Translator: CinderTL
"A mere Divine Transformation Stage ant dares to interfere in our affairs! You're courting death!"
Bi Xiaoyu's gaze turned icy. Illuminated by the crimson formation diagram high above, her already hideous face twisted into an even more grotesque and terrifying visage, like a tormented demon from the Nine Nether Hells. The sight sent chills down one's spine.
Instantly, one of the chains coiling toward Mu Tu broke off and shot directly at Song Wen.
Two crimson beams of light met the chain head-on.
The moment the chain touched the beams, it disintegrated into a scarlet mist.
The beams' lingering force swept onward, obliterating the remaining chains with devastating ease.
With all the chains shattered, the crimson light vanished.
Song Wen's intervention had indirectly saved Mu Tu's life.
Mu Tu, both terrified and hopeful, cried out urgently, "Fellow Daoist Feng Xiao! Let's join forces and eliminate this woman! Afterward, I'll offer you the Gu Dao Treasure Canon, the Gu God Scripture, which can surely resolve your Gu worm crisis!"
Bi Xiaoyu's expression flickered when she saw her chains destroyed. But upon hearing Mu Tu's words, her face twisted with renewed malice. Her gaze burned with venomous hatred, as if she wished to flay him alive and tear out his bones.
The rigid scars on her face suddenly began to twitch violently, writhing like a swarm of centipedes gone mad.
Tiny fissures tore open along the edges of the scars, revealing raw, crimson flesh beneath, yet not a drop of blood spilled forth.
Even more horrifying, the writhing scars continued to spread down her neck, leaving raised, undulating trails beneath her skin, as if some living creature were crawling beneath the surface, extending all the way to her body concealed by clothing.
"Ah—!" Bi Xiaoyu screamed in agony.
Her abdomen suddenly bulged outward, swelling to the size of a woman nine months pregnant.
With a boom, her abdomen exploded, showering the area in a cloud of blood mist.
From within the crimson haze emerged a creature resembling a jellyfish.
This jellyfish was distinctly different from the previous nine.
Its entire body glowed blood-red, and it possessed nine long tentacles, each ending in a grotesque, fleshy flower-like appendage. These pulsating, mouth-like structures dripped with a viscous, purplish-black venom.
Though it takes time to describe, the jellyfish's emergence occurred in a mere instant.
Seeing this, Mu Tu's expression grew increasingly panicked.
"Fellow Daoist Feng, be careful! This is the mother gu of the Bloodcry Mother-Child Gu. With its addition, the formation diagram's power will increase severalfold. Quickly use that ocular technique you used earlier to break through the diagram. Otherwise, once it establishes a connection with the formation..."
Before Mu Tu could finish speaking, nine transparent blades had already reached within a few dozen feet of the mother gu.
Bi Xiaoyu's pupils constricted slightly, a flicker of panic flashing in her eyes.
Seemingly lacking any means to defend against divine sense attacks, she parted her lips slightly, and several strangely shaped gu insects suddenly flew from her mouth.
The gu insects, fearless in the face of death, swarmed toward the nine transparent blades.
However, these gu were too weak. Even at the cost of their soul scattering and spirit vanishing, they failed to stop the transparent blades. Only six of the blades lost a fraction of their power after piercing through the insects' bodies.
All nine blades plunged into the mother gu's flesh.
The mother gu's body trembled violently, its nine tails thrashing wildly as if enduring unimaginable agony.
The crimson pillar of light that had been surging from its body toward the formation diagram above vanished without a trace.
A surge of blood sea erupted beneath Song Wen's feet.
The blood sea instantly expanded to cover tens of miles, then coalesced into a colossal tidal wave that crashed toward Mu Tu and Bi Xiaoyu.
Song Wen had disregarded Mu Tu's instructions to attack the formation diagram. This was because the barrier formed by the diagram concealed fluctuations in Spiritual Qi, functioning similarly to a concealment formation.
This location, being so close to Great Tan City, was actually advantageous for Song Wen, thanks to the formation diagram concealing his aura.
This was why he dared to use the Blood Sea Seal.
After witnessing the mother gu's soul being wounded, Bi Xiaoyu seemed to have exhausted her strategies, simply watching helplessly as the blood sea surged toward her.
In contrast, Mu Tu paled when he realized he was also within the attack range, hastily summoning an ancient bronze mirror.
The mirror's surface glowed with an eerie green light, and at the moment the blood sea struck, it transformed into a massive bell, enveloping Mu Tu in its protective embrace.
"Fellow Daoist Feng! What is the meaning of this?"
The blood sea crashed against the bell, unleashing a deafening roar.
Countless fine cracks immediately spiderwebbed across the bell's surface before it shattered into fragments.
Both Bi Xiaoyu and Mu Tu were swallowed by the crimson tide.
Simultaneously, the nine dark blue jellyfish surrounding the perimeter ceased firing their scarlet light beams from the crystals on their tentacles.
The formation diagram overhead began to sway like the surface of a lake in a gentle breeze.
In the next instant, the diagram collapsed, vanishing without a trace.
The blood sea extended nine tentacles, ensnaring each of the dark blue jellyfish and dragging them into its crimson depths.
Without pausing, Song Wen swiftly fled the scene.
The blood sea rapidly surged into Song Wen's body.
When the blood sea vanished, Bi Xiaoyu, Mu Tu, and the ten Bloodcry Mother-Child Gu had all disappeared, leaving behind only two storage rings and a palm-sized gu cauldron.
Song Wen tucked the storage rings and gu cauldron into his sleeves, and his figure quickly vanished without a trace.
Just as Song Wen had predicted, two figures arrived in a flash moments after he departed. Both wore the robes of the Spirit Jade Palace.
However, their cultivation levels were merely early-stage Void Refinement and late Divine Transformation.
After a brief investigation, the two exchanged grave glances and immediately turned back toward Great Tan City.
While the Spirit Jade Palace boasted cultivators at the Body Integration and Great Ascension stages, these were not mere lackeys who would personally investigate every minor disturbance.
Song Wen sped over a million li, and when he saw no pursuers, he concealed his aura, revealing only his Foundation Establishment Stage cultivation, and landed in a small market town.
The market was small, populated mostly by low-level rogue cultivators, with only a handful of Nascent Soul Stage cultivators present.
Though dawn hadn't yet broken, the market was already stirring.
Some were setting up stalls, others headed to the Spirit Fields outside the town, and still others ventured into the distant, demon beast-infested mountains.
For rogue cultivators lacking skills like Pill Refinement, formation mastery, or talisman crafting, earning spirit stones was a difficult and perilous endeavor. Every path was either arduous or fraught with danger.
Song Wen casually entered a wine shop, where two Qi Refining Stage rogue cultivators were already dining.
Qi Refining cultivators couldn't yet subsist on spiritual energy alone. To replenish their strength, they either consumed Bigu pills or ate regular meals like mortals.
Song Wen found an empty table, ordered some food, and then sank his consciousness into his Sea of Consciousness.
Within the Sea of Consciousness,
Bi Xiaoyu and Mu Tu's divine souls were suppressed by the Sea of Consciousness Black Hole, utterly immobilized.
It was only then that Song Wen noticed the striking difference between Bi Xiaoyu's divine soul and her physical appearance.
First, her soul appeared much younger, looking to be in her early thirties. Second, her soul lacked the rigid scars that marred her face, revealing a surprisingly delicate and refined appearance.
Clearly, the disfigured state of her physical body was likely related to her Gu cultivation practices.
(End of the Chapter)
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