txolops Chapter 151 Bluffing, Murderous Intent with a Paper Sword
Chapter 151 Bluffing, Murderous Intent with a Paper Sword
Along the official road in spring, a gentle breeze blows, and willow catkins swirl in the air.
The rolling green hills rise and fall in the distance, with a few wisps of white clouds hanging on the mountainside.
The dirt road was uneven, with puddles filled with last night's spring rain, reflecting the azure sky and the occasional bird flying by.
Gu Yan was dressed in a blue robe from the Flowing Cloud Sect. He neither flew on a sword nor used any teleportation talismans. He looked like an ordinary scholar taking the imperial examination, waving a worn-out folding fan in his hand and pausing from time to time to smell the fragrance of wildflowers by the roadside.
Gu Yan walked along this path with light steps.
It wasn't that he had the leisure to indulge in such pleasures; rather, he was well aware that from the moment he stepped out of the gates of Changning County, he had become a piece of meat that everyone was eager to devour.
That old dog, Zhao Wuji, the Grand Elder of the Liuyun Sect, will definitely not let go of this golden opportunity.
Assassination, interception, poisoning.
These common practices in the cultivation world will inevitably be repeated during the long journey to the Flowing Cloud Sect.
Flying on a sword not only consumes spiritual energy, but also makes you an easy target.
Instead of being pragmatic, we should take advantage of the terrain and pull out those rats hiding in the shadows one by one.
Despite his seemingly nonchalant demeanor, Gu Yan's Divine Demon Golden Core was constantly in a state of operation, ready to unleash its power at any moment.
His divine sense lingered on the ground, spreading outwards like ripples on water, taking in every movement within a ten-mile radius.
The sun was high in the sky.
Gu Yan arrived at an unnamed canyon.
The cliffs on both sides are steep and jagged, with strange rocks, and the top of the cliff is covered with dense shrubs that completely block out the sunlight.
The canyon was dark and damp, with only a narrow, winding path that could only accommodate two riders abreast.
Gu Yan stopped and looked up at the sliver of sky above, his brows furrowing.
This is an excellent spot for an ambush.
If he were to ambush from above, he only needed to set up a simple chain gravity array, along with a few hundred explosive tags, and those walking below would be reduced to ashes.
Gu Yan slammed the folding fan shut and tapped it in his palm.
He couldn't detect any spiritual energy fluctuations or life force in his divine sense, and he didn't even hear the flapping of a flying insect's wings.
But he still cleared his throat, his expression becoming extremely helpless and indifferent.
"Hey, you guys lying up there, isn't it uncomfortable to be poked by those rocks?"
Gu Yan's voice echoed through the canyon, tinged with impatience.
"Your concealment technique is quite good, but unfortunately, your killing intent is too strong, it's so pungent it's making me feel nauseous down here. My master said that when you're out in the world, you should value harmony. I'll count to three, then you get out here and pay your toll, and I'll spare your lives. Otherwise, don't blame me for being ruthless."
Gu Yan's sharp eyes scanned several blind spots on the cliff face, his right hand already inside his sleeve, looking as if he was ready to pull out a trump card from a Nascent Soul stage expert at any moment.
"one."
"two."
"three."
The canyon was deathly silent.
Only a gust of wind blew through, stirring up a few withered yellow leaves.
Startled by Gu Yan's voice, a gray hare darted out of the roadside bushes and ran haphazardly into the distant thicket.
Gu Yan stood frozen in place, maintaining an imposing posture ready to strike at any moment.
After a long while, and confirming that there really wasn't a ghost in sight, he awkwardly touched his nose and pulled his hand out of his sleeve again.
"Tsk, looks like I'm overthinking it. My paranoia is getting worse."
Gu Yan chuckled self-deprecatingly, unfolded his folding fan again, and strode into the canyon.
He didn't feel ashamed at all about his previous act of outsmarting thin air.
In the world of cultivation, caution is the best policy.
Whether there's a chance or not, it's worth a shot. If an assassin does appear, you can seize the initiative.
Even if you can't get anything out of them, it's just a waste of breath.
They traveled about thirty li.
An abandoned teahouse built on the riverbank appeared ahead.
The thatched roof of the tea pavilion had collapsed halfway, and the rough wooden pillars were covered with moss.
A river breeze blew by, swirling a few fallen leaves in the empty tea pavilion.
Gu Yan walked into the tea pavilion and found a relatively clean stone to sit on.
He took out a purple clay teapot from his storage ring and leisurely took a sip of the spiritual tea that he had brewed earlier, enjoying the river breeze.
Putting down the teapot, Gu Yan looked up at the large, leafy banyan tree outside the tea pavilion.
The tree canopy is like a canopy, with interwoven green leaves, so that not even a ray of sunlight can penetrate, and it is so quiet that not even a single bird can be seen.
A sly glint flashed in Gu Yan's eyes.
Even though his consciousness was empty, he did not detect any abnormal spiritual energy fluctuations, nor did he find any trace of the assassin.
But that didn't stop him from continuing to perform.
"Alright, stop hiding."
Gu Yan sighed helplessly as he looked at the large banyan tree.
"Your concealment technique is indeed impressive; even your breathing blends seamlessly with the river breeze. But you've forgotten that my master left a divine imprint on me before he left. Your little tricks of concealment are nothing but a clown's act in the perception of a Nascent Soul senior. Come down; there are too many mosquitoes on the tree, so you won't suffer."
Gu Yan spoke with absolute certainty, fanning himself with a folding fan, his eyes fixed intently on a thick branch on the left side of the banyan tree.
A gentle breeze rustled the leaves.
No response.
Gu Yan reached out and picked up the purple clay teapot, then took another sip of tea.
"What, do I have to ask you to come down? If I make a move, you won't even have a chance to beg for mercy."
Just when Gu Yan thought he was overthinking things again.
The next second, the leaves on the thick branch that Gu Yan was staring at suddenly shook violently.
A gaunt figure, clad entirely in a black bodysuit and wearing a black mask, plummeted straight down from the treetops like a startled bat.
The man in black landed three zhang away from the tea pavilion, holding two daggers coated with a ghostly blue venom, his eyes filled with a terrifying look as if he had seen a ghost.
"You actually saw through the Shadow Tower's Thousand Illusions Stealth Technique! Impossible! I even used a secret technique to stop my heartbeat!"
The man in black spoke hoarsely, retreating repeatedly, his hands trembling as he gripped the dagger.
He just couldn't understand it.
As a bronze-level assassin of the Shadow Tower, with the cultivation of the mid-Foundation Establishment stage, and whose stealth techniques could even fool cultivators in the early Golden Core stage, how could he have been exposed in less than the time it takes for an incense stick to burn for this target who was said to be only at the Foundation Establishment stage?
Could it be that the rumor about the Nascent Soul stage expert is true?!
Gu Yan looked at the assassin who had jumped out of his way and suppressed a smile.
He just randomly picked a tree that looked like the best place to hide and pointed to a random spot to trick people.
Surprisingly, a fish was actually caught in this desolate place.
"Shadow Tower?"
Gu Yan's smile gradually faded.
"That old bastard Zhao Wuji didn't dare to do it himself, so he actually paid you shady rats to kill me. How many spirit stones did he give you that made you dare to even touch the disciple of a Nascent Soul cultivator?"
The man in black gritted his teeth, a ruthless glint flashing in his eyes.
Now that we've been exposed, we have no choice but to fight to the death.
If he kills Gu Yan before the Nascent Soul Mark is activated, he can get the astronomical bounty that he can squander for half his life.
"Don't try to intimidate me with your supposed Nascent Soul level power! You take people's money, so you're expected to solve their problems. Die!"
The man in black flashed, transforming into three afterimages. From three different directions, he raised his poisoned dagger and fiercely stabbed at Gu Yan, who was sitting in the tea pavilion.
Such ghostly speed is something that ordinary Foundation Establishment cultivators simply cannot react to.
Gu Yan didn't even lift his eyelids in the face of this attack; he simply closed the folding fan in his hand.
"Too slow."
Gu Yan raised his right hand, joined his index and middle fingers together, and casually drew a sword finger towards the void directly in front of him.
A pure white cloud of mist appeared out of nowhere outside the tea pavilion without warning.
The mist was light and ethereal, carrying the unique and majestic sword intent of the Flowing Cloud Sect, and instantly enveloped the three afterimages.
The man in black only felt a sudden white light before his eyes, and then he lost all trace of Gu Yan.
He sneered inwardly, thinking that this kind of deception was just a pretense to stop him.
Without hesitation, he swung his dagger, intending to shatter the cloud of mist.
The dagger sliced through the clouds without feeling any resistance, as if it had cut into thin air.
The man in black breathed a sigh of relief.
But just as he was about to pierce through the clouds...
The originally soft water vapor suddenly underwent an extremely terrifying change.
Inside the clouds, countless white paper scraps, finer than dust, transformed into thousands of invisible blades under the influence of the Flowing Cloud Sword Intent.
One moment it was formless wind and smoke, the next it became a meat grinder that could cut through gold and jade.
"Pfft. Pfft. Pfft."
The sound of sharp blades cutting through flesh echoed dully through the mist.
The man in black didn't even have time to let out a scream before he was swallowed up by the clouds.
When a gentle breeze blows, the white clouds and mist dissipate.
Outside the tea pavilion, the bronze-level assassin from the Shadow Tower had vanished.
On the ground, only a pool of scarlet blood remained, along with two poisoned daggers that clattered to the ground.
In that instant, bones and flesh were all shredded into the finest fragments by the Myriad Transformations Sword Technique.
Gu Yan walked forward calmly and waved his sleeve.
From the pool of blood, a storage bag stained with blood was pulled up.
He skillfully erased the divine sense imprint on the storage bag and scanned it with his divine sense.
"Poor bastard. Just five hundred low-grade spirit stones and two bottles of inferior antidote pills. Is the treatment of assassins from the Shadow Tower this bad?"
Gu Yan curled his lip in disdain, but still, adhering to the principle that even a small fly is still meat, he rummaged through the contents into his storage ring.
Gu Yan casually tossed the empty storage bag into the river, reopened the folding fan, and continued walking along the official road in high spirits.
This method of entrapment not only eliminates potential threats in advance but also allows one to earn some extra money on the side, making it extremely profitable.
……
Sunset West Mountain.
Gu Yan casually tossed the empty storage bag into the river, reopened the folding fan, and continued walking along the official road in high spirits.
This method of entrapment not only eliminates potential threats in advance but also allows one to earn some extra money on the side, making it extremely profitable.
……
Sunset West Mountain.
The setting sun, like blood, dyed the sky crimson.
Gu Yan walked into a narrow canyon surrounded by mountains on two sides.
The canyon is flanked by steep cliffs covered with clumps of withered yellow weeds.
The wind howled through the valley, carrying a chilling, perpetually dark atmosphere.
This location is strategically important and makes it an excellent ambush site.
Gu Yan walked to the center of the canyon and stopped.
He looked around and took a deep breath of the damp, cold air from the canyon.
With the success he gained that morning, his acting skills have become increasingly refined.
"Zhao Wuji really went all out this time."
Gu Yan spoke into the empty canyon, his voice echoing between the cliffs on either side.
"The one behind the rock, and the one in the half-withered grass on the right, yes, it's you two, stop hiding."
As Gu Yan spoke, he pointed with his folding fan to several sniping spots that he considered the most suitable for concealment.
"I told you long ago, my master's treasures can detect objects within a hundred miles. Your concealment techniques are nothing but a fart in front of a Nascent Soul cultivator. Are you going to come out and die on your own, or wait for me to summon heavenly lightning to strike you down?"
Inside the canyon, the only sounds were the wind and the swaying of the treetops.
Gu Yan waited for three breaths.
Just as he was about to continue walking, thinking that he had been tricked again, he realized that he had been tricked again.
"Make your move. He's spotted us. We must finish this quickly."
An angry roar came from the withered grass on the right.
Followed by.
Six powerful auras erupted simultaneously from the locations Gu Yan had just pointed out.
Six silver-rank assassins from the Shadow Tower, all at the late Foundation Establishment stage, tore off their disguises and pounced down from the cliff.
Their foreheads were covered in cold sweat.
Just now, when Gu Yan pointed out their location with his folding fan, their very souls were seen through.
The fear of being completely exposed to others shattered their psychological defenses.
In their view, rather than waiting to die in fear here, they would rather fight to the death.
Soon, the six assassins formed a cordon, using a large net of runes that flickered with lightning to block all of Gu Yan's escape routes.
Five assassins, each wielding a variety of unusual weapons and exuding a fierce killing intent, stood around Gu Yan, above, below, to the left, and to the right.
"There really was an assassin."
A look of surprise flashed in Gu Yan's eyes, which then turned into a deep sense of joy.
He did not retreat, but faced the descending net of lightning, his right hand forming a sword gesture, pointing upwards.
A dense cloud of blue mist shot into the sky.
The moment the clouds and fog came into contact with the lightning net.
The azure clouds transformed directly into invisible smoke and mist, penetrating the priceless magic treasure net without any hindrance.
Immediately afterwards, the clouds and mist suddenly spread in mid-air, covering a space of ten zhang in radius, swallowing up all six assassins who had pounced down.
"Oh no... my protective aura has been broken."
"Help! My hand is gone..."
Several short, mournful screams echoed from within the clouds.
With the master-level Flowing Cloud Myriad Transformations Sword Technique, combined with the unparalleled paper-making skills and the domineering foundation of the Divine Demon Golden Core, if he couldn't easily kill a few late-stage Foundation Establishment assassins, it would be a disservice to his many years of hard work.
Those paper swords, as thin as dust, ignored their prized protective magic and burrowed directly into their bodies through their mouths, noses, and pores, beginning a brutal and inhumane slaughter from within.
Just three breaths later.
The bluish-green mist slowly dissipated.
Six riddled corpses fell from mid-air, their blood staining the rocky ground of the canyon.
Gu Yan stepped forward and skillfully collected all the storage bags and magical artifacts from the six people, including the lightning net that had fallen to the ground and was severely damaged in its spiritual energy.
"These silver-ranked assassins are indeed much wealthier than bronze-ranked ones. They have a total of 20,000 low-grade spirit stones and several decent mid-grade magic artifacts."
Gu Yan weighed the heavy storage ring in his hand and walked out of the canyon in a cheerful mood.
……
Night falls.
There was no moon in the sky, thick clouds hung low, and a spring rain began to fall softly.
Gu Yan walked for a while in the wilderness, and a dilapidated mountain god temple appeared ahead.
The courtyard wall of the mountain god temple has collapsed most of the way, and the weeds have grown up to knee height.
The half-broken wooden door creaked and groaned in the night wind.
Gu Yan walked into the temple.
The temple is not very spacious. The clay sculpture of the mountain god is peeling paint, and half of its head is missing.
Gu Yan cleared a clean space in the corner, took out a few pieces of dry firewood from his storage ring, and started a campfire.
The flickering firelight dispelled the chill and dampness inside the temple.
He chewed on the chicken, his gaze casually sweeping across the dark, rainy night outside the dilapidated temple.
Then, he casually tossed the cleanly gnawed chicken bone in his hand behind the stone lion with half a head missing at the entrance of the dilapidated temple.
"It's the middle of the night, and getting soaked in the rain is really uncomfortable. You assassins are supposed to be at least at the Foundation Establishment stage, so why do you like to soak in mud and water?"
Gu Yan patted the oil stains off his hands, picked up a piece of firewood and poked at the fire, speaking as if he were chatting with an old friend.
"I counted your breathing while I was roasting the chicken, and it didn't match the rhythm of the spring rain at all. The rules of Shadow Tower are that once we accept a job, we fight to the death. Since you've followed us all this way, come in and warm yourself by the fire, and while you're at it, hand over the spirit stones you have, and I'll give you a quick death."
There was no response, only the patter of raindrops hitting the tiles and the crackling of the campfire.
Outside the temple, in the mud behind the stone lion.
An assassin leader, clad in dark gold, form-fitting leather armor, gritted his teeth, his eyes filled with a horror beyond words.
He was one of the twelve top assassins of the Shadow Tower.
He led eleven elite soldiers to learn the highest level of the Dark Shadow Tower's Heavenly Concealment Formation.
Once this formation is activated, even cultivators who have just entered the Nascent Soul stage will be unable to sense their presence unless they actively release their killing intent.
But this seemingly harmless young man sitting by the fire actually knew their location in one breath, which was simply incomprehensible.
"No, he couldn't possibly see through the Heavenly Annihilation Formation. He must possess the divine eye left behind by that Nascent Soul cultivator."
The assassin leader's defenses crumbled.
He now firmly believes that there is an unimaginably terrifying being behind Gu Yan, watching their struggles as ants from a higher-dimensional perspective.
When fear reaches its extreme, it turns into madness.
"Since we've been seen through, there's no need to hide anymore. Form the array and kill him. As long as he dies quickly enough, the Nascent Soul mark won't have time to activate."
The leader used a secret method to issue a death order to his eleven subordinates.
"boom."
The rain curtain outside the dilapidated temple was lifted.
Twelve dark figures, carrying a malevolent aura emanating from them and emitting red threads, simultaneously rushed into the dilapidated temple from twelve different directions.
These twelve people acted as a unified whole, their spiritual energy perfectly linked together through the formation.
The leader of the Golden Core cultivators charged ahead, wielding a heavy, black, blunt sword. With the force of Mount Tai crashing down, he aimed straight for Gu Yan's head.
Before the sword wind could even arrive, the blue bricks on the ground of the dilapidated temple were crushed into pieces.
"That's more like it."
Gu Yan watched the heavy sword fall, neither dodging nor flinching, but instead remained firmly seated in place.
He put down the remaining roasted chicken in his hand and gently tapped the air in front of him with his right index finger.
"The fog rises."
The bonfire, which had been leaping about, was extinguished instantly by the sudden appearance of a vacuum zone.
A thick white cloud of mist erupted outwards from Gu Yan like a tsunami.
The white mist was no longer the minor disturbance it had been before; it completely filled the entire dilapidated temple, including the surrounding courtyard.
Amidst the clouds and mist, faint Buddhist chants could be heard, carrying an extremely sacred aura.
"Don't panic. This is a smokescreen from the Flowing Cloud Sect. He's only at the Foundation Establishment stage; he can't break through our Heavenly Annihilation Formation. Just attack directly."
The leader recognized the technique Gu Yan was using, roared, and the qi on his heavy sword surged, slashing fiercely towards Gu Yan's location deep in the clouds.
The heavy sword cleaved through the white mist, leaving only emptiness.
"We succeeded."
The leader was overjoyed, thinking he had struck Gu Yan's physical body.
But the next second, his expression froze.
He discovered that his indestructible, edgeless heavy sword, forged from millennia-old cold iron, began to melt the moment it came into contact with the white mist.
Those seemingly sacred white mists were actually the ultimate demonic energy from the right half of Gu Yan's Divine Demon Golden Core.
The demonic energy, carrying the corrosive power of karma, disregarded the material of the magical artifact and directly shattered its spiritual essence.
In the blink of an eye.
The heavy sword in the leader's hand turned into a pool of molten iron that reeked of a foul stench.
The white mist had already spread along his arm and onto his prized protective leather armor.
"This isn't a technique from the Flowing Cloud Sect, this is..."
The leader let out a piercing scream, and only muffled sobs remained.
He watched as the skin and flesh of his arm melted away rapidly under the white mist, like spring snow meeting the sun, revealing the stark white bones beneath.
The eleven elite assassins who had formed a defensive formation around them also met a tragic end.
The spiritual energy connection of the Heavenly Annihilation Array has ironically become an excellent channel for the spread of demonic energy.
Wherever the white mist passed, there were no violent magical explosions, only the chilling sound of flesh dissolving.
In just ten breaths.
The dilapidated temple returned to peace.
The spiritual energy connection of the Heavenly Annihilation Array has ironically become an excellent channel for the spread of demonic energy.
Wherever the white mist passed, there were no violent magical explosions, only the chilling sound of flesh dissolving.
In just ten breaths.
The dilapidated temple returned to peace.
The white mist quickly gathered, transforming into a palm-sized paper sword, which flew back into Gu Yan's sleeve.
On the ground of the dilapidated temple, there were twelve more crystal-clear white skeletons.
Besides the skeletons, there were also storage rings scattered all over the ground, as well as fragments of magical artifacts that were not completely corroded.
Gu Yan stood up, stretched, and walked to the pile of bones, picking up the twelve storage rings one by one.
As his divine sense swept over the area, Gu Yan's eyes immediately lit up.
"As expected of a top-tier assassin team. 100,000 low-grade spirit stones, 10,000 mid-grade spirit stones, and all sorts of top-tier second-order healing medicines and poisons. That old bastard Zhao Wuji is truly my lucky charm."
After putting away his spoils, Gu Yan sat back down by the campfire, used his spiritual power to start a fire again, picked up the half-roasted wild pheasant, and continued to eat it with relish.
The spring rain outside was still falling, washing away the bloodstains and sins outside the temple.
Gu Yan ate the chicken, feeling great.
With Elder Zhao, a kind-hearted person, sponsoring travel expenses on this journey to Liuyun Sect, the trip will surely not be lonely.