gongtu and his concubine be settled temporarily somewhere.
Surrounded by wasteland, both of them were, in Mo Hua’s assessment, “useless”; once sent into the desert their deaths were almost certain.
After arranging them, Lu-Gu suddenly came over.
He said nothing, but Mo Hua understood his meaning and asked: “Who is that man?”
Lu-Gu said: “He is a subordinate and one of the confidants of my elder brother of the Shi-Gu—named Jin Wutuo.”
“Jin Wutuo?” Mo Hua was a little surprised. “Doesn’t he go by ‘-Gu’?”
Lu-Gu: “Not all Shugu barbarians have ‘Gu’ in their names.”
Mo Hua asked curiously, “Not all?”
Lu-Gu looked at Mo Hua, not wishing to explain, but still patiently said:
“It depends on the bloodline, the ancestors, the branch origins. Those of the same line, with roots, are called ‘Gu’.”
Mo Hua nodded lightly and didn’t press the matter, so as not to appear amateurish.
Lu-Gu’s face darkened. “This Jin Wutuo was my brother’s confidant—supposed to be his right arm in life and death. But now the Shi-Gu division is gone and my brother is dead, and he’s found such a comfortable place to live it up. There must be something wrong.”
Mo Hua’s gaze deepened, he also found it odd.
This Jin Wutuo might be tied to a lot of causes; he should be captured and questioned.
Mo Hua recognized the skin-shedding art.
(TN: Isn’t this the same technique Xiao Tianquan’s ancestor used when he was trying to find Xiao Tianquan’s killer in the Causality Realm, where the Evil Fetus devoured the shedding left behind by that ancestor)
There was another point Mo Hua cared about; he asked: “Does Jin Wutuo usually wear brocade robes?”
Lu-Gu shook his head. “The Great Wilderness custom is to wear robes made from demon-beast pelts and armor from monster carapaces. Brocade is the decadence from the Dao Court. Before he died, my brother hated such gaudiness and forbade anyone in the Shi-Gu from wearing it.”
Lu-Gu sneered: “People from the Dao Court are not good; they all harbor wicked thoughts. These unfit-for-battle, ‘arrogant, vain’ things must have come from them to corrupt the warriors of our Great Wilderness.”
Mo Hua, being from the Dao Court and therefore “not good” in Lu-Gu’s view, didn’t comment.
But after Lu-Gu’s words, Mo Hua thought the brocade-clad Jin Wutuo was likely in even deeper trouble.
Mo Hua considered and told Lu-Gu: “Tomorrow you take a small force—no more than five or six Golden Core, plus a hundred or two hundred barbarians—and besiege that oasis tribe, demand they hand over Jin Wutuo.”
“If they refuse, then force your way in.”
Lu-Gu frowned, “Even if I break in, I don’t know where Jin Wutuo is; I might not catch him.”
Mo Hua shook his head. “Jin Wutuo fears you—he won’t show himself again.”
“You aren’t attacking to catch him this time, but to pressure him, to let him know the oasis is no safe haven.”
“If you break in, kill and shout his name, he’ll be so frightened he’ll look for a hidden passage and slip out.”
“Once he leaves the oasis…” Mo Hua pinched the tuft of Jin Wutuo’s hair in his hand and said lightly, “he won’t escape my palm.”
Lu-Gu felt for some reason that Mo Hua now resembled a soul-snaring demon.
Lu-Gu thought a moment and added, “Why not send barbarians to level the oasis, so Jin Wutuo has nowhere to hide?”
Mo Hua shook his head: “This oasis is strange, it may hide many secrets. Don’t act rashly.”
“Besides, if you leave the oasis, Jin Wutuo has a den here. If you fail once, you can try again.”
“If you raze the oasis and Jin Wutuo loses his den, if you fail to catch him this time, you might never find him again.”
There were innocent barbarians in the oasis.
If the army came, swords and spears would spare none.
Unless absolutely necessary, Mo Hua did not want to make things final.
Lu-Gu pondered and nodded.
On the battlefield he was naturally strong.
But in cunning and trickery he admitted he was far inferior to this Vermilion Sparrow Tribe’s Shaman Lord.
…
The next day, Lu-Gu acted according to plan.
He led five Shugu Golden Cores and two hundred barbarian soldiers to attack the oasis.
Within the oasis, that late-stage Golden Core elder in black-green robes personally led his people to face them.
The two sides clashed outside the oasis gates, the battle turning heaven and earth upside down, sand flying wildly, the momentum terrifying.
Halfway through the fight, Lu-Gu suddenly broke alone into the oasis. His cultivation was high and his vigor monstrous; under his bone blade countless souls fell, and ordinary Golden Core could not approach.
Once inside, Lu-Gu slaughtered while bellowing with the power of his Golden Core:
“Jin Wutuo!”
“Get out here!”
“If I catch you I’ll strip your skin, pull out your sinews, eat your flesh, drink your blood, grind your bones to dust, and never let you be reborn!”
These words, from Lu-Gu’s mouth, brimmed with killing intent. His voice was like both a thunderous bell and a savage beast’s roar, shaking eardrums to pain.
Some ordinary barbarian cultivators were so shaken by his roar that their guts split and they died outright.
Thus, Lu-Gu roared and killed, plunging the oasis into chaos.
Meanwhile, Mo Hua sat on a reef outside the oasis, holding a strand of hair, a bronze basin before him, eyes closed in meditation.
After a moment, as if sensing something, Mo Hua suddenly opened his eyes, a flash of light passing through.
Rubbing his fingers together, he lit phosphorus fire, tossing the strand of hair together with a piece of scalp into the basin.
The phosphorus burned through bone armor, forming cracks that evolved into hexagrams.
Observing the signs, Mo Hua calculated silently for a moment, then his eyes lit up as he said to Chi-Feng:
“Follow me.”
Chi-Feng nodded. “Yes.”
Mo Hua led Chi-Feng to circle around the oasis, racing rightward. After about ten li, they reached a wind-eroded stone mountain.
Mo Hua had Chi-Feng lead men to set ambushes within the mountain.
Not long after, the mountain faintly revealed formations. A stone wall split open, and from within stepped a figure, as though just shed of its skin.
The figure looked panicked. Clearly, the ferocity of Lu-Gu’s killing intent in the oasis had terrified him, and he sought to escape through a secret passage.
But the instant he appeared, the trap formation triggered, turning into a cage that locked him in.
Chi-Feng leapt like a hungry tiger, pouncing upon him.
A dozen armored Abyss-Bone soldiers also rushed in.
Almost instantly, the man was subdued.
Mo Hua looked closely—his face blurred, his skin and limbs nearly transparent, as though freshly shed. His aura was familiar: without doubt, Jin Wutuo.
Jin Wutuo’s face was pale with fear. “How did you know I was here?”
No one answered him.
He tried to shed again, but Mo Hua had already seen his method of escape once, and would never allow it again.
The water-earth fusion formation clung to his skin like glue; no matter how he struggled, he could not escape.
Not to mention Chi-Feng, a mid-stage Golden Core general, was pressing him down.
Chi-Feng twisted and shattered his limbs.
Mo Hua nodded. “Take him away.”
They dragged Jin Wutuo back to camp.
When Lu-Gu received the news, he ceased fighting, withdrew with his men, and upon seeing Jin Wutuo, instantly flashed forward, seizing his throat in a grip like iron pincers, roaring:
“Speak! Why are you not dead?”
Jin Wutuo’s face remained stricken with fear.
Mo Hua reminded: “Don’t strangle him to death.”
Lu-Gu restrained his rage, slowly loosening his grip.
Enduring the pain in his neck, Jin Wutuo stammered:
“I… I don’t know. I truly… don’t know. I… I was only carrying out a small errand under Lord Shi-Gu’s orders. But when I returned, the whole Shugu Tribe—it was gone—”
Lu-Gu stomped down on his right leg, grinding until the bones shattered to dust, his face dark as water:
“You think such words can deceive me?”
Jin Wutuo, writhing in pain, panicked. “It’s true, it’s true! Lord Lu-Gu, I wouldn’t dare deceive you. Lord Shi-Gu treated me with kindness. How could I ever betray him?”
Lu-Gu demanded: “Then why were you in that oasis? Why in silken brocade robes, living in luxury?”
Jin Wutuo cried: “I didn’t dare! I didn’t dare! The Shugu Tribe went mad, the clan was gone—I could only seek refuge elsewhere. Passing that oasis, its master kindly took me in. That’s all… I’ve just lived quietly these past days…”
Lu-Gu cursed: “Beast! Not a word of truth from your mouth!”
Jin Wutuo swore: “By the Barbarian God above, if I, Jin Wutuo, utter a single falsehood, may I die a wretched death!”
Lu-Gu frowned.
For him to dare swear by the Barbarian God meant he likely wasn’t lying.
But Mo Hua harbored doubts.
Which Barbarian God had Jin Wutuo sworn to?
If it was one Mo Hua had already devoured, then his oath was worthless—empty as a fart.
Lu-Gu too was uncertain. He looked at Jin Wutuo, brooded for a moment, then dragged the maimed man before the massive coffin deep within the camp.
Pressing him to kneel, Lu-Gu pointed at the coffin.
“Before my elder brother’s corpse, repeat the oath you just swore.”
When Jin Wutuo saw the coffin, his face shifted to sheer terror and disbelief. He murmured:
“He’s really dead…”
“Really dead?”
“Lord Shi-Gu is truly dead? Someone so strong… he could die? He actually died…”
Jin Wutuo fell into a daze, laughter spilling from his mouth like the ravings of a madman.
Lu-Gu said coldly: “Swear again, in front of my brother, that you did not lie.”
But Jin Wutuo no longer dared.
He could swear in the name of a Barbarian God, yet he dared not swear before the corpse of Shi-Gu.
Lu-Gu’s rage welled up inside him like a mountain about to erupt. Yet after a moment, he slowly reined it in, his voice calm: “Speak the truth, and I will let your death be less painful.”
But after seeing Shi-Gu’s coffin, Jin Wutuo seemed to have lost all fear—death itself no longer frightened him.
Lu-Gu began to torture Jin Wutuo.
But Jin Wutuo seemed to regard his body as nothing more than rotten flesh, utterly indifferent to pain. No matter what tortures Lu-Gu inflicted, he only spat blood and gave that foolish, vacant laugh.
Mo Hua, watching, furrowed his brows slightly.
(TN: Xiao Tianquan a.k.a Howling Dog)
(End of this Chapter)