txolops Chapter 199 Peak Standoff, Silent Annihilation
Chapter 199 Peak Standoff, Silent Annihilation
Chapter 199 Peak Standoff, Silent Annihilation
At the summit of Guixu, there is only one tree, its trunk charred black, without leaves or flowers, and the wind blows through it without making a sound.
The snow fell on the ground and melted immediately, and the aroma of tea filled the four sides of the stone table.
Mo Wuhen sat at the other end of the stone table, his gray eyes seemingly able to see through the past and present.
His tone was very light, as if he were asking about the weather, but to Gu Yan, it was no less than a thunderclap during his tribulation.
"Does the Blood Pool in the capital of the Great Yan Kingdom taste good?"
This statement directly ripped away Gu Yan's last veil of pretense.
The tragic events at Tianlang Pass thirty years ago, the self-sacrifice of nine Nascent Soul cultivators, and that fleeting glimpse of the red-robed swordsman.
All the conspiracies behind this were exposed when faced with Mo Wuhen, who was at the Nascent Soul stage.
Gu Yan held the teacup, the warm porcelain surface caressing his fingertips.
He didn't answer immediately, but instead took a leisurely sip of tea.
The tea soup tastes bitter upon first sip, followed by a chilling, utterly desolate sensation that rushes straight to the top of one's head.
If an ordinary Golden Core cultivator were to drink this, their meridians would likely be dissolved inch by inch in an instant.
But Gu Yan simply opened his mouth and exhaled a faint breath of white air.
His divine and demonic nascent soul sat firmly deep within his body, using that annihilating sword intent as a whetstone, and swallowing it with a gentle twist.
Gu Yan put down his teacup, looked up, and a meaningful smile appeared on his face.
Meeting Mo Wuhen's abyss-like gaze, he spoke slowly and neither humbly nor arrogantly, "The tea brewed by Sect Master Mo is more extinguishing than full of life. As for the Blood Pool in the capital of the Great Yan Kingdom, it was merely a whetstone casually placed by my master to sift through the dregs of the rotten wood in the Eastern Continent. If Sect Master Mo finds the taste unpleasant, he is free to try it himself. However, I wonder if Sect Master Mo's foundation is sufficient for the Blood Pool to digest it."
Mo Wuhen paused, his hand holding the teapot still.
The snowflakes that were still swirling around, formed from the condensed energy of the Annihilation Sword, were frozen in mid-air.
"Young friend Gu, in front of me, those who try to intimidate others will only die faster."
Mo Wuhen put the teapot down, and the stone table made a muffled sound.
The sound echoed across the empty mountaintop, creating a ripple that distorted space.
"Thirty years ago, you used that ultimate demon-slaying formation to silently extract the essence of nine Nascent Soul cultivators."
""
Mo Wuhen's voice gradually turned cold, and the overwhelming pressure of a Nascent Soul cultivator controlling heaven and earth began to press down on Gu Yan like a tidal wave.
"During my death-defying cultivation, I sensed an abnormal flow of fortune in Dongzhou. Lifespans and inheritances that should have dissipated into the world were actually converging at Liuyun Sect through the earth's veins. At that time, I wondered, what kind of person dares to use the entire Dongzhou as his breeding ground right under the noses of the three major sects?"
Mo Wuhen stood up, his black Taoist robe fluttering without wind, his aged face appearing particularly sinister against the backdrop of the eerie blue firelight.
"Until three days ago, when I stepped into the mid-stage of the Nascent Soul realm and truly touched upon the cause and effect of this world, I realized that the Holy Son, who was revered by all the people of Dongzhou, was actually the demon sitting behind the chessboard, coldly watching all living beings fight each other."
With each step Mo Wuhen took forward, the black rocks on the ground emitted a mournful cry of unbearable weight.
Gu Yan remained seated, his white fox fur cloak fluttering in the terrifying pressure.
Those dark eyes became increasingly unfathomable, subtly revealing an arrogance that even Mo Wuhen found alarming.
"Since Sect Master Mo has already seen through it all, why not simply reveal the truth to the world in the jade slip? Why not let the thousands of sword cultivators in the eyes of the Guixu Sea raze my Changqing Peak to the ground?"
Gu Yan stood up, leaned forward against the stone table, and his eyes were full of sarcasm.
"Because you don't dare."
Gu Yan's voice was soft, yet every word was like a knife.
"You're afraid. You're afraid of the master behind me, you're afraid of the one who could shatter the Nascent Soul projection of the Holy Sect with a single sword strike. He's watching you through my eyes."
Mo Wuhen's pupils suddenly contracted.
He stopped, only three steps away from Gu Yan.
At such close range, a Nascent Soul cultivator could annihilate the opponent's soul with a mere wave of their hand.
But these three steps became an insurmountable barrier for Mo Wuhen.
He was indeed afraid.
Forty years ago, the swordsman in the red robe displayed a sword strike that had already reached the threshold of the Divine Transformation Realm.
That was a force that truly touched upon the rules, even surpassing them.
"Young friend Gu, you have great courage."
Mo Wuhen sneered, but his tone softened slightly.
"I invited you here today not to subdue demons. The cultivation world is full of deceit and treachery, where the victor takes all. You devoured the essence of those old guys, that's your skill, but you shouldn't have had such thoughts at the doorstep of my Guixu Sect."
Mo Wuhen flicked his sleeve.
The surrounding desolate snow instantly transformed into countless fine gray threads, as thin as cow's hair.
These fine threads were woven into a huge cage, locking Gu Yan and the entire mountaintop in place.
"It is true that I am wary of your master, but this Guixu main peak is a territory that I have managed for thousands of years. Even if your master descends in his true form, I can drag this vast sea down with him and perish together."
Mo Wuhen stared directly at Gu Yan, his eyes flashing with the ruthlessness of a tyrant.
"Spit out half of the essence you swallowed and give it to my Guixu Sect. In exchange, I, Mo, can acknowledge your status as the leader of the alliance and help you cover up the truth about the capital of the Great Yan Kingdom. Otherwise, Leader Gu will probably be missing on this Guixu Peak today."
Upon hearing this, Gu Yan showed no fear whatsoever; instead, he burst into hearty laughter.
He was laughing at Mo Wuhen's shortsightedness.
He was laughing at these powerful beings who had lived for hundreds or thousands of years, yet they still couldn't escape the shackles of this small world.
"Sect Leader Mo, do you think someone at my master's level would care about the survival of just one or two sects?"
Gu Yan stood up.
The void behind him began to fold strangely.
He no longer hid, nor did he need to hide from someone who could see his true level.
His cultivation at the late stage of the Nascent Soul realm, at its peak, erupted without reservation.
Although it was still far from the mid-stage of the Nascent Soul realm, its domineering aura of being both god and demon was, for a moment, no less powerful than Mo Wuhen's spiritual pressure.
"You're saying this Guixu Main Peak is your domain?"
Gu Yan took a step forward.
"I don't think so."
In that instant, Gu Yan's gaze changed, revealing an almost godlike indifference.
After he broke through to the late stage of the Nascent Soul realm, the paper-making technique, which he had always regarded as his trump card but could not fully utilize due to insufficient cultivation level, finally revealed its terrifying nature.
Gu Yan raised his hand and gently tapped the air with his index finger.
"Splash!"
A sound like the turning of pages of a book echoed eerily across the silent mountaintop.
The originally incredibly hard black rock lost its texture in Mo Wuhen's horrified gaze.
The texture on the rock surface became smooth and thin, and then turned into layers of Xuan paper.
The clay furnace, burning with a ghostly blue flame, gradually transformed into a two-dimensional structure.
That pot of scalding hot spiritual tea was transformed into paper cutouts.
Even the dark Daoist robe that Mo Wuhen was wearing, which could withstand attacks from Nascent Soul cultivators, stiffened at this moment, revealing traces of being cut with scissors at the edges.
"This is?"
Mo Wuhen was filled with doubt and uncertainty.
He attempted to mobilize the laws of heaven and earth within his body, trying to erase these anomalies with the true meaning of annihilation.
But he discovered that the laws that were once so readily available were now obscure and difficult to understand.
He stumbled into a bizarre world made of glue and bamboo strips.
The originally gray sky turned into a huge, pale canvas at this moment.
The countless strands of annihilating sword energy that flew through the sky softened and collapsed the moment they touched Gu Yan, turning into strands of white paper that drifted down.
The once majestic Guixu main peak was transformed into an exquisite paper model at this moment.
Mo Wuhen discovered that he was even unable to fly.
His body felt both heavy and light.
This is a logical fallacy.
Within Gu Yan's world of paper, the line between reality and illusion has long been blurred.
Mo Wuhen looked at his hands.
That layer of crimson flesh belonging to the strong is slowly turning into a pale sheet of paper, and the blood vessels beneath the skin have become crisscrossing ink lines.
"you!"
Mo Wuhen let out a deafening roar and suddenly drew the wooden sword from his back.
The wooden sword emitted a dazzling gray light.
At this moment, he pushed the true meaning of Nirvana to its limit.
He was burning his divine essence in an attempt to break through this strange paper world.
The void outside the main hall trembled.
Those mountains and rivers that were originally paper-like crumbled and turned into scraps of paper under the impact of the annihilating sword energy.
A strike from a mid-stage Nascent Soul cultivator is indeed no small matter.
Gu Yan felt a series of sharp pains in his mind's sea, as if his internal organs had all shifted, and a sweet taste spread from his throat.
Forcibly confining a mid-stage Nascent Soul cultivator to the Paper Realm is still too much of a strain for him at his current level.
But he didn't need to actually kill Mo Wuhen. He just needed to make the other party understand that even without his master's presence, Gu Yan was not someone to be trifled with.
Gu Yan's figure became ethereal and uncertain in the paper world.
"Sect Leader Mo."
Gu Yan's voice came from all directions.
"You want to fight me to the death? Your Guixu Sect's ten-thousand-year foundation, your thousand-year cultivation at the Nascent Soul stage—is it worth sacrificing half of your origin?"
A paper figure the size of a palm appeared in Gu Yan's hand without him noticing.
The paper figure was none other than Mo Wuhen himself.
Gu Yan held a long bamboo stick and gently pressed it against the paper figure's throat.
"I can tell you the truth. The Blood Pool in the capital of the Great Yan Kingdom was indeed for gathering power, but what my master wanted was not that little bit of life in the Eastern Continent."
In the world of paper, countless paper birds are flying, emitting clear, melodious calls.
"Master is trying to reshape the origin of this world. The well in Dongzhou is getting deeper and deeper. If we don't break the original balance through killing and plundering, this land will never give birth to a Void Refinement Realm expert."
Gu Yan told a colossal lie, a lie filled with temptation and ambition.
"Mo Wuhen, how long have you been stuck at the early Nascent Soul stage? Three hundred years? Five hundred years? If it weren't for the fluctuations in fortune brought about by this border battle, how could you have broken through to the mid-Nascent Soul stage so smoothly?"
Mo Wuhen's hand holding the sword trembled.
He recalled how naturally he had broken through, which seemed somewhat abnormal.
The once impregnable fortress has indeed become loose after the great upheaval thirty years ago.
Seeing that the time was right, Gu Yan put away the paper barrier.
"Splash!"
The original canvas, paper-made mountains, and paper-mache tea sets gradually became illusory.
The main peak regained its cold, black stone appearance, and the sound of the ocean waves returned to our ears.
The hem of Mo Wuhen's black Taoist robe actually had a white, frayed edge that looked like it had been cut off.
This proves that what just happened was not an illusion.
Just now, Gu Yan almost turned him, a Nascent Soul cultivator, into a paper effigy for sacrificial purposes.
What kind of person could train such a monster?
Mo Wuhen looked at Gu Yan, and the greed and murderous intent that were originally in his eyes were finally replaced by a deep fear.
"Alliance Leader Gu."
Mo Wuhen's title has changed.
He put away his wooden sword and sat back down on the stone bench.
"I admire your grand ambitions, Master."
Mo Wuhen took a deep breath, calming the surging blood and qi in his chest.
"What happened just now was my recklessness. Since Alliance Leader Gu is here to inspect Dongzhou on behalf of our master, Guixu Sect will naturally cooperate. Just tell us what you want."
Gu Yan patted off non-existent dust from his body.
He sat back down on the stone bench, his movements elegant and his expression composed, as if the person who had almost fought to the death with the Nascent Soul stage expert was not him at all.
"Actually, what I want is very simple."
Gu Yan extended a finger and gently tapped the stone table.
"I want to enter the Ruins of Return."
Mo Wuhen's expression suddenly changed.
"Alliance Leader Gu, you should know that the Guixu Secret Realm is a forbidden area of our sect. It contains the remnant soul left behind by our ancestor after slaying the Black Dragon, as well as the core of the Guixu Sea Eye, the source of annihilation."
Mo Wuhen said with some difficulty, "Those who are not core disciples of our sect, or those who have made earth-shattering contributions, are absolutely not allowed to enter. Moreover, the annihilating energy inside the secret realm is enough to instantly dissipate the true essence of outsiders. Your Dao foundation is not yet healed; going in now would be tantamount to suicide."
Gu Yan chuckled softly, picked up the teacup on the stone table that had regained its texture, and drank it all in one gulp.
"There's no need for Sect Leader Mo to worry about that."
Gu Yan looked into Mo Wuhen's eyes, his tone calm yet carrying an undeniable power.
"I need the primordial energy of annihilation there to suppress the divine and demonic energy within me. This was my master's instruction before he departed. As for the rules—do you, Sect Master Mo, really need to consider the whims of the other elders?"
Gu Yan stood up, her white fox fur coat fluttering in the wind.
"As compensation, every ten years thereafter, the capital of the Great Yan Kingdom will produce a drop of pure flesh and blood essence. This stuff is useless to Master, but for Sect Master Mo, who wants to break through to the late stage of the Nascent Soul realm, it should be considered a decent gift."
Mo Wuhen's breathing became heavy.
The essence of flesh and blood.
That was the crystallization of the life force and lifespan of countless cultivators purified through the great formation.
For these old folks whose lifespans are nearing their end and who have no hope of advancing in rank, it is a treasure far more precious than ordinary longevity pills.
Mo Wuhen fell into a long silence beside the stone table.
The sea breeze howled, and the eerie blue flames on the platform leaped incessantly.
a long time.
Mo Wuhen raised his head, his eyes revealing a sense of helplessness and determination.
"Alright, I agree."
Mo Wuhen took out a token made of deep-sea cold iron from his pocket. The token was engraved with a huge vortex totem.
"Three days from now, the Guixu Sea Eye will open. With this token, you may enter the secret realm for seven days."
"But," Mo Wuhen paused, "Alliance Leader Gu, let me make this clear beforehand: the secret realm is extremely dangerous, even I cannot control it. If something happens to you inside, I will not be responsible. You must also leave your last words to your master, so as not to implicate my Guixu Sect."
Gu Yan reached out and took the token, casually tucking it into his sleeve.
"That's natural."
Gu Yan nodded to Mo Wuhen, then turned and walked towards the stone path that disappeared into the clouds.
"Sect Leader Mo, before I leave, I have a word for you."
Gu Yan stopped and looked back at the desolate figure under the withered tree.
"The waters of this world are deeper than you imagine; choosing sides is far more important than hard work."
After speaking, Gu Yan's figure disappeared into the clouds.
Mo Wuhen sat on the stone bench, looking in the direction Gu Yan had left, remaining motionless for a long time.
He looked down at the white, frayed paper trim around the hem of his clothes, reached out, and gently tore it off.
The frayed edges fluttered down, turning into scraps of paper that dissipated in the sea breeze.
This day.
Everyone in the Guixu Sect knows this.
Gu Changsheng, the Holy Son of Liuyun, spent three days with the sect leader enjoying tea and discussing literature on the main peak.
When they descended the mountain, all nine elders of the Guixu Sect saw them off, displaying the utmost courtesy.