Chapter 1274: “Shi-Gu”

Chapter 1273: “Shi-Gu”

Green Marsh Mountain Realm, the Poisonous Swamp.

The warriors of the Gao-Tu Tribe had shriveled skin marked with blotches like a toad’s—dense clusters of poisonous spots.

This was the result of the cultivation method their tribe had passed down for generations.

After cultivating such arts, their skin merged with venom itself—allowing them to breathe even within a toxic swamp, and even absorb the surrounding poisons for their own use.

It was a vicious, obscure, and extremely sinister barbarian inheritance.

At this moment, the Gao-Tu warriors were submerged within the poisonous marsh, blending completely into their environment.

Only the Golden Core barbarian generals of the Gao-Tu Tribe stood barefoot on the swamp’s green surface—faces twisted, staring coldly at the warriors of Vermilion Bird Mountain realm.

The man at the front had the most poison spots on his body and the most venomous gaze. Thick cultivation power merged with his toxin arts— even the breath he exhaled carried a dark green deadly poison.

This man was the Gao-Tu Tribe’s great general, Gaodu.

The Gao-Tu chief had grown dim-witted and inactive from years of idleness, leaving Gaodu as the tribe’s strongest warrior.

Standing atop the toxic waters, Gaodu’s cultivation resonated with the miasma and poison around him, making his presence deeply unnerving.

Facing him was the Shugu Tribe’s Great Chieftain—Lu-Gu—clad in full battle armor.

Behind Lu-Gu stood the Vermilion Bird Mountain warriors, most of whom were from the Shugu Tribe.

The Shugu Tribe was Mo Hua’s most trusted force aside from the Divine Slave Tribe.

Meanwhile, Mo Hua—now the Divine-Lord’s Divine Shaman—was far from the battlefield, guarded on all sides by protectors and the ever-watchful big tiger, observing from afar.

Gaodu’s eyes briefly flashed with fear when they passed over Mo Hua, then settled on his true obstacle—Lu-Gu.

Gaodu sneered. “Defeated once, and you still dare crawl back for another beating?”

Lu-Gu’s gaze was icy. “Gaodu, all you can do is squat in this toxic swamp like a diseased toad. If you dare come onto solid ground, I’ll kill you within five hundred rounds.”

Gaodu laughed coldly. “Then why don’t you come down here? If you enter this poison marsh, I’ll poison you to death within five hundred rounds just the same!”

The two exchanged more insults.

Lu-Gu grew impatient. “I’ll give you a piece of advice—submit to the Divine-Lord as soon as possible. Surrender to the Divine Shaman.”

Gaodu snorted. “I don’t know any ‘Divine-Lord.’”

Lu-Gu’s voice grew devout. “The Divine-Lord is the ruler of all gods in the Great Wilderness. His body shines like gold and jade, divine radiance ten thousandfold—bearing the horns of a Pixiu, the form of an Azure Dragon, wielding immense might. His hands pluck stars from the sky, his palms trace Divine Runes, and his eyes contain Sword-light that slays all heresy. He commands the gods of the Great Wilderness…”

Gaodu frowned. Internally, he thought this guy could really run his mouth.

Lu-Gu continued, “And the Divine Shaman is the Divine-Lord’s personally appointed emissary, wielding His authority, destined to save the Great Wilderness from calamity and deliver all beings from suffering—”

Gaodu pointed at Mo Hua from afar. “That is your Divine Shaman?”

Lu-Gu nodded proudly. “Correct.”

Gaodu smirked. “I thought he was some great figure… The Great Wilderness needs him to save it? Ridiculous. He’s just a snot-nosed brat who found a tiger demon somewhere and started pretending to be important. ‘Divine Shaman’? Don’t make me laugh.”

A flash of murderous intent crossed Lu-Gu’s eyes. “To insult the Divine Shaman… unforgivable!”

Before the words finished, he drew his Demon-Slaying Bone Blade and struck toward Gaodu with terrifying momentum.

Gaodu talked big but wasn’t careless. Instantly he summoned a pair of twin snake-bone blades to block Lu-Gu’s slash.

The two clashed fiercely, their strength shaking the marsh, making the toxic waters churn and poison mists surge.

Gaodu was clearly being suppressed.

Knowing he wasn’t Lu-Gu’s equal in direct combat, he sank into the poisonous swamp, using its venomous terrain to restrain Lu-Gu.

Lu-Gu had no choice. Ignoring the deadly swamp, he waded into the mire to keep up the assault.

Fortunately, he had taken many anti-toxin pills beforehand and coated himself with poison-repelling ointment—granting some resistance.

Thus, the two great chieftains and generals locked into a brutal duel.

This was a tradition in tribal warfare:

Before armies clash, the generals must fight to the death.

The victor boosts his side’s morale and determines the battlefield’s momentum.

If one manages to kill the enemy general outright, the opposing warriors typically collapse and flee, ending the battle with minimal casualties.

Given the swamp terrain and Gao-Tu Tribes’s poisoned ambushes, the Vermilion Bird Mountain warriors couldn’t charge.

And with both fighters being late-stage Golden Core, their battle erupted with power others couldn’t approach safely.

Poisonous waters boiled. Decaying wood turned to ash. The entire landscape warped under the force of their clash.

Toxins and venomous sludge swirled into a vortex—deadly to anyone foolish enough to come near.

After seven or eight hundred rounds, Lu-Gu finally began to falter.

Though stronger overall, he could not unleash his full strength within the poison marsh.

Gaodu, however, was in his element—his Hundred-Viper Venom Arts growing more lethal the longer they fought.

Meanwhile, Lu-Gu’s anti-toxin pills were wearing off. Any further delay would mean death by poison or exhaustion.

Lu-Gu gathered his dwindling strength and slashed at Gaodu, intending to retreat.

But Gaodu had long anticipated this—his toxin arts perfect for attrition battles.

Seeing Lu-Gu’s blade coming, Gaodu advanced instead of retreating.

With a sadistic grin, he lunged toward the attack—seemingly suicidal.

Lu-Gu frowned in confusion—just as Gaodu’s body twisted like a serpent, his human face elongating into a snake’s head as he slithered past the blade and lunged at Lu-Gu’s neck.

Like a venomous serpent flicking its tongue, Gaodu’s fanged mouth, dripping with poison, bit deep into Lu-Gu’s throat.

This was the terrifying pinnacle of the barbarian Hundred-Viper Venom Arts—flesh and bone becoming both venom and serpent, freely twisting and contorting.

Caught off guard, Lu-Gu roared in fury and slashed backward.

Gaodu’s form shifted back to human, dodging the counterattack, retreating far into the swamp with a mocking grin.

Lu-Gu stumbled back, taking Anti-Toxin Pills, but the poison had already seeped into his meridians, turning his face pale with fury.

Gaodu sneered, “Such a great Shugu chieftain, and yet, still my defeated opponent.”

“Your Divine Shaman, who claims to protect the Great Wilderness, can’t even protect you?” he mocked.

Lu-Gu’s gaze blazed with fury, eyes fixed on Gaodu, wishing to kill him instantly.

Gaodu basked in his apparent victory—but then Lu-Gu’s pupils suddenly contracted.

Gaodu noticed too late a chill creeping along his back, an inexplicable, terrifying coldness, as if something stood right behind him.

His snake-like head turned, seeing empty black eye sockets glowing with an eerie blue light.

Gaodu’s heart skipped a beat. In the chaos, this thing had approached unseen, without a hint of life.

What is that?!

Before he could react, a pair of iron-like arms clamped onto him, crushing his Golden Core frame.

Gaodu countered, transforming into a serpent, snapping at the attacker’s neck—but bit into what felt like cold steel, not flesh.

The venom seeped along his fangs and penetrated in, yet it seemed to have no effect at all.

Gaodu panicked: “A corpse? An Iron Corpse? A Copper Corpse? No… what in the world is this thing?”

The “corpse” continued to squeeze him, as if wanting to cleave him in half.

In desperation, Gaodu pushed his Hundred Viper Poison Technique to its limit, transforming into three serpents to slip from the grip, then recombining into his human form.

He finally observed the “enemy”: massive, terrifying, neither fully human nor corpse, emitting a faint blue light, origin unknown, likely not from the Great Wilderness.

Its strength suggested a late-stage Golden Core, yet it emitted no cultivation aura.

Gaodu’s face darkened.

Nearby, Lu-Gu stared at the towering “corpse,” slightly dazed, whispering, “Brother…”

Moments later, he looked toward Mo Hua, eyes complex. Mo Hua sat high above, expression cold, a flicker of strange blue light flashing through his eyes.

Simultaneously, the corpse of Shi-Gu roared, its bones glowing ghostly blue, radiating terrifying aura like a ferocious beast.

“Not good!”

Gaodu retreated, but in the next instant, venomous water splashed, a shadow flickered, and the massive Shi-Gu closed in on Gaodu with unfathomable speed, a grim fist slammed out.

Gaodu couldn’t dodge in time and could only raise his arms to block. He was blasted away, crashing into the swamp and splashing toxic water high into the air.

Struggling to rise, Gaodu found both his arms dangling—bones inside shattered.

“Damn it… what kind of monster is this?”

Gaodu cursed under his breath. Circulating his cultivation art, his arms turned into long serpents, slithered back into place, and reattached his broken bones.

But then a cold, bloody wind swept through, and Shi-Gu struck again.

Gaodu had no choice but to grit his teeth and clash head-on.

Gaodu’s expertise lay in poison and stealth, suited for ambush; direct combat was not his strength. Within a hundred moves, three more of his bones had shattered.

The victory seemed clear.

Yet after some time, Gaodu adapted.

He was a seasoned general who had weathered countless battles. Naturally, he noticed that though this “corpse” possessed tremendous strength, its moves were extremely limited—repeating the same few strikes again and again with stiff, unnatural transitions.

It was as if a “revived person” that had not yet adapted to its own body, its techniques rigid and mechanical.

To a seasoned expert like Gaodu, this was a glaring weakness.

Gaodu slowly exhaled in relief, realizing he could manage.

Having seen through its patterns, he began fighting with increasing ease.

Soon, he discovered an even greater flaw in the corpse: Massive energy consumption.

Though he did not understand the mechanism, Gaodu sensed that each punch of the corpse emitted faint blue flashes within, likely some strange “spiritual force drive.”

Strong blows demanded great energy consumption, meaning it could not endure a prolonged battle.

Indeed, its power gradually began to wane.

Seeing these flaws, Gaodu relaxed further.

This made things simple…

His plan: drag out the fight. Once the corpse’s spiritual energy ran dry, it would naturally become useless.

So Gaodu steadied himself and engaged Shi-Gu’s corpse in a battle of attrition.

In the swamp, only Gaodu and the corpse clashed.

The Vermilion Bird Sparrow Mountain realm warriors dared not enter the poisonous swamp.

Gao-Tu Tribe’s warriors likewise dared not interfere in a battle of this level.

Gaodu alone bore the crushing pressure brought by Shi-Gu’s corpse.

Shi-Gu’s corpse had thick skin and solid flesh, no sense of pain, no fear of injury, immune to poison, and unafraid of the marsh’s dangers. It was a pure killing tool—reckless and fearless. Besides stiff techniques and heavy consumption, it had no other flaws.

Even confronting it directly, Gaodu struggled immensely.

But even so, with the two major weaknesses—rigid movements and immense consumption—the battle slowly tilted in his favor.

Sure enough, half an hour later, the blue light on Shi-Gu’s body dimmed significantly, and its movements slowed.

Its spiritual energy was nearly exhausted.

But Gaodu wasn’t in good shape either.

He had first fought Lu-Gu, both suffering wounds. Then he was ambushed by Shi-Gu’s corpse. Through this prolonged fight, he had repeatedly overdrawn his Hundred-Vipers Poison Art. His magical power and physical strength were nearly depleted.

Shi-Gu’s blue light was nearly gone; it could barely move.

Gaodu too was on the verge of collapse. He turned to several Golden Core warriors of the Gao-Tu Tribe beside him:

“You, come help. Let’s restrain this half-dead thing. I’m going to cut open its chest and see what the hell it actually is.”

“Yes, General!”

Two Gao-Tu Golden Core warriors saluted and moved in—one wielding a blade, the other a chain. Together with Gaodu, three Golden Cores worked as one, and soon they subdued Shi-Gu’s corpse.

This was deep within the poison marsh.

Gaodu had help.

But on the Vermilion Bird Mountain realm side, no one could aid Shi-Gu.

All they could do was watch helplessly as Shi-Gu’s corpse was chained, a blade held to its neck, subdued by the Gao-Tu warriors.

Lu-Gu’s expression grew heavy.

The blue light in Shi-Gu’s eyes had completely faded.

Seeing this, Gaodu finally exhaled in relief.

This strange corpse had at last burned through its power and stopped moving.

Now all he had to do…

Gaodu breathed lightly, relaxing his vigilance for a brief moment.

But in that instant, a sudden alarm shot through him. His instincts screamed a warning, and his hair stood on end. He turned sharply—only to see the hollow eyes of Shi-Gu’s corpse ignite once more, the extinguished blue light suddenly rekindling.

Gaodu’s eyes widened in shock.

“Not good! Quick—”

Before he could finish, a “pfft” sound rang out as a burst of blood exploded before him.

Shi-Gu’s chains were broken. One punch pierced the abdomen of a Golden Core warrior from Gao Tu’s tribe.

Caught off guard, the mid-stage Golden Core warrior had no chance to react.

“Damn, this cowardly bastard…”

Gaodu roared in fury, but his curse didn’t finish before he witnessed an even more horrifying sight:

Shi-Gu’s corpse, after punching through the warrior’s abdomen, reached inside, tore out muscle and sinew, and extracted a living Golden Core, still glowing with blood and spiritual energy…

Before anyone could react, the corpse placed the bloody, living Golden Core in its mouth and, with a chilling crunch, chewed it to fragments.

Then… swallowed it.

In that instant, everyone’s expression twisted in horror, their faces drained of all color.