Chapter 87: Meeting an Old Acquaintance Again
Chapter 87 – Meeting an Old Acquaintance Again
After effortlessly subduing Gongsun Huaiyu, Chen Changsheng swept his Divine Sense across the terrain outside the cavern.
Only after confirming the area was utterly secure did he begin to strip away Gongsun Huaiyu’s garments.
Faced with this blatant intrusion, Gongsun Huaiyu’s eyes widened in sudden panic.
“What are you doing?”
“Is it not entirely obvious?”
Replying with chilling indifference, Chen Changsheng had already discarded her cumbersome outer robes.
Initial preparations complete, his fingers darted forward, extracting several sealing silver needles from the base of her neck.
The moment the needles left her flesh, the grotesquely distorted visage of ‘Magu’ began to rapidly shift.
Her coarse, blackened skin paled to the luster of fine porcelain, and the hideous blemishes melted away into nothingness.
The bloated, flat contours of her jawline narrowed, refining into a flawless, elegant curve.
However, that peerless countenance was currently drained of all blood, lending her an ethereal, albeit morbid, beauty.
Having unraveled Gongsun Huaiyu’s illusory art, Chen Changsheng stated flatly, “This method of disguise is fundamentally flawed. Upon activation, it restricts the natural flow of facial expressions.”
“It might deceive a few fledgling cultivators, but beneath the gaze of true experts, the cracks are glaring.”
As he spoke, Chen Changsheng’s fingers struck several vital points along Gongsun Huaiyu’s exposed shoulder.
The formidable scale armor clinging to her flesh loosened instantly, allowing him to pull a sleeve free.
Witnessing Chen Changsheng’s profoundly proficient dismantling of her defenses, Gongsun Huaiyu was struck utterly dumb.
This bespoke scale armor had been forged through arcane Secret Arts; without the corresponding hand seals, forcibly removing it was an impossibility.
Furthermore, that disguising art was the exclusive heritage of the Seventy-Two Wolf Smokes. How could he possibly know its intricacies?
Surgically extracting shards of shattered bone and paring away the necrotic flesh, Chen Changsheng channeled his Spirit Qi, tyrannically forcing her skeletal structure to knit and regenerate.
Once the foundation of her bones had stabilized, he produced a jade jar, scooped out a pearlescent medicinal paste, and smeared it across her gruesome wounds.
The instant the paste met her ruined flesh, countless tendrils of vitality erupted, wildly weaving new muscle and skin together.
Realizing Chen Changsheng harbored no immediate intent to kill her, Gongsun Huaiyu’s scheming mind began to spin once more.
“What manner of divine paste is this? Its potency dwarfs even the supreme healing Pills of the Holy Lands.”
“Tending to me with such care… could it be that you harbor affections for me?”
Utterly ignoring her prattle, Chen Changsheng silently continued to mend her shattered meridians.
After a full hour, Chen Changsheng finally completed mending all of Gongsun Huaiyu’s wounds.
Jiang Ping, Batulu, Fu Yao, Zi Ning, and Mei Yongsi—five Peerless prodigies, alongside Ye Hensheng and another first-rate talent, had struck with lethal intent.
If Gongsun Huaiyu had not been protected by armor forged from the scales of a Thunder Beast, her soul would have been scattered to the winds.
However, judging by the residual Qi festering within her wounds, the most tyrannical of those seven was undeniably the Yaoguang Saint Son.
Out of all the attackers, only his divine light had successfully pierced the Thunder Beast armor’s absolute defense.
Moreover, reflecting on their brief clash, Chen Changsheng keenly sensed the Saint Son had been holding back his true foundational strength.
“Ah! The Qi flows smoothly again. Your medical Dao is truly profound.”
“By all rights, I ought to express my deepest gratitude, but…”
“Bang!”
Gathering her Qi for a treacherous strike, Gongsun Huaiyu was abruptly slammed face-first into the dirt by Chen Changsheng’s palm. Without missing a beat, he planted himself directly onto her back, crushing her beneath the weight of a mountain.
“Cease your thrashing. I am contemplating.”
“It appears someone has already perceived the fatal flaw in this grand design.”
Gongsun Huaiyu: ???
Are you truly this monstrous?
Even with my foundation fractured and my wounds fresh, you shouldn’t be able to suppress me as easily as a mortal swatting a fly!
Shaking off her existential dread, Gongsun Huaiyu subtly channeled her remaining Qi for another underhanded tactic.
“Swish!”
A hand smoothly intercepted her reach. The fist uncurled before her eyes, and the crushed husks of tiny Gu Bugs drifted lifelessly to the cavern floor.
“Cultivating Gu Bugs is an arduous path. Do not squander them on me.”
“Brandishing Gu Bugs before my eyes? You are far too lacking in years.”
Gongsun Huaiyu: “…”
Did the Heavenly Dao forge you solely to be my bane?
Why can you shatter every one of my Secret Arts? How do you possess absolute knowledge of my inheritance?
A cup of tea’s time drifted by, and Chen Changsheng finally lifted his suffocating suppression off Gongsun Huaiyu.
“Enough resting. Lead me to the ancestral grounds of the Seventy-Two Wolf Smokes.”
Hearing this demand, Gongsun Huaiyu spat a cold scoff. “Keep dreaming. Even if you pulled me back from the Yellow Springs, I would never betray my sect.”
Throwing a sideways glance at her, Chen Changsheng said with chilling detachment, “It appears you remain ignorant of the shifting tides.”
“What shifting tides?”
“You shall comprehend when the time is ripe.”
Saying this, Chen Changsheng seized her right wrist, his gaze locking onto the three archaic copper coins strung there.
“Three golden wings concealed within the sleeve, above dwell five Yin and six Yang. Kun grounds the Yin, Qian elevates the Yang; thus, the Five Elements and Eight Trigrams dictate the Dao.”
“These three copper coins are the absolute sigil of authority within the Seventy-Two Wolf Smokes. Do not insult my intelligence by feigning ignorance.”
“Swish!”
Gongsun Huaiyu violently wrenched her hand back, retreating two paces as her eyes dilated with raw vigilance.
The true identities of the Seventy-Two Wolf Masters were shrouded in impenetrable fog; she was only privy to a handful. The complete registry was a secret guarded solely by her master.
Any soul possessing such intimate knowledge of their core tenets had to be one of the Wolf Masters themselves.
Yet every single Wolf Master had manifested at the Holy Land today! Just who was this monster standing before her?
“Cease your scrutiny. Your mind lacks the breadth to fathom my origins.”
“If you refuse to guide me to the Seventy-Two Wolf Smokes’ sanctuary, I shall unearth it myself. Pray you do not regret your silence when that day comes.”
Weighing the suffocating pressure of his words, Gongsun Huaiyu gritted her teeth and spoke with fierce defiance. “Since you are so desperate to tread upon the burial grounds of the Seventy-Two Wolf Smokes…”
“…then I shall grant your wish. I only hope you do not weep when the blades fall.”
With a flick of her wrist, she manifested a directional Formation platform.
Witnessing this, Chen Changsheng merely offered a faint smile, strolling directly into the epicenter of the Formation without a shred of concern for any traps she might spring.
This specific paradigm of Formation teleportation was an arcane art he had personally conceptualized.
As the supreme progenitor of this Dao, there was not a soul in the Heavens who understood its profound mysteries better than he did.
……
After traversing through countless convoluted spatial jumps, Gongsun Huaiyu delivered Chen Changsheng into the heart of an obscure, deeply veiled valley.
Nestled within the valley’s embrace lay a secluded mortal village.
Gazing upon the settlement, the courtyards were arrayed with meticulous order, the spiritual soil was rich and fertile, and the surrounding scenery radiated a serene, untainted beauty.
The dirt paths between the paddies intertwined like the veins of a leaf, echoing with the distant, tranquil sounds of crowing roosters and barking hounds. To label it a mortal paradise was no exaggeration.
Spotting Gongsun Huaiyu’s return, the tillers in the fields immediately offered warm, familial greetings.
Yet, the moment their gazes snagged upon the foreign silhouette of Chen Changsheng, every villager intuitively halted their labor.
Hidden amongst the guise of simple farmers were auras belonging to genuinely terrifying cultivators.
“Master, I have returned!”
Gongsun Huaiyu waved enthusiastically toward a rugged, sun-baked farmer actively tilling the soil.
Hearing her voice, a warm, paternal smile instantly blossomed across the farmer’s face.
But that very smile froze into absolute rigor the instant his eyes locked onto Chen Changsheng.
Discarding his iron hoe, the farmer stumbled forward, his footwork frantic and chaotic as he closed the distance to Chen Changsheng.
His right hand reached out, desperate to graze Chen Changsheng’s cheek, yet it trembled violently, halting dead in the empty air.
“Master, what has disturbed your heart?”
Sensing the bizarre distortion in the atmosphere, Gongsun Huaiyu asked out of pure instinct.
The farmer’s eyes brimmed with heavy tears as his voice cracked. “Huaiyu… he bears the bloodline of your martial grandmaster. By the laws of seniority, you must address him as Martial Uncle.”
Chen Changsheng: “…”
Does this fool truly believe my original body perished?
Have I somehow been demoted to playing the role of my own son?
……